bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Currency-plus-Commodity Basket
Authors: Frankel Jeffrey A.
Published: July 2019

This chapter proposes an exchange rate regime for oil-exporting countries, designed to deliver monetary policy that accommodates rather than exacerbates the effects of oil market swings, yet offers the transparency and predictability of a currency peg. The proposal is called currency-plus-commodity basket (CCB). The plan is to peg the national currency to a basket that includes not only the currencies of major trading partners but also the export commodity (oil). The chapter provides evidence from six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that times when their currencies were “undervalued” relative to the CCB alternative were periods of overheating, as reflected in high inflation, and external imbalance, as reflected in high balance-of-payments surpluses. Conversely, periods when the currencies were “overvalued” featured unusually low inflation and low balance of payments. This suggests the economy would have been more stable under CCB. Finally, the chapter offers a practical blueprint for implementation of the proposal.
The Political Economy of Fiscal Institutions and Macroeconomic Management in Sudan
Authors: Suliman Kabbashi M.
Published: July 2019

This chapter draws on the literature on historical institutionalism and distributive politics, combining qualitative and quantitative information from Sudan’s territorial economic structures, to highlight the evolution of the fiscal and political institutions and indicate their impact on fiscal policy and macroeconomic outcomes. The results show that the inherited colonial fiscal institutions, underpinned by cotton production partnership, significantly determined Sudan’s economic development path after independence and facilitated the incorporation of rural areas and communities into the national economy. However, the greater centralization of power to boost the elites’ legitimacy, including the prioritization of public expenditures on entrenched and inefficient political patronage networks, have not only undermined the macroeconomic management role of the fiscal policy, but also triggered a process of territorial fragmentation that escalated into open civil wars and eventually led to the breakup of the state. The policy implications of these findings are outlined.
Oedipal dreams
Authors: Lev Kenaan Vered
Published: July 2019

This chapter deals with the Oedipal dream as a common experience for both ancient and modern dreamers. This sense of commonality cannot erase a deep and ineradicable difference separating the ancients from the moderns. And yet the chapter points to a hermeneutic possibility that only a comparative reading of ancient and modern dreams can offer. By juxtaposing ancient and modern texts, and ancient and modern dream-interpretations, a third space of textuality—an intermediate zone—opens for us. This is where the unconscious will show up. Relationships between mothers and sons are taken to be the focus for the problematics of the literal-symbolic meaning of the erotic.
Genomes and the origin of genetic variation
Authors: Sætre Glenn-Peter , Ravinet Mark
Published: July 2019

Error and chance events, random mutations, are necessary prerequisites for evolution to happen. In a perfect world with no mutations there would be no evolution because no genetic variation would be generated that natural selection or genetic drift could work upon. This chapter first reviews how DNA is organized into genomes and genes in bacteria, archaea, and, in greater detail, eukaryotes. A surprising finding is that only a small fraction of the eukaryote genome consists of coding sequence. Evolutionary processes that can explain the presence of large amounts of noncoding DNA and the repetitive structure of the genome are reviewed, with emphasis on the roles that selfish genetic elements and unequal crossing over play. The chapter further explores the mechanisms that cause mutation and how new genes and protein functions originate.
Multilocus evolution
Authors: Sætre Glenn-Peter , Ravinet Mark
Published: July 2019

Most phenotypic traits are affected by a multitude of genes, which may interact in complex ways. This means that the single locus model explored in chapters 3 and 4 is not always able to capture the full complexity of genetic evolution. In many cases, multiple genes are involved and so this chapter formalizes the analysis of multilocus evolution. Concepts such as linkage disequilibrium and epistasis are introduced, both of which are necessary to properly understand multilocus evolution. The currently highly active field emerging as a result of a crossover between quantitative genetics and genomics is further explored, including methods such as quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis and genome wide association study (GWAS) that allow phenotypic variation to be associated with likely causative genes and that have made important advances in our understanding of the genetic underpinnings of disease.
Towards the Principles—Resolving the Eleatics’ Arguments for Absolute Monism
Authors: Quarantotto Diana
Published: July 2019

The focus of this chapter is Aristotle’s resolution of Parmenides’ argument for monism in Physics I 3, in particular the role that this resolution plays in Physics I and its philosophical meaning. It argues that one of Aristotle’s principal aims is to construe a theory of principles that, unlike those of his predecessors, is correct, because it is built (among other things) by solving some major problems left unresolved by his predecessors. Parmenides’ argument involves one of these problems: the problem of plurality, which concerns both the plurality of distinct beings/substances and the internal articulation of a single being/substance into parts that differ in being and account. This second aspect of the problem of plurality is crucial for Aristotle’s inquiry, since his principles (matter and form) are conceived of as internal elements of natural things. So, by resolving Parmenides’ argument, Aristotle establishes the basis for his own theory of principles.
A Third and Underlying Principle
Authors: Anagnostopoulos Andreas
Published: July 2019

