bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Voodoo in Harlem
Authors: Osei Adjoa
Published: December 2024

Elsie Houston was inspired by the Harlem Renaissance. Alongside her, other performers, such as the African American dancer Katherine Dunham and the Trinidadian dancer Beryl McBurnie, drew on primitivism as a means through which to express the distinction and modernity of black cultures. African-derived folk cultures, as well as US-imagined ideas about Haitian Voudou, became metaphors for black life in art by both black and white creatives. Elsie was enmeshed in a network of bohemian transnationals in New York. She performed at clubs, where she amped up the mystical element of her act by performing in darkened rooms illuminated with candelabras. Newspapers framed Elsie as a freakish novelty, and titillated readers’ imaginations with gothic-esque articles about Elsie the “voodoo songstress” and a primitive, black Brazil.
The Primitive Quality of the Modern
Authors: Osei Adjoa
Published: December 2024

In New York City, Elsie Houston engaged with the artistic fervor of the Harlem Renaissance by exploring music across the African diaspora. She performed African American spirituals, afrocubanismo songs inspired by Abakuá, and Brazilian songs taken from African-based religions such as Candomblé. Elsie’s repertoire celebrated the diverse scope of the modern black experience, and this was a way for her to reject racism. She appeared on stage alongside other artists from across the diaspora such as the Trinidadian dancer Beryl McBurnie and the drumming and dance act Haitian Rada Group. Elsie was also photographed by the Harlem Renaissance photographer Carl Van Vechten in 1940. However, as a lighter-skinned, mixed-race, upper-class Brazilian, Elsie was not consistently recognized as black in the United States, and for some African American critics, she breached the line between cultural celebration and cultural appropriation. Elsie’s conception of racism in Brazil vis-à-vis the United States is also explored.
Introduction
Authors: Clubb Gordon , Scrivens Ryan , Islam Md. Didarul
Published: December 2024

Former extremists and former combatants can make an important contribution to preventing and countering violent extremism, and programs across the world have to varying degrees and roles sought to involve formers in their work. The earlier enthusiasm for involving formers has given way to a more nuanced view that individual and contextual factors have a significant influence on if, when, and how formers should be involved in such initiatives. The introduction sets out the objectives of the book, which center on unpacking the different conditions surrounding the involvement of formers in violence prevention work. Specifically, the introduction outlines contentions with the label of ‘former’ itself by distinguishing between the role-type as an analytical category and reflecting on the stigmatizing harms that labelling individuals as formers can create. Finally, we give an overview of the book chapters written by a combination of academic researchers and practitioners.
“Informed Informants”
Authors: Lakhani Suraj
Published: December 2024

Former extremists have been employed widely in the field of preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) for several decades. The underlying assumption for their involvement in P/CVE was, and continues to be, the potentially higher levels of milieu-specific knowledge, personal experience, and expertise in detecting and countering extremist radicalization, as well as a strong intrinsic credibility when working to persuade others not to become attracted to extremist environments (primary prevention) or convince radicalized individuals to quit extremism and accompany them in this process (secondary and tertiary prevention). However, little empirical evidence beyond mostly anecdotal and descriptive accounts exists regarding this assumed effectiveness. This chapter summarizes the available literature and assesses the current state of evidence to highlight the most important steps forward. Most important, experimental and quasi-experimental evaluation designs are inevitable to determine when, why, and how formers are effective in P/CVE.
Missed Potential for Former Fighters’ Involvement in Conflict Prevention
Authors: Friðriksdóttir Guðrún Sif
Published: December 2024

This chapter analyzes the case of Burundi regarding how formers can be an instrumental resource in preventing and countering violent extremism works. The potential to use former fighters as active participants in conflict prevention and peacebuilding has been explored and has been fruitful in certain scenarios. In Burundi, some former fighters are interested in working toward peace and development for their community and country. These types of efforts could also prove highly beneficial toward the reintegration of ex-combatants. Despite the potential benefits of including ex-combatants in conflict prevention and peacebuilding in Burundi, their participation is limited to none. There are several reasons why this is the case, including challenges in the political environment, lack of legitimacy of former fighters, and distrust between various groups of people given the still fragile peace. A possible solution could be to have civilians and ex-combatants work in collaborative efforts toward conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
Transitioning from Former Violent Extremist to Exit Peer Specialist
Authors: Meredith Katharina , Örell Robert
Published: December 2024

This chapter analyzes the role of formers in various exit programs with a specific focus on the transitions of former extremists becoming exit peer specialists. Exit programs can increase initial contact if formers, a highly skeptical and stigmatized population, are also working at such programs. As peer supporters, former extremists can share their lived recovery experience and motivate individuals to leave extremism and start over. In this chapter, formers’ roles in exit organizations, the organizations’ responsibilities toward formers, peer support, as well as evaluation and future steps are discussed. This chapter suggests that by creating a job analysis and robust exit specialist peer training, formers may increase their effectiveness as peer supporters.
How I Understand the Role of Former as a Former Turned Activist
Authors: Shaikh Mubin
Published: December 2024

