bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A prospective cohort study on the safety and efficacy of bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy in Japanese patients with relapsed ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer
Authors: Nanki Yoshiko , Nomura Hiroyuki , Iwasa Naomi , Saotome Keiko , Dozen Ai , Yoshihama Tomoko , Hirano Takuro , Hashimoto Shiho , Chiyoda Tatsuyuki , Yamagami Wataru , Kataoka Fumio , Aoki Daisuke
Published: July 2020

Objective

this prospective cohort study aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy in Japanese patients with relapsed ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer.

Methods

in this study, 40 Japanese patients with relapsed ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer selected to receive bevacizumab with chemotherapy were enrolled. Patients in poor general condition were excluded. Each patient was monitored prospectively for adverse events, administration status, disease status and survival. Treatment was continued until intolerable adverse events or disease progression. The primary endpoint was safety.

Results

bevacizumab plus platinum-based chemotherapy was performed for 30 patients (median cycle; 16.5), while bevacizumab plus non-platinum chemotherapy was performed for 10 patients (median cycle; 5.5). Among bevacizumab-related adverse events, hypertension occurred in 80% of patients, proteinuria in 83%, mucositis in 25%, bleeding in 20%, thromboembolic events in 5.0% and fistula in 2.5%. Gastrointestinal perforation or other life-threatening lethal adverse events were not observed. Response rate and median progression-free survival were 73% and 19.3 months for patients with bevacizumab plus platinum-based chemotherapy, and 30% and 3.9 months for patients with bevacizumab plus non-platinum chemotherapy, respectively. There was no correlation between response rate and occurrence of adverse events such as hypertension or proteinuria.

Conclusion

bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy was tolerable and effective for Japanese patients with relapsed ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer or primary peritoneal cancer. Hypertension and proteinuria are frequently occurred and managed properly for continuing treatment.
EGFR-TKI Plus Anti-Angiogenic Drugs in EGFR-Mutated Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials
Authors: Conforti Fabio , Pala Laura , Bagnardi Vincenzo , Specchia Claudia , Oriecuia Chiara , Marra Antonio , Zagami Paola , Morganti Stefania , Tarantino Paolo , Catania Chiara , De Marinis Filippo , Queirolo Paola , De Pas Tommaso
Published: July 2020

Background

Results of several randomized clinical trials (RCTs) testing the combination of an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) plus an anti-angiogenic drug in advanced EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer were reported.

Methods

We first report a systematic review and meta-analysis of all RCTs to estimate effectiveness and toxicity of this new therapeutic approach compared with first-generation EGFR-TKI monotherapy. Subsequently, we present a network meta-analysis comparing the combination of an EGFR-TKI plus an anti-angiogenic drug with 2 new treatment options: combination of an EGFR-TKI plus chemotherapy or new EGFR-TKIs of second or third generation as monotherapy.

Results

Five RCTs were included in the first meta-analysis. The progression-free survival (PFS) was statistically significantly larger in patients treated with an EGFR-TKI plus an anti-angiogenic drug compared with EGFR-TKI monotherapy: the pooled PFS–hazard ratio (HR) was 0.59 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.51 to 0.69). The pooled median-PFS was 17.8 months (95% CI = 16.5 to 19.3 months) for the combination vs 11.7 months (95% CI = 11.1 to 12.7 months) for EGFR-TKI as monotherapy. No statistically significant differences between the 2 treatment arms were observed in overall survival or objective response rate. The rate of grade equal or higher than 3 adverse events was statistically significantly higher in patients treated with EGFR-TKI plus an anti-angiogenic drug: the pooled-relative risk was 1.72 (95% CI = 1.43 to 2.06). Ten RCTs were included in the network meta-analysis. All 3 experimental treatments were associated with a statistically significant improvement in PFS compared with first-generation EGFR-TKIs. When compared to each other, none of the 3 experimental treatments were statistically significantly associated with larger PFS or lower rate of grade 3 or higher adverse events.

Conclusion

Patients with EGFR-mutated non small-cell lung cancer derived clinically meaningful larger PFS benefit from the addition of an anti-angiogenic drug to a first-generation EGFR-TKI at the cost of an increase of toxicities.
Fundamental effective temperature measurements for eclipsing binary stars – I. Development of the method and application to AI Phoenicis
Authors: Miller N J , Maxted P F L , Smalley B
Published: July 2020

