bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Institutional Receptions
Authors: Faia Tatiana
Published: December 2018

This chapter examines the reception of Luís de Camões’s The Lusíads in José Saramago’s play What Shall I Make of This Book? Discussing the narrator’s speeches in The Lusíads, Saramago’s play, and a set of statements by intellectuals contemporary to Saramago, it surveys the extent to which Saramago draws on Camões’s allusions to the political instability in King Sebastião’s court in order to comment on the epic’s reception in the twentieth century. The conclusion explores the extent to which Saramago’s views in the play are representative of a wider thread not only in the literary reception of the poem, but also in Camões’s studies. The implications of this idea for the act of reading Camões’s epic today are central to this chapter.
After the Aeneid
Authors: Harrison Stephen
Published: December 2018

This chapter looks at three eighteenth-century operas on the topic of Ascanius: Fux’s Julo Ascanio, re d’Alba (1708), Lotti’s Ascanio, ovvero Gli odi delusi dal sangue (1718), and Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba (1772). It shows that the story of Ascanius has cultural cachet and authority because of its origin in the respected classical texts of Virgil and Livy, and that it provides elevated subject matter appropriate for operas on great state occasions; this classical episode is conveniently flexible and tempting for subsequent adaptors because classical authors say so little about Ascanius, especially about his future career after the Aeneid, which is what these operas treat. The status of Ascanius as the ancestor of Augustus and of the Roman Empire has clear appeal to that empire’s self-conceived modern successors, the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs; and Ascanius’ key role as the conduit through which the blood of Aeneas passes to later rulers makes him a natural choice for pieces performed on occasions of royal marriages, stressing the crucial nature of genetic and dynastic continuity.
Epic Cassandras in Performance, 1795–1868
Authors: Monrós-Gaspar Laura
Published: December 2018

Victorian refigurations of the Cassandra myth ferment throughout the long eighteenth century, when new theatrical modes put into practice prevailing aesthetic theories that gave prominence to the visual over the verbal. This chapter examines the range of prophetic Cassandras, from the Shakespearean raving prophetess to the palm-reading Gypsies of the 1860s. Such variations can only be given full expression on the stage, where a set of gestures, costumes, and sociocultural referents develop new cultural, inter-theatrical, and semiotic systems. Performing as the epic Cassandra also triggered the career of a number of actresses and dancers who found in Cassandra the perfect means to prove their performing skills to the audience. At a time when women’s access to knowledge was being disputed, the Cassandra myth provided fertile soil wherein to test and contest the role of women in society.
Fish, Firemen, and Prize Fighters
Authors: Davies Rachel Bryant
Published: December 2018

Burlesque drama—arguably the most widespread form of theatrical entertainment in nineteenth-century Britain—brought the Iliad and Aeneid to a wider range of spectators than those who traditionally encountered ancient literature and mythology at school. These entertainments both exploited contemporary performance culture and enacted the tensions between their composite ancient and modern sources. This chapter focuses on four successful examples of epic repackaged for the London stage, by renowned playwrights at leading theatres, who particularly revelled in negotiating the transformation of classical epic into popular drama: Thomas Dibdin’s Melodrama Mad! or, The Siege of Troy (1819, Surrey Theatre), Charles Selby’s Judgment of Paris; or, The Pas de Pippins (1856, Adelphi), Francis Cowley Burnand’s Dido (1860, St James’s), and his Paris, or Vive Lemprière! (1866, Strand). Analysis of these burlesques reveals deliberate anachronistic juxtapositions which turned the epic performances into complex games of identifying—or overlooking—their varied references.
Doubts about “Genuinely Normative” Epistemic Reasons
Authors: Paakkunainen Hille
Published: December 2018

Instrumentalist and teleologist views in metaepistemology hold that epistemic reasons are goal-relative or value-relative. In the face of counterexamples involving apparently pointless or counterproductive beliefs that are nonetheless supported by excellent epistemic reasons, some have retreated to the following view: while even pointless or counterproductive beliefs can be supported by excellent epistemic reasons in a not-genuinely-normative sense, we can have genuinely normative epistemic reasons only for beliefs that do serve some goal or value. In this chapter doubts are raised about the distinction between genuinely normative and not-genuinely-normative epistemic reasons employed here. It is suggested that there’s no real need or intuitive motivation for the distinction, beyond the ad hoc need of salvaging instrumentalist and teleologist views from counterexamples. The sense in which all epistemic reasons—even reasons for apparently pointless or counterproductive beliefs—seem to be equally normative is explained; and the implications for instrumentalists and teleologists are outlined.
Believing Well
Authors: Schroeder Mark
Published: December 2018

In this chapter it is argued that knowledge stands to believing the right thing as acting well stands to doing the right thing. Knowledge is believing well along both objective and subjective dimensions. The argument uses artificial games as a control case in order to argue for a general principle about the relationship between acting well and doing the right thing. And it uses this general principle in order to offer both direct and indirect arguments that knowledge is believing well. It is a consequence of the argument of this chapter that knowledge is essentially normative in nature, and so epistemology is a normative discipline, through and through.
The Fires of Campania
Authors: Krasne Darcy
Published: December 2018

