bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Characterizing physicians’ information needs related to a gap in knowledge unmet by current evidence
Authors: Ostropolets Anna , Chen RuiJun , Zhang Linying , Hripcsak George
Published: May 2020

Objective

The study sought to explore information needs arising from a gap in clinicians’ knowledge that is not met by current evidence and identify possible areas of use and target groups for a future clinical decision support system (CDSS), which will guide clinicians in cases where no evidence exists.

Materials and Methods

We interviewed 30 physicians in a large academic medical center, analyzed transcripts using deductive thematic analysis, and developed a set of themes of information needs related to a gap in knowledge unmet by current evidence. We conducted additional statistical analyses to identify the correlation between clinical experience, clinical specialty, settings of clinical care, and the characteristics of the needs.

Results

This study resulted in a set of themes and subthemes of information needs arising from a gap in current evidence. Experienced physicians and inpatient physicians had more questions and the number of questions did not decline with clinical experience. The main areas of information needs included patients with comorbidities, elderly and children, new drugs, and rare disorders. To address these questions, clinicians most often used a commercial tool, guidelines, and PubMed. While primary care physicians preferred the commercial tool, specialty physicians sought more in-depth knowledge.

Discussion

The current medical evidence appeared to be inadequate in covering specific populations such as patients with multiple comorbidities and elderly, and was sometimes irrelevant to complex clinical scenarios. Our findings may suggest that experienced and inpatient physicians would benefit from a CDSS that generates evidence in real time at the point of care.

Conclusions

We found that physicians had information needs, which arose from the gaps in current medical evidence. This study provides insights on how the CDSS that aims at addressing these needs should be designed.
On the stellar kinematics and mass of the Virgo ultradiffuse galaxy VCC 1287
Authors: Gannon Jonah S , Forbes Duncan A , Romanowsky Aaron J , Ferré-Mateu Anna , Couch Warrick J , Brodie Jean P
Published: May 2020

Here, we present a kinematical analysis of the Virgo cluster ultradiffuse galaxy (UDG) VCC 1287 based on data taken with the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI). We confirm VCC 1287’s association both with the Virgo cluster and its globular cluster (GC) system, measuring a recessional velocity of 1116 ± 2 km s−1. We measure a stellar velocity dispersion (19 ± 6 km s−1) and infer both a dynamical mass ($1.11^{+0.81}_{-0.81} \times 10^{9} \ \mathrm{M_{\odot }}$) and mass-to-light ratio (M/L) ($13^{+11}_{-11}$) within the half-light radius (4.4 kpc). This places VCC 1287 slightly above the well-established relation for normal galaxies, with a higher M/L for its dynamical mass than normal galaxies. We use our dynamical mass, and an estimate of GC system richness, to place VCC 1287 on the GC number–dynamical mass relation, finding good agreement with a sample of normal galaxies. Based on a total halo mass derived from GC counts, we then infer that VCC 1287 likely resides in a cored or low-concentration dark matter halo. Based on the comparison of our measurements to predictions from simulations, we find that strong stellar feedback and/or tidal effects are plausibly the dominant mechanisms in the formation of VCC 1287. Finally, we compare our measurement of the dynamical mass with those for other UDGs. These dynamical mass estimates suggest relatively massive haloes and a failed galaxy origin for at least some UDGs.
Variations of the mixing character of dipolar mixed modes in red giant stars
Authors: Jiang C , Cunha M , Christensen-Dalsgaard J , Zhang QS
Published: May 2020

Because of the high-quality data of space missions, the detection of mixed modes has become possible in numerous stars. In this work, we investigate how the mixing character of dipolar mixed modes changes with stellar evolution, as well as with frequency within each stellar model. This is achieved by monitoring the variations in the coupling strength and the period spacing of dipolar mixed modes in red-giant models. These parameters are measured by fitting the asymptotic expansion of mixed modes to the model frequencies of a grid of red-giant models with masses between 1.0 and 2.0 M⊙ and three different chemical abundances. The coupling strength and the period spacing decrease with stellar evolution. We find that the slopes of their decreasing trends depend on the radial order of the pressure mode component. A non-negligible increase of the coupling strength with frequency by up to around 40 per cent is found in the observable frequency range for a set of red-giant models. On the contrary, no significant changes of the period spacing with frequency are found. The changes in the mixing character of the modes are in most cases affected by the model mass and metallicity. Buoyancy glitches also have an impact on the mixing character. Significant fluctuations in the estimated coupling strength and period spacing are found for models approaching the luminosity bump, if the glitch impact of the frequencies is not considered in the applied asymptotic expansion.
The Central Role of Nondisclosed Men Who Have Sex With Men in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 Transmission Networks in Guangzhou, China
Authors: Yan Huanchang , He Weiyun , Huang Liping , Wu Hao , Liang Yuanhao , Li Qingmei , Shui Jingwei , Wang Cheng , Dzakah Emmanuel E , Han Zhigang , Tang Shixing
Published: May 2020

Background

Men who have sex with men (MSM) are vulnerable risk group for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 infection. However, some MSM do not disclose their same-sex behavior and could impact the transmission and prevention of HIV-1 infection. Here, we evaluated the role of nondisclosed MSM in HIV-1 transmission in Guangzhou, China.

