bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
First Recorded Asian Longhorned Beetle (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) Infestation in the Southern United States
Authors: Coyle David R , Trotter R Talbot , Bean Meredith S , Pfister Scott E
Published: February 2021

The Asian longhorned beetle [Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky), ALB] was found in Hollywood, SC, in May 2020. This infestation is at least 7-yr old and represents the southernmost infestation in North America. A federally regulated invasive forest and tree pest, ALB primarily attacks maples but is known to attack and reproduce in trees in at least 12 different genera. Damage observed in South Carolina is typical of that seen in other ALB infestations, including oviposition sites, splitting bark around larval feeding sites, and round holes made by emerging adults. Copious weeping from oviposition sites was commonly observed in the summer of 2020, and characteristic frass and wood shavings were commonly exuded from attacked trees. Federal and state regulatory officials established a 152 km2 (58.6 mi2) regulated area in October—which the state increased to 188.0 km2 (72.6 mi2) in January—and to date >4,000 trees (98% Acer spp.) infested with ALB have been identified. Several uncertainties regarding ALB’s biology and ecology exist due to this area’s subtropical climate, including impacts to the beetle’s life cycle. Questions also surround potential biological control agents in this area and whether new host trees would be utilized. While the standard eradication strategy of tree removal and chipping is being performed, there are several forested wetlands and areas otherwise inaccessible to typical removal equipment where alternate eradication strategies may need to be developed and deployed. Because this ALB infestation is located within a novel environment, it provides an opportunity to research new strategies that will help improve future detection and eradication efforts.
Cognitive communication and the law: a model for systemic risks and systemic interventions
Authors: Wszalek Joseph A
Published: February 2021

Legal contexts frequently impose steep communication barriers, but because the law’s ontological framework of communication views it as an atomized, transaction phenomenon, the law lacks the ability to conceptualize and describe the way in which it itself imposes systemic communication burden. To overcome this shortcoming, this article presents a model for a systemic analysis of communication within the law. Part One operationalizes a set of cognitive-communication resources necessary to navigate communication in legal contexts. Part Two uses the operational model to illustrate how systemic elements of the law pressure the cognitive resources that underlie communication. Finally, Part Three uses the model to predict how possible systemic interventions might improve communication outcomes by alleviating or reducing systemic communication burdens. Not only does this article provide a conceptual tool to articulate the law’s systemic impacts on communication, the subsequent analysis offers a framework for exploring interventions that could ultimately lead to better outcomes for persons, particularly vulnerable or at-risk persons, who must navigate legal contexts. By changing how it conceptualizes communication and working to modify the communication dynamics that it itself perpetuates, the law can reduce the weight of the communication burdens that it imposes on the people within it.
Itinerating Europe: Early Modern Spatial Networks in Printed Itineraries, 1545–1700
Authors: Midura Rachel
Published: February 2021

Before the advent of formal cartography, with its emphasis on observation and accuracy and its reliance on global standards, the itinerary was the height of geographic knowledge. These lists of cities and their relative distances, represented by many national “miles” or the location of postal waystations, opened European travel to a broad readership. This article traces the repetition and modification of route headings across a newly comprehensive bibliography of eighty-five itinerary books printed from the sixteenth through the eighteenth century. The application of Social Network Analysis (SNA) models the organizing logic of the itinerary genre and hierarchization of regions, cities, and routes. Digital methods prove to be key for moving between scales of consideration, from following the fate of one city, to many linked cities, to entire regions or the network as a whole. While the pilgrimage path of St. James and transalpine commercial routes were widely republished, dynamic networks based on the dates of first and last publication indicate the influence of new postal hubs, sea travel, and borders on early modern conceptions of a connected Europe. Instead of a sharp break brought by the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), the 1620s saw the extension and diversification of routes, while the 1680s marked their curtailment. State-patronized cartography reshaped the genre, as authors and publishers increasingly incorporated maps into itinerary book production.
An artificial chromosome for data storage
Authors: Chen Weigang , Han Mingzhe , Zhou Jianting , Ge Qi , Wang Panpan , Zhang Xinchen , Zhu Siyu , Song Lifu , Yuan Yingjin
Published: February 2021

DNA digital storage provides an alternative for information storage with high density and long-term stability. Here, we report the de novo design and synthesis of an artificial chromosome that encodes two pictures and a video clip. The encoding paradigm utilizing the superposition of sparsified error correction codewords and pseudo-random sequences tolerates base insertions/deletions and is well suited to error-prone nanopore sequencing for data retrieval. The entire 254 kb sequence was 95.27% occupied by encoded data. The Transformation-Associated Recombination method was used in the construction of this chromosome from DNA fragments and necessary autonomous replication sequences. The stability was demonstrated by transmitting the data-carrying chromosome to the 100th generation. This study demonstrates a data storage method using encoded artificial chromosomes via in vivo assembly for write-once and stable replication for multiple retrievals, similar to a compact disc, with potential in economically massive data distribution.
Dynamics-based data science in biology
Authors: Shi Jifan , Aihara Kazuyuki , Chen Luonan
Published: February 2021