Stars with accurate and precise effective temperature (Teff) measurements are needed to test stellar atmosphere models and calibrate empirical methods to determine Teff. There are few standard stars currently available to calibrate temperature indicators for dwarf stars. Gaia parallaxes now make it possible, in principle, to measure Teff for many dwarf stars in eclipsing binaries. We aim to develop a method that uses high-precision measurements of detached eclipsing binary stars, Gaia parallaxes, and multiwavelength photometry to obtain accurate and precise fundamental effective temperatures that can be used to establish a set of benchmark stars. We select the well-studied binary AI Phoenicis to test our method, since it has very precise absolute parameters and extensive archival photometry. The method uses the stellar radii and parallax for stars in eclipsing binaries. We use a Bayesian approach to obtain the integrated bolometric fluxes for the two stars from observed magnitudes, colours, and flux ratios. The fundamental effective temperature of two stars in AI Phoenicis are 6199 ± 22 K for the F7 V component and 5094 ± 16 K for the K0 IV component. The zero-point error in the flux scale leads to a systematic error of only 0.2 per cent (≈ 11 K) in Teff. We find that these results are robust against the details of the analysis, such as the choice of model spectra. Our method can be applied to eclipsing binary stars with radius, parallax, and photometric measurements across a range of wavelengths. Stars with fundamental effective temperatures determined with this method can be used as benchmarks in future surveys.
Srag Regulates Autophagy via Integrating into a Preexisting Autophagy Pathway in Testis
Authors: Cheng Yibin , Lai Fengling , Wang Xin , Shang Dantong , Zou Juan , Luo Majing , Xia Xizhong , Cheng Hanhua , Zhou Rongjia
Published: July 2020

Spermatogenesis is an essential process for producing sperm cells. Reproductive strategy is successfully evolved for a species to adapt to a certain ecological system. However, roles of newly evolved genes in testis autophagy remain unclear. In this study, we found that a newly evolved gene srag (Sox9-regulated autophagy gene) plays an important role in promoting autophagy in testis in the lineage of the teleost Monopterus albus. The gene integrated into an interaction network through a two-way strategy of evolution, via Sox9-binding in its promoter and interaction with Becn1 in the coding region. Its promoter region evolved a cis element for binding of Sox9, a transcription factor for male sex determination. Both in vitro and in vivo analyses demonstrated that transcription factor Sox9 could bind to and activate the srag promoter. Its coding region acquired ability to interact with key autophagy initiation factor Becn1 via the conserved C-terminal, indicating that srag integrated into preexisting autophagy network. Moreover, we determined that Srag enhanced autophagy by interacting with Becn1. Notably, srag transgenic zebrafish revealed that Srag exerted the same function by enhancing autophagy through the Srag–Becn1 pathway. Thus, the new gene srag regulated autophagy in testis by integrated into preexisting autophagy network.
A Blaze of Light in Every Word
Authors: Malawey Victoria
Published: July 2020

A Blaze of Light in Every Word presents a conceptual model for analyzing vocal delivery in popular song recordings focused on three overlapping areas of inquiry: pitch, prosody, and quality. The domain of pitch, which refers to listeners’ perceptions of frequency, considers range, tessitura, intonation, and registration. Prosody, the pacing and flow of delivery, comprises phrasing, metric placement, motility, embellishment, and consonantal articulation. Qualitative elements include timbre, phonation, onset, resonance, clarity, paralinguistic effects, and loudness. Intersecting all three domains is the area of technological mediation, which considers how external technologies, such as layering, overdubbing, pitch modification, recording transmission, compression, reverb, spatial placement, delay, and other electronic effects, impact voice in recorded music. Though the book focuses primarily on the sonic and material aspects of vocal delivery, it situates these aspects among broader cultural, philosophical, and anthropological approaches to voice with the goal to better understand the relationship between sonic content and its signification. Drawing upon transcription and spectrographic analysis as the primary means of representation, as well as modes of analysis, this book features in-depth analyses of a wide array of popular song recordings spanning genres from indie rock to hip-hop to death metal, develops analytical tools for understanding how individual dimensions make singing voices both complex and unique, and synthesizes how multiple aspects interact to better understand the multidimensionality of singing voices.
Quality
Authors: Malawey Victoria
Published: July 2020

Similar to what several researchers in the early 1980s dubbed “sonance,” quality comprises more than just timbre, including also intensity, harmonic spectrum, phonation, and changes in sound. Multiple dimensions—including timbre, phonation, onset, resonance, clarity, paralinguistic effects, and loudness—create a singer’s individual vocal quality. Songs recorded and re-recorded by Lucas Silveira demonstrate the dynamic aspects associated with an ever-evolving vocal quality due to the artist’s having undergone hormone replacement therapy. The concept of quality is framed in terms of three different orientations—the physiological, acoustic, and perceptual—all of which are essential to understanding qualitative aspects of vocal delivery, more so than aspects in the domains of pitch and prosody. While sonic markers of identities are fluid social constructions rather than static essential attributes, this chapter considers how qualitative elements may signify artists’ identities and genre.
The Area in Between
Authors: Malawey Victoria
Published: July 2020