There is debate regarding the involvement and efficacy of formers both in countering extremism and in peacebuilding throughout the world. Whereas one school of thought conceives it as a worthy option to include formers in the process, the other school of thought does not consider it a viable option. But there is no denying the fact that worldwide, formers are working to different degrees in various organizations to contribute both to preventing extremism and to peacebuilding. In this chapter, the author (a former extremist turned peacebuilding activist) illustrates his own understanding about the role of formers. As a deradicalized former extremist turned human resource for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and a police agent with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Integrated National Security Enforcement Team–Toronto, he examines the reality of engaging formers in preventing and countering violent extremism settings.
Conclusion
Authors: Clubb Gordon , Scrivens Ryan , Islam Md. Didarul
Published: December 2024

While there is limited evidence for involving formers in violence prevention, this critique is equally valid for other actors in P/CVE, the argument often hinges on excluding expert experiences as a valid form of evidence, and it is based on the belief that credibility is the main measure of effectiveness. Ethical considerations raise important challenges that need addressed when involving formers, but it is also important to recognize that involving formers is motivated by ethical and normative consideration. In staking this position, we do not aim to diminish the criticisms against involving formers but rather to take on board these criticisms to develop norms and standards for involving formers in violence prevention. The most effective way to overcome these problems is the development of norms for engaging formers to provide a form of oversight and professionalization of work that will likely take place regardless of whether formers are opposed or criticized.
The Maize People
Authors: Lucero Lisa J.
Published: December 2024

This chapter highlights how the Maya mimic forest biodiversity in their fields, home gardens, and orchards to spread risk. Crops include maize, beans, and squash and a plethora of other domesticated (tomatoes, tobacco, avocados, and pineapple) and nondomesticated plants. Diverse crops and agricultural strategies (e.g., raised fields, drained fields, dams, canals, ditches, and terraces) fed a growing population sustainably without the massive deforestation we see today. Families lived in the same place for centuries, which was only possible due to their respectful relations with water, soils, and forests. A map of the ancient Maya world would show a mosaic of farmsteads, fields, cities, seasonal wetlands, and forests that mirror the diverse but dispersed soil types. The larger the plot of fertile soil, the more farmsteads there were and the bigger the cities. Vital to agricultural success was rain, which the Maya acknowledged by performing Cha’a Cháak, or rain, ceremonies.
Inside the Political Mind
Authors: Power Greg
Published: December 2024

Drawing on his experience of working with hundreds of politicians in more than sixty countries, Greg Power explores how social norms, public expectations and the personal interests of MPs influence the path of political development. Where states are weak, politicians solve problems by going around the state. From Tanzania and Nepal to Iraq and Ukraine, voters actually want MPs who can find informal fixes, and a reciprocal logic holds the system in place. But this also means that weak institutions tend to stay weak. Combining insights from behavioral economics, change management and comparative politics, this fascinating book argues for a different approach to political reform, one concerned less with institutional design and more with the existing logic of human behavior. One that starts inside the political mind, and works outwards from there.
Introduction
Authors: Power Greg
Published: December 2024

Traditional approaches to political reform have focused more on institutional process than politicians and the underlying logic of their behavior in any given country. No matter how odd it might look from the outside, there is always a logic to political behavior, shaped by norms, social mores and cultural traditions. However, such norms can create cyclical and self-defeating patterns, which are difficult to change. Understanding that interaction is key to strengthening political institutions. You should never denigrate a behavior until you have worked out what purpose it really serves. The book argues for a more behavioral approach to reform, which draws on insights from behavioral economics, change management and comparative politics, and is built around four principles: individuals over institutions; personal interest and political principle; reciprocity as a tool for reform, and; think big, act small.
What the Rules Mean
Authors: Power Greg
Published: December 2024

There are three key components in establishing some sort of political order in new systems: trust, reciprocity, and mētis. First, trust is vital as the basis for political negotiation and agreement—success in Somaliland was partly due to pre-existing networks of trust among key political figures, as they had all been to school together. Second, getting away from the sort of zero-sum politics that characterized Libya and Egypt depends on establishing a basis for reciprocity, and specifically by using economist Robert Axelrod's concept of "the shadow of the future", which ensures some certainty and familiarity between protagonists. Third, these elements are bound together through mētis as legislators develop the skills, know-how and mastery of their profession. Mētis is defined as skills that can only be built up over time and through a process of reflexive interaction between politicians. The combination of these three factors is central to giving new rules meaning and fostering further political development.
Coda
Authors: Power Greg
Published: December 2024