This chapter discusses how Valerius Flaccus in his Argonautica extends Pindar’s location of Typhon beneath the Bay of Naples (Pyth. 1.15–28) to associate mythology’s most notorious theomach with the Phlegraean Fields (V. Fl. 6.169–70) and, by conjunction with Ischia’s volcano Inarime, possibly even with Mount Vesuvius itself. In Flavian literature gigantomachy becomes symbolic of civil conflict and empire. Although Valerius’ epic narrative is played out far from Italy, the menace of Campania’s incarcerated giant reappears through digression, intertext, imagery, and genealogy, to the point that the adventures of Jason’s Argonauts seem Romanized through these recurrent reminders of civil war.
Limited Liberalism
Authors: David Roman , Holliday Ian
Published: December 2018

This chapter focuses on puzzling issues arising from the explorations undertaken in preceding chapters, and captures them in the notion of limited liberalism. It presents this concept as a critical analytical tool for understanding the nature of Myanmar’s transition. It opens by describing some contradictions that emerged from our exploration of Myanmar in reform, sets them in comparative perspective, and probes their limits or boundaries. It then devises the concept of limited liberalism, exposes its assumptions, and examines it as a property of the political culture of hybrid regimes. Finally, it returns to empirical study to investigate liberalism, illiberalism, and limited liberalism in our case. It concludes by using limited liberalism to chart the prospects for liberal democracy in Myanmar.
Hemoglobin
Authors: Storz Jay F.
Published: December 2018

The aims of this book are to provide a synthesis of our current understanding of hemoglobin structure, function, and evolution, and to illustrate how research on this paradigmatic protein has provided general insights into mechanisms of molecular evolution and biochemical adaptation. The book promotes an appreciation of how mechanistic insights into protein function can enrich our understanding of how evolution works and, reciprocally, it highlights how approaches in evolutionary genetics (such as phylogenetic comparative methods and ancestral sequence reconstruction) can be brought to bear on questions about the functional evolution of proteins. This treatise on the functional evolution of hemoglobin illustrates how research on a single, well-chosen model system can enhance our investigative acuity and bring key conceptual questions into sharp focus. Hemoglobin: Insights into Protein Structure, Function, and Evolution is suitable for a wide range of graduate level students taking interdisciplinary courses in biochemical physiology and protein evolution, and will serve as a key reference for researchers in molecular evolution, biochemistry, and comparative physiology.
Inquisitive Semantics
Authors: Ciardelli Ivano , Groenendijk Jeroen , Roelofsen Floris
Published: December 2018

There is an age-old tradition in linguistics and philosophy to identify the meaning of a entence with its truth-conditions. This can be explained by the fact that linguistic and philosophical investigations are usually carried out in a logical framework that was originally designed to characterize valid reasoning. Indeed, in order to determine whether an argument is valid, it suffices to know the truth-conditions of the premises and conclusion. However, argumentation is neither the sole, nor the primary function of language. One task that language more widely and ordinarily fulfils is to enable the exchange of information between conversational participants. Inquisitive semantics is a new logical framework for the analysis of this fundamental usage of language. Information exchange can be seen as a process of raising and resolving issues. Inquisitive semantics provides a new formal notion of issues, which makes it possible to model various concepts that are crucial for the analysis of linguistic information exchange in a more refined and more principled way than has been possible in previous frameworks. This book provides a detailed exposition of inquisitive semantics, and demonstrates its benefits with a range of applications in the semantic analysis of questions, coordination, modals, conditionals, and intonation.
Kingship, Society, and the Church in Anglo-Saxon Yorkshire
Authors: Pickles Thomas
Published: December 2018

Inspired by studies of Carolingian Europe, Kingship, Society, and the Church in Anglo-Saxon Yorkshire argues that the social strategies of local kin groups drove conversion to Christianity and church building in Yorkshire from AD 400 to 1066. It challenges an emphasis on the role and agency of Anglo-Saxon kings in conversion and church building. It moves forward debates surrounding the ‘minster hypothesis’ through an interdisciplinary case study. The kingdom of the Deirans stretched from the Humber to the Tees and the North Sea to the Pennines between 600 and 867. The Scandinavian kings at York probably established an administration for much of this area between 867 and 954. The West Saxon kings incorporated it into an English kingdom between 954 and 1066 and established the ‘shire’ from which the name Yorkshire derives. Members of Deiran kin groups faced uncertainties that predisposed them to consider conversion as a social strategy. Their decisions to convert produced a new social fraction—the ‘ecclesiastical aristocracy’—with a distinctive but fragile identity. The ‘ecclesiastical aristocracy’ transformed kingship, established a network of religious communities, and engaged in the conversion of the laity. The social and political instabilities produced by conversion along with the fragility of ecclesiastical identity resulted in the expropriation and reorganization of many religious communities. Nevertheless, the Scandinavian and West Saxon kings and their nobles allied with wealthy and influential archbishops of York, and there is evidence for the survival, revival, or foundation of religious communities as well as the establishment of local churches.
The Persuasion Industries
Authors: McKevitt Steven
Published: December 2018

