bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
SENSAAS-Flex: a joint optimization approach for aligning 3D shapes and exploring the molecular conformation space
Authors: Biyuzan Hamza , Masrour Mohamed-Akram , Grandmougin Lucas , Payan Frédéric , Douguet Dominique
Published: February 2024

Motivation

Popular shape-based alignment methods handle molecular flexibility by utilizing conformational ensembles to select the most fitted conformer. However, the initial conformer library generation step is computationally intensive and limiting to the overall alignment process. In this work, we describe a method to perform flexible alignment of two molecular shapes by optimizing the 3D conformation. SENSAAS-Flex, an add-on to the SENSAAS tool, is able to proceed from a limited set of initial conformers through an iterative process where additional conformational optimizations are made at the substructure level and constrained by the target shape.

Results

In self- and cross-alignment experiments, SENSAAS-Flex is able to reproduce the crystal structure geometry of ligands of the AstraZeneca Molecule Overlay Test set and PDBbind refined dataset. Our study shows that the point-based representation of molecular surfaces is appropriate in terms of shape constraint to sample the conformational space and perform flexible molecular alignments.

Availability and implementation

The documentation and source code are available at https://chemoinfo.ipmc.cnrs.fr/Sensaas-flex/sensaas-flex-main.tar.gz
Effectiveness of Partial Enteral Nutrition as Add-On to Biologics in Patients With Refractory and Difficult-to-Treat Crohn’s Disease: A Pilot Study
Authors: Nardone Olga Maria , Calabrese Giulio , La Mantia Alessia , Testa Anna , Rispo Antonio , Alfonsi Lucia , Pasanisi Fabrizio , Castiglione Fabiana
Published: February 2024

Background

Partial enteral nutrition (PEN) is a well-established treatment for children with Crohn’s disease (CD). However, its efficacy in adults with CD remains uncertain. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of PEN as an add-on to escalated biological therapy in adults with CD who have lost response to biologics.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective observational study including patients who had lost response to biologics and received PEN in combination with escalated treatment, compared to those treated only with escalated therapy. The primary endpoint was steroid-free clinical remission (CR) at 24 weeks. Secondary endpoints included transmural healing (TH) and response (TR) rates along with selected clinical outcomes.

Results

Forty-two patients were screened; 12 (28.6%) were excluded for complicated disease and 30 (71.4%) were included in the final analysis. Fourteen (46.7%) patients completed PEN treatment at 8 weeks, while 16 patients (53.3%) discontinued treatment due to intolerance and continued with escalation of biologic (BT group). At 24 weeks, 9 patients (64.3%) in the PEN group achieved CR, compared to 4 patients (25%) in the BT group (P = .03). The TR rate was 64.9% in the PEN group and 25% in the BT group (P = .03). Patients receiving PEN exhibited an increase in albumin levels compared to those in the BT group (Δ = 0.5; P = .02). A higher rate of therapy changes (68.7%) was observed in the BT group compared to 14.2% in the PEN group (P = .004). Prior failure to 2 lines of biological therapy was associated with adherence to PEN (OR = 1.583; CI = 1.06-2.36; P = .01).

Conclusions

In patients who had lost response to biologics, PEN in combination with escalated biologics was associated with CR and TR and improved nutritional status. Hence, the addition of PEN should be considered for patients with difficult-to-treat CD.
Genetic architecture of trait variance in craniofacial morphology
Authors: Andrade Fernando , Howell Lisa , Percival Christopher J , Richtsmeier Joan T , Marcucio Ralph S , Hallgrímsson Benedikt , Cheverud James M
Published: February 2024

The genetic architecture of trait variance has long been of interest in genetics and evolution. One of the earliest attempts to understand this architecture was presented in Lerner's Genetic Homeostasis (1954). Lerner proposed that heterozygotes should be better able to tolerate environmental perturbations because of functional differences between the alleles at a given locus, with each allele optimal for slightly different environments. This greater robustness to environmental variance, he argued, would result in smaller trait variance for heterozygotes. The evidence for Lerner's hypothesis has been inconclusive. To address this question using modern genomic methods, we mapped loci associated with differences in trait variance (vQTL) on 1,101 individuals from the F34 of an advanced intercross between LG/J and SM/J mice. We also mapped epistatic interactions for these vQTL in order to understand the influence of epistasis for the architecture of trait variance. We did not find evidence supporting Lerner's hypothesis, that heterozygotes tend to have smaller trait variances than homozygotes. We further show that the effects of most mapped loci on trait variance are produced by epistasis affecting trait means and that those epistatic effects account for about a half of the differences in genotypic-specific trait variances. Finally, we propose a model where the different interactions between the additive and dominance effects of the vQTL and their epistatic partners can explain Lerner's original observations but can also be extended to include other conditions where heterozygotes are not the least variable genotype.
Predictors of Frailty Transitions in Mexican Older Adults
Authors: Rivera-Almaraz Ana , Salinas-Rodríguez Aarón , Gutiérrez-Peña Eduardo , Manrique-Espinoza Betty Soledad
Published: February 2024

Background

Frailty is a dynamic state in older adults. Current evidence, mostly in high-income countries, found that improving frailty is more likely in mild states (prefrailty). We aimed to determine the probability of frailty transitions and their predictors.

