bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Infectious Disease Forecasting for Public Health
Authors: Lauer Stephen A. , Brown Alexandria C. , Reich Nicholas G.
Published: February 2021

Forecasting transmission of infectious diseases, especially for vector-borne diseases, poses unique challenges for researchers. Behaviors of and interactions between viruses, vectors, hosts, and the environment each play a part in determining the transmission of a disease. Public health surveillance systems and other sources provide valuable data that can be used to accurately forecast disease incidence. However, many aspects of common infectious disease surveillance data are imperfect: cases may be reported with a delay or in some cases not at all, data on vectors may not be available, and case data may not be available at high geographical or temporal resolution. In the face of these challenges, researchers must make assumptions to either account for these underlying processes in a mechanistic model or to justify their exclusion altogether in a statistical model.
Gut Microbiome Assembly and Function in Mosquitoes
Authors: Coon Kerri L. , Strand Michael R.
Published: February 2021

Most animals including mosquitoes and other vector arthropods harbor communities of microorganisms in their digestive tract that comprise a gut microbiota. Recent studies indicate the gut microbiota strongly affects several aspects of mosquito biology. In this chapter, we first summarize current knowledge of mosquito gut microbiota composition and acquisition. We then review impacts of the gut microbiota on nutrition, development, and vector competence followed by future perspectives for using the gut microbiota in vector control and altering disease transmission.
Clemens Pirquet
Authors: Burri Michael
Published: February 2021

This chapter traces the professional ascent of Clemens Pirquet, a central figure in the international postwar humanitarian relief effort in Austria and a contributing expert at the League of Nations Health Organization in the 1920s. Pirquet administered American Relief Administration resources in Austria between 1919 and 1922, using his own Pirquet System of Nutrition. Pirquet had worked at Johns Hopkins, and his postwar ascent suggests the postwar significance of prewar international networks. His career as a scientist also underscores the importance of depersonalized data and statistics for an emerging (American) postwar model of public health, as experts in science and public policy sought to universalize the ideal of humanitarian relief around the figure of the child. The Rockefeller Foundation financed much of this new public health model, and Foundation advisers knew Pirquet well. Meanwhile, local politics mattered, as Pirquet was engaged in a bitter rivalry with Socialist leadership of 1920s Vienna.
Polycentric International Participation after the First World War
Authors: Castryck-Naumann Katja
Published: February 2021

This chapter argues that the League of Nations’ authority in interwar politics rested to a large extent on transnational and (post-) imperial practices from Eastern and Central Europe which were established in the context of wider geopolitical constellations. Agents from the former Habsburg and Russian empires, working as experts and officers in the Secretariat and the many commissions, are instructive in this regard. They used their mobilities, networks, and practices of internationalism from the prewar imperial era to shape the League’s outreach and brought issues of the post-imperial transformations in their region to the League’s agenda. This East Central European legacy will be shown by portraying two individuals, Ludwik Rajchman, director of the League’s Health Organization and Albert Apponyi, who served as a delegate and expert on issues such as disarmament and intellectual cooperation. Their biographies highlight the variety and transformative power of participation from East Central Europe in the League and show the organization as a polycentric body. Besides, internationalism in the post-First World War period comes out as permeated by different imperial pasts, post-imperial undercurrents, and transnational dynamics.
Austria, the League of Nations, and the Birth of Multilateral Financial Control
Authors: Marcus Nathan
Published: February 2021

The end of the First World War marked a turning point in the practices of sovereign borrowing. The League of Nations loan for Austria issued in 1923 precluded foreign creditor control of Austrian assets and policies. Instead, financial control and oversight were placed in the hands of the League of Nations Council and the technocrats advising it. International negotiation and collaboration in Geneva preempted Austria’s neighbour countries from turning economic reconstruction into a tool of their particularistic foreign policy interests. Neither foreign bondholders nor guarantor governments were granted direct oversight over Austrian policies. In order to keep emergency borrowing by bankrupt states free from the machinations of international power struggles and coveted spheres of interest, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund continued the practice of multilateral oversight and control following the Second World War.
Hungary and the League of Nations
Authors: Peterecz Zoltán
Published: February 2021

Although Hungary became a member of the League of Nations in 1922, its relationship to the organization was often troublesome. After the First World War, a defeated Hungary, in the wake of the Trianon Treaty, was in a diminished territory with a reduced population, while its economy and finances suffered. After years of hardships, only League membership promised the way out of financial calamity and political isolation. The positive role that the League of Nations played in the financial reconstruction of Hungary from 1924 to 1926 offers a unique opportunity to examine a country that did not wish to give up its independence and treaty revision, but was in a situation where it had to accustom itself to realities. The case of Hungary also provides an illuminating comparison with the Austrian financial reconstruction, with its many similarities, but some striking differences as well.
The League of Nations and the Optants’ Dispute in the Hungarian Borderlands
Authors: Berkes Antal
Published: February 2021