Physics I 6 addresses the question of the number of principles and motivates the need for an underlying principle in addition to the contrary ones argued for in chapter 5. Physics I 6 ends in aporia about whether there are two or three principles, an aporia which is resolved with Aristotle’s own account in I 7. This chapter focuses on two issues. First, it explores how Aristotle’s arguments for contrary and underlying principles give rise to the aporia. Second, it discusses Aristotle’s puzzling attitude towards, and use of, materialist views in I 6 and, more generally, in book I. Though Aristotle brings out deep tensions between his own hylomorphic conception and materialism, he also seems to downplay them for the purposes of arguing for an underlying principle. I suggest that this is a result of trying to motivate a hylomorphic conception of natural substance from within a more familiar materialist framework.
Bonhoeffer and the Idea of Christian Humanism
Authors: Zimmermann Jens
Published: July 2019

Chapter 1 prepares the ground for depicting Bonhoeffer’s theology as a form of Christian humanism. This preparatory work begins by delineating Bonhoeffer’s own initially negative use of the term humanism for all forms of thought that fail to acknowledge human beings’ radical need for God’s transforming grace: ancient Greek philosophy, secular humanism, and secular Protestantism. Even the later Bonhoeffer’s more positive attitude toward humanism remains ambivalent, resulting in the contrast between his rhetorical use of the term and the actual agreement of his theology with the substance of Christian Humanism as defined by the Christian tradition. The remainder of the chapter engages European cultural history to contextualize Bonhoeffer’s theology in light of Christian humanisms (Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant) and secular or existentialist humanisms of his time.
Oxford Weather and Climate since 1767
Authors: Burt Stephen , Burt Tim
Published: July 2019

Oxford Weather and Climate since 1767 provides a detailed description and analysis of the weather records made at the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford, the longest continuous series of single-site weather records in Britain and one of the longest in the world. The earliest records date from 1767, and daily records are unbroken since November 1813. The records allow the reconstruction of 200-year temperature and rainfall series and places the Oxford records in the context of long-term climate change. In this, the first full publication of the entire dataset, the long Oxford record is both celebrated and described. Detailed commentaries on weather by month and by season are provided, including numerous contemporary documentary and photographic evidence of past weather events. Drought and flood feature prominently, but so too do fog, frost, ice and snow. Some long-term changes are obvious, such as the increase in air temperature over the period of the instrumental record, but the impact on the growing season and the ability to grow grapes commercially near Oxford are less well known.
Oxford—Its regional, economic and climatic setting
Authors: Burt Stephen , Burt Tim
Published: July 2019

This chapter provides a brief introduction to the City of Oxford, its location, topography, climate and history. It provides a context for the weather observations presented in the rest of the book. Oxford, the county town of Oxfordshire, is located in the south Midlands of England. It lies just under 100 km west-north-west of London and 40 km north-west of Reading. The Radcliffe Observatory was built on the northern edge of the city in the 1770s. Since then, there has been extensive suburban development to the north. The city stands on a low-lying river terrace of the Thames, close to the present floodplain; this will influence certain aspects of the microclimate such as the incidence of fog.
Weather observations in Oxford
Authors: Burt Stephen , Burt Tim
Published: July 2019

This chapter gives some brief account of weather observations at Oxford prior to 1767, including John Locke’s observation of smoke from the Great Fire of London in 1666. However, the main purpose of the chapter is to describe the history of the Radcliffe Observatory and the work of Thomas Hornsby in its funding, design and construction. Hornsby, himself a keen meteorologist, included weather observations from the very beginning and these have been continued to the present day, both in the time when the Observatory was operated by the Radcliffe Trust and since 1935, when the Observatory has been in the ownership of Oxford University and run by the School of Geography.
Oxford’s weather in its regional context
Authors: Burt Stephen , Burt Tim
Published: July 2019

This chapter places Oxford’s climate in its regional context, including urban weather and ranging in scale from the Thames Valley and south-east England to the influence of the North Atlantic and the European continent. Oxford’s weather does not happen in isolation. Aside from perhaps the most local of rain showers or thunderstorms, the origins of the atmospheric conditions resulting in any particular day’s weather in Oxford may lie much further afield. For this reason, any particular day or spell of weather as experienced at the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford will normally share some characteristics with the weather recorded tens if not hundreds of kilometres distant from Oxford. In the chapter, use is made of weather indices, including Lamb Weather Types and the North Atlantic Oscillation index. In addition, reference is made both to Oxford’s synoptic climatology as well as to notable spells of weather.
The annual cycle
Authors: Burt Stephen , Burt Tim
Published: July 2019

This chapter sets out the basis of the annual cycle of weather at Oxford, which is then considered in more detail in the individual monthly and seasonal chapters which follow. Averages for the current standard period of 1981–2010 are used throughout the book to compare with previous data.
May
Authors: Burt Stephen , Burt Tim
Published: July 2019

