bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Platelet reactivity and clinical outcomes in acute coronary syndrome patients treated with prasugrel and clopidogrel: a pre-specified exploratory analysis from the TROPICAL-ACS trial
Authors: Aradi Dániel , Gross Lisa , Trenk Dietmar , Geisler Tobias , Merkely Béla , Kiss Róbert Gábor , Komócsi András , Dézsi Csaba András , Ruzsa Zoltán , Ungi Imre , Rizas Konstantinos D , May Andreas E , Mügge Andreas , Zeiher Andreas M , Holdt Lesca , Huber Kurt , Neumann Franz-Josef , Koltowski Lukasz , Huczek Zenon , Hadamitzky Martin , Massberg Steffen , Sibbing Dirk
Published: April 2019

Aims

The value of platelet function testing (PFT) in predicting clinical outcomes and guiding P2Y12-inhibitor treatment is uncertain. In a pre-specified sub-study of the TROPICAL-ACS trial, we assessed ischaemic and bleeding risks according to high platelet reactivity (HPR) and low platelet reactivity (LPR) to ADP in patients receiving uniform prasugrel vs. PFT-guided clopidogrel or prasugrel.

Methods and results

Acute coronary syndrome patients with PFT done 14 days after hospital discharge were included with prior randomization to uniform prasugrel for 12 months (control group, no treatment modification) vs. early de-escalation from prasugrel to clopidogrel and PFT-guided maintenance treatment (HPR: switch-back to prasugrel, non-HPR: clopidogrel). The composite ischaemic endpoint included cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke, while key safety outcome was Bleeding Academic Research Consortium (BARC) 2–5 bleeding, from PFT until 12 months. We identified 2527 patients with PFT results available: 1266 were randomized to the guided and 1261 to the control group. Before treatment adjustment, HPR was more prevalent in the guided group (40% vs. 15%), while LPR was more common in control patients (27% vs. 11%). Compared to control patients without HPR on prasugrel (n = 1073), similar outcomes were observed in guided patients kept on clopidogrel [n = 755, hazard ratio (HR): 1.06 (0.57–1.95), P = 0.86] and also in patients with HPR on clopidogrel switched to prasugrel [n = 511, HR: 0.96 (0.47–1.96), P = 0.91]. In contrast, HPR on prasugrel was associated with a higher risk for ischaemic events in control patients [n = 188, HR: 2.16 (1.01–4.65), P = 0.049]. Low platelet reactivity was an independent predictor of bleeding [HR: 1.74 (1.18–2.56), P = 0.005], without interaction (P  int = 0.76) between study groups.

Conclusion

Based on this substudy of a randomized trial, selecting prasugrel or clopidogrel based on PFT resulted in similar ischaemic outcomes as uniform prasugrel therapy without HPR. Although infrequent, HPR on prasugrel was associated with increased risk of ischaemic events. Low platelet reactivity was a strong and independent predictor of bleeding both on prasugrel and clopidogrel.
A stochastic model for cancer metastasis: branching stochastic process with settlement
Authors: Frei Christoph , Hillen Thomas , Rhodes Adam
Published: April 2019

We introduce a new stochastic model for metastatic growth, which takes the form of a branching stochastic process with settlement. The moving particles are interpreted as clusters of cancer cells, while stationary particles correspond to micro-tumours and metastases. The analysis of expected particle location, their locational variance, the furthest particle distribution and the extinction probability leads to a common type of differential equation, namely, a non-local integro-differential equation with distributed delay. We prove global existence and uniqueness results for this type of equation. The solutions’ asymptotic behaviour for long time is characterized by an explicit index, a metastatic reproduction number $R_0$: metastases spread for $R_{0}>1$ and become extinct for $R_{0}<1$. Using metastatic data from mouse experiments, we show the suitability of our framework to model metastatic cancer.
Could the Drug Tafenoquine Revolutionize Treatment of Babesia microti Infection?
Authors: Mordue Dana G , Wormser Gary P
Published: April 2019

Background

Tafenoquine (TQ) was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for prophylaxis of malaria and, in addition, for eradication of the hepatic phase of the relevant Plasmodium species. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of TQ for treatment of Babesia microti infection in mice with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID).

Methods

SCID mice were infected with 1.1–1.5 × 108 B. microti–infected red blood cells by intraperitoneal injection. On day 3 or 4 postinfection, when parasitemia levels typically exceeded 10%, mice were treated with TQ vs vehicle alone, both administered by oral gavage.

Results

A single dose of TQ completely eliminated detectable parasites, with a >90% reduction in the level of parasitemia within just 4 days. Before elimination, a conspicuous phenotypic change in the parasite was observed. Although parasitologic cure was not achieved, there was no evidence for the development of drug resistance.