Methods

Participants were adults aged 50 years or over from the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health in Mexico during 4 waves (2009, 2014, 2017, and 2021). We defined frailty with the frailty phenotype and we used multinomial logistic models to estimate the probabilities of frailty transitions and determine their predictors.

Results

For the 3 analyzed periods (2009–2014, 2014–2017, and 2017–2021), transition probabilities from frail to robust were higher for the younger age group (50–59 years) at 0.20, 0.26, and 0.20, and lower for the older age group (≥80 years), 0.03, 0.08 and 0.04. Transitioning from prefrail to robust had probabilities of 0.38, 0.37, and 0.35, for the younger age group, and 0.09, 0.18, and 0.10, for the older age group. The probabilities of transitioning to frail and to death were lower for the younger age group and for the robust at baseline; but higher for the older age group and for the frail at baseline. We identified age, disability, and diabetes as the most significant predictors of frailty transitions.

Conclusions

These findings show that frailty has a dynamic nature and that a significant proportion of prefrail and frail individuals can recover to a robust or prefrail state. They also emphasize that prefrailty should be the focus of interventions.
Hospital prescribing patterns of antibiotics in Zambia using the WHO prescribing indicators post-COVID-19 pandemic: findings and implications
Authors: Mudenda Steward , Chilimboyi Robert , Matafwali Scott Kaba , Daka Victor , Mfune Ruth Lindizyani , Kemgne Loriane Arielle Mobou , Bumbangi Flavien Nsoni , Hangoma Jimmy , Chabalenge Billy , Mweetwa Larry , Godman Brian
Published: February 2024

Background

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health problem that is fuelled by the inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics, especially those from the ‘watch’ and ‘reserve’ antibiotic lists. The irrational prescribing of antibiotics is particularly prevalent in developing countries, including Zambia. Consequently, there is a need to better understand prescribing patterns across sectors in Zambia as a basis for future interventions. This study evaluated the prescribing patterns of antibiotics using the WHO prescribing indicators alongside the ‘access, watch and reserve’ (AWaRe) classification system post-COVID pandemic at a faith-based hospital in Zambia.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2023 to October 2023 involving the review of medical records at St. Francis’ Mission Hospital in Zambia. A WHO-validated tool was used to evaluate antibiotic prescribing patterns alongside the AWaRe classification tool.

Results

Out of 800 medical records reviewed, 2003 medicines were prescribed. Each patient received an average of 2.5 medicines per prescription. Antibiotics were prescribed in 72.3% of encounters, of which 28.4% were injectable. The most frequently prescribed antibiotics were amoxicillin (23.4%—access), metronidazole (17.1%—access), ciprofloxacin (8%—watch) and ceftriaxone (7.4%—watch), with 77.1% overall from the ‘access’ list. Encouragingly, 96.5% of the medicines were prescribed by their generic names and 98% were from the Zambia Essential Medicines List.

Conclusions

There were high rates of antibiotic prescribing, including injectable antibiotics, which needs addressing going forward. It is crucial to implement targeted measures, including antimicrobial stewardship programmes, to improve future antibiotic prescribing in Zambia and reduce the risk of AMR.
Nucleocapsid and Spike Protein-Based Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Assay Performance in the Minority and Rural Coronavirus Insights Study: Characteristics of Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Populations with Health Disparities
Authors: Christenson Robert H , Hansel Shantoy , II'yasova Dora , Meyer William A , Puckrein Gary , Lee LaTasha , Landry Latrice G , Akinboboye Ola
Published: February 2024

Background

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on Black, Hispanic, and other underserved, disadvantaged populations. Here anti-SARS-CoV-2 tests are characterized in disadvantaged patients to examine equivalence in US populations.

Methods

Underserved participant adults (age > 18 years) were enrolled before the availability of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in Federal Qualified Health Centers in California, Florida, Louisiana, Illinois, and Ohio and contributed samples to the Minority and Rural Coronavirus Insights Study (MRCIS). A subset coined the MRCIS SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Cohort of 2365 participants was tested with the Roche Anti-SARS-CoV-2 assay (Cobas e601). Five hundred ninety-five of these were also tested with the Ortho Clinical Diagnostics VITROS Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay (VITROS-5600); 1770 were also tested with the Abbott ARCHITECT SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay (ARCHITECT-2000). Assay-specific cutoffs classified negative/positive results.

