bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Importance of patient radiation protection in computed tomography procedures
Authors: Lara A , Osorio M , Olvera B , Villafañez Y O , García R , Rivera T
Published: June 2019

The aim of the present work was to describe the importance of establishing a strong patient radiation protection program in computed tomography (CT) departments. Radiation protection in computed tomography (CT) deserves special attention since CT is the largest contributor to patient radiation exposure in diagnostic radiology. Radiation protection in CT examinations has been recommended by international organizations as well as AIEA program. As part of our proposals is the dose reduction in CT systems used, ALARA principle application and the enshrined the international guide regulations for the protection of patients were based on. For our staff working with ionizing radiation in CT departments is supervised under national authorities by legal limits but for patient radiation protection has not been involved in the national legislation.
Proposals for highlighting broken bones in radiological images using image processing in LabVIEW
Authors: García-Estrada H. , Linares-Escobar O.A. , Pastrana-Manzanero A. , Ramírez-Sotelo M.G. , Cabrera-Llanos A.I.
Published: June 2019

In this work, two proposals for highlighting broken bones in radiological images using different methodologies are presented. The first one, works using border detection while the second one, by extracting the cortical section of the bone. For border detection, first derivate operators (Sobel) were applied, to obtain the intensity changes in the image borders, applying the operators vertically and horizontally and adding them to get a general gradient image. Afterwards, the general gradient image is binarized and subtracted to the original image, leaving in black the zones that had borders. For cortical extraction, the image is binarized considering the healthy bone’s intensity value, next, the binarized image is subtracted from the original one eliminating the bones from the radiography, leaving the soft tissue and the bone’s interruptions, then, the image that contains the soft tissue was binarized an subtracted to the original one getting only the bone, eliminating the soft tissue and the bone’s interruptions, highlighting the broken bones.
Monte Carlo simulation and experimental evaluation of dose distributions produced by a 6 MV medical linear accelerator.
Authors: Durán-Nava O E , Torres-García E , Oros-Pantoja R , Hernández-Oviedo J O
Published: June 2019

The purpose of this work was to quantify the differences in dose distributions computed by Monte Carlo simulations against experimental measurements from an Elekta Synergy™ linear accelerator. The study was done using PRIMO, a PENELOPE-based Monte Carlo code. The dose calculation algorithm was compared under static field irradiations at 6 MV in a virtual water phantom for field sizes 10 × 10, 5 × 5 and 3 × 3 cm2. Experimental depth doses and profiles were obtained using a pair of CC13 iba® ionization chambers at a SSD = 100 cm in an iba Blue phantom™. Simulations and experimental data were compared in terms of point by point differences. Gamma analysis was also used in order to evaluate dose- differences and distance to agreement (2%, 2mm respectively) of calculated and experimental dose distributions. The evaluation of depth dose distributions indicated that differences increased by decreasing the field size. In all cases the mean dose difference was below 1%. Lateral profiles differences were also below 1% for all field sizes. Gamma analysis results were in an agreement of 99% for almost all the dose distributions for the chosen criteria. The performed Monte Carlo simulation using PRIMO showed good agreement compared to experimental measurements for both, depth dose and dose profiles for the evaluated fields sizes, largely used in commonly radiotherapy treatments.
First attempts in automated defect recognition in superconducting radio-frequency cavities
Authors: Wenskat M.
Published: June 2019

The inner surface of superconducting cavities plays a crucial role to achieve highest accelerating fields. The industrial fabrication of cavities for the European X-Ray Free Electron Laser (EXFEL) and the International Linear Collider (ILC) HiGrade Research Project allowed for an investigation of this interplay with a large sample on different cavities undergoing a standardized procedure. For the serial inspection of the inner surface, the optical inspection robot OBACHT was constructed and to analyze the large amount of data, represented in the images of the inner surface, an image processing and analysis code was developed. New variables to describe the cavity surface were obtained. Two approaches using these variables and images to automatically detect defects has been implemented and tested. In addition, a decision-tree based approach of classifying defect free surfaces regarding their accelerating performance was tested and found to be physically valid.
Chinese blue days: a novel index and spatio-temporal variations
Authors: Wang Su , Huang Gang , Lin Jintai , Hu Kaiming , Wang Lin , Gong Hainan
Published: June 2019