Conclusions

This study suggests that TQ may be a highly useful drug to treat B. microti infection in patients. If further animal studies establish that a marked reduction in B. microti parasitemia can be reliably achieved with peak blood levels of TQ known to be well tolerated in humans, a clinical trial in patients should be considered.
Misuse and Mortality Related to Gabapentin and Pregabalin are Being Under-Estimated: A Two-Year Post-Mortem Population Study
Authors: Nahar Limon Khatun , Murphy Kevin G , Paterson Sue
Published: April 2019

Due to the rise in their misuse and associated mortality, the UK government is reclassifying gabapentin (GBP) and pregabalin (PGL) to Class C controlled drugs from April 2019. However, it is impossible to gauge the extent of their use with current post-mortem toxicological screening, where GBP and PGL are only screened for if they are mentioned in the case documents. This study determines the prevalence of GBP and PGL, the potential extent of their under-reporting and poly-drug use in a post-mortem population. Between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2017, 3,750 deceased from Coroners’ cases in London and South East England underwent a routine drugs screen and a specific screen for GBP and PGL. The prevalence of both drugs was determined in the cohort and the subcategories of heroin users and non-heroin-users. The prevalence of both drugs was compared to tramadol (Class C drug). Case documents were reviewed to investigate the under-reporting of GBP and PGL and poly-drug use. Of 3,750 samples analyzed, 118 (3.1%) were positive for GBP, 229 (6.1%) for PGL and 120 (3.2%) were positive for tramadol. If routine analysis without additional screening of GBP and PGL had been performed in this cohort, GBP would have been under-reported by 57.6% (P < 0.0001) and PGL by 53.7% (P < 0.0001) in deaths. The most common drug group observed with GBP and PGL was non-heroin-related opioids at 60.2% and 64.6%, respectively. In total 354 deceased (9.4%) were heroin users. GBP was positive in 23 (6.5%) of these cases and PGL was positive in 69 (19.5%). The prevalence of PGL in heroin users (19.5%) was 4.1 times greater than in non-heroin users (4.7%) (P < 0.0001). GBP and PGL are being significantly under reported in fatalities. Both drugs are extensively used with opioids. The prevalence of PGL in heroin users is highly significant.
Postmenopausal Androgen Metabolism and Endometrial Cancer Risk in the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study
Authors: Michels Kara A , Brinton Louise A , Wentzensen Nicolas , Pan Kathy , Chen Chu , Anderson Garnet L , Pfeiffer Ruth M , Xu Xia , Rohan Thomas E , Trabert Britton
Published: April 2019

Background

After menopause, several androgens continue to be produced primarily by the adrenal glands; these can be converted into estrogens via aromatization or into androgen metabolites. It is unclear if androgens are associated with endometrial cancer risk independently of their being precursors to estrogens or if alternative metabolic pathways influence risk.

Methods

We measured prediagnostic serum concentrations of 12 androgens and their metabolites using highly sensitive liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry assays in a nested case-control study of postmenopausal women from the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study (313 endometrial cancer case subjects, 354 matched control subjects). Estrogens were previously assayed. We used conditional logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for endometrial cancer with adjustment for confounders.

Results

Compared to the lowest concentrations, the highest levels of adrenal androgens were associated with increased endometrial cancer risk: dehydroepiandrosterone (5th vs 1st quintile: OR = 1.85, 95% CI = 1.06 to 3.25), androstenedione (OR = 2.36, 95% CI = 1.34 to 4.16), and testosterone (OR = 1.91, 95% CI = 1.12 to 3.24). Downstream androgen metabolites were not associated with endometrial cancer. Although increased risks for the parent androgens were still suggested after adjustment for unconjugated estradiol, the associations attenuated, and with the exception of androstenedione, were no longer statistically significant. We also evaluated ratios of estrogens relative to their androgenic precursors; both higher unconjugated estrone:androstenedione and higher unconjugated estradiol:testosterone were associated with increased endometrial cancer risk.

Conclusions

We identified increased risks for endometrial cancer with the highest levels of adrenal androgens and high levels of estrogens relative to these androgens. As adrenal androgens can be aromatized to estrogens, this suggests androgens likely influence endometrial carcinogenesis via estrogen metabolism.
A machine-vision method for automatic classification of stellar halo substructure
Authors: Hendel David , Johnston Kathryn V , Patra Rohit K , Sen Bodhisattva
Published: April 2019

Tidal debris structures formed from disrupted satellites contain important clues about the assembly histories of galaxies. To date, studies of these structures have been hampered by reliance on by-eye identification and morphological classification which leaves their interpretation significantly uncertain. In this work, we present a new machine-vision technique based on the Subspace-Constrained Mean Shift (SCMS) algorithm which can perform these tasks automatically. SCMS finds the location of the high-density ‘ridges’ that define substructure morphology. After identification, the coefficients of an orthogonal series density estimator are used to classify points on the ridges as part of a continuum between shell-like or stream-like debris, from which a global morphological classification can be determined. We dub this procedure Subspace-Constrained Unsupervised Detection of Structure (SCUDS). By applying this tool to controlled N-body simulations of minor mergers, we demonstrate that the extracted classifications correspond to the well-understood underlying physics of phase mixing. The application of SCUDS to resolved stellar population data from near-future surveys will inform our understanding of the buildup of galaxies’ stellar haloes.
Reconciliation and Reification
Authors: Hedrick Todd
Published: April 2019