Results

Eight point four percent (199/2365) of the MRCIS SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Cohort was SARS-CoV-2 RNA positive at enrollment. Agreement between the Ortho/Roche and the Abbott/Roche antibody testing did not vary by enrollment RNA status. The Ortho (anti-spike protein) vs Roche (anti-nucleocapsid protein) comparison agreed substantially: kappa = 0.63 (95% CI: 0.57–0.69); overall agreement, 83%. However, agreement was even better for the Abbott vs Roche assays (both anti-nucleocapsid protein tests): kappa = 0.85 (95% CI: 0.81–0.87); overall agreement, 95%. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 comparisons stratified by demographic criteria demonstrated no significant variability in agreement by sex, race/ethnicity, or age.

Conclusions

Analytical agreement is 96.4% for anti-spike-protein vs anti-nucleocapsid-protein comparisons. Physiologically, seroreversion of anti-nucleocapsid reactivity after infection occurred in the disadvantaged population similarly to general populations. No anti-SARS-CoV-2 assays included demonstrated a clinically significant difference due to the demographics of the disadvantaged MRCIS SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Cohort.
Police militarization and local sheriff elections
Authors: Mavridis Christos , Troumpounis Orestis , Zanardi Maurizio
Published: February 2024

We investigate how transfers of military equipment in the United States through the 1033 Program impact the electoral performance of sheriffs that receive a significant share of equipment while directly accountable to voters. To address this question, we have compiled a unique dataset covering 7281 sheriff elections in 2714 counties between 2006 and 2016. Our findings indicate that an increase in military transfers to the sheriff’s office, from no transfers to the 25th percentile, increases the probability of the incumbent being reelected by 5.8–12.5 percentage points. This is due to an increase in the number of votes cast for the incumbent while there is no effect on the total number of voters participating in the election. Our heterogeneity results demonstrate that voters tend to reward military equipment transfers, especially when local newspapers are present and in Republican-leaning small counties, providing novel insights into voter responsiveness in local elections (JEL D72, H56, H76, K42).
Appendiceal duplication: a case report of horseshoe-shaped appendix and implications for patient safety
Authors: Deflaoui Tarik , Derkaoui Anas , Mahmoudi Mohammed , Akil Yassir , Amara Rihab , Miry Nadir , Amal Benani , Jabi Rachid , Bouziane Mohammed
Published: February 2024

Appendiceal anomalies, particularly double appendices, are rare and mainly detected during non-appendiceal surgery in adults. Misrecognizing them can have serious consequences, both clinically and legally. It is critical that surgeons pay attention to the anatomical variations of the vermiform appendix, and always consider the possibility of duplicated appendix when diagnosing a right iliac fossa pain. Misdiagnosis can lead to life-threatening medical complications for the patient, with medico-legal implications.
Biases in responding
Authors: Streiner David L. , Norman Geoffrey R. , Cairney John
Published: February 2024

Scale constructors hope that people will respond to the items by giving thoughtful and honest answers to every item. However, there are many biases that conspire against this, including end-aversion bias, social desirability bias, yea- and nay-saying, and others. The chapter discusses the different perspectives of the scale constructor and the respondent, and how this leads to some forms of bias. Answering questions is not as easy as we may imagine; there are many cognitive demands imposed by doing so, and these, too, can introduce other biases. The chapter also covers the effects of framing (how the question is worded), as well as the difficulties that are encountered in attempting to measure change. Finally, it discusses various ways of conducting cognitive interviews to ensure that the questions are being responded to as accurately as possible.
Clinical pharmacology
Authors: Currow David , Clark Katherine , Kleinig Paul
Published: February 2024

The interaction of medications with the person who has a life-limiting illness is critical to consider. Most people with a life-limiting illness have new medications introduced, while continuing their longer-term medications for their comorbid illnesses. Understanding the potential medication–person and medication–medication interactions is crucial to minimize harms and maximize benefits. In this setting, many people benefit from careful review of their medications to optimize their compliance with those medications that are most beneficial and, at the same time, to minimize harms.
Tricyclic Antidepressant Toxicity: Management of the Crashing Patient
Authors: Oram Matthew , Silva Joshua da
Published: February 2024

Although commonly used for treatment of depression in the 1950s, of tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) have become less frequently prescribed with the widespread availability of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). The TCA medication class carries with it a narrow therapeutic window and potential for lethal toxicity in overdose, and knowledge of its complications remains vital for any emergency physician. The primary therapeutic effect of TCAs comes via blockade of presynaptic norepinephrine and serotonin reuptake. Fatality in overdose most commonly occurs from cardiotoxicity mediated primarily via inhibition of fast sodium channels in the myocardium. Inhibition of myocardial potassium channels, hypotension from alpha-adrenergic blockade, and overexcitation of the CNS through gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) inhibition contribute to the class’s toxicity. Workup is focused on predicting overdose severity and evaluating for complicating factors such as co-ingestions and comorbidities. Treatment focuses on decreasing GI absorption in early overdose, prevention of arrhythmias, and treatment of hypotension. Knowledge of the pathophysiology, toxicity, and treatment of TCAs is vital information for ED physicians.
Diphenhydramine: The Cardiac Poison
Authors: Ugwu Chidiebere Victor , Hallett T. Christy
Published: February 2024

