bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Real Drug Abusers
Authors: Leavitt Fred
Published: February 2025

While well over one million small-time drug users languish in overcrowded prisons because of nonviolent drug offenses, tens of thousands of others get rich from legal and illegal drugs. Drug company representatives persuade doctors to prescribe inferior products. Children as young as two are routinely given powerful drugs. Legal drugs, taken exactly as prescribed, are a leading cause of illness and death. Scientists beholden to drug companies fabricate and misrepresent data. This eye-opening book richly documents disturbing trends in Western medicine and urges readers toward a broader understanding of drug use and abuse. Leavitt shows how and why American society must change its medical and policy approaches to drugs and re-orient medical practice to new ways of thinking.
Reality TV
Authors: Andrejevic Mark
Published: February 2025

Drawing on cultural theory and interviews with fans, cast members and producers, this book places the reality TV trend within a broader social context, tracing its relationship to the development of a digitally enhanced, surveillance-based interactive economy and to a savvy mistrust of mediated reality in general. Surveying several successful reality TV formats, the book links the rehabilitation of 'Big Brother' to the increasingly important economic role played by the work of being watched. The author enlists critical social theory to examine how the appeal of 'the real' is deployed as a pervasive but false promise of democratization.
Understanding New Religious Movements
Authors: Saliba John A
Published: February 2025

Discussions of any religion can easily raise passions. But arguments tend to become even more heated when the religion under discussion is characterized as new. Divisions around the study of new religious movements (NRMs), or cults, or nontraditional or alternative or emergent religions are so acute that there is even controversy over what to call them. John Saliba strives to bring balance to these discussions by offering perspectives on new religions from different academic perspectives: history, psychology, sociology, law, theology, and counseling. This approach provides rich descriptions of a broad range of movements while demonstrating how the differing aims of the disciplines can create much of the controversy around NRMs. The new second edition has been updated and revised throughout and includes a new foreword by noted historian of religion, J. Gordon Melton. For classes in religion or the social sciences, or for interested individuals, Understanding New Religious Movements offers the most objective introduction possible.
Coming Even Cleaner about Organizational Change
Authors: Patterson Jerry L.
Published: February 2025

An expanded, updated version of 1997's Coming Clean About Organizational Change, this version contains 50 percent new references and 40 percent new content including chapters on organizational culture, resilience, new conceptual frameworks on organizational change, and zones of individual performance. Readers will learn how to work within the reality of an imposed change and be true to the values of the change initiatives held as an educational leader. Topics include: New Ways to Think About Organizational Change, Leadership, and Resilience, A Leader's Guide to Understanding Organizational Culture, Harsh Realities About People, Harsh Realities About Organizations, Strengthening Resilience in Others, Increasing Your Own Resilience
Justifying the Obligation to Die
Authors: Baron Ilan Zvi
Published: February 2025

One of the state's key features is its ability to oblige its citizens to risk their lives on its behalf by being sent into war. However, what is it about the state (or its equivalent) that makes this obligation justifiable? Justifying the Obligation to Die is the first monograph to explore systematically how this obligation has been justified. Using key texts from political philosophy and just war theory, it provides a critical survey of how this obligation has been justified and, using illustrations from Zionist thought and practice, demonstrates how the various arguments for the obligation have functioned. The obligation to risk one's life for the state is often presumed by theorists and practitioners who take the state for granted, but for the Zionists, a people without a state but in search of one and who have little history of state-based political thought, it became necessary to explain this obligation. As such, this book examines Zionism as a Jewish political theory, reading it alongside the tradition of Western political thought, and critiques how Zionist thought and practice sought to justify this obligation to risk one's life in war_what Michael Walzer termed 'the obligation to die.' Finally, turning to the political thought of Hannah Arendt, the author suggests how the obligation could become justifiable, although never entirely justified. For the obligation to become at all justifiable, the type of politics that the state enables must respect human diversity and individuality and restrict violence so that violence is not a continuation of politics.
State Power, Autarchy, and Political Conquest in Nigerian Federalism
Authors: Kalu Kalu N.
Published: February 2025

This book shows how specific historical events and societal forces within Nigeria transcend the choices its political leaders have made to influence the course of the state's political development. Kalu N. Kalu describes a variety of factors that have contributed to the challenges facing state-building and political institutions in Nigeria. Chief among them are the nature of interest aggregation, the dynamics of conflict, and the patterns of state intervention in matters dealing with secularism, distributive politics, economy, security, and autonomy. Kalu succeeds in constructing a more organic concept of political development in Nigeria by creating a model based on rentier politics that captures the critical relationship between state power and economy. By doing so, he goes beyond current scholarship about Nigeria and demonstrates the need for a restructuring of its institutions, offering insight into an enduring narrative that continues to shape Nigerian politics.
Migrant Revolutions
Authors: Kaussen Valerie
Published: February 2025

