bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“Do you have a pen?” “Yes.”
Authors: Wang Yixin
Published: January 2025

This study investigates how the cross-cultural variation between Spanish and Chinese interactional styles
influences the interlanguage pre-request sequences in Spanish produced by Chinese-speaking learners. Ninety-four university
students, including 40 Chinese learners of Spanish at intermediate and advanced levels, 24 native Spanish speakers and 30 native
Chinese speakers, performed 10-item open role-plays that elicited requests. Results revealed that learners exhibited negative
transfer concerning cross-cultural differences, but did not always make positive transfer in aspects of cross-cultural
similarities. Notably, learners and native Chinese speakers differed from native Spanish speakers in their production of the
pre-requests asking about the recipients’ availability and their responses to the pre-requests inquiring about the existence of
certain belongings. Furthermore, in comparison with native speakers, learners more frequently used the pre-requests asking for a
favor. The findings of this research highlight cultural diversity in speakers’ pre-request sequences and pragmatic transfer at the
interactional level. Additionally, the study brings attention to the issue of verbosity in intermediate and advanced learners’
sequential organization.
Bottom-up constructing of two-dimensional ferromagnets with high Curie temperature by assembling 5d transition metal atom@MnSr8 magnetic superatoms
Authors: Xue Feng , Guo Ping , Zheng Jiming , Zhao Puju , Li Ying , Shen Lei
Published: January 2025

The development of advanced spintronic devices requires ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic (FM) materials with high Curie temperature (T
C) and large out-of plane magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE). However, the number of high-T
C 2D ferromagnets synthesized through top-down experimental methods is very limited. Here, we propose a bottom-up approach for constructing 2D ferromagnets with high T
C by assembling magnetic superatoms. The MnSr9 superatom was first selected as building blocks to construct a series of 2D materials with square, triangular and hexagonal honeycomb lattices. First-principles studies show that all the MnSr9 self-assembled films are thermodynamically stable and exhibit ferromagnetism, unfortunately, they lack the necessary magnetic anisotropy. By substituting one Sr atom with a heavy 5d transition metal (5d-TM) atom, all these 5d-TM@MnSr8 clusters show enhanced stability and symmetry, and their self-assembled hexagonal honeycomb crystals exhibit significant magnetic anisotropy and enhanced ferromagnetism from 5d-TM atoms. Taking the PtMnSr8 superatom as an example, we have demonstrated these characteristics in detail, and the T
C and out-of-plane MAE of its honeycomb structure reach up to 253 K and 3.47 meV per unit cell under biaxial tensile strain. Moreover, the PtMnSr8 honeycomb structure on hexagonal boron nitride monolayer substrate exhibit further enhanced ferromagnetism (T
C
≈ 327 K) and distinctive antioxidant properties. This study highlights that assembling magnetic superatoms on suitable substrates is an effective way for constructing high-performance 2D FM materials.
On the correction factors for small field dosimetry in 1.5T MR-linacs
Authors: Margaroni Vasiliki , Karaiskos Pantelis , Iosif Andreas , Episkopakis Anastasios , Koutsouveli Efi , Pappas Eleftherios P
Published: January 2025

Objective. Clinical dosimetry in the presence of a 1.5 T magnetic field is challenging, let alone in case small fields are involved. The scope of this study is to determine a set of relevant correction factors for a variety of MR-compatible detectors with emphasis on small fields. Two dosimetry formalisms adopted from the literature are considered. Approach. Six small-cavity ionization chambers (from three manufacturers), four active solid-state detectors and a thermoluminescence dosimeter microcube were modeled in the EGSnrc Monte Carlo code. Phase space files for field sizes down to 1 × 1 cm2 of the Unity 1.5 T/7 MV MR-linac (Elekta, UK) were used as source models. Simulations were performed to calculate the

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relevant to two different dosimetry formalisms. Two detector orientations with respect to the magnetic field were considered. Moreover, the effect of the ionization chamber’s stem length (a construction parameter) on the correction factor was investigated. Simulations were also carried out to determine whether correction factors obtained in water can be applied in dosimetry procedures involving water-equivalent solid phantoms. Main results. Under the

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values for ionization chambers. The impact of the stem on correction factors is not significant for lengths ⩾0.75 cm. Correction factors determined in water are also valid in dosimetry protocols employing solid phantoms. Significance. This work substantially expands the range of available detectors that can be used in small field dosimetry, enabling more options for commissioning, beam modeling and quality assurance procedures in 1.5 T MR-Linacs. However, more studies are needed to establish a complete and reliable dataset.
A general simulation with trajectories in Heisenberg picture for quantum non-Markovian dynamics
Authors: chen xinyu , Li Wen Lin , Li Chong
Published: January 2025