With the increasingly accumulated bio-data, dynamics-based data-science has been progressing as an efficient way to reveal mechanisms of dynamical biological processes. We review three applications on detecting the tipping-points of diseases, quantifying cell's potency, and predicting time-series, to show the importance of dynamics-based data-science.
METI’s Miraculous Comeback and the Uncertain Future of Japanese Industrial Policy
Authors: Noble Gregory W.
Published: February 2021

If the industrial policy of Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) gained acclaim for having created an “economic miracle” in the 1950s and 1960s, a spirited counterattack arose in the 1980s, and by time of the bursting of the financial bubble in the 1990s, industrial policy increasingly looked like an outmoded and discredited relic. Events then took an unexpected turn: MITI (since 2001 called the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, or METI) managed to turn a series of bureaucratic and political reforms and upheavals into opportunities for institutional rebirth, while once-proud Japanese companies struggled. Yet in Japan’s aging, slow-growth economy, reigniting dynamism has proved difficult. Efforts to enhance economy-wide productivity have made some progress, but have yet to overcome the obstacles to growth. METI’s expanded jurisdiction and reinforced political support have been matched by demands to enhance the viability of Japanese firms to meet the new competitive pressures and security threats from China and Korea, and even the United States. In some cases, notably the electronics industry, industrial policy has ended up bailing out failing firms. In the crucial automobile industry, in contrast, industrial policy has made significant contributions even as the leading firms have gone global, but METI has received little credit. Continued political support is not guaranteed. Outside Japan, the international financial crisis of 2008–2009, the failure of many developing countries to surmount an apparent middle-income trap, and the rise of China have converged to spark renewed interest in industrial policy and the experience of Japan.
Japan and International Organizations
Authors: Lipscy Phillip Y. , Tamaki Nobuhiko
Published: February 2021

Japan’s emergence as a great power and economic powerhouse coincided with the rise of international organizations in global politics. International organizations now facilitate cooperation in essentially all arenas of international relations. This article surveys major academic debates about Japan and international organizations across three time periods: from the Meiji Restoration until World War II; the postwar liberal international order; and the recent era of contestation. Japan has played a variety of roles—as creator, reformer, and disruptor of international organizations. After World War II, Japan contributed actively to the liberal international order as a key democratic ally of the United States. Recent shifts in the international system and Japanese domestic politics are reconfiguring Japan’s policy toward international organizations, opening exciting avenues for future research.
Japan-India Relations
Authors: Jain Purnendra
Published: February 2021

This chapter broadly examines the rather uneven development of Japan-India postwar relations, analyzing factors behind the almost half-century of low-intensity and at times mutual neglect and rocky engagement that followed the smooth takeoff in relations at the end of World War II, with re-ignition over the past two decades. It considers various push-and-pull factors, including changes in the two nations’ domestic and external circumstances that explain Japan’s transformation from neglecting India during the Cold War period to recognizing India as one of its key strategic partners today. This analysis recognizes that a realist perspective most usefully explains Japan’s response to the power structure in place during the Cold War that set the two nations apart, and to the subsequent transition in power relations regionally and globally that has brought about a convergence of the nations’ strategic interests. Both nations today uphold belief in the value of economic interdependence, international institutions, and democratic process, yet their primary concern with each other has remained strategic in the Indo-Pacific era. National leaders have been instrumental in steering these responses, as is especially evident in the diplomatic postures of former Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and his Indian counterpart and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Era of Coalition Government in Japan
Authors: Thies Michael F.
Published: February 2021

For nearly four decades after its establishment in 1955, Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party formed every government alone. Since mid-1993, however, coalition government has been the norm in Japanese politics. Interestingly, every coalition since 1999 has included a party with a lower house majority by itself. Nonetheless, these majority parties have taken on coalition partners. This chapter shows that the logic of “oversized” coalition government in Japan is driven in part by parliamentary bicameralism, and partly by the mixed-member electoral system, which incentivizes the formation of long-lived pre-electoral coalitions.
The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Bureaucracy
Authors: Vogel Steven K.
Published: February 2021

