bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Association of Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior, and Sleep With Unhealthy Aging: Consistent Results for Device-Measured and Self-reported Behaviors Using Isotemporal Substitution Models
Authors: Ortolá Rosario , García-Esquinas Esther , Cabanas-Sánchez Verónica , Migueles Jairo H , Martínez-Gómez David , Rodríguez-Artalejo Fernando
Published: July 2020

Background

We examined the association of time allocation among physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior (SB), and sleep with unhealthy aging (UA), using both accelerometry and self-reports.

Method

We used cross-sectional data from 2312 individuals aged 65 years and older. Physical activity, SB, and sleep were ascertained by both wrist accelerometers and validated questionnaires, and UA was measured with a 52-item health-deficit accumulation index. Analyses used isotemporal substitution linear regression models.

Results

Less deficit accumulation was observed when the distribution of activities was 30 min/d less of SB and 30 min/d more of PA for both accelerometer (fully adjusted β [95% CI]: –0.75 [–0.90, –0.61]) and self-reports (–0.55 [–0.65, –0.45]), as well as less long sleep and more PA (accelerometer: –1.44 [–1.86, –1.01]; self-reports: –2.35 [–3.35, –1.36]) or more SB (accelerometer: –0.45 [–0.86, –0.05]; self-reports: –1.28 [–2.29, –0.28]), less normal sleep and more moderate-to-vigorous PA (accelerometer: –1.70 [–2.28, –1.13]; self-reports: –0.65 [–0.99, –0.31]), and less accelerometer light PA and more moderate-to-vigorous PA (–1.62 [–2.17, –1.07]). However, more deficit accumulation was observed when less sleep was accompanied by either more SB or more light PA in short sleepers. Self-reports captured differential associations by activity: walking appeared to be as beneficial as more vigorous activities, such as cycling or sports, and reading was associated with less UA than more mentally passive SBs, such as watching TV.

Conclusions

More PA was associated with less UA when accompanied by less SB time or sleep in long/normal sleepers, but not in short sleepers, where the opposite was found. Accelerometry and self-reports provided consistent associations.
Development and Psychometric Testing of the Mealtime Engagement Scale in Direct Care Providers of Nursing Home Residents With Dementia
Authors: Liu Wen , Batchelor Melissa , Williams Kristine
Published: July 2020

Background and Objectives

Mealtime engagement is defined as verbal and nonverbal assistance provided by caregivers to guide and motivate care recipients in eating. Quality mealtime engagement is critical to improve mealtime difficulties and intake among older adults with dementia requiring eating assistance. Few tools are feasible and valid to measure mealtime engagement. This study developed and tested the Mealtime Engagement Scale (MES).

Research Design and Methods

Items were developed based on literature review and expert review and finalized based on content validity and corrected item-total correlation. A secondary analysis of 87 videotaped observations capturing 18 nursing home staff providing mealtime care to residents with dementia was conducted. Internal consistency, interrater reliability, and intrarater reliability were assessed. Concurrent and convergent validity were examined through correlation (rs) with the Relational Behavior Scale (RBS) and the Mealtime Relational Care Checklist (M-RCC), respectively.

Results

The 18-item MES was developed with adequate content validity (Scale-content validity index [CVI] = 1.00; Scale-CVI/Average = 0.962–0.987). Each item is scored from 0 (never) to 3 (always). The total scale score ranges from 0 to 54. Higher scores indicate greater mealtime engagement. The MES had very good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.837), outstanding interrater reliability (interclass correlation = 0.920), outstanding intrarater reliability (interclass correlation = 0.956), adequate concurrent validity based on strong correlation with the RBS (rs = 0.821, p < .001), and fair convergent validity based on weak correlation with the M-RCC (rs = 0.219, p = .042).

Discussion and Implications

Findings provide preliminary psychometric evidence of MES to measure mealtime engagement. Future testing is needed among more and diverse samples in different care settings to accumulate psychometric evidence.
Managing ancillary care in resource-constrained settings: Dilemmas faced by frontline HIV prevention researchers in a rural area in South Africa
Authors: Nkosi Busisiwe , Seeley Janet , Chimbindi Natsayi , Zuma Thembelihle , Kelley Maureen , Shahmanesh Maryam
Published: July 2020

Background

We describe the findings from a research ethics case study, linked with a team evaluating a package of intervention services to prevent HIV infection in adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) living in a rural and poor setting of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Methods

We conducted qualitative interviews (n=77) with members of the linked research team evaluating the intervention programme, programme implementing staff, AGYW enrolled in the intervention programme, caregivers, ethics committee members, Public Engagement officers, community advisory board members and community stakeholders. Data were analysed iteratively using thematic framework analysis. Themes were determined by the study aims combined with an inductive development of codes emerging from the data.

Results

The findings show that the burden of providing ancillary care fell primarily on the shoulders of frontline researchers and programme staff. Dilemmas around responding to gender-based violence illustrated the limits of ‘referral to services’ as a solution for meeting ancillary care obligations in contexts with barriers to basic health and social services.

