bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Habitat use, interspecific competition and phylogenetic history shape the evolution of claw and toepad morphology in Lesser Antillean anoles
Authors: Yuan Michael L , Jung Catherine , Wake Marvalee H , Wang Ian J
Published: December 2019

Ecologically functional traits are the product of several, at times opposing, selective forces. Thus, ecomorphological patterns can be disrupted locally by biotic interactions, such as competition, and may not be consistent across lineages. Here, we studied the evolution of claws and toepads in relationship to macrohabitat (vegetation), use of structural microhabitat (perch height) and congeneric competition for two distantly related Lesser Antillean anole clades: the Anolis bimaculatus and Anolis roquet series. We collected univariate and geometric morphometric data from 254 individuals across 22 species to test the hypotheses that functional morphology should covary with both vegetation and perch height and that the presence of a competitor may disrupt such covariation. Our data showed predictable associations between morphology and macrohabitat on single-species islands but not when a congeneric competitor was present. The outcomes of competition differed between series, however. In the A. bimaculatus series, species with a sympatric congener diverged in claw and toepad traits consistent with functional predictions, whereas A. roquet series anoles showed either no association between habitat and morphology or the opposite pattern. Our results demonstrated that ecomorphological patterns across macrohabitats can be disrupted by competition-driven microhabitat partitioning and that specific morphological responses to similar ecological pressures can vary between lineages.
Rifampicin Can Be Given as Flat-Dosing Instead of Weight-Band Dosing
Authors: Susanto Budi O , Svensson Robin J , Svensson Elin M , Aarnoutse Rob , Boeree Martin J , Simonsson Ulrika S H
Published: December 2019

Background

The weight-band dosing in tuberculosis treatment regimen has been implemented in clinical practice for decades. Patients will receive different number of fixed dose combination tablets according to their weight-band. However, some analysis has shown that weight was not the best covariate to explain variability of rifampicin exposure. Furthermore, the rationale for using weight-band dosing instead of flat-dosing becomes questionable. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the average and the variability of rifampicin exposure after weight-band dosing and flat-dosing.

Methods

Rifampicin exposure were simulated using previously published population pharmacokinetics model at dose 10–40 mg/kg for weight-band dosing and dose 600–2400 mg for flat-dosing. The median area under the curve (AUC0–24 h) after day 7 and 14 were compared as well as the variability of each dose group between weight-band and flat-dosing.

Results

The difference of median AUC0–24 h of all dose groups between flat-dosing and weight-band dosing were considered low (< 20%) except for the lowest dose. At the dose of 10 mg/kg (600 mg for flat-dosing), flat-dosing resulted in higher median AUC0–24h compared to the weight-band dosing. A marginal decrease in between-patient variability was predicted for weight-band dosing compared to flat-dosing.

Conclusions

Weight-band dosing yields a small and non-clinically relevant decrease in variability of AUC0–24h.
Stent graft deployment in haemodialysis fistula: patency rates in partially thrombosed aneurysm and residual thrombi
Authors: García-Medina José , Maldonado-Cárceles Ana B , García-Alfonso Juan J , Árense-Gonzalo Julián J , Torres-Cantero Alberto M
Published: December 2019

Background

Current evidence is insufficient to determine the contribution of stent grafts as treatment in partially thrombosed aneurysms or residual wall-adherent thrombi in arteriovenous fistulae (AVFs) for haemodialysis. The overall purpose of this study was to analyse patency rates of post-interventional covered stent deployment in those cases. We also assessed if patency rates differed when fistulas were punctured through the stent during dialysis sessions.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective study between 2006 and 2014 analysing post-intervention primary patency rates using the Kaplan–Meier log-rank test. Multivariate Cox proportional regression models were performed to determine if cannulation within the stent graft area was a potential risk factor for occlusion, by adjusted hazard ratio (HR).

Results

A total of 27 procedures were included in the study. Primary patency rates (%) after stent deployment at 3, 6, 12, 24, 36 and 72 months were, respectively: total 59, 32, 32, 21, 11 and 5; stent puncture 53, 21, 21, 16, 5 and 0; and no stent puncture 80, 80, 80, 40, 40 and 40. Cannulation through the stent graft was not significantly associated with increased risk of obstruction in multivariate analysis (HR = 3.01; P = 0.286).