Diphenhydramine is an antihistamine with antimuscarinic properties commonly used to treat allergic reactions, acute dystonia, and insomnia. Overdose of this medication can be either intentional or due to misuse. Diphenhydramine absorption is quick due to its lipophilic nature, and it has a large volume of distribution. The clinical manifestation of this xenobiotic is multisystemic due to antimuscarinic effects and its sodium and potassium channel blockade. Diagnosis is made clinically in conjunction with a history of ingestion. Management of diphenhydramine overdose is primarily supportive, with the goal of monitoring and treating agitation, seizures, arrhythmias, hyperthermia, and rhabdomyolysis if they occur. Physostigmine is an anticholinergic antidote used to treat severe delirium or tachycardia but should be used cautiously due to possible adverse effects.
ME THink You Should Not Use: Methamphetamines Intoxication
Authors: Al-Sulaimani Suad
Published: February 2024

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive, commonly abused psychostimulant that is derived from phenethylamine. Methamphetamine abuse can result in acute and chronic serious health consequences, and use produces a hyper-adrenergic surge that ultimately leads to a variety of medical conditions. The acute effects of methamphetamines are caused by its sympathomimetic properties, and acute intoxication manifests with variable effects that range from agitation to hyperthermia, seizure, arrythmias, myocardial ischemia, and intracerebral hemorrhage and may lead to death. The choice of diagnostic workup depends on the clinical presentation. Qualitative urine immunoassays have limited utility in acutely intoxicated patients. Management of acute methamphetamine toxicity includes supportive care as well as treatment for acute agitation and psychosis. Benzodiazepines is the first-line treatment; repeated and escalated dosing is frequently required. Complications of adrenergic and serotonergic toxicity, such as hyperthermia and rhabdomyolysis, should be anticipated and managed aggressively.
Acetylcholine Overload: Organophosphate and Carbamate Exposures
Authors: Espinoza Luis , da Silva Joshua
Published: February 2024

Pesticides and insecticides containing organophosphates cause roughly 3 million poisonings and approximately 250,000 deaths worldwide every year. When exposed, these agents block acetylcholinesterase from breaking down acetylcholine, leading to a dangerous buildup of acetylcholine in the neuronal spaces. This accumulation continually stimulates postsynaptic nicotinic and muscarinic receptors, leading to a cholinergic toxidrome characterized by excess hyperstimulation of secretions and respiratory paralysis, as well as a host of other symptoms. If untreated, exposure can lead to coma and possibly death due to cardiorespiratory arrest and ventricular arrhythmias. In addition to a detailed history and thorough physical examination, patients require prompt decontamination and early treatment with atropine, titrated to dry respiratory secretions. Additional treatment may include pralidoxime (to prevent irreversible binding of organophosphates to acetylcholinesterase) and benzodiazepines (for treatment of seizures). Mortality of organophosphates can reach as high as 25%, making prompt recognition and early treatment vital for optimal chance of survival.
Spatial continuous modeling of early Cenozoic carbon cycle and climate
Authors: Liu Yonggang , Zhang Jian , Zuo Haoyue , He Zhilin , Guo Jiaqi , Lin Qifan , Yu Haonan , Lan Jiawenjing , Han Jing , Song Zhihong , Yin Zihan , Zhao Liang , Hu Yongyun , Guo Zhengtang
Published: February 2024

A real spatial continuous modeling of climate and carbon cycle is developed, and tested for early Cenozoic from 60 Ma to 40 Ma.
Occupational Health Services in policing: identifying the psychological burden to OHS team members
Authors: Tehrani N
Published: February 2024

Background

Occupational Health Services (OHS) workers in the police are exposed to stressful and pressurized environments where they try to help employees deal with serious physical and mental health conditions.

Aims

This study used psychological surveillance to identify the level of mental health conditions within each of the police OHS (POHS) roles and to identify whether it was possible to identify the main hazards and resilience factors related to these conditions.

Methods

Data on mental health conditions (anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] and secondary trauma) were gathered with questionnaires measuring lifestyle, coping skills, workability and illness behaviour. Personal information and average symptoms, hazards, and resilience factors were measured and compared between the POHS groups. Stepwise linear regression was used to identify the variable that explained the symptoms’ level.

Results

Data were gathered from 251 POHS team members working in multidisciplinary services, including OH physicians, psychologists, advisors, nurses, technicians, well-being and administrators. The results showed that POHS teams are experiencing levels of symptoms significantly higher than those found in the general population and that OH counsellors had lower levels of symptoms and sickness absence than their colleagues. The stepwise regression identified managing workloads to be associated with lower symptom levels.

