bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Geophysics: A Very Short Introduction
Authors: Lowrie William
Published: March 2018

Geophysics is the physics of the Earth. It encompasses areas such as seismology, plate tectonics, gravity, and the Earth’s magnetic field, all of which give clues to both the structure and the working of the Earth. Geophysics: A Very Short Introduction describes the internal and external processes that affect the planet, as well as the techniques used by geophysicists to investigate them. It explains how analysis of the seismic waves produced in earthquakes reveals the Earth’s internal structure, and tells how heat is transported through its interior. Chapters describe how satellite missions measure the gravity and magnetic fields, and explain how its magnetic field shields the Earth against harmful radiation from the Sun and outer space.
7. The Earth’s magnetic field
Authors: Lowrie William
Published: March 2018

The Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field, which originates inside its molten core, and which for centuries has helped travellers to navigate safely across uncharted regions. The magnetic field protects life on the Earth by acting as a shield against harmful radiation from space, especially from the Sun. ‘The Earth’s magnetic field’ explains that the magnetic field at the Earth’s surface is dominantly that of an inclined dipole. The Sun’s deforming effect on the magnetic field outside the Earth is described, as are the magnetic fields of other planets. The magnetism of rocks forms the basis of palaeomagnetism, which explains how plate tectonics displaced the continents and produced oceanic magnetic anomalies whenever the geomagnetic field reversed polarity.
2. Earth system
Authors: Ellis Erle C.
Published: March 2018

To confirm that humans have altered Earth’s functioning as a system, the causal mechanisms behind these alterations must be demonstrated. Only through a robust understanding of Earth as a system—its fundamental components, their interactions, and most importantly, the processes that keep the Earth system stable or induce change—is it possible to establish the causes of changes in the Earth system. ‘Earth system’ considers the key work of scientists such as Eduard Suess, Vladimir Vernadsky, Carl Sagan, James Lovelock, Lynn Margulis, David Keeling, and Paul Crutzen and their attempts to explain the dynamics of Earth as a system, the importance of the biosphere, and human impact on our planet.
4. Disciplines and debates
Authors: Hutchinson Ben
Published: March 2018

Since the 1960s, comparative literature has splintered into a range of competing disciplines. In order to most accurately gauge its place within the Humanities today, ‘Disciplines and debates’ considers the various incarnations of comparative literature in neighbouring disciplines, including literary theory, cultural studies, postcolonialism, world literature, translation studies, and reception studies. It looks at each area, explaining how the growth of literary theory and cultural studies, in particular, helps us understand the growth of comparative literature. Since the turn of the millennium, the role of world literature as a model of comparison has come to the fore while translation remains the prerequisite for and the very practice of comparative literature.
Viruses: A Very Short Introduction
Authors: Crawford Dorothy H.
Published: March 2018

Viruses: A Very Short Introduction outlines the origins, structure, and method of infection of a vast variety of viruses and demonstrates how clever these entities appear to be. It explains the vital role viruses play in the ocean’s delicate ecosystem and discusses the impact of global warming, which is increasing the range of vector-transmitted viruses such as dengue, yellow fever, and West Nile virus. The recent Ebola and Zika epidemics, as well as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, are also discussed. Can we ever live in harmony with viruses? This VSI considers the ways in which we may need to adapt to prevent emerging viruses with devastating consequences.
2. The young Hegelian
Authors: Singer Peter
Published: March 2018

Marx discovered Hegel when he was a student in Berlin. The close attachment to Hegelian thought that Marx developed stayed with him his whole life. ‘The young Hegelian’ considers the philosophy of Hegel, especially as expressed in The Phenomenology of Mind, to try to understand more about how Marx came to his beliefs. One of the most celebrated passages in Phenomenology concerns the relationship between master and slave. This illustrates what Hegel meant by dialectic and introduces an idea of Marxism concerning the relationship between capitalist and worker. Hegel’s philosophy seemed mystifying to Marx, until applied to the real world. The notion of ‘Mind’ was reinterpreted as ‘human self-consciousness’.
6. The development of the materialist theory of history
Authors: Singer Peter
Published: March 2018

For Marx the unity of theory and practice meant the resolution of theoretical problems by practical activity. ‘The development of the materialist theory of history’ examines how Marx came upon his theory of world history in which practical human activity, rather than thought, plays the crucial role. At this point in his life, Marx starts to make more use of historical data and less of abstract philosophical reasoning about the way the world should be, but his interest in alienation persists. The materialist conception of history tells us that humans are completely subject to forces they do not comprehend and are unable to control. These forces are the productive powers of human beings themselves.
Learned protein embeddings for machine learning
Authors: Yang Kevin K , Wu Zachary , Bedbrook Claire N , Arnold Frances H
Published: March 2018

Motivation

Machine-learning models trained on protein sequences and their measured functions can infer biological properties of unseen sequences without requiring an understanding of the underlying physical or biological mechanisms. Such models enable the prediction and discovery of sequences with optimal properties. Machine-learning models generally require that their inputs be vectors, and the conversion from a protein sequence to a vector representation affects the model’s ability to learn. We propose to learn embedded representations of protein sequences that take advantage of the vast quantity of unmeasured protein sequence data available. These embeddings are low-dimensional and can greatly simplify downstream modeling.