Conclusion

Our findings show important gaps in meeting ancillary care needs. Participants’ needs required social and economic support which frontline researchers and implementing partners were not able to meet, causing moral distress.
Trp: a conserved aromatic residue crucial to the interaction of a scorpion peptide with sodium channels
Authors: Xu Yijia , Sun Jianfang , Yu Yue , Kong Xiaohua , Meng Xiangxue , Liu Yanfeng , Cui Yong , Su Yang , Zhao Mingyi , Zhang Jinghai
Published: July 2020

Anti-tumour-analgesic peptide (AGAP), one scorpion toxin purified from Buthus martensii Karsch, was known as its analgesic and anti-tumour activities. Trp38, a conserved aromatic residue of AGAP, might play important roles in its interaction with sodium channels. In this study, a mutant W38F was generated and effects of W38F were examined on hNav1.4, hNav1.5 and hNav1.7 by using whole-cell patch-clamp, which were closely associated to the biotoxicity of skeletal and cardiac muscles and pain signalling. The data showed that W38F decreased the inhibition effects of peak currents of hNav1.7, hNav1.4 and hNav1.5 compared with AGAP, notably, W38F reduced the analgesic activity compared with AGAP. The results suggested that Trp38 be a crucial amino acid involved in the interaction with these three sodium channels. The decreased analgesic activity of W38F might result from its much less inhibition of hNav1.7. These findings provided more information about the relationship between structure and function of AGAP and may facilitate the modification of other scorpion toxins with pharmacological effects.
Hydrogels: From Controlled Release to a New Bait Delivery for Insect Pest Management
Authors: Tay Jia-Wei , Choe Dong-Hwan , Mulchandani Ashok , Rust Michael K
Published: July 2020

Here, we review the literature on the development and application of hydrogel compounds for insect pest management. Researchers have used hydrogel compounds for the past few decades to achieve the controlled release of various contact insecticides, but in recent years, hydrogel compounds have also been used to absorb and deliver targeted concentrations of toxicants within a liquid bait to manage insect pests. The highly absorbent hydrogel acts as a controlled-release formulation that keeps the liquid bait available and palatable to the target pests. This review discusses the use of various types of hydrogel compounds in pest management based on different environmental settings (e.g., agricultural, urban, and natural areas), pest systems (e.g., different taxa), and modes of insecticide delivery (e.g., spray vs bait). Due to their unique physicochemical properties, hydrogel compounds have great potential to be developed into new and efficacious pest management strategies with minimal environmental impact. We will also discuss the future research and development of hydrogels in this review.
Relationship Between the Distribution and Biodiversity of Sand Flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) With the Incidence of Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Endemic Foci of Golestan Province, Iran
Authors: Sofizadeh Aioub , Akbarzadeh Kamran , Allah Kalteh Ehsan , Karimi Fatemeh
Published: July 2020

Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) is prevalent in Golestan Province, Iran. The current study determined the relationship between the distribution and biodiversity of sand flies with cutaneous leishmaniasis at 14 villages in plain and hillsides areas. In each village from July to September 2017, 60 sticky traps and 2 CDC light traps were laid. Spearman and Mann–Whitney tests were used to determine the relationship between the incidence of ZCL and the abundance of different species of sand flies. Simpson, Shannon-Wiener, Evenness, and Margalef indices were calculated to estimate the diversity of species. A total of 5,295 phlebotomine sand flies were collected, comprising 10 species of the genus Phlebotomus (3,947 flies) and 7 species of genus Sergentomyia (1,248 flies). The abundance of sand flies and incidence of ZCL in plain areas were greater than that of hillsides areas (P = 0.013, P = 0.002). There was a significant correlation between the incidence of ZCL and the abundance of Phlebotomus papatasi (r = 0.72, P = 0.004) and P. caucasicus groups (P = 0.006; 0.022). In the Shannon-Wiener index, the rest of the biodiversity indices were reduced in higher-altitude areas. Increasing Shannon-Wiener index showed higher diversity of sand flies in higher-altitude areas. Data of the reported cases of leishmaniasis in plain areas can reveal the relationship between less diversity index (Shannon-Wiener), higher dominant diversity index (Simpson), and incidence of leishmaniasis in these areas.
Rosiglitazone ameliorates radiation-induced intestinal inflammation in rats by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome and TNF-α production
Authors: Hu Liqiong , Chen Hao , Zhang Xingliang , Feng Zhencheng , Zhang Haifeng , Meng Qingqi
Published: July 2020