Methods

The HIV-1 pol sequences were obtained from HIV-infected subjects from 2008 to 2015. A transmission network was constructed using HIV TRAnsmission Cluster Engine (HIV-TRACE) at a pairwise genetic distance of 0.5%. The position of nondisclosed MSM in the network was determined by centrality analysis.

Results

Nondisclosed MSM were inferred in 9.92% (61 of 615) of slightly older, self-reported non-MSM (P = .006). They were more likely to be married (P = .002) and less educated (P < .001) than the MSM with whom they clustered. Closeness centrality was bigger for nondisclosed MSM than for MSM (P < .001), indicating the central position of nondisclosed MSM in the networks. The average shortest path length was smaller for nondisclosed MSM than for MSM (P < .001), whereas radiality was bigger for nondisclosed MSM than for MSM, suggesting a relatively greater contribution of nondisclosed MSM in transmitting HIV-1 than MSM. Assortativity analysis indicated that nondisclosed MSM were more likely to link each other with coefficient of 0.025.

Conclusions

Nondisclosed MSM are a specific group, and they play an important role in HIV-1 transmission. They could be bisexual and might increase the risk of HIV-1 infection to their sex partners. Therefore, specific prevention and intervention targeting nondisclosed MSM are urgently needed.
Code, and Other Laws of Blockchain†
Authors: Zou Mimi
Published: May 2020

There has been burgeoning interest among legal scholars in recent years regarding the implications of blockchain technology for the law. Two thoughtful monographs that go beyond the hyped claims of enthusiasts and cynics are Primavera De Filippi and Aaron Wright’s Blockchain and the Law: The Rule of Code and Kevin Werbach’s Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust. While the two books have different focal points, both contain a common Laurence-Lessig-inspired theme of ‘code as law’ in which decentralised blockchain networks are viewed as a regulatory ‘modality’ or ‘architecture’ with its own system of rules. However, as this article argues, blockchain is not outside the law or the existing legal system. Code necessarily interacts with other modes of regulation, namely the market, social norms and law, in constraining the operation of blockchain applications such as smart contracts. This argument also situates smart contracts in a relational analysis of real-world contracting practices.
Medical Interpreter Education and Training
Authors: Sultanić Indira
Published: May 2020

This chapter gives an overview of medical interpreter training curricula in a fast-changing, technologized world. This chapter will discuss the training models, training components, challenges, the settings in which training is offered, professionalization, and continuing education. Medical interpreting, which is synonymous with healthcare interpreting, is a situated practice and takes place in various medical contexts. It is performed either in person or remotely. In order for medical interpreters to facilitate communication between patients and healthcare providers who do not speak the same language, a high level of linguistic and cultural dexterity is required, similar to that of their peers in other settings, such as legal and conference interpreting. The number of academic and para-academic medical interpreter training programs is growing, and more research on the role, training, and technology used for medical interpreting is being published to meet these needs.
Child Participation
Authors: Doek Jaap
Published: May 2020

This chapter starts with a critical assessment of the legal foundation of the concept of child participation from the perspective of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is followed by a discussion of how the right of the child to express her or his views should and could be implemented in the family, school, health care settings, legal proceedings, and in the community and society (public participation) and of the challenges children and others face with this implementation. The chapter concludes with recommendations for further actions that promote and support the participation of children in all areas of their lives.
Juvenile Justice
Authors: Liefaard Ton
Published: May 2020

Juvenile justice is a children’s rights issue. This chapter sheds light on the international children’s rights framework for juvenile justice and elaborates on its implications for juvenile justice systems at the domestic level. It discusses the comprehensive nature of the international legal framework and addresses key implementation challenges in light of the complexity of and controversies inherently related to juvenile justice. In doing so, the chapter shows there are specific challenges that ought to be recognized in order to enhance the protection of children in conflict with the law and secure a fair and child-specific approach. At the same time, it points at the progress made since adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which justifies the conclusion that the future of children’s rights implementation in the context of juvenile justice is a hopeful one.
Economic and Labor Rights of Children
Authors: Liebel Manfred
Published: May 2020