Chapter 11 provides a detailed analysis of the long weather record at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford for May. Averages and extremes of temperature, precipitation and sunshine are presented, with coverage relevant to the month or season including the incidence of snowfall, thunderstorms, gales and the like, illustrated by contemporary accounts and photography. Each chapter ends with a complete time series of the mean temperature, total precipitation and total sunshine for the month or season from the entire record, updated to 2018.
November
Authors: Burt Stephen , Burt Tim
Published: July 2019

Chapter 17 provides a detailed analysis of the long weather record at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford for November. Averages and extremes of temperature, precipitation and sunshine are presented, with coverage relevant to the month or season including the incidence of snowfall, thunderstorms, gales and the like, illustrated by contemporary accounts and photography. Each chapter ends with a complete time series of the mean temperature, total precipitation and total sunshine for the month or season from the entire record, updated to 2018.
Oxford’s ‘top ten’ extremes
Authors: Burt Stephen , Burt Tim
Published: July 2019

This chapter sets out the extremes of temperature, precipitation and snow depth, sunshine, considering both daily values as well as monthly means on the long record from the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, fully updated to 2018.
Coda
Authors: Riley Peter
Published: July 2019

Frank O’Hara’s work at the “Museum of Modern Art” is read as marking a moment when the subversive potential of distraction was refolded back into the logic of vocational modernity—ultimately becoming refigured as a new hyper-self-conscious mode of depoliticized productivity (O’Hara’s preoccupied persona on the page fell well within the remit of his cosmopolitan profession). The coda ends with a discussion of the ways in which “continuous partial attention” and the new “flexibility” might be resisted (particularly within the academy), and reflects on how the possibilities of a living sensuous activity might fall outside the divisive logic of market-driven productivity and be reaffirmed..
Searches for new, massive particles with AMO experiments
Authors: DeMille David
Published: July 2019

These lectures aim to explain how certain types of atomic, molecular, and optical physics experiments can have a substantial impact in modern particle physics. A central pedagogical goal is to describe, using only concepts familiar to atomic experimentalists, how new particles can lead to new terms in the atomic or molecular Hamiltonian. Well-motivated examples are discussed, including potential dark matter candidates known as “dark photons”, known and as-yet unknown Higgs bosons, and supersymmetric particles leading to CP violation. The observable effects of new Hamiltonian terms associated with these phenomena are worked out, and state-of-the-art strategies for detecting them, using atomic and molecular experiments, are described for some cases. Remarkably, the sensitivity of atomic/molecular experiments can make it possible to detect new particles even more massive than those that can be created directly at the largest high-energy colliders.
Frequency combs and precision spectroscopy of atomic hydrogen
Authors: Udem Thomas
Published: July 2019

A laser frequency comb allows the phase coherent conversion of the very rapid oscillations of visible light of some 100s of THz down to frequencies that can be handled with conventional electronics. This capability has enabled the most precise laser spectroscopy experiments yet, which have allowed the testing of quantum electrodynamics, to determine fundamental constants and to construct an optical atomic clock. The chapter reviews the development of the frequency comb, derives its properties, and discusses its application for high resolution spectroscopy of atomic hydrogen.
Hanbury Brown and Twiss, Hong Ou and Mandel effects and other landmarks in quantum optics: from photons to atoms
Authors: Aspect Alain
Published: July 2019

The second quantum revolution is based on the concept of entanglement and the ability to observe and manipulate individual quantum objects. This notion was prompted by celebrated quantum optics landmark experiments. The author’s group has endeavored to revisit these experiments with atoms instead of photons, more precisely metastable helium atoms (He*), which can be detected one by one, as photons. The first landmark that announced the beginning of modern quantum optics was the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect: it has been studied not only with 4He* atoms, which are bosons, but also with 3He* atoms, which are fermions. The group has then observed the atomic Hong Ou and Mandel effect, and, more recently, shown the possibility to use a slightly generalized scheme to test Bell’s inequalities with atoms entangled in momentum.
Ocean Recovery
Authors: Hilborn Ray , Hilborn Ulrike
Published: July 2019

Over the last 2 decades, the scientific and popular media have been bombarded by gloom-and-doom stories on the future of fisheries, the status of fish stocks, and the impact of fishing on marine ecosystems. Dozens of certification and labeling schemes have emerged to advise consumers on what seafood is sustainable. In recent years, an opposing narrative has emerged emphasizing the success of fisheries management in many places, the increasing abundance of fish stocks in those places, and the prescription for sustainable fisheries. However, there has been no comprehensive survey of what really constitutes sustainability in fisheries, fish stock status, success and failures of management, and consideration of the impacts of fishing on marine ecosystems. This book will explore very different perspectives on sustainability and bring together the data from a large number of studies to show where fish stocks are increasing, where they are declining, the consequences of alternative fisheries management regimes, and what is known about a range of fisheries issues such as the impacts of trawling on marine ecosystems. Aimed principally at a general audience that is already interested in fisheries but seeks both a deeper understanding of what is known about specific issues and an impartial presentation of all of the data rather than selected examples used to justify a particular perspective or agenda. It will also appeal to the scientific community eager to know more about marine fisheries and fishing data, and serve as the basis for graduate seminars on the sustainability of natural resources.
How Fisheries Are Managed
Authors: Hilborn Ray , Hilborn Ulrike
Published: July 2019