In the postwar era, Japan benefited from an unusually competent, public-minded, and powerful central bureaucracy that contributed to rapid economic growth, high education and health standards, domestic stability, and peaceful international relations. The regime combined democratic politics with strong administrative capacity and partial insulation from interest group pressures. Central ministry officials developed a compromise between autonomy and inclusion whereby they played a distinctively political role of arranging bargains among key interest groups. Yet the bureaucracy’s power and insulation also restricted the participation of civic groups and minority interests in the policy process, limited accountability to the broader public, and fostered collusive partnerships with politicians and favored interest groups. Bureaucratic dominance began to wane in the 1970s as politicians pushed beyond Ministry of Finance budget limits to expand the welfare state and boost public works spending for their constituents. Bureaucrats confronted even greater challenges in the 1990s, including a devastating financial crisis that abruptly ended the high-growth period, an electoral system reform that transformed political dynamics, and a gradual erosion of prestige. Meanwhile, political leaders enacted administrative reforms to strengthen their control over the bureaucracy and to centralize power in the Prime Minister’s Office and the cabinet. Nevertheless, Japan’s elite civil servants have preserved some core powers, including control over substantial elements of the policy process, the capacity to forge political bargains, and a knack for manipulating politicians to pursue their own policy preferences.
Human Rights and Domestic Work in the Contemporary Gulf
Authors: Sabban Rima
Published: February 2021

Gulf countries continue to develop national institutions, policies, and programs to address labor and human rights issues faced by migrant domestic workers, specifically on work conditions in the domestic labor market. While a plethora of academic and policy studies highlight rights groups’ political, legal, and social criticisms toward the Gulf countries, limited studies have examined the institutionalized responses of the states in addressing migrant domestic work exploitations and abuses. Using document analysis on the current academic, policy, and government publications, this chapter records formal efforts made by Gulf nations to improve the conditions of migrant and domestic work. While it is an important practice to document these institutionalized efforts toward improving the social welfare of these workers, a central argument in this chapter highlights a contingency on the future commitments of these governments to uphold standards of human rights through sustainable policies. Critical relevance lies within both empirical and theoretical perspectives on the Gulf states’ responses toward migration management.
Promising Psychological Treatments for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Authors: Stojek Monika M. , Sherrill Andrew M. , Stevens Trevor , Rothbaum Barbara O.
Published: February 2021

Trauma-focused therapies, particularly prolonged exposure and cognitive processing therapy, are recommended as first-line treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, a subset of patients refuse, fail to respond, or respond only partially to these interventions. This chapter outlines numerous promising adaptions of and augmentation methods for existing evidence-based PTSD treatments in an effort to improve outcomes for all treatment seekers. These include couple- and family-based adaptions of PTSD treatment, augmenting psychotherapy with pharmacological and neurostimulation interventions, the use of Internet-based and smartphone-based platforms to deliver PTSD treatment, and the use of complementary and integrative medicine approaches to supplement evidence-based psychotherapy. Also reviewed is the evidence for using complementary and integrative medicine approaches to target sleep disturbances. Although many of these approaches are in preliminary stages of development and require further study, they represent important progress in helping clinicians better serve the many needs of individuals with PTSD.
Gender and Peaceful Change
Authors: Aggestam Karin , Bergman Rosamond Annika
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the interplay between gender and peaceful change. It elaborates on how the concept of peace is inherently gendered by drawing upon feminist scholarship. There are a number of ways to conceptualize gender and peaceful change. The “women-peace hypothesis” assumes a proximity between women’s peacefulness and their experiences of maternal care. However, such a construction needs to be treated with caution since transformative peace requires deconstruction of that assumption, while staying attentive to women’s contributions to peacemaking. Debates on strategic essentialism and inclusive peace are also assessed as a way of gaining deeper and more meaningful understandings of gender-just peaceful change. We argue that women’s unique experiences pertaining to peace and conflict should be considered alongside those of men. In addition, we examine the assumption about states with a poor record on gender inequality are more likely to be involved in intrastate conflicts. The last part of the chapter focuses on policy practice, including the adoption of UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security and the reorientation in some states toward feminist foreign policy as a platform for peaceful change.
A Research Agenda for the Study of Peaceful Change in World Politics
Authors: Larson Deborah Welch , Paul T. V. , Trinkunas Harold A. , Wivel Anders , Emmers Ralf
Published: February 2021

This concluding chapter offers a summary and evaluation of the key ideas contained in the chapters of this Handbook. The chapter discusses peaceful change in terms of conceptual clarity; historical evolution of scholarship in the area, especially the interwar, Cold War, and post–Cold War era efforts at analyzing the concepts; and the policy innovations in this realm. This is followed by an evaluation of the key umbrella theories of international relations—realism, liberalism, and constructivism—and how they approach peaceful change. Some important sources and mechanisms of change are analyzed. This is followed by discussion of the policy contributions of selected great and rising powers toward peaceful change. The chapter then offers a summary of contributions and progress that various regions have made in the area of peaceful change. It concludes with some ideas for future research while highlighting the significance of the subject matter for international relations and the world order.
Concluding Summary
Authors: Hangan Horia , Kareem Ahsan
Published: February 2021

