bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Modelling the redshift-space cluster–galaxy correlation function on Mpc scales with emulation of the pairwise velocity distribution
Authors: Robertson Andrew , Huff Eric , Markovič Katarina , Li Baojiu
Published: August 2024

We present a method for modelling the cluster–galaxy correlation function in redshift space, down to $\sim$ Mpc scales. The method builds upon the so-called galaxy infall kinematics (GIK) model, a parametric model for the pairwise velocities of galaxies with respect to nearby galaxy clusters. We fit the parameters of the GIK model to a suite of simulations run with different cosmologies, and use Gaussian processes to emulate how the GIK parameters depend upon cosmology. This emulator can then be combined with knowledge of the real-space clustering of clusters and galaxies, to predict the cluster–galaxy correlation function in redshift space, $\xi _\mathrm{cg}^s$. Fitting this model to an observed $\xi _\mathrm{cg}^s$ enables the extraction of cosmological parameter constraints, and we present forecasts for a survey like that currently being done by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). We also perform tests of the robustness of our constraints from fitting to mock data extracted from N-body simulations, finding that fitting to scales $\lesssim 3 \, h^{-1}\, \mathrm{Mpc}$ leads to a biased inference on cosmology, due to model mis-specification on these scales. Finally, we discuss what steps will need to be taken in order to apply our method to real data.
Counter-rotation and slow precession in aligned eccentric nuclear discs due to gravitational wave recoil kicks
Authors: Bright Jane C , Akiba Tatsuya , Madigan Ann-Marie
Published: August 2024

The M31 nucleus contains a supermassive black hole embedded in a massive stellar disc of apsidally aligned eccentric orbits. It has recently been shown that this disc is slowly precessing at a rate consistent with zero. Here, we demonstrate using N-body methods that apsidally aligned eccentric discs can form with a significant ($\sim$0.5) fraction of orbits counter-rotating as the result of a gravitational wave recoil kick of merging supermassive black holes. Higher amplitude kicks map to a larger retrograde fraction in the surrounding stellar population, which in turn results in slow precession. We furthermore show that discs with significant counter-rotation are more stable (i.e. apsidal alignment is most pronounced and long lasting), more eccentric, and have the highest rates of stars entering the black hole’s tidal disruption radius.
Meeting
Authors: Heath Iona
Published: August 2024

An account of meeting John Berger in person for the first time, the beginning of our correspondence, and embarking on a friendship.
Becoming a Doctor
Authors: Heath Iona
Published: August 2024

An account of the various influences on my decision to become a doctor.
Reading and Rereading
Authors: Heath Iona
Published: August 2024

An account of starting reading as a child, stopping as a medical student, and a much later opportunity to start reading again for pleasure. A description of the delights of a sabbatical spent reading novels lying on the sofa and how it changed my professional life.
Touching
Authors: Heath Iona
Published: August 2024

An exploration of the subtlety, beauty, and utility of touch, which necessitates gentleness and tenderness and imagination.
Doubt
Authors: Heath Iona
Published: August 2024

An account of the necessity of doubt to the safe practice of medicine and to any hope of scientific progress.
The Rhythm of Early Hindi Poetry as Reflected in the Piṅgala Literature
Authors: Nagasaki Hiroko
Published: August 2024

The Hindi treatises on prosody, called piṅgala, originated from the Sanskrit and Prakrit-Apabhraṁśa literary traditions. These texts emerged in the sixteenth century as supplementary works within the vernacular courtly kāvya literature of the Mughal era. Rooted in mora-syllabic metres in Sanskrit and Prakrit-Apabhraṁśa moraic metres, they were influenced by musical tāla. Piṅgalas were authored by court poets, reflecting the longstanding tradition of prosody studies in north Indian courtly culture since the sixteenth century, coinciding with Mughal empire’s expansion in north India, and the rise of bhakti movement in Braj. These poet-scholars likely served as experts on prosody for kings and poets. Although the piṅgalas do not explicitly mention changing rhythmic preferences, a prosodic shift occurred during that period with the convergence of the Perso-Arabic and Hindi metrical rhythms. For instance, native syllabic metres like kavitta and savaiyā gained popularity due to their compatibility with Persian metre.
Music for Hunting
Authors: Williams Richard David
Published: August 2024

This chapter explores early modern understandings about the relationship between music, sound, and nature by examining the place of music in Rajput hunting practices, and imagery relating to animals and the forest in musicological literature and poetry. Examining poetic and visual materials relating to deer and musical entrapment, it considers theories of the sonic expression of power and mastery. It then brings images of the hunt into conversation with depictions of hunting, the wilderness, and tribal communities in musical iconography, taking rāginī Āsāvarī as a case study. Retracing the romanticization of tribal women in the Rajput imaginary, it suggests that attending to the relationship between courtly music and courtly hunting sheds light on both aesthetics and social history.
The Ninth Tale
Authors: Bitel Lisa M.
Published: August 2024