Migrant Revolutions: Haitian Literature, Globalization, and U.S. Imperialism interprets Haitian literature in a transnational context of anti-colonial_and anti-globalization_politics. Positing a materialist and historicized account of Haitian literary modernity, it traces the themes of slavery, labor migration, diaspora, and revolution in works by Jacques Roumain, Marie Chauvet, Edwidge Danticat, and others. Author Valerie Kaussen argues that the sociocultural effects of U.S. imperialism have renewed and expanded the relevance of the universal political ideals that informed Haiti's eighteenth-century slave revolt and war of decolonization. Finally, Migrant Revolutions defines Haitian literary modernity as located at the forefront of the struggles against transnational empire and global colonialism.
The Shifting Grounds of Conflict and Peacebuilding
Authors: McDonald John
Published: February 2025

This book brings together the remembrances of Ambassador John W. McDonald, a veteran diplomat whose life serves as a model to those people of vision and action who wish to make a difference in a world that is desperate for the end of conflict. Beginning his career in international diplomacy in post-WWII Berlin and under the Marshall Plan, Ambassador McDonald's 40 years of working with the U.S. government and the United Nations_as well as with various academic institutions and NGOs_offer the reader both inspiration and hope for the future of international peace and cooperation. This international civil servant of extraordinary vision and courage has devoted his life to the successful resolution of conflict through communication. The Shifting Grounds of Conflict and Peacemaking contains the professional life lessons of Ambassador McDonald and offers his insight into international issues, providing frank and informed discussion on the environment, women's rights, the global water crisis, sustainable resources, international development, and, above all, peace. Those looking to be inspired into action should read this book to receive guidance about how one person can make all the difference toward building a lasting peace.
Mosh the Polls
Authors: Cogan Brian
Published: February 2025

This timely, highly readable edited collection undertakes an interdisciplinary analysis of the innovative ways in which both the political process and the entertainment industry appeal to voters under the age of 30 and how the intended audience receives these endeavors. Along the way, contributors shed light on the state of the modern American political system and its relationship to entertainment and popular culture. By integrating academic investigations with a 'real-world' point of view, the essays in this collection present information in an engaging, accessible manner that will show readers how the articulation of youth culture has influenced the political engagement of young voters.
Du Bois's Dialectics
Authors: Rabaka Reiland
Published: February 2025

Du Bois's Dialectics is doubly distinguished from other books on Du Bois because it is the first extended exploration of Du Bois's contributions to new critical theory and the first book-length treatment of his contributions to contemporary black radical politics and the developing discipline of Africana Studies. With chapters that undertake ideological critiques of education, religion, the politics of reparations, and the problematics of black radical politics in contemporary culture and society, Du Bois's Dialectics employs Du Bois as its critical theoretical point of departure and demonstrates his (and Africana Studies') contributions to, as well as contemporary critical theory's connections to, critical pedagogy, sociology of religion, and reparations theory. Rabaka offers the first critical theoretical treatment of the W. E. B. Du Bois_Booker T. Washington debate, which lucidly highlights Du Bois's transition from a bourgeois black liberal to a black radical and revolutionary democratic socialist. This book is primarily directed at scholars, advanced undergraduate and graduate students working in and associated with Africana Studies, American Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Cultural Studies.
Our Wealth Is Loving Each Other
Authors: Brison Karen J.
Published: February 2025

Our Wealth Is Loving Each Other explores the fluid and context-bound nature of cultural and personal identity among indigenous Fijians. While national identity in Fiji is often defined in opposition to the West through reference to a romanticized pre-modern tradition, individual Fijians are often more concerned with defining their identity vis-à-vis other villagers and other groups within Fiji. When people craft self accounts to justify their position within the indigenous Fijian community they question and redefine both tradition and modernity. Modernity on the margins is an experience of anxiety provoking contradictions between competing ideologies, and between international ideologies and local experiences. Indigenous Fijians have been exposed to international ideologies and government programs extolling the virtues of "pre-modern" communities that place communal good and time honored tradition over individual gain. But other waves of policy and rhetoric have stressed individual achievement and the need to "shake" individuals out of community bonds to foster economic development. Individuals feel contradictory pressures to be autonomous, achieving individuals and to subordinate self to community and tradition. Brison examines traditional kava ceremonies, evangelical church rhetoric, and individual life history narratives, to show how individuals draw on a repertoire of narratives from local and international culture to define their identity and sense of self. Our Wealth is Loving Each Other is appropriate for upper level students and anyone with an interest in Fiji or anthropology.
Unexceptional
Authors: O'Reilly Marc J.
Published: February 2025