The critical theory tradition has, since its inception, sought to distinguish its perspective on society from more purely descriptive or normative approaches by maintaining that persons have a deep-seated interest in the free development of their personality—an interest that can only be realized in and through the rational organization of society, but which is systematically stymied by existing society. Yet it has struggled to specify this emancipatory interest in a way that avoids being either excessively utopian or overly accommodating to existing society. Despite the fact that Hegel’s concept of reconciliation is normally thought to run aground on the latter horn of this dilemma, this book argues that reconciliation is the best available conceptualization of this emancipatory interest. It presents Hegel’s idea of freedom as something actualized in individuals’ lives through their becoming reconciled to how society shapes their roles, prospects, and sense of self; it presents reconciliation as being less a matter of philosophical cognition, and more of inclusion in a responsive, transparent political process. It then introduces the concept of reification, which—through its development in Marx and Lukács, through Horkheimer and Adorno—substantiates an increasingly cogent critique of reconciliation as something unachievable within the framework of modern society. Giving equal attention to psychoanalysis and legal theory, the second half critically appraises the writings of Rawls, Honneth, and Habermas as efforts to spell out what a concept of reconciliation more democratic and inclusive than Hegel, yet sensitive to the reifying effects of legal systems, might mean.
Totality Fractured, Reconciliation Deferred
Authors: Hedrick Todd
Published: April 2019

This chapter traces the influence trajectory of Hegel’s idea of freedom as reconciliation in the critical theory tradition, as it develops in the hundred-plus years after Hegel. Its interpretive question is why Marx, Lukács, Horkheimer, and Adorno have an increasingly dim view of the legal-political manner in which Hegel explains reconciliation. It reads these authors as progressively spelling out a more coherent rationale for this position, with Lukács filling in gaps in Marx’s critique of Hegel, and Horkheimer and Adorno doing something similar for Lukács. It emphasizes Lukács’ conception of reification as a capitalist society’s “form of objectivity” and the grounding that Horkheimer and Adorno give this notion with Freudian ideas about ego formation and instinctual nature. It closes by formulating a series of hurdles that a theory wishing to update Hegel’s model of freedom through reconciliation needs to clear, in light of this left Hegelian critique.
Rawls’ Liberal Right Hegelianism
Authors: Hedrick Todd
Published: April 2019

This chapter argues that Rawls is a vitally important theorist of reconciliation: he maintains that autonomy is a matter of coming to find that one’s needs and values are reflected in the laws citizens are subject to. It shows how A Theory of Justice employs an account of moral psychology to posit a relationship between individual and society that is actually more harmonious than what Hegel has in mind. It then demonstrates that, by abandoning crucial elements of this moral psychology, Rawls’ account of autonomy comes closer to Hegel’s idea of reconciliation, but by doing so, he is compelled to lean heavily on the publicity that law provides in order to make the prospect of mediation between private identity and the public conception of justice credible. As such, Rawls tends to have a one-sided, overly affirmative conception of social institutions as repositories of value and principle.
Reification and Reconciliation in Habermas’ Theory of Law and Democracy
Authors: Hedrick Todd
Published: April 2019

Habermas’ theory represents the most coherent combination of reconciliation and reification considered herein. Habermas remains attuned to the concerns raised by Adorno that the functional differentiation of society may undermine the autonomy of the individual (through “the colonization of the lifeworld”), but resists the inexorability of Adorno’s conclusions by conceiving of a democratic society’s legal system as the medium through which discourse could consensually shape the “interchanges” between system and lifeworld. However, Habermas effects this synthesis by abstracting away from the psychoanalytic issues that concerned Adorno and Honneth, and by thinking of his proceduralist paradigm of law as ungrounded in the type of substantive legal paradigms that normally allow persons to identify with the system’s underlying values. The chapter concludes that Habermas is left with a too-attenuated relationship between the rationality of socialization and democratic governance, and persons’ usual first-order notions of meaning and value, to be genuinely emancipatory.
How We Got Here, Why It Matters
Authors: Gale William G.
Published: April 2019

As discussed in Chapter 2, from the nation’s founding until about 1980, debt as a share of the economy rose only during wars or recessions, and it fell rapidly after the war or recession ended due to lower defense spending or rapid revenue growth.Reagan’s tax cuts and defense spending changed that pattern, raising debt significantly during a time of peace and prosperity. Fiscal restraint by Presidents Bush and Clinton helped turn deficits into surpluses. But tax cuts and spending increases under the second President Bush, Obama, and Trump, along with the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, boosted debt. The main lesson from the nation’s history is that the old solutions will not work this time around. The source of the country’s rising debt isn’t a war or recession but, instead, a built-in and growing imbalance between taxes and spending. The debt buildup cannot be stopped by cutting defense or boosting growth. Consequently, tough choices must be made about which programs to cut and which taxes to raise.
Saving Social Security
Authors: Gale William G.
Published: April 2019