This book presents a history of the UK’s persuasion industries (marketing, advertising, public relations, and branding) between 1969 and 1997. It examines developments in practice, methodology, and application to provide empirical support for the proposition that persuasion played a key role in the making of modern Britain. This period was one of significant change. Persuasion, in a variety of forms, increased in importance and effectiveness to become the driving force within many commercial enterprises. Through a proliferation of new media channels and applications it was also able to penetrate into more areas of everyday life. The impact of these developments on British society was profound and enduring. Historical sources used to undertake this investigation include trade media, academic journals, reports from professional bodies, manuals and memoirs, and archival materials from some of the key advertising agencies, public relations consultancies, and marketing departments of the period. Moreover, this is the first detailed historical examination of developments within the persuasion industries, and also the first that places emergent concepts such as planning, positioning, corporate branding, emotional attachment, and consumer targeting into a historical context. By studying the differential effects of persuasion, this study seeks to develop a better understanding of both the mechanisms that underlay these various applications and their impact on consumer behaviour.
Conclusion
Authors: McKevitt Steven
Published: December 2018

The Conclusion draws together the main findings of the study. Britain in 1997 was a far more emotional and expressive society. This is highlighted by two events: the public response to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the success of New Labour in the general election. The extent to which persuasion industries were responsible for bringing these changes about is discussed. There is a discussion of some areas for further study: the subsequent impact of the World Wide Web and social media platforms; persuasion aimed at children/juvenile consumption, and the development of single British brand throughout the period—for example, Virgin.
Hybrid Hymns
Authors: Regier Alexander
Published: December 2018

This chapter uncovers the multilingual aspects of the literary genre of the British hymn by looking at the surprisingly polyglot, Anglo-German influences on its formation and their impact during the eighteenth century. Once we read across languages, we realize that a great part of what we think of as typically British hymns are, in fact, translations from the German, composed by the Moravians. Many of their hymns are exorbitant in their use of erotic Christianity, a topic that is also important to Blake and Hamann. The hymn is a hybrid, something that is reflected directly in the bilingual hymnbooks, so far neglected by scholarship. The chapter provides a fresh reading of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience across languages that attends to these multilingual and comparative echoes that have not been noticed before.
The Feasibility of Human Rights
Authors: Gilabert Pablo
Published: December 2018

To be justifiable, the demands of a conception of human rights and global justice must be such that (a) they focus on the protection of extremely important human interests and (b) their fulfillment is feasible. This chapter provides a discussion of (b), the Feasibility Condition. It presents, first, a general account of the relation between moral desirability, feasibility and obligation within a conception of justice. Next, it provides an analysis of the notion of feasibility. This idea is in fact quite complex, including different types, domains, and degrees. The chapter concludes by identifying several ways in which we can respond to alleged circumstances of infeasibility regarding the fulfillment of basic socioeconomic human rights against severe poverty.
Dignity and Solidaristic Empowerment
Authors: Gilabert Pablo
Published: December 2018

This chapter argues that the requirements of human dignity can be plausibly articulated in terms of an ideal of solidaristic empowerment. The ideal asks us to support persons’ pursuit of a decent and flourishing life by affirming both negative duties not to block or destroy, and positive duties to protect and facilitate, the development and exercise of the valuable capacities that give rise to their status-dignity. Enacting appropriate respect and concern for this dignity precisely involves enhancing and using power in solidaristic ways. The key notions of power, solidarity, and capability support as explored. The resulting conceptual and normative perspective has important implications for the justification of specific human rights, such as the rights to political participation and decent work, which are more fully explored later in the book.
Political Rights
Authors: Gilabert Pablo
Published: December 2018

Is there a human right to democracy (HRD)? How does the achievement of human rights, including the human right to democracy, contribute to the pursuit of global justice? The chapter identifies three reasons for favoring democracy and explores their significance for defending it as a human right. It answers important worries that acknowledging an HRD would lead to intolerance and lack of respect for people’s self-determination, exaggerate the importance of democracy for securing other rights, generalize institutional arrangements that only work in some contexts, and tie human rights to specific ideas of freedom and equality that do not have the same universal appeal and urgency. Tackling the second question, the chapter argues that by providing a floor of dignity on which people can stand in the organization of their social life, democratic political empowerment is crucial for the pursuit of both basic and maximal global justice.
Hobbes on the Authority of Scripture
Authors: Holden Thomas
Published: December 2018