This chapter attempts to answer the question of whether children have economic and labor rights and, if so, what that means in practice. With regard to international law, this chapter attempts to clarify the relationship between different areas of law and the relationship between various legal concepts that are relevant to the protection of children’s economic and labor rights. More specifically, the chapter explores the relationship between human rights in general and children’s rights in particular as well as the relationship between economic and social rights, human and labor rights, and legal and moral rights. This chapter also focuses on working children and their associations and which economic and labor rights they consider necessary. In addition, the chapter discusses how these rights are, or should be, reflected in international law and in national legislation. Finally, the key obstacles to protecting children’s economic and labor rights in international law are discussed, that is, what practical difficulties are to be overcome on the ground to realize and bring to life the economic and labor rights of children.
Taking Part, Joining in, and Being Heard?
Authors: Kirby Perpetua , Webb Rebecca
Published: May 2020

This chapter explores how Article 12 and the voice of the child are implemented. The chapter does so by making specific reference to ways in which children express themselves within two different English primary schools. The chapter introduces Article 12 as a commitment to giving due attention to children’s experiences. Using data vignettes, the chapter illustrates the value of paying attention to children by focusing on the micro moments of everyday school life. The chapter argues that children’s participation is necessarily political, suggesting that participation must be read as such and demonstrating how it is often subsumed within powerful dominant schooling discourses of conformity within different governmental climates that are regarded as beyond politics. The chapter identifies limited possibilities for transformation in the study’s research sites, discussed in terms of children achieving agency and enacting their own subjectivities. This is apparent even within the less coercive ethos of a school participating in the Rights Respecting Schools Initiative (UNICEF). The chapter argues that in order to open up possible transformational participatory spaces, adults in schools need to require opportunities to reflect together on the tensions within their own educational contexts and between supporting children’s participation and their conformity to wider schooling discourses. The chapter suggests that the provision of such opportunities will help to keep a focus on listening to children in line with the ambitions of Article 12.
Embracing Our LGBTQ Youth
Authors: Hernández-Truyol Berta Esperanza
Published: May 2020

Recent studies show that global attitudes toward LGBTQ persons, including youth, have improved. Nonetheless, discrimination, rejection, and violence in law and policy still prevail. Sadly for LGBTQ youth, these realities occur in the family, schools, places of worship, and society. International human rights law, especially the best interests of the child (BIOC) mandate of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), provides LGBTQ youth protections against attitudes and aggressions they confront in these venues simply because of their sexuality or gender identity. This mandate can be read to protect/address LGBTQ youth’s interests in contexts of conflicts at school, at home, or at places of worship by specifying that states parties need to ensure that the institutions, services, and facilities responsible for caring for or protecting children conform to standards established by competent authorities, particularly in the areas of health and safety and in the number and suitability of their staff, as well as in terms of competent supervision. The CRC also protects all youth, including LGBTQ youth, from discrimination by association, thus protecting the children of LGBTQ parents, and it affords all youth freedom of expression, thought, conscience, religion, association, and peaceful gathering. This chapter puts the current legal protections for LGBTQ youth in the context of their current realities and proposes a dramatic shift in the child rights paradigm to ensure that LGBTQ youth achieve full personhood and dignity.
Children with Disabilities: Achievements, Prospects, and Challenges Ahead
Authors: Sabatello Maya , Layden Mary Frances
Published: May 2020

Children with disabilities are among the most vulnerable groups in the world—and a children’s rights approach is key for reversing historical wrongs and for promoting an inclusive future. To establish this argument, this chapter explores the state of affairs and legal protections for upholding the rights of children with disabilities. It critically examines major developments in the international framework that pertain to the rights of children with disabilities, and it considers some of the prime achievements—and challenges—that arise in the implementation of a child-friendly disability rights agenda. The chapter then zooms in on two particularly salient issues for children with disabilities, namely, inclusive education and deinstitutionalization, and highlights the successes and challenges ahead. The final section provides some concluding thoughts about the present and the prospect of upholding the human rights of children with disabilities.
Taking Children’s Human Rights Seriously
Authors: Freeman Michael
Published: May 2020

Despite the development of the children’s rights movement, human rights scholarship continues to overlook the rights of children. Even those like Ronald Dworkin, who proclaim the need to take rights seriously, are curiously silent, even ambivalent, when it comes to children. This inattention often forces advocates of children’s rights to the margins of human rights scholarship. In the few places where serious philosophical discussion of children’s rights does take place, the analysis intends to diminish the value of rights for children. These critics are not malevolent, and typically want what is best for children, but they do not think it can be accomplished through a children’s rights agenda. This chapter lays out a persuasive argument for a children’s rights agenda, or, for taking children’s rights seriously. Drawing from philosophy, history, literature, popular media, and of course the law, this chapter argues against the conventional deficit view underlying most arguments against the recognition of children’s rights and makes a case for the importance of children’s rights where rights are the currency in use.
The Inscrutable Riddle of Schopenhauer’s Relations to Jews and to Judaism
Authors: Golomb Jacob
Published: May 2020