Conclusion

Stent graft treatment may be a feasible procedure in partially thrombosed aneurysms and residual thrombi in AVF. Although fistulas punctured through the stent presented lower patency rates, this practice was not associated with a higher risk of obstruction. Giving the impossibility of comparing with similar approaches, further studies are needed to confirm or refute the advantages of this procedure.
Shot-gun proteomics: why thousands of unidentified signals matter
Authors: den Ridder Maxime , Daran-Lapujade Pascale , Pabst Martin
Published: December 2019

Mass spectrometry-based proteomics has become a constitutional part of the multi-omics toolbox in yeast research, advancing fundamental knowledge of molecular processes and guiding decisions in strain and product developmental pipelines. Nevertheless, post-translational protein modifications (PTMs) continue to challenge the field of proteomics. PTMs are not directly encoded in the genome; therefore, they require a sensitive analysis of the proteome itself. In yeast, the relevance of post-translational regulators has already been established, such as for phosphorylation, which can directly affect the reaction rates of metabolic enzymes. Whereas, the selective analysis of single modifications has become a broadly employed technique, the sensitive analysis of a comprehensive set of modifications still remains a challenge. At the same time, a large number of fragmentation spectra in a typical shot-gun proteomics experiment remain unidentified. It has been estimated that a good proportion of those unidentified spectra originates from unexpected modifications or natural peptide variants. In this review, recent advancements in microbial proteomics for unrestricted protein modification discovery are reviewed, and recent research integrating this additional layer of information to elucidate protein interaction and regulation in yeast is briefly discussed.
Venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use in staged combined heart–kidney transplant
Authors: Al Saadi Tareq , Sciamanna Christopher , Andrade Ambar , Pauwaa Sunil , Macaluso Gregory , Joshi Anjali , Dia Muhyaldeen , Cotts William , Pappas Patroklos , Bresticker Michael , Tatooles Antone
Published: December 2019

Outside of heart and lung transplantation, only few cases have been reported describing venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) use in solid organ transplantation. We present a case of a staged combined heart–kidney transplant in which VA-ECMO was utilized after a complicated orthotopic heart transplantation to successfully complete the subsequent renal transplantation.
Invasive traits of veronicellid slugs in the Hawaiian Islands and temperature response suggesting possible range shifts under a changing climate
Authors: Sommer Rachel M , Cowie Robert H
Published: December 2019

Understanding life history traits is important for assessing potential invasiveness, particularly in the context of the future spread of invasive species under climate change. A number of species of Veronicellidae have been introduced beyond their native ranges and have become invasive. Two of these species, Veronicella cubensis and Laevicaulis alte, are widespread in Hawaii, yet little is known of their life histories. This study of growth and reproduction and their relation to temperature in these two species was undertaken using laboratory stocks derived from individuals collected in Hawaii. More data were collected for V. cubensis than for L. alte because of difficulty maintaining the latter in the lab. Veronicella cubensis grew faster at 22 °C than at 27 °C. At 22 °C, the mean age at which V. cubensis first mated was 203 d, and the mean age when eggs were first laid was 226 d. Mating in V. cubensis lasted more than a day, and it took up to 4 d to lay an egg mass. Mating took less than a day in L. alte. No self-fertilization was recorded in V. cubensis, but a single L. alte individual maintained alone from hatching laid fertilized eggs. Sperm storage after a single mating in V. cubensis was estimated to last up to 6 months. In both species the time for eggs to hatch was shorter at 27 °C than at 22 °C. Hatchability was between 74 and 93%. Veronicella cubensis lived for at least 2 years and was estimated to produce at least 400 eggs over its life. Climate warming will probably lead to expansion of the ranges of V. cubensis and L. alte to higher elevations in Hawaii and elsewhere. Growth and reproduction will also be affected by a warming climate and therefore impact the success of these invasive species.
The effect of adjuvant radiotherapy on overall survival in adults with intracranial ependymoma
Authors: Prabhu Roshan S , Corso Christopher D , Ward Matthew C , Heinzerling John H , Dhakal Reshika , Buchwald Zachary S , Patel Kirtesh R , Asher Anthony L , Sumrall Ashley L , Burri Stuart H
Published: December 2019

Background

Adult intracranial ependymoma is rare, and the role for adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) is not well defined.

Methods

We used the National Cancer Database (NCDB) to select adults (age ≥ 22 years) with grade 2 to 3 intracranial ependymoma status postresection between 2004 and 2015 and treated with adjuvant RT vs observation. Four cohorts were generated: (1) all patients, (2) grade 2 only, (3) grade 2 status post–subtotal resection only, (4) and grade 3 only. The association between adjuvant RT use and overall survival (OS) was assessed using multivariate Cox and propensity score matched analyses.

Results

A total of 1787 patients were included in cohort 1, of which 856 patients (48%) received adjuvant RT and 931 (52%) were observed. Approximately two-thirds of tumors were supratentorial and 80% were grade 2. Cohorts 2, 3, and 4 included 1471, 345, and 316 patients, respectively. There was no significant association between adjuvant RT use and OS in multivariate or propensity score matched analysis in any of the cohorts. Older age, male sex, urban location, higher comorbidity score, earlier year of diagnosis, and grade 3 were associated with increased risk of death.