This chapter summarizes the book’s study on non-synoptic wind storms (NSWSs). The book covers aspects related the general vulnerability to NSWSs in terms of (1) incidence, including the flow field and intensity and the frequency and occurrence of these storms; and (2) exposure, including preparedness for NSWSs. In doing so, it presents the state of the art regarding full-scale data acquisition and analysis, mesoscale and microscale numerical modeling, physical simulations, structural analysis, risk modeling, building codes implementation, and insurance analysis. For each of these aspects, the presentation aims at being informative, reviewing a large palette of approaches and presenting their advantages and limitations. It also stresses the need for future research.
Regaining Ground
Authors: Herlihy Peter H. , Fahrenbruch Matthew L. , Tappan Taylor A.
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes the geographies of indigenous populations and their territories in Central America, past and present. A brief discussion of previous archaeological research provides a context for the region’s pre-Columbian populations and settlement distributions prior to an examination of the territorial and demographic collapse precipitated by European conquest. The chapter chronicles a twenty-first-century resurgence of indigenous populations and their territorial rights in Central America, including the emergence of geopolitical units that we call indigenous territorial jurisdictions (ITJs), the likes of which represent new strategies for accommodating indigenous land ownership and governance within the context of modern states. Archival and census research, in situ field experience, and geographic information system (GIS)-based land use and cadastral mapping inform the understanding of indigenous peoples’ past and contemporary demographic trends, settlement patterns, and territorial challenges.
Family, Child Labor, and Social Welfare in Peru
Authors: Chávez Cruzado José Vidal
Published: February 2021

The problematic effects of child labor are primarily caused by poverty and precarity, products of the social and economic inequality generated by the capitalist system in Southern societies. Approaches from the Global North generally deal with the issue of child labor by imposing the abolitionist stance promoted by the International Labour Organization and adopted by, for example, the Peruvian state. Abolitionism proposes that child labor must be eradicated because it limits the development of working children and adolescents. In this essay the abolitionist approach is contrasted with the value-based approach used by the Movement of Working Children and Adolescents and Children of Christian Workers. The latter approach is supported by the theory of the coloniality of power, which considers work to be an activity that dignifies and contributes to families’ economic and social well-being.
Regime Change under the Party of Justice and Development (AKP) in Turkey
Authors: Ocaklı Feryaz
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines Turkey’s transition to an authoritarian regime under the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party—AKP). Turkey’s regime transition reflects the broader pattern of “executive aggrandizement,” whereby the accountability of elected governments is progressively eroded. Turkey’s regime has slid gradually from an illiberal democracy constrained by the power of the military to an authoritarian regime in which the president monopolizes political power. The political, economic, and institutional contexts in which elections take place are heavily skewed in favor of the incumbents, and the ballot box serves to legitimize the government rather than holding it accountable. The chapter surveys the primary factors that have influenced the process of regime change. In particular, it focuses on the role of persistent electoral victories early in the AKP’s tenure in government, the marginalization of Erdoğan’s rivals within the AKP, the creation of a pro-government business class that controls the media landscape, the role of social welfare practices, and the party’s capture of judicial and security bureaucracies. While Islamic social movements like the Gülen community, as well as the AKP’s Islamist identity, played a role in regime change, religion’s impact on authoritarian transition was minimal. Studying the process of democratic backsliding in Turkey, a Muslim-majority state, illuminates crucial mechanisms of democratic breakdown and authoritarian regime consolidation more broadly.
The Ethics of Studying the Origins of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification
Authors: Murphy Timothy F.
Published: February 2021

Research has a complicated and problematic history when it comes to the study of sexual and gender minorities (SGMs). Some past researchers exerted a great deal of effort, for example, to identify ways to treat people for homosexuality and to prevent the emergence of same-sex sexual interests. The same approach has prevailed with regard to the study of gender-variant people, namely those people who express a gender at odds with the gender socially expected of them as a matter of body type. Reconceptualizing the nature of sexual orientations and gender in more inclusive ways has led to significant changes in research involving sexual gender minorities, for both adults and minors. As a way of protecting SGMs from the effect of historical misunderstanding and possible misuse of research, some commentators have called for bans against the study of the origins of sexual orientation and gender identification and/or against the study of interventions that could modify sexual orientation or gender. It is unclear that absolute bans on these kinds of research are entirely defensible philosophically, but it is also important to frame research programs and priorities in line with the requirements of social justice. One can argue that research important to the welfare of sex and gender minorities has a strong claim to moral priority and support as a matter of status equality. This chapter will review and evaluate criticism of study of the origins of sexual and gender identification and make the case for framing research agendas in a way that serves status equality for SGMs.
The Empirical Aesthetics of Music
Authors: Brattico Elvira
Published: February 2021