If the Courtship of Étaín shows us that love can outlast life, and the tale of Derb Forgaill warns of passion’s perils, this story is about the consequences of a successful courtship. It may seem like yet another amorous adventure of the dazzling Cú Chulainn, but the tale also asks questions about the hero. Can a real hero ever be true to one woman, or must he endlessly enthrall new women to maintain his reputation? The Cú betrayed Emer time and again. Surely she could have found someone more loyal, if less epic, than Cú Chulainn to love. Still, many medieval love stories end with nothing but a shallow promise or a woman’s abandonment, or sometimes, dead bodies. This tale shows us what happens after a successful courtship: marriage.
You Can’t Handle the Truth
Authors: Keating Malcolm
Published: August 2024

Turning to how ways of knowing inform debates with other people, this chapter focuses on the distinction between three kinds of debate in Nyāya. These are discussion, disputation, and wrangling. While discussion is truth-seeking, the other two kinds of debate focus on winning and allow tricky forms of engagement that are discussed in later chapters as well as the counterfeit inferences already introduced. The ethical and cognitive nature of a good debater, a discussant, is a theme of this chapter as is an understanding of the social structure of Indian debates and the purpose of these conventions. A final topic is the question of whether it is ever permissible to intentionally use fallacies, such as when the opponent is arguing for something morally odious.
Bob Dylan
Authors: Green Jeffrey Edward
Published: August 2024

One of the first book-length works on Bob Dylan from a philosophical perspective, Bob Dylan: Prophet Without God defends the idea of Dylan as a modern-day prophet, albeit one of an unusual, almost unprecedented type. Dylan speaks to the ideals that have animated earlier prophets—social justice, individual freedom, and adherence to God—but breaks from tradition in continually insisting on the conflicts between these ideals, leading him to make novel and important contributions to the meaning of self-reliance, the quest for rapprochement between the religious and non-religious, and the question of how ordinary people might operate in a fallen political world. The book aspires to an overarching account of why Dylan fascinates, even as it also explains why he will remain mysterious and elusive. Bob Dylan: Prophet Without God places Dylan into conversation with a wide array of historical and contemporary intellectual figures to highlight the originality and significance of Dylan’s political, religious, and ethical ideas.
A Rebel Rebelling against the Rebellion
Authors: Green Jeffrey Edward
Published: August 2024

Part I examines the conflict between individual freedom and justice. Although Dylan was hailed in the 1960s as an inspirer of social justice movements and an icon of self-reliant individuality, his most distinct prophetic gesture in this period was to testify, at the very height of the civil rights movement, that for him these two ends—devotion to social justice and devotion to the free use of individuality—are in insoluble conflict, with one coming at the expense of the other. Dylan does not ultimately teach whether to choose individual freedom or social justice, but he does inspire those who themselves embody this conflict—the bourgeois—to achieve self-consciousness and to practice self-reliance without the self-satisfaction, triumphalism, and complacency that typically have accompanied it. In establishing Dylan’s distinctiveness in this regard, Part I differentiates Dylan’s approach from other thinkers of self-reliance (Emerson and Thoreau), from activists such as Martin Luther King Jr., and from the radical folk tradition Dylan inherited.
Liberalism and Co-operatives
Authors: Spicer Jason S.
Published: August 2024

In examining New Zealand’s co-operatives, Chapter 5 exposes their uneasy relationship with economic liberalism. Here, co-operatives and a strong state enterprise sector sprang up together in an institutional void created by the nation’s distance and remoteness. Unlike in the United States, here the Knights of Labor were successful in creating a strong welfare state and a system of state-led socialism, which prevailed until the 1980s, when New Zealand became an LME in a late-breaking, left-led liberalization. New Zealand’s co-operatives then evolved to survive, by organizing to play a key role in managing the nation’s remoteness. They also serve a geopolitical role, rooting economic ownership and control domestically, reducing firms’ acquisition threat from larger neighbors. For comparative purposes, New Zealand is a critical case, one which shows that liberalism alone cannot explain why co-operatives have failed to achieve lasting prominence in the United States.
Conclusions of a Chrononaut
Authors: Spicer Jason S.
Published: August 2024

Chapter 8 offers academic and practical conclusions. For social scientists, it identifies three ways field theory can address historical institutionalism’s limits, and shows how a field theory treatment of co-operatives’ development suggests firm-type mix is a key underconsidered explanation for international variation in economic structure. The co-operative case also demonstrates how geography and race can more generally be incorporated in institutional and field-level analysis of the economy. For practitioners, the chapter affirms that development paths can be substantively influenced by their actions. They may need to frame, message, and organize around co-operative policy change in a way which directly speaks to the underlying structural problems that yielded their challenges to begin with. In the United States, that may mean explicit messaging around the historically dividing role race and racism have played within the co-operative movement, and incorporating these considerations into economic organizing, coalition-building, and policy reform.
Don’t Be a Troll
Authors: Sánchez Carlos Alberto
Published: August 2024