How Fisheries Are Managed. In traditional fisheries management, local communities controlled a certain defined area, a form of exclusive access to the resource that relied on a cohesive community with strong leadership. The main alternative has been regulation by a central government by limiting fishing effort and catch and monitoring stocks via its own science and research institutions. Such top-down management has been quite successful in achieving sustainability for many large fisheries, but it is difficult and expensive to implement for small fisheries.
Bottom Trawling
Authors: Hilborn Ray , Hilborn Ulrike
Published: July 2019

Bottom Trawling. One of the most common ways to catch fish is by dragging nets along the seafloor. This causes changes in the plants and animals that live there. When the same areas are trawled frequently, the community on the seafloor can be drastically changed. Long-lived species such as corals and sponges are severely affected. Approximately 15 percent of the continental shelf of the world is being trawled each year, with great variability between regions. Where trawl frequency is low, the seafloor communities are only lightly impacted. Most trawling is concentrated in the same, highly productive areas, year in and year out.
Night Raiders
Authors: Moss Eloise
Published: July 2019

Night Raiders: Burglary and the Making of Modern Urban Life in London, 1860–1968 is the first history of burglary in modern Britain. Until 1968, burglary was defined in law as occurring only between the ‘night-time’ hours of nine p.m. and six a.m. in residential buildings. Time and space gave burglary a unique cloak of terror, since burglars’ victims were likely to be in the bedroom, asleep and unawares, when the intruder crept in, prowling near them in the darkness. Yet fear sometimes gave way to sexual fantasy. Eroticized visions of handsome young thieves sneaking around the boudoirs of beautiful, lonely heiresses emerged alongside tales of violence and loss in popular culture, confounding social commentators by casting the burglar as criminal hero. Night Raiders charts how burglary lay historically at the heart of national debates over the meanings of ‘home’, experiences of urban life, and social inequality. This book explores intimate stories of the devastation caused by burglars’ presence in the most private domains, showing how they are deeply embedded within broader histories of capitalism and liberal democracy. The fear and fascination towards burglary were mobilized by media, state, and market to sell insurance and security technologies, whilst also popularizing the crime in fiction, theatre, and film. Cat burglars’ rooftop adventures transformed ideas about the architecture and policing of the city, and post-war ‘spy-burglars’ theft of information illuminated Cold War skirmishes across the capital. More than any other crime, burglary shaped the everyday rhythms, purchases, and perceptions of modern urban life.
The Cat Burglar as London’s Rooftop Threat
Authors: Moss Eloise
Published: July 2019

First described in 1907, ‘cat’ burglars’ reputation as extraordinarily athletic thieves and rooftop-dwellers was cemented during the 1920s, when the feline burglars appeared to ransack the West End mansions of the wealthy with frightening regularity—according to the press. Disregarding the regulated concourse of the street to reach their victims via window, wall, and roof, cat burglars forever altered received wisdom on how London as an environment could be manipulated and experienced, and how it needed to be policed. The fact that all this took place at night as well gave added lustre to these thieves’ well-publicized exploits. An entirely new sub-category of crime thus emerged as space, time, and identity became intertwined around burglary. Concurrently, the material residue of cat burglars’ rooftop escapades—broken tiles and drainpipes, soil-marks on walls, etc.—encouraged new modes of policing and regulation based on the developing practice of forensic science. This chapter considers the geographical signifiers associated with burglars’ activities across the ‘public’ spaces of the city. It argues that accounts of burglars’ unusual mobility when travelling to victims’ houses evoked fears surrounding the erosion of London’s social boundaries, through suburbanization bringing working, middle, and upper classes into closer proximity than ever before, and via disruptive new modes of travel such as the car and Underground railway. In so doing, it shows that contemporary understandings of how London as an environment could be manipulated and experienced were fundamentally revised in relation to burglary.
Spy-Burglars and Secrets in the Cold War Capital
Authors: Moss Eloise
Published: July 2019

