bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Altered intestinal bacterial communities increase the risk of intracranial aneurysms
Authors: Ma Chencheng , Zhang Weiwei , Mao Lei , Zhang Guangjian , Shen Yuqi , Chang Hanxiao , Xu Xiupeng , Jin Huiru , Li Zheng , Lu Hua
Published: July 2023

Decreased vessel wall function and elasticity lead to intracranial
aneurysms (IAs), which increase the risk of vessel rupture. The
association between IA formation and gut flora remains unclear.
Therefore, we compared the gut microbiomes of patients with IAs with
those of healthy controls (HCs) to identify specific bacteria associated
with IAs. This single-center prospective case-control study was
conducted from July 2022 and February 2023. Stool samples were collected
from patients with unruptured IAs and HCs. The bacterial communities of
patients with IAs were compared with those of healthy controls using
16SrRNA sequencing technology. In addition, phylogenetic trees were
constructed to identify specific species. Twenty-five patients with IAs
and 30 HCs were included in this study. There were no significant
differences in age, sex, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes
mellitus, dyslipidemia, smoking, or alcohol consumption rates between
the two groups. Diversity analysis indicated no significant difference
in alpha diversity; however, there was a significant difference in beta
diversity with respect to the unweighted UniFrac distance. Linear
discriminant analysis combined with effect size measures showed that
several intestinal microbiome taxonomic profiles were significantly
enriched in samples from patients in the IA group. Helicobacter
species were our point of concern as they are widely considered
pathogenic. Thus, we constructed a Helicobacter-related
phylogenetic tree and identified three species, Helicobacter
pullorum, Helicobacter typhlonius, and Helicobacter
rodentium. The gut microbiome profiles of patients with stable,
unruptured IAs differed significantly from those of HCs. Therefore, the
genus Helicobacter may be associated with IA formation.
COMPLETE ENDOSCOPIC EXCISION OF STAGE 4 CONGENITAL CHOLESTEATOMA, A CASE REPORT
Authors: Veetil Aswathi Kallyadan , sarkar saurav , Karakkandy Vinusree , Shaikh Zaid
Published: July 2023

KEY POINTS 1. Congenital cholesteatoma (CC) is a relatively
uncommon condition, accounting for 2-5% of all cholesteatomas. 2.
Endoscopic ear surgery is commonly employed for limited cholesteatomas ,
usually Potsic stage 1 and 2. 3. This is the first reported case in the
literature utilized a transcanal endoscopic ear surgery approach for an
11-year-old child with POTSIC 4 Congenital cholesteatoma, ensuring
complete cholesteatoma removal and subsequent area reconstruction. 4.
Endoscopic approaches offer advantages in terms of visualization and
minimizing the need for external incisions and postoperative scarring,
CC, improving the quality of life.
Application of artificial intelligence in medical education: focus on the application of ChatGPT for clinical medical education
Authors: Hong Hyeonmi , Kang Youngjoon , Kim Youngjon , Kim Bomsol
Published: July 2023

This study explores the potential use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based services, specifically ChatGPT-3.5, in medical education. The application of this technology is acknowledged as a valuable tool for simulating authentic clinical scenarios and enhancing learners' diagnostic and communication skills. To construct a case, students received ChatGPT training using a clinical ethics casebook titled "Clinical Ethics Cases and Commentaries for Medical Students and Physicians." Subsequently, a role-play script was generated based on this training. The initial draft of the script was reviewed by two medical professors and was further optimized using ChatGPT-3.5. Consequently, a comprehensive role-play script, accurately reflecting real-world clinical situations, was successfully developed. This study demonstrates the potential for effectively integrating AI technology into medical education and provides a solution to overcome limitations in developing role-play scripts within conventional educational settings. However, the study acknowledges that AI cannot always generate flawless role-play scripts and recognizes the necessity of addressing these limitations and ethical concerns. The research explores both the potential and limitations of employing AI in the early stages of medical education, suggesting that future studies should focus on overcoming these limitations while further investigating the potential applications of AI in this field.
Application study of silicon impression material for reducing metal artifacts: preliminary study for head and neck cancer radiotherapy
Authors: Park So Hyun , Choi Jinhyun , Park Byungdo , Kim Jeongho , Lim Heesoo , Kim Dae-Hyun
Published: July 2023

Metal artifacts cause inaccuracies in target delineation, radiation treatment planning, and delivery when computed tomography images of a radiotherapy patient implanted with a high-density material in the body are acquired. In this study, we investigated the possibility of obtaining improved images in clinical trials through metal artifact reduction using silicon impression materials without the need for a specific metal artifact reduction algorithm. A silicon impression material exhibiting a constant Hounsfield unit (HU) value according to the mixing ratio of the catalysts and bases was selected. The material did not exhibit any change in weight or shape over time. For both the instances of inserting the metal material and applying the silicon impression material, the HU value and dose were compared with homogeneous cases filled with waterequivalent materials. When the silicon impression material was applied to the region where the high-density material was located, the HU value was within 5% and the dose was within 3% compared with those of the homogeneous cases. In this study, the silicon impression materials reduced metal artifacts. However, because the composition, shape, size, and location of high-density materials differ, further studies are required to consider these factors in clinical applications.
Quiste broncogénico cervical subcutáneo en un lactante: Reporte de un caso y revisión de literatura
Authors: Andrade-Montesdeoca Jimmy Israel , Diego León-Ochoa Diego , Luna-Montalván Julian , Ross-Rodríguez Edwin , Polit-Guerrero Verónica , Acosta-Farina Daniel
Published: July 2023