We present a general numerical simulation method to solve non-Markovian dynamics of an open quantum system influenced by quantum Brownian motion. Based on the determined memory kernel function, this method enabling the resolution of non-Markovian dynamics for a wide range of system Hamiltonians and spectral densities. The system dynamics are described by exact integro-differential operator equations without any common approximations and they are simulated in this work by definite-number equations with stochastic initial conditions. This approach ensures the applicability of mature numerical methods and maintains computational complexity that remains largely invariant, even when dealing with more complex models. The high accuracy of our simulation is evident from a comparison with the results obtained from corresponding exact master equations, underscoring the reliability and precision of our method.
Application of the Woods-Saxon potential in studying quadrupole and octupole excited states using machine learning
Authors: Sobhani Hadi , Luo Yan-An 罗延安
Published: January 2025

In this study, the energy bands of quadrupole and octupole excited states are investigated. This is achieved by employing the Bohr Hamiltonian, incorporating quadrupole and octupole deformations whose variables are accurately separated. Subsequently, the Woods-Saxon potential is added to the problem. Given that this problem cannot yield suitable solutions using conventional approximations, we solve it numerically using machine learning. A detailed description is given of how wave functions and their associated energies are obtained. It is demonstrated throughout this procedure how machine learning helps us and makes it easier to accomplish our objective.We have examined and analyzed the energy spectrum and possible multipole transitions for candidate isotopes $^{226}$Ra and $^{226}$Th.
Short-circuit failure modes and mechanism investigation of 1200 V planar SiC MOSFETs
Authors: Huang Yi , Chen Qiurui , Ma Rongyao , Tang Kaifeng , Wang Qi , Zhang Hongsheng , Ding Ji , Xu Dandan , Gao Sheng , Han Genquan
Published: January 2025

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the short-circuit failure mechanisms in commercial 1.2 kV planar silicon carbide (SiC) metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) under 400 and 800 V bus voltage conditions. The study compares two products with varying short-circuit tolerances, scrutinizing their external characteristics and intrinsic factors that influence their short-circuit endurance. Experimental and numerical analyses reveal that at 400 V, the differential thermal expansion between the source metal and the dielectric leads to cracking, which in turn facilitates the infiltration of liquid metal and results in a gate–source short circuit. At 800 V, the failure mechanism is markedly different, attributed to the thermal carrier effect leading to the degradation of the gate oxide, which impedes the device's capacity to switch off, thereby triggering thermal runaway. The paper proposes strategies to augment the short-circuit robustness of SiC MOSFETs at both voltage levels, with the objective of fortifying the device's resistance to such failures.
Advancing Al-doped ZnO thin films structural, optical and electrical properties of low temperature PET substrates via flash lamp annealing
Authors: Lee Juwon , Jo Chang-Hyeon , Lee Gwangseop , Bae Min-Sung , Prucnal Slawomir , Zhou Shengqiang , Khan Muhammad Zubair , Gohar Osama , Saleem Mohsin , Koh Jung-Hyuk
Published: January 2025

In this study, aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were deposited onto a low-temperature polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate using DC magnetron sputtering. Deposition parameters included power range of 100−300 W, a working pressure of 15 mTorr, and a substrate temperature of 50 °C. Post-deposition, flash lamp annealing (FLA) was employed as a rapid thermal processing method with a pulse duration of 1.7 ms and energy density of 7 J·cm−2, aimed at enhancing the film's quality while preserving the temperature-sensitive PET substrate. FLA offers advantages over conventional annealing, including shorter processing times and improved material properties. The structural, optical, and electrical characteristics of the AZO films were assessed using X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, ultraviolet−visible spectroscopy, and Hall effect measurements. The results demonstrated that properties of AZO films varied with deposition and annealing conditions. Films deposited at 200 W and subjected to FLA exhibited superior crystallinity, with average visible light transmittance exceeding 80% and resistivity as low as 0.38 Ω·cm representing 95% improvement in transmittance. Electrical analysis revealed that carrier concentration, mobility, and resistivity were influenced by both sputtering and annealing parameters. These findings underscore the effectiveness of FLA in optimizing AZO thin film properties, highlighting potential in optoelectronics applications.
Tailoring band gap of ZnO nanoparticles via Cu doping for improved photocatalytic activity
Authors: Tamanna  , Kumar Pawan , Simran  , Kumar Sanjeev , Kaur Harpreet , Kumar Ashish , Kumar Abhishek
Published: January 2025