Conclusions

The findings illustrated the importance of a manageable workload, a stable, resilient personality and a positive attitude towards work. Using coping skills, including physical fitness, social support, involvement and getting enough sleep is associated with lower anxiety, depression, PTSD and secondary trauma symptoms.
Eschatology
Authors: Gribben Crawford
Published: February 2024

Darby is reputed to be the “father of dispensationalism”—the most influential eschatological system among the world’s half-billion evangelicals and one with significant policy impact beyond their number. But that reputation is in many respects ironic. His thinking was always catastrophic. But, when the brethren movement began in the late 1820s, neither he nor any other of its leaders were committed to the system of thought for which he would become best known. His introduction of the novel ideas that would become central to dispensational eschatology were the source of enormous controversy among brethren. But, at the end of his life, Darby may have been most concerned with defending traditional views against the threat of conditional immortality. He had circulated among conditionalists in North America in an effort to see them come among brethren but was astonished to discover that some among their number were claiming to have his support.
Paradise Lost in Frisian Translations
Authors: van der Meer Geart
Published: February 2024

There are currently two complete translations of Paradise Lost into Frisian, and one fragment of the first 241 lines, in blank verse by Douwe Kalma from 1918. Of the two complete versions, Sjoerd van Tuinen’s from 2005 is in prose and was published privately; and van der Meer’s It Paradys Ferlern from 2009 is in blank verse, with the same number of lines as in the original. Frisian—spoken in Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands, by around 400,000 people—is more closely related to English than either Dutch or German, but like the latter two it also lacks the heavily Latinized vocabulary of Milton’s English, which limits a translator’s ability to vary the text by means of synonyms or near-synonyms and generally makes it sound a little less grandiose. Van der Meer demonstrates that Kalma’s fragment reflects his desire to raise Frisian to the level of languages with a long written tradition like Dutch and shows how his own attempt to some extent shares Kalma’s desire to experiment with the usability of Frisian for higher subjects. Van Tuinen’s motivation can only be guessed at, apart from what must have inspired all three: admiration.
Narrative Structure, Intervisuality, and Theology in Auladell’s El Paraíso perdido
Authors: van Dijkhuizen Jan F. , McGourty Lucy
Published: February 2024

Pablo Auladell’s El Paraíso perdido is the first graphic-novel adaptation of the full storyline of Paradise Lost, from the exaltation of the Son to Adam and Eve’s Expulsion from Paradise. It draws on a wide range of visual traditions and iconographies that are as much part of Auladell’s source materials as Milton’s epic. Auladell departs from the post-Romantic readings of Paradise Lost prevalent in popular culture, presenting Satan not as a heroic rebel but as a figure who destroys the beauty and bliss of Eden. Contrary to Milton’s Paradise Lost, Auladell’s El Paraíso perdido downplays of the Son’s redemptive work and the idea that the postlapsarian Adam and Eve will be able to cultivate a ‘paradise within’. Indeed, El Paraíso perdido undermines the insistence in Milton’s epic on human free will: Auladell’s Adam and Eve are entangled in a cosmic battle that is beyond their control.
The Milton and Music Problem
Authors: Herbst Seth
Published: February 2024

This chapter addresses the question, why has Milton been so infrequently adapted into music? The straightforward answer is genre-crossing: unlike Shakespearean drama, the basis for innumerable musical settings, Miltonic epic is too unwieldy for ready musical adaptation. But even Milton’s dramas and lyrics have been relatively neglected. The reason for this Milton and music problem, Herbst proposes, is that Milton deliberately constructs his poetic style to resist musical adaptation. As a result, however, the few composers bold enough to adapt Milton’s works often achieve innovative results that can, in turn, illuminate Milton’s poetics. This chapter first teases out the features of Milton’s anti-musical style by exploring the poet’s ideas about words and music and Henry Lawes’s settings of Milton’s songs for A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle. The chapter concludes with a case study of Krzysztof Penderecki’s opera Paradise Lost (1978), which translates Milton’s resistant text into music even as it retains irreducible traces of Milton’s anti-musical literary style.
Policing Sport Mega-Events
Authors: Pauschinger Dennis
Published: February 2024

Security has become one of the most important aspects of sport mega-event organization. This book explores how Rio de Janeiro was imagined and transformed into a security fortress when the 2014 FIFA Men’s World Cup and the 2016 Olympics came to the city and how the fortress was nonetheless permeable and porous. Dennis Pauschinger experienced exceptional backstage access at a high level in the Brazilian mega-event security architecture, as well as at street level with the local public security sphere. His ethnographic account takes us from the hidden world of surveillance and control centres, to the security perimeters around stadiums, and to the mundane routine of police officers during day and night shifts at local police stations or at the Special Forces’ headquarters. This book shows how police officers’ emotions and Special Forces’ war narratives impact the static and technology-based security models at mega-events and how traditional patterns of police work, along lines of class and racial inequalities, still prevail and shape the city’s public security. The book argues against the common narrative of the positive impacts of mega-event security legacies upon host cities by advancing towards a general understanding of how security governance is carried out in places where the use of digital security technologies coexists with overly lethal and repressive forms of policing.
Introduction
Authors: Pauschinger Dennis
Published: February 2024