Los quistes broncogénicos son malformaciones particularmente raras, que derivan del mediastino anterior. Su reporte es infrecuente en pediatría y más raro de localización subcutánea en el cuello. Hay reportados 26 casos hasta la actualidad, el diagnóstico es histopatológico y su tratamiento quirúrgico. Presentamos un lactante con una masa subcutánea cervical que fue extirpada, cuyo reporte microscópico reveló un quiste broncogénico.
El desempeño del Sistema Nacional de Salud del Ecuador ante emergencias sanitarias
Authors: Cañizares-Fuentes Wilson Ricardo
Published: July 2023

El sistema nacional de salud es un mecanismo por el cual los Estados buscan garantizar la protección de la salud de sus ciudadanos, teniendo cada país su sistema de salud. En determinadas ocasiones este sistema es sometido a exigencias extremas, como un desastre natural o una pandemia, así como la que el mundo está pasando con el COVID-19. Los países que tienen sólidos sistemas de salud basados en la atención primaria de salud (lo que se refleja en cobertura a todos sus ciudadanos, protección financiera y adecuada prevención y promoción de la salud) tienen un mejor desempeño ante estas demandas extremas. Esta capacidad de respuesta del sistema nacional de salud del Ecuador se estudió a propósito del terremoto de Pedernales que ocurrió en la provincia de Manabí, el 16 de abril del 2016, y en que murieron 663 personas (1), afectando el funcionamiento de varias unidades médicas del Ministerio de Salud Pública (MSP), incluido el hospital de Chone, lugar donde se realizó un estudio  (2) financiado por la Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil que evidenció los programas, gestión y acciones que el MSP debía mejorar para proteger adecuadamente a la población ante eventos similares que se presenten en el futuro. Se hizo una triangulación de metodologías documentales, cualitativas y cuantitativas. La información epidemiológica y de producción de servicios fue sistematizada de documentos oficiales, las entrevistas en profundidad se realizaron a directores de programas de salud y técnicos del MSP. La visión de los usuarios sobre la atención de salud antes y después del terremoto, fue recogida con encuestas a los usuarios de las unidades de salud.
Valoración de riesgo de trastornos ergonómicos y síndrome de Burnout en estudiantes de odontología
Authors: Navarrete-Ganchozo Kevin , Bermúdez-Velásquez Andrea Cecilia
Published: July 2023

Antecedente: Los trastornos ergonómicos y el síndrome de Burnout, a los que se enfrenta el dentista, son un problema de salud, por su magnitud y prevalencia. Estudios que reporten sobre estos trastornos en estudiantes de odontología son escasos.
Objetivo: Determinar la prevalencia de trastornos ergonómicos más comunes y síndrome de Burnout asociados a la práctica clínica de estudiantes de odontología.
Métodos: Este fue un estudio transversal en el que 110 estudiantes de la carrera de odontología llenaron una encuesta virtual que contenía ítems del cuestionario Kuorinka (síntomas de trastornos músculo-esqueléticos), el REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment; Valoración Rápida del Cuerpo Completo) para analizar las posiciones de todo el cuerpo, y el Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) para medir el nivel de agotamiento emocional y saber si existe o no el Síndrome de Burnout.
Resultados: Del total de encuestados, el 90.74% respondieron afirmativamente que presentaban molestias o dolor musculo-esquelético durante sus prácticas odontológicas, siendo en > 70% ubicados en área dorsal/lumbar o cuello. Mediante el REBA se determinó que el 55.10% obtuvieron puntuación correspondiente a nivel de alto riesgo de mal-posiciones ergonómicas. Mediante el MBI se encontró que 23.47% de los estudiantes tenía puntajes compatibles con agotamiento emocional, 41.84% con despersonalización y 6.12% con realización personal, aspectos del síndrome de Burnout. Cirugía bucal y la periodoncia fueron los 2 procedimientos de prácticas dentales más asociados a fatiga a nivel de mano (35.71% cada uno).
Conclusión: La prevalencia de molestias músculo-esqueléticas fue alto en los estudiantes, con alto riesgo de desarrollar problemas ergonómicos. Con respecto a la salud emocional un cuarto de alumnos presentaba agotamiento emocional.
What Dark Matter is Not
Authors: Fisher Peter
Published: July 2023