Radiation-induced acute intestinal injury is a common and serious occurrence following abdominal and pelvic irradiation. The Nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3)-dependant inflammasome and inflammation activation is crucial in this process. In a pre-experimental design of radiation-induced intestinal injury, we found that rosiglitazone inhibited caspase-1 which is a key marker of inflammasome activation. The purpose of the present study was to clarify the inhibitory effect of rosiglitazone on the NLRP3 inflammasome both in vivo and in vitro. Radiation-induced intestinal injury after rosiglitazone treatment, and the expression of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), caspase-1 and NLRP3 in a radiation-induced intestinal injury model in a rat and macrophages were observed. We found that rosiglitazone ameliorated radiation-induced intestinal injury in rats by suppressing the expression of caspase-1, NLRP3, IL-1β and TNF-α. Treatment with rosiglitazone in vitro reduced the expression of NLRP3, and the NLRP3 activator monosodium urate (MSU) reversed the inhibition of IL-1β and TNF-α by rosiglitazone in macrophages. MSU reversed the protective effect of rosiglitazone on radiation-induced intestinal injury in rats by reversing the rosiglitazone-induced inhibition of IL-1β and TNF-α. Taken together, these findings indicate that the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) agonist, rosiglitazone, ameliorates radiation-induced intestine inflammation in rats via inhibiting the induction of the NLRP3-dependent inflammasome in macrophages.
Effects of MOPP Gear on SAM Medical Junctional Tourniquet Application: A Prospective, Randomized Control Trial
Authors: Wagner Eric M , Naylor Jason F , Ahern Brian J , Gendron Brett C , April Michael D , Schauer Steven G
Published: July 2020

Introduction

Hemorrhage is the leading cause of preventable death on the battlefield, and hemostasis is particularly challenging to achieve at junctional sites such as the axillary or inguinal regions. Mission-oriented protective posture (MOPP) gear, as worn most recently in Syria to guard against chemical weapons, can make the performance of technical skills more challenging still. The objective of this study was to evaluate how wearing MOPP gear affects the application time of the SAM Medical Junctional Tourniquet (SJT) by U.S. Army combat medics.

Materials and Methods

We conducted a prospective, randomized control trial evaluating time for SJT application between participants wearing MOPP versus those not wearing MOPP. Secondary outcomes included SJT application success rate and participant appraisal of SJT application difficulty assessed with five-point Likert items, between groups. Participants placed SJTs on robotic simulation mannequins with a penetrating inguinal injury.

Results

In April 2019, we enrolled 49 combat medics. Most participants were male (77.5%), had a median age of 25 (interquartile range 23–28), and in the grade of E4 or less (63.3%). Mean SJT application times in seconds were higher among those wearing MOPP versus those who were not (223.1 versus 167.2; 95% confidence interval for difference in means 5.293, 106.374; P = 0.03). Participants wearing MOPP had a less successful application rate overall, but this difference was not statistically significant (64.3% versus 81.0%, P = 0.34). Compared to participants not wearing MOPP, those wearing MOPP agreed that SJT application was difficult (4 versus 3, P = 0.03), what they were wearing affected SJT application (4 versus 2, P = 0.01), and it was difficult to use their hands during SJT application (4 versus 1, P < 0.001).

Conclusions

Wearing military MOPP gear significantly prolongs the amount of time required for combat medics to apply an SJT on a simulated casualty with a penetrating inguinal injury. This study highlights the importance of incorporating MOPP gear into medical training scenarios to improve skills competency while wearing these protective garments.
On the Trail of a Knight of Santiago: Collecting Music and Mapping Knowledge in Renaissance Europe
Authors: Honisch Erika Supria , Escrivà-Llorca Ferran , Knighton Tess
Published: July 2020

The 2011 discovery that the substantial collection of sixteenth-century printed partbooks preserved in Madrid’s Real Conservatorio Superior de Música originally belonged to an Austrian diplomat, Wolfgang Rumpf, has opened up new perspectives on the formation of early modern music libraries. Employed by the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, Rumpf was also an informant of Philip II of Spain, who rewarded him with induction into the chivalric Order of Santiago. The Order, headquartered at Uclés, received the bulk of Rumpf’s music library after his death.

This article uses Rumpf’s library, and the catalogue he commissioned from the Imperial Librarian Hugo Blotius, to shed light on the music book’s place in early modern material culture, and music’s place in an expanding world of knowledge. Rumpf’s partbooks were not, in the first instance, intended for performance; they reflect instead his assiduous efforts to assemble a ‘universal library’ in which music books formed an integral part.
PINCER: improved CRISPR/Cas9 screening by efficient cleavage at conserved residues
Authors: Veeneman Brendan , Gao Ying , Grant Joy , Fruhling David , Ahn James , Bosbach Benedikt , Bienkowska Jadwiga , Follettie Maximillian , Arndt Kim , Myers Jeremy , Zhong Wenyan
Published: July 2020