During the late-1940s a spate of burglaries from residences attached to the Soviet Embassy afforded an unexpected window onto the activities of those engaged in Cold War espionage, both perpetrated by Russian agents living in London and directed against them by British operatives. Thrillingly, they exposed how London’s burglary problem offered a convenient cloak to disguise thefts of information more priceless than jewels. This chapter analyses instances of espionage in which burglary featured, both real and fictive, in order to expose how London’s distinctive criminal character was a factor in shaping international politics in this era. The burglaries of residences attached to the Soviet Embassy in London, and subsequent wrangling over culpability and evidence of the crimes with those involved, mark a little-known aspect of the escalating tensions between the Soviet Union and the Foreign Office under Ernest Bevin. Later intrigues involving burglary reveal another intersection between espionage and what has been termed the ‘cultural’ cold war. It is unsurprising that burglary figured in the hugely popular spy novels of Ian Fleming and John Le Carré; the burglar—especially the ‘spy burglar’, a label coined during the early 1960s—was as much a central protagonist on the stage of the post-war metropolis as the suave ‘man about town’ or the ‘spiv’.
Iran
Authors: Balzacq Thierry , Ramadan-Alban Wendy
Published: July 2019

This chapter argues that Iran’s grand strategy has and is torn between three tensions: the prioritization of an Islamic identity versus attaining economic prosperity the use of an offensive or defensive military strategy and its self-conception as a revolutionary or “normal” state. Historically Iran has striven to reconcile these inherently ambivalent goals through the “principle of equilibrium” (tavãzon). This chapter demonstrates how tavãzon shapes Iran’s grand strategy. While these countervailing forces do account for some continuity in Iran’s strategy over time they can conversely result in abrupt changes in response to systemic shifts. Iran’s current strategic imperative is thus driven by three factors: the jostling internal power struggle between factions the economic imperatives chastened by sanctions and most proximately its hostile relations with Saudi Arabia and Israel. In this context Iranian policy elites have consolidated around a military strategy of asymmetric deterrence.
Saudi Arabia
Authors: Hetou Ghaidaa
Published: July 2019

This chapter evaluates the formulation, implementation, and consistency of Saudi Arabia’s grand strategy since 1979. It examines how internal and regional factors influenced that strategy through the optic of a series of critical regional turning points, often overlain by shifting US debates on the Kingdom’s regional role. The chapter delineates why Saudi elites prioritize certain long-term objectives, how they perceive threats, and why they respond in specific ways. Its guiding conceptual framework is informed by four elements: the Kingdom’s dominant strategic culture, its political system, perception of national security, and regional alliance formations. The chapter demonstrates how the current Saudi establishment’s ability to sustain a grand strategy—primarily a regional role—is closely linked to its economic power, financial solvency, and internal stability.
Wordsworth, Coleridge, and 'the language of the heavens'
Authors: Owens Thomas
Published: July 2019

This book explores some of the exultant visions inspired by Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s close scrutiny of the night sky, the natural world, and the domains of science. It examines a set of scientific patterns drawn from natural, geometric, celestial, and astronomical sources which Wordsworth and Coleridge used to express their ideas about poetry, religion, literary criticism, and philosophy. It establishes the central important of analogy in their creative thinking. Analogies prompted the poets’ imaginings in geometry and cartography, in nature (representations of the Moon) and natural history (studies of spider-webs, streams, and dew), in calculus and conical refraction, and in the discovery of infra-red and ultraviolet light. Although this is primarily a study of the patterns which inspired their writing, the findings overturn the prevalent critical consensus that Wordsworth and Coleridge did not have the access, interest, or capacity to understand the latest developments in nineteenth-century astronomy and mathematics, which they did in fact possess. This research reinstates many relationships which the poets had with scientists and their sources. Most significantly, the book illustrates that these sources are not simply another context or historical lens through which to engage with Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s work but are instead a controlling device of the symbolic imagination. Exploring the structures behind Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s poems and metaphysics stakes out a return to the evidence of the Romantic imagination, not for its own sake, but in order to reveal that their analogical configuration of the world provided them with a scaffold for thinking, an intellectual orrery which ordered artistic consciousness and which they never abandoned.
Epilogue
Authors: Owens Thomas
Published: July 2019

The Epilogue examines Coleridge’s reception and influence at the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1833, and explores his small role in the nomenclature of Victorian science. The mythography that elevated Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s scientific standing above that of his forebears is shown to be false, although it played into Counter-Enlightenment narratives of the sort propounded by Isaiah Berlin, who contended that for the Romantics ‘Science is submission’. In fact, Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s compulsively analogical imaginations awakened in them a lasting curiosity for scientific structures which parallels Tennyson’s own scientific allegiances. It was a trajectory that they experienced together, on the Somersetshire hills, in the pages of the Philosophical Transactions, and in the poems, schemes, and experiments which culminated in Wordsworth’s pivotal 1802 amendments to the Preface to Lyrical Ballads.
Coils
Authors: Burnham Michelle
Published: July 2019