This chapter explores the ways in which recorded voices interact with external technologies and proposes a continuum of extremes of “wetness” and “dryness” based on the degree to which listeners perceive processing of a vocal signal. The chapter offers an overview of the most commonly used signal processes in popular music production, including vocal layering, overdubbing, pitch modification, recording transmission, compression, reverb, spatial placement, delay, and other electronic effects, which interact with elements from the domains of pitch, prosody, and quality. Analyses of vocally driven music recorded by Björk and cover versions of her songs by other artists demonstrate the wide range of possibilities associated with technological mediation.
The Topian Tradition
Authors: Ochoa Espejo Paulina
Published: July 2020

Are there existing resources in the history of political thought to refocus current political relations to the environment? This chapter argues that parallel to the utopian idea of territorial rights, there is a Topian tradition that deals with the topographical and climatic conditions that make different forms of political organization possible. This tradition aims to discover the social qualities needed to sustain different types of governments, and how climate, topography, and local economy influence these traits. The tradition is characterized by its localism, context-sensitivity of principles, and realism. The chapter examines the arguments of four notable Topian thinkers: Montesquieu, Machiavelli, Rousseau, and Kant. Topian thinking can offer alternative ways of looking at problems of borders and border management that have become impasses in debates about territorial rights.
Immigration
Authors: Ochoa Espejo Paulina
Published: July 2020

How should liberal democracies treat noncitizens who are already physically present in their territory? This chapter holds that immigrants should get rights because they are here. Immigration scholars fear that this approach leads to the “soft inside, hard outside” view. If presence gives rights to immigrants (soft inside), current members have a strong incentive to keep newcomers out to protect the group’s identity (hard outside). However, when citizenship relies on respecting place-specific duties, it is possible to detach citizens’ rights from group identity. This makes citizenship compatible with wider mobility and even open borders. The chapter argues that anyone present in a territory has a right to stay because their presence is a condition for current citizens to fulfill their duties to third parties, but the state has a limited right to deny entry to those who would not be able to fulfill their place-specific duties when they enter.
What Is Wrong with Border Walls?
Authors: Ochoa Espejo Paulina
Published: July 2020

This chapter asks what is wrong with fortified borders. Several scholars have argued that states do not use fortified borders to stop illegal crossings; instead, they use them to divert those flows to more dangerous illegal crossing spots. This chapter analyzes this trend, by using the example of the U.S.-Mexico border and subjecting it to a proportionality test. It questions whether flow diversion is a legitimate goal, whether less intrusive alternatives are available, and whether the policy imposes high burdens on rights bearers. The chapter claims that to the extent that the strategy works by harming some people in order to send a threatening message to others, the practice is unjustified. When states rely on harms to send a message, they purposely seek to harm would-be crossers—and this chapter argues that such harm is not proportional to the goods achieved in fortifying the border against civilian crossers.
Moderate Women and Violent Youths
Authors: Brown Katherine E.
Published: July 2020

This chapter focuses on an idea of maternal logic underpinning women’s presumed participation derived from beliefs about aims for world preservation that situate women as moderate and peaceful. Assumed to be antiradical, any violence carried out by women is dismissed. The chapter explores how women are located as peaceful and supportive and questions this logic by examining what is moderate for policymakers and women, suggesting that the social bonds that motivate individuals also challenge ideas of moderate and responsible governing selves. Feminine moderation is compared with al Qaeda and Daesh rhetoric on women in jihad—”distracting” to men on the battlefield, only permitted as last resort, only if they have a higher chance of success. The chapter demonstrates that maternalist logic only works if young Muslim men are presented as violent, and “at risk” because of particular masculinities, presumed to be hypersexual, working class, “foreign,” played out in Islamist constructions of manliness.
Mothers and Wives
Authors: Brown Katherine E.
Published: July 2020

This chapter demonstrates links between the presumed moderate bias and pacifism of women with the emphasis on women’s roles as mothers and wives. Focusing on how women’s engagement is filtered through mother work, ideas of world preservation presume the home as a site of tranquility, with women naturally located there. Caring is established as counter to radical violent action, dovetailing with moderation narratives, yet premising antiradicalization programs on ideas that wives and mothers are pro-state or nonextreme is questionable. The chapter concludes by arguing that debates over women’s appropriate roles are the hidden battleground over which both counter-radicalization and radical groups operate. Radical groups present a narrative about the failures of Western society and feminism to protect women, and a consequent emasculation of men. Counter-radicalization efforts presuming that Western society and feminism have benefited all women equally fail to appreciate the difficulties that young Muslim women face negotiating complex identities under conditions of discrimination, poverty, and Islamophobia.
Fathers and Heroes
Authors: Brown Katherine E.
Published: July 2020