In this chapter I consider Samuel Ramos’ proposal that Mexican culture suffers from a collective inferiority complex. I think with Ramos about what it means to feel inferior and how this inferiority is manifested in everyday life. I frame the discussion around the phenomenon of “trolling,” popular in online spaces, tying such behavior to the complex analyzed by Ramos. According to Ramos, the inferiority complex so prevalent in Mexicans—inferiority with respect to those from other cultures but also to many from their own—was directly tied to colonialism and imperialism. We argue that inferiority can be countered only with a raising of consciousness and an attempt to overcome it with self-expression and self-affirmation.
Human or Alien
Authors: Bainbridge Danielle
Published: August 2024

This chapter considers the story of young Black albino brothers Willie and George Muse, born to sharecroppers outside of Roanoke, Virginia, in the late nineteenth century, and taken by white men purporting to be from the circus who profited by exhibiting them for decades as side show and freak show performers. The chapter focuses on their exhibition as “Ambassadors from Mars” and their marketing as “alien” subjects as an attempt by the proprietors of their shows to divorce them from the category of the human. The chapter questions how and why the appearance of Black albinism continues to translate into alien or otherworldly characteristics, even in twenty-first century depictions. The chapter contrasts this story to the 2014 short film The Afronauts by the Ghanaian filmmaker Nuotama Bodomo.
Alexandrine
Authors: Bogdan Robert
Published: August 2024

Through a diverse series of photographs, this chapter looks at the life of Princess Alexandrine Irene of Prussia (1915–1980), called “Adini,” who had Down syndrome. The chapter contrasts the life of this princess to the historical prejudice and isolation a person with a developmental disability might experience even though, and perhaps even because, they were born into a family of great wealth and status. The surprising case of this princess brings to light a forgotten history that allows the author to consider other representations of individuals with developmental disabilities.
Free Will in the Flesh
Authors: Baumeister Roy F.
Published: August 2024

To understand free will it helps to imagine it in action, as in these three kinds of human agent: the moral agent, the economic agent, and the information agent. The moral agent guides action based on the accepted moral values of the society, so as to sustain a favorable reputation. The economic agent acts in a marketplace where trades and exchanges are negotiated for mutual advantage. The information agent communicates with others, building a shared reality of common beliefs and values, as well as integrating new information into existing knowledge. These centrally important examples illustrate the importance of free will for human functioning in a cultural society.
Do Conscious Thoughts Cause Behavior?
Authors: Baumeister Roy F.
Published: August 2024

Long and bitter debates have addressed the seemingly simple question of whether a person’s conscious thoughts cause the person’s actions. The proper scientific test would involve randomly manipulating people to have a particular conscious thought or feeling and then to measure behavior change. There is an enormous amount of evidence of precisely those effects. As examples, thinking about doing something makes people more likely to do it; mental practice improves sport and other performance; making conscious plans guides behavior; reinterpreting past events can change future acts; consciously thinking about other people’s perspectives is useful for helping and negotiation; and conscious decisions can override automatic impulses from the unconscious mind. In a word, yes, conscious thoughts cause behavior.
Interlude
Authors: Pharao Hansen Magnus
Published: August 2024

This chapter is a description of practices of transcription and orthography used in the book. It also serves as an introduction to the ideological and regional variation of Nahuatl, and the compleications of any idea of a standardized Nahuatl. Its significance is that it shows why it is necessary to use whichever orthography is preferred by a local community of Nahuatl speakers—and hence why the book adopts a practice of orthographic relativity instead of a single consistent orthography.
Nahuatl across Borders
Authors: Pharao Hansen Magnus
Published: August 2024

This chapter moves the focus from the national to the transnational context, to look at the uses of Nahuatl among members of the Mexican diaspora communities in the United States. The United States is home to many Indigenous Mexicans, who often continue to speak their Indigenous languages. It is also home to a large number of Chicano activists, who identify as Indigenous Mexica people and study the Nahuatl language as part of their reclamation of an Indigenous heritage, and the construction of an Indigenous identity. Being Indigenous and speaking Indigenous languages take on very different meanings in a context where Mexican identity is usually coded as invasive, and where indigeneity is often understood as a racial rather than a cultural category. The chapter analyzes the possibilities of political alliances between Mexican Nahuatl speakers and US Mexica activists, as they work to create lives that unite both sides of the border.
“Mommy, when I die . . .”
Authors: Klitzman Robert L.
Published: August 2024