As part of the Blue-Sky Protection Campaign, we develop the Chinese Blue Days Index based on meteorology data from 385 stations in China during 1980–2014. This index is defined as the days with no rain, low cloud cover ≤75th percentile, and visibility ≥15 km at 2 pm. The spatio-temporal variations and possible driving factors of Chinese Blue Days (CBD) are further investigated, revealing a steadily rising rate of 1.6 day (d)/10 year (y) for the nationally averaged CBD during 1980–2014. At regional scales, the CBD exhibit an increasing trend >4 d/10 y in western China and a decreasing trend <−2 d/10 y in southeastern China, northwestern Xinjiang, and Qinghai. The minimum/maximum trends (−7.5/9.5 d/10 y) appear in Yangtze–Huai River Valley (YHRV)/southwestern China (SWC). The interannual variations in CBD are highly related to wind speed and windless days in YHRV but are closely associated with wind speed, rainless days and relative humidity in SWC, suggesting that the two regions are governed by different meteorological factors. Moreover, a dynamic adjustment method called partial least squares is used to remove the atmospheric circulation-related CBD trend. The residual CBD contributions for the total trend in summer and winter are 43.62% and 35.84% in YHRV and are 14.25% and 60.38% in SWC. The result indicates that considerable parts of the CBD trend are due to the change of atmospheric circulation in the two regions.
Acceptability of older patients’ self-assessment in the Emergency Department (ACCEPTED)—a randomised cross-over pilot trial
Authors: Boucher Valérie , Lamontagne Marie-Eve , Lee Jacques , Carmichael Pierre-Hugues , Déry Julien , Émond Marcel
Published: June 2019

Background

patient self-assessment using electronic tablet could improve the quality of assessment of older Emergency Department(ED) patients. However, the acceptability of this practice remains unknown.

Objective

to compare the acceptability of self-assessment using a tablet in the ED to a standard assessment by a research assistant (RA), according to seniors and their caregivers.

Design

randomised crossover pilot study.

Setting

The Hôpital de l’Enfant-Jésus (CHU de Québec–Université Laval) (2018/05–2018/07).

Subjects

(1) ED patients aged ≥65, (2) their caregiver, if present.

Methods

participants’ frailty, cognitive and functional status were assessed with the Clinical Frailty scale, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and Older American Resources and Services scale and patients self-assessed using a tablet. Test administration order was randomised. The primary outcome, acceptability, was measured using the Treatment Acceptability and Preferences (TAP) scale. Descriptive analyses were performed for sociodemographic variables. TAP scores were adjusted using multivariate linear regression. Thematic content analysis was performed for qualitative data.

Results

sixty-seven patients were included. Mean age was 75.5 ± 8.0 and 55.2% were women. Adjusted TAP scores for RA evaluation and patient self-assessment were 2.36 and 2.20, respectively (P = 0.08). Patients aged ≥85 showed a difference between the TAP scores (P < 0.05). Qualitative data indicates that this might be attributed to the use of technology. Data from nine caregivers showed a 2.42 mean TAP score for RA evaluation and 2.44 for self-assessment.

Conclusions

our results show that older patients believe self-assessment in the ED using an electronic tablet as acceptable as a standard evaluation by a research assistant. Patients aged ≥85 find this practice less acceptable.
Poetry and the War(s)
Authors: Begnal Michael S
Published: June 2019

Three new critical monographs remind us that, when it comes to war, poets have always been political. In their respective recent volumes, Tim Dayton, Rachel Galvin, and Adam Gilbert are concerned with the ways in which poets respond not only to war itself but also the ideology and propaganda that supports it, how their work resists or sometimes replicates these scripts, and the strategies they use to construct the poetic authority to address it. These critical texts, read together, reveal that resistance to hegemonic narratives is more complicated than simply writing an antiwar poem, that subverting the narratives of war requires some knowledge of how their sociopolitical and economic algorithms function to begin with. Dayton’s study offers a model of resistance to such narratives through its revealing juxtaposition of anachronistic or propagandistic poetic rhetoric with the true nature of and motives for the US’ participation in World War I. Galvin argues for the sociopolitical validity of the work of canonical modernist poets more recently disparaged as overly absorbed in aesthetic concerns. For Gilbert, poetry is an overlooked reservoir of knowledge bearing witness to the experience of US soldiers in the American War in Vietnam.
Estimation of population genetic parameters using an EM algorithm and sequence data from experimental evolution populations
Authors: Kojima Yasuhiro , Matsumoto Hirotaka , Kiryu Hisanori
Published: June 2019

Motivation

Evolve and resequence (E&R) experiments show promise in capturing real-time evolution at genome-wide scales, enabling the assessment of allele frequency changes SNPs in evolving populations and thus the estimation of population genetic parameters in the Wright–Fisher model (WF) that quantify the selection on SNPs. Currently, these analyses face two key difficulties: the numerous SNPs in E&R data and the frequent unreliability of estimates. Hence, a methodology for efficiently estimating WF parameters is needed to understand the evolutionary processes that shape genomes.

Results

We developed a novel method for estimating WF parameters (EMWER), by applying an expectation maximization algorithm to the Kolmogorov forward equation associated with the WF model diffusion approximation. EMWER was used to infer the effective population size, selection coefficients and dominance parameters from E&R data. Of the methods examined, EMWER was the most efficient method for selection strength estimation in multi-core computing environments, estimating both selection and dominance with accurate confidence intervals. We applied EMWER to E&R data from experimental Drosophila populations adapting to thermally fluctuating environments and found a common selection affecting allele frequency of many SNPs within the cosmopolitan In(3R)P inversion. Furthermore, this application indicated that many of beneficial alleles in this experiment are dominant.