Unexceptional: America's Empire in the Persian Gulf, 1941-2007 examines U.S. policy vis-^-vis the Persian Gulf since the Second World War. It asserts that the American experience in this strategic yet volatile region known for its plentiful oil and gas can be best understood as an unexceptional imperial endeavor similar in kind to that of the British, Ottoman, and other empires in previous centuries. Since 1941, the U.S. empire in the Gulf has achieved successes such as Operation Desert Storm and the invasion of Iraq. Setbacks have included the Iranian Revolution and the ongoing occupation of Iraq. Given these and many other events, which this book spotlights, America's Gulf empire has undergone repeated expansion and contraction_a typical imperial pattern. The result has been a cycle of waxing and waning U.S. influence in a critical region of the world. Until its occupation of Iraq, the United States practiced informal empire in the Gulf rather than colonialism. Currently, however, the formal empire established by the United States in Iraq jeopardizes the overall American position in the Gulf, which seemed unassailable in early 2003.
Is That Your Child?
Authors: Kilson Marion , Ladd Florence
Published: February 2025

Is That Your Child?' is a question that countless mothers of biracial children encounter whether they are African American or European American, rearing children today or a generation ago, living in the city or in the suburbs, are upper middle class or lower middle class. Social scientists Marion Kilson and Florence Ladd probe mothers' responses to this query and other challenges that mothers of biracial children encounter. Organized into four chapters, the book begins with Kilson and Ladd's initial interview of one another, continues with an overview of the challenges and rewards of raising biracial children gleaned from their interviews with other mothers, presents profiles of mothers highlighting distinctive individual experiences of biracial parenting, and concludes with suggestions of positive biracial parenting strategies. This book makes a unique contribution to the growing body of literature by and about biracial Americans. Although in the past twenty years biracial Americans like Rebecca Walker, June Cross, and James McBride have written of their person experiences and scholars like Kathleen Korgen, Maria Root, and Ruth Frankenberg have explored aspects of the biracial experience, none has focused on the experiences of a heterogeneous set of black and white mothers of different generations and socioeconomic circumstances as Kilson and Ladd do.
China's Peaceful Rise in a Global Context
Authors: Zhou Jinghao
Published: February 2025

China's rise has become inevitable, but there is no agreement about whether China will rise peacefully or pose a threat to the United States. The author asserts that both theories of 'China threat' and 'peaceful rise' failed to address China's central domestic problem. Thus, both theories are not convincing. This book attempts to develop a third view of China's rise from a domestic perspective and contends that China's potential threat to the existing global order is not derived from her rapid economic growth and military expansion, but from her potential domestic chaos. A strong democratic China will contribute to the global peace, but the collapse of China will gravely threaten Western societies. The current Chinese political system directly contributes to this social instability and could possibly cause China's social crash. China's democratization is the key to ensure China's peaceful rise in a global context. However, the Party is still in power and any attempt to dissolve the one-party system in presentday China has poor prospects. China must take a two-step, gradual reform approach to complete the transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one. In the two-step theory, the first phase for promoting China's democratization includes exercising freedom of media, increasing the consciousness of citizen participation, and enacting religious rights. Through all these democratic exercises, China will gradually be able to achieve a fully democratic society. This two-step theory is crucial for the United States if it is to enact effective foreign policy toward China and for China to develop a democratic harmonious society.
Small Towns and Big Business
Authors: Halebsky Stephen
Published: February 2025

During the 1990s, a new type of controversy began occurring across the United States: controversies over the siting of superstores, also known as big box stores. In these disputes, which often involve Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, local citizens mount organized opposition to the proposed siting of a superstore in their town or neighborhood. Opponents criticize Wal-Mart superstores for putting local independent merchants out of business, siphoning money from the local economy, providing substandard jobs, disrupting residential neighborhoods, contributing to the 'McDonaldization' of society, inducing sprawl, destroying downtowns and Main Streets, and undermining local uniqueness and small town charm. More generally, these David-and-Goliath controversies represent particularly stark examples of the conflict of interests between local communities and large corporations that have become common in contemporary society. Small Towns and Big Business uses fieldwork and archival sources to comprehensively examine these controversies and the underlying issues. While Wal-Mart is usually able to site its stores at its preferred locations, in some cases local opponents have been able to thwart its plans. Using detailed case studies of anti-superstore controversies in six small cities in five states, Halebsky employs a comparative-historical approach to construct an explanation of how some of these local social movements managed to prevail against Wal-Mart. This explanation is then extended to provide the basis for a model of the general conditions under which local communities may be able to constrain unwanted corporate action. Thus, this is both a study of social movement outcomes and an investigation of community-corporate conflict. Small Towns and Big Business provides insight into the potential of the local state to control large corporations, the inherently problematic nature of corporate retailing, the possibilities for resisting McDonaldization, and the fate of local anti-corporation activism.
Dangerous Democracies and Partying Prime Ministers
Authors: Atkinson Chad
Published: February 2025