This chapter considers which known particles could be dark matter and if there are enough of them to account for the amount of dark matter that astronomers observe. It details how the Big Bang created all the particles in the Standard Model, showing that not enough protons were created to account for the effects of dark matter. It also traces the origins of neutrinos from the Big Bang, which are too few to explain dark matter. The chapter highlights compact objects, such as neutron stars, black holes produced since the Big Bang, and failed stars, and the observations that showed they cannot be dark matter. It describes the proposed modifications to the theory of gravity that explain dark matter and the observations that show that this idea cannot explain dark matter.
Shared Belief, Shared Agency, Social Norms
Authors: Mackey Jacob L.
Published: July 2023

This chapter examines the sharing of Intentionality in collective cognition and the sharing of agency in collective action. Roman religious culture was characterized by significant consensus, literally, “a feeling together.” The chapter begins by surveying the Roman emic discourse of consensus, through which the Romans conceptualized the shared Intentionality that enables shared agency. It then explores an etic theory of shared Intentionality and shared agency before returning to the discussion of social norms. Shared norms, which exemplify a kind of shared Intentionality, give rise to the large-scale cooperation and behavioral regularities that characterize communities such as Rome. Ultimately, the shared Intentionality developed here will allow one to warn against an implausible account of the collective, inherited from Durkheim, whose echoes are still heard in scholarship.
The “Folk Theology” of Roman Prayer
Authors: Mackey Jacob L.
Published: July 2023

This chapter shows how public representations in the form of spoken prayers—with their requests, expressions of gratitude, and so on—not only arise from but also produce private representations in the form of beliefs. It addresses the two questions of belief and commitment in the content and context of Roman prayer. Speech acts derive their discursive Intentionality from the psychological Intentionality of their speakers, that is, from speakers' beliefs, desires, intentions, and other mental episodes, which are about states of affairs and objects in the world. Prayer expresses these mental episodes, including beliefs, and in so doing may transmit them to hearers as well. Since prayer was integral to all cult activity, all cult activity therefore featured discursive Intentionality, that is to say, communicative content. The communicative content of prayer initiated in hearers processes of “doxastic uptake” or belief formation. From the content of prayers, Romans could derive a great deal of information about their religious world and a great deal of their folk theology, an informal suite of reflective and nonreflective beliefs about the gods.
Europe’s Last Hope
Authors: Lehmann Philipp
Published: July 2023

This chapter covers the transformative ambition of German architect Herman Sörgel's Atlantropa project. Sörgel developed an active geopolitics model for overcoming cultural and environmental decline by changing the material conditions of their foundations. The chapter cites how Sörgel referenced the tenets and terms of geopolitics but used the notion of climate engineering to propose that humans could transform geographical features to shape power dynamics and cultural developments. However, Adolf Hitler's accession to power in 1933 threw Sörgel's plans into turmoil. The chapter explains that Sörgel published his thoughts on the new regime and tried to make Atlantropa compatible with National Socialist ideology.
Slavic Steppes and German Gardens
Authors: Lehmann Philipp
Published: July 2023

This chapter traces the intellectual origins of work by German landscape architect Heinrich Wiepking-Jürgensmann, who became the main proponent of the Versteppung argument in the Nazi bureaucracy. At the Reichskommissariat für die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums (RKF), Wiepking was responsible for the plans to completely reorganize and transform the Nazi-occupied areas in the East. The chapter clarifies that the climate and climate change had always been deeply political. German ideologues and planners in the Third Reich borrowed and developed concepts from geology and climatology. The chapter also notes the work of Alwin Seifert regarding the effect of climate deterioration, citing that Nazi planners and landscape architects could not ignore his influential essays despite his open hostility.
Eastern Deserts
Authors: Lehmann Philipp
Published: July 2023

This chapter elaborates on the Generalplan Ost, one of the most infamous schemes of the Third Reich. The Generalplan sought to completely reorganize the East, combining ethnic cleansing with a comprehensive environmental and climatic transformation. Despite the warming of desertification and climate deterioration, the Nazi planners exploited the common anxieties over environmental decline to rationalize erasing the histories, the landscapes, and the people of occupied colonial territories. The chapter highlights the persistence of Versteppung, becoming the first political term charged with strong racist and fascist overtones during the Third Reich. It explains that Versteppung only dropped in the Federal Republic as the Iron Curtain drew close.
Money as Capital
Authors: Eich Stefan
Published: July 2023

This chapter assesses Karl Marx's critique of political economy, looking at the monetary crisis of 1857. It was no coincidence that it was a credit panic and the accompanying debates over monetary policy that spurred Marx to finally bring together his wide-ranging studies of political economy. In the two decades building up to the publication of the first volume of Capital in 1867, Marx had developed a long-standing interest in the history of money, proposals for monetary reform, and the politics of currency legislation. As he himself stressed in volume 3 of Capital, capitalism was intimately linked to the development of new forms of credit money. The chapter then analyzes Marx's rejection of the politics of monetary reform and currency legislation, looking at his engagement with both French utopian-socialist debates on credit reform and British debates about currency and banking.
Whither Globalization?
Authors: Atanassow Ewa
Published: July 2023