This chapter provides a structured overview of studies accounting for the aesthetic responses to music. Bottom-up accounts linking preference with determined stimulus features are distinguished from other cognitivist, emotivist, or contextual accounts putting more weight on nonappearance properties related to the individual life experience. Additionally, models of the musical aesthetic experience that emphasize psychological processes are illustrated as distinct from models that account also for the neural mechanisms involved. While most findings concentrate on the aesthetic response of pleasure or preference, fresh efforts are projected toward understanding other aesthetically tinged dimensions such as evaluative judgments and attitudes. Naturalistic approaches are promising toward understanding from the daily drive to musical activities to the life-changing peak experiences of music.
Diffusion imaging perspectives on brain development in childhood and adolescence
Authors: Geeraert Bryce L. , Reynolds Jess E. , Lebel Catherine
Published: February 2021

Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) is a versatile tool which can be applied to investigate brain microstructure. This chapter outlines brain development trajectories from infancy to adulthood as described by dMRI. The chapter focuses on white matter development, as dMRI is particularly well suited to describing white matter tissue properties. The chapter also discusses sources of individual variation which are simultaneously fascinating and confounding to research efforts. Next, the chapter discusses links between white matter development and cognition, with specific examples drawn from reading research. Additional techniques which may complement future diffusion-based research are introduced in the chapter’s final section.
Preverbal Categorization and its Neural Correlates: Methods and Findings
Authors: Pauen Sabina , Peykarjou Stefanie
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on the very beginnings of categorization in early infancy. Following a general introduction, the authors provide the reader with an overview of methods and paradigms suitable for assessing category discrimination at the behavioural (section, Behavioural measures of preverbal categorization) and at the neurophysiological electroencephalogram (EEG) level (section, EEG methods for studying infant categorization at a preverbal age). Then, the authors summarize main empirical findings on auditory (section, Infant categorization in the auditory domain), visual (section, Infant categorization in the visual domain), and intermodal categorization (section, Intermodal categorization and cross-modal influences on infant categorization), as information processing in these areas is crucial for understanding the emergence of semantic memory. Finally, the authors draw some general conclusions and suggest some promising lines for future research (section, Concluding Remarks).
Cortical silent period
Authors: Kofler Markus , Ziemann Ulf , Kimiskidis Vasilios K.
Published: February 2021

The cortical silent period (cSP) refers to a period of suppression or silencing of ongoing electromyographic (EMG) activity during voluntary muscle contraction induced by a magnetic stimulus over the contralateral primary motor cortex. This chapter summarizes the physiological basis of the cSP, discusses technical aspects and recommendations on how to record and analyze it, and provides an overview of useful clinical applications. Evidence is presented that multiple spinal mechanisms are implicated in the initial part of the cSP, but some may be also active further on, whereas long-lasting cortical inhibitory mechanisms operate throughout the entire cSP, with an emphasis during its later part. The cSP is a highly relevant and clinically useful tool to assess inhibitory corticomotoneuronal mechanisms in health and disease.
Pharmacology of TMS measures
Authors: Ziemann Ulf
Published: February 2021

Application of a single dose of a central nervous system (CNS) active drug with a defined mode of action has been proven useful to explore pharmaco-physiological properties of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-evoked electromyographic (EMG) measures of motor cortical excitability. With this approach, it is possible to demonstrate that TMS-EMG measures reflect axonal, or excitatory or inhibitory synaptic excitability in distinct interneuron circuits. On the other hand, the array of pharmaco-physiologically well-characterized TMS-EMG measures can be employed to study the effects of a drug with unknown or multiple modes of action, and hence to determine its main mode of action at the systems level of the motor cortex. Acute drug effects may be rather different from chronic drug effects, and these differences can also be studied in TMS experiments. Moreover, TMS or repetitive TMS (rTMS) may induce changes in endogenous neurotransmitter or neuromodulator systems. This offers the opportunity to study neurotransmission along defined neuronal projections. Finally, more recently, TMS-evoked electroencephalographic (EEG) responses have been developed to study cortical excitability and connectivity. Pharmaco-physiological testing can be employed to also characterize these TMS-EEG measures. All these aspects of the pharmacology of TMS measures in healthy subjects will be reviewed in this chapter.
TMS in working memory research
Authors: Johnson Jeffrey S. , Feredoes Eva , Postle Bradley R.
Published: February 2021