Results

The predictive power of Gaussian process models trained using embeddings is comparable to those trained on existing representations, which suggests that embeddings enable accurate predictions despite having orders of magnitude fewer dimensions. Moreover, embeddings are simpler to obtain because they do not require alignments, structural data, or selection of informative amino-acid properties. Visualizing the embedding vectors shows meaningful relationships between the embedded proteins are captured.

Availability and implementation

The embedding vectors and code to reproduce the results are available at https://github.com/fhalab/embeddings_reproduction/.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Identification of miR-9-5p as direct regulator of ABCA1 and HDL-driven reverse cholesterol transport in circulating CD14+ cells of patients with metabolic syndrome
Authors: D’Amore Simona , Härdfeldt Jennifer , Cariello Marica , Graziano Giusi , Copetti Massimiliano , Di Tullio Giuseppe , Piglionica Marilidia , Scialpi Natasha , Sabbà Carlo , Palasciano Giuseppe , Vacca Michele , Moschetta Antonio
Published: March 2018

Aims

Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a cluster of cardio-metabolic risk factors associated with atherosclerosis and low-grade inflammation. Using unbiased expression screenings in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, we depict here a novel expression chart of 678 genes and 84 microRNAs (miRNAs) controlling inflammatory, immune and metabolic responses. In order to further elucidate the link between inflammation and the HDL cholesterol pathway in MS, we focussed on the regulation of the ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1), a key player in cholesterol efflux (CE).

Methods and results

ABCA1 mRNA levels are suppressed in CD14+ cells of MS patients and are negatively correlated to body mass index (BMI), insulin-resistance (HOMA-IR) and cardiovascular risk, and positively to HDL cholesterol and CE. miRNA target in silico prediction identified a putative modulatory role of ABCA1 for the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cell (NF-κB) target miR-9-5p, whose expression pattern was up-regulated in CD14+ cells of MS patients, positively correlated to BMI, HOMA-IR, and triglycerides, and negatively to ABCA1 mRNA levels, HDL cholesterol and CE. Ectopic gain and loss of miR-9-5p function in macrophages modulated ABCA1 mRNA and protein levels, ABCA1 miRNA 3’-untranslated region target sequence reporter assay, and CE into HDL, thus confirming ABCA1 as a target of miR-9-5p.

Conclusions

We identified the NF-κB target miR-9-5p as a negative regulator of ABCA1 adding a novel target pathway in the relationship between inflammation and HDL-driven reverse cholesterol transport for prevention or treatment of atherosclerosis in MS.
Ruelle and Quantum Resonances for Open Hyperbolic Manifolds
Authors: Hadfield Charles
Published: March 2018

We establish a direct classical-quantum correspondence on convex cocompact hyperbolic manifolds between the spectra of the geodesic flow and the Laplacian acting on natural tensor bundles. This extends previous work detailing the correspondence for cocompact quotients.
Blunted nitric oxide regulation in Tibetans under high-altitude hypoxia
Authors: He Yaoxi , Qi Xuebin , Ouzhuluobu  , Liu Shiming , Li Jun , Zhang Hui , Baimakangzhuo  , Bai Caijuan , Zheng Wangshan , Guo Yongbo , Duojizhuoma  , Baimayangji  , Dejiquzong  , Bianba  , Gonggalanzi  , Pan Yongyue , Qula  , Kangmin  , Cirenyangji  , Guo Wei , Yangla  , Peng Yi , Zhang Xiaoming , Xiang Kun , Yang Zhaohui , Wang Liangbang , Gengdeng  , Zhang Yanfeng , Wu Tianyi , Su Bing , Cui Chaoying
Published: March 2018

Nitric oxide (NO) is an important molecule for vasomotor tone, and elevated NO signaling was previously hypothesized as a unique and adaptive physiological change in highland Tibetans. However, there has been lack of NO data from Tibetans living at low altitude and lowlander immigrants living at high altitude, which is crucial to test this hypothesis. Here, through cross-altitude (1990–5018 m) and cross-population (Tibetans and Han Chinese) analyses of serum NO metabolites (NOx) of 2086 individuals, we demonstrate that although Tibetans have a higher serum NOx level compared to lowlanders, Han Chinese immigrants living at high altitude show an even higher level than Tibetans. Consequently, our data contradict the previous proposal of increased NO signaling as the unique adaptive strategy in Tibetans. Instead, Tibetans have a relatively lower circulating NOx level at high altitude. This observation is further supported by data from the hypoxic experiments using human umbilical vein endothelial cells and gene knockout mice. No difference is detected between Tibetans and Han Chinese for endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), the key enzyme for circulating NO synthesis, suggesting that eNOS itself is unlikely to be the cause. We show that other NO synthesis-related genes (e.g. GCH1) carry Tibetan-enriched mutations significantly associated with the level of circulating NOx in Tibetans. Furthermore, gene network analysis revealed that the downregulation and upregulation of NOx is possibly achieved through distinct pathways. Collectively, our findings provide novel insights into the physiological and genetic mechanisms of the evolutionary adaptation of Tibetans to high-altitude hypoxia.
Houses Divided
Authors: Volkman Lucas P.
Published: March 2018