This chapter considers Schopenhauer’s relationship to Jews and Judaism through the concept of “metaphysical anti-Judaism”—a concept that distinguishes Schopenhauer’s more abstract and theoretical attitude about Jewish religion in his references to “Judaism” and “theism” from his more personal sentiments that he might have had for or against Jewish people as living individuals. Through a survey of his remarks on Jews and Judaism across his writings, the essay shows that Judaism—a religion that Schopenhauer conceives of as the monotheistic “father” religion from which Christianity and Islam were derived—has no proper place in his world-outlook, not necessarily because of any personal anti-Semitic under- or overtones but because it negates his most fundamental and metaphysical dogmas that had been developed by him virtually from the time that he had begun writing. In his later writings, however, Schopenhauer expresses negative sentiments against Jewish people in a number of passages. He was, though, less of an anti-Semite than he was an anti-Theist who defied all monotheistic religions. Schopenhauer’s foremost target was theism, but as its first historical and cultural manifestation, Judaism became his chief enemy. Overall, he expresses both utter rejection and sincere appreciation of Judaism, which reveals his attitude to be deeply ambivalent and inscrutable.
Schopenhauer and the Diamond-Sūtra
Authors: Ryan Christopher
Published: May 2020

Commentators on Schopenhauer’s philosophy have been at odds with one another concerning the signification of the “nothing” with which he closed the first volume of The World as Will and Representation in 1818, and how this relates to Schopenhauer’s proposition that the will is Kant’s thing-in-itself. This chapter contends that Schopenhauer’s works contain two conceptions of soteriological nothing: an early conception that is ontological and contrasted with the vanity of phenomenal life, and a later conception in which nothing is employed as an apophatic denial of our epistemological categories. Schopenhauer sought to conceal the way in which his use and understanding of these concepts had changed by 1860 by appending a handwritten note to the close of the first volume that cited Isaak Jacob Schmidt’s translation of the Diamond-Sūtra, an explanation of the Buddhist concept of prajñāpāramitā. Examination of Schmidt’s treatise throws some light on the development of Schopenhauer’s metaphysics and soteriology between 1818 and 1860.
Schopenhauer’s Fin de Siècle Reception in Austria
Authors: Bishop Paul
Published: May 2020

This chapter places the reception of Schopenhauer in fin de siècle Austria in its historical context before considering in more detail various areas of intellectual and cultural life where the impact of Schopenhauer has been or may be detected. These include music, Freud and psychoanalysis, gender and misogyny (Weininger and Sacher-Masoch), literature (Karl Kraus, Hofmannsthal, Schnitzler, Rudolf Kassner, and Hermann Broch), philosophy (Fritz Mauthner and Wittgenstein), and visual art (Klimt). Some critics have placed considerable emphasis on the influence of Schopenhauer in these areas, whereas others see his impact as less significant. The chapter concludes by considering Schopenhauer from a characterological angle, arguing that, to the extent that the thinkers, writers, and painters of fin de siècle Austria regarded their intellectual, cultural, and artistic deeds as, in Schopenhauer’s words, “the impression or copy of the character, the mirror of the will,” they were participating in his project of “looking into this mirror” and “recogniz[ing] our innermost self, the kernel of our will.” In this respect it is legitimate to speak of a deep affinity between Schopenhauer and fin de siècle Austria, one that is far more significant than any specific details of his reception.
The Energy Politics of Japan
Authors: Incerti Trevor , Lipscy Phillip Y.
Published: May 2020

Japanese energy policy has attracted renewed attention since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. However, Japan’s energy challenges are nothing new; as a country poor in natural resources, it has long struggled to meet its energy needs. This chapter provides an overview of Japanese energy politics, focusing on three broad topics: Japan’s modernization and energy security challenges, the politics of the utilities sector and nuclear energy, and the politics of energy conservation and climate change. In addition, the chapter discusses factors specific to Japan, such as state-business relations in the utilities sector and institutional changes since the 1990s. Japan offers both compelling puzzles—several transformative shifts in energy conservation policy, limited emphasis on renewables despite persistent energy security concerns, and reinvigoration of nuclear energy despite the Fukushima disaster—as well as important empirical opportunities for theory testing. The chapter concludes by calling for additional research that integrates insights from Japan into broader theoretical and cross-national scholarship, examines Japanese energy policy within an international context, and uses rigorous causal identification strategies to evaluate Japanese energy policy. Finally, it identifies the politics of decarbonization in Japan as a critical area for future research.
Negation and Presupposition
Authors: Beaver David , Denlinger Kristin
Published: May 2020