This chapter reads Charles Brockden Brown’s 1799 novel Ormond in the context of Philadelphia’s newly intimate commercial relationship with the East Indies during the final decades of the eighteenth century. The novel draws from accounts of the Pacific and Siberia by such figures as Maurice Benyowsky, August von Kotzebue, and John Ledyard. Ormond embodies many of the features of the new merchant millionaires whose Philadelphia fortunes derived from transoceanic speculations in the East India trade. Such a transoceanic context aligns Ormond’s revolutionary politics with the logic and temporality of global finance capital rather than the Illuminati conspiracy with which he is often associated. Similarly, the narrative pace of Ormond mimics the expectant temporalities of financial investment and revolutionary discourse to show how seductive spectacles of the future distract us from the present acts of violence necessary to arrive at them.
Cycles
Authors: Burnham Michelle
Published: July 2019

This chapter situates William Earle’s 1800 novel Obi within a network of texts—including histories, natural histories, poems, and travel narratives—that surface the novel’s engagement with the profitable business of botanical transplantation which, at the turn into the nineteenth century, depended on connections between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Earle aligns human bodies with plants in order to represent the slave trade as a destructive form of transplantation and amputation. Drawing from Erasmus Darwin’s poem Botanic Garden, the novel Obi advances a “vegetable economy” in which revolution is a natural, botanical response to the violent transplantation project of the Atlantic slave trade. The surprisingly transoceanic and political life of plants during this period therefore forms the backdrop for the novel’s anti-slavery argument, which aligns human bodies with the bodies of plants and understands plantation slavery in terms of botanical transplantation.
Epilogue
Authors: Burnham Michelle
Published: July 2019

The Epilogue proposes new methods and approaches for developing a transoceanic American literary history. These include the practices of transoceanic drifting and archival diving to identify forgotten or distant texts, including traditions of reprint and translation. A transoceanic American literary studies does not claim that there is anything particularly or uniquely American about the texts it studies, regardless of where they were published or what language they were written in; but it does claim that this larger archive and context must be taken into account in any attempt to rewrite American literary history in relation to the globe. A global American literary history asks us to imagine America as at once central to and yet profoundly decentered from the globe and its connections, part of both Atlantic and Pacific oceans that are in turn linked to the rest of the planet’s waterworlds.
The Setting
Authors: Marshall P. J.
Published: July 2019

Although an era of prosperity lay ahead for it, the British Caribbean in the mid-eighteenth century seemed to be at a point of crisis. Its sugar was losing its export markets to more productive French colonies, while its smaller islands seemed to be worked out. More territory was urgently needed. This sense of crisis and the need for expansion are themes in the chapter on the West Indies in Edmund and William Burke’s Account of the European Settlements in America of 1757. The Seven Years War enabled the British to seize islands from the French. Conquests retained at the peace of 1763 were limited to the four Ceded Islands, but they set off a speculative scramble for potential new sugar land. Burke’s close friend William Burke and his brother Richard sought to profit from the new conquests in the West Indies by winning public offices in them. Although they failed to make their fortunes, they focused Edmund’s interest on the Caribbean.
William Burke and Guadeloupe
Authors: Marshall P. J.
Published: July 2019

William Burke gained the very desirable office of Secretary in the new regime established in the French island of Guadeloupe after the British conquest of 1758. The autonomy guaranteed to the French population under the terms of Guadeloupe’s surrender, however, limited the pecuniary advantages which he could obtain there. For much of his tenure he was in Britain, where he orchestrated a vigorous campaign for Guadeloupe to be turned into a permanent British colony. In his pamphlets, William, assisted by Edmund, argued cogently for greater value to be attached to gains in the Caribbean than to territorial aggrandizement on the North American continent. He was opposed by Benjamin Franklin among others. Whatever their merits, William’s arguments could not overturn long-established strategic priorities, in which new acquisitions in the West Indies did not feature highly. Guadeloupe went back to France in 1763 and William lost his office.
The Making of the Free Ports Act
Authors: Marshall P. J.
Published: July 2019

Burke became involved with West Indian issues at the very beginning of his political career. The brief Rockingham administration of 1765–6 was committed to measures to improve flows of trade around the British Atlantic, of which the West Indies was a crucial component. As the prime minister’s secretary, Burke was deeply involved in these measures. The main problem which they sought to remedy was the inability of the British West Indies to produce commodities needed in other parts of the Atlantic in sufficient quantities. These commodities were principally sugar and raw cotton for Britain and molasses for British North America. The remedy chosen was to allow foreign supplies of these commodities to enter the British system through what were called free ports in two British islands—Dominica and Jamaica. Burke was particularly influential in the provisions of the act relating to Dominica, whose ports were intended to draw in produce, especially raw cotton, from French islands that the British had occupied during the war. In return, they would export British manufactures and slaves to foreign colonies. Getting the act through Parliament required the careful balancing of interests, notably those of the North American colonies and of the West Indies. Burke was in the thick of these negotiations, forming many contacts with merchants. The act, by letting in foreign produce to British islands, marked a significant breach in the hitherto sacrosanct doctrine of imperial self-sufficiency.
The Negro Code
Authors: Marshall P. J.
Published: July 2019