This work argues that congregational and local denominational schisms among Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians in the border state of Missouri before, during, and after the Civil War were central to the crisis of the Union, Civil War, and Reconstruction. Employing an array of approaches that examine these ecclesiastical fractures beyond the customary antebellum temporal scope of analysis, and as a local phenomenon, this study maintains that the schisms were interlinked religious, sociocultural, legal, and political developments rife with implications for the transformation of evangelicalism and the United States in that period and to the end of Reconstruction. The evangelical disruptions in Missouri were grounded in divergent moral and political understandings of slavery, abolitionism, secession, and disloyalty. Publicly articulated by factional litigation over church property and a combative evangelical print culture, the schisms were complicated by race, class, and gender dynamics that arrayed the contending interests of white middle-class women and men, rural churchgoers, and African American congregants. These ruptures forged antagonistic northern and southern evangelical worldviews that increased antebellum sectarian strife and violence, energized the notorious guerrilla conflict that gripped Missouri through the Civil War, and fueled postwar vigilantism between opponents and proponents of emancipation. As such, the schisms produced the intertwined religious, legal, and constitutional controversies that shaped pro- and antislavery evangelical contention before 1861, wartime Radical rule, and the rise and fall of Reconstruction.
Printed Religion, the Public Sphere, and the Disordering of the Union
Authors: Volkman Lucas P.
Published: March 2018

Chapter 4 reveals that the evangelical schisms in Missouri spurred a radical escalation of theological and political disputation between pro- and antislavery evangelicals in religious newspapers and other printed publications. This verbal sparring played a heretofore unexamined central role in spawning a vicious conflict between northern and southern evangelicals and partisans on the border with Kansas after 1854. To the extent that sectarian strife over the morality of African American bondage spurred armed strife in Missouri from the spring of 1854 through 1860, it played an important role in generating the larger sectional tensions that led to secession and the Civil War.
The Gold Plates as Foundational Text
Authors: Bushman Richard Lyman
Published: March 2018

Richard Bushman’s “The Gold Plates as Foundational Text” focuses on the making of the Book of Mormon. In contrast to the controversies over the recovery and translation of the gold plates, the translated text is detailed and precise in explaining its own construction. Even the complicated insertion of the “small plates” into a narrative based on the “large plates” is explained and rationalized as a cultural and political force within the story. First, Nephi was clearly a political document created to justify the division of the family and the nation. Furthermore, its spiritual and prophetic emphasis made it a model for Mormon’s abridgment of the large plates. The Book of Mormon, Bushman argues, comes through as a human text pieced together by human hands out of many parts.
The Dictation, Compilation, and Canonization of Joseph Smith’s Revelations
Authors: Underwood Grant
Published: March 2018

Those who joined the church begun by Joseph Smith looked to the revelations Smith dictated as God’s divine will and word. With the printing of the Book of Commandments and later publication of the Doctrine and Covenants, these revelations gained wider prominence and circulation. The elevation of this new Mormon scripture resulted in Smith’s role as “prophet, seer, revelator, and translator” being increasingly associated with the texts he had already made available. But as those texts were published, the changes they underwent complicated the text. In “The Dictation, Compilation, and Canonization of Joseph Smith’s Revelation,” Grant Underwood clearly lays out the role of Smith and the dictation, production, and publication of those revelations, providing an overview of this complicated process.
Our Lady of Café con Leche
Authors: Del Socorro Castañeda-Liles María
Published: March 2018

This chapter argues that Mexican children in Catholic households are introduced to Catholicism via material culture and family traditions at home. That is, religious material objects and customs form part of the life of children even before they can fully comprehend their significance. I particularly focus on the embodiment of devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe and the material culture associated with this religious figure. I also borrow and expand Orsi’s (1996) metaphor of the “devotional triangle” to explain how Catholic devotion is passed from one generation to the next as it strengthens the ties that bind mothers and daughters. I end this chapter with a discussion of the influence of women in the transmission of Catholic faith in the family.
“A Disease of All Signification”
Authors: Richter Gerhard
Published: March 2018