Spiritual care for children raises different considerations than for adults. Every death triggers existential questions, but a child’s demise adds stresses and complexities. Families may not want to confront the prospect of a child’s death, and instead push to continue aggressive treatments, even when futile. Many parents hesitate to talk to children about dying. Older youngsters with terminal disease may, however, wish to discuss the reality, generating conflict. Children also understand religious concepts much differently than do adults and struggle to make sense of the ultimate mysteries of human existence, often in surprising and unanticipated ways. Parents may talk inappropriately about sensitive personal issues when a hospitalized child can overhear. Chaplains can help parents who feel guilty or distraught about a child’s impending death, and can aid children as well.
Extending the Argument to Other Autocracies
Authors: Wang Frances Yaping
Published: August 2024

Chapter 7 explores the idea that the media campaigns analyzed are not exclusive to the Chinese context. By drawing comparisons between China’s propaganda tactics and those employed by other authoritarian regimes, the chapter expands its comparative analysis, particularly focusing on similarities and differences with Vietnam’s approach. Central to this discussion is a detailed case study: Vietnam’s media strategy during the 2014 oil rig crisis. This case study serves to illustrate the overarching argument, demonstrating how Vietnam’s media behavior offers valuable insights into the operation and impact of media within authoritarian settings, thereby expanding the scope of the argument to other comparable authoritarian states.
The Second Flood
Authors: Conca Ken
Published: August 2024

This chapter describes the flash-flooding disaster striking Ellicott City, a historic mill town in central Maryland, in May 2018. The flood episode was eerily similar to one striking just 22 months earlier and left the little town reeling. Where the previous flood had triggered an ambitious flood-resilience planning effort, this one yielded more extreme proposals that divided the community. Among these proposals (discussed in subsequent chapters) was a plan to demolish a substantial portion of the historic district to open the floodplain and “make room for the river;” a controversial proposal, of uncertain feasibility, to drill one or more costly tunnels through the granite to the river, bypassing the town entirely; and a grassroots campaign to reverse decades of housing development and land conversion in the hills above town.
The Weakening of the Mexican Party System
Authors: Ponce Aldo F.
Published: August 2024

Until recently, the Mexican party system was one of the most stable and institutionalized in Latin America. Mexican parties were disciplined and relatively strong organizations. These conditions have changed since the presidential elections in 2018. The electoral outcomes in this election depict the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) as unambiguously dominant. The dominance of one party is not new to Mexican politics: the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) held this position for seven decades until the 2000 national election. This chapter analyses the factors that explain MORENA’s swift ascendancy to dominance and discusses its potential duration. I propose that a combination of factors help understand the rise of MORENA: 1) poor governance outcomes (low economic growth, insecurity, corruption); 2) the popularity, populist appeals, and electoral strategies of current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador; 3) parties’ self-defeating decision making and internal conflicts; and 4) MORENA’s increasing local party presence and its strategic alliances with unions and other civil society organizations. On these grounds, I argue that MORENA’s dominance in the future will depend on the extent to which it continues strengthening its connections with society, and on the future success of the populist appeals of its leader, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).
Japan
Authors: Uekami Takayoshi , Yamaguchi Junpei
Published: August 2024

In this chapter, we provide a diagnosis for the difficulties facing Japanese party politics. As Japan has yet to experience the refugee crisis that has hit Europe and elsewhere in the world, the upswing of a populist radical right has not happened. However, Japan confronts multiple problems of its own, i.e. an ever-stagnant economy, a rapidly ageing society, and an increasingly severe international environment. To cope with these challenges, Japan decided to change its way of conducting politics by introducing the mixed-member majoritarian (MMM) electoral system to the lower house in 1994. By merging the opposition forces, it has been striving to transform its party system from a Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)-dominant one to a more effective two-party system. This reform precipitated the concentration of political power in the hands of the LDP leadership, but the consolidation of non-LDP parties has failed again and again: their organizations are small, shallow, and divided, and hence unable to solve the coordination problem. In this sense, Japanese democracy suffers from a democratic deficit stemming from the monopolization of political power by the LDP, which has held a majority of seats without gaining a majority of votes in elections.
Can It Happen?
Authors: Kenworthy Lane
Published: August 2024

This is how social policy in the United States has evolved over the past century. It has expanded in fits and starts, bursts and lulls. Movement has been largely forward; backsliding has been rare. Simple extrapolation suggests that this is what we should expect for the future. Further advance won’t necessarily happen soon, and progress almost certainly won’t be steady or regular.
The Cloak of Power
Authors: Wienand Johannes
Published: August 2024

To Prussian king Frederick the Great, a crown was merely a hat that let the rain in. Alas, it is not that simple! Pomp and circumstance are essential to monarchic rule, and a crown is far more than a hat, even still more than just a symbol of political power: a crown is a medium in the communicative processes between the ruler and the ruled—a medium (among others) through which sovereignty itself is carved out in the first place.
Emperors and Generals in the Fourth Century
Authors: Lee Doug
Published: August 2024