Social Security is among the nation’s most popular and successful programs, as discussed in Chapter 8, providing crucial income every year for tens of millions of retirees, surviving spouses, dependents, and the disabled. But the program is financially unsustainable. The taxes that today’s workers pay go mainly to cover the benefits of today’s retirees. As a result, the coming rise in the number of retirees relative to workers will leave the program with too little revenue to pay all the benefits workers have earned starting in about 2034. Policymakers should enact a 2016 plan proposed by a Bipartisan Policy Center commission. It would bring Social Security into long-run fiscal balance by raising taxes and cutting benefits in a progressive manner, protecting the poor, raising the retirement age, encouraging people to work longer, and fixing the way Social Security calculates inflation.
Introduction
Authors: Klimek Daniel Maria
Published: April 2019

Medjugorje is a village in Bosnia-Herzegovina that has attracted millions of people after it was reported that the Virgin Mary began appearing there in 1981. Other supernatural phenomena have been connected with Medjugorje, such as the case of the statue of the Madonna of Civitavecchia, a statue of the Virgin Mary that began weeping tears of blood in 1995, a case that was investigated by the Italian press, state officials, public agencies, and a Church commission. Cases like the weeping statue are known as “concurrent phenomena,” alleged supernatural occurrences that happen around the primary phenomena, the Marian apparitions. Can such cases, both primary and concurrent, be taken seriously? The introduction tackles this question by outlining chapters that form the book, from debates on mystical experiences by scholars, to the scientific studies on the Medjugorje visionaries, explaining that the latter can make a significant contribution to our understanding of mystical experiences.
The Great Debate
Authors: Klimek Daniel Maria
Published: April 2019

This chapter studies a major debate that has emerged in the second-half of the twentieth century between scholars of mysticism. The debate is between perennialist scholars and constructivist scholars. Perennialism sees mystical experiences as transcending culture, language, and time-period, and pointing to a unified spiritual experience among various peoples, while constructivism sees mystical experiences as a construction of the human mind and of culture. The epistemological philosophy of Immanuel Kant and how it has influenced the debate is analyzed, as is the contribution of attributional scholars like Wayne Proudfoot and Ann Taves. The chapter also considers how the linguistic turn has influenced this debate, pointing the ramifications of the debate have for academic culture. The chapter concludes with a survey of various forms of reductionism—neurological, psychoanalytical, and sociological—that have been used to denigrate the authenticity of mystical experiences in modern scholarship.
The Social Construction of Revisionism
Authors: Murray Michelle
Published: April 2019

This chapter develops a social theory of great power status competition rooted in the struggle for recognition. It argues that great power status—in all its variants—is a kind of state identity, and as a result rising powers need to obtain recognition from the established powers to secure their position in the international order. Consistent with the logic of the struggle for recognition, rising powers adhere to a specific set of recognitive practices—great power voice, exemplary military power, and spheres of influence—that are designed to reduce social uncertainty and give the illusion that the rising power’s social status is not dependent on other states’ recognition responses. When a rising power is recognized by the established powers, its use of these recognitive practices is deemed legitimate and the power transition is peaceful. If the rising power is misrecognized, a self-fulfilling prophecy is set into motion whereby its growing power and assertive foreign policy are perceived to be for revisionist purposes and thus must be contained by the established powers. Revisionism, in this view, is not an intrinsic property of states, but rather is socially constructed through a rising power’s interactions with the established powers.
Recognition Refused
Authors: Murray Michelle
Published: April 2019

This chapter explores how Imperial Germany came to be viewed by the established European powers as a revisionist power. It argues that as Germany became more uncertain about its status in the international order, its fear of misrecognition increased and in response it turned to the recognitive practices constitutive of world power status to ameliorate its growing social insecurity. Specifically, Germany’s fear of misrecognition sustained the Anglo-German naval race, making a naval understanding impossible despite repeated British attempts at negotiating an arms control agreement. Moreover, the fear of misrecognition and experience of disrespect led Germany into a second confrontation with Britain over the independent status of Morocco during the Agadir Crisis. Germany’s belligerent foreign policy and willingness to risk war over matters not of vital interest led the European great powers to increasingly view Germany as a revisionist state whose power needed to be contained. The chapter shows how the experience of humiliation drove German foreign policy, contributing to its construction as a revisionist power and destabilizing the international order in the years before the First World War.
Best Practices When Using 360 Feedback for Performance Appraisal
Authors: Campion Emily D. , Campion Michael C. , Campion Michael A.
Published: April 2019