This chapter contends that in Alexis de Tocqueville’s account, the quest for equality is the main driver behind the complex phenomenon called globalization. It aims to show that, even though Tocqueville does not speak of globalization any more than he does of nationalism or populism, both his analytical works and policy writings, elaborate profound insights into the nature and mechanisms of global transformation. Integral to Tocqueville’s new political science, these insights are still a largely untapped resource that offers an instructive perspective on the modern world. The chapter sketches Tocqueville’s vision of globalization by comparing it to the one outlined in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s Communist Manifesto. It looks at Tocqueville’s analysis of the specificity of democratic foreign policy and the geopolitical dimensions of democratization.
Sustaining Liberal Democracy
Authors: Atanassow Ewa
Published: July 2023

This chapter argues that sovereignty, nationalism, and globalization have come to define the contemporary world and configure current political dynamics. It clarifies Alexis de Tocqueville’s view of crucial dimensions of modern democracy that is indispensable for gauging the originality and depth of his liberalism. It also provides a powerful framework for understanding the current situation and the dilemmas of liberal democracy in the twenty-first century. The chapter discusses Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s How Democracies Die as one prominent and distinctive voice in the current debate. It explores arguments that have multiple affinities with Tocqueville’s vision, which are affinities that make the differences all the more striking and worthy of consideration.
Conclusion
Authors: Pfeifer Helen
Published: July 2023

This concluding chapter assesses how the importance of Ottoman salons did not abate in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Ottoman society transformed rapidly under the dual pressures of European hegemony and centralization. In this period, Ottoman salons gradually adapted to resemble their French counterparts, accommodating Enlightenment-era philosophy and sometimes admitting women. Despite ongoing attempts to concentrate the administration of justice within the bureaucratized state, domestic gatherings continued to facilitate social mediation, and even hosted sessions of the Islamic court. Moreover, salons retained their importance in generating and circulating ideas. Despite these continuities, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw a growing discomfort with the overlap of social, cultural, and political functions so characteristic of the early modern salon.
Pausanias: Mythical Landscapes and Divine Presence
Authors: König Jason
Published: July 2023

The chapter reviews traditions of mountaintop sacrifice that were still flourishing throughout the eastern Mediterranean when the Homeric poems were composed in the eighth century BCE. It talks about other forms of religious expression in mountain landscapes, citing the ash altar on the summit of Mount Lykaion where an athletic festival is often held. It also mentions that the slopes of Mount Helikon gained a new identity as a place of festival and pilgrimage from the Hellenistic period onwards. The chapter highlights that the mountains of Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy continued to be dotted with shrines and statues of the gods into the imperial period. It describes places where markers of the past that were packed together with unusual density became the object of ‘topophilia’, the collective cultural obsession with key places of memory.
Scientific Viewing and the Volcanic Sublime
Authors: König Jason
Published: July 2023

This chapter discusses active volcanoes of the Mediterranean that played a very special role in ancient ideas about mountains as aesthetic objects. Mountains were in some respects outside human experience, but that was true in particularly powerful ways for volcanoes. The chapter also highlights how volcanoes in some cases are very close to human habitation and are able to impact on urban life in a much more direct and implacable way than any of the other mountains. The chapter looks at Greek and Latin literature from the fifth century BCE onwards that is full of attempts to make sense of them. It describes Etna, which is a recurring topic in many of the texts that have been cited as the closest parallels for modern images of the natural sublime.
The Ends
Authors: Dever Carolyn
Published: July 2023

This chapter examines the deaths of Michael Field and the aftermath. Edith Cooper had died first, of cancer of the bowel, in 1913. Katherine Bradley died almost a year later of breast cancer. Bradley knew that she herself was dying of cancer at the time of Cooper's death, and she chose to keep this fact a secret from Cooper and from Works and Days. She revealed her secret in her first entry after Cooper's death. Taking up on the very page of Cooper's final written words, Bradley writes directly to her absent love, recapitulating the narrative structure of “first readers” that Michael Field have used in the diary since April 1888. The chapter also considers the execution of Bradley's will via Thomas Sturge Moore, who served as a literary executor for Bradley, and who retained the shared intellectual property of Michael Field when Cooper died.
Sermons to Jews and the Public
Authors: Michelson Emily
Published: July 2023

This chapter describes that sermons to Jews always took place in the public eye and with Christians present observing the scene. It notes how the secondary audience of Christians remained intrinsic to the entire enterprise, even though conversionary sermons ostensibly addressed only Jews. It also details how the various onlookers, which was a mix of local Romans and foreign visitors, became as much a target audience as the Jews. The chapter talks about frequent public ceremonies that enlisted Jews, such as carnival and the papal investiture, and conversionary preaching that fed the voyeurism of curious tourists, especially those whose homelands lacked large Jewish settlements. It mentions published conversionary sermons and related polemical literature that extended multi-layered audience into print.
Epilogue
Authors: Michelson Emily
Published: July 2023