Roman emperors had always been conscious of the political power of the military establishment. In his well-known assessment of the secrets of Augustus’ success, Tacitus observed that he had “won over the soldiers with gifts,” while Septimius Severus is famously reported to have advised his sons to “be harmonious, enrich the soldiers, and despise the rest.” Since both men had gained power after fiercely contested periods of civil war, it is hardly surprising that they were mindful of the importance of conciliating this particular constituency. Emperors’ awareness of this can only have been intensified by the prolonged and repeated incidence of civil war during the mid third century, as well as by emperors themselves increasingly coming from military backgrounds during this period. At the same time, the sheer frequency with which armies were able to make and unmake emperors in the mid third century must have served to reinforce soldiers’ sense of their potential to influence the empire’s affairs and extract concessions from emperors.
Gaul and the Roman Emperors of the Fourth Century
Authors: Szidat Joachim
Published: August 2024

Genuine separatist movements were unknown to the Roman empire. No one wanted to leave the empire; rather, individual parts or regions of the empire strove to ensure that their interests were taken into greater consideration and represented. This inevitably led to conflict with the central authority. Gaul ranks among the parts of the empire in which this effort was particularly pronounced and significant beyond its regional context. The phenomenon is palpable in Gaul from its incorporation into the empire, albeit in varying strength and form. There are various reasons for it that have to do with the internal structure of Gaul, its location on the edge of the Roman empire next to free Germany, the form of the monarchy, and policy of individual emperors.
Regional Dynasties and Imperial Court
Authors: Kulikowski Michael
Published: August 2024

Although it is normal, and indeed profoundly necessary, to break up the historical past into periods that can be studied in a more or less manageable way, many topics are illuminated by deliberately ignoring traditional historiographical boundaries, opening up a broader comparative analysis by considering them across a wider span of time. Roman imperial history is certainly one such example, not least because the habit of imposing a sharp divide between early and later empires at the accession of Diocletian is so deeply ingrained. One need only scan a few representative titles on a bookshelf to see how pervasive the division is. Yet even a moment’s casual reflection will reveal how many continuities between second and fourth centuries the traditional periodization tends to obscure. In the same way that there is a pressing need to examine the fifth-century West within its narrower context, in order to minimize the distorting effects of past historiography, so too should we examine the fourth-century empire in the perspective of the “longue durée.”
Constantine and the Tyche of Constantinople
Authors: Lenski Noel
Published: August 2024

The notion of monarchy is fraught with contradiction. No ruler rules alone, for the very basis of power is control over the many. Whether the monarch achieves this in the realm of fiscal policy, administrative apparatus, social legislation, military campaigns, or religious authority, his exercise of power is always constructed in dialogue with those over whom he rules. Constantine appears to have been particularly successful at ruling, for despite the radical changes he introduced—to imperial finance, the bureaucracy, civil law, the army, and the exercise of religion—he managed to commandeer consent and even cooperation from his subjects, soldiers, and administrators. This is not to deny that tensions arose and at times even boiled over into open violence, but by and large Constantine was remarkably skilled at keeping the struggle over contested monarchy firmly in his grasp. This was nowhere more evident than in the realm of religion, where his changes were the most sweeping and radical.
The Empire’s Golden Shade
Authors: Wienand Johannes
Published: August 2024

On the cover of this volume appears a ceremonial gold coin of the finest quality, produced in ad 346 by the Roman mint at Antioch (cf. Figure 20.1). Seen in context, this medallion neatly encapsulates the main themes of this volume: administration, imperial representation, and religion. A closer look at this specific coin reveals how a fourth-century emperor had to integrate these three fields to forge the image of a ruler equal to the specific challenges of the times. The following discussion of this medallion, its ceremonial context, and the political-military circumstances draws together in a concluding epilogue the central subjects of this book and retraces how in the fourth century not only such precious coins but also the emperors themselves served as icons of sovereignty in an age of transition.
The Renaissance Era
Authors: Shrock Dennis
Published: August 2024

Missa L’homme armé
The Concept of the Employer
Authors: Gaudio Giovanni , Adams-Prassl Jeremias
Published: August 2024

Compared to the extensive corpus of jurisprudence and academic literature on the definition of the employee, the concept of the employer has been comparatively neglected in both judicial and doctrinal discussions to date; leaving it inchoate and built on unquestioned or even unstated assumptions—in particular, the long-standing (albeit often unspoken) assumption that the employer is to be characterized as a singular entity. This narrow focus is increasingly problematic in modern labour markets due to the existence of a wide array of multi-entity work arrangements, from the vertical disintegration of the firm to the fissured workplace and the rise of gig work and the platform economy. This chapter explores these challenges and potential legal responses from a comparative perspective. After observing how civil law and common law jurisdictions have generally developed different approaches to tackle these issues, the chapter argues that convergence between the two models may offer mutual advantages.
Privacy at Work and the Right to Private Life Outside Work
Authors: Otto Marta
Published: August 2024