The way that “politics” is understood by international development agencies is very different from politics as practiced by politicians. Politics is ultimately about the fight for power. This shapes how politicians engage with each other and how political institutions evolve. International assistance tends to specialize in creating organizations rather than institutions, because they are often devoid of power and significance. If the international community is intent on trying to address the challenges to democracy worldwide and the threats of populism and polarization, it needs to help democratic politicians find the means and the motivation to protect their own institutions. The best defense against such attacks is a cohort of democratic politicians who are good at politics. No amount of global intervention will have an effect unless domestic politicians want to protect and strengthen their own institutions. Achieving that needs to start with what those politicians believe to be important in the first place—which means starting inside the political mind and working outwards from there.
Days Eleven to Thirteen and the Second Weekend
Authors: Shukman Ann
Published: December 2024

The Runcimans visit the pro-German Kinskys in the Sudetenland for another sporting weekend. They stay in the three chalets of the Kinskys’ shooting lodge at Balzhutte. The chapter describes the stalking practices for shooting capercailzies. The glamorous English-speaking international set gathered for the weekend. Among them, Alfons Clary-Aldringen, the Khuen Lutzovs, and their host were admirers of Hitler. Hilda feels at ease. A Sudeten crowd gather to petition Runciman for justice. Ashton-Gwatkin reports to the British Foreign Office that these German aristocrats despise the Czechs, fear Bolshevism, admire the English, and support the SdP.
Days Fourteen to Sixteen
Authors: Shukman Ann
Published: December 2024

The first successes of the Mission: the Negotiating Committee is re-established under the chairmanship of Milan Hodža; the Mission members win the trust of the SdP in Prague and hold regular “beer evenings” together; behind the scenes, President Beneš starts to prepare his Third Plan. There are positive reports from the Czechoslovak Government on the work of the Mission. The chapter describes Konrad Henlein, his duplicitous character, and hidden loyalty to Hitler. It goes onto explore his histrionic behavior among the Sudetens, in spite of his skillful diplomacy in England and friendship with Vansittart who had trusted him. The meeting between Runciman and Henlein (“the Chicken”) that had been arranged by the Nazifier Max Hohenlohe at Schloss Rothenhaus is not a success. There are riots at Brux.
Days Twenty-Seven to Thirty-One
Authors: Shukman Ann
Published: December 2024

Ashton-Gwatkin sends his optimistic report to Halifax without further discussions with Walter. Halifax responds directly to Runciman, rejecting any suggestions that Henlein should be allowed to play this role as he feels that it might lead to complications. Runciman denies that he had expressed any approval of Henlein’s proposals and feels that his own role is solely as a mediator between the Czech Government and the SdP. Meetings with Beneš are irregular and Beneš does not communicate about his new negotiations with Kundt and Sebekowsky. He delivers his Third Plan memorandum which Runciman states is no use for publication and a delaying tactic. Beneš is offended. London urges the Czechoslovak Government to go public with its offer. Ashton-Gwatkin meets again with Henlein before his next visit to Hitler. There is a message to say that the Mission would assist in reaching an agreement on the basis of both the Third Plan and the Carlsbad Program. Henlein is keen to distance himself from the Reich Nazis as he desires peace. Beneš considers Runciman gullible in believing this claim. Hitler dismisses Henlein by saying that England is bluffing for time but Germany is prepared for war. David Stephens joins the Mission.
Days Thirty-Eight to Forty and the Sixth Weekend
Authors: Shukman Ann
Published: December 2024

With hopes for a restful weekend, the Runcimans travel to Petrohrad with their visiting son Leslie. Armed Czech police are visible along the roadside as well as small groups of villagers giving the Hitler salute as they pass into the Sudetenland. At the Petrohrad gate, a larger group were waiting shouting “Sieg Heil” and “Runciman mach uns frei von der Tschekoslovakei”. Leslie noted his father looked exhausted, depressed, and that he went to bed early, leaving the other guests to discuss politics. Count Czernin hopes for the re-establishment of Bohemia. The chapter describes the Saturday shooting party. The SdP ask to present a memorandum to “the Lord”. They agree to return the next morning. The deputation returns on Sunday, followed by a march past led by Georg Wollner singing noisy separatist songs and shouting slogans. Runciman quietly addresses the now silent crowd as “Men and women of Bohemia” going on to express his desire for peace. The marchers leave quietly on Wollner’s command.
Wars Without End
Authors: Anderson Noel
Published: December 2024