This paper reports the improvement in photocatalytic performance of ZnO by substitution of Cu with variable Cu concentration. ZnO and Cu 0.5%, 1.0% and 2.0% doped ZnO nanoparticles have been synthesized by sol gel combustion method. Before measuring photocatalytic property, we have confirmed the HCP structure, granular nanoparticles morphology of all samples with XRD and SEM analysis. Functional group have been ascertain by FTIR peak assignment. Small variation in structural parameter and ZnO stretching mode indicate substitution of Cu at ZnO site of ZnO nanostructure. The band gap engineering with variable Cu concentration successfully reduces the apparent band gap, which help to improve the photocatalytic performance of ZnO. The Rhodamine B dye degradation efficiency depend on Cu doping concertation and shows best result for Cu 2% doped ZnO nanoparticles.
Single-layer MoSeN – a synthetic Janus two-dimensional transition-metal compound grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy
Authors: Yue Xingyu , Xia Yipu , Ding Degong , IO Weng Fu , He Daliang , He Chao , Wang Yueyang , Xue Hongxia , Jin Yuanjun , Yuan Mengfei , Zhang Junqiu , Ho Wingkin , Xu Hu , Ki Dong-Keun , Hao Jianhua , Jin Chuanhong , Xie Maohai
Published: January 2025

Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials hold immense application potentials such as in high-performance nano-electronics, and asymmetric 2D structures with inherent electric dipoles will extend the application promises. Yet synthesizing asymmetric 2D structures remains challenging. Herein, we report the first synthesis of single-layer (SL) hexagonal (H-) phase polar Janus MoSeN via nitrogen-plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. This is a significant achievement given the incommensurate valence between Mo, Se, and N, and the inherent strain from the Janus architecture. Using an array of compositional and structural characterization methods, we establish the atomic configurations of the synthesized MoSeN SL, confirming that they are 2D Janus transition-metal chalcogen-nitrides rather than alloys. By employing density functional theory calculations and transport measurements, we explore the structural feasibility and offer insights into its electronic properties, demonstrating its metallic behavior with ohmic contact characteristics. Piezoresponse force microscopy measurements reveal vertical piezoelectricity and ferroelectric potentials from the Janus MoSeN SL. Therefore, it exhibits great potential for applications in, e.g. piezoelectric and ferroelectric devices, sensing technologies, and optoelectronic devices. This work not only addresses existing challenges in 2D nanomaterial research but also opens new avenues for the development of advanced functional materials.
Two distinct descriptions of nuclei unified for the first time
Authors: Feldman Andrey
Published: January 2025

An international team of physicists has unified two distinct descriptions of atomic nuclei, taking a major step forward in our understanding of nuclear structure and strong interactions.
Spiders use physics, not chemistry, to cut silk in their webs
Authors: Dumé Isabelle
Published: January 2025

Researchers at the University of Trento in Italy have resolved a longstanding debate about how spiders cut silk finding that the animals do so mechanically, using their fangs.
Space solar can work
Authors: Soltau Martin
Published: January 2025

Martin Soltau believes that a recent NASA report questioning the economics of space-based solar power was wide of the mark.
A PhD in cups of espresso
Authors: Aita Vittorio
Published: January 2025

When he started writing up his PhD thesis, Vittorio Aita was warned that it would be hard. However, he explains that taking pride in the small things and finding a lighthearted way to track his progress – in cups of espresso – kept him going even when the work was tough.
Health risk assessment of lead and cadmium contamination in raw cow’s milk from eastern Algeria
Authors: Boussadia Meriem Imen , Boudebbouz Ali , Boudalia Sofiane , Kerdoun Mohamed Amine , Zebsa Rabah , Bensakhri Zinette , Sadek Atoussi
Published: January 2025

To assess potential health risks from heavy metal exposure through raw cow’s milk, we investigated lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) levels in milk samples from eastern Algeria using atomic absorption spectrometry and estimated dietary risks for adults and children. In 2021, 99 milk samples were collected from various regions. Average Pb and Cd levels were 0.332 ± 0.097 and 0.016 ± 0.011 mg kg−1, respectively, with Pb exceeding the MRL in 99% and Cd in 87% of samples. Estimated daily intake (EDI) values for both metals were below established limits, indicating acceptable average exposure levels. However, the Target Hazard Quotient (THQ) and Hazard Index (HI) assessments revealed significant concerns. For adults, THQ and HI remained below 1, and carcinogenic risk (CR) values for Pb were below 10−4. In children, Cd posed minimal risk (THQ < 1), but Pb was problematic. While average THQ for Pb was below 1, 39% of samples exceeded this limit. HI for both metals surpassed 1 in 51% of samples, and CR for Pb exceeded 10−4 in 17 samples. These findings highlight the need for further analysis of milk from various Algerian regions to ensure consumer safety.
Deep learning approach for optimizing material removal rate in wire electrical discharge machining using neural networks
Authors: Kumar Santosh , Jayswal Suresh Chand
Published: January 2025