With the fall of the dualist Monarchy, the so-called Hungarian optants in the annexed territories chose the Hungarian nationality instead of the nationality of the three Little Entente states and transferred their place of residence to Hungary. As most of their land was expropriated without due compensation, they started to contest the land reforms before a series of national and international fora. The regional dispute initiated by the Hungarian optants against the Little Entente governments became part of a global controversy between the protection of private property (individual interests) and the sovereign states’ agrarian policies (community interests). The League of Nations provided a framework to debate about the conflict both at the level of international law and politics. This chapter claims that to face the delicate choice between socio-economic community interests and individuals’ property interests, all procedures of the League had to maintain a careful balance between the two.
Capital Taxation and International Cooperation
Authors: Ahrens Leo , Bothner Fabio , Hakelberg Lukas , Rixen Thomas
Published: February 2021

This chapter addresses the causes and consequences of automatic cross-border exchange of taxpayer information (AEI). First, we argue that the introduction of AEI was enabled by the willingness of the United States to exert its superior economic power. Second, we find that AEI leads to shifts of international investment out of tax havens, while at the same time very sophisticated tax evaders have been able to use loopholes in the AEI regime. Third, we focus on the impact of AEI on domestic tax policies and show that AEI removes the pressure of international tax competition and enables governments to increase taxes on internationally mobile capital. International cooperation in the form of AEI increases the domestic policy space of governments under conditions of economic globalization and may enable a return to more progressive tax systems and a reversion of the trend of rising income and wealth inequality.
Country-by-Country Reporting and Other Financial Transparency Measures Affecting the European Union
Authors: Janský Petr , Knobel Andres , Meinzer Markus , Palanská Tereza , Palanský Miroslav
Published: February 2021

The EU faces large amounts of financial secrecy supplied to it by secrecy jurisdictions. In this chapter, we use the Bilateral Financial Secrecy Index to quantify which jurisdictions supply most secrecy to EU Member States. The chapter assesses the progress of two recent EU policy efforts to tackle financial secrecy: automatic exchange of country-by-country reporting (CbCR) data and black and grey list of non-cooperative jurisdictions. It is found that 34 per cent of the financial secrecy faced by the EU is supplied by other Member States, whose a priori exclusion from the blacklisting exercise reveals its fundamental flaw. Further 13 per cent is supplied by the EU’s dependencies, mainly the UK’s Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and Guernsey. The jurisdictions that supply the most secrecy not covered by automatic information exchange of CbCR data are the British Virgin Islands, United States, and Curacao. Finally the chapter discusses policy recommendations that stem from our analysis.
Identification Infrastructures and the Capitalization of Data in the Development of Data-Driven Regulation
Authors: Millo Yuval , Panourgias Nikiforos , Zachariadis Markos
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the establishment of a global identification infrastructure to improve the regulation of financial markets. The Global Legal Entity Identifier System (GLEIS), was developed to enable financial regulators to trace the owners of financial assets and liabilities, which was revealed as a problem by the global financial crisis of 2008. This chapter focuses on one of the key controversies that arose as part of the development of GLEIS—the issue of data quality. The chapter uses the GLEIS case to explain how differing views among infrastructure participants about the development of a complex data-driven regulatory system are reconciled. It shows that establishing such a system involves the turning of publicly available data into valuable assets in a process the chapter calls ‘capitalization through certification’ and argue that this process is relevant to broader debates about the use of business intelligence and analytics tools and techniques for regulatory purposes.
After Brown
Authors: Collings Justin
Published: February 2021

This chapter traces the U.S. Supreme Court’s mnemonic jurisprudence from Brown v. Board of Education to the present. It shows how, despite occasional instances of redemptive memory—especially during the Warren Court era (1953–1969)—the parenthetical mode of memory continued to predominate. The chapter shows how debates over the legacy of slavery and segregation gradually shifted into debates over the legacy of Brown. Anti-classification readings of Brown have been underwritten by narratives of parenthetical memory, whereas anti-subordination readings of Brown have relied on narratives of redemptive memory. The debates have been most poignant in the context of affirmative action and other race-conscious remedies for de jure or de facto race discrimination. In recent years, the parenthetical mode has once again gained the upper hand.
Forever in Hitler’s Shadow? The Court since 1975
Authors: Collings Justin
Published: February 2021