Despite their untold human suffering, widespread destruction and loss, and far-reaching destabilization, the fires of many of the world’s most violent civil wars continue to burn. In light of their devastating effects, how can we explain the intractability of costly and stalemated, yet seemingly endless, civil wars? By situating internal conflicts within the broader geopolitical environment in which they take place, this book provides an answer. It highlights the critical role of competitive intervention—opposing, simultaneous transfers of military assistance from different third-party states to both government and rebel combatants—in the dynamics, duration, and global prevalence of internal conflict. Providing a comprehensive theoretical and empirical account of this form of external meddling, it brings together battlefield bargaining dynamics, the escalatory pressures of interstate competition, and the systemic dimensions of geopolitical rivalry in civil wars to explain how protracted fighting within states is linked to enduring competition between them. In doing so, it challenges traditional conceptions of “proxy war” by deriving new propositions about the strategic logics that motivate it, offering new and productive angles on the behaviors of armed groups, the strategies of foreign interveners, and the trajectories of internal wars. Combining statistical analyses with detailed case studies drawing on fieldwork, original interviews, declassified intelligence reports, and archival research, the book explains competitive intervention’s pernicious effects, documents its consequences for civil wars, and proposes policy prescriptions aimed at resolving some of today’s most intractable conflicts.
Standing for the Counter-Revolution, 1794–6
Authors: Gilks David
Published: December 2024

This chapter substantiates Barras’s verdict that Quatremère ‘stood for the counter-revolution with distinction’. The first part shows how Quatremère humoured the Thermidorian Republic in public whilst questioning its foreign policy and depoliticizing state funding for painting, sculpture, and architecture. The second part examines how, in response to royalist setbacks, Quatremère joined writers and politicians who attacked the Convention’s Law of Two Thirds. He condemned the Thermidorians as Robespierre’s heirs and co-organized the Vendémiaire revolt, for which he was tried in absentia by a military tribunal while he was hiding in Paris. The chapter concludes by identifying Quatremère as the author of several polemical writings, which accused the Republic of abusing the arts and sciences and squandering France’s material, spiritual, and intellectual heritage.
The Mask of Constitutionalism, 1796–9
Authors: Gilks David
Published: December 2024

This chapter examines Quatremère’s life under the Directorial Republic after a sympathetic jury acquitted him of conspiring against the state. It describes how he became a leading Clichyean deputy in the Council of Five Hundred, where he exploited his role as a legislator to advance the Clichy club’s politics and attack the ruination of art and education since 1789. Despite wearing what he called the ‘mask of constitutionalism’, the Directory prescribed him after the Fructidor coup. The chapter concludes by shedding light on his exile in Eutin and the conservative Christian intellectuals who influenced his critique of the ‘materialist’ way of seeing, which he blamed on idéologie, the desacralization of art, and recent ‘mania for collecting’.
Army Reform in the Ottoman Empire
Authors: Zürcher Erik Jan
Published: December 2024

By the early nineteenth century important sections of the Ottoman ruling elite had concluded that the empire would only be able to withstand the onslaught of European powers, particularly Russia, by adopting the key elements that supported European military power: a professional officer corps, modern armaments, and conscription. Over the period of half a century a powerful army was indeed built, but at great cost. Under the pressure of imperialism, the empire was unable to raise its tax income sufficiently. It therefore had to borrow from Europe. As a guarantee for the state debt, it had to hand over control of ever larger parts of its economy to its European creditors. This was the Ottoman paradox: independent military strength was bought at the expense of economic dependency. Yet, it can be argued that without the investment in the modern Ottoman army, the post-World War I resistance out of which the Republic of Turkey was born, would not have been possible.
Extraterritoriality and Capitulations in Qajar Iran
Authors: Chehabi H. E. , Gheissari Ali
Published: December 2024

As a result of losing two wars against Russia, Iran had to conclude an unequal treaty with it that granted Russian subjects extraterritorial rights, known as “capitulations.” Soon other powers demanded and received similar concessions. To be freed of this burden, Iran had to modernize its legal system so as to allow foreigners to receive a fair trial. Conservative opposition prevented this throughout the nineteenth century, as it would have meant granting equal rights to Muslims and non-Muslims, which is against the Sharia. It was only in the 1920s that the conservative opposition was overcome and a new legal system was established, allowing the capitulations to be abrogated in 1928.
Ottoman Royal Uses of Western Symbolism and Pageantry in the Imperial Age
Authors: Eldem Edhem
Published: December 2024

Some of the most visible aspects of Ottoman modernization during the long nineteenth century are linked to a top-down Westernization process in which the sultan and his immediate entourage played a central role. From Selim III at the turn of the nineteenth century to the collapse of the empire after World War I, imperial symbolism and pageantry were constantly invented, displayed, and revisited to convey a message of modernity in tune with the norms and forms set by contemporary European states. Driven by a strong desire to emulate the West, this visual and symbolic overhaul of the imperial image was initially almost exclusively directed at foreign audiences and was often fraught with inconsistency due to cultural and ideological differences. As such, it suffered from a considerable degree of superficiality and from an overall predominance of form over content, a feature that seems to have plagued Ottoman, and later Turkish, modernization cum Westernization.
Korea’s Fall
Authors: Larsen Kirk W.
Published: December 2024