This research focuses on optimizing the Material Removal Rate (MRR) in Wire Electrical Discharge Machining (Wire EDM) using deep learning techniques. The study identifies existing challenges in predicting MRR due to complex, non-linear relationships between process parameters. By adopting a systematic design of experiments, a dataset was generated to evaluate the impact of pulse on time, pulse off time, current, voltage, and wire feed rate on MRR. A neural network model was developed and trained with different activation functions, with the Sigmoid function yielding the best performance metrics, including an R-square of 0.9999 and a Mean Squared Error (MSE) of 0.0004. This work demonstrates the potential of artificial intelligence to enhance machining processes, providing valuable insights for industrial applications and paving the way for future research in advanced manufacturing technologies.
Lie groupoids for sub-elliptic operators
Authors: Beschastnyi Ivan
Published: January 2025

Lie groupoids have shown their utility in many areas of mathematics. The goal of this article is to review some recent applications of Lie groupoids in the study of geometric differential operators naturally associated to sub-Riemannian structures.
Lagrangian stability for a system of non-local continuity equations under Osgood condition
Authors: Inversi Marco , Stefani Giorgio
Published: January 2025

We extend known existence and uniqueness results of weak measure solutions for systems of non-local continuity equations beyond the usual Lipschitz regularity. Existence of weak measure solutions holds for uniformly continuous vector fields and convolution kernels, while uniqueness follows from a Lagrangian stability estimate under an additional Osgood condition.
James’s Methodology
Authors: Klein Alexander Mugar
Published: January 2025

This chapter discusses William James’ accounts of the three central methods to be employed in physiological psychology. These include the introspective, the experimental, and the comparative methods. The chapter provides a reading of James’s model of introspection, with special attention to his views on the nature of representation (intentionality) and of objectivity. On his model, introspection can only target prior (just-passed) mental states; and representation is a matter of having a capacity to intervene with an object. This chapter aims to correct a common misreading according to which James denigrated all but the introspective methods. In fact, James held that the introspective, the experimental, and the comparative methods all have a fruitful role to play in psychological investigation when conducted properly; and all three aim at objectivity in the sense that the researcher can and should try to minimize a genuine gap between appearance and reality.
Descartes
Authors: Klein Alexander Mugar
Published: January 2025

William James first articulated his account of consciousness in the context of an 1870s debate over automatism. The clash over automatism carried forward an older dispute over the limits of mechanistic (roughly: purely physical) explanation of physiological function. The dispute traces back at least to Descartes, whose conception of mechanical action that is appropriately tuned to circumstances would structure the later debate. This chapter examines Descartes’s views on the automatism of brutes, his evocation of fabricated automata, his conception of appropriate action, and his third-person criteria for distinguishing conscious from non-conscious (purely mechanical) action.
Will
Authors: Klein Alexander Mugar
Published: January 2025

If I raise my hand, I experience my arm rising; do I also experience myself raising my arm? This chapter examines William James’s empirically informed attack on the idea that we experience our own tryings. A debate about this was raging in the late nineteenth century. James recruited observations of patients with paralysis, paresis, and kinaesthetic deficits (including the famous Landry case) to argue that we have no experience of outflowing (efferent) nerves that trigger muscular contraction. The feeling of muscular effort always stems from inflowing (afferent) nerves coming from just-contracted muscles, for James. This chapter uses James’s afference theory to flesh out his sophisticated model of action induction and motor control. A cornerstone of his model is what he called a “general law,” that every conscious state naturally triggers some physiological change or other. No special trying state is needed to translate any thought into bodily change, for James. His model of motor control is especially interesting because it proposes a predictive, error-correction feedback loop in which “guiding sensations” are continually compared with antecedent predictions. Finally, the chapter reflects on James’s substantial role in the forgotten history of empirically informed philosophy of mind.
Disappearing Ink
Authors: O'Neill Eileen
Published: January 2025

Eileen O’Neill’s influence is almost single-handedly responsible for the entry of early modern women philosophers into the canon. Before the publication of her groundbreaking essay “Disappearing Ink: Early Modern Women Philosophers and the History of Philosophy,” women philosophers of the early modern period were mentioned only in passing, if at all, in the various histories and anthologies of that period. The current volume presents O’Neill’s essays on the historiography of philosophy, her studies of individual philosophers, and her major historical writings. Part I focuses on women and the historiography of philosophy, discussing historical methodology in general and providing detailed justifications for the incorporation of women into the canon. This section provides a case study of her method at work: a reading of an individual figure, Marie de Gournay, whose stylistic idiosyncrasies concealed the dialectical structure of her writings and misled historians, who, insensitive to the philosophical content of her work, assigned it to a literary genre—the querelle des femmes. Part II takes on specific themes in early modern thought: gender and causation, the latter encompassing perception and mind–body interaction. These essays are wide-ranging, covering intrasubstantial causation in Descartes, the history and explication of the notion of physical influx, Margaret Cavendish’s organicist vitalism, Mary Astell’s Cartesian account of sensation, and gender and cognition in Cartesian thought. Part III provides a study of female sexual agency as represented in visual art of the late 1980s.
Influxus Physicus
Authors: O'Neill Eileen
Published: January 2025