This book examines why elected leaders pursue foreign policies that are remarkably distant from their proposed policies. To investigate this pattern this book develops a model of how the foreign policy preferences of the executive and the government in the legislature interact over the electoral cycle to affect democratic leaders' foreign policy choices. The executive is cross-pressured when the foreign policy that the legislature wants is not the same policy that the executive's constituents want. The executive must choose a policy that balances the conflicting demands of remaining in a productive government (pleasing the legislature) and obtaining votes in the next election (pleasing constituents). Getting votes is clearly more important when elections are near, so democratic leaders weigh these competing demands differently over the course of the electoral cycle. This is what can lead to trends in foreign policy: the executive first chooses policies that mollify the legislature and later reverts to the policies that please his or her constituents when elections draw near. The book pursues these ideas with a game theoretic model and a set of statistical assessment of multiple cases (Israel and the Palestinians, the US and the USSR, and others) to provide a rigorous and logical framework to the argument. The central findings are that democratic institutions and processes (i.e. the domestic context) have a predictable influence on foreign policy choices over time; some configurations of preferences, electoral systems, and election timing are not conducive to peace. Rather than the diversionary hypothesis that conflict is likely before an election, as a boost to executive popularity would be particularly valuable at that moment, a more nuanced finding is reported.
The Price of Politics
Authors: Scott Kyle
Published: February 2025

This book makes the unconventional claim that all of the rights in the U.S. Constitution are unified since they are derived from the same sources. Using the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial decision of Kelo v. City of New London to explore one of the most important constitutional questions of our time, this book reaches across disciplines and subfields to bring forth an innovative understanding of rights. The book derives its understanding of rights from historical sources and philosophical texts which then serve as the basis for the empirically backed claim that rights in U.S. have been sacrificed for partisan gain and that the unbiased protection of rights is the only manner in which a free and equitable government and economy can be sustained. Given the theoretical and practical implications of the property rights debate, understanding it is important for everyone in the U.S. and abroad.
Wealth, Whiteness, and the Matrix of Privilege
Authors: Sherwood Jessica Holden
Published: February 2025

Exclusive social clubs are traditionally an important site for the consolidation of upper-class power. Wealth, Whiteness, and the Matrix of Privilege shows that while the particulars of admission have changed, these clubs remain socially significant incubators. Having interviewed typically inaccessible members of exclusive clubs in the Northeast, Jessica Holden Sherwood reports and analyzes what they have to say about who is in, who is out, and why. The members talk frankly about their exclusiveness based on money and style, but they are quick to point out that ethnically-based exclusion is a thing of the past. Club members also address the status of their women members, which is at times distinctly second-class. The talk of country club members is shown to draw on elements in popular discourse. And even if it's not their intention, as club members exclude and account for their exclusion, they contribute to reproducing class, race, and gender inequalities.
Higher Education As a Field of Study in China
Authors: Wang Xin
Published: February 2025

Higher Education as a Field of Study in China: Defining Knowledge and Curriculum Structure concerns the complexity of higher education as an academic field_the evolving nature of the field in light of the overall development of higher education in China. It reviews how higher education as a field of study has evolved in China since 1978 and how the field has been shaped by political and social forces, as well as institutional culture. Xin Wang argues that higher education is becoming an interdisciplinary field rather than a subfield under the discipline of education, especially when higher education has become an enterprise with such a broad scope in China. Wang also expresses a belief that the field of higher education is being challenged by the professional need for preparing and training competent professionals for various administrative positions in China. Higher education as a field will be professionalized with its own knowledge base and a set of skills in applying this knowledge to practical areas. This book also provides an account of the U.S. model of higher education as an example_how the field was formed and developed, how it has evolved from a generalized area of inquiry into a professional specialization, how programs of higher education are structured, what classes they offer, and what challenges they face. The U.S. model presents a comparative perspective for Chinese scholars and program directors about higher education as a field of study.
The African-British Long Eighteenth Century
Authors: Caulker Tcho Mbaimba
Published: February 2025

Tracing the development of British colonial administration in West Africa over the course of the long eighteenth century, Caulker illuminates the solidification of the administration as it goes through a learning process of power. This book analyzes the documents and treaties that the indigenous peoples of eighteen-century Sierra Leone made with their future British colonizers, and compares them with the writings of Adam Smith to uncover a colonial philosophy linking European economic success with the process of civilizing Africa through moral education. A discussion of other archival materials demonstrates the ways that an emerging anthropological science and pseudo-scientific methodology contributed to colonial ventures and exploration. The book concludes with an analysis of the postcolonial novel The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar, demonstrating that the study of this long eighteenth-century archive has as much to do with the present postcolonial era as it does with the period of African colonization.
Speculative Philosophy
Authors: Verene Donald Phillip
Published: February 2025