This chapter introduces the main question of ‘security for whom?’. It presents the problematic of Rio de Janeiro’s urban conflict and why it is so essential to look at the impacts of globalized standards of mega-event security upon host cities, especially on one like Rio de Janeiro with overly violent public security pre-conditions. The chapter also provides an overview of the special moment in which the Brazilian editions of the FIFA Men’s World Cup and the Olympic Summer Games were awarded to the country and what happened politically thereafter. The chapter further provides the reader with the conceptual framework that is embedded in a Foucauldian perspective that understands urban security governance as a triangle in which disciplinary powers of control, apparatuses of security, and sovereign/necropower are at work simultaneously, complemented by a fourth dimension that takes into account the socio-technical relationship between the agency of humans and machines. The chapter introduces the conceptual take on police officers and how the book combines spatial thinking about the production of territoriality with an emotional understanding of the police as ‘edgeworkers’ grounded in cultural criminology. It also presents in more detail Rio de Janeiro’s urban conflict and the methodological conceptions of the ethnography that underlie the research.
Full Court Press
Authors: Claussen Kathleen
Published: February 2024

This chapter studies how the establishment of the first permanent international legal adjudicatory body of the modern age was portrayed in the public sphere. It focuses on the dynamic between ideas and actions that led to the creation of a permanent court, not just among intellectual communities but for the everyday newspaper reader in the far reaches of the United States. The chapter excavates these important conversations in the popular space and traces how those developments contributed to building support for a national policy and international law in favour of the construction of what would become a prominent international organization in which David Caron was active and revered: the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The prominence in the news of the Hague Peace Conference and the push for a world arbitral tribunal reflects the widespread turn-of-the-century attention towards international legal institutions. It was, quite literally, a full court press.
The Eritrea Ethiopia Claims Commission
Authors: Garry Hannah R , Brock-Smith Morgan , Maisel Nicholas
Published: February 2024

This chapter is an examination of the Eritrea Ethiopia Claims Commission (hereinafter EECC or the Commission) through a transitional justice lens, exploring the potential for such international dispute resolution mechanisms to achieve transitional justice goals such as accountability, peace, and reconciliation in the aftermath of armed conflict and mass atrocity situations. While much has been written about the EECC and its efficacy as an ad hoc arbitral commission established in the line of historic “mixed commissions” for purposes of settling inter-state claims through application of international legal rules on state responsibility, less attention has been given to the EECC as a mechanism also established for redress for victims in the face of mass atrocities devastating whole communities. This is surprising given the Commission’s explicit mandate to award compensation to civilians and prisoners of war who suffered gravely as a result of serious violations of international humanitarian law during the conflict. As such, this chapter begins by surveying what is meant by a transitional justice mechanism, judicial or non-judicial, and what are the purported goals to be achieved by such processes. Second, in outlining the origins and structure of the EECC, this chapter queries whether the Commission may be considered a transitional justice mechanism as traditionally understood. Finally, this chapter examines what lessons can be learned from the Commission’s work, both positive and negative, and whether the EECC experiment might be instructive for establishing future ad hoc arbitral commissions from a transitional justice perspective.
International Courts in a Politicized World
Authors: Shany Yuval
Published: February 2024

One of the harshest forms of criticisms directed at international institutions generally, and international courts specifically, is that they are political or politicized. The main claim this chapter makes is that although it is vital to separate between law and politics, there are unavoidable points of contact between the two domains. International courts should take cognizance of certain political considerations. While international courts do not serve as a direct extension of international politics, they do interact with their political environment, and depend in meaningful ways on the support of political actors. As a result, international courts cannot afford to ignore their political context, yet they must also strive to maintain a distinction between law and politics. The chapter first discusses the goals of international courts, and then introduces two key perspectives for evaluating their operations—legitimacy and effectiveness. The next section describes dominant points of contact between international adjudication and the political world, before the chapter discusses some of normative and practical implications of juxtaposing judicial goals and the political context against which they should be realized. Specifically, it asks whether and how courts can take cognizance of political considerations without undermining their legitimacy and effectiveness, and propose that legal notions and doctrines, such as accommodating legitimate or reasonable expectations, avoiding imposing on international actors impossible or unreasonable burdens when interpreting and applying legal norms, affording states a margin of appreciation and developing flexible remedies, may play a useful role in this regard. The final section concludes.
The Growth of Regional Courts and the Judicial Settlement of Inter-State Disputes in Africa
Authors: Yusuf Abdulqawi A
Published: February 2024