Over a century of scholarship on presupposition has worked towards reconciling two seemingly contrary properties of these types of inferences: the ability to project through embedding like negation, and the ability to be cancelled explicitly. Describing these properties has been key to not only diagnosing presuppositions, but also differentiating them from other types of inferences like implicatures and entailment and understanding how a theory of presupposition could apply cross-linguistically. This chapter outlines different accounts of presupposition and negation, focusing on six different broad approaches: scope ambiguity, trivalent ambiguity, underspecification, metalinguistic negation, cancellation, and accommodation. These accounts differ with respect to whether they account for default projection, the mechanisms through which projection is derived, and whether entailments and implicatures are targeted by the same negation operators as presuppositions.
The Marco Civil da Internet and Digital Constitutionalism
Authors: Marrey Moncau Luiz Fernando , Arguelhes Diego Werneck
Published: May 2020

Between 2009 and 2014, Brazilian civil society groups and government engaged with and ultimately approved the Marco Civil da Internet (Civil Rights Framework for the Internet). The MCI, which has been considered by some as a ‘Constitution of the Internet’ or as an ‘Internet Bill of Rights’, created a broad set of principles and norms, as well as specific rules, that articulate rights and limitations on the exercise of power on the internet. But how does the MCI measure against the backdrop of global debates on digital constitutionalism? To what extent and in what ways can the enactment of the MCI be considered a landmark for the constitutionalization of the digital environment? This chapter, in order to address those questions, will review the intermediary liability regime before the MCI, the process of approval of the MCI, and how the law is being implemented in practice. Finally, it will analyse the MCI in the light of digital constitutionalism theories.
Secondary Copyright Infringement Liability and User-Generated Content in the United States
Authors: Lerner Jack
Published: May 2020

In the United States, the question of whether and when online service providers can be held liable for copyright infringement committed by their users has been one of the most heavily litigated controversies of the digital age. This chapter answers these questions by reviewing the common law doctrine of secondary copyright infringement and all relevant case law behind it. It focuses on the interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA’s) safe harbours before US courts, with special emphasis on the notion of actual and ‘red flag’ knowledge, wilful blindness, right and ability to control users’ behaviour, and inducement. This chapter focuses in particular on user-generated content (UGC) platforms by looking into the effects of the DMCA on the UGC market and the technological measures implemented to curb infringement on UGC platforms. The chapter also provides a review of legislative proposals to amend the legal framework that the DMCA implemented more than two decades ago and runs a comparative analysis with other similar international legislative frameworks.
Who are Internet Intermediaries?
Authors: Dinwoodie Graeme
Published: May 2020

This chapter considers several different ways in which we can better understand the category of online intermediaries. It does so by acknowledging important scholarly efforts to produce a detailed taxonomy of online intermediaries. An analysis of positive law in a number of countries reveals some lessons about the meaning of the term, as well as alternative legal categories of online actors that might be seen as subsets of, or overlapping with, ‘online intermediaries’. This chapter also pursues a more typological approach to the classification question, while expounding on the important role that Riordan’s functional taxonomy (or those of others) might play. Clearly, law must have regard to empirical reality of how actors behave in constructing categories. But those legal categories are often driven by other considerations, as will be our policy debates. By adopting a somewhat more conceptual approach, this chapter hopes to develop understandings that will allow debate about the liability of online intermediaries across borders and across time, given that the technological features and social role of online intermediaries are constantly evolving.
Intermediary Liability and Trade Mark Infringement: Proliferation of Filter Obligations in Civil Law Jurisdictions?
Authors: Senftleben Martin
Published: May 2020

This chapter discusses intermediary liability and trade mark infringement from a civil law perspective, while highlighting differences and commonalities of trade mark and copyright enforcement online. The chapter considers first how the infringement test in EU trade mark law is more context-specific than the infringement analysis in copyright law and how limitations of trade mark rights provide room for unauthorized use that serves (commercial) freedom of expression and freedom of competition. In this context, this chapter looks into the use of filtering mechanisms and how they might wash away these important nuances of the scope of trade mark protection. Again, the chapter makes a distinction between legitimate comparative advertising and infringing consumer confusion, legitimate brand criticism and infringing defamation, legitimate offers of second-hand goods and infringing sales of replicas in order to consider the threshold when trade mark owners obtain overbroad protection. Further, this chapter reviews leading case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the question of intermediary liability and filter obligations that points towards a cautious approach in trade mark cases—an approach that does not undermine the inherent limits and statutory limitations of trade mark rights. However, examples of court decisions in civil law jurisdictions, such as Germany, show a tendency of developing national doctrines that allow the imposition of more extensive filtering duties. Against this background, the chapter concludes by considering whether a balanced approach based on the principle of proportionality should prevail in trade mark cases.
Intermediary Liability in Russia and the Role of Private Business in the Enforcement of State Controls over the Internet
Authors: Hovyadinov Sergei
Published: May 2020