In this original and illuminating work, the reader is invited to approach philosophy as an activity that can instruct, delight, and move. On this view, philosophy can be seen as a key to human education, a mastery of humane letters, and a part of the repulic of the liberal arts. Embracing this approach to philosophy, Verene argues, involves moving beyond modern philosophy's analytical encounter with experience, one that emphasizes argument and criticism at the expense of the Socratic search for self-knowledge. Relying on insights from Vico and Hegel, Verene introduces a new sense of reason, one that sees the True as the whole and that connects reason to the ancient sense of speculation. Reflection and criticism are given their due, but the reorientation of philosophy toward the speculative grasp of the whole of things allows memory, imagination, and dialectical ingenuity to take on philosophical form. In the end, this work show how speculation, symbolic form, metaphor, poetry, and rhetoric are natural parts of philosophical thinking.
Popular Culture and the Future of Politics
Authors: Gournelos Ted
Published: February 2025

Popular Culture and the Future of Politics: Cultural Studies and the Tao of South Park argues that progressives should conceive the connections between media, policy, and culture beyond the limits of 'politics' and 'news.' With sustained analyses of groundbreaking contemporary examples of what has become known as 'convergence culture,' Ted Gournelos brings together a wide range of media without sacrificing depth. His examples, such as South Park, The Simpsons, The Onion, The Daily Show, Chappelle's Show, and The Boondocks, are chosen for their political scope and social impact and demonstrate the ways in which what we know as 'politics' is rapidly changing. The book's forays into established fields like feminist, race, and queer theory are combined with perspectives drawn from political economy and rhetoric to demonstrate the power of irony, humor, and cultural dissonance in modern approaches to dissonant cultural politics.
Changing Bodies in the Fiction of Octavia Butler
Authors: Hampton Gregory Jerome
Published: February 2025

Changing Bodies in the Fiction of Octavia Butler: Slaves, Aliens, and Vampires is a timely text that critically situates Butler's fiction in several fields of study including American, African-American, gender, and science fiction studies. This book attempts to avoid excluding as many readers as possible by evading esoteric jargon while still engaging the interdisciplinary discourses that respond to Butler's fiction. The study asserts that Butler's fiction transforms the way the body is imagined with reference to race and gender. This text examines how Butler's fiction is able to cross several genre boundaries while simultaneously reshaping the genre of science fiction. This book makes the claim that Butler's fiction is crucial for contemporary and future investigations of identity formation. Discussions of race, class, and sex are reoccurring topic that are inextricable to any understanding of body politics and theory. This book is filled with exciting and insightful discussions that raise questions about what constitutes humanity in Butler's fiction and in the real world. Ultimately, the purpose of the text is to add to the scholarship surrounding Butler and to bring her to the attention of audiences that might otherwise overlook her work. This book is an invitation for readers inside and outside of the academy to discover the fiction of Octavia Butler.
The Gentrification and Inequality in Brooklyn
Authors: DeSena Judith
Published: February 2025

While most studies on gentrification focus almost exclusively on its causes and consequences through an examination of housing, class conflict, and the displacement of residents, this book analyzes the process of gentrification. Gentrification and Inequality in Brooklyn examines the ways in which the established working-class and lower-income residents of Greenpoint, Brooklyn remain socially segregated from the incoming gentrifiers, with both groups forming parallel cultures within the shared physical spaces of the community. Desena broadens the typical analyses of gentrification to include the grass roots dynamics which create social class relations that lead to residential segregation created by social class relations. Drawing upon areas traditionally under represented in urban sociology, including families, women, children, and local institutions other than housing, this study explores the ways in which working-class residents, in the course of their everyday lives, negotiate change in their neighborhood and dissimilarity with their new (gentry) neighbors. Gentrification and Inequality in Brooklyn touches on issues familiar to anyone who has lived in a multi-class or multi-ethnic community, while offering new perspectives on the ways that such communities develop and maintain the boundaries of social segregation.
Think Tanks and Foreign Policy
Authors: Wiarda Howard J.
Published: February 2025

Think tanks have become increasingly important in American politics foreign policy. In the last thirty years think tanks have emerged as major actors on the political stage, comparable in influence to large interest groups, political parties, and government agencies. In the same time span these think tanks have replaced universities as the main source for new policy ideas and the background research and arguments to justify them. This book discusses think tanks in general but focuses specifically on the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) in Philadelphia. Though a smallish 'tank,' FPRI has been enormously influential, feeding its ideas into government and policy debate even at the level of presidential politics. The author discusses FPRI within the context of the growing influence of presidential politics. The author discusses FPRI within the context of the growing influence of think tanks over public policy in general and foreign policy in particular.
The Social and Political Thought of Benedict XVI
Authors: Rourke Thomas R.
Published: February 2025