This essay investigates the implications of the idea that a philosophically informed understanding of a literary text such as The Trial cannot proceed in isolation from a perpetual engagement with the ways in which the literal and the figurative dimensions of the text unfold in relation to each other. If Kafka’s novel, by causing the relation between the literal and the figural to enter a space of indeterminacy, enacts something of what Adorno calls “a sickness of all signification [eine Krankheit alles Bedeuten],” no reading of Kafka can afford to ignore the precise conceptual terms of this sickness. The implications of these reflections are considered in relation to an exemplary test case, Giorgio Agamben’s recent interpretation of The Trial as Kafka’s commentary on the relation between law and slander.
Israel’s Classic Defense Doctrine
Authors: Freilich Charles D.
Published: March 2018

Chapter 1 presents the “Ben-Gurion doctrine,” formulated in the 1950s, the closest Israel has to a formal defense doctrine, which still informs its strategic thinking today. The doctrine viewed the Arab-Israeli conflict as uniquely long, bitter, all-encompassing, and existential and considered Israel’s geography a strategic nightmare, making it a vulnerable state with indefensible borders. It stressed the fundamental strategic asymmetries with the Arabs, including territorial and population size, economic resources, staying power, military objectives and capabilities, and diplomatic support. The strategic response it proposed called for “a nation in arms” and was based on “three pillars,” deterrence, early warning, and military decision, and on a defensive strategy to be executed offensively, by transferring the battle to enemy territory. It further emphasized the pursuit of peace as a foremost strategic objective, the need for great power alliances but strategic autonomy, and the importance of nation-building.
Nuclear and Regional Arms Control Policy
Authors: Freilich Charles D.
Published: March 2018

Chapter 8 assesses Israel’s nuclear policy, why Israel might wish to possess its purported unconventional capabilities, the sources of the ambiguity policy, Israel’s regional arms control policies, and its efforts to prevent WMD proliferation, including the “Begin Doctrine.” The chapter argues that Israel’s nuclear policies have proven highly successful, providing it with the deterrent benefits of an overt posture without the costs, and preventing, thus far, further nuclear proliferation. It concludes with major conundrums Israel may face in the future, for example, whether the Begin Doctrine is still applicable, or whether Israel should prefer, if Iran succeeds in going nuclear, that both sides retain their capabilities, or that neither does and thus pursue regional arms control. Israel would face an even greater dilemma if a multinuclear Middle East emerges. New approaches, for example, an end to nuclear ambiguity, a defense treaty with the United States, or regional arms control, may become necessary.
The “Special Relationship”
Authors: Freilich Charles D.
Published: March 2018

Chapter 10 presents an overview of Israel’s military and strategic relationship with the United States, a fundamental pillar of its national security. The chapter argues that the price of the “special relationship” has been a significant loss of Israel’s independence, and that Israel undertakes major military and diplomatic initiatives without prior US approval very rarely, almost only on existential issues or ones of supreme ideological importance to its electorate. Indeed, the chapter questions whether Israel’s dependence has become so great that it could not even survive today without the United States. The United States is a generally reliable patron but has failed Israel on a number of important occasions, thereby demonstrating the need for Israel to maintain independent capabilities. Support for Israel in the United States remains high, but political and demographic trends are worrisome, and the relationship has likely peaked. Even a marginal change in US support would be severe for Israel.
Primary Conclusions
Authors: Freilich Charles D.
Published: March 2018

Chapter 11 presents the primary conclusions derived from the proceeding chapters, as a basis for the national security strategy proposed in chapter 12. The conclusions are divided into four categories, general, politico-military, military, and domestic policy. The chapter also discusses the pitfalls involved in recommending a national security strategy, such as physical and political feasibility; limitations stemming from the absence of classified information; and possible normative biases. The chapter begins by setting out Israel’s vital national security objectives, that is, a core set of fundamental, essentially immutable interests, and then a variety of lesser, though still highly important, ones, some relatively permanent, others that change with circumstances. It further presents a number of “policy instruments” of such importance, for example, preserving the strategic relationship with the United States, that they can be considered vital objectives in their own right and are thus part of the basis for the proposed strategy.
Musical Minorities
Authors: Ó Briain Lonán
Published: March 2018

Musical Minorities is the first English-language monograph on the performing arts of an ethnic minority in Vietnam. Living primarily in the northern mountains, many of the one million Hmong in Vietnam have strategically maintained their cultural distance from foreign invaders and encroaching state agencies for almost two centuries. They use cultural heritage as a means of maintaining a resilient community identity, malleable to their everyday needs and to negotiations among themselves and with others in the vicinity. Case studies of revolutionary songs, countercultural rock, traditional vocal and instrumental styles, tourist shows, animist and Christian rituals, and light pop from the diaspora illustrate the diversity of their creative outputs. This groundbreaking study reveals how music and other performing arts shape understandings of ethnicity and nationality in contemporary Vietnam. Based on three years of fieldwork with Hmong living in Lào Cai and neighboring provinces adjacent to the Chinese and Laotian borders, the book traces the circulation of organized sounds that contribute to the adaptive capacities of this diverse social group. This original investigation of the sonic materialization of social identity outlines the full multiplicity of Hmong music making in a fascinating account of music, minorities, and the state in a postsocialist context.
Cultural Tourism in Northwestern Vietnam
Authors: Ó Briain Lonán
Published: March 2018