What came to be known as Burke’s ‘Negro Code’ was a draft for an act of Parliament, whose aim was to put an end over a long period to ‘all traffic in the persons of men’ and to the holding of them in ‘a state of slavery’. The measures to bring this about were comprehensive and detailed. ‘Civilization and improvement’ were to be spread in Africa by the exertion of British influence, so that other forms of trade would replace slaving. Improved conditions for the slaves were to be imposed in the West Indies, so that the enslaved population would reproduce itself and there would be no need to import new slaves. By religious instruction, the cultivation of family life, and the acquisition of property rights, the enslaved were to be gradually prepared to become a free labour force. Underlying this very ambitious programme were assumptions about the backwardness of Africa on the universal scale of human progress, which necessitated outside influence for it to develop beyond the barbarism of enslaving its people, and about the degradation of the slave populations, which meant they would not be fit for freedom for a very long time. Probably drafted in 1780, Burke’s Code was almost immediately overtaken by the mass popular movement to abolish the slave trade.
Abolition, Revolution, and Renewed War
Authors: Marshall P. J.
Published: July 2019

After 1783 and the presentation of a Quaker petition to Parliament, a highly organized campaign for the immediate abolition of the slave trade gained strong public support. Until 1788, Buke seems to have maintained his preference for the comprehensive reforms over a long period that he had outlined in his Negro Code. In the parliamentary debates from 1788 to 1791, however, he openly sided with immediate abolition. Thereafter, evidently concerned by the extent to which abolition of the slave trade was coming to be identified with other radical reforms, which he deplored, and perhaps concerned at the prospect that revolutionary upheavals in the French West Indies would spread to the British islands, he reverted to being an advocate of gradual reform. He submitted his Code to ministers in 1792 and it was later taken up by those who were looking for an alternative to abolition. By then, the West Indies were taking a lower place than the threat of Revolutionary France in Burke’s calculations. In previous wars he had pressed for British resources to be sent to the West Indies. Now he regarded West Indian campaigns as a diversion from the European war. At the very end of his life, however, the resources of the West Indies helped to relieve his acute financial difficulties. He was awarded a crown pension on funds derived from West Indian duties.
Introduction to Probability
Authors: Donovan Therese M. , Mickey Ruth M.
Published: July 2019

In this chapter, the concept of probability is introduced. The rolling of a die is an example of a random process: the face that comes up is subject to chance. In probability, the goal is to quantify such a random process. That is, we want to assign a number to it. This chapter introduces some basic terms used in the study of probability; by the end of the chapter, the reader will be able to define the following terms: sample space, outcome, discrete outcome, event, probability, probability distribution, trial, empirical distribution, and Law of Large Numbers. Using an example, the chapter focuses on a single characteristic and introduces basic vocabulary associated with probability.
Joint, Marginal, and Conditional Probability
Authors: Donovan Therese M. , Mickey Ruth M.
Published: July 2019

This chapter introduces additional terms and concepts used in the study of probability, including Venn diagrams, independent events, and dependent events. The chapter focuses on two characteristics observed at the same time. In the example given in the chapter, the characteristics are eye dominance (i.e., left eye dominance or right eye dominance) and the presence or absence of “Morton’s toe” (Morton’s toe is a large second metatarsal which is longer than that the first metatarsal, or big toe; less than 20% of the human population has this condition). The chapter then analyses the distribution of these characteristics, both separately and simultaneously. In doing so, the chapter introduce the important concepts of joint probability, marginal probability, and conditional probability.
The Portrait Problem: Bayesian Inference with Joint Likelihood
Authors: Donovan Therese M. , Mickey Ruth M.
Published: July 2019

Chapter 7 discusses the “Portrait Problem,” which concerns the dispute about whether a portrait frequently associated with Thomas Bayes (and used, in fact, as the cover of this book!) is actually a picture of him. In doing so, the chapter highlights the fact that multiple pieces of information can be used in a Bayesian analysis. A key concept in this chapter is that multiple sources of data can be combined in a Bayesian inference framework. The main take-home point is that Bayesian analysis can be very, very flexible. A Bayesian analysis is possible as long as the likelihood of observing the data under each hypothesis can be computed. The chapter also discusses the concepts of joint likelihood and independence.
The Survivor Problem: Simple Linear Regression with MCMC
Authors: Donovan Therese M. , Mickey Ruth M.
Published: July 2019