This chapter draws from 221 articles or book chapters collected from researchers and professional literature to provide the basis for a list of 56 best practices when 360 Feedback is used to support performance management processes. The practices are grouped into nine categories: strategic consideration, items, scales, raters, administrations, training/instruction, and interpretation of feedback, development, and review. In each section, the authors define and address the importance of each category, briefly discuss practices illustrative of each category, and propose future work needed to further elaborate on the practices within each category. Each best practice is supported with a comprehensive list of resources, with each reference provided in an Appendix.
What Counts as the Same?
Authors: Seligman Adam B. , Weller Robert P.
Published: April 2019

This chapter begins by exploring the multiple forms and analytic purchases carried by memory, mimesis, and metaphor. It asks what we mean when we say that people share a culture. Rather than beginning with the assumption of the unity of culture or the priority of the individual decision maker, we focus on how people come to perceive things as shared. This is just one facet of our basic underlying question: What counts as the same? What lets two people, or two million people, feel that they have the same culture, or for that matter the same class, gender, race, religion, or any other category? This is not actually a question of how much we actually share but how and when we come to perceive that we share; not what is the same, but what counts as the same.
Metaphor
Authors: Seligman Adam B. , Weller Robert P.
Published: April 2019

Metaphor brings two hitherto unconnected entities into one frame of reference. A connection is made and communality posited where one had not been seen to exist before. We do not require a shared past (memory) to bring discrete entities or peoples together, nor do we need to share a present practice (mimesis). Rather any living metaphor brings the shock of the new, which can lead us to dismantle our old categories of sameness and difference and to make connections we never made before. In doing so, at least potentially, the entire world can change. Even when metaphors are successful, however, there is an instability in relationship between its two referents, which creates an impulse toward memory or mimesis.
Living Mirrors
Authors: Nachtomy Ohad
Published: April 2019

This work presents Leibniz’s view of infinity and the central role it plays in his theory of living beings. Chapter 1 introduces Leibniz’s approach to infinity by presenting the central concepts he employs; chapter 2 presents the historical background through Leibniz’s encounters with Galileo and Descartes, exposing a tension between the notions of an infinite number and an infinite being; chapter 3 argues that Leibniz’s solution to this tension, developed through his encounter with Spinoza (ca. 1676), consists of distinguishing between a quantitative and a nonquantitative use of infinity, and an intermediate degree of infinity—a maximum in its kind, which sheds light on Leibniz’s use of infinity as a defining mark of living beings; chapter 4 examines the connection between infinity and unity; chapter 5 presents the development of Leibniz’s views on infinity and life; chapter 6 explores Leibniz’s distinction between artificial and natural machines; chapter 7 focuses on Leibniz’s image of a living mirror, contrasting it with Pascal’s image of a mite; chapter 8 argues that Leibniz understands creatures as infinite and limited, or as infinite in their own kind, in distinction from the absolute infinity of God; chapter 9 argues that Leibniz’s concept of a monad holds at every level of reality; chapter 10 compares Leibniz’s use of life and primitive force. The conclusion presents Leibniz’s program of infusing life into every aspect of nature as an attempt to re-enchant a view of nature left disenchanted by Descartes and Spinoza.
The Planning Problem
Authors: Talen Emily
Published: April 2019

This chapter reviews the debate over predetermination, that is, whether neighborhoods should and can be planned into existence. The planned neighborhood is the result of deliberative action, either through a physical plan or as a set of orchestrated actions, in contrast to spontaneous neighborhood formation. The emphasis here is on the contrast between planning for a specified end state and “neighborhood planning” as a process with no predetermined outcome, especially in physical terms. A common narrative is that top-down neighborhood planning has been harmful, for example when it was used to motivate wholesale destruction of existing neighborhoods in the urban renewal period. The resolution of this debate proposes merging the best of both worlds: neighborhoods that do not ignore the importance of bottom-up generation but are still open to the possibility of a planned physical ideal.
Social Confusion
Authors: Talen Emily
Published: April 2019

This chapter focuses on the long-standing debate over the quest to achieve goals about social relationships via the neighborhood. Earlier in the 20th century, it was common for neighborhood proponents to ascribe social outcomes to neighborhoods in the hope that social connection—and at times, conformity—could be instilled, if only neighborhoods were of a particular form. Later in the century, communications and transportation technologies dealt a further blow to the idea that neighborhoods were a viable source for instilling social outcomes like a sense of belonging and a sense of community. The social prescriptions of neighborhood form have long been problematized, but the argument seems to linger on, fueling critics of neighborhood plans. The most promising avenue for resolving this entrenched debate is to reject outright social relationship–related claims, refocus attention on neighborhood functionality—services, facilities, and institutions—and welcome whatever positive social benefits might be derived.
Conclusion
Authors: Talen Emily
Published: April 2019

The conclusion offers a proposal to move past argumentation to better define and operationalize the everyday neighborhood. The proposal includes the need for strong centers, internal and external connectivity that helps build a strong sense of neighborhood, support for both a plan and a process, self-determination strengthened by neighborhood identity, the promotion of social connection via the neighborhood’s functionality, support and enabling of social diversity in multiple ways, and mechanisms for governance. The proposal is motivated by the idea that the everyday neighborhood still has relevance for many urban dwellers. Unraveling the debates and offering a proposal for how entrenched issues might finally be resolved, it leverages what is known about neighborhoods after a century of argument in hopes of making them ultimately more real, relevant, and realistic.
Uncle Sam versus Uncle Usama
Authors: Kurzman Charles
Published: April 2019