Chapter 4 examines the commodification of minority musics in Vietnam’s flourishing tourism industry. In recent years the idyllic mountainous district of Sa Pa has experienced a rapid proliferation of minority-themed cultural productions. Local authorities have maintained control over the most profitable dance and music shows at Cát Cát village and Hàm Rồng mountain; the former is used in this chapter as a case study to document how local traditions, which the organizers of these shows claim to be preserving, are being adapted to cater to tourists’ desires. A second case study of the Sa Pa “Love” Market illustrates how Hmong youths are also profiting from their musical culture. Although the state-directed folkloricization of these indigenous traditions might reflect a celebration of cultural cosmopolitanism in Sa Pa, its principal purpose, besides financial gain for a few local authorities, is achieving national unity through calculated promotion of social harmony.
The Inconsistent Curriculum
Authors: McCrory Calarco Jessica
Published: March 2018

Chapter 2 reveals that teachers’ expectations for student problem-solving are not consistent. Instead, those expectations vary from activity to activity and even from moment to moment, and those variations have real implications for inequalities. There were times when teachers wanted students to acknowledge their struggles and proactively seek support (favoring middle-class strategies of influence), but there were also times when teachers wanted students to work through difficult problems on their own, times when they did not want to give extra credit or extra time, and times when they wanted students to wait patiently with their hands raised rather than approach them with requests (favoring working-class strategies of deference). Despite those variations, however, teachers rarely made their expectations explicit. That ambiguity left students to decode what teachers wanted in a given moment, and that decoding process led students to rely even more heavily on the class-based lessons they learned at home.
How Is Breast Cancer Explained?
Authors: Cutter Mary Ann G.
Published: March 2018

The question “How is breast cancer explained?” raises a host of explanatory issues, including ones about the method we use to explain breast cancer, the etiology of breast cancer, and the extent to which our explanations of breast cancer provide clinical certainty. What we find is that, initially, it appears that medicine explains breast cancer using an empirical methodology that grants certain claims. But things are not as simple as one would initially think. Upon reflection, explanations of breast cancer are not simply empirical. Causal accounts of breast cancer are not typically modeled on a simple cause–effect relation. Given this, clinicians and patients must face the recognition that clinical explanations of breast cancer are probabilistic and a healthy sense of skepticism provides a check against an idealized sense of certain knowledge about breast cancer.
What Is the Relation Among the Descriptive, Explanatory, Evaluative, and Social Dimensions of Breast Cancer?
Authors: Cutter Mary Ann G.
Published: March 2018

Philosophically speaking, breast cancer is an integrative phenomenon. The descriptive, explanatory, evaluative, and social dimensions of breast cancer mutually define and situate each other within particular contexts. Descriptions, observations, or the “facts” of breast cancer are ordered around explanatory assumptions and claims. Further, the descriptive and explanatory dimensions of breast cancer are nested in evaluative or prescriptive judgments, including those objects that are assigned significance and those actions that are seen to be appropriate and warranted in order to achieve certain goals. Still further, the descriptive, explanatory, and evaluative dimensions of breast cancer are socially located. There is no timeless or noncontextual account of breast cancer, or at least there is no such interpretation available to humans. Breast cancer is an intersectional, contextual, and personalized phenomenon.
What Are the Ethical Implications of Understanding and Treating Breast Cancer?
Authors: Cutter Mary Ann G.
Published: March 2018

Philosophically speaking, the question “What are the ethical implications of understanding breast cancer?” raises a host of issues, including informed consent, risk assessment, and access to breast cancer care. What we find is that, initially, there are adequate guidelines for informed consent, adequate efforts to develop risk assessment measures, and a decent level of access to breast cancer care in the United States. But things can be improved from an ethical standpoint. Upon reflection, the informed consent process would benefit from a more explicit discussion of uncertainty in breast cancer medicine and the ways breast cancer patients make decisions about their care. Risk assessments would benefit from a more personalized approach. Access to breast cancer care could be improved by continued studies of the diverse forces that limit access to proper breast cancer care.
Proleptic Reasons
Authors: Callard Agnes
Published: March 2018

If someone is to rationally engage in a large-scale transformative pursuit, she must be acting on some reason. The would-be music-lover cannot listen to music for the “right” reason, namely the intrinsic value of that music. For in order to grasp this reason, she would have to already value music. Nor can she act on the “wrong” reason, for instance because she wants a good grade or in order to impress someone: if she were listening only for the sake of such extrinsic rewards, she would not be transforming herself. Such agents act on proleptic reasons, which are acknowledged to be defective variants of the reasons they will come to grasp fully at the end of their transformations. Proleptic reasons are not internal reasons—they cannot be arrived at by sound deliberation from what the agent already cares about. Instead, they reflect the possibility of rationally coming to care about something new.
Akrasia
Authors: Callard Agnes
Published: March 2018