The digital transformation of the world of work represents a considerable challenge to the effective protection of workers’ privacy. New technologies and emerging working models are putting the legal frameworks under unprecedented strain and exposing conceptual and operational gaps in the ongoing regulatory responses. The aim of this chapter is to capture the essence of the relevant regulatory deficiencies in the European system of protection of the right to privacy, which is particularly rich when it comes to its formal guarantees and complex when it comes to institutional settings. In doing so the author attempts to invite a more comprehensive discussion on the future orientations for protecting this right in an era of rapid technological progress and societal change.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Codes of Conduct
Authors: Galani Tiemeni Thierry
Published: August 2024

The nature and future of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is intimately linked to that of labour law. CSR and codes of conducts, as self-regulatory instruments, are increasingly touted as primary solutions for important labour issues. The first section of this chapter analyses CSR as a theoretical construct: via a discussion of its role and definition; and an assessment of its fault lines and pertinence, or the lack thereof. The second section of this chapter highlights and discusses practical applications and implementations of CSR via an analysis of CSR instruments and initiatives, including corporate codes of conducts and an assessment of the relevance, effectiveness, and limitations of these instruments. The final part of this chapter ultimately discusses, and provides insights on, the potential for CSR to achieve decent work and social justice goals without undermining or compromising the regulatory role and responsibility of the state.
Jewish Legal Responses to COVID-19
Authors: Zuckier Shlomo
Published: August 2024

This chapter considers issues in Jewish law that arose in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in an intensive period of Halakhic innovation unparalleled since the mid-twentieth century. It analyzes the halakhic decisions made across a variety of communities with an eye to the significance of those responses on the broader understanding of halakhah in the contemporary world. It studies how decisors applied the halakhic concept of Pikkuah Nefesh (saving a life) in navigating the health risks associated with the highly infectious disease and the related social distancing guidelines. Halakhic authorities carefully debated the scope of this principle and its application to decisions regarding halakhic practices such as communal prayer in a minyan quorum and the use of Mikveh ritual baths for women. The chapter also explores halakhic approaches to the use of video technology for forming a quorum and other rituals requiring halakhic presence, several approaches relating to vaccination, and a number of other halakhic debates that took place over the pandemic. Finally, it considers shifting models of halakhic authority during the pandemic, and the relationship between halakhic decisors and government officials and regulators, focusing primarily on the United States and Israel.
Geoeconomics and US Economic Statecraft
Authors: Lee James
Published: August 2024

This chapter examines geoeconomics and US economic statecraft, focusing on the connection between threat perception and state intervention. Despite the conventional notion of the United States as the leading proponent of the “Washington Consensus,” evidence from the Cold War and the present day shows that the United States has intervened in the economy to address perceived national security threats from other great powers. The chapter provides evidence for this claim by examining the issue areas of industrial policy, foreign assistance, trade, and foreign direct investment. It also addresses the ongoing debate about the onset of a “New Cold War” by examining the practice of US economic statecraft during the (first) Cold War and its lessons for contemporary US strategy.
Self-Cognition
Authors: Dunning David
Published: August 2024

This chapter focuses on cognition of the self, describing four primary observations. First, although people believe they perceive the self directly, many of their conclusions are based indirectly on inference. Consequently, many of their self-beliefs are malleable and diverge from objective reality. Second, people respond to many variants of self, including of their current self but also their future and possible selves. Third, self-cognition differs from social cognition in fundamental ways. People have information about the self, such as internal reactions to events, that differs fundamentally from information available about other people. They are also motivated to maintain a positive self-image. That said, and fourth, social cognition is entangled with self-cognition. People base their judgments of others on self-beliefs. They also distort judgments about other people to maintain positive self-image. The chapter ends with examples of questions about self-cognition for future scholarship to address.
The Ordinary and Extraordinary Struggle of Social Life
Authors: Schroeder Juliana
Published: August 2024

The world is filled with minds other than our own. Although we are equipped with the social acuity to engage with these minds, we also make systematic errors in doing so. This chapter highlights challenges and opportunities for mind perception (how people attribute mental capacity to others) and mind reading (how people assess others’ mental states) through the lens of six different types of “minds.” Three minds illustrate forms of mind perception—invisible minds (those we cannot directly experience), dehumanized minds (those that seem weaker than our own), and anthropomorphized minds (those that we perceive but may not actually exist). The other three illustrate mind reading—misread and misunderstood minds (those that are apparent but not accurately inferred), and unlocked minds (those that can be accurately read using effective communication). Understanding the minds that surround us is critical, as it has the power to transform strangers into life-long relationships.
The Social Neuroscience of Social Cognition
Authors: Ito Tiffany A. , Kubota Jennifer T.
Published: August 2024