Conclusions

This large NCDB study did not demonstrate a significant association between adjuvant RT use and OS for adults with intracranial ependymoma, including for patients with grade 2 ependymoma status post–subtotal resection. The conflicting results regarding the efficacy of adjuvant RT in this patient population highlight the need for high-quality studies to guide therapy recommendations in adult ependymoma.
Probability Designs
Authors: Kukkonen Karin
Published: December 2019

Probability Designs develops a comprehensive account of the predictions and probabilities at play in literature, in particular novels. Novels, it is argued, provide readers with a designed sensory flow in their plots, style, and relation to other texts. The model traces, based on research in predictive processing, how this designed sensory flow revises readers’ expectations and leads them to engage in exploratory thinking. The model is then embedded in a co-evolutionary account of how language, writing, and fictionality enable literary designer environments in which thought can be extended beyond the everyday. Literary form, as traced in probability designs, performs particular cognitive work in these designer environments.
Probability Designs
Authors: Kukkonen Karin
Published: December 2019

The chapter discusses the assumptions behind the notion of ‘design’ in greater detail. It draws on arguments around intentionality, manuscript genetics, and the extended mind. Design is understood as the author’s engagement with the materials of pen and paper, but also the language and the characters that emerge in the creative process. The conceptualisation of design, then, unfolds between improvisation and planning, between intentions and the resistance that comes from the materials. The chapter concludes by developing a distinction between reading for intentionality and reading for design, which relates to recent discussions in cognitive narratology and literary studies.
An Elopement!
Authors: Kukkonen Karin
Published: December 2019

In the chapters that follow, the second-order probability design is developed. The second-order probability design revolves around second-order predictions about predictions, and it is traced in embodied aspects of reading (II.1), readers’ sense of presence (II.2), sense of flow (II.3), and the metafictional nudges that the text provides (II.4).
The Dynamics of Presence
Authors: Kukkonen Karin
Published: December 2019

The chapter discusses the phenomenon of readers’ sense of presence in the narrative. It argues that readers develop a sense of ‘being there’ predominantly through the integration of textual cues that evoke exteroceptive and interoceptive embodiment. The perception of bodily states from the outside (exteroception) and from the inside (interoception) is joined by the counterfactual richness of these embodied cues, enabling multiple engagements, as a second feature of ‘presence’. These features lead to a reconsideration of how cognitive narratology has conceived of presence, immersion, and absorption. Rather than the space of the fictional world, here the dynamic of designed sensory flow is foregrounded.
Metafictional Nudging
Authors: Kukkonen Karin
Published: December 2019

The chapter makes the argument that the moments when the narrative refers to itself do not necessarily disrupt readers’ immersion and sense of flow. Movement between different diegetic levels in mise-en-abyme can unfold fluently, and the joint attention is usually maintained. Instances of metafiction and metanarration rather serve as ‘nudges’ in the second-order probability designs that redirect readers’ attention while maintaining it. Novels as distant in time from each other as Heliodorus’ Ethiopian Adventures and Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin deploy metafictional nudges in their second-order probability design, provoking readers without relinquishing sense of flow.
Harmony
Authors: Berg Christopher
Published: December 2019

This chapter explores the harmonic resources of the instrument and builds upon the fingerboard harmony material in chapter 1. Playing homophonic textures on the guitar creates problems of smoothness and connection. Fernando Sor recognized this and provided rests between chords in his Op. 35, No. 11 and Op. 31, No. 20. Two arpeggio pieces of special harmonic interest are also included. This chapter challenges the widely accepted instruction that recommends the placing of all the left-hand fingers that are to form a chord at the same time, whether or not the notes of the chord are arpeggiated or struck simultaneously. This advice, repeated in almost every guitar method since the early 19th century, accounts for one of the reasons guitarists have difficulty performing convincing legato phrasing. The chapter presents alternative advice, the reasons behind it, and exercises to help develop this technical and artistic refinement.
Preliminaries
Authors: Schwenkler John
Published: December 2019

This chapter discusses the argument of Sections 1-4 of G.E.M. Anscombe’s Intention. Attention is paid to the “three headings” under which she introduces her topic: expression of intention, intentional action, and intention in acting; and then to her preliminary discussion of expression of intention. Important concepts that are discussed in this chapter include the relation between the expression of intention and prediction, the question of what is described in expressing an intention, the difference between how expressions of intention and estimates of the future are grounded or justified, and the way that expressions of intention set the standard of correctness for the events that they describe. The chapter also explores Anscombe’s reasons for considering the topic of intentional action before attempting to characterize intention as an inner state of mind.
Beginnings of an Account
Authors: Schwenkler John
Published: December 2019

This chapter discusses the argument of Sections 5-18 of G.E.M. Anscombe’s Intention. It begins by considering Anscombe’s reasons for defining the concept of intentional action according to “a certain sense of the question ‘Why?’”. Following this, the chapter considers Anscombe’s discussion of several ways that this question can be refused application, each of which leads her to introduce a necessary condition of intentional action. Important concepts that are discussed in this chapter include those of knowledge without observation, mental causality, motive, and the relation between causes and reasons for acting. Anscombe’s account of these matters is contrasted in several places with that of Gilbert Ryle, and it is argued, contrary to Donald Davidson, that Anscombe was not in fact an “anti-causalist” about action explanation. The chapter also considers the possibility of doing something intentionally but “for no reason”, or for reasons that one cannot easily identify or express.
Practical Reasoning
Authors: Schwenkler John
Published: December 2019