This chapter considers the roles of fatherhood and paternalism in antiradicalization. Two arguments are made: paternalism characterizes the relationship between the state and individuals, and emasculation occurs via techniques used while particular masculine ideals are promoted simultaneously. Consequently, individuals may become deradicalized but policies reinforce the inequalities that some see as causes of radicalization. Paternalistic relationships are established—constructing individual relationships based on an ethic of care to generate trust is seen as key—but attempts at trust building are undermined by lack of accountability and transparency. This chapter also shows increasing militarization of counterterrorism programs worldwide. Numerous accounts of torture and human rights violations exist, sexualized in nature and emasculating particular suspect men. Policies seek to demonstrate the humanity of the state by acting in a considerate and caring manner, but actually serve to reinforce its paternal and emasculating undertones.
Repressing with Social Assistance
Authors: Pan Jennifer
Published: July 2020

This chapter shows how the distribution of Dibao to targeted populations enables repression—a concept the author calls repressive assistance, which she situates in the literature on repression and welfare. Dibao occurs in the context of re-education and facilitates repression by increasing interactions between the regime and the targets of repression, strengthening surveillance and trapping targets in relationships of obligation and dependence. Using data from a nationally representative survey and news announcements related to Dibao provision, this chapter shows that repressive assistance may not decrease contentious activity on average among targeted populations. However, repressive assistance is effective in deterring specific activities for individuals when they are closely managed and monitored and erases the delineation between repression and concessions.
Triggering Backlash
Authors: Pan Jennifer
Published: July 2020

This chapter captures the backlash—increased protests and lower legitimacy—triggered by prioritizing Dibao for targeted populations. The survey of 100 neighborhoods shows that when targeted populations receive Dibao benefits, there is greater contention over Dibao distribution in the neighborhood. Those who are turned away from benefits are more likely to protest and bargain for Dibao. Using large-scale social media data and deep learning to extract unique, off-line collective action events, this chapter shows that welfare-related protests are higher among cities that have a higher level of Dibao provision to targeted populations than cities that have lower levels. Although local administrators are adept at defusing protests, and collective action remains small and localized, people are left resentful and embittered. Data from a nationally representative survey shows that cities with a higher level of Dibao provision to targeted populations have lower assessment of government capabilities, especially in welfare provision and public responsiveness, as well as lower levels of political trust and satisfaction.
DNA: Up Close and Personal
Authors: McHughen Alan
Published: July 2020

We now look at personal genetics and genomics, especially important with the rise of companies willing to analyze your own DNA (for a small fee, of course), giving you the raw genetic information about yourself and your ancestors. Although we previously learned that DNA is “the same” in all species, we now turn to the individual, you, and explore how your DNA base sequence differs from the DNA base sequence of a bacterium, a liverwort, a chimp, and your weird Uncle Jason. This chapter provides the background to appreciate the specific issues related to medical and health issues, and then genealogical studies, coming up in later chapters. For most people, personal genomics testing involves sending a sample of DNA, in the form of spit or a cheek swab, to a lab. What kind of analyses do the labs perform, and what information do they reveal? In addition to full DNA sequence tests, there’s a whole gamut of other DNA tests, including SNP tests, Y-chromosome tests, mtDNA tests, and more. Your DNA base sequence is a gold mine of information unique to you, and it is entirely yours to discover. Whether you are curious about your medical and health genetics, wish to connect with relatives and build a family tree, or are just fascinated at what information your ancestors provided you, these next chapters will help you dig up the hidden secrets of your own genetic heritage.
Some Uncomfortable Ethical Dilemmas
Authors: McHughen Alan
Published: July 2020

This book has discussed the scientific aspects of DNA, physically, chemically, and biologically, and then the applications of knowledge of how DNA works. This chapter covers nonscientific considerations of the use (and abuse) of our knowledge of DNA and genetics. Scientific information can provide the foundation of public policy involving scientific issues, but scientific information alone does not lead to sound policies. Ethics and socioeconomic and political realities also form an integral part of healthy discussion and debates surrounding the limits to human applications of technologies. This chapter discusses some ethical issues raised by various applications of our knowledge of DNA.
Towards Scientific Foundations of Healing
Authors: Varier M. R. Raghava
Published: July 2020

Historians have observed that the thread of social protest winding through these heterodox teachings was indicative of a perception of change. Central to this awareness of change is the law of causality and it was around this that much of Buddhist doctrine revolves, claiming to derive from rational arguments and examples. The whole problem of causes of diseases was propounded by Gauthama Buddha. The concept of the peccant humors which is central to the Āyurvedic aetiology, which was most probably formulated in Buddhist monasteries. Keen observation of the decomposing bodies combined with the knowledge of anatomy of animals gathered from the butcher-house helped the early Buddhist monk-physicians develop an understanding of the internal and external structures of the human body. The earliest codification of medical knowledge in India is perhaps in the Buddhist canonical works. Buddhist monasteries and their medicinal services were probably instrumental in spreading the knowledge and practice of medicine to regions outside of the sub-continent. We hear for the first time about this cultural expansion from Mauryan sources. The major Rock Edict II of the Mauryan emperor Asoka speaks about this historical event. Monks including those with knowledge of medicine must have been visiting in these institutions for various purposes.
The Age of the Samhitas
Authors: Varier M. R. Raghava
Published: July 2020