Availability and implementation

Our C++ implementation of ‘EMWER’ is available at https://github.com/kojikoji/EMWER.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
DepLogo: visualizing sequence dependencies in R
Authors: Grau Jan , Nettling Martin , Keilwagen Jens
Published: June 2019

Statistical dependencies are present in a variety of sequence data, but are not discernible from traditional sequence logos. Here, we present the R package DepLogo for visualizing inter-position dependencies in aligned sequence data as dependency logos. Dependency logos make dependency structures, which correspond to regular co-occurrences of symbols at dependent positions, visually perceptible. To this end, sequences are partitioned based on their symbols at highly dependent positions as measured by mutual information, and each partition obtains its own visual representation. We illustrate the utility of the DepLogo package in several use cases generating dependency logos from DNA, RNA and protein sequences.

Availability and implementation

The DepLogo R package is available from CRAN and its source code is available at https://github.com/Jstacs/DepLogo.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
The Chemosensory Pleasure Scale: A New Assessment for Measuring Hedonic Smell and Taste Capacities
Authors: Zhao Jiu-Bo , Wang Yi-Le , Ma Qian-Wen , Zhao Jing-Bo , Zhang Xiao-Yuan , Zou Lai-Quan
Published: June 2019

Anhedonia, or the inability to experience pleasure, is a key clinical feature of many mental disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. Although various valid measurements of anhedonia and pleasure experience exist, no scales exist that quantify smell and taste pleasure experiences. The Chemosensory Pleasure Scale (CPS) was therefore designed to assess the hedonic capacity for smell and taste pleasure. We examined the reliability and validity of the CPS in our study. First, we conducted exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to identify and examine the structure of the CPS. Second, the CPS’s validity and test-retest stability were investigated. The CPS was correlated with other measurements of anhedonia and pleasure experience. Furthermore, the empirical validity of CPS was also examined in our study. The results indicated that the CPS is a reliable and valid measure for assessing an individual’s hedonic capacity for smell and taste pleasure in nonclinical samples. Further application of the CPS for various populations is also discussed herein, especially for patients with mental disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, and autism.
Phylogenomic Analysis of a Putative Missing Link Sparks Reinterpretation of Leech Evolution
Authors: Phillips Anna J , Dornburg Alex , Zapfe Katerina L , Anderson Frank E , James Samuel W , Erséus Christer , Moriarty Lemmon Emily , Lemmon Alan R , Williams Bronwyn W
Published: June 2019

Leeches (Hirudinida) comprise a charismatic, yet often maligned group of worms. Despite their ecological, economic, and medical importance, a general consensus on the phylogenetic relationships of major hirudinidan lineages is lacking. This absence of a consistent, robust phylogeny of early-diverging lineages has hindered our understanding of the underlying processes that enabled evolutionary diversification of this clade. Here, we used an anchored hybrid enrichment-based phylogenomic approach, capturing hundreds of loci to investigate phylogenetic relationships among major hirudinidan lineages and their closest living relatives. We recovered Branchiobdellida as sister to a clade that includes all major lineages of hirudinidans and Acanthobdella, casting doubt on the utility of Acanthobdella as a “missing link” between hirudinidans and the clitellate group formerly known as Oligochaeta. Further, our results corroborate the reciprocal monophyly of jawed and proboscis-bearing leeches. Our phylogenomic resolution of early-diverging leeches provides a useful framework for illuminating the evolution of key adaptations and host–symbiont associations that have allowed leeches to colonize a wide diversity of habitats worldwide.
Vegetable Gardens versus Cash Crops: Science and Political Economy in the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, 1820–40
Authors: Tavolacci Laura
Published: June 2019

The goal of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India (founded in 1820) was to create a science for the cultivation of plants in India and use this science to increase agricultural production. This article tracks the ideas of this society in its early decades as it created a highly contested and changing discourse regarding agriculture in India. As the society was based in Calcutta, it had Bengali members who appropriated and modified these ideas according to their own social circumstances. In the first decade of its life, many members envisioned the project of ‘agricultural improvement’ as increasing the production of food and medicine for local consumption as well as agricultural commodities for export. Yet beginning in 1829, this mixed agri-horticultural vision began to change. British members complained that local gardening activities were not remunerative and so the society should focus more on agriculture for export. As a result, agriculture began to be more clearly defined as the large-scale production of commodities for export, separate from the science of horticulture, which concerned growing fruits and vegetables for local consumption. Horticulture increasingly became the lesser science and the society’s focus went towards agriculture for export. Many Bengali members remained more interested in the activities associated with horticulture, proceeding to develop an agri-horticultural knowledge which appropriated new ideas about gardening promoted by the society and combined them in new ways with gardening knowledge from other North Indian networks. This episode reveals the complex world of knowledge about plant cultivation even as the British created an English-language discourse of global capitalist agriculture.
“Beyond Primary Sequence”—Proteomic Data Reveal Complex Toxins in Cnidarian Venoms
Authors: Jaimes-Becerra Adrian , Gacesa Ranko , Doonan Liam B , Hartigan Ashlie , Marques Antonio C , Okamura Beth , Long Paul F
Published: June 2019