This chapter discusses the argument of Sections 33-43 of G.E.M. Anscombe’s Intention. It begins by presenting Anscombe’s argument that the premises in a practical syllogism, i.e. the considerations from which a person reasons in deciding what she will do, are not supposed to provide a proof of the conclusion that is drawn from them. Close attention is paid to the difference between Anscombe’s position and that of R.M. Hare, and several objections to her argument are considered. Following this, the chapter explores Anscombe’s Aristotelian account of practical reasoning as a way of calculating means to an end. The chapter also discusses the role of desire in practical reasoning, the thesis that desire for an object involves seeing it “under the aspect of some good”, and Anscombe’s argument that a practical syllogism represents a means–end order that is present in action itself.
Introduction
Authors: Brumbaugh Michael
Published: December 2019

The introduction provides an overview of the scope and shape of the inquiry undertaken in The New Politics of Olympos. Additionally, it attempts to establish a new frame of reference for thinking about interactions between Kallimachos’ Hymns and the burgeoning Ptolemaic regime. The approach outlined here and throughout the book is meant to move outside the confines of formalist notions of genre and stereotypes of the scholar poet by reframing the analysis around the broader interplay between literature and political power in the Hellenistic world. Furthermore, the introduction orients readers toward a new approach to reading the six poems that make up Kallimachos’ Hymns intratextually—as a carefully arranged poetry book.
Zeus as a Paradigm for Dynastic Continuity
Authors: Brumbaugh Michael
Published: December 2019

This chapter looks at ways in which the Hymn to Zeus jointly praises Zeus and the Ptolemaic kings. It takes as its starting point the scholarly consensus that associates this hymn with the first succession in the Ptolemaic dynasty. Against that historical context, it demonstrates that the standard myth of Zeus’ rise to power was ill suited to the Ptolemaic succession. Zeus was an important symbol for Ptolemy I Soter’s kingship, and of Makedonian kingship more broadly, but the god became king via a brutal cycle of oppression and usurpation that pitted father against son, as Hesiod’s Theogony famously recounts. Kallimachos decouples the god’s kingship from its violent origins in order to create a pro-dynastic discourse capable of quelling anxiety occasioned by Ptolemy II Philadelphos’ contested succession. The true measure of the poet’s success is that, by selectively calling attention to points of contention within the tradition and passing over others, he persuades his audience to accept his new Zeus unhesitatingly.
Kallimachos’ Hymn “On Kingship”
Authors: Brumbaugh Michael
Published: December 2019

This chapter assesses how Kallimachos characterizes Zeus’ kingship and the structure of his political regime in the Hymn to Zeus. Depicting Zeus as a powerful figure who uses force to take what he wants, Kallimachos initially presents political power as derived from physical power. The poet’s rejection of the lottery myth as a plausible rationale for Zeus’ ascension rhetorically reinforces this notion, while at the same time activating a Homeric intertext in which Zeus and Poseidon engage in a debate over whether the Iliadic politics of Olympos is an absolute monarchy or an oligarchy. Siding with Zeus in favor of monarchy, the hymnist elaborates a political hierarchy that ultimately implicates the king in an oversight role over those beneath him. Refiguring the king as a guardian and judge, Kallimachos expands his earlier account of kingly power to embrace a wider variety of kingly virtues. Through allusions to the proemial hymns that open Hesiod’s Works and Days and Theogony, Kallimachos further refines his presentation of the king’s prerogatives as he negotiates a role for the poet in constituting and projecting the king’s authority.
Teaching Hope, Not Grit
Authors: Stitzlein Sarah M.
Published: December 2019

This chapter locates teaching hope as a central task of schools, especially within social studies classes and citizenship education. It exposes worrisome problems with one seemingly hope-aligned educational approach that has gained some traction in schools: developing grit. That approach is problematically individualist and perpetuates injustices and inequities in our society, which may perpetuate despair. To depict a better alternative to grit, this chapter describes quality approaches to citizenship education and locates cultivating habits of hope within them. More than teaching grit, teaching hope provides an approach that is more flexible, social, and political, all the while promoting action that improves one’s life and those of other people.
A Biographical Sketch of Gurdjieff
Authors: Azize Joseph
Published: December 2019

Gurdjieff is described as a man with a rich heritage, that of the Greek-origin inhabitants of Asia Minor, but no home, being disposed by the events of the Russian Revolution. He transplanted his teaching from Russia to Western Europe, eventually adopting France as his permanent base, although he made many trips to the United States, which he considered an important field for his work. This chapter concisely examines his life in several stages, and especially his collaborations with P. D. Ouspensky and A. R. Orage, both of which collapsed. It notes the important final years in Paris, when Jeanne de Salzmann emerged as his lieutenant. The chapter closes with an assessment of the overall trajectory of his life.
An Overview of Gurdjieff’s Ideas
Authors: Azize Joseph
Published: December 2019