CRISPR/Cas9 functional genomic screens have emerged as essential tools in drug target discovery. However, the sensitivity of available genome-wide CRISPR libraries is impaired by guides which inefficiently abrogate gene function. While Cas9 cleavage efficiency optimization and essential domain targeting have been developed as independent guide design rationales, no library has yet combined these into a single cohesive strategy to knock out gene function. Here, in a massive reanalysis of CRISPR tiling data using the most comprehensive feature database assembled, we determine which features of guides and their targets best predict activity and how to best combine them into a single guide design algorithm. We present the ProteIN ConsERvation (PINCER) genome-wide CRISPR library, which for the first time combines enzymatic efficiency optimization with conserved length protein region targeting, and also incorporates domains, coding sequence position, U6 termination (TTT), restriction sites, polymorphisms and specificity. Finally, we demonstrate superior performance of the PINCER library compared to alternative genome-wide CRISPR libraries in head-to-head validation. PINCER is available for individual gene knockout and genome-wide screening for both the human and mouse genomes.
Embolization of Brain Arteriovenous Malformations With Versus Without Onyx Before Stereotactic Radiosurgery
Authors: Chen Ching-Jen , Ding Dale , Lee Cheng-Chia , Kearns Kathryn N , Pomeraniec I Jonathan , Cifarelli Christopher P , Arsanious David E , Liscak Roman , Hanuska Jaromir , Williams Brian J , Yusuf Mehran B , Woo Shiao Y , Ironside Natasha , Warnick Ronald E , Trifiletti Daniel M , Mathieu David , Mureb Monica , Benjamin Carolina , Kondziolka Douglas , Feliciano Caleb E , Rodriguez-Mercado Rafael , Cockroft Kevin M , Simon Scott , Mackley Heath B , Zammar Samer G , Patel Neel T , Padmanaban Varun , Beatson Nathan , Saylany Anissa , Lee John , Sheehan Jason P ,   On behalf of the International Radiosurgery Research Foundation
Published: July 2020

BACKGROUND

Embolization of brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) using ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer (Onyx) embolization may influence the treatment effects of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) differently than other embolysates.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the outcomes of pre-SRS AVM embolization with vs without Onyx through a multicenter, retrospective matched cohort study.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed International Radiosurgery Research Foundation AVM databases from 1987 to 2018. Embolized AVMs treated with SRS were selected and categorized based on embolysate usage into Onyx embolization (OE + SRS) or non-Onyx embolization (NOE + SRS) cohorts. The 2 cohorts were matched in a 1:1 ratio using de novo AVM features for comparative analysis of outcomes.

RESULTS

The matched cohorts each comprised 45 patients. Crude AVM obliteration rates were similar between the matched OE + SRS vs NOE + SRS cohorts (47% vs 51%; odds ratio [OR] = 0.837, P = .673). Cumulative probabilities of obliteration were also similar between the OE + SRS vs NOE + SRS cohorts (subhazard ratio = 0.992, P = .980). Rates of post-SRS hemorrhage, all-cause mortality, radiation-induced changes, cyst formation, and embolization-associated complications were similar between the matched cohorts. Sensitivity analysis for AVMs in the OE + SRS cohort embolized with Onyx alone revealed a higher rate of asymptomatic embolization-associated complications in this subgroup compared to the NOE + SRS cohort (36% vs 15%; OR = 3.297, P = .034), but the symptomatic complication rates were similar.

CONCLUSION

Nidal embolization using Onyx does not appear to differentially impact the outcomes of AVM SRS compared with non-Onyx embolysates. The embolic agent selected for pre-SRS AVM embolization should reflect both the experience of the neurointerventionalist and target of endovascular intervention.
Switching From Ceftriaxone to Cefotaxime Significantly Contributes to Reducing the Burden of Clostridioides difficile infections
Authors: Wendt Sebastian , Ranft Donald , Rodloff Arne C , Lippmann Norman , Lübbert Christoph
Published: July 2020

We analyzed Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) rates and various antimicrobials’ application densities from 2013 to 2019 at Leipzig University Hospital, Germany, by using multivariate linear regression. Ceftriaxone application was the only independent predictor of CDI incidence. Thus, antibiotics’ specific pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties such as biliary excretion of ceftriaxone in its active form should be considered when determining their potential to cause CDI.
Systems Theory and Introducing Action
Authors: Raeff Catherine
Published: July 2020

The goals of this chapter are to summarize systems theory, which provides an overarching theoretical basis for the current work, and to introduce action as the key concept that will be conceptualized in more detail in subsequent chapters. Systems theory is the starting point for the current work because it is based on integrative and relational assumptions and because it offers a way of understanding complex phenomena in terms of multiple processes that mutually affect each other. In this chapter, systems theory is further summarized in terms of connections among parts and wholes, multiple kinds of causality, emergence, stability, and variability. Action is then identified as the wider whole or system that represents what people do. The chapter ends by acknowledging some of the values that inform how the author is thinking about action.
Implications for Understanding Human Functioning Integratively and Actively
Authors: Raeff Catherine
Published: July 2020

This chapter presents some implications and applications of the theoretical framework that is presented in Chapters 5, 6, and 7. It first focuses on how the theoretical framework provides a basis for thinking about action holistically. Thinking about action holistically provides an antidote to the fragmentation of conventional psychology, because it enables us to think about action processes as integral parts of a wider whole. The chapter then focuses on how the theoretical framework provides a basis for thinking about human functioning in terms of active processes that people do. The chapter ends with a consideration of some implications of the theoretical framework for thinking about mind–body connections holistically, rather than dualistically.
What Do Borders Divide?
Authors: Ochoa Espejo Paulina
Published: July 2020