There are currently five regional courts in the African continent: the East African Court of Justice (EACJ); the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Tribunal, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal, the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) Court of Justice, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice. They all came into being in the last twenty years or so. They were established under the treaties creating the five regional economic communities (RECs). Each regional economic community has, as a result, a judicial mechanism for the settlement of disputes which may arise from its founding treaty. Some of the courts also have other functions. The question arises, however, whether the multiplication of judicial institutions has led to an increased resort to the judicial settlement of inter-state disputes in Africa before African courts. This chapter will address this question as well as others relating to regional courts in Africa and the judicial settlement of disputes in the continent.
Normative Foundations of Arbitral Due Process
Authors: Bjorklund Andrea K , Turriago Bettancourt Catalina
Published: February 2024

In the ongoing debates about the future of investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS), the concepts of due process and the rule of law are invoked by proponents and critics alike. The former tend to rely on them to justify and defend the process, whilst the latter point out how ISDS falls short when assessed against certain rule-of-law criteria; due process can be regarded by critics either as an inadequate safeguard against rule-of-law violations or as an independent ground for inadequacy should proceedings fail to provide adequate process. In this context, the chapter addresses the intersection between due process and “thin” and “thick” conceptions of the rule of law. The authors posit that due process as conceived in the commercial arbitration context is insufficient to appease critics of investment arbitration about legitimacy concerns. They examine the reasons for this insufficiency and the implications for proposals to revise and refine the approaches to investor–state dispute settlement.
Early Dismissal of Claims as a Tool to Enhance the Efficiency and Legitimacy of ISDS
Authors: Thomas Johnson O , Sheargold Elizabeth
Published: February 2024

The power to dismiss a claim for lack of merit can provide a court or tribunal with a useful tool to effectively dispose of claims without undue expenditure of resources. The judicious use of such a power may, in turn, improve the efficiency and the legitimacy of dispute settlement mechanisms. This chapter compares models for early dismissal of claims under the ICSID Arbitration Rules, US treaty practice (particularly CAFTA), and other notable examples such as CETA. It argues that early dismissal mechanisms would promote greater efficiency in investor–state arbitrations if they were brought more in line with their domestic counterparts, such as motions to dismiss in US civil procedure. In particular, the chapter argues that the requirement for a claim to be ‘manifestly’ without legal merit be removed, so tribunals will be more willing to resolve complex or novel legal issues through these processes, and that the use of early dismissal mechanisms should generally be limited to issues relating to the merits of a dispute or to jurisdictional objections which do not require any evidence to be adduced or expert witnesses to be called.
The Public Interest as Part of Legitimate Expectations in Investment Arbitration
Authors: Ortino Federico
Published: February 2024

A key criticism of investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) is the lack of consistency and correctness of arbitral awards. In the context of ISDS reforms within the UNCITRAL Working Group III, it has been noted that concerns of inconsistency were “particularly acute when different ISDS tribunals had reached contradicting conclusions about the same or similar substantive standard” and, more fundamentally, when “arbitral tribunals had interpreted the treaty provisions incorrectly”. Defenders of the current system, on the other hand, have argued that despite its ad hoc diffuse nature, the system is capable of achieving a consistent and sound jurisprudence with regard to key investment treaty standards. This chapter tests whether investment treaty tribunals have achieved a consistent and sound interpretation—using the concept of legitimate expectations as part of the fair and equitable treatment (FET) standard as its case study. There is no doubt that the FET standard today represents the most important substantive protection guaranteed by investment treaties. The concept of legitimate expectations represents the cornerstone of that protection. The chapter argues that after twenty years of arbitral practice, the application of the concept of legitimate expectations as part of the FET standard remains uncertain, inconsistent, and inaccurate, raising serious doubts about whether the current system will ever be able to achieve a consistent and sound jurisprudence—at least on this concept.
Sea Level Rise and Maritime Boundaries
Authors: Oral Nilufer , Aurescu Bogdan
Published: February 2024

Over thirty years ago, David Caron was among the pioneers who raised concerns about the potential consequences of sea level rise on baselines and maritime boundaries. This chapter starts with a brief overview of the scientific background of climate change and sea level rise, examines the maritime zones and associated entitlements, and the possible impacts of sea level rise on maritime baselines, maritime zones, and their associated entitlements, as well as on the status of islands and offshore features under Article 121 UNCLOS. It weighs the options of having ambulatory or fixed baselines or outer limits of maritime boundaries, as well as the need for need for stability and certainty for maritime boundaries. The chapter concludes that there need not be one single solution to the challenge of sea level rises and the impact on maritime boundaries. What matters is that the international community works together to achieve a solution to promote certainty, stability, and peaceful relations.
Changing Stories
Authors: Bradley Ben S. , Selby Jane , Stapleton Matthew
Published: February 2024