Gurdjieff’s teaching was based on a set of coherent principles, relating the ultimate unity of the Creation to the diversity of the phenomena in it. Reality, for Gurdjieff, is a property of the whole, the reality of the phenomena being only relative. This analysis considers his doctrines of matter and materiality, the Ray of Creation (the procession of existence, from God or the Absolute to humanity). This chapter also treats of his anthropology, based on the human “centers” or brains, and the concepts of “doing” and “sleep,” “work,” “self-remembering,” the digestion of cosmic goods, duty and “conscious labor and intentional suffering,” and, finally, his views on religion and prayer.
Gurdjieff and the Mystical Tradition
Authors: Azize Joseph
Published: December 2019

Gurdjieff was fundamentally a mystic in that his system was designed to come into a state where the lower centers or “brains” (mind, feeling, organic instinct) are made healthy and are harmonised together and are aligned with the higher “centers”. In Gurdjieff’s teaching, the higher centers receive the impressions which are the content of mystical experiences, but the lower centers, being disharmonized and undeveloped, cannot come into contact with the higher centers without fainting away before the flood of new and unaccustomed impressions. That is, Gurdjieff’s system is said to allow one to come to a unified sense of one’s own presence, as a whole; and this whole can stand in a sound relation to the cosmic whole, and maintain some consciousness when perceiving objective reality. His affinities with Neoplatonism and the Orthodox spirituality of Mount Athos are discussed, especially the Philokalia, the Russian book The Way of a Pilgrim, and the Orthodox practice of the Jesus Prayer.
Gurdjieff to the Early 1930s
Authors: Azize Joseph
Published: December 2019

By the end of 1930, a crucial shift had taken place in Gurdjieff’s teaching. He had effectively closed his French operations to concentrate on his writing, and, although it was probably not his intention, he had significantly reduced the operations of the groups that A. R. Orage had been maintaining for him in the United States. Orage had been developing Gurdjieff’s tasks into disciplines and now wanted to produce more developed exercises. Gurdjieff took over that line of research and teaching, but alienated Orage. The first traces of the new theories and methods are found in the often overlooked booklet The Herald of Coming Good.
The First Series
Authors: Azize Joseph
Published: December 2019

A comparison of the 1931 and 1950 versions of Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson, brings into focus the development of Gurdjieff’s contemplation-like exercises. In the latter edition, he coins a compound word (Aiëssirittoorassnian-contemplation), and sets out the terms of one exercise: his Genuine Being Duty Exercise. This is the earliest truly contemplative exercise which can safely be attributed to Gurdjieff, and it bears some but not all of the marks of his later exercises. A comparison of the 1939 exercise “Make Strong! Not Easy Thing” with what Gurdjieff says about Aiëssirittoorassnian-contemplation shows that what he means by the latter is exemplified in the 1939 exercise. Gurdjieff’s insistence on the importance of consciously inhaling and digesting the higher-substances in the air, and having a cognised (clear) intention is noted.
The Soil Preparing Exercise from the Third Series
Authors: Azize Joseph
Published: December 2019

Although it is impossible to accurately date the exercises given in Life Is Real, Only Then, When “I Am,” it is clear that they were not delivered viva voce or in 1930 or 1931 as stated. They are literary productions and show a high degree of finessing. Scholars, generally, have appreciated neither their importance for understanding Gurdjieff’s teaching, nor how they point to a development in Gurdjieff’s techniques. The first of these, the Soil Preparing Exercise is, it is suggested, based on the use of beads, as in the Orthodox Christian tradition. It aims to help the practitioner raise to consciousness and bring into harmony the lower centers or brains. It also helps the practitioner to differentiate “feeling” and “sensation,” and to control their attention.
The First Assisting Exercise from the Third Series
Authors: Azize Joseph
Published: December 2019

The second exercise in Life Is Real, Only Then, When “I Am,” is the First Assisting Exercise, which is probably adapted from the Jesus Prayer, especially in the form taught by Nicephorus the Solitary in the Philokalia, and evokes the “Ego Exercise” as Gurdjieff told Ouspensky it was practised on Mount Athos. The exercise is set out, and its apparent simplicity is shown to be a highly developed and sophisticated product of much distillation of thought and experience. It is based around the conscious uttering of the words “I Am,” which is central to Gurdjieff’s teaching and techniques. This strengthening the feeling of one’s own presence marks Gurdjieff’s system as what scholars term a “dialogical form” of mystical experience, i.e. one in which one’s sense of individuality is not merged with the Absolute.
The Second Assisting Exercise from the Third Series
Authors: Azize Joseph
Published: December 2019