Covering the entire trajectory of his religious life, this meticulously researched book identifies the roots of political and social order in Pope Benedict XVI's philosophy and analyzes his views on the role of Christian faith in politics. Although not generally characterized as a political philosopher, the Benedict's writings shed significant and unique light on the world of politics today. In an age when modern politics has lost sight of its proper relationship within the larger scheme of human affairs and existence, Thomas R. Rourke shows that, as both Pope and the former Cardinal Ratzinger, Benedict has made a conscious effort to relate political issues to the broader dialogue on human endeavor, ethics, and culture. Bringing to the fore Benedict's belief on the necessary place of the Christian tradition in a contemporary politics of reason, Rourke details the Pope's contribution to solving the deeper problems of politics today. A valuable study in political theory and religion, this book should be read by those interested in Catholic social and political thought.
Under the Color of Law
Authors: Henn Martin
Published: February 2025

Under the Color of Law constitutes a full and critical scholarly commentary to the text of five key Bush administration legal memoranda formative of U.S. counterterrorism policy from 2001 to 2009. This volume is dedicated to the idea that these documents are worthy of being read and critically examined in themselves as primary text, precisely because the act of critical assessment may yield meaningful policy reform in the ongoing debate facing the nation over balancing security interests with the preservation of civil liberties. This volume is intended to provide counterpoint for, and antithesis to, positions vigorously defended by President Bush's attorneys working at the OLC inside the Department of Justice, and it is designed to be used primarily in conjunction with and examined as response to the Bush-era documents themselves.

Martin Henn investigates five central questions, each framed around commentary to a specific administration document. This work addresses the Yoo-Flanigan Memorandum of September 25, 2001, and asks whether any President has constitutional power to initiate a foreign war without congressional authorization. Regarding President Bush's November 13 executive order of 2001, Henn asks whether an emergency of war permits any President to usurp judicial and legislative powers to interpret law and define and punish offences against the law of nations. Along with many other questions these documents initiate, the author carefully analyzes and seeks to answer questions regarding the Bush administration, the use of interrogational coercion and torture in the war on terror.
Verfassungsmäßigkeit des Leitbilds der Mehrverdienerfamilie im nordrhein-westfälischen Besoldungssystem
Authors: Di Fabio Udo
Published: February 2025

Der „Besoldungs-Föderalismus“ hat seit Mitte der 2000er Jahre zu erheblichen Unterschieden in der Beamtenbesoldung zwischen den Ländern und dem Bund geführt. Zudem wurde die Anpassung der Besoldung an die allgemeine Einkommensentwicklung oft in Frage gestellt. Seit 2015 hat das Bundesverfassungsgericht klare Maßstäbe für eine amtsangemessene Besoldung definiert, einschließlich eines Mindestabstands von 15 % zur Grundsicherung. Nordrhein-Westfalen hat nun die Besoldungsberechnung geändert: Neben der Beamtenbesoldung wird ein fiktives Partnereinkommen berücksichtigt, bei Bedarf ergänzt durch einen Zuschlag. Prof. Dr. Dr. Udo Di Fabio prüft die Verfassungsmäßigkeit dieser Regelungen umfassend.
Combinatorial Effects of Chrysin with Doxorubicin, 5-Fluorouracil, and Cyclophosphamide on Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cell Line
Authors: Yosefi Sedighe , Madanchi Hamid , Pakdel Abbas , Kokhaei Parviz , Hemati Maral , Sarmadi Negar , Sirati-Sabet Majid
Published: February 2025

Background: The primary challenges associated with chemotherapy treatment include the development of drug resistance. Chrysin (CH) has the potential to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of conventional chemotherapeutic agents. Additionally, CH, with its antioxidant properties, can reduce the side effects caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) from chemotherapy. Objectives: This study focused on investigating the combination impact of CH with either 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), doxorubicin (DOX), or cyclophosphamide (CP) on the triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) MDA-MB-231 cell line. Methods: Cytotoxicity was investigated using the MTT assay. The checkerboard microplate method was utilized to determine the effects of drug interactions. Apoptosis and cell cycle distribution were measured by flow cytometry. The classical scratch assay was used to examine cell migration ability. Results: The combination of 5-FU and DOX showed synergistic effects with CH (FIX < 1). Conversely, the interaction between CH and CP resulted in non-additive effects (FIX > 1). The combination treatment of CH with a chemotherapeutic drug was more effective in inducing early apoptosis than the drug alone and the control (P < 0.05). An increase in the sub-G1 phase was observed upon treatment with the combination of CH and chemotherapeutic drugs compared with the control and drugs alone (P < 0.05). Co-administration of CH with chemotherapeutic drugs induced a significant decrease in cell migration compared with the control and chemotherapeutic drugs alone (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The results revealed that combination therapy involving CH in conjunction with 5-FU and DOX demonstrated a more substantial therapeutic effect on TNBC cells than treatments with 5-FU and DOX individually.
Is Inferior Alveolar Nerve Block Beneficial in Fracture Mandibular Surgeries? A Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: Atef Elsayed Mohamed , Gomaa Salama Hala , Khaled Abdelhameed Mohamed , Faiz Abd El Raof Ahmed , Sayed Algharabawy Wael
Published: February 2025