This chapter provides a broad overview of research focused on the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), both alone and together with neural recording modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG), to elucidate the cognitive and neural underpinnings of working memory. It first considers research using TMS to create “virtual lesions” in targeted brain areas, with the goal of establishing the causal role, and sometimes the timing, of the targeted area in specific working memory component processes. Next, it highlights research adopting a “perturb-and-measure” approach, in which TMS is used in conjunction with simultaneous neural recording (e.g., functional MRI or EEG) to assess the role of brain excitability and inter-area connectivity in working memory. Finally, research using TMS to assess the role of neural oscillations in working memory is reviewed. Throughout, the chapter highlights how different TMS modalities can be used profitably to clarify the neural bases of working memory and to effect strong tests of predictions derived from psychological models.
Global Legal Institutions
Authors: Sapignoli Maria , Niezen Ronald
Published: February 2021

Global legal institutions such as UN agencies, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization have become sites of some of the most innovative research in the social sciences, with implications that carry over into the methods and perspectives of legal scholarship. This chapter presents an outline of the history and methods of ethnography in global legal institutions as well as an account of the main findings of ethnographic work in this context. One of the key findings of ethnographic inquiry is that the structural failings and disenchantment of these institutions are at variance with persistent expressions of hope that are at the foundation of institutional ethics and self-representation. This hope is now being channelled into possibilities opened up by new information and communication technologies. These institutions are capitalizing on digitalization and innovations in technology as sources of decision-making. At the same time, new spaces have been created for private sector involvement in global governance initiatives, most prominently the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights. The UN, together with its corporate partners, is developing powerful information and communications technologies that present both important opportunities and risks in the administration of programmes in which artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are essential tools. These initiatives also present an important place for ethnographic research in presenting a clearer picture of the new geography of global governance and its legal frameworks.
Agriculture and Rural Society
Authors: Ziemann Benjamin
Published: February 2021

Agrarian producers (peasants, agricultural labourers, and the very small group of those who owned large estates, predominantly situated in the East-Elbian Prussian provinces) had a continually shrinking yet nevertheless sizeable presence in German society during the Weimar era. The chapter first covers the economic problems of the agrarian sector, from the controlled economy of the period up to 1922 to the agrarian crisis that commenced in 1927/28. It then analyses the social stratification of the village communities. While the revolution had removed the remaining legal obstacles to a full unionization of farm workers, the surge of social democratic union members among the workers on the East-Elbian estates was short lived. Brutal repression by the estate owners, but also the substantial benefits of the payment in kind that they received, had squashed labour unrest by 1921. The last section charts the history of agrarian protest in the years from 1924, and the ability of the Nazis to convert agrarian protest in Protestant regions into support for their party at the ballot box from 1930 to 1933.
The Humanities and Social Sciences
Authors: Raphael Lutz
Published: February 2021

For the humanities and social sciences, the Weimar Republic was a period of dynamic change. Academics from these fields were deeply engaged in public debates and intellectual controversies about the nature of modernity and the future of the German nation after its defeat in the First World War. The national-conservative majority of the faculty kept their distance from the new democracy, criticizing new forms of cultural and political pluralism as being symptomatic of a crisis of national culture. However, the search for intellectual orientation fuelled new approaches in the humanities: ‘objective idealism’, holistic approaches, and new research methods opened up innovative perspectives in history, theology, philosophy, and literary criticism. Yet these new approaches had ambivalent political outcomes: on the one hand, they led to an engagement with the mixture of nationalist völkisch ideas that became state ideology between 1933 and 1945. On the other, during the Weimar era methodological realignment was embraced by many critical approaches in the humanities and social sciences, whose proponents went into exile in 1933.
Constancy Mechanisms and Distal Content: a Reply to Garson
Authors: Schulte Peter
Published: February 2021

Sensory perceptions represent things in the outside world. This mundane fact raises a major problem for naturalistic theories of content: the ‘distality problem’. In a previous paper for this journal, I presented a solution to this problem which makes central appeal to constancy mechanisms. Justin Garson, also in this journal, recently criticized my solution and suggested a Dretskean alternative to it. Here, I defend my proposal by arguing, first, that Garson's criticisms ultimately miss the mark, and secondly, that his Dretskean alternative is not viable, because it faces two fundamental problems: the empirical problem and the problem of changing response functions.
Behavioral Test (BAT-Back)
Authors: Holzapfel Sebastian , Schemer Lea , Riecke Jenny , Glombiewski Julia A.
Published: February 2021

Objectives:

Although several questionnaires assessing fear of movement exist, it is still a challenge to identify individuals who might benefit more from exposure for chronic pain than from other psychological approaches and vice versa. Psychological approaches to chronic pain cannot advance toward the often called-for “tailored approaches” because of limited knowledge about treatment predictors. Our aim was to evaluate the additional predictive value of avoidance behavior based on behavioral observation.

Methods:

This study examined pretreatment self-report and behavioral measures as predictors of treatment outcome for n=43 patients experiencing disabling chronic low back pain, who took part in a randomized controlled trial in which they received 10 to 15 sessions of exposure treatment. Only patients with elevated fear avoidance based on self-report measures were included. Data were analyzed using regression analyses and classification and regression trees.