This chapter reconstructs a history of violence, trauma, and tragedy that was carried out by people who firmly believed they were doing the right and moral thing. It discusses how sermons to Jews in Rome provided an ideal vehicle for both Catholic self-congratulation and self-definition, causing them to endure for an unduly long time. Over the course of the nineteenth century, Jewish life in Rome fell increasingly out of step with the process of Jewish emancipation taking place elsewhere in Europe and the United States. The chapter points out how the Roman Catholic Church careened into a crisis of confidence as popes battled against Enlightenment-era ideals of rationalism, secularism, and revolution. It mentions conversionary sermons that prospered in Rome because they gave body to many of the new, big questions facing the post-Tridentine, post-Reformation church.
The Rise and Fall of Imperial China
Authors: Wang Yuhua
Published: July 2023

China was the world's leading superpower for almost two millennia, falling behind only in the last two centuries and now rising to dominance again. What factors led to imperial China's decline? This book offers a systematic look at the Chinese state from the seventh century through to the twentieth. Focusing on how short-lived emperors often ruled a strong state while long-lasting emperors governed a weak one, the book shows why lessons from China's history can help us better understand state building. The book argues that Chinese rulers faced a fundamental trade-off that it calls the sovereign's dilemma: a coherent elite that could collectively strengthen the state could also overthrow the ruler. This dilemma emerged because strengthening state capacity and keeping rulers in power for longer required different social networks in which central elites were embedded. The book examines how these social networks shaped the Chinese state, and vice versa, and it looks at how the ruler's pursuit of power by fragmenting the elites became the final culprit for China's fall. Drawing on more than a thousand years of Chinese history, the book highlights the role of elite social relations in influencing the trajectories of state development.
China’s State Development over the Last Two Millennia
Authors: Wang Yuhua
Published: July 2023

This chapter offers an overview of China's state development. It draws attention to an important puzzle in Chinese history that motivates the rest of the book: short-lived emperors often ruled a strong state; long-lasting emperors governed with a weak state. Using analytic narratives and descriptive statistics, the chapter shows a bird's-eye view of China's fiscal and military institutions, external and internal warfare, elite structure, ruler duration, and development of social organizations over a millennium. It reveals that the Chinese elites transitioned from an encompassing interest group with geographically dispersed social relations to a narrow interest group with localized social relations. The chapter also provides an analytic narrative for each of the three phases of China's state development, focusing on how rulers, central elites, and social groups interacted, which generated different equilibrium outcomes for the state and society. It then discusses how China's path of state development differs from Europe's.
The Myth of India’s Non-Aligned Foreign Policy
Authors: Sherman Taylor C.
Published: July 2023

This chapter discusses the myth of India's non-aligned foreign policy. Beginning with India's relations with the superpowers, it uncovers the depth of India's entanglement with the Anglo-American world. Non-alignment was at most an ambition, which gave India some tactical advantages in limited circumstances. However, if nonalignment was not the central principle, how are we to characterise India's foreign policy? Exploring the rhetoric of freedom-fighters turned emissaries, the chapter outlines the principles that underpinned their admittedly uncoordinated action on the international level. It also traces how India's post-imperial internationalism operated through different spheres of policy, from the global level through to its relations with overseas Indians, and its struggles with its neighbours.
The Myth of High Modernism in India
Authors: Sherman Taylor C.
Published: July 2023

This chapter addresses the myth of high modernism in India. No object is called upon more often to represent postcolonial India's approach to modernism than the enormous dam. Large dams are not the sole or even the most representative examples of India's modernism, but the chapter begins with these gigantic irrigation and electricity projects precisely because of what they have come to represent in the myth-making about Jawaharlal Nehru's India. The chapter then discusses the international collaboration to build the city of Chandigarh, before exploring the way Indians developed modernism for the masses in the form of affordable housing. The chapter concludes with a discussion of government patronage of Indian modern art in the 1950s and 1960s.
Faith in the Unseen
Authors: Lamb Michael
Published: July 2023

This chapter considers Augustine of Hippo's account of reason and authority as dual bases of faith. It also explores the various meanings of faith found in the works of Augustine. Augustine's account of faith is fundamentally relational, especially when he uses the term fides in various ways in different contexts. In relation to contemporary epistemology and philosophy of religion, Augustine's reasoning is often characterized by a “default and challenge” structure that allows belief or trust in authority unless or until there are sufficient reasons to abandon or adapt it. The chapter explains Augustine's account of relational faith wherein he recognizes the possibility of trusting in God or Christ and fellow human beings.
Hope in the Unseen
Authors: Lamb Michael
Published: July 2023