The rapid expansion of the internet in Russia, combined with its potential to instigate a social uprising, has led to the adoption of significant regulatory restrictions on online content and anonymity. Faced with new technical challenges, the Kremlin has enlisted competent and technically capable internet actors—search engines, social networks, hosting providers, and network operators—to help implement these restrictions and control the flow of information. This chapter attempts to demonstrate the evolution of intermediary liability in Russia since 2011–12, when the government drastically changed its stance on internet regulation. It describes how this regulation is followed and enforced with respect to content removal and online surveillance, and how private companies have become an integral part of the state’s internet control apparatus. The chapter examines the legislative framework, enforcement statistics, and most prominent cases for two areas of government control: content and surveillance. ‘Content’ refers to the types of information the state seeks to restrict online, while ‘surveillance’ refers to how the state collects user data and online activity. Within both categories, this chapter focuses on the obligations of intermediaries (telecom operators, web-hosting providers, and social media platforms). This chapter further complements the findings with quotations from semi-structured interviews that were conducted with executives of telecom and web-hosting companies, telecom lawyers, internet activists, and representatives of industry associations.
The Civic Role of OSPs in Mature Information Societies
Authors: Taddeo Mariarosaria
Published: May 2020

Over the years, the discussion concerning the responsibilities of online service providers (OSPs) has gone from defining measures that OSPs should deploy to correct their market bias and ensure a pluralistic web, to the impact that OSPs have on the internet, on the flourishing of democratic values, and on societies at large. The debate spans different fields, from information and computer ethics, corporate social responsibilities, and business ethics, to computer-mediated communication, law, and public policy. Topics of analyses range from biases and skewing of information indexed by search engines, the protection of users’ privacy and security, to the impact of OSPs on democratic processes, and their duties with respect to human rights. This chapter investigates the ethical implications of intermediary liability. First, it describes the debate on the moral responsibilities of OSPs with respect to managing access to information and human rights. It then analyses the role and the nature of the responsibilities of OSPs in mature information societies. The chapter concludes its review by applying Floridi’s soft ethics to consider what responsibilities the civic role of OSPs entails and how they should discharge them.
Housing History
Authors: Denenberg Thomas
Published: May 2020

The rise of a culture of consumption in the decades that bracketed the turn of the century created unprecedented opportunity for the dissemination of images, objects, and texts that engendered historical consciousness in the United States. Antiquarian impulses, once the province of social outliers, the wealthy, or the creative, and encoded in the poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) and the narrative paintings of Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919), became normative behavior in the new middle-class America. Entrepreneurial individuals, such as the minister-turned-entrepreneur Wallace Nutting (1861–1941), employed the new platforms of advertising, publishing, department stores, and mail-order merchandising to create and fulfill middle-class desires for objects and myths that fulfilled social needs in an era of rapid economic and geographic change. Nutting, in commodifying the colonial revival, paved the way for postwar historicism in the built environment. This hybrid aesthetic prized idealized “ancestral” imagery as typified by the work of architect Royal Barry Wills (1895–1962), and it can be found coast to coast in the modern American suburb.
The Ever-Changing Technology and Significance of Silk on the Silk Road
Authors: Feng Zhao
Published: May 2020

Silk production was invented in China, where the development of its technology did not stop, having been stimulated especially by cultural exchange along the Silk Road. There were four steps of the development of silk technology on the Silk Road. All of the information is based on archaeological and scientific research rather than derived from historical or linguistic sources. The first development was of the ancient system during the Han dynasty in China (second century BCE–second century CE) consisting of sericulture in northern China, hand silk reeling, Chinese dyes, multiheddle patterning loom, and warp-faced pattern structure. This was succeeded by the Central Asian system in early middle period (second–seventh centuries CE): no-killing sericulture, silk spun from cocoons, Western dyes, the development of the picking-up patterning loom, and weft-faced pattern structure. The third step was the classical system in southern China (seventh–twelfth centuries CE) with the development of sericulture in southern China, treadle-controlled silk reeling, new Chinese dyes, the real drawloom, and both warp and weft pattern structure. Last comes the traditional system in Europe (thirteenth–sixteenth centuries CE), with sericulture and silk reeling in Europe, European dyes, and the development of the drawloom to the Jacquard loom, allowing new weaves and patterns.
Symbolic Things and Social Performance
Authors: Sanfuentes Olaya
Published: May 2020

The nativity scenes discussed in this chapter reveal the eloquence of material culture as a contemporary agent, as a medium for interrelating material and immaterial dimensions, and as a historiographical source of relevance for researchers today. This chapter focuses on nativity scenes in late nineteenth-century Santiago de Chile as objects that hold special significance for religious communities that, through the performative ritual they enhance, provide access to an immaterial realm of sacred historical allusion or reenactment. To this end, the chapter examines in detail the different elements that come together to inform this work: the crèches, the ritual’s participants, and the late nineteenth-century newspapers that serve as sources for these practices. The focus is on the public celebration of Christmas, and it shows how rituals of Christmas celebration using nativity scenes, among other performative practices in the public sphere, worked as agents of social cohesion.
Science, Play, and the Material Culture of Twentieth-Century American Boyhood
Authors: Onion Rebecca
Published: May 2020