Venomous animals can deploy toxins for both predation and defense. These dual functions of toxins might be expected to promote the evolution of new venoms and alteration of their composition. Cnidarians are the most ancient venomous animals but our present understanding of their venom diversity is compromised by poor taxon sampling. New proteomic data were therefore generated to characterize toxins in venoms of a staurozoan, a hydrozoan, and an anthozoan. We then used a novel clustering approach to compare venom diversity in cnidarians to other venomous animals. Comparison of the presence or absence of 32 toxin protein families indicated venom composition did not vary widely among the 11 cnidarian species studied. Unsupervised clustering of toxin peptide sequences suggested that toxin composition of cnidarian venoms is just as complex as that in many venomous bilaterians, including marine snakes. The adaptive significance of maintaining a complex and relatively invariant venom remains unclear. Future study of cnidarian venom diversity, venom variation with nematocyst types and in different body regions are required to better understand venom evolution.
Multi-dimensional Taylor network modelling and optimal control of SISO nonlinear systems for tracking by output feedback
Authors: Sun Qi-Ming , Yan Hong-Sen
Published: June 2019

In this paper, a multi-dimensional Taylor network (MTN) output feedback tracking control of nonlinear single-input single-output (SISO) systems in discrete-time form is studied. To date, neural networks are generally used to identify unknown nonlinear systems. However, the neuron of neural networks includes the exponential function, which contributes to the complexity of calculation, making the neural network control unable to meet the real-time requirements. In order to identify the controlled object whose model is unknown, the MTN, which requires only addition and multiplication, is utilized for successful real-time control of the SISO nonlinear system based on only its output feedback. Lyapunov analysis proves that output signals in the closed-loop system remain bounded and the tracking error converges to an arbitrarily small neighbourhood around the origin. In contrast to the back propagation (BP) neural network self-adaption reconstitution controller, the edge of the scheme is that the MTN optimal controller promises desirable response speed, robustness and real-time control.
Estimating Uncertainty in Wisconsin’s Evidential Breath Alcohol Measurements
Authors: Brockley-Drinkman Diane , Barkholtz Heather M
Published: June 2019

Breath alcohol measurement accuracy and precision quantification is a critical component of impaired driving prosecution and is required for laboratory accreditation. The Chemical Testing Section of Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation conducted a bottom-up study to quantify uncertainty of breath alcohol measurements conducted on Intoximeter’s EC/IR II instrument. After an exercise in combined uncertainty source identification, individual input values were either reported from National Institute of Standards and Technology traceable reference materials or quantified using instrument data from 2014 to 2018. From input values, an expanded uncertainty value of 4.58 × 10-3 g/210L was found that encompasses all identified sources with a 95% confidence interval.
Mating Behavior and Reproductive Biology of Emerald Ash Borer (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) and Two of Its Native Congeners, the Twolined Chestnut Borer and the Bronze Birch Borer
Authors: Rutledge Claire E , Keena Melody A
Published: June 2019

We studied the mating behavior and reproductive biology of three members of the genus Agrilus: the bronze birch borer, Agrilus anxius Gory; the twolined chestnut borer, Agrilus bilineatus (Weber); and the emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire. All three species share a highly stereotyped mating behavior. However, the copulation duration of A. planipennis was 90% longer than that of its two congeners. Female reproductive tracts of the three species were anatomically similar, as were the spermatophores. Within the spermatophores, sperm were single in A. anxius and A. bilineatus, while in A. planipennis, sperm were bundled in groups of approximately 20 in a hyaline sheath. We found that field-caught A. anxius and A. bilineatus had higher rates of female insemination than A. planipennis. In additional studies with A. planipennis and A. anxius, we found that mating duration was related to mating success, and fecundity for A. planipennis, but not for A. anxius. For both A. planipennis and A. anxius, the spermatophore was passed to the female toward the end of the copulatory period. Sperm were found in the spermatheca immediately after copulation ended in A. planipennis and 30 min after copulation ended in A. anxius. We present possible explanations for these differences.
Institutions and the Location of Oil Exploration
Authors: Cust James , Harding Torfinn
Published: June 2019