To understand Hobbes’s handling of scripture we need to see it in the light of his philosophical account of the norms controlling public religious speech and practice. Hobbes holds that we ought rationally to venerate the first cause of all and that the proper way to do this is to publicly adopt the local culture’s religious practices, however arbitrary or conventional those practices might be. He therefore embraces his own culture’s Anglo-Protestant scriptural religion in a spirit of genuine piety and reverence. At the same time, Hobbes also regards this form of devotion as a conventional human artifact that, given the ear of the sovereign and the cooperation of the universities, he might hope to shape in favor of Hobbesian moral and political ideals. The proposed interpretation of Hobbes’s treatment of scriptural religion dissolves problems facing irreligious readings on the one hand, and more straightforwardly Christian readings on the other.
On Living Mirrors and Mites: Leibniz’s Encounter with Pascal on Infinity and Living Things Circa 1696
Authors: Nachtomy Ohad
Published: December 2018

This chapter examines Leibniz’s comment on fragment 22 of Pascal’s Pensées in the Port-Royal Edition (currently Lafuma 199). Leibniz responds to Pascal’s employment of the infinitely large and infinitely small and to the way he uses infinity to describe living beings through the example of a mite (ciron). In contrast, Leibniz employs the image of a living mirror (miroir vivant). The chapter argues that, despite superficial similarities, Leibniz’s use of infinity to define living beings stands in stark contrast to Pascal’s use of infinity, in that it stresses unity and harmony rather than divisibility and disparity. Leibniz’s use of infinity through the notion of a living mirror suggests that each individual forms an integral part of a well-connected and harmonious system. Whereas Pascal uses infinity to highlight our alienation and incomprehension of the world, for Leibniz infinity serves as a mark of unity, connectedness, and belonging.
Leibniz’s Ontology of Force
Authors: Jorati Julia
Published: December 2018

Leibniz portrays the most fundamental entities in his mature ontology in at least three different ways: (a) mind-like, immaterial substances that perceive and strive, (b) hylomorphic compounds, (c) primitive and derivative forces. This chapter argues that the third characterization is more accurate than the other two. Thus, Leibniz’s monadological metaphysics is even more radical than it initially seems: his ontology is best understood not as a substance-mode ontology but as a force ontology. At the metaphysical ground floor, we do not find substances that possess force; instead, we just find forces. Interpreting Leibniz as a force ontologist has far-reaching consequences. For instance, it requires us to reconsider the status of time in Leibniz’s system and to revise our understanding of appetitions (or appetites) and perceptions.
Coda
Authors: Edelstein Sari
Published: December 2018

The coda brings together the concerns of the book via a reading of Charles Chesnutt’s “The Wife of his Youth.” Through an examination of this story, the coda pursues some of the questions raised in the final two chapters about the representation of elderly characters and about caregiving, individualism, and autonomy. I argue that the story’s treatment of age markers in relation to social hierarchies and historical trauma suggests ways not only to read them critically but also to engage them ethically. That is, the story urges its resistant readers toward an accountability to vulnerable populations, a responsibility that can seem onerous, even grotesque, in an age in which ideals of individualism, autonomy, and acquisition prevail. Ultimately, the coda positions the book in relation to contemporary concerns about growing old in a neoliberal climate that stigmatizes dependence and repose.
Introduction
Authors: Shannon-Henderson Kelly E.
Published: December 2018

The Introduction contextualizes the study in terms of existing scholarship on Tacitus, cultural memory theory, and the study of Roman religion. Roman paganism, with its emphasis on exact repetition of rituals as they have been performed for centuries, is particularly fruitful when analyzed using cultural memory theory as developed by scholars such as Jan Assmann, Maurice Halbwachs, and Pierre Nora: religious ritual is viewed as a key component in any society’s efforts to create a lived version of the past that helps define cultural identity in the present. Tacitus’ own background as a quindecimvir, one of the most important priestly colleges in the Roman state cult, as well as the conventions surrounding the treatment of religion in Roman historiography, are likely to have informed his interest in religious material.
Introduction
Authors: Bevir Mark , Blakely Jason
Published: December 2018

Readers are introduced to the major philosophical paradigms shaping social science research today, including hermeneutics and naturalism. The pervasive influence of naturalism on social scientific research is explained and the interpretive alternative is sketched. As part of this, readers are offered an account of the philosophical origins of today’s social science disciplines with a special focus on the case of political science. At the beginning of the twentieth century a modern, ahistorical, and formal paradigm for the study of politics was formed as scholars increasingly rejected the developmental historical narratives and Hegelianism of the nineteenth century. The chapter concludes with a brief overview of the argument of the book.
Philosophical debates
Authors: Bevir Mark , Blakely Jason
Published: December 2018

This chapter considers some of the major philosophical traditions that have established the need for an interpretive turn in the social sciences—including phenomenology, post-structuralism, pragmatism, analytic philosophy, and social constructivism. We reject the view that there is only one privileged philosophical route to an interpretive social science. Instead, the philosophical pluralism of the interpretive turn is defended albeit from a uniquely anti-naturalist perspective. Specifically, anti-naturalism corrects the tendency of some advocates of the interpretive turn to drift back into naturalist concepts as well as to distort the proper conception of human agency. Major philosophers of the interpretive turn are critically engaged, including Edmund Husserl, Michel Foucault, Charles Taylor, and Hans-Georg Gadamer.
Synchronic empirical research
Authors: Bevir Mark , Blakely Jason
Published: December 2018