Results:

Regression analyses showed that higher avoidance behavior at pretreatment as measured by the Behavioral Avoidance Test—Back Pain (BAT-Back) significantly predicted reduction in global disability (with a small to medium effect), but not in specific disability. Self-report measures failed to predict treatment success for both outcome measures. Classification and regression trees divide subgroups who might benefit from exposure treatment through a BAT-Back score of >22 for Pain Disability Index.

Discussion:

There is some preliminary evidence that pretreatment avoidance behavior might be an indicator for reduction in global disability after exposure treatments in patients experiencing disabling chronic low back pain and elevated fear avoidance. We identified preliminary cutoff scores that need further investigation.
Endoscopic Shielding With Platelet-rich Plasma After Resection Of Large Colorectal Lesions
Authors: Lorenzo-Zúñiga Vicente , Moreno de Vega Vicente , Bartolí Ramón
Published: February 2021

Background:

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has demonstrated efficacy as submucosal injection before endoscopic mucosal resection or local injection after endoscopic submucosal dissection of nonpedunculated colorectal lesions.

Methods:

The EndoPRP study was a prospective single-center study to analyze the efficacy of PRP shield after endoscopic mucosal resection of large nonpedunculated colorectal lesio with impossible clip closure, assessed by the incidence of delayed bleeding (DB) and delayed perforation, and percentage of mucosal restoration after 4 weeks (mucosal healing rate).

Results:

Shielding technique with PRP was performed in 4 patients, aged 52 to 80, with 4 lesions at rectum (mean size 53.7±20.6 mm, range 35 to 80 mm). DB occurred in 1 lesion (25% of all lesions), no required blood transfusion or endoscopic treatment. No postoperative delayed perforation occurred. Mucosal healing rate was of 78.6% after 4 weeks.

Conclusions:

PRP shield failed in prevent DB, probably due to migration and failure in the adherence in large wounds. Future comparative studies are needed to confirm these data.
Quality of Life Outcomes Following Single-stage Laparoscopic Common Bile Duct Exploration Versus 2-stage Endoscopic Sphincterotomy Followed by Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy in Management of Cholelithiasis With Choledocholithiasis
Authors: Asuri Krishna , Jain Mayank , Maheshwari Parteek , Prakash Om , Kumar Subodh , Garg Pramod , Sagar Rajesh , Bansal Virinder K.
Published: February 2021

Introduction:

With various studies in the literature showing laparoscopic common bile duct (CBD) exploration to have equal or similar results when compared with endoscopic sphincterotomy (EST) clearance, decision-making in regard to the treatment modality to be used may become debatable. Thus, quality of life (QoL) data may assist both the patient and the clinician in deciding the management of the disease. The present prospective randomized trial was undertaken to compare QoL of patients undergoing treatment with these 2 approaches.

Methodology:

The study was conducted March 1, 2013, to September 31, 2016. Consecutive patients with CBD stones were randomized to either laparoscopic CBD exploration with cholecystectomy (group I) and EST followed by laparoscopic cholecystectomy (group II). Diagnosis was confirmed preoperatively using magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography and/or endoscopic ultrasound. QoL scores were assessed by World Health Organization Quality of Life—Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF), European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Quality of Life Questionnaire C30 (EORTC QLQ-C30), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaires.

Results:

A total of 77 patients with concomitant gallstones and CBD stones were finally recruited (38 patients in group I and 39 patients in group II). The demographic and clinical profiles were similar in both the groups. On EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire, there was significant improvement in physical, emotional, and role functioning in both the groups (P<0.01) with no intergroup variation preprocedure or postprocedure. Patients in both the groups reported similar WHOQOL scores with significant improvement postprocedure and minimal intergroup variation. Both the depression and anxiety scores on HADS were comparable between the 2 groups preoperatively and at 3 months postoperatively.

Conclusion:

Single-stage management of patients with gallbladder and CBD stones and EST followed by laparoscopic cholecystectomy were similar in terms of improvement in QoL.
Comparison of Converse Ω Anastomosis and Extracorporeal Anastomosis After Laparoscopic Distal Gastrectomy for Gastric Cancer
Authors: Tsuchiya Nobuhiro , Kunisaki Chikara , Kubo Hirokazu , Sato Sho , Tanaka Yusaku , Sato Kei , Miyamoto Hiroshi , Watanabe Jun , Takeda Kazuhisa , Kosaka Takashi , Akiyama Hirotoshi , Endo Itaru , Misumi Toshihiro
Published: February 2021

Background:

Converse Ω anastomosis is a recently developed technique of delta-shaped anastomosis for intracorporeal gastroduodenostomy to simplify the anastomotic procedures and reduce their potential risks. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of converse Ω anastomosis, comparing it with conventional extracorporeal Billroth-I anastomosis after laparoscopic distal gastrectomy (LDG) for gastric cancer.