Korea’s fall into Japanese colonial rule in 1910 ended what was arguably at least one thousand years of sovereign autonomy. 1910 was presaged by gunboat diplomacy and the introduction of Korea into Westphalian norms and practices carried out by a variety of actors ranging from significant Western powers like Great Britain and France to Asian powers including Japan and the Qing empire (China). Korea experienced the unilateral informal imperialism of Meiji Japan followed by the multilateral informal imperialism of the East Asian treaty port system and then the increasingly aggressive competition between Japan, China, and Russia for dominance on the peninsula. While fingers of blame have pointed at a variety of culprits for Korea’s 1910 disappearance from the map, this story might fruitfully be reimagined as one not of failure and blame but of strength and surprising durability.
Sanitation
Authors: Dye Christopher
Published: December 2024

Despite thousands of years of toilet culture and technology, and despite the obvious benefits of sanitation for health and wellbeing, 3.5 billion people alive today do not have access to a safe system for removing human waste. The installation of sanitary systems requires cooperation among many kinds of providers and users. Their collective goal is to combine the benefits for health with personal and social preferences for toilet use and hygiene, while exploiting other benefits from agriculture, energy, education, environmental protection, housing, and flood protection. For individuals, families, and communities, toilets are not merely, or even mainly, to protect health. Rather their acceptability hinges on convenience, privacy, personal safety, and dignity, where preferences are rooted in societal norms. Consensus in the ‘co-production’ of sanitary systems is easier to achieve through collective ownership in small communities; decisive leadership and large investments are needed to build sanitary systems at a national scale. Universal safe sanitation is costly—however, historical and contemporary international comparisons suggest that, with growing wealth, all countries will eventually have safe sanitation systems that are integral to personal, social, and economic wellbeing. Setting the many benefits against the costs will get them there more quickly.
Climate change
Authors: Dye Christopher
Published: December 2024

Climate change is prevention’s greatest challenge—its effects on health and wellbeing will be large, diverse, long-term, and global. This chapter examines how health can benefit from, contribute to, and motivate actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The main challenge for mitigation (primary prevention) is to raise the price of carbon, quantitatively and qualitatively, so as to drive global greenhouse gas emissions to ‘net zero’ or lower, and fast enough to keep global warming below 2℃. The task for health experts is to price health into the cost of carbon so as to influence decisions made via carbon taxes, emission trading schemes, renewable energy subsidies, and the application of laws and regulations. Because mitigation is slow, adaptation (secondary prevention) will play an accelerating role in protecting lives and livelihoods. Local adaptation to counter foreseeable local threats—droughts, extreme temperatures, flooding, vector-borne diseases—gives relatively predictable returns on investment (c.f. global mitigation) but is greatly underfunded. As stimuli for action, specific initiatives to improve health and wellbeing yield co-benefits that exceed those obtained by mitigation and adaptation alone. The pressure for systemic and transformative action mounts with every extreme weather event —that pressure has triggered sudden and rapid switches towards cleaner and healthier energy technologies. Many more of these switches are needed to avert climate disaster.
Basic Optics
Authors: Compton Robert N. , Duncan Michael A.
Published: December 2024

The transmission, reflection, and refraction of light through optical materials makes it possible to manipulate the properties of light in many optical devices including lasers. This chapter introduces these concepts and how they vary, for example, with the polarization of light. The function and performance of basic optical elements (windows, lenses, prisms, diffraction gratings, waveplates, etalons, optically active crystals) underlie laser design and operation, as well as how lasers are integrated into laboratory instruments and experiments. Individual optical components and their function are described with an emphasis on practical applications in the lab. Important concepts include reflection of light at an interface and its dependence on polarization, diffraction using gratings and how this is used in spectrometers, how lenses combine to form telescopes, etc.
Raman Spectroscopy of Carbon Nanomaterials
Authors: Compton Robert N. , Duncan Michael A.
Published: December 2024

Although infrared spectroscopy is often used by chemists to obtain vibrational information about molecules, Raman spectroscopy provides a complementary approach. Additionally, Raman is particularly useful for materials which have rigid structures and do not have large dipole moments. This chapter explores the Raman spectra of a series of carbon ring materials, including benzene, perylene, C60, carbon nanotubes, and graphene. The changing patterns in spectra illustrate the effects of extended molecular frameworks and more rigid materials on the vibrational frequencies. Certain vibrational modes involving carbon skeleton motions change systematically on going from smaller systems to larger ones.
Diode Laser Atomic Spectroscopy
Authors: Compton Robert N. , Duncan Michael A.
Published: December 2024

Experiments using relatively inexpensive tunable diode lasers are used to study high-resolution absorption spectroscopy in alkali vapor. Direct absorption spectra for cesium and rubidium show adsorption profiles that are Doppler-broadened. A second experiment demonstrates saturated adsorption spectroscopy to remove Doppler broadening in atomic spectroscopy for rubidium atoms in a cell at room temperature. Lamb dips are seen in the Doppler-broadened profiles. Finally, a third experiment is described which demonstrates Doppler-free two-photon spectroscopy for rubidium vapor. All of these experiments were historical stepping stones toward the creation of a Bose–Einstein condensate.
Fertility, Infant Mortality, and Gender
Authors: Cigno Alessandro , Rosati Furio C.
Published: December 2024