This chapter provides a critical history of the concept of physical influx, with the goal of clarifying precisely what both Leibniz and the occasionalists were responding to in their theories of natural change. Four determinate influx models are considered: Scholastic, Neoplatonic, atomistic-corpuscular, and Roger Bacon’s multiplication-of-species model. On all of these approaches, change results from something “flowing” from the agent to the recipient of change, but everyone except the corpuscularians tries to show that what flows from the agent was never part of the agent and so is not “transmitted.” Leibniz himself took the Scholastics to be advocating an influx model in this family, but was unconvinced that they had a genuine alternative to the transmission model. If, as an influx model tells us, change involves a body’s producing a likeness of itself in another, how, other than by transmission, are we to conceive the means by which this production is effected?
Acting on Knowledge
Authors: Williamson Timothy
Published: January 2025

The chapter revises the account in Knowledge and its Limits of the symmetry between knowledge and action. On the new version, belief stands to knowledge as intention stands to action, but as inputs to practical reasoning in the former case and as outputs from it in the latter. The analogy is explored in detail with reference to the failure of parallel attempts to analyse knowledge in terms of belief and action in terms of intention. Rather, just as merely intending is a failure to act, so merely believing is a failure to know. Marginalizing knowledge in epistemology is as perverse as it would be to marginalize action in the philosophy of action.
On Being Justified in One’s Head
Authors: Williamson Timothy
Published: January 2025

The chapter is a critique of Robert Audi’s internalist account of the justification of belief and action. In particular, it argues that Audi’s attempt to reconcile internalism about the justification of belief with externalism about the content of belief does not work. Audi’s attempt to reconcile internalism about justified belief with externalism about knowledge also fails, because knowledge justifies belief. Furthermore, since the internalist standard of justification is grounded in private introspectability, it is unsuitable for justification in both science and politics, where public checkability matters. A general argument is given to show that Audi’s internalist constraints on justification cannot be satisfied.
Non-Modal Normativity and Norms of Belief
Authors: Williamson Timothy
Published: January 2025

The chapter argues that articulating norms in terms of deontic modals introduces potentially conflicting noise, because the semantics of deontic modals is sensitive to a parameter for the set of contextually relevant possibilities, whereas the underlying condition for complying with the norm is not context-sensitive in that way. Thus, the norm is more perspicuously represented by its compliance condition than by the corresponding conditions for permissibility or obligation. To illustrate the confusion caused by deontic modal formulations in the literature, it is shown how a simple truth norm for belief with a straightforward compliance condition generated a complex debate about the condition for it to be permissible or obligatory to believe a given proposition, with exception-barring clauses to handle Moore paradoxes and the like.
Standing Up For Neutrality
Authors: White Stephen J
Published: January 2025

It has become standard to distinguish between reasons for action that are agent-neutral, on the one hand, and those that are agent-relative, on the other. Agent-neutral reasons are, roughly, reasons that have normative bearing on what anyone should do, regardless of the identity of the agent. For example, the fact that you will die if you don’t get to the hospital soon may provide anyone with a reason to help get you to the hospital. If so, this reason is agent-neutral. On the other hand, the fact that getting to work early may help win you a promotion is perhaps a reason for you to make sure you do. But others may have no reason to make sure you get to work early. Your career would thus supply reasons that are relative to you. White thinks that this view about how best to represent the intuitive phenomena is questionable and raises some doubts about the apparent need to posit agent-relative reasons. He does so by challenging two assumptions that he takes to support the view. The first assumption is that reasons are, at bottom, reasons to promote the occurrence of events or bring about states of affairs. The second is a view about how one is to take into account, in one’s deliberation, the various considerations that may constitute reasons for action. If we abandon these assumptions, then there is little intuitive support for the idea that reasons and values are agent-relative. Moreover, White argues that there are good theoretical reasons for thinking that reasons and values must be agent-neutral.
The Problem of Self-Torture
Authors: White Stephen J
Published: January 2025

We commonly face circumstances in which the cumulative negative effects of repeatedly acting in a certain way over time will be significant, although the negative effects of any one such act, taken on its own, are insubstantial. Warren Quinn’s puzzle of the self-torturer presents an especially clear example of this type of predicament. This paper considers three different approaches to understanding the rational response to such situations. The first focuses on the conditions under which it is rational to revise one’s prior intentions. The second raises the possibility of a fundamental disconnect between the rational assessment of an extended pattern of choices and the assessment of the individual choices that make up that pattern. White shows that neither adequately addresses the underlying issues. He proposes a third approach, according to which the rational assessment of the “self-torturer’s” choices is guided, not by any plan or intention that he has actually adopted, but by the plan or plans it would have been reasonable for him to adopt from the outset. The larger significance of this conclusion is brought out through the identification of conditions under which one’s past choices can non-derivatively constrain the rational response to one’s present circumstances.
Collective Obligations and the Ethics of Participation
Authors: White Stephen J
Published: January 2025