This chapter explores Augustine of Hippo's conceptual framework for understanding the grounds of faith and hope. It references Augustine's account of faith, reason, and authority to reconstruct the grounds of hope and shows how he affirms the legitimacy of hoping in both God and neighbor to achieve future good. His work Confessions illustrates how Augustine encourages hope in God and human neighbors. While Augustine may consider hope primarily as a form of love, the concept cannot be understood fully without also considering its complex relation to faith. The chapter also notes Augustine's extensive use of rhetoric to elicit emotions and form a rational strategy.
Art
Authors: Gill Michael B.
Published: July 2023

This chapter evaluates what the third Earl of Shaftesbury thought about the beauty of art. There were those in the seventeenth century who attacked the arts, maintaining that they inevitably led a person astray. Shaftesbury defended the arts; he argued that appreciating artistic beauty could play a role in the quest for virtue and happiness. Indeed, Shaftesbury believed that appreciation of artistic beauty could serve a morally instrumental purpose. He acknowledged that in claiming that virtuosoship can be a step toward virtue, he was opposing the seventeenth-century tendency to see the arts as morally pernicious. The chapter then looks at the instrumentalist and non-instrumentalist interpretation of Shaftesbury's view of artistic beauty. Ultimately, the forward thrust of his philosophy was that all experiences of beauty are in and of themselves enriching.
Writing
Authors: Gill Michael B.
Published: July 2023

This chapter explores another type of art that the third Earl of Shaftesbury believed represents morally significant conduct: writing. The chapte looks at his Soliloquy: or, Advice to an Author, which provides instruction to authors. Shaftesbury discusses poems and plays in Soliloquy, but he does not address himself chiefly to poets and playwrights. He addresses himself chiefly to writers who advise us how to live. The offenders included essayists, memoirists, and “super-speculative” philosophers. The chapter considers first how these writers fail, before discussing what Shaftesbury thinks they need to do to succeed. Ultimately, he advises authors to avoid writing offenses by practicing intensive self-reflection. Shaftesbury compares the author's process to the way a person uses a mirror: if writers wish to align with the right and good, and avoid the evil and dismal, they must use a mirror; they must try out their ideas on themselves.
Conclusion
Authors: Gill Michael B.
Published: July 2023

This concluding chapter reflects on the criticism of the third Earl of Shaftesbury's philosophical failings. As a result of his constitution and rank, critics claimed, Shaftesbury had no problem being virtuous. He wanted very little, and what he did want was handed to him on a silver platter. The fundamental philosophical mistake this led Shaftesbury to was the pernicious separation of morality from motives of reward and punishment. Because of his privilege and inborn disposition, Shaftesbury himself did not need the promise of reward and the threat of punishment in order to avoid wrongdoing. The chapter argues that in his writing, Shaftesbury rates the working people he interacted with as morally superior to the economically privileged. His point is that the idle rich are often much more corrupt and contemptible than working people. It is possible that Shaftesbury was actually acquainted with working people who really did exhibit the commitment to true work and the appreciation of beauty on which he modeled virtue.
Introduction
Authors: Tucker Paul
Published: July 2023

This chapter introduces the correlation between international monetary affairs and geopolitics. The first globalization, during the period leading up to World War I, reintroduced controls over trade, immigration, and flows of capital. However, changes surrounding labor-intensive production and communication technology happened after the Second World War and globalization. Moreover, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Immanuel Kant's intellectual legacies help further the understanding of how globalization influenced geopolitics and the legitimacy of international regimes and organizations. The chapter tackles the issues of globalization concerning the commons, geopolitics, and legitimacy. It also details the structure of Global Discord by looking into the concepts of history, political economy, geopolitics, political theory, and policy diagnosis and prescription.
The World Trade Organization and the System for International Trade
Authors: Tucker Paul
Published: July 2023

This chapter discusses the correlation between state-capitalist subsidies and the World Trade Organization (WTO). It elaborates on the substance and politics of the trade regime. While the old General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was a limited-scope trading regime of pluralist liberalism, the GATT harnessed incentives from the wider self-enforcing international order. The chapter considers the WTO as an international organization, citing that its lack of resilience was a problem of design. The WTO's Appellate Body operates fine where the parties are a big and a small state, or two big states sharing some semblance of thick Society but it falters when the parties are rival powers, the law is unclear, and the dispute's stakes are high.
Preferential Trade Pacts and Bilateral Investment Treaties
Authors: Tucker Paul
Published: July 2023

This chapter expounds on the notion of preferential trade pacts and bilateral investment treaties. It notes the possible national security measures for reconciling the demands of order and the economic system. The constraint on pluralism is vital, especially when constitutional democracies should favor the transnational application of norms against a state's ongoing consent only where necessary to satisfy some basic threshold of human decency, safety, and international society. The chapter highlights how discordant geopolitics hang over the issues of regional trade pacts and multilateral regimes. It notes the comparison between arbitration and judicialization when concerned with institutionalized cross-border investment law.
Conclusion
Authors: Saller Richard P.
Published: July 2023