Shifts in American foreign policy have had little effect on Muslim attitudes toward the United States—even the shift from the administration of Barack Obama to that of Donald Trump barely changed Muslims’ survey responses or the prevalence of revolutionary violence. So why should the United States bother to take Muslim sensibilities into account? Following the lead of Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi and remarkable American humanitarians of the past century, this chapter proposes that the United States reorganize its counterterrorism policy around the interests of its liberal Muslim allies, rather than expose them to the dangers of militarism and authoritarianism.
Representation and the Electoral College
Authors: Alexander Robert M.
Published: April 2019

This book evaluates the Electoral College as it relates to relevant theories of representation. The purpose of the study is to help readers understand the ways in which the institution does or does not align with expectations relating to representative democracy. In the aftermath of the 2016 election, heated calls to abolish the Electoral College were made in large part because the winning candidate received nearly 3 million fewer votes from across the country than his opponent. At the same time, many lauded the institution for working as intended—particularly as it relates to federalism. The Electoral College is a unique institution. It is also one of the most debated institutions in American politics. Many arguments concerning the body—it protects less populated states, it helps preserve federalism, it violates the one-person, one-vote principle, it forces candidates to produce broad-based coalitions—rarely receive the depth of attention they deserve. This book sets out to do this by examining the origin, evolution, and practice of the Electoral College. Much of the controversy relating to the institution revolves around whether we rely on the original or the evolved Electoral College to inform our perspective. Understanding the origin and evolution of the body allows us to more appropriately evaluate contemporary arguments over the institution. In addition to looking at common arguments relating to the Electoral College, this study pays particular attention to its role in the 2016 election and the often overlooked but essential position of presidential electors.
Authority, Moral Criteria of Validity, and Conceptual Confusion
Authors: Himma Kenneth Einar
Published: April 2019

This chapter challenges the Identification Thesis. The Identification Thesis considers our conceptual practices with respect to the term ‘authority’ and states that they entail that an institutional normative system cannot be legitimate unless it is conceptually possible for a subject to determine what its norms require without having to decide themselves what they ought to do. If our conceptual practices with respect to using the terms ‘law’ and ‘authority’ are determined by what competent speakers typically believe and say about law and authority, then those ordinary linguistic practices allow for the possibility of a legitimate legal system with moral criteria of validity. Our conceptual practices are thus inconsistent with the Identification Thesis. As the Identification Thesis expresses the core of the service conception of authority, the service conception is inconsistent with the concept of authority as it is defined by our conceptual practices.
Method and methods
Authors: Hoz J. de
Published: April 2019

After defining the use of the term ‘Palaeohispanic’ and providing an overview of the epigraphic and linguistic geography of the Iberian peninsula in antiquity and the advances in their study over the years, a series of key questions in historical philology, specifically as concerns Palaeohispanic languages and epigraphy, are introduced: script and text decipherment; the complexity of philology as the science that is concerned with the encounter between texts, cultures, and societies; their historical nature, which requires their chronology to be studied; and the problems of language contact and the relationships between language and ethnicity. Finally, the chapter discusses the confrontation between Palaeohispanic languages and scripts and Latin culture, the transformations that it gave rise to, and the death of the former.
The linguistic situation in the territory of Andalusia
Authors: Hoz J. de
Published: April 2019

In antiquity present-day Andalusia was occupied by several different peoples, among whom the main cultural role was taken by the Tartessians, subsequently the Turdetani. The first part of this chapter aims to define the limits and variety of the different ethnic groups. Thereafter, the material available to study the languages of the region is analysed: inscriptions, place names, and personal names. This material is limited and poses numerous problems, but it enables us to define linguistic zones, to emphasize the plurilingual nature of the area, to detect the probable role of Phoenician as a lingua franca, and to draw attention to certain features of Turdetanian, the most widely spoken of the vernacular languages of the region.
Voting
Authors: McLean Iain
Published: April 2019

Dodgson became interested in methods of voting while becoming involved with college appointments, and became one of its most celebrated experts, following in the footsteps of Condorcet and Borda. Critical of standard methods of voting such as first-past-the-post, single-transferable-vote, etc., he presented examples to show their weaknesses. He also proposed a system of proportional representation, and communicated this to newspapers and to Parliamentarians of the time. His Principles of Parliamentary Representation discusses the assignment of seats to multi-member districts and to parties within each district to parties. It is only recently that his contributions to the theory of voting have been recognized.
Spatiality and Subjecthood in Mallarmé, Apollinaire, Maeterlinck, and Jarry
Authors: Shtutin Leo
Published: April 2019