The systematic and codified knowledge of Āyurveda attained maturity in the classical texts of the samhitas. They are several texts and each of them is attached to the name of an ācārya, preceptor, such as Caraka, Suśruta, Bhela, Kāśyapa, and Hārīta. The knowledge and wisdom of indigenous healing and healthcare are explained in the samhitas with special references to a particular branch of the system of medicine. Thus kāyacikitsa, general medicine, is the subject of the Carakasamhita while śalyacikitsa, surgery, is the subject of the Suśrutasamhita. Bhēḷasamhita deals mainly with diseases and treatments for the mind, Kāśyapasamhita focuses on koumārabhṛtya, pediatrics, and the subject of the Hārītasamhita is gṛhabādha, demonology, and allied matters. What were preserved in preceding literature including the Vedas, the Brāhmaņas, and the Buddhist Pali canonical texts as seeds and seedlings are found fully grown in the samhitas, nourished by scholarly discussions at various levels. The indigenous medical system was designated as Āyurveda by the time of the samhitas. Topics such as qualities of a preceptor, qualities of a disciple, and qualities of the science are discussed in the various samhitas. Initiation of the disciples, knowledge of anatomy, procedure of treatment, and Modalities of treatment are discussed in great detail. The traditional method of the daivavyapāśraya (the divine or magico-religious) mode of treatment of the Vedic tradition was replaced by the yuktivyapāśraya (empirico-rational) method of therapy with the codification of the Carakasamhita. The emphasis of Caraka was on the process of investigation, which is essential for arriving at scientific truth and hence he repeatedly uses the word parīkṣa instead of pramāṇa.
Suśrutasamhita
Authors: Varier M. R. Raghava
Published: July 2020

Suśruta is widely known as the author of the Suśrutasamhita, the authentic text of surgery in Āyurveda. Suśruta probably lived around sixth century BCE. At the same time his treatise Suśrutasamhita, the classical text of surgery, in its present form appears to belong to a much later date. This is a logical inference based on the subject matter of the text. The Suśrutasamhita in its present form is a huge text with 186 chapters arranged in six sthānas. The text is composed in a mixture of long and short portions in prose as well as in verses composed in various metres. The sthānas and the chapters are Sūtrasthāna, Śārīrasthāna, Nidānasthāna, Cikitsasthāna, Kalpasthāna, and Uttaratantra. Since the emphasis of the text is on surgery, a descriptive account of the various aspects of surgery is given including the surgical techniques, instruments and appliances, practical training, duties of the surgeon, battlefield surgery and so on. Among these, battlefield surgery is important since its emphasis is on the urgent medical services to be provided to soldiers for fatal wounds and other ailments. The rhinoplastic surgery as prescribed by the ācārya Suśruta continued to be practiced in India for several centuries. The surgical tools designed by Suśruta included one hundred blunt instruments and twenty sharp ones. The Suśrutasamhita lays down specific procedures for studying the science of surgery.
Ancient Indian Medical Education
Authors: Varier M. R. Raghava
Published: July 2020

Some Jātaka stories relate the story of how a bōdhisattva who studied at Taxila treated the king of Kāśi. Taxila remained a centre of excellence for several centuries until it was destroyed by the Huns who invaded India in the first century BCE. Towards the end of the Gupta dynasty there was a resurgence of the old tradition of universities as noticed and described by the Chinese traveller Hsuan-tsang. He has recorded an excellent account of the mahāvihāra and the university at Nālanda. According to Hsuan-tsang students from distant places came to Nālanda for higher studies in all subjects, including medicine, under great scholars. Teaching and learning were properly systematized during the time of the samhitas and this can be explicitly found in the Carakasamhita that lays specific rules and regulations for various stages of learning medicine. It is assumed that side by side with the university stream of education, the ancient gurukula system also flourished for the training of physicians and that mode of teaching and learning attracted great masters as well as talented students. It may be learnt from the description of the process of learning given in the section śisyōpanayanīya in the Sūtrasthāna that teaching was following the method of face-to-face instruction.
Experiment with Modernity
Authors: Varier M. R. Raghava
Published: July 2020

Scholar-physicians were engaged in various activities for promoting the cause of Āyurveda. A common pattern is discernible in the programmes and projects of these renaissance personalities who walked at the forefront of the resurrection of the indigenous science of Āyurveda. Almost all of them either studied modern medicine formally or got training from competent medical practitioners. Proficiency in the textual knowledge of Āyurveda and the resultant competence in commenting on the classical texts, and keenness in propagating the science of Āyurveda to the new generations were two other qualities. There was not a single walk of life that was not encouraged and enthused by the call of the National Awakening. Almost all scholars contributed richly by teaching or writing books.
Scales and Modes of Discourse Presentation and Their Functions
Authors: Busse Beatrix
Published: July 2020