This chapter highlights theoretical insights about social cognition revealed with neuroscience measures. It discusses how social neuroscience methods are well suited to the study of social cognition because they provide insight into the elements of social cognition in real time via the central and peripheral nervous systems. Neuroscience methods specifically allow researchers to assess multiple simultaneously unfolding social cognitive processes without requiring subjects’ willingness or ability to report their thoughts and feelings. They also support inferences about individual information processing operations through measurement of different brain areas or physiological systems or to responses at different points in time, congruent with the focus within social cognition on separate components of social behavior. The chapter illustrates these points with a focus on social neuroscience research on the self, social perception, social evaluation, and behavior regulation. It also briefly reviews common social neuroscience methods and notes key unaddressed questions and promising future directions.
Integration of biological and information technologies to enhance plant autoluminescence
Authors: Ge Jieyu , Lang Xuye , Ji Jiayi , Qu Chengyi , Qiao He , Zhong Jingling , Luo Daren , Hu Jin , Chen Hongyu , Wang Shun , Wang Tiange , Li Shiquan , Li Wei , Zheng Peng , Xu Jiming , Du Hao
Published: August 2024

Autoluminescent plants have been genetically modified to express the fungal bioluminescence pathway (FBP). However, a bottleneck in precursor production has limited the brightness of these luminescent plants. Here, we demonstrate the effectiveness of utilizing a computational model to guide a multiplex five-gene-silencing strategy by an artificial microRNA array to enhance caffeic acid (CA) and hispidin levels in plants. By combining loss-of-function-directed metabolic flux with a tyrosine-derived CA pathway, we achieved substantially enhanced bioluminescence levels. We successfully generated eFBP2 plants that emit considerably brighter bioluminescence for naked-eye reading by integrating all validated DNA modules. Our analysis revealed that the luminous energy conversion efficiency of the eFBP2 plants is currently very low, suggesting that luminescence intensity can be improved in future iterations. These findings highlight the potential to enhance plant luminescence through the integration of biological and information technologies.
Abstract 2: Reduction of Laboratory Supply Costs and Streamlining of Ordering Process
Authors: Vincent Kim , Shields Sara , Finney Marcie , Hof Wouter Van't , Thut Dawn
Published: August 2024

Introduction

The Cleveland Cord Blood Center (CCBC), a public, standalone, not-for-profit FDA-licensed cord blood bank, purchases laboratory supplies from multiple vendors for use in the manufacturing process of licensed cord blood units. The cost of common laboratory supplies, such as plastic tubes, disposables, cleaners, and testing reagents, continues to rise at a steady rate.

Objectives

To reduce overall laboratory costs and streamline the purchasing process on frequently used laboratory supplies while remaining compliant with licensure requirements.

Methods

Data was gathered on frequently purchased laboratory supplies by using the current vendor’s pricing and determining the cost for a one-year supply of inventory. Vendors with current standing orders were contacted to determine if there are additional discounts available for extending standing orders or increasing the volume. Similar supplies offered by the same vendor or by alternative suppliers were researched to determine if there are less expensive supply options available. Contracting with a national service provider for purchase of supplies at a wholesale discount was evaluated.

Results

Several less expensive and similar supply options available from the same vendor for frequently ordered supplies were identified, as well as one alternative vendor with similar supplies available at discounted pricing. No additional discounts were offered by vendors with current standing orders. CCBC signed a supplier agreement with a national contracting service to purchase laboratory supplies at wholesale pricing. As such, the majority of CCBC’s frequently ordered supplies will be purchased at a significant cost reduction, with savings of approximately 13% from the annual supply budget. Additionally, CCBC will be able to consolidate ordering supplies through one main vendor, streamlining the ordering process and providing better preventative measures from backorders and shortages.

Discussion

Many cord blood banks can receive discounts on supplies through connections with a larger hospital or university system through bulk ordering. CCBC is unique in that it is a standalone public cord blood bank that is not connected to a larger hospital or university. By joining a national contracting agency, CCBC now has access to larger discounts on supplies through group purchasing discounts. After the annual membership fee, we are anticipating roughly 13% in savings compared to budget.
Abstract 12: Cord Blood Banking, Technical and Clinical grade GMP- Development of Advanced Therapy Products as HLA-Homozygous iPSC-derived Cardiomyocytes
Authors: Becker Fabienne , Bhave Rigveda , Martins Soraia , Hühne Melanie , Greber Boris , Kogler Gesine
Published: August 2024

Introduction

The Cord Blood Bank (CBB) in Düsseldorf stores 21477 active cryopreserved cord blood units (CBUs) licensed by the Paul-Ehrlich Institute, with 1517 transplants delivered worldwide. We have previously documented a stable storage time of 29 years in liquid nitrogen (Liedtke et al. 2024). Since establishing confirmatory typing and high-resolution HLA sequencing for CBUs and segments in 2016, the CBB progressed into advanced cellular therapies with high-qualified source material and applicable grants (BMBF-161B0760B and HEAL-101056712). Production permission for isolation and short-term expansion of CD34+ cells from licensed CBUs was granted, allowing the GMP reprogramming of 17 HLA-homozygous lines in collaboration with CATALENT (Terheyden-Keighley et al. 2024, accepted in SCTM).