The standard analysis of weak-willed (akratic) action is that the agent acts on a reason she acknowledges as weaker than another she could have acted on. I argue that it does not make sense to think that the akratic “adds up” all her reasons and then opts to act on the weaker set. Instead, we must conclude that the akratic is unable to add up the relevant considerations, because she is intrinsically conflicted. Intrinsically conflicted agents inhabit two evaluative perspectives at the same time, but only one of them—the dominant perspective—governs their deliberative activity. The akratic acts against her deliberation, because she is motivated by the subordinate evaluative perspective from which she does not deliberate. She acts on reasons her reasoning failed to take into account. Akrasia occurs because agents sometimes need to make use of—deliberate from—values they don’t (fully) have.
The Puritan Cosmopolis
Authors: Goodman Nan
Published: March 2018

This book traces the emergence of a sense of kinship with and belonging to a larger, more inclusive world within the law and literature of late seventeenth-century Puritanism. Connected to this cosmopolitanism in part through travel, trade, and politics, late seventeenth-century Puritans, it is argued, were also thinking in terms that went beyond these parameters about what it meant to feel affiliated with people in remote places—of which the Ottoman Empire is the best, but not the only example—and to experience what Bruce Robbins calls “attachment at a distance.” In this way Puritan writers and readers were not simply learning about others but also cultivating an awareness of themselves as “stand[ing] in an ethically significant relation” to people all around the world. The underlying source of these cosmopolitan predilections was the law, specifically the law of nations, often considered the precursor to international law. Through the terms for sovereignty, obligation, and society made available by a turn toward the cosmopolitan within the law, the Puritans experimented with concepts of extended obligation and ideas about a society consisting of all humans, not just those living on certain trade routes or within certain foreign communities. In mapping out these thought experiments, The Puritan Cosmopolis uncovers Puritans who were reconceptualizing war, contemplating new ways of cultivating peace, and rewriting the rules for being Puritan by internalizing legal theories about living in a larger, more inclusive world.
The Law of Nations and the Sources of the Cosmopolis
Authors: Goodman Nan
Published: March 2018

The Puritans’ cosmopolitan thought in late seventeenth-century New England had its source in the cosmopolitanism of a law of nations that was as much about the world as a whole as it was about the nation-state it later came to epitomize. With the nation-state not yet a consolidated entity, the seventeenth-century law of nations was far more open-ended than the international law to which it gave rise more than a century later. In the absence of a fixed idea of sovereignty, the law of nations was able to articulate multiple historical possibilities for social, political, and legal communities, one of which—the cosmopolitan—is fundamental. The cosmopolis emerges as a central part of the intellectual project of the law of nations put forth by the Protestant thinkers Alberico Gentili, Hugo Grotius, and John Selden, with the main features of the law recast as the building blocks of the cosmopolis.
The Cosmopolitan Covenant
Authors: Goodman Nan
Published: March 2018

This chapter uncovers an alternative provenance and meaning for the Puritan covenant by returning it to its place in an early modern context of outward looking, cosmopolitan thought. This return is associated with the Renewal Covenant, which had its first iteration around the time of King Philip’s War in 1676 but experienced a resurgence from the mid-1680s‒1690s and beyond. This second Renewal Covenant was distinguished from earlier covenants and earlier versions of covenant renewal by shifting emphasis away from baptism, church membership, and general declension, to issues of corporate membership in the cosmopolis.
Revisiting Gendered States
Authors: Peterson V. Spike
Published: March 2018

State sovereignty and autonomy in the twenty-first century are both under challenge and continually reasserted in diverse ways through gender, sexuality, and race-making. This paradox makes it pertinent to revisit the idea of states as gendered political entities. Bringing together scholars from international relations and postcolonial and development studies, this volume collectively theorizes the modern state and its intricate relationship to security, identity politics, and gender. Drawing on postcolonial and critical feminist approaches, together with empirical case studies, contributors engage with the ontological foundations of the modern state and its capacity to adapt to the global and local contestations of its identity, histories, and purpose. They examine the various ways in which gender explains the construction and interplay of states in global politics today; and how states, be they neoliberal, postcolonial, or religious (or all three together), impact the everyday lives and security of their citizens. Such a rich array of feminist analyses of multiple kinds of states provides crucial insight into gender injustices in relatively stable states, but also into the political, economic, social, and cultural inequalities that produce violent conflicts threatening the sovereignty of some states and even leading to the creation of new states.
Introduction
Authors: Parashar Swati , Tickner J. Ann , True Jacqui
Published: March 2018