This chapter uses the example of the child’s chemistry set to explore the way that American children’s material culture has shaped, and been shaped by, changing perceptions of acceptable risk in the home environment in the twentieth century. Chemistry sets, first sold in the United States in the 1910s, changed over the twentieth century, as companies worried about lawsuits have excluded potentially dangerous elements and presumed less initiative on the part of the child chemist, while calling for enhanced parental supervision. These alterations were first welcomed by parents in the 1960s and 1970s; now, for some, the defanged chemistry set embodies the undesirable unexpected consequences of the quest for new levels of safety in children’s material environments. This chapter follows the potent symbol of the chemistry set through the century to ask how the American movement to keep children safe in the home came about and to identify key cultural explanations for the early-twenty-first-century backlash against these efforts.
Language Endangerment, Documentation, and Revitalization
Authors: Essegbey James
Published: May 2020

In the late 1980s, the attention of linguists was drawn to the fact that the world’s languages are disappearing at an alarming rate. Since then, steps have been taken to revitalize those that can be revitalized but, most importantly, document the languages before they disappear. There is the perception, however, that even though Africa has about a third of the world’s languages, accounts of language endangerment do not take the specificities of the African situation into consideration. This chapter discusses the types of endangerment in Africa and the role African scholars are playing in documentation, as well as modest efforts at the revitalization of dying languages on the continent.
Bom-Kim
Authors: Childs G. Tucker
Published: May 2020

The Bom-Kim dialect cluster in Sierra Leone, a member of the South Atlantic family within Niger-Congo, features an areally common segmental structure with a labial-velar (labiovelar) stop and prenasalized consonants, whereas tone is only marginally distinct lexically. It has a rather classic Niger-Congo noun class system, but a restricted system of verbal extensions or derivational suffixes. It combines a system of prepositions with postpositions, the latter specifying the search domain for objects. Next to the major categories nouns and verbs, there is a small category of adjectives and adverbs. Limited knowledge of ideophonic words among modern speakers of Bom-Kim may be interpreted as an instantiation of language obsolescence, as Bom-Kim is an endangered language.
Bende
Authors: Abe Yuko
Published: May 2020

Bende (Sibhende [síβendé]) is a Bantu language (Niger-Congo phylum) spoken mainly in the Katavi region in western Tanzania, known as F12 in Guthrie’s reference classification. It is sometimes called Tongwe-Bende, since both ethnic groups are closely related linguistically, not to mention their cultural common ground. The number of Bende speakers is estimated to be 41,490 by Language of Tanzania Project (Chuo kikuu cha DSM 2009). Bende is a tone language with ten vowels (five each short and long) and nineteen consonants. Eighteen noun classes are listed for nouns, whereas verbs have rich morphological derivations and a complex conjugation system consisting of twenty-five patterns for simple affirmatives and nineteen patterns for simple negatives.
Wandala
Authors: Frajzyngier Zygmunt
Published: May 2020

Wandala (Central Chadic) is spoken by about 45,000 people in Cameroon and northern Nigeria. The language has grammaticalized phonological means marking types of connections between the elements of the utterance, indicating an expected follow-up, a less expected follow-up, and the absence of a follow-up. The coding of some grammatical relations, such as subject and object, is distributed over a wide range of morphemes. Wandala has two tones. While in nouns both tones can be part of the underlying structure, the tones are not part of the underlying structure of verbs and carry only grammatical function. The language has a rich verbal morphology coding syntactic and semantic relations within the clause. Subject suffixes to the verb mark aspectual and modal functions different from those marked by subject pronouns preceding the verb. Inflectional markers on the verb indicate the grammatical relation of the noun phrase following the verb.
South Cushitic
Authors: Kießling Roland
Published: May 2020

The South Cushitic or West Rift Cushitic languages split into two branches: Southern vs. Northern. While the Southern branch continues in Burunge, the Northern branch comprises Alagwa and Iraqwoid, which includes the dialects Gorwaa and Iraqw. Internal convergence of Alagwa towards the Southern branch produced bundles of Burunge/Alagwa lexical isoglosses which could easily be wrongly taken to reflect genetic inheritance. Languages such as Qw’adza, Aasáx, Ma’a/Mbugu, and Dahalo must be excluded from an internal classification of South Cushitic for various methodological considerations. Dahalo’s genetic position between South and East Cushitic has not been determined beyond doubt. Ma’a/Mbugu rather represents an extreme case of intertwining of Bantu and Cushitic, involving language shift and deliberate creation of an ethnolinguistic register. Finally, for both Qw’adza and Aasáx, poor overall documentary coverage and the contexts of data acquisition do not allow for reliable integration into an adequate internal classification.
Biali
Authors: Sambiéni Coffi
Published: May 2020