This chapter examines contemporary border theories. What do borders divide? An important account holds that borders’ main function is to exclude and separate: borders divide peoples or geographical areas. However, critical border scholars have argued that borders do not in fact divide; they are not “lines in the sand.” Rather than separations, borders are zones and practices that extend within and beyond territorial limits: they are everywhere. This chapter rejects both these accounts, which rely on sovereignty and determine the unity of the state in contrast with the outside: aliens, foreign countries, and exceptional legal decisions. The chapter maintains that borders do not divide peoples, geographical spaces, or flows: insofar as they divide, they divide jurisdictions. This distinction matters theoretically, because unlike sovereign territories, jurisdictions make legal spaces through practice; they do not make claims about the people’s identity, territorial integrity, or the legitimacy of rule.
Democratic Legitimacy and the Vicious Circle of People and Territory
Authors: Ochoa Espejo Paulina
Published: July 2020

Real borders are arbitrary. Could they ever be legitimate? Could they get their legitimacy through democratic means? The people could decide where the border should go, but this approach creates a problem: Who exactly are the people who should decide? This is the famous “boundary problem,” to which this chapter offers a new approach. Most democrats, even nationalists and cosmopolitans, delimit the demos by relying on territorial jurisdictions. However, territory is not explicit in their arguments. This chapter urges democrats to recognize territory’s normative importance. Acknowledging territory is a risky, yet promising strategy. Risky, because it may lead to a vicious circle: one needs well-defined territorial borders to delimit the people, yet one needs a well-defined people to establish legitimate territorial borders. Promising, because it forces democrats to find new resources for dealing with the vicious circle. The chapter describes four possible strategies: asserting, circumventing, solving, and dissolving the circularity. It chooses the last.
Natural Borders
Authors: Ochoa Espejo Paulina
Published: July 2020

This chapter explores the historical idea of natural borders. Territories have been imagined as being naturally separated from one another by oceans, rivers, deserts, and mountains. Although most geographers today agree that natural borders are a myth, one of the central ideas in contemporary theories of border legitimacy (the concept of self-determination) still relies on the natural borders of states. This chapter makes two points. It first argues that seeking the natural borders of democracy on the basis of identity is a mistake. The chapter’s second point is more controversial: despite natural borders’ problematic history, I argue that we should endorse a specific type of natural border—a socio-ecological version of territorial politics centered on resilience—because we need it to deal with climate change, and because it can be a solution to the “boundary problem”: a logical circularity that makes democratic legitimacy impossible.
How Place-Specific Duties Make Borders Morally Relevant
Authors: Ochoa Espejo Paulina
Published: July 2020

Many people today hold that borders are morally arbitrary, and therefore we should seek a world without borders. This chapter challenges this view. It holds that borders matter morally because bounded jurisdictions sustain liberal rights, which are still the most effective means to resist oppression. However, the chapter argues, the value of borders does not come from grounding equal rights among the members of a group defined by identity, instead what defines the scope of right is place. The chapter examines the idea of place and place-specific duties. The chapter argues that rights cannot be upheld unless the beneficiaries participate in common institutions with others, and a necessary part of these institutions is indexed to place rather than identity. Such institutions, including the rule of law, are embodied and require specific local practices of cooperation. This explains why we need borders to coordinate action in modern societies marked by pluralism.
Sharing Ecosystems
Authors: Ochoa Espejo Paulina
Published: July 2020

This chapter offers a moral explanation for why bordering states should share the governance of transborder rivers on the basis of place-specific duties; the argument can also be extended to other natural resources. The chapter offers a view of water governance that mediates between a universalist view based on a human right to water and an exclusivist view grounded on the principle of self-determination. The chapter offers the example of the river Grande (Bravo) on the U.S.-Mexico border, and argues that the obligation to share the governance of transborder rivers comes from duties to the complex systems that sustain life (including human life) in the natural water basin. These obligations overlap and crisscross the current border.
Gender, Religion, Extremism
Authors: Brown Katherine E.
Published: July 2020

This volume offers a feminist critique of counter- and deradicalization programs, including those under the umbrella of “preventing and countering violent extremism.” Based on insights from five countries and examples from elsewhere, the book shows how, collectively, efforts rely on particular narratives of agency, security, and human rights. Putting gender at the center of the analysis reveals significant limitations in antiradicalization work—in construction, operation, and evaluation. First, these programs fail to explore or engage with how masculinity and femininity inform the radicalization process. As a result, they cannot successfully understand the personal drivers or the sociopolitical environment of these programs. Second, within the operations of these programs male radicalization is clearly and unreflectively linked to an excessive but flawed masculinity, while ideas about women’s radicalization depend on orientalist stereotypes about passivity and subjugation. Solutions for male deradicalization therefore hinge on particular ideals of masculinity that few men can obtain, and deradicalizing women is seen as a rescue mission. Third, the impact of these programs derives from a racialized paternalist logic that justifies intervention in “ordinary lives” in the name of security, yet fails to deliver. There is a gendered differential in the impact of counter-radicalization measures. Although the rhetoric of countering terrorism is often couched in a narrative of “women’s rights” and “liberal values,” the book demonstrates that the consequences are often detrimental to these precepts. The book concludes by offering an alternative way of thinking about and implementing antiradicalization efforts, rooted in a feminist peace.
The Americanization of Mormon Apocalyptic
Authors: Blythe Christopher James
Published: July 2020