Newly formed couples choose how much birth control to exercise, and how much to spend for each baby they have, taking into account that this expenditure will condition the probability that those babies will survive to school age. If parents are credit constrained and cannot buy insurance, they take also into account that the more children will reach school age the less education each of them will receive. A market equilibrium may be characterized by high fertility, high infant mortality, low education and high child labour, or low fertility, low infant mortality, high education and low child labour. The switch from one to the other is called a demographic transition. Gender issues, including opportunistic bargaining on the husband’s part, also are discussed.
A history of evolution and human behaviour
Authors: Brown Gillian R. , Lala Kevin N.
Published: December 2024

This chapter provides a concise overview of how evolutionary theory has been applied to the study of human behaviour within Western sciences from the late nineteenth century through to the mid-twentieth century. It starts with the writings of Charles Darwin, who applied his theories of natural selection and sexual selection to the mental abilities, behaviour, and emotional lives of humans and other animals. It compares Darwin’s views with those of contemporaries, as well as examining how evolutionary theory influenced the emerging fields of anthropology and psychology. Outside of academia, crude distortions of evolutionary theory led to eugenics, social Darwinism, and racist immigration policy. The chapter introduces the behaviourists and cultural anthropologists who challenged the over-reliance on concepts such as ‘human instincts’, before describing the insights gained by the ethologists in their studies of animal behaviour in naturalist settings, and their implications for the ‘nature–nurture debate’.
Human sociobiology
Authors: Brown Gillian R. , Lala Kevin N.
Published: December 2024

This chapter introduces some advances in evolutionary theory that were emerging during the 1970s. These advances were collectively termed ‘sociobiology’ by Edward O. Wilson, who pioneered their application to the study of human behaviour. The chapter describes the key concepts of sociobiology, namely the gene’s-eye view, kin selection, parent–offspring conflict, reciprocal altruism, and evolutionary game theory, and describes the controversies that arose when sociobiological ideas were extrapolated to the human species. Critics argued that human sociobiology was mired in genetic determinism, that it bolstered prejudicial views, and that it amounted to nothing more than storytelling. The chapter evaluates these critiques, before describing how superficial and biased accounts of human behaviour led to the rejection of sociobiology by social scientists, and to human sociobiology’s rapid demise. Yet the roots of the contemporary sub-fields described in subsequent chapters can be found in sociobiology’s fertile grounds.
For English and for Tongues, Our Own
Authors: Dechamma CC Sowmya
Published: December 2024

The questions this chapter explores are these: Why is the English language and discipline seen as suitable to bring in ideas of equality or critique ideals of equality as disrupting traditions? Why does English lend itself to the discourse of a modernity that is perceived as undesirable to a dominant section? And how and why is the very same English seen as desirable by a large section of minoritized groups? The chapter attempts to examine these questions using certain incidents from our recent past, from a letter written by Kodava clan headmen to the British officials and by various narratives by Dalit-Bahujan intellectuals around the question of English.
Conclusion
Authors: Dechamma CC Sowmya
Published: December 2024

This chapter argues that the term mother tongue is a historical construction and that there can never be an acceptable or agreeable definition of mother tongue—be it official or popular. The chapter attempts to trace different ideas of mother tongue in history, through the census of India and other official notions. It also looks at popular perceptions of mother tongue. Juxtaposing the idea of a mother tongue with the ideas of a dominant language, so called regional and local languages, the conclusion argues how the concept of a mother tongue has always played against the practices and interests of languages of minorities and the people who speak them.
Introduction
Authors: Robinson Amanda Lea
Published: December 2024

This chapter provides a brief introduction to the ongoing cultural revival among the Lhomwe of Malawi and identifies the book’s central puzzle: how can a cultural revival produce political returns for ethnic elites and why do regular people respond to such an effort? The chapter then provides an overview of the theoretical framework developed to answer these questions, which links ethnic visibility to political behavior via its effects on linked fate and identifies cultural revivals as a mechanism for increasing ethnic visibility. The chapter then summarizes the empirical approach of the book before turning to its implications for our understanding of the nature of ethnicity, our ability to explain variation in the political relevance of ethnicity, the broader study of the invention of tradition, and a new mechanism through which cultural revivals shape politics. The chapter ends by summarizing the structure and content of subsequent chapters.
‘We Are Here’: The Lhomwe Cultural Revival
Authors: Robinson Amanda Lea
Published: December 2024

This chapter provides a rich, in-depth description of the Lhomwe cultural revival. The revival is documented using original interview data, data from two surveys, the author’s firsthand observations, and a number of secondary sources. It is organized around the different components of the cultural revival, including the establishment of the ethnic association, the annual cultural festival, efforts to revive the nearly extinct Lhomwe language, the promotion of ethnic clothing, encouragement to bestow children with ethnically distinct names, formal and informal means for reviving lost dance traditions, the preparation of culturally-meaningful foods, and several other initiatives.
Corporate Purpose: The US Discussion and the Restatement of the Law of Corporate Governance
Authors: Rock Edward B.
Published: December 2024