This chapter gives a brief description of the grammatical structure of Biali, an Eastern Gur language spoken in the north of the Republic of Benin. It examines major aspects of phonology (five vocalic phonemes; fifteen distinctive consonants; a tonal system contrasting high, mid, and low; syllable structure) and morphosyntax. The description of nominals highlights the noun class system consisting of fifteen classes and deverbal and denominal suffix-based derivation. Nominal compounding is characterized by the use of two or more lexemes expanded with class markers. Noun phrases, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals are also dealt with. Verbal description includes derivational processes, the TAM system, negation, focus, and adverbs.
Pidgin and Creole Languages
Authors: Sommer Gabriele
Published: May 2020

Pidgin and Creole Studies represent a well-established field in linguistics. In the African context, however, the study of pidgins and creoles is still much less advanced. African pidgin and creole (PC) languages fulfill vehicular functions, whereas not all lingua francas in Africa are to be regarded as pidgins and creoles. While a map shows the distribution of African PC languages arranged from North and West to Central, East and southern Africa, they are further grouped and characterized in the text according to their main lexifier languages, by their presumed origins, the major contact languages involved and—if known—the actual linguistic outcome(s) of these respective contact situations.
Morphology
Authors: Beyer Klaus
Published: May 2020

The chapter firstly considers morphological typologies relevant for African languages and discusses their heuristics. It gives examples for focal members of each category and thereby hints at the wide variation of morphological types found in Africa. It then goes on to describe some salient concepts of African languages’ morphologies. Numerous examples show the far-reaching range of derivational and inflectional morphology. Some more special cases of tonal inflection and derivation are considered here as well as some aspects of the famous noun class systems. There is then a discussion of possibilities for a coherent morpheme classification. The final section of the chapter looks at diachronic aspects of morphology. It discusses the possibilities of morphological reconstruction and its value for language classification. It also throws some light on the theory of grammaticalization and its contribution to our understanding of the connection between morphology and syntax.
Songhay Languages
Authors: Souag Lameen
Published: May 2020

Songhay is a language group of the West African Sahel region with more than four million speakers, distributed mainly in western Niger and northeastern Mali along the Niger River, but including outlying pockets scattered as far afield as Algeria, Ghana, and Sudan. Strong contact effects along the periphery—notably involving Berber in the north and Bariba and Hausa in the southeast, and Mande languages at an earlier stage—have resulted in a remarkable situation where different varieties may have nearly identical basic vocabularies but conspicuously different typologies. Cladistic and lexical evidence shows that much of the observed variation reflects contact influences quite different from those obtaining today. This chapter examines particularly morphology and syntax across the family. Special attention is given to innovations distinguishing the three principal subgroups (Eastern, Western, and Northern), and to the motivations for these changes.
Language Policy and Politics
Authors: Sure Kembo
Published: May 2020

The chapter is a discussion of the nexus between language policy and the national sociopolitical policies and practices with regard to the distribution of opportunities, human rights, values, recognition, freedom, equity, fairness, and the resolution of disputes. Examples from Africa are discussed using a modified conceptual framework adopted from Patten (2001) in which he argues that “a language enjoys public recognition when it is possible to access services and/or conduct public business in that language.” Using the examples of South Africa and Ethiopia we see how the official multilingualism model fails to promote all languages in a complex plurilingual polity, as it inadvertently promotes strong languages to the detriment of weaker ones. The use of the language rationalization model also failed in Kenya, Tanzania, and Somalia, where the state’s tinkering with language behavior patterns only helps to privilege some languages and disadvantage others.
African Languages in the Diaspora
Authors: Hollington Andrea
Published: May 2020

The African continent has been characterized by migration for ages. This concerns not only inner-African migration but also migration from Africa to other places of the world. To be sure, this has resulted in a spread of African languages beyond the borders of the continent, while this spread has yielded various processes of transformation and language contact phenomena. This chapter seeks to examine the major linguistic processes and developments that are connected to African languages in the Diaspora. Moreover, some light will be shed on the role that African languages or the African linguistic heritage play in African Diaspora communities, especially with regard to their function as strong markers of cultural identity.
Words, Things, and Meaning
Authors: Schoenbrun David L.
Published: May 2020

How does one write African history without documents? Comparative and historical linguistics is a good place to begin. First, one classifies related languages and reconstructs the sequence and locations of their divergences. Then, one describes the patterns of interaction between them and between languages not sharing a common ancestor by tracking transfers of language material between them. Lastly, one reconstructs lexical forms and their semantic histories, building up bundles of words that constitute semantic fields. Ideally, this work unfolds in collaboration with paleoecologists, archaeologists, and historical anthropologists before working with anthropological geneticists. Together, such teams can sort out issues of chronology and semantic vagueness which bedevil historical linguistics in much of Africa south of the Sahara.