This chapter highlights the German Constitutional Court’s mnemonic jurisprudence in the modern era. It shows how the Court has continued to invoke the Nazi era, and the collapse of the Weimar Republic that preceded it, as key reference points in constitutional adjudication. It stresses that the Court has continued to strike a balance, or forge a hybrid, between the parenthetical and the redemptive modes of memory. It notes that the redemptive mode sometimes leads to a form of exceptionalism. This is most striking in the context of Nazi-related speech. The Court has held that, because the Basic Law as a whole must be understood as a counter-proposal to Nazism, Nazi-related speech is partially exempted from general constitutional protections of speech and opinion. The chapter also suggests that the Court has sometimes paid more attention to the Constitution’s prehistory than to the Federal Republic’s lived experience under the Basic Law. The chapter ends by noting that in recent years, the Court has begun to show more sensibility to its own (and the Constitution’s) historicity.
Statistical Mechanics: The Basics
Authors: Myrvold Wayne C.
Published: February 2021

This chapter introduces the reader to the basics of statistical mechanics. Gibbsian and neo-Boltzmannian approaches are outlined. It includes a statistical-mechanical analogue of the second law of thermodynamics, and a proof of the Poincaré recurrence theorem. It is argued that the differences between Gibbsian and neo-Boltzmannian approaches have been exaggerated.
Probabilities in Statistical Mechanics
Authors: Myrvold Wayne C.
Published: February 2021

This chapter deals with the question of how we should think of the probabilities introduced in statistical mechanics. It is usually said that these probabilities are introduced on the basis of our ignorance of the precise state of the system, or our incapacity to treat analytically the equations of motion in order to deliver a detailed account of the evolution of the system, or both. This suggests an epistemic reading. However, we make predictions on the basis of them, that are verified by experiment. This suggests that they be thought of as objective chances. It looks as if we have to employ both the epistemic and the objective concept, in an inconsistent way. Moreover, the standard equilibrium probabilities, applied to a system that has relaxed to equilibrium while isolated from its environment, cannot be either credences or chances. It is argued that the hybrid concept, epistemic chance, resolves these puzzles and is suited to play the role required of probability in statistical mechanics.
Probabilities in Quantum Mechanics
Authors: Myrvold Wayne C.
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the role played by probabilities on each of the major approaches to understanding quantum mechanics. It is argued that the sorts of considerations brought up in previous chapters, having to do with limitations on precise knowledge of physical states, and the result of applying dynamical evolution to agents’ degrees of belief about those states, have a part to play on each of those approaches. The chapter includes an introduction to the basic formalism of quantum mechanics.
Law and Governance of the Internet
Authors: Kettemann Matthias C.
Published: February 2021

Chapter 3 analyzes existing international legal rules safeguarding internet integrity and presents the evolution of internet governance as a global regime for the internet. While there exist no international treaties directly protecting the internet (or protecting states and society from its dangers), indirectly protective norms exist both in treaty law and customary international law. Further, the majority of established principles of international law are relevant for the use and development of the internet. By describing existing elements of the internet’s order and the normative dynamics that have shaped the evolution of internet-related principles, especially related to internet governance, Chapters 2 and 3 together set the scene for the discussion of normative disorder on the internet.
Theorizing Order(s) on the Internet
Authors: Kettemann Matthias C.
Published: February 2021

Chapter 5 shows the potential of theoretical approaches to solving the normative crisis on the internet. In turn, key theories of order in the broader sense are presented and discussed. Though the majority of these theories were not posited with a view to the internet, the present study draws from their epistemic potential for the regulation of the internet. Theories (and key representatives of that theory) include systems theory (Luhmann/Teubner), constitutionalization/global constitutionalism (Pernice), transnationalism (Viellechner, Calliess), legal pluralism (Seinecke), multinormativity (Forst), network theory (Vesting), interoperability theory (Palfrey, Gasser, Weber), massive online micro justice (De Werra), conflict studies (Mueller), and infrastructuralization (DeNardis). Further, the study assesses the historically sedimented discourses on internet governance and their influence on ordering the internet as well as more recent attempts to “define online norms.”
The Normative Order of the Internet
Authors: Kettemann Matthias C.
Published: February 2021

Chapter 6 presents in detail the normative order of the internet based on the notion of a necessary identification of, and turn toward, a nomos of the internet, which is embedded in, and configures, the normative order of the internet. The study shows that this order has many facets, contains national, international, public, and private norms, but has importantly developed its own normative logic, instruments and rules on the relation of actors and its own conception of the legitimacy of norms. The normative order provides a normative infrastructure in which the internet’s nomos, including its means of normative production and justification, are anchored. The study will determine norms belonging to the normative order of the internet to be those that have a material (non-trivial) and a normative (not merely factual) connection to the internet as a network of networks. These norms will be shown to be formally and materially legitimated. Formal legitimation will be shown to be achievable through symbolic validation through norm emergence in processes involving multiple actors. Material legitimation is possible through norms being determinate enough for their purpose (thus allowing for non-binding instruments), coherent with the core principles of the normative order of the internet, consonant with the order’s values as expressed in its principles, and adhering systematically to the normative order as a whole.
The Normative Order of the Internet in National Legal Orders
Authors: Kettemann Matthias C.
Published: February 2021