Interpretive philosophy opens a novel range of empirical topics for researchers. This chapter focuses on synchronic research topics (or those pertaining to a single snapshot of time) and argues that anti-naturalism generates distinctive ways of studying beliefs, identities, cultural practices, traditions, and political resistance. Examples are drawn from cutting-edge interpretive research into subjects like the politics of Islam, race, globalization, and democratic civic engagement. In addition, some of the more controversial findings of mainstream social science are engaged, including Samuel Huntington’s thesis that global politics consists of a “clash of civilizations”; Michelle Alexander’s argument that the United States is experiencing a new Jim Crow; and Robert Putnam’s view that American democracy is suffering a decline in civic engagement.
The Idea of Nicaea in the Early Church Councils, AD 431-451
Authors: Smith Mark S.
Published: December 2018

This work examines the role that appeals to Nicaea (both the council and its creed) played in the major councils of the mid-fifth century. It argues that the conflict between rival construals of Nicaea represented a key dynamic driving—and unsettling—the conciliar activity of these decades. The fundamental dilemma was how to persuasively reaffirm inherited assumptions—that Nicaea possessed unique authority as a conciliar event, and sole sufficiency as a credal statement—in the context of a dispute over Christological doctrine that the resources of the Nicene Creed were seemingly inadequate to address. The book examines the articulation of these contested ideas of ‘Nicaea’ at the councils of Ephesus I (431), Constantinople (448), Ephesus II (449), and Chalcedon (451). Particular attention is paid to the role of conciliar acta. It is proposed that the capacity of the idea of ‘Nicaea’ for flexible re-expression was a source of opportunity as well as a cause of strife, allowing continuity with the past to be asserted precisely through adaptation and modification, and opening up significant new paths for the articulation of credal and conciliar authority. The work thus combines a detailed historical analysis of the reception of Nicaea in the proceedings of the fifth-century councils, with an examination of the complex delineation of theological ‘orthodoxy’ in this period. It also reflects more widely on questions of doctrinal development and ecclesial reception in the early church.
The Idea of Nicaea in the Aftermath of Ephesus
Authors: Smith Mark S.
Published: December 2018

This chapter traces the reception of Ephesus after 431. It argues that there was a complex pluriformity of divergent receptions, each embodying a subtly different construal of the Nicene faith. First, the initial struggle over the reception of Ephesus is analysed, down to the Formula of Reunion (433). Then, several distinct trajectories of Ephesine reception are traced in the years following 433: a ‘minimal Cyrilline’ reception (which acknowledged the authority of Cyril’s council and the deposition of Nestorius); a ‘moderate Antiochene’ reception (which defined the council’s achievement via the Formula of Reunion, blunting the council’s attack on Antiochene doctrine); a ‘hard-line Cyrilline’ reception (which reoriented the documentary record of Ephesus around the 22nd July session of 431); and a ‘hard-line Antiochene’ reception (which continued to reject Cyril’s council). The diversity of receptions of Ephesus was further encouraged by the varied textual forms in which the decisions of the council came to circulate.
The Idea of Nicaea at Ephesus II (449)
Authors: Smith Mark S.
Published: December 2018

At Ephesus II, the Nicene construal of 448 was overturned, Eutyches’ doctrine was declared to be faithful to Nicaea, and Flavian’s contrary to it. Ephesus II reoriented the reception of Ephesus I around the 22 July 431 acta (closing off the Antiochene strategy of reading Cyril’s council via the Formula of Reunion), whilst fashioning the hitherto little-known ‘Canon 7’ of 431 into a powerful weapon against any theological statements deemed to be an addition to the Nicene Creed. Ephesus II established its own conciliar status precisely by presenting its activity as the mere recapitulation and reapplication of the all-sufficient decrees of Nicaea and Ephesus. Moreover, the articulation of this ‘idea’ of Nicaea was primarily achieved through the careful layering of textual authorities in written conciliar acta. It was precisely though a self-consciously conservative re-presentation of the faith of Nicaea that Ephesus II dramatically remoulded the Nicene identity.
‘Good’ Bioethics
Authors: McMillan John
Published: December 2018

‘Good bioethics’ draws upon a range of approaches and does not privilege one theoretical or disciplinary perspective. It also aims at being ‘practical normative’ in the sense that it helps us find a way forward with moral issues. That requires a degree of empirical engagement and implies that good bioethics draws upon a range of disciplines and cannot be done from an armchair. Good bioethics is always typified by sound moral reason. That means it is Socratic in the sense that it seeks to test via argument the strength of moral claims, with the aim of finding well-justified moral conclusions. Moral reason admits of degrees; it is possible for someone to reason well or poorly, and the extent to which an instance of bioethics does either, contributes value or disvalue to it as bioethics.
What Political Philosophy Should Learn from Economics about Taxation
Authors: Hamlin Alan
Published: December 2018