The third exercise in Life Is Real, Only Then, When “I Am,” is the Second Assisting Exercise, which is probably adapted from the Prayer of the Heart, especially in the form taught by Nicephorus the Solitary in the Philokalia. In this chapter the exercise is set out, together with the alleged original. The similarities are noted, and the differences are explained, and the case that all three of the exercises in Life Is Real are influenced by and modelled on those from Nicephorus is supported by the comparison. Gurdjieff’s alignment of these exercises with his system are highlighted, in particular, the conscious ordering and harmonising of the centers under the direction of a centralised intention, or “real I”.
Exercises from the Transcripts of 1941–1946
Authors: Azize Joseph
Published: December 2019

With these transcripts of Gurdjieff’s meetings in Paris between 1941 and 1946, we witness a lavish, almost virtuoso production of exercises of Transformed-contemplation. These include exercises for relaxation, sensation, harmonizing the work of the centers, collection within one’s atmosphere, what Gurdjieff called “active reasoning,” and using counting as a means of keeping the lower part of the mind quiet while attending to contemplation-like exercises. Not the least important aspect of his teaching in this period is the advice to formulate a daily program while in a collected state, so that the results of the exercises would influence the exercitant’s state while the exercitant is acting in the social domain of life, and thus bridging, as it were, the contemplative and the active states.
The Reality of Being
Authors: Azize Joseph
Published: December 2019

Turning now to exercises taught by Gurdjieff’s pupils, this is the first serious academic study of any aspect of de Salzmann’s The Reality of Being. The volume is an edited collection of translated notes, not always clear even upon investigation. Gurdjieff himself considered de Salzmann his leading pupil in the 1940s, and her critical role in passing on his methods can hardly be overstated. The most important exercises found in this book are examined, and their connection to Gurdjieff’s own efforts shown. In particular, the exercise which she attributes to Gurdjieff for relating the feeling of the words “I Am” to the sensation of the physical body, is a significant addition to the corpus of Gurdjieff’s exercises, and exemplifies several aspects of his teaching. However, a discontinuity from Gurdjieff’s methods is also apparent, e.g. in the “I, Me Exercise” which there is reason to think is not by Gurdjieff, and indeed is at variance with some of his ideas. This is supplemented by a consideration of the “New Work” methods which de Salzmann introduced after Gurdjieff’s death. The deleterious effect of these innovations upon the transmission of the authentic Gurdjieff exercises is noted.
The Preparation
Authors: Azize Joseph
Published: December 2019

The Preparation was the chief practical method used by Gurdjieff in his final years, being attested as early as 1946, while all its elements are known from 1941. It is given here in two versions, as later taught by George and Helen Adie. Together with the Preparation, a daily program would be decided on. The use of a daily program including regular appointments to remember oneself during the day, which are attested in 1943, were linked to the Preparation once it had been formulated and instituted. It was to be used at the very start of the day and, as Adie said, to help the progression from sleep to waking to continue through to the fuller waking which is “self-remembering.” Central to the Preparation is to undertake with an intention and aim, with a helpful posture, and by raising the main faculties (thought, feeling and organic instinct) to consciousness and into a harmonious relationship, crowned by the affirmation “I Am.” The testimony of other pupils of Gurdjieff, most notably Henriette Lannes, Jean Vaysse, and Hugh Brockwill Ripman, is referred to. The range of supportive evidence for the Preparation as taught by the Adies shows that it must have been attributable to Gurdjieff, and given some importance by him.
Citizenship in an Age of Representation
Authors: Dienstag Joshua Foa
Published: December 2019

The problems of representation are not just those of fidelity and competence. Even when representatives are perfectly honest and dedicated, as in Spike Jonze’s film Her, representation itself is in tension with the equality and reciprocity that is at the heart of human relationships. Humans are apt to ignore this tension, however, in favor of the pleasures of representation. Jonze’s film, about a man in love with an artificial intelligence designed to serve him, exemplifies this dilemma of pleasure and autonomy. To the extent that a system of representation interferes with human society, it is an enemy of democracy. Democracy may be supported or aided by representation, but it cannot be wholly constituted by it.
Metaphysics and Material Modes
Authors: Schmaltz Tad M.
Published: December 2019

This chapter concerns the metaphysical basis for Suárez’s account of the material world. It begins with his “analogical” metaphysics, which constitutes a distinctive contribution to the medieval scholastic debate over the applicability of the notion of “being” to God and creatures. Then there is a consideration of Suárez’s introduction into the scholastic theory of distinctions of a modal distinction intermediate between the real and rational distinctions. This new intermediate distinction yields the first clear instance of the early modern notion of a mode. The chapter ends with an examination of the two material modes that are most important for Suárez, namely, the substantial mode of union, which serves to unite substantial form and prime matter, and the accidental mode of inherence, which accounts for the connection between a material substance and its “real accidents.”
Metaphysical Themes from Suárez
Authors: Schmaltz Tad M.
Published: December 2019