Chapter 7 takes a close look at the norms of the normative order of the internet and studies how they are integrated into national legal orders and especially how non-traditional norms, such as standards and soft law—a legal “tertium” next to national and international law—are legitimated through national legal processes. The chapter shows that national legal orders have recognized international law and national law. Monism and dualism have emerged to explain how the two dominions relate to each other: the choices range from subordination to coordination with varying primacies. Together with global constitutionalists, the study goes beyond this debate. It will argue that this tertium of normativity has been recognized by national orders: normative instruments that are neither “national” law nor “international” law, but part of the normative order of the internet. This enrichment of the legal vocabulary has been called a “change in the composition of the medium of law” by Jürgen Habermas.
Practical Expressivism
Authors: Sinclair Neil
Published: February 2021

Morality is a human institution that can be adequately understood as a naturalistically explicable coordination device, whereby human beings work towards, sustain, and refine mutually beneficial patterns of action and reaction. This morality owes nothing to an ethical reality that exists outside of human inclination: moral judgements and argument do not (attempt to) discover, describe or cognize a robust realm of moral facts or properties. Rather, such judgements express affective or practical states of mind, similar to preferences, desires, policies, or plans. Practical Expressivism argues that the locating of this expression within the wider coordinating practice of morality provides an attractive explanation and partial vindication of the forms and assumptions of this uniquely human institution. This book therefore defends a version of expressivism about morality, and one that embraces the ‘quasi-realist’ project of showing how an expressivist understanding of morality is consistent with the judgements of that practice being potentially disagreed with, logically regimented, and mind-independently true. In doing so it provides domesticating accounts of disagreement, logic, truth, and mind-independence, and shows how expressivism is compatible with truth-conditional semantics. The version of expressivism defended is ‘practical’ both insofar as it emphasizes the importance of the practical, coordinating, role of moral practice in pursuing the quasi-realist project, and insofar as it generates recipes and strategies that expressivists can repeatedly deploy to explain the forms and assumptions of our moral practice.
From Deng’s Reforms to Libya
Authors: Ghiselli Andrea
Published: February 2021

How and why did the Chinese human and economic footprint develop in some of the most unstable regions in the world like North Africa and the Middle East? As shown in Chapter 3, it happened as part of China’s integration with the world economy. Over time, from Jiang Zemin’s Go Global strategy to Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, a strong political support for this allowed for the loosening of the framework that regulates where Chinese companies can carry out what kind of business. Against this background, the presence of Chinese companies in North Africa and the Middle East begun to develop driven by the necessity to secure access to energy and other natural resources. Then, it expanded to include the flow of goods from China to European, North Africa, and Middle Eastern markets. Yet, Chinese companies failed to understand that the growing freedom to act came with the responsibility to secure the success and, most importantly, security of their operations overseas. This is why they were unprepared when the Arab Spring broke out and, therefore, China’s interest frontiers emerged.
The Problems of Knowledge in Policymaking
Authors: Ghiselli Andrea
Published: February 2021

Securitization does not happen in a vacuum. Key functional actors can play a very important role in helping the securitizing actor to understand the nature of the threat to the referent object. In foreign policy, this is particularly true when the policymakers are not familiar with the issue at hand and, therefore, there is ample room for other actors to influence them. This chapter, however, shows that the Chinese foreign policy bureaucracy and the community of experts was only partially able to do aid this securitization. These findings emerge from an examination of the development of the Chinese diplomatic system in terms of regional expertise, personnel, resources, and political standing. As for the scholars in Chinese universities and think tanks, they lacked either the skills or the influence to warn the government about the risks brewing in North Africa and the Middle East. At most, they were able to shape the government’s response to the crisis in those regions only after it took place.
Chinese Public Opinion and the Interest Frontiers
Authors: Ghiselli Andrea
Published: February 2021

Although it is not as decisive a factor as it is in Western democracies, the space for Chinese public opinion to influence foreign policy has grown over the years thanks to the population’s greater access to the Internet, the diversification of the media, and the simple fact that today’s Chinese leaders are not revolutionary heroes. While domestic public opinion cannot shape the country’s foreign policy on issues related to China’s “core interests”—the commanding role of the Chinese Communist Party and the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty—the situation is different when the discussion is less sensitive. The Chinese approach to North Africa and the Middle East is one of those topics. Hence, this chapter looks at how online Chinese public opinion influenced the domestic narrative on protecting the country’s overseas interests. It exposes a contested environment where the actions and the narrative put forward by policymakers were often under pressure as Chinese citizens favored a more muscular approach to defending the country’s overseas interests.
Conclusion
Authors: Ghiselli Andrea
Published: February 2021