This concluding chapter argues that Pliny's Natural History deserves more attention than it has received as a witness to Roman attitudes regarding innovation, investment, and what might be broadly labeled a culture of growth. The Natural History, taken as a whole, provides a window into the mindset of wealthy Romans regarding discovery and its implications for economic production. In some basic respects, Pliny's observations anticipated those of the great political economists of the eighteenth century, and in others his fundamental values and attitudes were quite different. Pliny's worldview cannot be taken as the general or dominant view held by all Roman imperial society, which was too variegated to make such a concept of a unitary ideology plausible. Nevertheless, the Natural History adds an important dimension to the understanding of the cultural context of the Roman economy.
The Nine Relays: Translation in China
Authors: Saussy Haun
Published: July 2023

This chapter discusses the practice of translation in China. In China, the translation of foreign works arises simultaneously with the project of a modern literature, and so the study of translation tends to become identified with the study of this literature. The turn toward the foreign was motivated by a feeling of lack, exhaustion, and defeat, as if the three-thousand-year history of China had finally run its course and needed to be replaced by something else. When texts from China are translated into French, English, or German, inter alia, the case is sometimes made that these are works that have the potential to transform the poetic language, the mental orientations, or the society and politics of the receiving cultures. Mediation between different languages and communities can take many forms. There are translators; there are chains of translators, as Sima Qian's scenario of the “nine relays” suggests; there are institutions, like the protocols of monastic revision devised by Dao'an to secure reliable versions of Buddhist texts imported by a variety of foreign informants; and not least, there are technologies, like the Chinese writing system or Arabic numerals, that create commensurabilities among separate linguistic communities. Chinese writing itself will prove both a tremendous enabler and a tremendous obliterator of translation.
Can the Barbarians Sing?
Authors: Saussy Haun
Published: July 2023

This chapter examines translated foreign poetry and song texts in premodern China. The Collected Discussions in the White Tiger Hall, compiled after 79 CE, include a discussion of the virtues of music, framed as a counterpart to ritual. Through the logic of serial redefinition and repeated parallelism characteristic of Warring States and Han systematizing thought, music is established among the institutions that realize the ideal community envisioned by the long-ago sages. The chapter looks at the Four Alien Tribes' music, differentiating between the Yi and Di music. It considers the meaning of the term yi, “alien” or “barbarian.” Using the designation yi has the effect of excluding the people referred to from the realm of manners, morals, reason, ritual, music, li, and wen. The chapter then describes how barbarian song survives in ethnographic writing: for example, the memoirs on foreign nations that fill up the last few chapters of each dynastic history.
The Formation of China: Asymmetries in the Writing of History
Authors: Saussy Haun
Published: July 2023

This chapter focuses on the writing of history in China. People who are aware of the multicultural character of China often write the history of China in the mode of comedy, of reconciliation. At the outset of the story, there are differences and conflicts, but in the end the differences are resolved into a unity or harmony and everyone is better off than they were in the state of conflict. Chinese culture emerges as the reconciliation of North and South, but under the watchful eye and social conscience of the North. In such tellings, the northern culture of the Central States expands to “absorb” and digest what it needs from the culture of the South, perhaps being modified by it in some particulars but not in its essence. It is never the case that the culture of the Central States is absorbed by anything else.
The Institutional Foundation of Economic Development
Authors: Tang Shiping
Published: July 2023

Institutions matter for economic development. Yet despite this accepted wisdom, new institutional economics has yet to provide a comprehensive look at what constitutes the institutional foundation of economic development (IFED). Bringing together findings from a range a fields, from development economics and development studies to political science and sociology, this book explores the precise mechanisms through which institutions affect growth. The book contends that institutions shape economic development through four “Big Things”: possibility, incentive, capability, and opportunity. From this perspective, IFED has six major dimensions: political hierarchy, property rights, social mobility, redistribution, innovation protection, and equal opportunity. The book further argues that IFED is only one pillar within the New Development Triangle: sustained economic development also requires strong state capacity and sound socioeconomic policies. Arguing for an evolutionary approach tied to a country's stage of development, the book advances an understanding of institutions and economic development through a holistic, interdisciplinary lens.
Redistribution and Development
Authors: Tang Shiping
Published: July 2023

This chapter considers good redistribution as empowerment. Public investment in basic education has long been identified as one of the most beneficial redistributive public policies because it greatly improves disadvantaged individuals' capabilities and their chances of further success. The chapter elaborates on a model explicitly delineating the share of public investment out of the total cost of basic education and a household's budget as central factors in shaping households' decisions to invest in human capital. It explores the data of China's reform in funding basic education as a reference. The model also accommodates financial cost and capability concerns as the factors that underpin the rational calculation of dropping out.
The Shamama Case
Authors: Marglin Jessica
Published: July 2023