There are many morally significant problems whose solution requires the combined or collective action of many different people. The main question White pursues in this paper is this: Supposing there are irreducibly collective obligations, what is the normative significance for an individual person of the fact that he or she is a member of group of people who are together obligated to behave in a certain way? White defends a principle he calls Defeasible Transmission, according to which the fact that you and others are collectively obligated to do A gives you a reason to do your part in A regardless of whether others do their parts, although a reason that may be overridden by countervailing considerations. He then defends a strikingly restricted conception of what countervailing considerations can act as defeaters in this context.
Action and Production
Authors: White Stephen J
Published: January 2025

This paper argues against production-oriented conceptions of practical reason—a conception that understands all reasons for action ultimately in terms of the desirable features of outcomes associated with those actions. In contrast to the production theory, White defends a view according to which some consideration provides an agent with a reason to act in a certain way if the agent would in some respect be acting well in performing the action on the basis of that consideration. Hence, motives for performing an action cannot be conceptualized as the outcomes of action.
Belgium
Authors: Proctor Tammy M
Published: January 2025

Between 1914 and the U.S. entry into World War I in April 1917, the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) transported more than 2.5 million tons of foodstuffs through submarine-infested waters to Rotterdam, in the neutral Netherlands. The supplies continued through tight border controls into northern Belgium, where local watermen moved the goods by canal boats into thousands of communities in German-occupied Belgium. While the CRB functioned as logistical agents and supervisors, the volunteer American “delegates” only numbered about four dozen at any given time. Belgians handled the massive food operation, and Americans remained the “face” of the relief, which helped establish a particular U.S. identity in Europe long before American soldiers set foot there. CRB delegates and the American Mission in Brussels understood their role in profoundly gendered ways—these men saw themselves as saviors of a feminized and occupied Belgium from an aggressively male Germany.
Learning and Inequality in the Modern World
Authors: Xiang Xin
Published: January 2025

Chapter 1, Learning and Inequality in the Modern World, opens with compelling family stories that led the author to study educational inequality and carry out ethnographic fieldwork in four different schools across China’s socioeconomic spectrum. Bringing these stories into dialogue with existing theories and literatures, she highlights the need to rethink dominant conceptions of educational inequality. She then introduces the key conceptual framework of this book—paradigms of learning—and provides brief vignettes from her fieldwork to illustrate the four distinct paradigms of learning, which are elaborated in Chapters 3–6. Situating these observations in China’s particular economic, political, and social contexts as well as in the global history of capitalistic expansion, the author argues that Unequal Learning is as much a study of reform-era China as a study of the history of our interconnected world.
Learning in Family and Communal Endeavors
Authors: Xiang Xin
Published: January 2025

Chapter 3 (Learning in Family and Communal Endeavors) takes readers inside rural households and farms to understand how rural children learn complex skills and knowledges—such as those about tending to piglets and preparing preserved pork—through observing and participating in the livelihood of the household. Nonetheless, industrialization and urbanization has undermined the economic and social foundations of Learning in Family and Communal Endeavors, as production moves into factories, stores, and offices, and the urban-centered school system takes rural children away from the farm and their home communities. Keenly aware that subsistence farming is no longer a viable livelihood, many parents become active—sometimes torn—agents in disembedding their children from rural communities and pushing them toward a precarious future in urban marketplaces.
The Rise of Town Militias
Authors: Kudelia Serhiy
Published: January 2025

This chapter examines the formation of self-defense groups in various towns of Donbas in winter and spring 2014 as a response to the rising violence during protests in Kyiv and other Ukrainian towns. It explains the role of local elites in organizing these groups and shows how they later formed the core of separatist militias in their respective towns. It also shows that many of these town militias received backing from or came under the full command of Russian mercenaries arriving in the region. The chapter argues that the presence of town militias was a crucial factor that enabled the quick transfer of towns where they operated under militant control.
Governing under the Barrel of the Gun
Authors: Kudelia Serhiy
Published: January 2025

The chapter outlines four governance models that emerged under separatist control in the towns of Donbas: (1) rebel governance, (2) shared governance, (3) parallel governance, and (4) governance by default. It shows how each of these models dictated a different degree of involvement by militants in town governance and different roles played by local administrators in exercising control over their urban centers. The chapter argues that variations of these models across the region and even within a single agglomeration suggest that the Russian intervention conditioned local elite strategies, but did not determine them. The varied choices of local elites, in turn, impinged on the ability of the militants to acquire administrative control over urban centers.
The Digamma in Early Greek Hexameter Poetry
Authors: McConnell Tom
Published: January 2025