The modern economics literature provides three approaches to the analysis of taxation: one focused on the optimal balancing of a variety of normative considerations, a second focused on the relationship between taxation and (democratic) political processes, and a third focused on the possibility of constitutional limitations on the power to tax. This chapter outlines each of these approaches before discussing their compatibility and their implications for a more general normative political philosophy of taxation. It is argued that any coherent account of taxation in political philosophy should account for its non-ideal nature and draw on elements of all three economic approaches.
Samuel Beckett and the Colonial Gag
Authors: Israel Nico
Published: December 2018

Focusing on The Unnamable (1953) and Act Without Words I (1956), this chapter draws on Giorgio Agamben’s writings on “gesture” and the “gag” to illuminate the “peculiarly oblique forms of Beckett’s postcolonial political engagements.” Attending to Beckett’s characters, who depend on gesture to counter their muteness, the chapter suggests that Beckett’s postcolonial politics—his engagements with decolonization in Indochina, Algeria, West Africa, and Ireland—is muted, gagged, and indirect. In keeping with Agamben’s articulation of the prelinguistic power of the gesture, its “archetypal openness that points beyond nation, tradition and political domination,” the chapter argues that Beckett’s evasive and anagogic approach to postcolonial issues may announce an even more radical break with modernity and modern politics than those advocated by Beckett’s more avowedly political postcolonial critics. By means of the gesture and the gag, Beckett points the way not just beyond the postcolonial condition, but, potentially, beyond modern politics altogether.
Slow Erosions
Authors: Allen Nicholas
Published: December 2018

Focusing on Seamus Heaney’s poetry, this chapter explores the limitations of Irish postcolonial criticism. Acknowledging the invigorating influence of Said on Irish critics, it nevertheless argues that an overemphasis on Ireland’s colonial and “postcolonial” status has restricted attention to the nation and its political history. The collapse of the Celtic Tiger permits a global reframing of Irish culture that emphasizes transnational flows of money, people, culture, and literature. While Heaney’s poetry may seem archaic (rather than avant-garde), this chapter finds it creatively engages with transimperial affiliations. Rather than reading Heaney as a provincial northern Irish poet rooted in the native soil, the chapter emphasizes the poet’s embrace of mobility, fluidity, and non-Irish sites. Underscoring Heaney’s indebtedness to Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett—whose works represented the circulations of seafaring cultural exchange—the chapter discovers in Heaney’s meditations on oceanic networks a corrective to the narrow critical focus on decolonization and nationhood.
ESTIMATION OF ORGAN DOSES AND EFFECTIVE DOSES BASED ON IN-PHANTOM DOSIMETRY FOR PAEDIATRIC DIAGNOSTIC CARDIAC CATHETERISATION
Authors: Kawasaki Toshio , Sakakubo Masami , Ito Kanako , Kitagawa Ai
Published: December 2018

The present study evaluated the organ doses, effective doses and conversion factors from the dose–area product to effective dose in pediatric diagnostic cardiac catheterization performed by in-phantom dosimetry and Monte Carlo simulation. The organ and effective doses in 5-y-olds during diagnostic cardiac catheterizations were evaluated using radiophotoluminescence glass dosemeters implanted into a pediatric anthropomorphic phantom and PCXMC software. The mean effective dose was 3.8 mSv (range: 1.8–7.5 mSv). The conversion factors from the dose–area product to effective dose were 0.9 and 1.6 mSv (Gy cm2)−1 for posteroanterior and lateral fluoroscopy, respectively, and 0.9 and 1.5 mSv (Gy cm2)−1 for posteroanterior and lateral cineangiography, respectively. Effective doses evaluated using the pediatric dosimetry system agreed with those obtained using PCXMC software within 12%. The dose data and conversion factors evaluated may guide the estimation of exposure doses in children undergoing diagnostic cardiac catheterization.
Predicted carcass meat yield and primal cut yields in cattle divergent in genetic merit for a terminal index
Authors: Connolly Stephen M , Cromie Andrew R , Sleator Roy D , Berry Donagh P
Published: December 2018