Background: The immediate postoperative phase following surgery for the fixation of a mandibular fracture can be extremely painful. Intravenous opioids are commonly used to treat these patients, but they can cause respiratory depression, pruritus, nausea, and vomiting. For mandibular and intraoral operations, peripheral nerve blocks offer effective perioperative analgesia and can be utilized in conjunction with multimodal analgesia to reduce opioid use during the recovery phase. Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of incorporating a pre-emptive inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) compared to traditional systemic intravenous analgesia for managing perioperative pain in mandibular fracture surgeries. Methods: This prospective, randomized, double-blind comparative study enrolled 46 adult patients scheduled for mandibular fracture surgeries. Participants were randomly assigned to two equal groups. Patients in group A (IANB group) underwent bilateral IANB following endotracheal intubation and before surgical positioning and incision. Group B, serving as a control, received intravenous multimodal analgesia as usual but did not undergo block administration. The primary objective was to assess the intensity and duration of the analgesic effect of the IANB by measuring the time to the first dose and total doses of fentanyl rescue analgesia guided by hemodynamic changes intraoperatively, and the time to the first dose and total doses of pethidine as rescue analgesia postoperatively, guided by the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) in both groups. In group A, any block-related complications were considered a secondary outcome. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the periods of fentanyl required across the groups tested. However, the IANB group had a much lower intraoperative fentanyl dose (P < 0.001), resulting in a significantly reduced need for intraoperative fentanyl. The IANB group showed the best response regarding pain control postoperatively for 6 hours; thereafter, no statistically significant difference was observed between the two groups. Concerning the total dosage of pethidine administered in each group, the IANB group used significantly less pethidine than the control group (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Bilateral IANB can be an effective and safe method for reducing opioid consumption and controlling perioperative pain and discomfort in mandibular fracture surgeries.
Impact of Pulsed Radiofrequency on Activated Dorsal Root Ganglion Neuronal Dynamics
Authors: Laksono Ristiawan M , A Siswagama Taufiq , H Laksono Buyung , A Asmoro Aswoco
Published: February 2025

Background: Chronic pain is associated with sustained activation of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons, contributing to pain signal transmission. Objectives: This study investigates the effects of pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) at 2 Hz and 4 Hz on calcium dynamics, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (pERK) levels in N-methyl D-Aspartate (NMDA)-activated DRG neurons. Methods: An in vitro experimental study was conducted on seven groups with three replications each, including control, activated model (receiving NMDA 80 µM), Ketamine 100 µM, PRF 2 Hz, PRF 4 Hz, NMDA + PRF 2 Hz, and NMDA + PRF 4 Hz. Cytosolic calcium dynamics were analyzed using confocal laser scanning microscopy. Mitochondrial membrane potential changes and neuronal activity were assessed using an immunocytochemistry assay. Neuronal activity was analyzed by measuring pERK. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey HSD (α = 0.05, confidence interval 95%). Results: Exposure to 2 Hz PRF in activated neurons showed more stability than 4 Hz. Mitochondrial membrane potential was significantly elevated in activated neurons (109.60 ± 7.82, 95% CI: 100.75, 118.45) compared to controls (77.64 ± 5.13, 95% CI: 71.83, 83.45, P = 0.000). Both 2 and 4 Hz PRF decreased MMP in activated neurons compared to activated neurons alone. Activated neurons also demonstrated elevated pERK levels (94.80 ± 2.62, 95% CI: 91.84, 97.76) compared to controls (43.37 ± 4.07, 95% CI: 38.76, 47.98, P = 0.000). The PRF at 2 Hz significantly decreased pERK levels in activated neurons (41.27 ± 5.06, 95% CI: 35.54, 46.99, P = 0.000), while 4 Hz PRF showed no significant reduction. Conclusions: Pulsed radiofrequency at 2 Hz normalizes neuronal activity in activated DRG neurons, while 4 Hz does not. Both frequencies increase cytosolic calcium and reduce MMP.
Defining Organizational Trust in Nursing: A Concept Analysis Using Walker and Avant's Model
Authors: Babanataj Reyhaneh , Adib Hajbaghery Mohsen , Shoja Maryam
Published: February 2025