This chapter concerns the digamma, and how often it is ‘observed’ or ‘neglected’ in the corpus. There are several problems involved in the counting of the digamma, and a significant space is given to addressing these. Similarly to the previous chapter, it is argued that formulae are very important and need to be taken in to account. Once a new count has been undertaken, a parallel is introduced—that of resonant lengthening. It is argued that resonant lengthening (itself quite hard to quantify) is similar to digamma in what it can tell us, and that chronology is unlikely to be a factor in the distribution of either. Instead, it is argued that poets were more likely to observe digamma or use resonant lengthening in more traditional kinds of poetry.
Tmesis in Early Greek Hexameter Poetry
Authors: McConnell Tom
Published: January 2025

This chapter concerns tmesis. In this way, it is a departure from the previous chapters, in analysing a linguistic feature not typically associated with question of the chronology of the corpus. Moreover, as a feature of syntax, tmesis is unlike the rest of the text so far. Nevertheless, it is argued that there is a ‘younger’ (preverbial) and an ‘older’ (initial) form which may be counted and quantified. It is argued that formulae are once again important for tmesis. The most significant finding is that Homeric speech and narrative are found to use the different kinds of tmesis very differently, which sets up discussion in Part 2 of the book.
Gandhi, the Indian National Congress, and the Jewish Question
Authors: Lal Vinay
Published: January 2025

The Holocaust is seldom taught in Indian schools and, correspondingly, there has been little exploration of how Gandhi and the other leaders of the Indian National Congress approached the ‘Jewish Question’. Gandhi was associated from his early days in South Africa with Jews and understood their plight. Nevertheless, for various reasons he found himself unable to support the Jewish claim to Palestine as a homeland, not least because that claim was backed up by British arms. Far removed as he was from what was unfolding in Palestine and the events in Europe, from Kristallnacht through to the Holocaust and until the end of the war, Gandhi nevertheless had some profound thoughts on the Jewish Question encapsulated masterfully in his essay of 2 November 1938 called ‘the Jews’. This chapter explores his views, as well as those of Jawaharlal Nehru, who had cultivated an international outlook and was well informed about developments in Europe, and Subhas Bose, who, while an Indian patriot, was opportunistic in his embrace of allies in his quest for anti-colonial solidarity. Though the Congress appears not to have had an official position on the ‘Jewish Question’, this chapter suggests that the questions at stake were never far from its members’ minds.
Prime Ministers in Central and Eastern Europe
Authors: Grotz Florian , Berz Jan , Kroeber Corinna , Kukec Marko
Published: January 2025

Prime ministers are the most powerful and visible politicians in established parliamentary democracies. But is this also true for post-communist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)? Conventional wisdom suggests that prime ministers in CEE perform weakly because they lack political experience and operate in an extraordinarily difficult context, but this assumption has not been systematically examined. To close this research gap, this book presents a new approach to measuring prime-ministerial performance and offers a novel dataset of 131 cabinets in eleven CEE countries between 1990 and 2018. Comparative analyses of this data reveal that post-communist prime ministers range from politically inexperienced outsiders to insiders with long-standing careers in parliament, government, and party leadership. Their institutional, political, and economic contexts are more favourable in some countries and periods than in others. Some incumbents have performed rather poorly, while others have been very successful. Moreover, analyses of quantitative data and qualitative cases demonstrate that the variations in the careers, contexts, and performance of prime ministers are systematically connected. Their success particularly depends on their experience as party leaders, on the strength of their political allies in the executive and legislative arenas, and on favourable economic conditions. In this way, the book not only qualifies conventional assumptions about prime ministers in CEE but also substantiates the theoretical relationship between their careers, contexts, and performance. Prime Ministers in Central and Eastern Europe thus contributes to an enhanced understanding of the functioning of post-communist democracies and provides new insights for scholarly work engaging with political leadership.
Individual Characteristics
Authors: Grotz Florian , Berz Jan , Kroeber Corinna , Kukec Marko
Published: January 2025

Prime ministers (PMs) in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are regarded as lacking the experience to perform successfully in office. The chapter examines this conventional assumption by exploring the individual characteristics of Central and Eastern European PMs from a comparative perspective. The results show that the PMs studied here have similar social backgrounds, making them a relatively homogeneous ‘ruling class’. Most of them have prior political experience, albeit to varying degrees, gained from previous positions as members of the national parliament, as cabinet ministers, or as party leaders after democratization. A few PMs also held political positions during the communist era or belonged to the leadership of anti-communist movements before 1990. PMs in CEE are therefore not politically inexperienced per se but have had different career paths that may influence their performance in office.
Measuring Prime-Ministerial Performance
Authors: Grotz Florian , Berz Jan , Kroeber Corinna , Kukec Marko
Published: January 2025