This study explores the interrelationship between spatiality and subjecthood in the work of Stéphane Mallarmé, Guillaume Apollinaire, Maurice Maeterlinck, and Alfred Jarry. Concerned with various modes of poetry and drama, it also examines the cross-pollination that can occur between these modes, focusing on a relatively narrow corpus of core texts: Mallarmé’s Igitur (c.1867–70) and Un coup de dés (1897); Apollinaire’s ‘Zone’ (1912) and various of his calligrammes; Maeterlinck’s early one-act plays—L’Intruse (1890), Les Aveugles (1890), and Intérieur (1894); and Jarry’s Ubu roi (1896) and César-Antechrist (1895). The poetic and dramatic practices of these four authors are assessed against the broader cultural and philosophical contexts of the fin de siècle. The fin de siècle witnessed a profound epistemological shift: the Newtonian–Cartesian paradigm, increasingly challenged throughout the nineteenth century, was largely dismantled, with ramifications beyond physics, philosophy and psychology.
Defamiliarizing the Page
Authors: Shtutin Leo
Published: April 2019

Chapter 2 focuses on Mallarmé’s Un coup de dés and Apollinaire’s calligrammes—works that defamiliarize page-space by undermining various (naturalized) conventions of paginal configuration. Many of the calligrammes are non-linear, having no ‘beginning’ or ‘end’; Un coup de dés is more accurately described as multi-cursal, its typographical hierarchy generating a network of forking paths that presents a formidable challenge to the first-time reader. Mallarmé and Apollinaire transform page-space from an inert ground into an integral component of the text; the syntax of Un cup de dés and the calligrammes is not merely verbal but visual, and calls for spatio-textual parsing. The chapter concludes with a comparative analysis of the ways in which Mallarmé and Apollinaire manipulate the institutional frame of the page, comprised of a series of typographic and spatial norms endemic to conventionally printed texts.
Introduction
Authors: Shtutin Leo
Published: April 2019

The Introduction sets out the key concerns of the book—early modernist conceptualizations of spatiality and subjecthood, and the treatment of space and subject in the poetic and dramatic works of Stéphane Mallarmé, Guillaume Apollinaire, Maurice Maeterlinck, and Alfred Jarry. It also examines some of the critical literature on these four principal authors, remarking on the variable quality of existing analyses—while the semiotics of Jarry’s Ubu cycle, for example, has been brilliantly and comprehensively elucidated, critics have, until comparatively recently, tended to gloss over the semiotic complexity of Apollinaire’s calligrammes, some doing so with unjustified disparagement. The Introduction concludes with a brief overview of the book’s five chapters.
Moment Inequalities via Martingale Methods
Authors: Merlevède Florence , Peligrad Magda , Utev Sergey
Published: April 2019

In this chapter we establish different kinds of moment inequalities for partial sums and the maximum of partial sums of a large class of random variables, including martingale sequences, mixingales, and other dependent structures. All the bounds involve the moments of the conditional expectations of either the partial sums or the individual random variables. In most of the proofs martingale approximations are used. This method allows us to use the moment inequalities for the martingale part developed in Chapter 2. We start with a dyadic scheme useful for analysis of the variance of partial sums in the stationary setting. Then, we obtain Burkholder-type inequalities via Maxwell–Woodroofe-type characteristics and an extension of Doob’s maximal inequality for adapted sequences. A Rosenthal-type inequality for stationary sequences is also provided with bounds using conditional expectations of the partial sums. Maximal exponential inequalities are established involving either Maxwell–Woodroofe-type characteristics or the projective operators.
Dependence Coefficients for Sequences
Authors: Merlevède Florence , Peligrad Magda , Utev Sergey
Published: April 2019

In this chapter we survey several mixing conditions, which can be viewed as measures of departure from independence. We start with the traditional mixing coefficients such as the strong mixing coefficient and the coefficient of absolute regularity, as well as the ϕ- and ρ-mixing coefficients. We extend the definitions to sequences of random variables and give examples of such processes including classes of linear processes, Markov processes, and Gaussian processes. The most important property of these mixing coefficients is the fact that they allow the coupling with independent structures. This is the reason we pay special attention to the coupling properties of these mixing coefficients. The chapter continues with the presentation of weaker forms of mixing coefficients, defined by using smaller classes of functions. They allow us to enlarge the class of examples to more general functions of i.i.d. or to a larger class of dynamical systems.
Examples of Stationary Sequences with Approximate Negative Dependence
Authors: Merlevède Florence , Peligrad Magda , Utev Sergey
Published: April 2019

In this chapter, we treat several examples of stationary processes which are asymptotically negatively dependent and for which the results of Chapter 9 apply. Many systems in nature are complex, consisting of the contributions of several independent components. Our first examples are functions of two independent sequences, one negatively dependent and one interlaced mixing. For instance, the class of asymptotic negatively dependent random variables is used to treat functions of a determinantal point process and a Gaussian process with a positive continuous spectral density. Another example is point processes based on asymptotically negatively or positively associated sequences and displaced according to a Gaussian sequence with a positive continuous spectral density. Other examples include exchangeable processes, the weighted empirical process, and the exchangeable determinantal point process.
Linear Processes
Authors: Merlevède Florence , Peligrad Magda , Utev Sergey
Published: April 2019