The Western state system is a unique historical entity that has survived in various forms for almost four hundred years. After independence, postcolonial societies were eager to join this system. States can offer protection to their citizens, but they can also be perpetrators of human rights violations and economic injustices. Feminists claim that in order to fully understand the state in its various manifestations, it is necessary to understand its gendered dynamics. This chapter considers the various ways in which states are gendered. Authors in the volume offer analyses of many forms of states—liberal, postcolonial, and religious—using a variety of methodological perspectives. They demonstrate how gender analysis is necessary for understanding how the state can act both as a buffer against the international system and also as a perpetrator of political, social, and economic inequalities. The conclusion offers a brief overview of each of the subsequent chapters.
Mother Russia in Queer Peril
Authors: Wilkinson Cai
Published: March 2018

The notion of “Mother Russia” has long played a central role in the articulation of Russian statehood. Drawing on Peterson’s “lens of protection,” this chapter interrogates how “Russia as Motherland” has been utilized to help construct a neopaternalist gender regime and state identity via a narrative of existential threat to Mother Russia from an “Unholy Queer Peril.” This narrative highlights the state’s dogmatic adherence to “traditional” understandings of gender and sexuality, and the chapter explores the impact of the perception of a “queer peril” for practices of statecraft, showing how the hypermasculine state’s “fear of queer” becomes both defining and self-defeating as the state’s logic of protection focuses increasingly on ensuring the “correct” performance of gender by state and citizens alike.
The Gendered State and the Emergence of a Postconflict, Postdisaster, Semiautonomous State
Authors: Lee-Koo Katrina
Published: March 2018

This chapter explores the reconstitution of the gendered state after crisis and conflict. It locates gender politics in the often-competing discourses of “crisis and urgency” and “renewal and opportunity” that are often influential in the processes of state-making in this context. This is demonstrated through the case study of Aceh, Indonesia. In the wake of a three-decade-long conflict and in the aftermath of the devastating 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami, Aceh established a peace with the Indonesian state and began a process of developing a semiautonomous state. This chapter examines the gender politics that were deployed, and at stake, in this process.
The Postcolonial/Emotional State
Authors: Parashar Swati
Published: March 2018

If mainstream theorizings on the state have paid little attention to its gendered aspects (how the state demonstrates and constructs gender and how gender determines the character of the state), emotions have been far from everyday concerns of the state and its manifestations. This chapter adopts a feminist perspective to argue that, contrary to mainstream views, the state conscripts gendered emotions in its efforts to seek/retain legitimacy and to police citizens to conform to its ideological and developmental moorings. The chapter draws on the Naxalite/Maoist insurgency in India to highlight the gendered emotional language of the postcolonial state which is in violent conflict with its own citizens challenging its legitimacy and sovereignty.
Volatility Transmission across Commodity Futures Markets
Authors: Chau Frankie Ho-Chi
Published: March 2018

Sharp movements in crude oil prices and their impact on other commodities have renewed interest in the assessment of dynamic interactions between commodity futures markets. This chapter examines this topic by investigating the intensity and direction of volatility transmission across three major classes of commodities, including agricultural products (corn, coffee, and soybeans), energy (crude oil and gas), and metals (copper, gold, and silver). Overall, the evidence suggests that important volatility episodes and fluctuations exist across major commodity markets; the total cross-market spillovers are limited until the onset of financial crisis of 2007–2008. As the crisis intensified, so too did the commodity volatility spillovers, with substantial stress carrying over from the energy and metal markets to others. These findings are important in understanding the level and transmission mechanism of risk across commodity futures markets and are relevant to regulators in formulating policies to tackle excessive volatility, particularly during turbulent periods.
Commodities in International and Emerging Markets
Authors: Smimou Kamal
Published: March 2018

This chapter seeks to elucidate the relations of U.S.-listed global commodity futures, the business cycle, and stocks and bonds of emerging markets. It shows that global investors poised to benefit from investing in emerging market securities can concurrently learn from and better understand the dynamic intermarket relations when establishing such trading strategies. Investment in emerging markets can enhance the performance and sturdiness of an equity or bond portfolio strategy. Evidence lends support to the conjecture that a subtle contemporaneous and occasionally trailing effect exerted by the movement of global commodities on the business cycle exists. Global commodities also affect equity and bond market dynamics. The evidence also reveals differences in terms of economic significance and magnitude among selected emerging nations and across various commodities.
Introduction
Authors: Brown Kate Pride
Published: March 2018

Whereas civil society has previously been considered a “check” upon concentrated elite power, this chapter explains civil society as one player in a larger field of power. The field of power is a meta-field that contains all other social fields. To contend in the field of power requires a generalizable power source, and these powers operate simultaneously at two levels: in discrete social fields and in the field of power as a whole. Thus, through a close examination of a single social field, one can trace the shape of the larger field of power. Because power can be garnered and deployed in multiple spatial scales, the field of power approach is particularly appropriate for understanding civil society in the twenty-first century, which is characterized by globalization and a resurgent authoritarianism. The book examines the global field of power by focusing upon the dynamic interactions of power players around Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia.
A Tale of Two Lakes
Authors: Brown Kate Pride
Published: March 2018