The perception that other states are more centralized and better organized than they actually are, as Robert Jervis (1976, 319–42) pointed out in his classic Perception and Misperception in International Politics, is a common phenomenon in international relations. Today, one of the most widely shared myths about China is how its political model is unique because it has succeeded in completing large-scale projects, from building the longest bridge in the world to lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, in a quick and effective way. Dazzled by those achievements, regardless of their actual success, both supporters and detractors often take them as evidence of China’s capacity to play the long game, to work out and execute complex strategies. After all, when so much time has been spent, so many sacrifices made, so many resources consumed, there must be a plan. Every headline, every announcement, every statement about the next big project reinforces this myth. Myths like this appear useful and are easily accepted because they help us to simplify reality and justify our actions. They conveniently spare us having to look at what lies beneath the surface. This is why they are created and why they are dangerous when they are used as foundations for political arguments at times of growing tensions in international affairs....
Due Diligence in International Tax Law
Authors: Avi-Yonah Reuven S. , Mazzoni Gianluca
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes how the due diligence standard was developed in international tax law before 2008, and then how the standard was greatly modified after the financial crisis, the enactment of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2010 (FATCA), and the subsequent development of the Common Reporting Standards (CRS). The chapter outlines how the due diligence concept is applied to private actors, especially financial institutions, to prevent tax evasion. It ends with some conclusions including that while due diligence in international tax law is currently embodied in a specific set of rules, there remains an absence of an overarching standard of due diligence, so that the overall efficiency of the rules requiring due diligence is weakened.
Conclusion In Defence of Śiva
Authors: Duquette Jonathan
Published: February 2021

The conclusion tackles the key question of what it meant for Appaya to ‘defend’ Śaiva religion in his time and place. It addresses in particular the tension between his Śivādvaita Vedānta work, centred on Śiva as a personified deity, and his work on Śaṅkara’s Vedānta tradition of pure non-dualism. It argues that Appaya remained an Advaitin at heart throughout his career, albeit in a unique way: strong in his belief that all deities are manifestations of the same absolute reality, he condemned attempts to denigrate the worship of Śiva and encouraged religious tolerance.
Failure Management
Authors: Rouse William B.
Published: February 2021

Failures are common phenomena in civilization. Things fail and society responds, often very slowly, sometimes inappropriately. What kinds of things go wrong? Why do they go wrong? How do people and organizations react to failures? What are the best ways to react? This book addresses these questions. The analytic approach to these questions is case based and addresses 18 well-known cases of failures. A multi-level framework is employed to integrate findings across the case studies. These findings are employed to outline a conceptual approach to integrated failure management. The overarching conclusion is that the conceptual design of an integrated approach to failure management can encompass all of the 18 case studies. They all would have benefitted from the same conceptual decision support architecture. This enables cross-cutting system design principles and practices, assuring that failure management in every new domain and context need not start with a blank slate.
2-Dimensional Categories
Authors: Johnson Niles , Yau Donald
Published: February 2021

2-Dimensional Categories provides an introduction to 2-categories and bicategories, assuming only the most elementary aspects of category theory. A review of basic category theory is followed by a systematic discussion of 2-/bicategories; pasting diagrams; lax functors; 2-/bilimits; the Duskin nerve; the 2-nerve; internal adjunctions; monads in bicategories; 2-monads; biequivalences; the Bicategorical Yoneda Lemma; and the Coherence Theorem for bicategories. Grothendieck fibrations and the Grothendieck construction are discussed next, followed by tricategories, monoidal bicategories, the Gray tensor product, and double categories. Completely detailed proofs of several fundamental but hard-to-find results are presented for the first time. With exercises and plenty of motivation and explanation, this book is useful for both beginners and experts.
Bicategories and 2-Categories
Authors: Johnson Niles , Yau Donald
Published: February 2021

In this chapter, 2-categories and bicategories are defined, along with basic examples. Several useful unity properties in bicategories, generalizing those in monoidal categories and underlying many fundamental results in bicategory theory, are discussed. In addition to well-known examples, the 2-categories of multicategories and of polycategories are constructed. This chapter ends with a discussion of duality of bicategories.
BRIAN ELIAS (b. 1948)Once Did I Breathe Another’s Breath (2012)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: February 2021