We provide evidence that institutions have a strong influence over where oil and gas exploration takes place. We utilise a global data set on the location of exploration wells and national borders. This allows for a regression discontinuity design with the identifying assumption that the position of borders was determined independently of geology. In order to break potential simultaneity between borders, institutions, and activities in the oil sector, we focus on drilling that occurred after the formation of borders and institutions. Our sample covers 88 countries over the 1966–2010 period. At borders, we estimate more than twice as much drilling on the side with better institutional quality. Subsample analyses reveal effects of institutions on exploration drilling in both developing and high income countries, as well as across three types of operating companies. We find that the supermajor international oil companies are particularly sensitive to institutional quality in developing countries. Our findings are consistent with the view that institutions shape both exploration companies’ incentives to invest in drilling and host countries’ supply of drilling opportunities.
The Problem of Chronic Refugee Communities: Applying Complexity Theory to the Situation Along the Thai–Myanmar Border
Authors: Poocharoen Ora-Orn , Straussman Jeffrey D , Guinn David E
Published: June 2019

Intractable long-term or chronic refugee communities present serious challenges to common refugee-management strategies. We argue that they are best understood and managed by using adaptive techniques drawn from complexity theory. To illustrate this strategy, we use the refugee communities situated along the Thai–Myanmar border as a case study. The article outlines the key elements of complexity theory, the complexity lens, for use in analysis of the problem. It then applies the complexity lens to the case study: identifying and describing the actors and networks that compose the complex system of the Thai–My refugees (the complex system) and the dynamic developments within that community over time (dynamic development). Based on this analysis, the article utilizes the complexity lens to evaluate the policy options commonly offered for the management of this ongoing refugee situation.
Giant ovarian cystadenocarcinoma in an adult patient, a rare finding in modern times
Authors: Molina Gabriel Alejandro , Izurieta Alison Nicole , Moyon Miguel Angel , Aguayo William G , Moyon Fernando X , Tufiño Jorge F , Guzman Lenin J , Parra Ruben Alejandro
Published: June 2019

Ovarian cancer (OC) is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers among women. Regretfully due to its a broad spectrum of clinical behavior and challenging diagnosis most cases are diagnosed at a late stage. On rare occasions, these tumors can grow to massive sizes if left untreated, worsening the prognosis of the patient. Thanks to the advancement of medicine and diagnostic techniques, these rare cases are less frequent. Timely detection and surgery could avoid all these potentially troublesome scenarios. We report the case of a 64-year-old female with a giant 13 kg high-grade papillary serous ovarian cystadenocarcinoma, the tumor grew during a four year period and was adequately treated with surgery and is under close follow up with the oncologist. To our knowledge, this is the first case of a giant ovarian cystadenocarcinoma ever reported in Ecuador.
Quantitative proteomics revealed C6orf203/MTRES1 as a factor preventing stress-induced transcription deficiency in human mitochondria
Authors: Kotrys Anna V , Cysewski Dominik , Czarnomska Sylwia D , Pietras Zbigniew , Borowski Lukasz S , Dziembowski Andrzej , Szczesny Roman J
Published: June 2019

Maintenance of mitochondrial gene expression is crucial for cellular homeostasis. Stress conditions may lead to a temporary reduction of mitochondrial genome copy number, raising the risk of insufficient expression of mitochondrial encoded genes. Little is known how compensatory mechanisms operate to maintain proper mitochondrial transcripts levels upon disturbed transcription and which proteins are involved in them. Here we performed a quantitative proteomic screen to search for proteins that sustain expression of mtDNA under stress conditions. Analysis of stress-induced changes of the human mitochondrial proteome led to the identification of several proteins with poorly defined functions among which we focused on C6orf203, which we named MTRES1 (Mitochondrial Transcription Rescue Factor 1). We found that the level of MTRES1 is elevated in cells under stress and we show that this upregulation of MTRES1 prevents mitochondrial transcript loss under perturbed mitochondrial gene expression. This protective effect depends on the RNA binding activity of MTRES1. Functional analysis revealed that MTRES1 associates with mitochondrial RNA polymerase POLRMT and acts by increasing mitochondrial transcription, without changing the stability of mitochondrial RNAs. We propose that MTRES1 is an example of a protein that protects the cell from mitochondrial RNA loss during stress.
Three Canadian Film Policy Frameworks
Authors: Wagman Ira
Published: June 2019

This chapter focuses on the role played by governments in Canadian film production, distribution, and exhibition. It starts by situating Canadian cinema in relation to other “middle producer” nations. Then, it characterizes Canadian film policy within three broad frameworks. The first focuses on the institutions and policy measures that supported the development of films for educational purposes. The second explores the various policies that established filmmaking in Canada as an industrial activity. The third details how films in Canada engage with policies that impact on other media in Canada, with television serving as the illustrative case. It concludes by suggesting that rather than being understood in “cultural” or “industrial” terms, Canada’s film industry should be understood as bureaucratic in nature. Thinking about Canadian cinema in this way draws attention to the day-to-day interactions between artists and the state that continue to characterize the Canadian artistic experience.
Reputation and Gossip in Game Theory
Authors: Roddie Charles
Published: June 2019