This chapter examines the impact of Americanization on apocalypticism. The LDS Church’s relationship with the federal government changed radically when Utah obtained statehood in 1896. Church leaders pursued national respectability since the First Presidency had publicly abandoned plural marriage six years previously. With such a drastic transition, the reining in of dissenting voices became essential. It was in this era that church leaders opposed prominent themes in vernacular apocalypticism in an effort to engender conformity to the Americanizing project within Mormonism. Apocalyptic themes that were embraced in the 1880s were now seen as a threat. Instead of disavowing the apocalyptic master narrative or their own statements from years past, church leaders criticized the same themes when they appeared in vernacular prophecy among the laity. New institutional discouragement from sharing dramatic visions, dreams, and other manifestations also limited the influence of apocalypticists.
Value Chain Analysis
Authors: Fisher Greg , Wisneski John E. , Bakker Rene M.
Published: July 2020

Value chain analysis (VCA) aids the strategist in understanding a firm’s potential sources of competitive advantage by decomposing the firm’s business processes into strategically important activities. Viewing the firm as an aggregate of interlinked value-adding activities and placing them in the context of a broader value chain helps to understand each activity’s impact on both cost and revenue potential. As such, VCA can be used to help the firm achieve an optimal allocation of resources. This chapter discusses the underlying theory, core idea, depiction, process, insight or value created, and risks and limitations of VCA. The chapter also continues the illustration of Netflix and applies the steps of value chain analysis to this case.
Vertical Integration
Authors: Fisher Greg , Wisneski John E. , Bakker Rene M.
Published: July 2020

A key strategic decision for managers is deciding on the scope of assets to be owned and controlled by a firm (i.e. what should be owned by a firm and what should be purchased or outsourced?). A vertical integration framework (sometimes also called a make-or-buy framework) provides a structured way to think about such decisions. It helps managers make decisions about which assets and elements of a value chain a firm should own and which they can buy from other firms. This chapter discusses vertical integration’s underlying theory, core idea, depiction, process, insight or value created, and risks and limitations. The chapter also discusses the illustration of Starbucks and applies the steps of vertical integration analysis to this case.
Business Model Canvas
Authors: Fisher Greg , Wisneski John E. , Bakker Rene M.
Published: July 2020

The purpose of a business model canvas is to assess how the firm’s economic activity is configured to create and deliver on a firm’s value proposition. The business model canvas provides a holistic perspective of how the major elements of a business need to be aligned to allow the firm to create and capture value. Managers can use a business model canvas when initiating a new business, or when seeking to revise the strategy of an existing business by assessing how the current configuration of activities may need to change to deliver on the new strategy. This chapter discusses the underlying theory, core idea, depiction, process, insight or value created, and risks and limitations of the business model canvas. The chapter also continues the illustration of Spotify and applies the steps of business model canvas to this case.
Worshippers of the Gods
Authors: Gassman Mattias P.
Published: July 2020

Worshippers of the Gods Worshippers of the Gods tells how the Latin writers who witnessed the political and social rise of Christianity rethought the role of traditional religion in the empire and city of Rome. In parallel with the empire’s legal Christianisation, it traces changing attitudes toward paganism from the last empire-wide persecution of Christians under the Tetrarchy to the removal of state funds from the Roman cults in the early 380s. Influential recent scholarship has seen Christian polemical literature—a crucial body of evidence for late antique polytheism—as an exercise in Christian identity-making. In response, Worshippers of the Gods argues that Lactantius, Firmicus Maternus, Ambrosiaster, and Ambrose offered substantive critiques of traditional religion shaped to their political circumstances and to the preoccupations of contemporary polytheists. By bringing together this polemical literature with imperial laws, pagan inscriptions, and the letters and papers of the senator Symmachus, Worshippers of the Gods reveals the changing horizons of Roman thought on traditional religion in the fourth century. Through its five interlocking case studies, it shows how key episodes in the Empire’s religious history—the Tetrarchic persecution, Constantine’s adoption of Christianity, the altar of Victory affair, and the ‘disestablishment’ of the Roman cults—shaped contemporary conceptions of polytheism. It also argues that the idea of a unified ‘paganism’, often seen as a capricious invention by Christian polemicists, actually arose as a Christian response to the eclectic, philosophical polytheism in vogue at Rome.
Between Power and Irrelevance
Authors: Mitchell George E. , Peter Schmitz Hans , Bruno-van Vijfeijken Tosca
Published: July 2020