This chapter highlights British composer Brian Elias’s Once Did I Breathe Another’s Breath (2012), a substantial and highly satisfying cycle. The piano part is quite complex and demanding, requiring a player with very safe hands—this is very much a duo partnership. A carefully chosen selection of five texts from the seventeenth century dwells on the theme of love—the first four poems reflecting its happier side, and the final song rueing the fact that its joys fade with time. The warmest resonances of the baritone voice are used to best effect, and there are several moments of heightened sensitivity where the voice rises to soft, sustained high notes which will need good support. The piano writing is full-textured, often intricate and fast-moving, and it pilots the changing moods of the texts. Ultimately, the exceptionally unified musical language maintains cohesion through the cycle, which should make a powerful and lasting impression.
MOHAMMED FAIROUZ (b. 1985)Annabel Lee (2013)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines Mohammed Fairouz’s Annabel Lee (2013). It requires daring to set such a famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe, but Fairouz finds a vein of unaffected, forthright clarity, easily averting suspicions of naïvety by shifting key centres, keeping piano parts varied, and paying careful attention to the singer’s rhythms, notating them to match the subtlest details of enunciation. The work will suit a youthful baritone with a secure upper range and good control of vibrato. Skill and discipline are needed to keep syllables evenly weighted and perfectly timed, so that each has a clear kernel of resonance and successions of notes do not tumble ahead. The anguished, dramatic heart of the piece requires strong projection, but the singer also needs to be able to hold and control suppressed emotion for the quieter, framing verses.
MICHAEL FINNISSY (b. 1946)Outside Fort Tregantle (2008)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses composer/pianist Michael Finnissy’s Outside Fort Tregantle (2008). This song is less of a display piece than a contemplative reverie. Unsurprisingly, though, the pianist is given a dauntingly virtuoso, rhythmically and harmonically complex part. Through all this, the singer drifts serene and undeterred, in gently undulating lines, creating an almost impressionistic effect. Good breath control, clarity, and evenness of tone are prime requisites, and time will need to be allowed for familiarization with pitches. The music’s modernist idiom is highly individual and fascinating, and to capture its haunting quality requires deep thought and insight. At the slow opening tempo, phrases will need plenty of support in order to be sung in one span. Ultimately, for the intelligent singer, the piece constitutes a distinctive test of empathy and sensitivity.
JOANNA LEE (b. 1982)Your Little Voice (2001)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses Joanna Lee’s Your Little Voice (2001). This is an early but typical example of Lee’s work. Full of innovative quirks and wild contrasts in character, it is a perfect choice for singers wishing to try ‘avant-garde’ repertoire for the first time. They will surely revel in the experience, and not find it as daunting as feared. A tuning fork will be helpful at the start, and later also if needed to recall pitches after instances of speaking or whispering. A full-page glossary makes everything clear, but still leaves room for personal interpretative input. Verbal descriptions for the myriad vocal styles requested are encapsulated acutely. Rhythms are also notated strictly, with traditional time signatures; indeed, maintaining momentum and a discernible pulse is a distinctive and important aspect.
GRÁINNE MULVEY (b. 1966)Eternity Is Now (2008)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: February 2021

This chapter studies Irish composer Gráinne Mulvey’s Eternity Is Now (2008). The performer of this brief piece will need to show considerable accomplishment, in both technique and musicianship, and there are plenty of opportunities to display virtuosity. Control and pacing are of crucial importance, and a feeling of onward momentum must be maintained. Pauses are given timings in seconds to ensure a disciplined reading. Swift, wide-spanning grace notes precede some long-held pitches. Notation includes features that are now familiar practice in contemporary music, notably the ‘beams’ over note groups that thicken or thin out to indicate speeding up and slowing down, so that the music can move freely, unfettered by specific note-values. The composer’s choice of text is a happy one: the words are spare, yet rich and vibrant with meaning, and the recurring ‘-ing’ syllables give sonic unity, as well as contributing bounce and impetus to decorative figures.
JOSEPH PHIBBS (b. 1974)Two Songs (from Shades of Night) (2012–2013)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses British composer Joseph Phibbs’s Two Songs (from Shades of Night) (2012–13). Both these songs are lullabies, but they are entirely different in character. Texts are set skilfully and the voice is never pushed to uncomfortable extremes of volume and range. However, within his self-imposed boundaries, the composer presents a wonderfully varied palette of dynamics and articulations, making witty use of wordplay and never failing to come up with phrases that almost sing themselves. Fast whispering figures in the second song also work perfectly. The piano writing, too, has an admirable economy: it never drowns the voice, but flows naturally, much of it consisting of only two parts, with fuller chordal textures reserved for moments of special intensity. A light, pliable tenor, especially a young one, will surely welcome this rewarding addition to the repertoire. Heavy, dramatic voices might lack the necessary suppleness. A secure tone and command of soft dynamics will be shown to advantage, and crisp diction is essential.
ANTHONY RITCHIE (b. 1960)Two Pantoums (2005)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores Anthony Richie’s Two Pantoums (2005). In this piece, each of Cilla McQueen’s strikingly resonant texts, one commissioned specially, takes the form of a pantoum. This is Malay in origin and consists of a series of four-line stanzas, with rhymings and repeats alternating in the pattern ABCD, BEDF, EGFH, GIHJ, and so on. Each poem is rounded off with a final, framing ICJA stanza, making a satisfyingly symmetrical effect. With enviable ingenuity, Ritchie manages to adhere strictly to the form throughout his vocal settings, yet, by dint of subtle transposition and rhythmic variation, he avoids rigidity and instead creates a feeling of free-flowing spontaneity, aided considerably by rewardingly varied piano parts. Indeed, the songs progress so seamlessly that one is barely aware of their intricate, tightly knit structure. He wisely keeps the soprano within a comfortable and practicable tessitura and word-setting is exemplary. The relationship between voice and piano is idiomatic and the attractive musical language—mainly tonal, but laced with chromaticism and modality—is ‘accessible’ in the best sense.
HUW WATKINS (b. 1976)Three Auden Songs (2008)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores Welsh composer Huw Watkins’s Three Auden Songs (2008). Written for the flexible high-lying voice of the tenor Mark Padmore, these three settings of W. H. Auden constitute an attractive and well-varied cycle which will sit well amongst more established pieces, and should prove a valuable addition to the tenor repertoire. It was commissioned by the Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie in Brussels. The musical language is chromatic, quasi-tonal, and highly accessible, and, as to be expected, the composer’s writing for piano is idiomatic, achieving a distinctive character for each song. Vocal lines are rewardingly lyrical and words are set with care for clarity and ease of attack. The music is phrased naturally to match the flow of the text, so the singer should have no difficulty in planning breaths. The ability to launch and sustain an even tone will be shown to full advantage.
Is Dry Needling Applied by Physical Therapists Effective for Pain in Musculoskeletal Conditions? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Sánchez-Infante Jorge , Navarro-Santana Marcos J , Bravo-Sánchez Alfredo , Jiménez-Diaz Fernando , Abián-Vicén Javier
Published: February 2021