When interacting with others, it is often important for you to know what they have done in similar situations in the past: to know their reputation. One reason is that their past behavior may be a guide to their future behavior. A second reason is that their past behavior may have qualified them for reward and cooperation, or for punishment and revenge. The fact that you respond positively or negatively to the reputation of others then generates incentives for them to maintain good reputations. This article surveys the game theory literature which analyses the mechanisms and incentives involved in reputation. It also discusses how experiments have shed light on strategic behavior involved in maintaining reputations, and the adequacy of unreliable and third party information (gossip) for maintaining incentives for cooperation.
Gossip and Reputation in the Media
Authors: De Backer Charlotte J. S. , Van den Bulck Hilde , Fisher Maryanne L. , Ouvrein Gaëlle
Published: June 2019

This chapter has three goals. The first is to illuminate the various topics covered in mass media gossip about complete unknowns and celebrities, highlighting the overlap with interpersonal gossip. The second goal is to zoom in on celebrity gossip by examining who becomes a celebrity and what role the media play in this process. Third, we take a look at the audience, reviewing why people consume celebrity gossip, and how some people become so deeply involved with some celebrities that they actively take part in the creation and evolution of celebrities and their reputation. In all these discussions, we try to make clear how reputation gossip is a key part in every step of the process. That is, reputation gossip is what makes someone a celebrity and what drives the audiences to consume celebrity gossip and, in doing so, reinforcing the creation of a “celebrity.”
Gossip and Reputation in Computational Systems
Authors: Sabater-Mir Jordi
Published: June 2019

Gossip and reputation have been approached traditionally from the social sciences perspective. The main goal of this chapter is to provide a computational, system design perspective (from the Artificial Intelligence point of view) to reputation, gossip, and the relation between gossip and reputation. The simple exercise of building a computational model has been demonstrated to be highly beneficial from the social sciences perspective because it forces a level of detail and precision that reveals previously hidden problems and inconsistencies. Which computational models of gossip and reputation exist? How are they used in the context of computational environments? Which problems are they designed to solve? What is the interplay between computational gossip and reputation models? These are some of the questions the chapter will try to answer in the following sections.
Neuroscientific Methods
Authors: Boero Riccardo
Published: June 2019

Developments in neuroscientific methods provide new capabilities to researchers interested in reputation and gossip. Recent studies in this field present important results on the brain areas that are activated in such social settings. Results sketch the predominant role played by social stimuli recognition, theory of mind, the reward system, and self-control. This knowledge and independently developed behavioral evidence suggest several interesting hypotheses about reputation, gossip, and their intersection. These ideas have the potential of shaping the research agenda in this field for several years to come. Nevertheless, state-of-the-art knowledge on the neurobiological foundation of reputation and gossip is largely incomplete, much focused on the impact that reputation and gossip have on behavior, and it lacks the capability of fully accounting for individual and social group heterogeneity.
The Current Practice of Making and Applying International Agreements in Japan
Authors: Mori Tadaatsu
Published: June 2019

This chapter describes the treaty-making practice in Japan, with a focus on explaining the mechanism for striking the balance between democratic control and effective management of foreign affairs. The chapter first outlines the structure of Japan’s Constitution regarding the responsibility for managing foreign affairs and the authority for concluding treaties and other international agreements. The chapter further introduces the process of concluding treaties step by step—from examination by the Cabinet Legislation Bureau to the Diet approval. The “Ohira Principles,” elaborated by Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira in 1974, specified three categories of treaties for the Diet approval. The chapter points out that the formula was extremely well crafted, although it has been challenged by the growing need for effective management over a wide range of issues in foreign affairs. In the course of discussion, the chapter takes up examples such as an Exchange of Notes of ODA projects, the 1997 “Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation,” the Guam International Agreement, and the Japan-U.S. SOFA and Supplementary Agreement on the Environment, the Japan-U.S. ACSA. The chapter also describes how the current Diet approval process proceeds, by referring to existing practices such as the “thirty-day rule” and bundling of multiple treaties, and then briefly covers the domestic legal effect of treaties, including bills for implementing treaties as well as “self-executing” treaties. The chapter concludes that the Japanese treaty-making practice will continue to face a question of how to strike the right balance between producing necessary treaties and other international agreements in a timely manner while also maintaining a sufficient level of democratic control by the Diet.
Five Conceptions of the Function of Foreign Relations Law
Authors: McLachlan Campbell
Published: June 2019