The fifth chapter focuses on the functional aspects of the various discourse presentation modes in 19th-century narrative fiction and particularly their role for the expression of subjectivity. The functional interpretation is based on the quantitative findings for the frequency, character, and combination of unambiguous as well as ambiguous discourse presentation modes in the corpus, also including hypothetical speech, writing, and thought presentation. The latter appear with considerable frequency in the 19th-century data. The chapter further describes and analyzes repetitive lexico-grammatical patterns identified for the different modes of discourse presentation and retrieved by the analysis of keywords and collocational structures.
Toward Developing a Procedure for Automatically Identifying Speech, Writing, and Thought Presentation
Authors: Busse Beatrix
Published: July 2020

The sixth chapter illustrates how the automatic annotation of the different modes of speech, writing, and thought presentation in 19th-century narrative fiction may be performed on the basis of repetitive lexico-grammatical features and by setting up rules based on the manual annotation of the corpus and facilitating it in larger data sets. The chapter proposes a number of formal diagnostic features for the identification of discourse presentation as well as procedures to help their automatic detection. The procedures described serve as basis for a tool for the automatic identification of discourse presentation which can be adopted to programs like Wmatrix (Rayson 2018) and WordSmith Tools (Scott 2017). The chapter furthermore critically reflects on the limits of automated procedures and the necessity to manually check the annotations and include contextual information for unambiguous identification of different types of discourse presentation.
Narrative Progression and Characterization
Authors: Busse Beatrix
Published: July 2020

The seventh chapter focuses on the functional interplay between passages of narration that interplay with the different modes of discourse presentation. It shows how this interplay is linguistically realized in 19th-century fiction and which functional potential it has for narrative progression and characterization. The discussion focuses on (a) the lexico-grammatical variety of reporting verbs that accompany direct and indirect forms of speech, writing, and thought presentation; (b) paralinguistic narration describing mime, gesture, and body movement as well as moments of silence; and (c) foregrounded occurrences of passages of visual narration and discourse presentation. With particular grammatical, syntactic, and pragmatic patterns priming narrative stretches, readers are able to identify them and use them as anchor points for the processing of the narrative in general. Via recourse to quantitative methodology such as the identification of keywords, the chapter further presents some conclusions about particular 19th-century strategies of world creation.
Monetary Policy Committees and Central Bank Communication
Authors: Baerg Nicole
Published: July 2020

This chapter starts by tracing trends in central bank transparency. It reports key policy changes by some of the world’s most important central banks: the FOMC, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, and the Bank of Japan. The second section reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on central bank design, paying close attention to the role of committee size, composition, and decision-making protocol, and classifies central banks around the world according to these features. The third section outlines the aim of central bank communications: to broadcast news and to reduce noise. The author argues that while previous literature has examined both committee design and central bank communications, it has done so in isolation. By putting these two topics together, the chapter argues that we can better understand, first, how different types of committees may be better at communicating and, second, how communication affects households’ inflation expectations and inflation.
Central Bank Committees and Political Communication
Authors: Baerg Nicole
Published: July 2020

Using archival, textual information from Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) transcript data as well as FOMC policy statements, chapter 4 demonstrates that when the chair and median member have opposing inflation preferences, the FOMC communicates with greater precision than when the chair and median member have aligned inflation preferences. The author finds this is true, however, when computing the median members able to cast a public vote. The chapter also provides supportive evidence that when committee members are more dissimilar, the number of textual changes to the policy announcement is higher than otherwise. Theoretically, the chapter shows that a combination of members’ preferences and voting rights matter for the level of uncertainty words used in the official policy statement. Methodologically, the chapter demonstrates the innovative use of supervised and unsupervised learning techniques to construct quantitative measures from text as data, applied to central bank committees.
Defending and Defining the Faith
Authors: Williams D. H.
Published: July 2020

Christian apologetics in the patristic era should be understood broadly as a defense of Christian beliefs and practices against non-Christian beliefs, practices, and policies (religious, social, and political) that were either antithetical to Christian beliefs and practices or openly hostile to Christianity. The advantage of this conceptualization of apologetics is that it enables readers to follow the discussion of Christian responses to Hellenistic culture beyond the context of persecution associated with the pre-Constantinian period, which tends to be where many scholarly projects on apologetics end. The reader is also invited to see the links in the intellectual trajectory from early second-century apologetics through those written in the early fifth century, prompting deeper reflection about the process of Christian self-definition in late antiquity. This book explores Christian apologetic literature from the second through fifth centuries, examining the writers within the intellectual context of their times. The book argues that most apologies were not directed at a pagan readership. In most cases, ancient apologetics had a double object: to instruct the Christian, and persuade less devout Christians or non-Christians who were sympathetic to Christian claims. Taken cumulatively, it finds that apologetic literature was integral to the formation of Christian identity in the Roman world.
Introduction
Authors: Williams D. H.
Published: July 2020