Objectives

As part of the HEAL project, CD34+ HSC-derived iPSCs were differentiated into cardiomyocytes (CM) using suspension cultures to produce CM-aggregates instead of single cells, as studies in non-human primates indicate better engraftment of aggregates than single cells (Gruh et al. 2024). An optimized cryopreservation process for CM-aggregates is under development applying techniques available to CBU banking.

Methods

iPSCs were differentiated into CM-aggregates via an improved WNT pathway modulation protocol in suspension culture. In addition to the WNT inhibitor CHIR99021, BMP, Activin A and FGF-2 were added to target accessory pathways and achieve robust scalability across different platforms. Following differentiation, the CM-aggregates were cryopreserved in 10% DMSO with HSA or KO-SR supplementation using a controlled-rate freezer adapted to tissue freezing to ensure uniform freezing processes.

Results

The improved protocol allowed for straightforward upscaling of CM-aggregate differentiation from 6-well plates to Erlenmeyer flasks of different volumes, leading to a 1-2 fold yield of CM-aggregates with a purity of up to 95 % cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and sarcomeric actinin (sAct). Post-cryopreservation recovery of aggregates was between 60-90% with a viability of ~90%. Although CM culture after thawing remains problematic (<60% CM recovery after 5 days), the aggregates restored their morphology and function.

Discussion

The CBU banking, processing and storage should meet quality and release criteria, including genetic testing, allowing both allogeneic and related CBU selection to provide the best possible starting material. These advanced therapy products can be utilized e.g. for cardiomyocyte production for potential clinical applications.

Overview of a GMP-process development for advanced therapy products from selected HLA-homozygous Cord Blood Units
Abstract 17: IL10R Deficiency and Hemopoietic Cell Transplantation (HCT): Outcome of 2 Patients Treated in a Single Center with CBU HCT
Authors: Rossi Stefano , Baresi Giulia , Soncini Elena , Tessarin Giulio , Pintabona Vincenzo , Carracchia Giulia , Maffeis Marianna , Fuoti Maurizio , Albrici Giulia , Beghin Alessandra , Comini Marta , Bolda Federica , Lanfranchi Arnalda , Porta Fulvio
Published: August 2024

Introduction

IL10R deficiency is a congenital cause of very-early onset inflammatory bowel disease (VEO-IBD). Therapeutic strategie immunosuppressive agents, surgery and hemopoietic cell transplantation (HCT).

Objectives

We report on two patients (one male and one female) affected with IL10R deficiency successfully treated with HCT.

Methods

We report on two patients (one male and one female) affected with IL10R deficiency successfully treated with HCT.

Results

The first patient is a Moroccan male that presented with failure to thrive and diarrhea few weeks after birth. Histologic assessment showed signs of diffuse ulcerative colitis and CD8+ lymphocytes infiltration. Genetic studies revealed a homozygous variant c.[T569C];[T569C] in the IL10RA gene, classified as pathogenetic by functional studies. The patient was first managed with immunosuppressive agents with partial response. Therefore, at the age of 2 years he was transplanted with an Unrelated Cord Blood Unit (CBU) after myeloablative conditioning with Busulfan and Fludarabine and Graft-versus host (GVHD) prophylaxis with Anti-Thymocyte globulin (ATG), Cylcosporine (CSA) and Mofetil Mycophenolate (MMF). The patient is now completely asymptomatic with no sign of GVHD at 42 months after HCT and presents a full donor chimerism and complete immune reconstitution. The second patient is an Italian female that presented at few months of age with failure to thrive, recurrent infections and severe enterocolitis. Histologic studies showed features of severe ulcerative colitis associated with immunodeficiency. Genetic studies revealed a compound heterozygosity in IL10RA c.[C1080A];[G1082A]. Because of failure of other pharmacological therapies, the patient was successfully transplanted with an Unrelated CBU at two years of age after myeloablative conditioning with Treosulfan, Fludarabine and Thiotepa and GVHD prophylaxis with ATG, CSA and MMF. She is currently at 5 years post-HCT, completely asymptomatic without signs of GVHD. She shows a full donor chimerism and complete immune reconstitution.

Discussion

VEO-IBD may present an extremely severe clinical course with high risk of morbidity and complications. HCT can offer a possibility of cure for these patients with CBU being a reliable source for stem cells, given its unique properties. Moreover patients with VEO-IBD usually receive HCT very early and with low weight, thus increasing the feasibility and possibility of success of this procedure.