Several studies have clearly demonstrated the favorable impact of genetic selection on increasing beef cattle performance within the farm gate. Few studies, however, have attempted to quantify the value of genetic selection to downstream sectors of the beef industry, such as the meat processing sector. The objective of the current study was to characterize detailed carcass attributes of animals divergent in genetic merit for a terminal index as well as individual measures of genetic merit for carcass weight, conformation, and fat. The data used consisted of 53,674 young bulls and steers slaughtered between the years 2010 and 2013 in multiple Irish processing plants. All animals had a genetic evaluation as well as phenotypic measures of carcass characteristics. A terminal index, based on pedigree index for calving performance, feed intake, and carcass traits, calculated from the Irish national genetic evaluations, was obtained for each animal. Animals were categorized into four terminal index groups based on genetic merit estimates derived prior to the expression of the carcass phenotype by the animal. The association between genetic merit for terminal index with predicted phenotypic carcass red meat yield, carcass fat, carcass bone, and carcass composition, as well as between genetic merit for carcass weight, conformation, and fat with predicted phenotypic carcass red meat yield and composition were all quantified using linear mixed models. A greater terminal index value was associated with, on average, heavier phenotypic weights of each wholesale cut category. A greater terminal index value was also associated with a greater weight of meat and bone, but reduced carcass fat. Relative to animals in the lowest 25% genetic merit group, animals in the highest 25% genetic merit group had, on average, a greater predicted yield of very high value cuts (4.52 kg), high value cuts (13.13 kg), medium value cuts (6.06 kg), low value cuts (13.25 kg) as well as more total meat yield (37 kg). The results from the present study clearly signify a benefit to meat processers from breeding programs for terminal characteristics; coupled with the previously documented benefits to the producer, the benefits of breeding programs across the entire food production chain are obvious.
A 12-Year Experience of Hidradenitis Suppurativa Management
Authors: Vankevicčiūtė Rasa Aurelija , Polozovaitė Brigita , Trapikas Julius , Raudonis Tadas , Grigaitienė Jūratė , Bylaitė-Bucčinskienė Matilda
Published: December 2018

BACKGROUND:

Although treatment recommendations for hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) are well known, practical experience implementing them in Lithuania has not been reported yet.

OBJECTIVE:

To review clinical findings and treatment options used in patients with HS in the largest center of dermatology and venereology in Lithuania from 2005 to 2016.

METHODS:

A retrospective single-center medical file analysis was conducted on 46 patients with HS. Demographic information, patient history, and treatment results were included in the final analysis. χ2 Tests were used. Statistical significance was set at P ≤ .05.

MAIN RESULTS:

Of the 46 patients, 52.2% were male. Percentages of patients with Hurley stages I, II, and III were 41.3%, 30.4%, and 28.3%, respectively. Patients with Hurley III HS were more likely to be smokers and obese. The most commonly prescribed medications were systemic antibiotics (76.1%) and systemic retinoids (37.0%). Systemic corticosteroids (19.6%) were more often prescribed to patients with Hurley III. Surgical procedures were performed in 54.3% of patients. The most common complication of the disease was contracture (13.0%).

CONCLUSIONS:

This study revealed an association between smoking and obesity and the most severe stage of HS. Results showed that traditional medications used in this study were not effective for severe HS.
Leveraging Natural Language Processing: Toward Computer-Assisted Scoring of Patient Notes in the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills Exam
Authors: Salt Jessica , Harik Polina , Barone Michael A.
Published: December 2018

The United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS) exam uses physician raters to evaluate patient notes written by examinees. In this Invited Commentary, the authors describe the ways in which the Step 2 CS exam could benefit from adopting a computer-assisted scoring approach that combines physician raters’ judgments with computer-generated scores based on natural language processing (NLP). Since 2003, the National Board of Medical Examiners has researched NLP technology to determine whether it offers the opportunity to mitigate challenges associated with human raters while continuing to capitalize on the judgment of physician experts. The authors discuss factors to consider before computer-assisted scoring is introduced into a high-stakes licensure exam context. They suggest that combining physician judgments and computer-assisted scoring can enhance and improve performance-based assessments in medical education and medical regulation.
Prospective Evaluation of Atrophic Acne Scars on the Face With Needle-Free High-Pressure Pneumatic Injection: Quantitative Volumetric Scar Improvement
Authors: Kim Bo Young , Chun Seung Hyun , Park Ji Hyun , Ryu Sook In , Kim Il-Hwan
Published: December 2018

BACKGROUND

Atrophic acne facial scars still pose a treatment challenge. Needle-free high-pressure pneumatic injection has recently been introduced; however, few studies exist regarding its effectiveness.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of pneumatic injection for treating atrophic acne scars using a 3-dimensional optical profiling system.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

A pneumatic injection device with a 0.2-mm nozzle diameter, 50% pressure power, and 85-μL injection volume was used. The degree of depression was examined and analyzed using a 3-dimensional optical profiling system and clinical photographs. The patients also evaluated any side effects. Each subject underwent a single treatment session and was followed up after 1 and 2 months.

RESULTS

A total of 13 atrophic acne scars from 10 Korean men and women aged 20 to 29 (mean age 25.8 ± 2.4) years were studied. The mean scar volume values were 0.964, 0.741, and 0.566 mm3, respectively, at baseline, 1 month, and 2 months after the injection. Scar volumes after 2 months were significantly different compared with baseline volumes. However, there was no significant difference between the baseline and 1-month volumes.