This introductory chapter sets out the book’s purpose, which is to provide the reader with a contextualized overview of texts that fit the qualifications of an apology, instead of operating from a master list of apologists and their works. The relatively loose definition applied to this literature makes it impossible to provide a comprehensive treatment of all such texts. While this book mentions a number of ancient writings that have been considered apologies, it also shows that they better fit the broader category of polemic that in varied ways address Christian-pagan conflicts, but are not responding to a particular threat. The remainder of the chapter discusses titles of apologies, premodern apologia, and pagans and paganism.
Matters of Definition and Qualification
Authors: Williams D. H.
Published: July 2020

This chapter presents a review of concepts and terms relevant to Christian apologetics. It suggests that the oratorical form of apologia is best regarded as a subgenre, given that it appears within, and adapted itself to, known genres such as dialogue, polemic, diatribe, and invective, as well as in different literary forms such as dialogue, courtroom plea, epistolary, and history. In the end, what makes an apology an apology is that it is responding to some form of attack or accusation, be it in a public setting or a literary one. The chapter also discusses the intended audience of apologetic literature, the written culture of the world, and means of dissemination.
North African Apologetics
Authors: Williams D. H.
Published: July 2020

This chapter considers the work of Arnobius, who presents the most mysteries of all the figures discussed in this book, both in terms of himself and in terms of what he was precisely attempting to achieve with his only known work, Against the Pagans (Adversus nations). There is almost no externally verifiable information on Arnobius except his authorship of this work, penned about fifty years after Cyprian’s death, likely during or just after the “great persecution” that the emperor Diocletian inaugurated from 303 until it was unexpectedly halted in 311 by Galerius—one week before his death. Against the Pagans provides a window into the intellectual debate of the time, through its engagement with the religious and philosophical standpoints that underpinned the outburst of anti-Christian feeling of the Diocletianic persecution. Just as Lactantius’s Divine Institutes and Eusebius’s Preparation of the Gospel will do, so Arnobius is rebutting the pagan attempts to justify the gods’ perceived anger toward Christianity. This chapter is also concerned with Lactantius
Introduction
Authors: De Lucca Valeria
Published: July 2020

Musical events in early modern Europe have long been considered an essential element of the self-fashioning strategy of patrons and dominant classes, representing and symbolizing their wealth and intellectual finesse as well as promoting their cultural and political agendas. This interpretive key has proved effective in discussing the institution of patronage in early modern Europe, particularly in the contexts of the court and of religious institutions. The situation, however, became more complicated during the second half of the seventeenth century, at a time in which profound social and cultural transformations influenced the production and consumption of music in radical ways....
The Colonna, Aristocratic Culture, and the Display of Power in Seventeenth-Century Rome
Authors: De Lucca Valeria
Published: July 2020

Patronage of the arts and the sponsorship of events that attracted public attention were essential tools for the Roman elite to negotiate their position within the complex social and political structure of the city. This chapter introduces Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna, Maria Mancini, and their cultural milieu in Rome. Their palace in piazza Santi Apostoli became the stage for their support of conversazioni, music-making, and intellectual gatherings. The palace and its collections of paintings, antiquities, arts, and the cycle of frescoes that began to be executed during Lorenzo Onofrio’s life were also essential elements of their self-fashioning and family myth-making.
“Dalle sponde del Tebro alle rive dell’Adria”
Authors: De Lucca Valeria
Published: July 2020

More than any of their contemporaries in Rome, Lorenzo Onofrio and Maria Mancini Colonna became involved with the activities of the commercial theaters of Venice during the 1660s. Maria found Venice a particularly congenial city for the freedom she could enjoy there, while Lorenzo Onofrio used the periods the couple spent there to raise his public political profile on an international stage. But what really kept bringing them back to Venice was the activity of the commercial opera theaters, which during these years saw an extraordinary number of operas dedicated to the Colonna. This chapter explores the Colonna support of composers, librettists, singers, and impresarios between Rome and Venice and examines the ways in which opera scores and librettos traveled across and beyond the Italian peninsula.
“All’uso di Venezia”
Authors: De Lucca Valeria
Published: July 2020

The first commercial theater in Rome, the Teatro Tordinona, opened in 1671, and during its short first phase of activity saw the massive import of Venetian operatic repertory for the first time in the history of the city. This chapter explores the contribution of the Colonna to the activities of this theater. More than any of their contemporaries, the Colonna knew the commercial theaters of Rome and contributed to importing not only repertory, but also the system of production of the Venetian models. The production system of the Teatro Tordinona also saw the consolidation of a new type of “collective patronage” of the Roman aristocracy.
Music and Theater in Rome after the Teatro Tordinona
Authors: De Lucca Valeria
Published: July 2020