Context: Trust in nursing has traditionally been considered from an interpersonal perspective, where it is viewed as an attitude patients hold as they confidently rely on nursing care. Organizational trust in nursing is a recognized quality indicator in the healthcare system. Although several studies have addressed the importance of relationships in healthcare systems, less attention has been paid to interprofessional relationships between nurses and managers, as well as the concept of organizational trust in nursing. Evidence Acquisition: The concept analysis was conducted using Walker and Avant’s approach in eight stages. An internet search was performed in reputable and accessible databases, including Magiran, SID, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, to identify existing literature on organizational trust. The search for articles was conducted in two phases using the keywords "organizational trust" and related concepts within nursing up to the year 2024. After eliminating duplicates, a total of 35 documents were included in the study. Consequently, the defining attributes of the concept, its antecedents and consequences, models, alternatives, empirical indicators, and an analytical definition were established. Results: The categories related to the attributes of the concept include integrity, competence, consistency, benevolence, and empathy. The antecedents of this concept relate to organizational factors, job roles, and personnel within an organization, while its consequences pertain to interpersonal cohesion, increased productivity, fostering growth within the organization, and creating a creative environment. Organizational trust among nurses represents a positive attitude and profound belief in the social and behavioral capabilities of the organization, shaped by transparent and ethical interactions within the organization. Conclusions: Integrity, competence, consistency, loyalty, goodwill, and empathy are fundamental keywords for strengthening trust among nurses. Given the widespread nature of the concept of organizational trust in nursing and its application in clinical practice, it is suggested that this concept be examined using other methods, such as hybrid concept analysis.
The Experiences of Self-Care Behaviors in Patients with Essential Hypertension: A Qualitative Content Analysis
Authors: Ameri Malihe , Babamohamadi Hassan , Mohammadi Eesa , Asgari Mohamad Reza
Published: February 2025

Background: Essential hypertension remains a significant global health challenge. Self-care is among the most effective strategies for managing this condition. Understanding patients' perspectives and experiences regarding self-care behaviors can significantly aid nurses in enhancing these behaviors. Objectives: This study aims to explore self-care behaviors in patients with essential hypertension. Methods: This qualitative study employed conventional content analysis to examine 16 patients and three healthcare providers associated with urban healthcare centers affiliated with Shahroud University of Medical Sciences in Semnan province, Iran, during 2023 - 2024. Participants were selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected via individual, semi-structured, in-depth interviews, which were recorded and transcribed. The transcripts were analyzed using the method proposed by Elo and Kyngäs (2008). Results: The study identified "Yo-Yo-like" self-care behaviors as the main concept, with four primary categories and 12 subcategories extracted. The main categories included fluctuating patterns in medication adherence, dietary adherence, exercise, and smoking. Conclusions: The self-care behaviors of patients with essential hypertension exhibit coordinated fluctuations, correlating with the disease's severity. As the disease subsides, adherence decreases, and vice versa. This fluctuating pattern has created a vicious cycle in disease control. Interventions, particularly by nurses, are essential to break this cycle and effectively manage hypertension.
Effects of Methanol Extract from the Peel of Red Onion (Allium cepa L.) on Ulcerative Colitis Induced by Acetic Acid in Wistar Rats
Authors: Motavallian Azadeh , Yousefbeyk Fatemeh , Ghazizadeh Foad , Karimian Paridokht , Roohibakhsh Dehbaneh Chakavak , Bouzari Saba , Aghajani Torshkooh Forough
Published: February 2025

Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The urgent need to discover new medicines for the treatment of UC has led to a substantial amount of research annually. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the potential beneficial effects of Allium cepa L. peel methanolic extract (ACPME) on experimental ulcerative colitis in rats. Methods: The extraction of red onion peel (Allium cepa) was performed using the percolation method. Total flavonoid and phenolic contents were determined using aluminum chloride and Folin-Ciocalteu techniques, respectively. Ulcerative colitis was induced by intrarectal administration of 2 mL of 3% acetic acid. The animals were divided into six groups: The normal group, the colitis control group, groups treated with ACPME (50, 100, and 150 mg/kg body weight; 4 days of treatment), and the group treated with dexamethasone (1 mg/kg). Macroscopic, histological, and biochemical evaluations (MPO, IL-6, IL-1 beta, and TNF-alpha) were conducted on distal colon samples to assess the extract's efficacy. Results: The total phenolic content of the extract was 223.38 ± 0.002 mg of gallic acid equivalent per gram of dry extract, while the total flavonoid content was 49.42 ± 0.008 mg of quercetin equivalent per gram of extract. Compared to the colitis control group, ACPME administration (50 and 100 mg/kg) significantly reduced macroscopic and microscopic colon damage, pro-inflammatory cytokine levels, and MPO activity in colon samples. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that ACPME could have a beneficial impact on experimental colitis. This effect may be partly due to modulating neutrophil infiltration and pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, IL-1 beta, and TNF-alpha. However, further research is required to substantiate these effects.
Participation, diversity and inclusion in cultural and creative industries
Authors:   Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, McCabe Helen
Published: February 2025

UK creative industries can feature inequality and lack diversity. How can participation be increased?