This chapter introduces the empirical indicator for prime-ministerial performance. It develops a series of items for an expert survey that measures the extent to which prime ministers succeed in office. These items build on the six sub-dimensions of the concept introduced in Chapter 4. The present chapter also introduces the strategy for achieving high data quality in the cases of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) considered in this study and reports the post-hoc assessment of the quality of the prime-ministerial performance data based on a series of validity and reliability tests. Moreover, it provides evidence of discriminant validity by showing the extent to which the study’s measure for prime-ministerial performance in CEE deviates from the duration of prime ministers in office—a frequently used proxy for this phenomenon. The chapter concludes by presenting the implications of these tests for the statistical analyses in the subsequent chapters.
Contextual Factors and Prime-Ministerial Performance
Authors: Grotz Florian , Berz Jan , Kroeber Corinna , Kukec Marko
Published: January 2025

This chapter investigates how the institutional, political, and economic context affect prime-ministerial performance in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe. It reveals that particular factors in all three contextual dimensions create both favourable and unfavourable conditions for prime ministers (PMs) in performing their tasks. On the political context dimension, PMs are aided in their performance by having strong parliamentary representation of their own party and a ‘safety margin’ provided by an oversized cabinet. On the economic dimension, higher government debt and declines in gross domestic product negatively affect prime-ministerial performance, while, on the institutional dimension, extensive presidential powers, together with control of the presidency by a fellow partisan, have a beneficial effect on PMs’ success in office. Finally, an interactionist analysis reveals that PMs with previous political experience perform better when they command strong legislative powers.
Conclusion
Authors: Grotz Florian , Berz Jan , Kroeber Corinna , Kukec Marko
Published: January 2025

The concluding chapter brings together the comparative findings of the book to make a comprehensive statement about the relationship between the political careers of prime ministers in Central and Eastern Europe, the context in which they operate, and their performance in the top executive position. It discusses these findings in light of the main research questions and highlights their implications for the understanding of the working of parliamentary democracy in post-communist countries and in other contexts. Based on these considerations, it also suggests several avenues for future research. Most importantly, further studies could also investigate the political consequences of prime-ministerial performance, that is how it affects the performance of parliamentary democracy in the short term and medium term, as suggested by the principal-agent model of delegation and accountability.
Churchyard Collapse
Authors: Metcalf James
Published: January 2025

Charlotte Smith’s paired poems ‘Sonnet XLIV. Written in the Church-Yard at Middleton in Sussex’ and ‘Elegy’ (both 1789) are less uneasy than they are unstable, collapsing the churchyard into the sea, exhuming the dead, and revealing their status as mere bones. The calamity of this event, related across both poems, organises another generic reworking as Smith overhauls elegy’s internal mechanics, as discussed in this chapter. In the masculinist tradition defined by poets such as John Milton and Thomas Gray elegy typically finds consolation in the collaborative mourning of nature and the comforting inheritance of earlier writers. Violently displacing Gray’s ‘rude forefathers’, Smith’s gutting of the genre tracks wildly free of these expectations. That it does so in the churchyard—elegy’s paradigmatic landscape following the publication of Gray’s Elegy—tips the genre’s compensatory structures of mourning into a condition of marginality, turbulence, and erasure. Like Leapor and Yearsley, Smith recodes generic convention by illuminating then displacing its norms, and her elegies burst through the foundation of masculine consolation on the silence of women as they sweep away the churchyard in their tides of excess feeling.
‘All ploughd & buried now’
Authors: Metcalf James
Published: January 2025

Chapter 4 takes up another eighteenth-century genre, the long poem, to show how John Clare’s ‘The Village Minstrel’ (1821) combines georgic, pastoral, topographical poetry, and elegy as generic signatures brought into creative tension over the span of a poem charting the life of a rural poet named Lubin. As these genres generate a cross-hatched correspondence, looping back into new formations, the long poem accommodates other interlocking rhythms like the working day, the seasons, and the lives of rural labourers that find their close in the churchyard. For Clare, however, writing in the industrial intensification of the changes wrought by capital, the churchyard punctures his poetry’s patterns of time and becomes a disruptive centre of difficult feeling as these patterns are warped by agricultural ‘improvement’. The churchyard in Clare’s poem indexes social changes contorting the arc of this already arduous life of labour, as those buried there are hailed as strangers to their native landscape, rearranged by enclosure. Here, and in a series of shorter lyrics written across his career, Clare turns back to the churchyard and disinters evidence of the harms allotted to those compelled to work in the grip of a new era of the brutal reorganization of rural life and landscape.