This chapter reconsiders the musical life of Rome after the closure of the Teatro Tordinona in 1674, a phase that for many years scholars have considered as “stagnant.” In fact, a closer look at the production of oratorios and operas during the years following the experience of the Teatro Tordinona shows very radical changes in terms of the systems of production in Rome, with a greater involvement of members of the aristocracy in the operatic life of the city as well as the first attempts at establishing commercial and semi-commercial enterprises. But the Holy Year 1675 saw also the proliferation of oratorios around the city, including a previously unknown cycle that took place in the residence of two women, the Baronessa Carusi and her daughter, singers and musicians under Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna’s protection.
Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna, Viceroy of Naples
Authors: De Lucca Valeria
Published: July 2020

During the last months of his life, Lorenzo Onofrio obtained the post he had arguably awaited his entire life, that of Viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples. However, he was allowed to occupy this post for only three months, between November 1687 and January 1688; upon the arrival of the new Viceroy, Colonna had to return to Rome. Despite his very short stay, newly-found documents show that Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna spent a sum of money that was considered “extraordinary” for the time to stage operas. This chapter investigates Lorenzo Onofrio’s patronage in Naples as well as his connections with the Neapolitan musical world.
Epilogue
Authors: De Lucca Valeria
Published: July 2020

On 15 April 1689, at the age of 52, the Contestabile died after a protracted illness that was at first diagnosed as “melancholy,” but that in fact turned out to be an extremely painful and fatal condition. A printed Relazione della felice morte dell’Eccellentissimo Principe Don Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna, Gran contestabile del Regno di Napoli...
Between Detachment and Disgust
Authors: Nussbaum Martha C.
Published: July 2020

Funerals are occasions for grief, if the dead person was close. But they are also reminders of our own mortal condition and invitations to contemplate it. Especially when the dead person was not close, a funeral service and an ensuing trip to the graveyard are often meditative times, providing powerful signals about our own future, stimulating fear or bringing hidden fear to the surface. They create, all too often, a volatile emotional condition in which we may be susceptible to some of fear’s less savory neighbors, other painful emotions (anger, envy, disgust) that may pollute our relationship with others. But the reminder of a shared fate might also have more benign consequences (as Rousseau thought), encouraging a kind of egalitarian compassion, an awareness of a common human condition that transcends class and wealth and even religion, bringing people together.
Feeling Ulysses
Authors: Mahaffey Vicki , Truran Wendy J.
Published: July 2020

This chapter challenges approaches to reading that rely on “scopic dominance” (here referred to as Cyclopean) and suggests that Ulysses, in particular, rewards readers who feel with, through, and about bodies—human and textual. The chapter proposes an approach to reading that produces an affective: one that moves us and that we move, one that we encounter with our living bodies. The sense modalities of sight and touch are used to illustrate Joyce’s broader approach to senses, perception, and epistemological questions more broadly. To read Ulysses “feelingly” is to engage the senses together with the emotions in the act of reading. Such readings cultivate a multi-perspectival proximity to the content, context, and language of the work. Affect theory provides a useful way of reconceiving the reading self: as porous, responsive, and part of an ever-unfolding process of being in relation with the world. This essay stages an encounter between text and reader that is designed to show readers how to feel their way through the text in a way that allows reading to become more reciprocal or mutual. The value of such an approach is that it makes it easier for a reader to be touched, and perhaps altered, in return.
Public Political Reason
Authors: Reidy David A.
Published: July 2020

This essay revisits the claim that public political reason as Rawls understood it is incomplete with respect to at least some constitutional essentials or matters of basic justice. It proffers new examples of incompleteness and argues that to reach determinate judgments in these cases democratic citizens will need to draw from a wider pool of reasons than those belonging to their public political reason. It then suggests that and how, without offending the values served by public political reason or political liberalism more generally, democratic citizens might reason publicly with one another to resolve such issues. This involves their reasoning together not as reasonable citizens committed to and drawing reasons from their diverse but reasonable political conceptions of justice, but rather as reasonable persons committed to and drawing reasons from their diverse but reasonable comprehensive doctrines. By so reasoning publicly together free and equal persons properly complete the public political reason they share as free and equal citizens.
Specters of Democracy
Authors: Fitzpatrick Tony
Published: July 2020

This chapter explores how those interested in the making, implementation, and effects of government policies might approach the stand-off between Rawlsians and the capabilities approach. It proposes we should want any theory of justice to do lots of different things. It argues that both perspectives wrestle with an “elasticity problem” to which there is no final, ideal solution. The limitations of Rawls lie in trying to make capabilities adjuncts to the primary goods; the limitations of the capability approach derive from allowing capabilities to occlude the material-distributive characteristics of resources and the political strategies of capitalism. The chapter considers several means of dealing with the elasticity problem, before proposing a possible way forward. This involves not a grand, syncretic reconciliation but one that is, nonetheless, multiperspectivist in intent and method. The task for students of policy studies is therefore to find practical, institutional forms for this multiperspectivism.