Geopolitical shifts, increasing demands for accountability, and growing competition have been driving the need for change within the transnational nongovernmental organization (TNGO) sector. Additionally, TNGOs have been embracing more transformative strategies aimed at the root causes, not just the symptoms, of societal problems. As the world has changed and TNGOs’ ambitions have expanded, the roles of TNGOs have begun to shift and their work has become more complex. To remain effective, legitimate, and relevant in the future necessitates organizational changes and investments in new capabilities. However, many organizations have been slow to adapt. As a result, for many TNGOs’ the rhetoric of sustainable impact and transformative change has far outpaced the reality of their limited abilities to deliver on their promises. This book frankly explores why this gap between rhetoric and reality exists and what TNGOs can do individually and collectively to close it. In short, TNGOs need to change the fundamental conditions under which they themselves operate by bringing their own “forms and norms” into better alignment with their contemporary ambitions and strategies. This book offers accessible future-oriented analyses and lessons-learned to assist readers in formulating and implementing organizational changes to adapt TNGOs for the future. The book draws upon a variety of disciplines and perspectives, including hundreds of interviews with TNGO leaders, firsthand involvement in major organizational change processes in leading TNGOs, and numerous workshops, training institutes, consultancies, and research projects.
Leadership
Authors: Mitchell George E. , Schmitz Hans Peter , Bruno-van Vijfeijken Tosca
Published: July 2020

Chapter 9 identifies specific leadership blind spots that frequently emerge as TNGOs move to adopt more ambitious mandates and implement strategic changes to secure organizational relevance and legitimacy. Traditional leadership in the sector has often lacked a culture of inquiry while also struggling to work in an environment of growing complexity and ambiguity. While organizations in crisis may be tempted to rely on charismatic leaders and their promises, new leadership models emphasize shared, distributed forms of leadership, post-heroic leadership styles, collaborative skills, humble personalities, a capacity to self-reflect and identify personal needs, and a focus on results, credit-sharing, and the building of authentic relationships. There is growing consensus around a shift in leadership needs, but sectoral norms tend to relegate leadership development to an area of underinvestment and neglect.
Change
Authors: Mitchell George E. , Schmitz Hans Peter , Bruno-van Vijfeijken Tosca
Published: July 2020

Chapter 12 summarizes the main themes of the book, with an emphasis on how the sector’s future potential remains constrained by its normative and institutional architecture. To help ensure future success, TNGOs can invest in organizational metamorphosis and sector-wide collective action. Metamorphosis may involve a polycentric model, embracing a facilitation role, adopting a hybrid model, engaging in deeper collaborations, pursuing mergers and acquisitions, and investing in operational platforms. However, such initiatives will require significant change leadership, which introduces its own substantial challenges. Ultimately, TNGOs can best serve their missions not only by changing themselves, but by also organizing collectively to change the architecture in which they operate.
Republic Inc.
Authors: Blakely Jason
Published: July 2020

Popular claims to a science of economics have had an enormous impact on reshaping the nature of democracy in Europe and the United States. This chapter uncovers how a popular vision of human beings as egoistic preference maximizers (known to philosophers as homo economicus) played a major role in this transformation. Drawing on the authority and technical sophistication of economic rational choice theory, this popular discourse gave birth to a “market polis” in which all human relations are reimagined as transactional. The result has been the presentation of an egoistic form of citizenship, deficient in social solidarity, as if it were simply a fundamentally scientific view of political life. This has contributed to the move away from earlier notions of the public good (both in the New Deal and the founding of the republic) as well as backsliding toward increasingly authoritarian and antidemocratic forms of politics.
Genes and Machines
Authors: Blakely Jason
Published: July 2020

The notion that human beings are simply sophisticated robots or computing machines has spread widely across society in the last several decades. This claim has a basis in a popular theory of cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence advanced by academics and bestselling authors such as Steven Pinker. Anxiety about a robot takeover of society is increasingly debated in the public square by the likes of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. But this view has also affected how modern people think of their experiences of depression (leading to the overprescription of antidepressants) and even their sense of political identity. Many people today believe their identities are completely determined by a machine-like coding in their genes. This can lead to both private and public forms of despair over the human ability to substantively change the world.
Your DNA Reveals Medical and Health Surprises
Authors: McHughen Alan
Published: July 2020

Why are so many people getting their DNA tested? Apart from the science nerds who are always up for such activities, there are two main reasons: health and genealogy. And for each of these there are subgroups. Traditional genealogists hit the proverbial “brick wall” and seek some means to break through, while some adoptees, desperate to find biological family, seem willing to try almost anything. On the other hand, those seeking medical information may have a family history of some frightening health condition, or—due to missing family histories—are in the dark about potential medical issues and want to find out. This chapter first explores personal genomics: the medical and health information held in your DNA base sequence, how to interpret that information, and what may be next on the horizon. What does all this data mean? Can it answer questions such as “Am I carrying around a ticking cancer bomb in my DNA, waiting for me to smoke one more cigarette, or eat one more hot dog before it activates a malignant tumor?”
Genetic Genealogy
Authors: McHughen Alan
Published: July 2020