Patients and Methods:

Among 169 gastric cancer patients who underwent LDG with Billroth-I anastomosis anastomosis between April 2013 and March 2018, we selected 100 patients by propensity score matching (50 in the converse Ω anastomosis group and 50 in the extracorporeal anastomosis group). Patients’ characteristics, intraoperative outcomes, postoperative complications, and survival time were compared between the 2 groups.

Results:

Median anastomosis time was significantly longer in the converse Ω group than in the extracorporeal group (40.0 vs. 30.5 min, P=0.005). However, the total procedure time did not differ significantly between the groups. Intraoperative blood loss volume was significantly lower in the converse Ω group than in the extracorporeal anastomosis group (40 vs. 120 mL, P<0.001). There were no significant differences in the number of dissected lymph nodes, postoperative morbidity, mortality, or length of hospital stay. The postoperative body mass index and the prognostic nutritional index did not differ between the groups 1 year after surgery. There were no significant differences in overall survival and relapse-free survival between the 2 groups.

Conclusions:

Converse Ω anastomosis is feasible and safe. This novel technique can be adopted as a treatment option for reconstruction after LDG in patients with early-stage gastric cancer. Therefore, the risks and benefits of converse Ω anastomosis after LDG should be confirmed in larger cohorts.
How do the Fat–Dachsous and core planar polarity pathways act together and independently to coordinate polarized cell behaviours?
Authors: Strutt Helen , Strutt David
Published: February 2021

Planar polarity describes the coordinated polarization of cells within the plane of a tissue. This is controlled by two main pathways in
Drosophila
: the Frizzled-dependent core planar polarity pathway and the Fat–Dachsous pathway. Components of both of these pathways become asymmetrically localized within cells in response to long-range upstream cues, and form intercellular complexes that link polarity between neighbouring cells. This review examines if and when the two pathways are coupled, focusing on the
Drosophila
wing, eye and abdomen. There is strong evidence that the pathways are molecularly coupled in tissues that express a specific isoform of the core protein Prickle, namely Spiny-legs. However, in other contexts, the linkages between the pathways are indirect. We discuss how the two pathways act together and independently to mediate a diverse range of effects on polarization of cell structures and behaviours.
Syndecan receptors: pericellular regulators in development and inflammatory disease
Authors: Gopal Sandeep , Arokiasamy Samantha , Pataki Csilla , Whiteford James R. , Couchman John R.
Published: February 2021

The syndecans are the major family of transmembrane proteoglycans, usually bearing multiple heparan sulfate chains. They are present on virtually all nucleated cells of vertebrates and are also present in invertebrates, indicative of a long evolutionary history. Genetic models in both vertebrates and invertebrates have shown that syndecans link to the actin cytoskeleton and can fine-tune cell adhesion, migration, junction formation, polarity and differentiation. Although often associated as co-receptors with other classes of receptors (e.g. integrins, growth factor and morphogen receptors), syndecans can nonetheless signal to the cytoplasm in discrete ways. Syndecan expression levels are upregulated in development, tissue repair and an array of human diseases, which has led to the increased appreciation that they may be important in pathogenesis not only as diagnostic or prognostic agents, but also as potential targets. Here, their functions in development and inflammatory diseases are summarized, including their potential roles as conduits for viral pathogen entry into cells.
SARS-CoV-2 transmission, vaccination rate and the fate of resistant strains
Authors: Rella Simon A. , Kulikova Yuliya A. , Dermitzakis Emmanouil T. , Kondrashov Fyodor A.
Published: February 2021

Vaccines are thought to be the best available solution for controlling the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic1,2. However, the emergence of vaccine-resistant strains3–6 may come too rapidly for current vaccine developments to alleviate the health, economic and social consequences of the pandemic7,8. To quantify and characterize the risk of such a scenario, we created a SIR-derived model9,10 with initial stochastic dynamics of the vaccine-resistant strain to study the probability of its emergence and establishment. Using parameters realistically resembling SARS-CoV-2 transmission, we model a wave-like pattern of the pandemic and consider the impact of the rate of vaccination and the strength of non-pharmaceutical intervention measures on the probability of emergence of a resistant strain. We found a counterintuitive result that the highest probability for the establishment of the resistant strain comes at a time of reduced non-pharmaceutical intervention measures when most individuals of the population have been vaccinated. Consequently, we show that a period of transmission reduction close to the end of the vaccination campaign can substantially reduce the probability of resistant strain establishment. Our results suggest that policymakers and individuals should consider maintaining non-pharmaceutical interventions7,11,12 throughout the entire vaccination period.