The American Law Institute’s Restatement of Corporate Governance stands in a complex relationship with the current debate over ‘corporate purpose’. On the one hand, against those who would impose an obligation on corporations to adopt a legally enforceable corporate purpose that gives weight to non-shareholder interests even when those interests diverge from shareholder interests, the Restatement makes clear that this is not the rule either in the traditional common law jurisdictions like Delaware or in the states that rejected Delaware’s shareholder primacy by adopting ‘constituency’ statutes. On the other hand, against those who would impose upon directors a duty to maximize stock price, the Restatement makes clear that directors’ discretion is far broader than any such maxim would permit, a discretion that permits directors to take seriously the interests of all stakeholders as they work to promote the value of the corporation.
ESG Demand-side Regulation—Governing the Shareholders
Authors: Kuntz Thilo
Published: December 2024

A changing landscape of ESG and CSR legal frameworks no longer primarily focuses on the board of directors or a similar body managing the affairs of the public corporation, but rather the shareholders and investors. After decades of focusing on directors’ duties to the corporation, stockholders, and society at large, this development is a major change. At least in theory, regulating the shareholders promises to change the incentives of managers in making decisions. If shareholders’ interests are no longer primarily financial, directors may be more open to giving ESG greater weight. The chapter offers two contributions to the literature. It charts the territory and provides a description and analysis of legal instruments and regulatory strategies rule-makers already deploy for ESG demand-side regulation. Furthermore, it develops an analytical grid and evaluates the promises and perils of the different ways to govern the shareholders.
Processes of auditory organization during music listening
Authors: McAdams Stephen
Published: December 2024

Auditory grouping processes organize incoming sensory information into events and event streams that usually come from a single sound source. Concurrent grouping perceptually integrates acoustic information into events and segregates information into distinct overlapping events based on acoustic cues such as harmonicity, onset synchrony, parallel change in frequency and intensity, and spatial position. The perceptual properties of an event, such as pitch, timbre, loudness, and spatial position, depend on the acoustic information assigned to that event. Sequential grouping perceptually connects events with similar pitch, timbre, loudness, and spatial position over time and segregates events with dissimilar properties into distinct auditory streams. The degree of tolerable dissimilarity for stream integration depends on the tempo. Melody and rhythm perception depend on which events are assigned to a given auditory stream. Concurrent and sequential grouping processes can compete in ways that have been exploited by composers to control dissonance and create different musical textures.
The Concept of Climate Assessment
Authors: Mayer Benoit
Published: December 2024

This chapter introduces the use of environmental assessment as a tool for climate change mitigation—in short, climate assessment. First, the chapter presents the context in which climate assessment has emerged. Almost every state has adopted mandatory procedures to assess environmental impacts before approving activities likely to affect the environment, and these procedures have often been applied as a tool to predict and appraise the potential impact of proposed activities on climate change. Second, the chapter provides an overview of existing climate assessment law and practice. Climate assessment requirements have often emerged from administrative practice or case law based on unspecific legal instruments; at times, they have also been defined or refined through regulatory and statutory reforms. Lastly, the chapter considers some of the main objections to climate assessment. Concerns about policy redundancy appear generally ill-founded because climate assessment can be a useful complement to other policies and measures on climate change mitigation, including cap-and-trade mechanisms. Other objections, relating to the global, diffuse, and uncertain nature of climate impacts, are introduced in this chapter but further addressed in further chapters.
Assessing Indirect Climate Impacts
Authors: Mayer Benoit
Published: December 2024

A proposed activity can have indirect climate impacts. For instance, a coal mine facilitates the consumption of coal by other actors, often in other countries, with implications for greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental assessment law and practice is divided on whether such indirect climate impacts ought to be assessed. This chapter identifies and discusses the three grounds most often invoked to justify a decision not to assess indirect climate impacts: market substitution, the extraterritoriality of indirect greenhouse gas emissions, and the practical difficulty of predicting these indirect emissions. Ultimately, the chapter refutes these three arguments and pleads for the assessment of any potentially significant indirect climate impact.
Identification and functional analysis of strigolactone pathway genes regulating tillering traits in sugarcane
Authors: Qi Yiying , Feng Xiaoxi , Ding Hongyan , Lin Dadong , Lan Yuhong , Zhang Yixing , Akbar Sehrish , Shi Huihong , Li Zhen , Gao Ruiting , Hua Xiuting , Wang Yuhao , Zhang Jisen
Published: December 2024