Objective

The main objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine the short-, medium-, and long-term effectiveness of dry needling (DN) applied by physical therapists to myofascial trigger points for the treatment of pain.

Methods

PubMed, Scopus, SportDiscus, and Web of Science databases were searched from their inception to February 2020. Randomized controlled trials that compared DN with other treatments or placebo and measured pain with a visual analog Scale or another numerical pain rating scale were included. Two authors used a personalized form to collect the following data relevant to the objectives of the review from each article independently: study design, purpose, sample size, diagnosis, characteristics of DN intervention, characteristics of placebo intervention, outcome measures, period of assessment, body region, DN technique, and number of sessions. The initial search identified 1771 articles. After the selection, 102 articles were assessed for eligibility; 42 of these articles measuring pain were used for the meta-analysis. Four meta-analyses were performed according to the follow-up period from the last reported treatment.

Results

This meta-analysis found a large effect to decrease pain within 72 hours (standardized mean difference [SMD] = −0.81; 95% CI = −1.21 to −0.40), a moderate effect in 1 to 3 weeks (SMD = −0.69; 95% CI = −1.02 to −0.35), a large effect in 4 to 12 weeks (SMD = −0.85; 95% CI = −1.30 to −0.40), and a large effect in 13 to 24 weeks (SMD = −0.81; 95% CI = −1.64 to −0.03). The risk of bias was generally low; however, the heterogeneity of the results downgraded the level of evidence.

Conclusions

Low-quality evidence that the immediate to 72-hour (large) effect, 4- to 12-week (large) effect, 13- to 24-week (large) effect, and moderate-quality 1- to 3-week (moderate) effect suggested that DN performed by physical therapists was more effective than no treatment, sham DN, and other therapies for reducing pain.

Impact

DN is commonly used by physical therapists to treat musculoskeletal pain, and it is very important for physical therapists to know the clinical conditions and time periods for which DN is effective in reducing pain in their patients.
SSH researchers make an impact differently. Looking at public research from the perspective of users
Authors: Bonaccorsi Andrea , Chiarello Filippo , Fantoni Gualtiero
Published: February 2021

With the rise of the impact assessment revolution, governments and public opinion have started to ask researchers to give evidence of their impact outside the traditional audiences, i.e. students and researchers. There is a mismatch between the request to demonstrate the impact and the current methodologies for impact assessment. This mismatch is particularly worrisome for the research in Social Sciences and Humanities. This paper gives a contribution by examining systematically a key element of impact, i.e. the social groups that are directly or indirectly affected by the results of research. We use a Text mining approach applied to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) collection of 6,637 impact case studies in order to identify social groups mentioned by researchers. Differently from previous studies, we employ a lexicon of user groups that includes 76,857 entries, which saturates the semantic field, permits the identification of all users and opens the way to normalization. We then develop three new metrics measuring Frequency, Diversity and Specificity of user expressions. We find that Social Sciences and Humanities exhibit a distinctive structure with respect to frequency and specificity of users.
Expression of sterile-α and armadillo motif containing protein (SARM) in rheumatoid arthritis monocytes correlates with TLR2-induced IL-1β and disease activity
Authors: Thwaites Ryan S , Unterberger Sarah , Chamberlain Giselle , Gray Henry , Jordan Kelsey , Davies Kevin A , Harrison Neil A , Sacre Sandra
Published: February 2021