In the winter of 1873, Nissim Shamama, a wealthy Jew from Tunisia, died suddenly in his palazzo in Livorno, Italy. His passing initiated a fierce lawsuit over his large estate. Before Shamama's riches could be disbursed among his aspiring heirs, Italian courts had to decide which law to apply to his estate—a matter that depended on his nationality. Was he an Italian citizen? A subject of the Bey of Tunis? Had he become stateless? Or was his Jewishness also his nationality? Tracing a decade-long legal battle involving Jews, Muslims, and Christians from both sides of the Mediterranean, the book offers a riveting history of citizenship across regional, cultural, and political borders. On its face, the crux of the lawsuit seemed simple: To which state did Shamama belong when he died? But the case produced hundreds of pages in legal briefs and thousands of dollars in lawyers' fees before the man's estate could be distributed among his quarrelsome heirs. The book follows the unfolding of events, from Shamama's rise to power in Tunis and his self-imposed exile in France, to his untimely death in Livorno and the clashing visions of nationality advanced during the lawsuit. The book brings to life a Dickensian array of individuals involved in the case. Drawing from a wealth of correspondence, legal briefs, rabbinic opinions, and court rulings, the book reimagines how we think about Jews, the Mediterranean, and belonging in the nineteenth century.
Conte Shamama the Italian
Authors: Marglin Jessica M.
Published: July 2023

This chapter addresses how, following the initial court ruling in Livorno, each side of the Shamama case hired some of the most famous scholars of international law in Italy. Pasquale Stanislao Mancini, father of the nationality principle that revolutionized private international law across the globe, agreed to represent ʻAziza and Nissim Jr. Augusto Pierantoni, Mancini's disciple and a rising star in his own right, joined the legal team working for General Husayn ibn ʻAbdallah and the Tunisian government. Rather than agreeing that Nissim Shamama had died stateless—which would have ensured that the will was adjudicated according to Italian law—Mancini insisted that Nissim passed away as an Italian citizen. He argued this from two angles. First, because Nissim descended from Livornese Jews, the late count was subject to a distinct set of naturalization requirements. This approach relied on the increasing entanglement of legal belonging with ethnicity in the age of nationalism. Second, Mancini maintained that citizenship was not just a matter of paperwork; belonging could also be produced through good faith and reputation. In Mancini's deft hands, Nissim's belief that he had become Italian and his public performance of Italian citizenship became legally meaningful elements of his biography.
Legal Belonging, Past and Present
Authors: Marglin Jessica M.
Published: July 2023

This epilogue discusses how the Mediterranean and its Jews offer a preeminent platform from which to launch a new understanding of citizenship. North Africa and the Middle East have long been a foil to the West, just as Jews were the oldest Other in Christendom. Nissim Shamama's life and death forced Europeans and Maghribis to account for the gaps in their ideas about belonging. Likewise, the lawsuit over his estate compels historians to articulate an alternative account of citizenship—across the modern Mediterranean and beyond. Much has changed about citizenship since the nineteenth century. After World War I, legal belonging became increasingly associated with the right to benefit from the growing welfare state. At the same time, borders only became harder to cross; by the late twentieth century, global mobility became largely limited to the privileged few from North America and Europe.
Contemporary Poland and “the Jews”
Authors: Zubrzycki GeneviÈve
Published: July 2023

This introductory chapter provides an overview of contemporary Poland. What Poland is and “should be” has been at the center of public debates and political fights since the fall of state socialism. In the contest over Poland and Polishness, history and memory occupy center stage, and no other aspect of Polish history has been more disputed than that of Polish–Jewish relations. The chapter explains how the book argues that both anti- and philosemitism—non-Jews' support of, and even identification with, Jews—are part of a single struggle to define what constitutes Polishness. Polish philosemitism is a dynamic, unfolding movement that, in its most introspective form, challenges the narrow ethnocultural association of Polishness with Catholicism. It strives to articulate a civic and secular definition of national identity and to build a modern polity. The book shows why and how this project has arisen and examines its challenges and limitations. The chapter then considers the publication in 2000 of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland by the Polish-born, US-based historian Jan Tomasz Gross, which provoked a narrative shock.
Traces and the Sensorium
Authors: Zubrzycki GeneviÈve
Published: July 2023

This chapter discusses how memory activists have worked to resurrect Polish Jewish history and awaken Poles' memories of Jews in the past two decades. The recognition of Jewish absence in its historical-temporal dimension can activate a phenomenological aspect of absence: the experience of absence as a negative state, a void, a vacuum, a hole. Such experiences of loss often generate nostalgia. These dimensions of absence are not mutually exclusive, and they are implicated in complex historical, political, and sociopsychological processes of forgetting and remembering. The chapter then analyzes a process of creative historical salvage through which socially conscious and politically engaged actors, non-governmental organizations, and official institutions give material form to historical-temporal absence. The signposting of vanished Jewish spaces, the marking of some ruins as Jewish, the resurrection of Jewish material culture, and the embodied commemoration of people and places are part of an attempt not only to acknowledge Jewish history but to make Poles cognizant of Jewish absence and perhaps even to feel it physically and emotionally.