Changing Stories assembles a variety of evidence for a group-based picture of human beginnings. Cross-cultural comparisons remind us that most babies around the world, and throughout history, have grown up within groups of kith and kin, not home-alone with a mother. Primate research aligns human beings with ‘cooperative breeders’, suggesting our brains grew big to deal with the dynamics in complex groups. And anthropologists suggest the first humans lived in tribal bands. Hence, what human babies will most have needed to thrive during human evolution is the capacity effectively to integrate into a group of companions. The chapter suggests three reasons why this conclusion has so far escaped scientific scrutiny: a supposition that babies need to develop certain concepts before they can act socially; an assumption that babies only require a single ‘attachment’ to get them through their early life; and the idea that infant sociability results from moulding by adults.
This Is Not Happening
Authors: Bradley Ben S. , Selby Jane , Stapleton Matthew
Published: February 2024

This Is Not Happening shifts from describing infants in all-baby trios to the study of baby-only quartets. In so doing it takes up the challenge of moving beyond familiar cultural scripts which focus on individuals, couples, or ‘jealous’ threesomes. Extended vignettes show baby foursomes feature multi-member conversations, overlapping interpersonal routines, dynamics of linking and attacks on linking, moments of individuation, and cooperative ‘work’ to maintain cohesion, while implicating individual histories. These analyses highlight the inherent difficulties of interpreting the complexity of human agency in groups and the value of ethnographic methods and theory. This Is Not Happening also presents statistical evidence of group-level interaction in infant quartets—showing that, for example, how one group member acts at Time Q is significantly influenced by what two or more other group members were previously doing at Time P. The chapter concludes by examining the kinds of theoretical, cultural, and emotional challenges infants’ participation in groups presents to the psy-professions.
Triggers and strategies of revenue bargaining
Authors: von Schiller Armin
Published: February 2024

What triggers governments to engage in revenue bargaining and what strategies do they use? This chapter analyses these questions at the municipal level in Mozambique based on a comparative case study design including 11 municipalities and more than 100 interviews with representatives from public administration, political institutions, and civil society. The results indicate that unreliable fiscal transfers and political competition are the main triggers of municipal efforts to engage in bargaining with revenue providers. In terms of strategies, the results show that municipal outreach activities remain mostly unidirectional and unsuccessful in engaging revenue providers broadly in bargaining processes. Finally, civil society organizations are identified to be too weak to play their essential intermediary role between revenue providers and governments. Overall, the results provide insights into the determinants of the predisposition of governments for revenue bargaining, but also point to preconditions required for meaningful revenue bargaining to be at all feasible.
Conceptual Framework
Authors: Shaffer Paul
Published: February 2024

In this chapter, a conceptual framework is presented, based on the distinction between being bypassed or unavoidably harmed by growth, on the one hand (failed inclusion), and being avoidably harmed by it, on the other hand (malevolent inclusion). Much of the chapter is devoted to developing the idea of malevolent inclusion, which draws on a debate in philosophy about doing and allowing harm. It is argued that malevolent inclusion has advantages over other related concepts, such as relational poverty, and has analytical value in the context of immiserizing growth. The conceptual framework forms part of the overall analytical framework presented in Chapter 4 which is applied to the empirical case studies in Chapter 8.
Cross-Country Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Authors: Shaffer Paul
Published: February 2024

Chapter 6 investigates sufficient conditions of immiserizing growth using techniques of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). It provides a brief overview of QCA techniques and argues that in principle, they are well-equipped to handle situations of causal complexity where outcomes depend upon complex configurations of conditions and not their singular effects. The QCA exercise uses the same outcome and explanatory variables as the econometric analysis in Chapter 5 which allows for a direct comparison of results. It also ran extensive sensitivity analysis based on slight changes to the threshold values used to construct the explanatory variables. Overall, QCA results provide some support for the association between corruption and IG episodes found in the econometric analysis. In general, however, many results are counter-intuitive and not robust to alternative specification.
Broadening the Definition of Genocide
Authors: Grosescu Raluca
Published: February 2024

This chapter examines the reformulation of the international definition of genocide by national courts in Lithuania, Argentina, and Guatemala. Such revisions of the concept included crimes committed against political opponents and national resistance movements, and cultural genocide against Indigenous populations—two categories explicitly eliminated from the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. These expanded definitions were forged to overcome impunity and prosecute the crimes committed by the military and the communist regimes during the Cold War. They were also designed to enforce specific historical narratives that understood the repressive history of these dictatorships in terms of ‘the crime of crimes’. The Lithuanian judiciary coined the concept of ethno-national-political genocide to frame the killings of anti-Soviet partisans in the 1940s and 1950s and thereby to equate the mass atrocities committed by the Soviet regime occupation of the Baltic states with the crimes of the Nazis. Similarly, Argentinian judges employed the notion of ideological auto-genocide to inscribe the extermination of left-wing opponents in the 1970s in the global history of twentieth-century bureaucratically organized atrocities such as the Holocaust. Finally, Guatemalan courts ruled that the category of genocide included not only massacres of Indigenous groups but also acts of cultural genocide. The latter encompassed the destruction of Mayan culture and social cohesion and emphasized the racist and neocolonial character of the Guatemalan military, political, and economic elites.