While one of the most common uses of Bayes’ Theorem is in the statistical analysis of a dataset (i.e., statistical modeling), this chapter examines another application of Gibbs sampling: parameter estimation for simple linear regression. In the “Survivor Problem,” the chapter considers the relationship between how many days a contestant lasts in a reality-show competition as a function of how many years of formal education they have. This chapter is a bit more complicated than the previous chapter because it involves estimation of the joint posterior distribution of three parameters. As in earlier chapters, the estimation process is described in detail on a step-by-step basis. Finally, the posterior predictive distribution is estimated and discussed. By the end of the chapter, the reader will have a firm understanding of the following concepts: linear equation, sums of squares, posterior predictive distribution, and linear regression with Markov Chain Monte Carlo and Gibbs sampling.
The Survivor Problem Continued: Introduction to Bayesian Model Selection
Authors: Donovan Therese M. , Mickey Ruth M.
Published: July 2019

This chapter provides a very brief introduction to Bayesian model selection. The “Survivor Problem” is expanded in this chapter, where the focus is now on comparing two models that predict how long a contestant will last in a game of Survivor: one model uses years of formal education as a predictor, and a second model uses grit as a predictor. Gibbs sampling is used for parameter estimation. Deviance Information Criterion (commonly abbreviated as DIC) is used as a guide for model selection. Details of how this measure is computed are described. The chapter also discusses model assessment (model fit) and Occam’s razor.
The Once-ler Problem: Introduction to Decision Trees
Authors: Donovan Therese M. , Mickey Ruth M.
Published: July 2019

In the “Once-ler Problem,” the decision tree is introduced as a very useful technique that can be used to answer a variety of questions and assist in making decisions. This chapter builds on the “Lorax Problem” introduced in Chapter 19, where Bayesian networks were introduced. A decision tree is a graphical representation of the alternatives in a decision. It is closely related to Bayesian networks except that the decision problem takes the shape of a tree instead. The tree itself consists of decision nodes, chance nodes, and end nodes, which provide an outcome. In a decision tree, probabilities associated with chance nodes are conditional probabilities, which Bayes’ Theorem can be used to estimate or update. The calculation of expected values (or expected utility) of competing alternative decisions is provided on a step-by-step basis with an example from The Lorax.
Proportionality and Constitutional Governance
Authors: Sweet Alec Stone , Mathews Jud
Published: July 2019

The chapter explains why enforcement of the proportionality principle has become the central procedural component of constitutional governance in the world today. Part I argues that proportionality analysis [PA]—with its distinctive sequence of subtests culminating in balancing—neatly fits the structure of qualified rights, providing a comprehensive analytical framework for adjudicating them. A right’s provision is “qualified” when it contains a limitation clause, which authorizes government officials to restrict the enjoyment of a right for some sufficiently important public purpose. Today, virtually all of the most powerful courts in the world deploy PA to determine whether officials have properly exercised their authority under limitation clauses. PA proceeds through a sequence of subtests: (i) “legitimacy,” or “proper purpose”; (ii) “suitability” or “rational connection”; (iii) “necessity”; and (iv) “proportionality in the strict sense.” A government measure that fails any subtest in this sequence is unlawful. Part II directs attention to the various ways in which proportionality enables judges to manage legitimacy issues associated with the judicial supremacy that comes with trusteeship. PA enables judges: to avoid creating rigid hierarchies among rights and interests; to exploit the legitimizing logics of Pareto optimality (reducing harm to the loser as much as possible); and to identify and respect the lawmaking prerogatives of the officials whose policymaking they supervise. Part III develops a simple model of constitutional governance—with rights, a duty of officials to justify their rights-regarding actions, and PA at its core—and respond to objections and alternatives.
Reason without Reasons For
Authors: Titelbaum Michael G.
Published: July 2019

Metaethicists have recently devoted a great deal of attention to questions about when a fact counts as a reason for or against a particular conclusion, and how such reasons interact. Chapter 9 asks a broader question: When a set of facts counts in favor of some conclusion, is that always because at least one of those facts is a reason for that conclusion? Examples are offered in which a set supports a conclusion without any fact in that set’s being a reason for. The chapter then assesses the significance of such examples for philosophical methodology, the ‘reasons-first’ program, and metanormative realism.
Trajectories of Development and the Global Clothing Industry
Authors: Nattrass Nicoli , Seekings Jeremy
Published: July 2019

Chapter 4 provides a history and analysis of development trajectories in the global clothing industry. Trade liberalization (specifically the end of import quotas from January 2005) and the rise of global value chains have changed the nature of the global economy since Lewis’s time. We use UNIDO data on remuneration, output, and employment to identify post-2004 national development trajectories showing that upgrading trajectories can be pro-labour (a rising wage share of value-added) or pro-capital (a rising profit share). Pro-labour trajectories can deliver rising average wages and employment (e.g. India and China) or higher average wages for fewer workers (e.g. Sri Lanka). Pro-capital trajectories can also deliver higher average wages and employment growth (e.g. Vietnam) or rising wages for fewer workers (e.g. South Africa). Downgrading trajectories are typically associated with falling average wages but can be associated with rising average wages (as in Turkey). The desirability of a particular development trajectory depends on the economic context, especially labour market conditions.