We discussed genealogy DNA tests in Chapter 8. Here we focus on some practical matters to aid your engagement with genetic genealogy. We’ll survey which company you might choose for conducting your DNA test(s), explain how to interpret your results, and answer some common questions posed by genetic genealogy beginners (and even by some more advanced practitioners, too). Before seeking a company, identify what you hope to achieve. Different companies offer different types of tests, which reveal different genetic features and answer different questions, so knowing what you want to get from a DNA test will then allow you to choose from a list of companies offering that feature. Once you have a short list of suitable companies, you can choose based on practical criteria—price, convenience, appeal of website and presentation of data, privacy policy, and other factors. When you receive the results, you may want some help in interpreting the data and in identifying “matches,” your close and distant DNA relatives. We’ll also discuss a recommended free site, Gedmatch, and offer help for adoptees and others lacking known biological connections. In the latter half of the chapter we’ll explain some of the arcane terminology and address some common misconceptions encountered in the genetic genealogy community.
The Stepping-Stone to Truth
Authors: Nicolaides Demetris
Published: July 2020

In his search for the primary substance of matter, Anaximenes returned to the tangible world and chose air. And he explained the manifold of natural phenomena quantitatively, in terms of condensation and rarefaction of air (of one material of unchangeable nature). With these opposite processes in mind, it was no longer necessary to ascribe all sorts of different properties to each object—such as rigidity, softness, hotness, coldness—just how dense it was. This idea in itself has a certain truth. But from a grander point of view as regards the evolution of science, his theory was the stepping-stone to one of the most consequential truths of nature, the atom! Atomism, however, required first the development of all other great ideas conceived thereafter, including mathematics. The significance of mathematics as a practical method to describe nature had been realized first by the great Pythagoras because of his passion for numbers.
It’s Fate—Maybe
Authors: Nicolaides Demetris
Published: July 2020

Since everything is made of atoms, then the behavior of all living things must be dictated by the laws these atoms obey, the laws of nature, Democritus thought. In fact, no biological system hitherto has violated this general realization. Schrödinger’s book What Is Life? alludes to that by contemplating the physics of living cells and of life. Of course, nowadays the specialized fields of biochemistry and biophysics have been constantly verifying this idea. Does such a realization, however, mean that the laws of nature have an influence on human free will? That is, when one decides to eat pizza instead of Chinese food, has one really decided what to eat, or has “one’s decision” been predetermined by the laws of nature? Generally, do humans have free will or not? Regardless of how history gets written (deterministically, via chance, via free will, or some combination), it is time that “we” consider it.
Introduction
Authors: McDonough Jeffrey K.
Published: July 2020

The core idea of teleology is intuitive enough: some things happen, or exist, for the sake of other things. Cats have claws for the sake of grasping their prey. Birds have wings for the sake of escaping predators. Cats stalk birds in order to catch them. Birds fly away in order to escape cats. This introduction first highlights various philosophical questions that arise as we dig deeper into the concept of teleology. Is teleology intrinsic or extrinsic? Does it involve intentionality? What is its scope? Is it explanatory? The chapter then provides brief overviews of how these and other questions are taken up by the volume’s authors as they trace the development of the concept of teleology through the ages in a wide variety of traditions and contexts.
Teleology in the Later Middle Ages
Authors: McDonough Jeffrey K.
Published: July 2020

Teleological explanation is one of the legacies of antiquity that received a surprisingly muted response in the Middle Ages. Aristotle’s naturalized approach to teleology met with little enthusiasm, and grave doubts arose in the later Middle Ages over whether final causes are a legitimate kind of cause at all. This was a natural reaction to the distinctive feature of medieval teleology, which is that teleological causes are universal, intelligent, particular, forward-looking, intentional, and (in nonrational cases) extrinsic. When teleology is so understood, its explanatory role becomes limited to certain special cases. Indeed, the one place where reflection on ends plays a truly robust role in later medieval philosophy is in ethics. Even here, however, the consensus of antiquity—that human beings are and ought to be ultimately motivated by their own happiness—meets with growing resistance and eventually outright rejection.
Not Dead Yet
Authors: McDonough Jeffrey K.
Published: July 2020

It is often maintained that teleology was undermined in the early modern era by the scientific revolution. Hoping to correct this misperception, this essay looks at three areas in which teleology was upheld and developed by three pioneers of early modern science. The first main section argues that teleological reasoning is woven into the very fabric of William Harvey’s revolutionary work in biology. The second main section takes up Robert Boyle’s explicit and systematic defense of teleology and especially his effort to reconcile the methods and views of the new science with a deep-seated commitment to divine teleology. Finally, the last main section explores Pierre Maupertuis’s bold attempt to find a place for teleology in the heart of modern, mathematical physics.
“The Revised Method of Physico-Theology”
Authors: McDonough Jeffrey K.
Published: July 2020

For Immanuel Kant, teleology was a philosophical method as well as a central topic for philosophy. As a philosophical method, teleology meant that no way of thinking that is natural for us can be in vain, as long as we understand it properly: this was the basis for Kant’s critique of traditional theoretical metaphysics but reconstruction of the central ideas of metaphysics on practical grounds. As a philosophical topic, Kant thought about teleology from his early book The Only Possible Basis for a Demonstration of the Existence of God (1763) until his late Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790), eventually arriving at the position that a teleological outlook is a subjectively necessary regulative principle for our scientific inquiry into organic nature but also an indispensable part of our self-understanding as moral agents in the natural world.