The comparative study of foreign relations law must first grapple with a conundrum: outside the United States, the field enjoys no wide currency or commonly accepted scope, yet the set of problems with which it is concerned arise at an interface with which all states must engage: between international law and national constitutional law. This chapter argues that the essential point of departure for effective comparative analysis is to adopt a functional approach, identifying what functions foreign relations law performs. In doing so, it identifies five different conceptions of the function of foreign relations law that shape the way in which jurists have approached the field. These conceptions are: (1) exclusionary: to separate the international from the national, taking the exercise of foreign relations out of the purview of national law; (2) internationalist: to mediate the inward reception of international law into the domestic legal system; (3) constitutional: to distribute the exercise of the foreign relations law between the organs of government; (4) diplomatic: to facilitate the diplomatic relations of the state with other states; and (5) allocative: to allocate jurisdiction and applicable law in matters concerning the exercise or enforcement of the public power of states. The chapter critically assesses the persuasive power and the potential shortcomings of each of these conceptions. Using the example of domestic cases engaging peremptory norms, it shows how the allocative approach helps to give a better explanation of when and why domestic courts intervene to enforce or apply such rules.
International Immunities in U.S. Law
Authors: Stewart David P.
Published: June 2019

This chapter describes domestic U.S. law governing the immunities of foreign states and governments, foreign heads of state and governments, diplomatic and consular officials, other official visitors, and international organizations from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. A major focus is the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, which provides specific exceptions to immunity for a foreign state’s commercial activities, noncommercial torts, arbitral agreements and awards, expropriations of foreign property, and acts of state-sponsored terrorism (among others). As the chapter notes, these statutory exceptions have been the subject of extensive judicial interpretation. Similarly, the immunities of foreign officials (including accredited diplomats and consular officers, heads of state and government, and visiting officials of lesser rank) have evolved over time. The chapter also addresses the immunities of international organizations and their officers and employees located in the United States, as well as the representatives of member states to those organizations. As an aspect of foreign relations law, these issues frequently assume significant political as well as legal importance. Moreover, while they are common to many legal systems, national laws often differ in their specific approaches; accordingly, the chapter notes several areas of comparative interest. The chapter concludes with a brief assessment of future developments in U.S. law.
International Comity in Comparative Perspective
Authors: Dodge William S.
Published: June 2019

This chapter looks at why the United States understands many doctrines of foreign relations law to be based on international comity, while continental European states do not. The U.S. understanding shows the influence of Justice Joseph Story, who made international comity the basis for choice of law and the enforcement of foreign judgments. U.S. courts later made comity the basis for other doctrines, including the act of statute doctrine, the presumption against extraterritoriality, foreign state compulsion, forum non conveniens, limits on antisuit injunctions, the privilege of foreign governments to bring suit in U.S. courts, and the doctrine of sovereign immunity. The continental European understanding shows the influence of Friedrich Carl von Savigny, who built a choice of law system on different foundations and with universalist aspirations. In recent years, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has started to tie together some of the doctrines that U.S. courts would label international comity under the heading of “mutual trust,” but mutual trust is more limited than international comity. This chapter argues that looking at doctrines of foreign relations law through a comity lens sharpens the distinction between national law and international law, emphasizes the freedom of each nation to shape doctrines of foreign relations law as it thinks best, and brings into better focus the interrelationships among those doctrines.
Techniques for Regulating Military Force
Authors: Hakimi Monica
Published: June 2019

This chapter draws on the five chapters that follow—each of which describes the war powers in a single country—to identify and analyze some of the techniques for regulating this area of foreign affairs and then to reflect on the value of comparative research on it. Three basic techniques are: (1) to establish substantive standards on when the government may or may not use force, (2) to divide among different branches of government the authority to deploy the country’s armed forces, and (3) to subject such decisions to oversight or review. There is considerable variation, both across countries and over time within particular countries, in how and with what effect each technique is used. Given that variation, comparative war powers research might be of limited relevance to national officials who make use of force decisions or to analysts who seek to explain them. Rather, the principal benefit of such research might be to bring into stark relief each country’s own national ethos—to shed light on how it defines itself and conceives of its relationship with the rest of the world
Executive Power in Foreign Affairs
Authors: Rodiles Alejandro
Published: June 2019

In Mexico, there is no legal field known as “foreign relations law.” The legal rules and principles that regulate how the country relates to the outside world have been studied as a subfield of international law, known as “the relationship between the international and national legal orders.” This subfield has produced one stream of writings dealing with the prerogatives of the executive in the conduct of foreign policy, and a different one, on treaty-making and the role of treaties within the internal norm hierarchy. Although each approach portrays important aspects of the relationship between national law and international law, this chapter argues that both fail to comprehend that the legal principles and rules on foreign affairs operate at the interstices of these legal orders. In surveying the literature on executive power in external affairs as well as the scholarship on domestic treaty law, the chapter shows that the former has emerged within diplomatic elites, which are concerned with freeing the executive from the constraints related to the principles on foreign policy established in Mexico’s constitution. It also argues that the latter has been either too formalistic or too much focused on global constitutionalism, thus proving unable to capture the new and mainly informal means of executive action in international law. This chapter concludes by making the case for inventing a Mexican foreign relations law that brings both approaches together and is attentive to persistent and novel problems that emerge from the executive’s external actions.
LGBTQ Politics in Anglo-American Democracies
Authors: Smith Miriam
Published: June 2019