This chapter considers three metaphysical themes from Suárez that are reflected in Descartes’s account of the material world. The first theme involves the Suárezian conception of a mode, which had a direct influence on Descartes’s mature metaphysics. The other two themes indicate not a direct influence of Suárez on Descartes, but rather the presence of certain issues in Descartes that Suárez’s work serves to highlight. One of these themes concerns the relation of quantity to impenetrability. Descartes’s discussion of this relation reveals that he needs some version of the Suárezian distinction between quantified and unquantified extension. The final theme concerns the ontological status of surfaces. Descartes adopts a “modal realist” view of such entities that draws on Suárez’s notion of mode, but that also differs from Suárez’s own “moderate realist” view of the indivisibles.
Material Pluralism and Ordinary Bodies
Authors: Schmaltz Tad M.
Published: December 2019

This chapter addresses the question of whether Descartes adopts the “pluralist” view that the material world is composed of distinct substantial parts, or rather the “monist” view that there is a single extended substance, of which all bodies are modes. The defense here of a pluralist reading of Descartes highlights the result in the Synopsis to the Meditations that the realm of extension is composed of distinct substantial and incorruptible “bodies-taken-in-general.” This result is considered in relation to Spinoza’s argument that the Cartesian rejection of a vacuum in nature requires a monistic account of extended substance. Finally, there is an examination of the question of whether the view in the Synopsis allows room at a fundamental level for bodies distinct from bodies-taken-in-general. It is argued that though Descartes perhaps has room at this level for human bodies, he does not have room for other ordinary bodies.
Epilogue
Authors: Schmaltz Tad M.
Published: December 2019

These brief concluding remarks return to Bayle’s critique of Spinoza. The assessment of his objection that Spinoza’s God cannot be immutable insofar as extended substance is the subject of changing modes draws on the history of the notion of a mode that starts with Suárez, proceeds through Descartes, and ends in Spinoza. The assessment of Bayle’s objection that Spinoza’s God cannot be indivisible insofar as extended substance is composed of distinct parts focuses rather on a line of thought that starts with Suárez’s conception of accidental quantity. It turns out that the substantial quantity that Spinoza posits is at some remove not only from the composite though unified quantity that functions as a fundamental accident in Suárez, but also from the collection of substantial parts that plays the role of Descartes’s extended substance.
Spinoza’s Moral Realism
Authors: Andrew Youpa
Published: December 2019

This chapter shows that Spinoza is committed to a type of moral realism. By “moral realism” is meant a theory of the way of life that is best for us as human beings, a theory based on a view on which good and bad are objective properties. By “objective property” is meant a property whose instance(s) does (do) not directly depend on anyone’s desires, emotions, or beliefs about its existence and nature. The author argues that, for Spinoza, the properties of goodness and badness are objective properties. Instances of goodness do not directly depend on someone’s desires, emotions, and beliefs about the existence and nature of goodness. The same holds for badness. His argument for this reading hinges on the conception of human nature that Spinoza appeals to in his definition of “virtue” (4D8). This conception of human nature serves as the foundation for the objectivity of the properties of goodness and badness, and the author contends that it is this that makes Spinoza a type of moral realist.
The Brussels Effect
Authors: Bradford Anu
Published: December 2019

The Brussels Effect challenges the prevalent view that the European Union (EU) is a declining world power. It argues that notwithstanding its many obvious challenges, the EU remains an influential superpower that shapes the world in its image through a phenomenon called the “Brussels Effect.” The Brussels Effect refers to the EU’s unilateral power to regulate global markets. Without the need to resort to international institutions or seek other nations’ cooperation, the EU has the unique ability among nations today to promulgate regulations that shape the global business environment, elevating standards worldwide and leading to a notable Europeanization of many important aspects of global commerce. Different from many other forms of global influence, the Brussels Effect entails that the EU does not need to impose its standards coercively on anyone—market forces alone are often sufficient to convert the EU standard into the global standard as multinational companies voluntarily extend the EU rule to govern their global operations. In this way, the EU wields significant, unique, and highly penetrating power to unilaterally transform global markets, including through its ability to set the standards in diverse areas such as competition regulation, data protection, online hate speech, consumer health and safety, or environmental protection.
Is the Brussels Effect Beneficial?
Authors: Bradford Anu
Published: December 2019

Chapter 8 discusses whether the Brussels Effect is beneficial in terms of advancing people’s welfare, both in the EU and abroad. In examining this question, the chapter engages with economic and political criticism leveled against the Brussels Effect. It asks if the global reach of EU regulations is costly and capable of hindering innovation, or driven by protectionist motives. It also queries if the Brussels Effect should be viewed as a manifestation of regulatory imperialism, undercutting the power of foreign sovereigns to make critical decisions regarding their economies and serve their citizens in accordance with their democratically established preferences.
Divine Warfare and Diplomacy
Authors: Simmons Caleb
Published: December 2019