Saccharum officinarum and Saccharum spontaneum are two fundamental species of modern sugarcane cultivars, exhibiting divergent tillering patterns crucial for sugarcane architecture and yield. Strigolactones (SLs), a class of plant hormones, are considered to play a central role in shaping plant form and regulating tillering. Our study highlights the distinct tillering patterns observed between S. officinarum and S. spontaneum and implicates significant differences in SL levels in root exudates between the two species. Treatment with rac-GR24 (an artificial SL analog) suppressed tillering in S. spontaneum. Based on transcriptome analysis, we focused on two genes, TRANSCRIPTION ELONGATION FACTOR 1 (TEF1) and CIRCADIAN CLOCK ASSOCIATED1 (CCA1), which show higher expression in S. spontaneum or S. officinarum, respectively. While the overexpression of SoCCA1 did not lead to significant phenotypic differences, overexpression of SsTEF1 in rice stimulated tillering and inhibited plant height, demonstrating its role in tillering regulation. However, the overexpression of suggests that SoCCA1 may not be the key regulator of sugarcane tillering. Yeast one-hybrid assays identified four transcription factors (TFs) regulating SsTEF1 and four and five TFs regulating SsCCA1 and SoCCA1. This study provides a theoretical foundation for deciphering the molecular mechanisms underlying the different tillering behaviors between S. officinarum and S. spontaneum, providing valuable insights for the molecular-based design of sugarcane breeding strategies.
The molecular framework balancing growth and defense in response to plant elicitor peptide-induced signals in Arabidopsis
Authors: Dhar Souvik , Kim Soo Youn , Shin Hee-Ji , Park Jongsung , Lee Ji-Young
Published: December 2024

Elevated stress signaling compromises plant growth by suppressing proliferative and formative division in the meristem. Plant elicitor peptide, an endogenous danger signal triggered by biotic and abiotic stresses in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), suppresses proliferative division, alters xylem vessel organization, and disrupts cell-to-cell symplastic connections in roots. To gain insight into the dynamic molecular framework that modulates root development under elevated danger signals, we performed a time-course RNA-sequencing analysis of the root meristem after synthetic PEP1 treatment. Our analyses revealed that SALT TOLERANCE ZINC FINGER (STZ) and its homologs are a potential nexus between the stress response and proliferative cell cycle regulation. Through functional, phenotypic, and transcriptomic analyses, we observed that STZ differentially controls the cell cycle, cell differentiation, and stress response genes in various tissue layers of the root meristem. Moreover, we determined the STZ expression level critical for enabling the growth–defense tradeoff. These findings provide valuable information about the dynamic gene expression changes that occur upon perceiving danger signals in the root meristem and potential engineering strategies to generate stress-resilient plants.
Are ultrasound salivary parenchymal lesions more severe in primary Sjögren patients with a longer disease duration? A cross-sectional study
Authors: Tison Alice , Jousse-Joulin Sandrine , Consigny Maëlys , Moog Philipp , Hofauer Benedikt , Hachulla Eric , Lamotte Christophe , Morel Jacques , Mouterde Gaël , Milic Vera , Bootsma Hendrika , Stel Alja , Fisher Benjamin A , Maybury Marc , Baer Alan , DiRenzo Dana , Kim Hae-Rim , Min Hong-Ki , Lee Shin-Seok , Choi Sung-Eun , Carvajal Alegria Guillermo , Boisramé Sylvie , Guellec Dewi , Cornec Divi , Quéré Baptiste , Jonsson Malin , Hammenfors Daniel , Saraux Alain , Devauchelle-Pensec Valérie
Published: December 2024

Objectives

Salivary gland ultrasound (SGUS) has an interest in primary Sjögren’s disease (pSD) for diagnosis, but the evolution of parenchymal lesions over time is unknown. The objective of this study was to assess the severity of ultrasound abnormalities in relation to pSD duration from the time of buccal dryness onset.

Methods

In this cross-sectional international multicentre study, patients with pSD according to the 2002 or 2016 ACR/EULAR classification criteria were included. Parenchymal abnormalities were classified according to the semiquantitative score as defined by OMERACT. Patients were separated into four groups (Group A: <5 years, Group B: 5–9 years, Group C: 10–20 years and Group D: >20 years from the onset of buccal dryness). The association between disease duration groups and SGUS lesions was quantified in terms of odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals.

Results

A total of 247 patients were consecutively included between May 2019 and February 2022. Eighty-nine percent of patients had a focus score ≥1/4 mm2, and 85% had positive anti-Ro/SSA. pSD duration was associated with a pathological OMERACT score (score 2 or 3): OR for 5-year duration: 1.23 [95% CI 1.04; 1.47], P = 0.038. Considering each US item, the only statistical association with pSD duration was found regarding the presence of hyperechoic bands (25% or more): OR for 5-year duration 1.18 [95% CI 1.03; 1.36], P = 0.038), independent of an older age.

Conclusion

pSD duration was associated with the presence of hyperechoic bands, but not with hypoechoic areas, suggesting a progressive fibro-adipose evolution.