Villagers around Lake Baikal are known for their doubt, suspicion, apathy, and resistance to change. When activists from Baikal Environmental Wave seek to engage them, they put on a display of disinterest and non-involvement. But when the same organization conducts a series of webinars between these villagers and activists at Lake Tahoe in California, the people become increasingly enthusiastic and involved. This suggests that transnational activism can help break down mental barriers that come from domestic conditions that inspire fatalism. “Defamiliarization” helps locals see their own circumstances in a new light. However, expectations can dampen the experience of defamiliarization, and insincerity in collaboration can result in disappointment and disillusionment. Nevertheless, through defamiliarization, globalization can help augment civil society’s power, which is directly drawn from voluntary public engagement.
State Suppression of Baikal Activism
Authors: Brown Kate Pride
Published: March 2018

In 2012, the Russian Federation passed the “Foreign Agent” law, requiring nonprofit organizations that receive funding from abroad and engage in political activity to register with the government as a “foreign agent.” This chapter traces the enactment of this law in the Baikal community. Only one organization fell victim to the law: Baikal Environmental Wave. The Wave was one of Siberia’s oldest environmental organizations and was the most committed to environmental advocacy. It was no stranger to state persecution, but this law rendered it incapable of operating and it finally shut down. The Foreign Agent law represents a new form of dominating the field of power. Unlike the Soviet government, which outlawed all independent activity, the Putin government practices “legal nihilism,” using the law only to target strategic opponents. Civil society may be independent and thrive, but it cannot threaten the state without grave consequences.
Inner Sound
Authors: Weinel Jonathan
Published: March 2018

Inner Sound explores how altered states of consciousness have shaped the design of electronic music and audio-visual media. The book begins by discussing consciousness, and how this may change during states such as dreaming, psychedelic experience, meditation, and trance. Next, a variety of shamanic traditions are reviewed, in order to explore how indigenous societies have reflected visionary experiences through visual art and music. This provides the necessary background from which to consider how analogue and digital audio technologies enable specific capabilities for representing or inducing altered states of consciousness in psychedelic rock, electronic dance music, and electroacoustic music. Developing the discussion to consider sound in the context of audio-visual media, the role of altered states of consciousness in films, visual music, VJ performances, interactive video games, and virtual reality applications is also discussed. Through the analysis of these examples, the author uncovers common mechanisms, and ultimately proposes a conceptual model for ‘Altered States of Consciousness Simulations’. This theoretical model describes how sound can be used to simulate various subjective states of consciousness from a first-person perspective, in an interactive context. Throughout the book, the ethical issues regarding altered states of consciousness in electronic music and audio-visual media are also explored, ultimately allowing the reader to consider not only the design of Altered States of Consciousness Simulations, but also the implications of their use for digital society. In this way, Inner Sound explores the limits of technology for representing and manipulating consciousness, at the frontiers of electronic music and art.
Introduction
Authors: Weinel Jonathan
Published: March 2018

This introduction to Inner Sound: Altered States of Consciousness in Electronic Music and Audio-Visual Media outlines the background, aims, and scope of the book. The chapter begins by introducing altered states of consciousness through a description of visual hallucinations, which may have provided a basis for some of the oldest-known artworks. Next, a brief historical overview of altered states is given, from ancient shamanic traditions and cults, to modern-day use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD. The use of altered states in these contexts has resulted in a variety of associated art, literature, music, films, and video games, which in recent years have been rendered with the aid of new sound and audio-visual technologies. These works provide the main focus of Inner Sound, which explores the relationship of altered states of consciousness with electronic music and audio-visual media, in order to develop a conceptual theory of ‘Altered States of Consciousness Simulations’.
Abstractions
Authors: Weinel Jonathan
Published: March 2018

The concluding chapter of Inner Sound: Altered States of Consciousness in Electronic Music and Audio-Visual Media consolidates the main arguments of the book. The journey taken is recapitulated, from shamanic rituals to psychedelic rock shows and raves; and from outdoor electroacoustic concerts to synaesthetic films and hallucinatory video games. Across these examples, similar underlying principles can be identified, revealing a continuity from ancient shamanism to modern ‘technoshamanism’. Yet while some imperatives have remained consistent, the technologies have evolved, yielding ever-more accurate and sophisticated representations of altered states in electronic music and audio-visual media. This finds us on the brink of ‘Altered States of Consciousness Simulations’, which replicate the sensory experience of altered states using immersive technologies such as fulldomes and virtual reality headsets. Looking forwards, the possible uses and ethical implications of these simulations are explored, at the frontiers of electronic music and art.