Here we apply different methods to establish the Gaussian approximation to linear statistics of a stationary sequence, including stationary linear processes, near-stationary processes, and discrete Fourier transforms of a strictly stationary process. More precisely, we analyze the asymptotic behavior of the partial sums associated with a short-memory linear process and prove, in particular, that if a weak limit theorem holds for the partial sums of the innovations then a related result holds for the partial sums of the linear process itself. We then move to linear processes with long memory and obtain the CLT under various dependence structures for the innovations by analyzing the asymptotic behavior of linear statistics. We also deal with the invariance principle for causal linear processes or for linear statistics with weakly associated innovations. The last section deals with discrete Fourier transforms, proving, via martingale approximation, central limit behavior at almost all frequencies under almost no condition except a regularity assumption.
Functional Central Limit Theorem for Empirical Processes
Authors: Merlevède Florence , Peligrad Magda , Utev Sergey
Published: April 2019

Here we discuss the Gaussian approximation for the empirical process under different kinds of dependence assumptions for the underlying stationary sequence. First, we state a general criterion to prove tightness of the empirical process associated with a stationary sequence of uniformly distributed random variables. This tightness criterion can be verified for many different dependence structures. For ρ-mixing sequences, by an application of a Rosenthal-type inequality, tightness is verified under the same condition leading to the usual CLT. For α-dependent sequences whose α-dependent coefficients decay polynomially to zero, it is shown to hold with the help of the Rosenthal inequality stated in Section 3.3. Since the asymptotic behavior of the finite-dimensional distributions of the empirical process is handled via the CLT developed in previous chapters, we then derive the functional CLT for the empirical process associated with the above-mentioned classes of stationary sequences. β-dependent sequences are also investigated by directly proving tightness of the empirical process.
Elements of Geometry of Balls in Banach Spaces
Authors: Goebel Kazimierz , Prus Stanislaw
Published: April 2019

One of the subjects of functional analysis is classification of Banach spaces depending on various properties of the unit ball. The need of such considerations comes from a number of applications to problems of mathematical analysis. The list of subjects contains: differential calculus in normed spaces, approximation theory, weak topologies and reflexivity, general theory of convexity and convex functions, metric fixed point theory, and others. The aim of this book is to present basic facts from this field. It is addressed to advanced undergraduate and graduate students interested in the subject. For some it may result in further interest, a continuation and deepening of their study of the subject. It may be also useful for instructors running courses on functional analysis, supervising diploma theses or essays on various levels.
Basics and prerequisites
Authors: Goebel Kazimierz , Prus Stanisław
Published: April 2019

The chapter contains notation and an overview of prerequisites needed to understand the further text. They mostly correspond to the standard course of functional analysis. A few more advanced subjects like criteria of reflexivity, finite dimensional decompositions, etc., are briefly described.
Low dimensional spaces
Authors: Goebel Kazimierz , Prus Stanisław
Published: April 2019

The chapter is devoted to build the reader’s geometrical intuition. It contains a list of examples of norms in low dimensional spaces. Special features of two-dimensional spaces are described in more detail.
Projections on balls and convex sets
Authors: Goebel Kazimierz , Prus Stanisław
Published: April 2019

Radial projection on the unit ball and its Lipschitz constant are discussed. Special attention is paid to nonexpansive projections on balls and other sets. The cases of Hilbert spaces and spaces with uniform norm are studied in more detail.
The case of Banach lattices
Authors: Goebel Kazimierz , Prus Stanisław
Published: April 2019

Uniform monotonicity and order uniform smoothness for Banach lattices are discussed as counterparts of uniform convexity and uniform smoothness. Corresponding moduli are defined. Analogies and differences are presented.
Drivers and Issues of China–EU Negotiations for a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment
Authors: Marisi Flavia , Wang Qian
Published: April 2019

Although the China–EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), currently under negotiation, covers only bilateral investments, it may clear the path for a potential free trade agreement between the parties. Its relevance goes beyond the purely economic and legal impact, owing to the central importance that these two regions have both economically and strategically in their wider neighbourhood and worldwide, often in competition with the interests of other world powers. In particular, the chapter identifies the provisions of fair and equitable treatment (FET), taxation, and transparency as the core issues in the negotiation process, and highlights both their features and relevance. The latter can be inferred from the frequency of alleged breaches in investor–state cases, and therefore it is on these issues that the legal discussion of the greater part of arbitration cases focuses. It is of essence that China and the EU carefully design all the clauses in the CAI, concluding a treaty able to foster investments in both directions and satisfy the parties’ interests, both as home states of investors and as host states. With these features, the CAI has full potential to serve as a role model for the rest of the world.