CONCLUSION

Treatment with pneumatic injection is safe and effective in reducing atrophic acne facial scars; it results in quantitative improvement in scar volumes.
Histologic Effects of Fractional Laser and Radiofrequency Devices on Hyaluronic Acid Filler
Authors: Hsu Sarah Hahn , Chung Hye Jin , Weiss Robert A.
Published: December 2018

BACKGROUND

Hyaluronic acid fillers (HAFs) and energy-based devices are frequently used sequentially. However, the effect of using fractional devices directly over HAF is unclear.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate histologic changes after fractional laser and radiofrequency (RF) therapies applied over preinjected HAF.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Abdominoplasty skin samples were divided into 8 zones. Intradermal injections of HAF were performed to 7 zones with 1 zone as untreated control. Six of 7 HAF injected zones were then treated with the following devices: 1,540-, 1,550-, 1927-, and 10,600-nm fractional lasers, and fractional bipolar RF delivered through insulated and noninsulated microneedles. After treatment, biopsies were collected for H&E staining.

RESULTS

Histology revealed HAF in the mid to deep dermis. Treatment with 1,540-, 1,550-, 1927-, and 10,600-nm lasers did not result in any morphologic changes of HAF, although thermal changes from 1,540- and 1,550-nm lasers were in very close proximity to the filler. The RF devices demonstrated thermal damage of HAF along the microneedle tracks.

CONCLUSION

Hyaluronic acid filler is unaffected by fractional lasers in this model. Fractional RF devices, which produce deeper dermal penetrations, will cause thermal damage of HAF. Caution is advised in using microneedle RF over recently injected filler. Study limitations include use of nonfacial skin and lack of inflammatory response in an ex-vivo model.
Research and development of safety management information system for neonatal bathroom and its clinical application
Authors: Wang Fang , Zhang Si-yu , Chen Jian-rong , Liu Ying-lei , Liu Man-hua , Xue Li-li , Wang Jian
Published: December 2018

We developed a bathroom safety management information system to decrease adverse nursing events, and observed the application of the self-developed safety management information system in neonatal bathroom.

A total of 3482 newborns receiving neonatal bath and rooming in between May 2015 and May 2017, were enrolled in this study. Of the 3482 newborns, 1727 that did not use the safety management information system from May 1, 2015 to May 31, 2016, were considered as control group; and other 1755 that used the safety management information system from June 1, 2016 to May 31, 2017 were entered in observation group. The accident rate of adverse nursing events, the duration to check wristbands, response time of urgency call, quantitative data recording for nursing procedures, and pregnant women's and their families’ satisfaction degree were compared between the 2 groups.

The management information system possesses 4 functions including personal identification, nursing operation quantification, monitoring alarm and music function, and guidance on specialized knowledge and skills. The accident rate of adverse nursing events was significantly lower in the observation than in the control group (P < .05). The duration to check wristbands and the response time of urgency call were all significantly shorter in the observation group than in the control group (all P < .05). Quantitative data recording was significantly better in the observation than in the control group (P < .05). Satisfaction degree was significantly higher in the observation group (96.47%) than in the control group (89.69%) (P < .05). The wireless transmission information was exact and safe, and the system was sensitive and reliable.

The system not only is clinically practical but also can enhance the safety of newborns and improve pregnant women's and their families’ satisfaction degree.
Utility of power Doppler ultrasonography for detecting forefoot bursae in early rheumatoid arthritis
Authors: Endo Yushiro , Koga Tomohiro , Eguchi Mizuna , Okamoto Momoko , Tsuji Sosuke , Takatani Ayuko , Shimizu Toshimasa , Sumiyoshi Remi , Igawa Takashi , Kawashiri Shin-ya , Iwamoto Naoki , Ichinose Kunihiro , Tamai Mami , Nakamura Hideki , Origuchi Tomoki , Kawakami Atsushi
Published: December 2018

Rationale:

Power Doppler ultrasonography (PDUS) in musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) is a sensitive and reliable method for the assessment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The association between ultrasound-detectable forefoot bursae and the development of RA has gained attention. However, a few studies have evaluated the utility of PDUS for examining forefoot bursae in early RA. We report the case of an RA patient who developed reduced foot mobility and had detectable intermetatarsal bursitis with remarkable power Doppler (PD) signals in MSUS at the onset of RA.

Patient concerns:

A 40-year-old Japanese woman diagnosed with palindromic rheumatism visited our department due to sustained forefoot pain and difficulty walking. The levels of both rheumatoid factor (RF) and anticitrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) were high. She had opening toes with swelling in metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joints. PDUS showed intermetatarsal bursitis with mild MTP synovitis.

Diagnoses:

We diagnosed RA by comprehensive judgment based on the 2010 American College of Rheumatology and European League Against Rheumatism classification criteria for RA.

Interventions:

We administered 6.0 mg/wk of methotrexate (MTX) and 2.0 mg/d of prednisolone (PSL) followed by an increase of MTX to 10 mg/wk.

Outcomes:

After those treatments, the patient's symptoms showed improvement. As of this writing, the patient's remission has been maintained for >2 months.

Lessons:

Her case suggests that PDUS is useful for the detection of forefoot bursitis, and the detection of forefoot bursitis by PDUS may provide the opportunity to make an early diagnosis of RA.