This chapter surveys LGBTQ politics in the Anglo-American democracies, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Political change has followed a somewhat similar trajectory from the decriminalization of same-sex conduct through struggles over discrimination in areas such as employment to the recognition of same-sex relationships and families. From the emergence of gay liberation in the late 1960s to the marriage equality movements of the 2000s, LGBTQ communities have increasingly lived in the open and pushed for full sexual and political citizenship. In the Anglo-American democracies, same-sex conduct is no longer criminal, discrimination in key areas such as employment is banned, and some form of same-sex relationship recognition exists. At the same time, however, progress in the recognition of queer rights has been uneven, with the United States failing to prohibit employment discrimination and Australia only recently providing legal recognition of same-sex marriage. This chapter discusses the intersection of social movement activism and political institutions in these cases, exploring the role of political mobilization and litigation by LGBTQ movements. In doing so, it identifies some of the key factors that have facilitated and impeded the process of legal and policy change for LGBTQ communities across this group of countries including political institutional factors, partisan electoral dynamics, and the role of religion and public opinion.
The “Disenchantment of the World” or Why We Can No Longer Use the Formula as Max Weber Might Have Intended
Authors: Mishima Kenichi
Published: June 2019

The “disenchantment of the world” is a famous formulation of Max Weber’s, one taken up in Walter Benjamin’s “Elective Affinities” essay. This chapter analyzes Weber’s conception of disenchantment in the context of his work. Two aspects of his discussion can be distinguished: religious-historical and scientific-historical. Weber’s preference for principled consistency, for instance, in the Calvinist sects, is normally evaluated positively. But it can be shown to cloud his vision of much more complex issues, such as the problem of “meaning.” Weber identified the decisive consequences of disenchantment with a loss of meaning. But disenchantment does not eo ipso have to signify a loss of meaning in life. In this respect Weber was a child of his times, trapped in a cultural context characterized by a newly established Christianity born from the failed revolutions of 1848, as well as by the process of industrialization. A role was also played by Nietzsche’s widespread influence. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Weber’s conception of disenchantment in relation to the contrasting views of Benjamin and Robert Bellah.
Realism and Reality in Max Weber
Authors: da Mata Sérgio
Published: June 2019

Max Weber was a realist not only from a political but also from an epistemological perspective. This chapter tries to shed light upon this aspect of Weber’s works, stressing the central importance of his concept of a “science of reality” (Wirklichkeitswissenschaft). He viewed science not so much as a destiny for modern humanity but, rather, as a choice. The main sources of his realism are examined, as well as two weaknesses of the Weberian science of reality: its weak historical teleology and a value-based conception of culture. Finally, it is suggested that the current “realist turn” in human sciences is sowing seeds of a Weber renaissance in the twenty-first century.
School Jurisdiction over Online Speech
Authors: Waldman Emily Gold
Published: June 2019

In today’s digital age, the line between on-campus and off-campus speech has become murky. Speech initially expressed on a student’s home computer, tablet, or smartphone can instantly be accessed anywhere, including at school. But the United States Supreme Court’s student speech cases, which largely predate the digital age, do not grapple with this current reality. This chapter explores lower courts’ attempts to find a new dividing line, beyond the physical schoolhouse gate, for schools’ jurisdiction over student speech. So far, the emerging consensus is that the test should be whether the speech is likely to cause a material disruption at school. That standard, in turn, can implicate several subsidiary questions: whether the speech is arguably threatening; whether the student speaker was punished with suspension or only a minor sanction; whether the speech targets a fellow student or a teacher/administrator; and whether the speech conveys a substantive viewpoint. This chapter analyzes how courts grapple with each of those issues, and then shifts the lens to explore what happens when school personnel, rather than students, are the ones speaking online. It concludes that the Supreme Court will soon weigh in to provide more guidance on these complex issues, building on the lower court consensus that is already developing.
The Energy Politics of Russia and Eurasia
Authors: Balmaceda Margarita , Heinrich Andreas
Published: June 2019

As one of the world’s largest fossil fuel exporters, Russia is a key player in the global energy arena. It also plays a unique role in the former Soviet Union (FSU) as the largest producer and exporter, as well as an important transit country. Even though Soviet-era dependencies have been progressively eroding, Soviet infrastructural, economic, and political legacies continue to influence energy relations in the FSU. This chapter’s review of the literature reveals clear differences among the research foci of various academic communities. Research has often focused on policy and technical rather than theoretical issues, continuing to focus on traditional geopolitical thinking rather than on future-oriented concerns. Promising topics for further research include deeper understanding of the inner workings of decision-making processes and what global changes, such as the low carbon transition, could mean for the region.