This chapter examines warfare and diplomacy during Tipu Sultan’s reign as a means to understand the complex constructions of religious fidelity and infidelity in his court. The first section explores the murals of his summer palace, the Dariya Daulat Bagh, in order to demonstrate the position of warfare in his political thought from early in his reign, when his regional dominance was at its height and his sovereign authority unquestioned. These murals portray Tipu Sultan’s holistic vision of sovereignty in which diplomacy, piety, and war coexist and substantiate one another. These murals, especially the understudied portraits on the palace’s eastern wall, correlate religious fidelity with Tipu Sultan’s political allies and infidelity with his rivals. The next section interrogates Tipu Sultan’s proclamations of jihad, or holy war, in his correspondence with international political bodies during the brief armistice between the Third and Fourth Anglo-Mysore Wars.
Restoring an “Ancient Hindu” Family
Authors: Simmons Caleb
Published: December 2019

This chapter examines the vamshavalis, or genealogies, from the court Krishnaraja Wodeyar III. These texts worked within and through modes of historiography from both India and Europe, incorporating innovative structures, styles, and methods from their colonial counterparts. The genealogies, however, remained rooted in the local concerns of sovereignty in which devotion and divine authority were central, but these themes were reframed, and the lineage was shaped through the scope of linear human history. Blending Indian and European modes of historiography, the genealogies of Krishnaraja III are uniquely early colonial Indian histories composed and produced in relation with, response to, and reaction against European modes of political theology, governance, and meaning making. In a period when the king was bereft of administrative and military power, kingship and succession were removed from claims to the “right of conquest” and from the physical process of biological succession.
Displaying Power
Authors: Simmons Caleb
Published: December 2019

This chapter examines the visual media from Krishnaraja Wodeyar III’s court that present a different perspective on royal power rooted in Indian understandings of sovereignty. The chapter focuses on the visual culture of Krishnaraja III’s court and how it was employed to display an alternative to colonial hegemony. Given the vast corpus of visual material that was produced in the Mysore court during Krishnaraja III’s reign, it focuses on the large mural complex in the Rangamahal as an exemplary production of this display of power while drawing on similar imagery in the literary and artistic traditions of his court with occasional reference to others from northern and southern India to build a context for the practice in this early colonial period.
Mapping New Sovereignty
Authors: Simmons Caleb
Published: December 2019

This chapter begins with a pilgrimage undertaken by a Mysore priest named Subbarayadasa under the patronage of Krishnaraja Wodeyar III; it argues that this pilgrimage was a ritual that articulated a new form of sovereignty through the demarcation of domain. The pilgrimage is discussed within the context of Vedic and Puranic imperial rituals that served to constitute sovereignty and structured territory through similar movements through space. In the early colonial period in Mysore, the radical alteration in political structure necessitated a change in the understanding of sovereignty and territory in which Indian sovereignty became grounded in the sacred landscape of India. This can be seen in the details of Subbarayadasa’s pilgrimage and in a collection of murals that commemorate the journey. This process resulted in the construction of a sovereign “geo-flesh” of India and laid the groundwork for nationalist political ideology and theory in modern and contemporary India
Epilogue
Authors: Simmons Caleb
Published: December 2019

This epilogue seeks to situate the histories of Tipu Sultan and Krishnaraja Wodeyar III within the contemporary representations of Tipu Sultan and the Wodeyar lineage in order to show the lasting effects of Tipu Sultan and Krishnaraja Wodeyar III in the cultural memory of Mysore and the stakes that their legacies continue to have for people today who invest part of their own identity in these kings. It examines how debates over these kings are still ongoing in public forums, such as social media, newspaper stories, and the current political climate of India, and how they influence democratic elections.
At School
Authors: Lim Sun Sun
Published: December 2019

This chapter focuses on transcendent parenting practices and young people’s lives in relation to academic matters. Shifting away from the traditional face-to-face teacher-parent meetings and phone calls, home-school conferencing via mobile apps has become increasingly prevalent. This includes the use of homework-reminder apps, school attendance tracking apps, online gradebooks, or homework-helper apps and other services that specifically cater to the needs of home-school conferencing. Beyond such custom home-school conferencing apps and services, generic social networking apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook are also increasingly used by schools, parents, and children in the service of children’s academic pursuits. This growing multitude of ways in which parents can be connected to their children’s teachers and to other parents, and the mediated platforms by which parents can be directly involved in their children’s learning, have created vast possibilities for transcendent parenting, thus exacerbating the parental burden both online and offline.
Mobile Communication and Transcendent Parenting
Authors: Lim Sun Sun
Published: December 2019

This chapter enunciates how mobile media have engendered the conditions for transcendent parenting practices to emerge, thereby transforming family life in Asian urban middle-class households. It argues that although mothers generally seem to be more involved in their transcendent parenting duties, a more desirable state of shared transcendent parenting between fathers and mothers will ultimately alter the practice of transcendent parenting. It also discusses how the Singapore-focused transcendent parenting experiences in this book are relevant to urban middle-class societies in other parts of the world. Finally, it highlights the negotiation of the consequences of transcendent parenting.