Objective

Cartilage and bone damage in RA are associated with elevated IL-1β. The effects of IL-1β can be reduced by biological therapies that target IL-1β or TNF-α. However, the mechanisms responsible for increased IL-1β and the effect of anti-TNF-α have not been fully elucidated. Recently, sterile-α and armadillo motif containing protein (SARM) was identified as a negative regulator of toll-like receptor (TLR) induced IL-1β secretion through an interaction with the inflammasome. This study set out to investigate SARM during TLR-induced IL-1β secretion in RA peripheral blood monocytes and in patients commencing anti-TNF-α treatment.

Methods

Monocytes were isolated from RA patients and healthy controls; disease activity was measured by DAS28. IL-1β secretion was measured by ELISA following TLR1/2, TLR4 and TLR7/8 stimulation. The mRNA expression of SARM1, IL-1β and the components of the NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome were measured by quantitative PCR. SARM protein expression was measured by western blotting.

Results

TLR1/2 activation induced elevated IL-1β in RA monocytes compared with healthy controls (P = 0.0009), which negatively correlated with SARM1 expression (P = 0.0086). Lower SARM expression also correlated with higher disease activity (P = 0.0246). Additionally, patients responding to anti-TNF-α treatment demonstrated a rapid upregulation of SARM, which was not observed in non-responders.

Conclusion

Together, these data highlight a potential contribution from SARM to RA pathophysiology where decreased SARM may lead to elevated IL-1β associated with RA pathogenesis. Furthermore, the data additionally present a potential mechanism by which TNF-α blockade can modify IL-1β secretion.
THE CONCEPT OF X-RAY CT DOSE EVALUATION METHOD USING RADIOCHROMIC FILM AND FILM-FOLDING PHANTOM
Authors: Tanki Nobuyoshi , Katsuda Toshizo , Gotanda Rumi , Gotanda Tatsuhiro , Imai Shinya , Kawaji Yasuyuki , Noguchi Atsushi , Kuwano Tadao , Fujita Hideki , Takeda Yoshihiro
Published: February 2021

In this paper, we propose a novel radiochromic film (RCF)-based computed tomography (CT) dosimetry method, which is different from the method based on CT dose index. RCF dosimetry using Gafchromic QA2 films was performed using two lengths of film-folding phantoms. The phantom was exposed to X-ray CT through a single scan, while the RCF was sandwiched between the phantoms. We analysed the dose profile curve in two directions to investigate the dose distribution. We observed a difference in the dose distribution as the phantom size changed. Our results contradict with the results of previous studies such as Monte Carlo simulation or direct measurement. The ability to visually evaluate 2D dose distributions is an advantage of RCF dosimetry over other methods. This research investigated the ability of 2D X-ray CT dose evaluation using RCF and film-folding phantom.
Evolution of DNA packaging in gene transfer agents
Authors: Esterman Emma S , Wolf Yuri I , Kogay Roman , Koonin Eugene V , Zhaxybayeva Olga
Published: February 2021

Gene transfer agents (GTAs) are virus-like particles encoded and produced by many bacteria and archaea. Unlike viruses, GTAs package fragments of the host genome instead of the genes that encode the components of the GTA itself. As a result of this non-specific DNA packaging, GTAs can transfer genes within bacterial and archaeal communities. GTAs clearly evolved from viruses and are thought to have been maintained in prokaryotic genomes due to the advantages associated with their DNA transfer capacity. The most-studied GTA is produced by the alphaproteobacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus (RcGTA), which packages random portions of the host genome at a lower DNA density than usually observed in tailed bacterial viruses. How the DNA packaging properties of RcGTA evolved from those of the ancestral virus remains unknown. To address this question, we reconstructed the evolutionary history of the large subunit of the terminase (TerL), a highly conserved enzyme used by viruses and GTAs to package DNA. We found that RcGTA-like TerLs grouped within viruses that employ the headful packaging strategy. Because distinct mechanisms of viral DNA packaging correspond to differences in the TerL amino acid sequence, our finding suggests that RcGTA evolved from a headful packaging virus. Headful packaging is the least sequence-specific mode of DNA packaging, which would facilitate the switch from packaging of the viral genome to packaging random pieces of the host genome during GTA evolution.