bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Japanese conceptualizations of ‘translation’
Authors: Wakabayashi Judy
Published: January 2019

Chinese characters were a crucial factor shaping translation praxis and attitudes in Japan, providing the foundation for a procedure (performed textually or mentally) known as kanbun kundoku (‘Japanese reading of Chinese text’) that allowed direct understanding of Chinese texts. This largely bypassed ‘conventional’ Translation for a millennium and led to an acceptance of a hybrid written language. The arrival of European languages in the sixteenth century and vernacular renditions of Chinese novels from the seventeenth century introduced a parallel trajectory resembling ‘conventional’ Translation. Translations have had a major impact on Japanese knowledge, literature and the language itself, although it was not until the late nineteenth century that literary translation began to be conceived of as an art. Despite shifts over time, the predominant thread has been a source-oriented approach, and translative language has long constituted an accepted, even desirable, register because of its association with ‘superior’ source cultures.
The concept of translation in Slavic cultures
Authors: Jettmarová Zuzana
Published: January 2019

This report traces the evolution of the concept of translation in Slavic cultures from the Early Middle Ages up to the post-WWII period. It was through translation in the 9th–11th centuries that the written Slavic vernacular emerged. The very first translations aimed at sense and were not slavishly literal, although they calqued the Greek textual pattern and style because they used a Slavic dialect as a target language. Irrespective of a variety of terms, the concept of translation was based on methods oscillating between literalness and adaptation. The concept also changed with historical contexts and the role of translation that emerged in the different cultural environments involved the requirement for an integral representation of the original in terms of both content and form.
Hispanic South America
Authors: Echeverri Álvaro , Bastin Georges L.
Published: January 2019

Polysystems theory teaches us that the selection of texts to be translated is influenced by the conditions of the target culture. This idea can be corroborated throughout the different historical periods identified for the study of translation and translations in Hispanic South America. In the colony, translations of religious texts into the indigenous languages aimed at cultural assimilation. By the end of the colony, “American Spaniards” or criollos used translation as a matrix for both textual and aesthetical forms. This resulted in the creation of the first bodies of political texts and the appropriation of literary themes and values both from Europe and North America. After independence, translation was instrumental in the education of the new citizens, and in more recent times thanks to the ideas about translation conveyed by authors such as Octavio Paz and Jorge Luis Borges, translation in the region has been often associated to the irreverent concept of creative infidelity. This chapter leads to the conclusion that while recreation is the “translation norm” in Hispanic South America it is false to pretend that everything the region has created has been copied.
Translation in Central America and Mexico
Authors: Castro Nayelli
Published: January 2019

Colonial history has provided Central America and Mexico with a deceiving linguistic homogeneity, under which a diversity of indigenous languages has resisted and survived. Rather than limited to the relationship between a source and a target text, in this report, translation practices are mapped against the background of wider discourses used in independence struggles, language policies, and literary movements. Specifically, translation is analyzed in three sub-contexts: (a) translation in the shaping of political concepts used in independence documents; (b) implicit and explicit translation practices resulting from language policies, and (c) translation as a common thread in the ‘multi-lettered’ republics.
Translation and North America
Authors: Guzmán María Constanza , Hébert Lyse
Published: January 2019

In this entry of the Atlas we discuss the experience of translation in the territories known as Canada and the United States. Our starting point to study the relationships between translation and these territories is a critical reframing. After establishing the conceptual and methodological ground for our discussion, we present translation in these two North American countries as an ongoing historical experience from various perspectives including colonization, nation-building, imperialism, border and migration, and intellectual and literary life. We address the similarities and differences between Canada and the United States as they relate to specific historical processes. We then discuss translation’s scholarly narratives as they have emerged and circulated in North America, and close with a reflection on some future implications of our proposed reframing – an attempt to provincialize North America – for translation studies as a program.
Inflectional uniformity in the present subjunctive in the dialects of central Friuli
Authors: Da Tos Martina
Published: January 2019

In the evolution of the Latin verb system into (Italo-)Romance varieties, affixal allomorphy based on inflectional classes (‘conjugations’) has normally been preserved (Maiden 2011). Yet the present subjunctive pattern looks exceptional: in this case, the original allomorphy has typically been neutralized, giving way to unprecedented, uniform patterns. A careful examination of data from the dialects of Friuli suggests that the inflectional changes leading to uniformity are due not to a propensity to destroy allomorphy, but to the fact that conjugational allomorphs are subject to some formal and distributional constraints, which, in this case, have been violated. These constraints crucially presuppose that inflectional affixes are signs that, under the right circumstances, can have ‘inflectional class’ as part of their content (Carstairs-McCarthy 1994).
The Inflected Construction in the dialects of Sicily
Authors: Di Caro Vincenzo Nicolò
Published: January 2019

Sicilian dialects display an instance of verbal Pseudo-Coordination (V1[TAM.Agr] a V2[TAM.Agr]), here referred to as the Inflected Construction or IC (cf. Cardinaletti and Giusti 2001, 2003), that can occur in very different configurations. Aim of this paper is to discuss the following parameters of microvariation, by providing new data from recent fieldwork: (i) the restriction of the IC to some V2s; (ii) the possibility for the IC to occur across moods and tenses and to display complete paradigms for person features; (iii) the reduction of go as V1, and of other possible V1s, to a prefix-like invariable form. In the paper, three major types of IC are identified: Type 1 IC is only possible in some persons of the indicative present and in the 2sg of the imperative; Type 2 IC features the extension of the paradigm to other simple tenses of the indicative; Type 3 IC displays a full-fledged paradigm in the indicative (3 simple tenses), subjunctive and imperative.
Can structural deficiency be parametrized?
Authors: Garzonio Jacopo , Rossi Silvia
Published: January 2019

This paper discusses the microvariation in the distribution of deficient pronouns (Cardinaletti and Starke 1999) in old Tuscan texts, in particular of the 3pl dative forms derived from Lat. illorum ‘of those ones’, with the intent to understand if structural deficiency is subject to a predictable parametric variation. The form loro in old Florentine has many properties of the ‘weak’ class, while old Sienese lo’ generally behaves as a clitic; however, both display many other properties which do not fit well into the ‘weak’/’clitic’ categories. It will be argued that the strong/weak/clitic divide is not regulated by specific parameters, but is instead a by-product of changes affecting more general word order properties of sentence structure, as the loss of V2.
The morphosyntax-semantics interface and the Sicilian Doubly Inflected Construction
Authors: Todaro Giuseppina , Del Prete Fabio
Published: January 2019

We examine the Doubly Inflected Construction of Sicilian (DIC, Cruschina 2013; also known as Inflected Construction, Cardinaletti and Giusti 2001, 2003), in which a motion verb V1 is followed by an event verb V2, both verbs being inflected for the same person and TAM features. We propose to regard DIC as a Serial Verb Construction and analyze it in terms of an operation of lexical concatenation, whereby V1 and V2 are semantically composed as lexical verbs denoting spatio-temporally contiguous events and displaying argument sharing, to yield a complex predicate denoting concatenated events. The data we consider crucially include the causative motion verb ‘send’ and bring out a mismatch between the person features realized on V1 and V2 and semantic interpretation. We show how our analysis allows for a principled account of the morphology-semantics mismatch. The semantic analysis is implemented in a neo-Davidsonian framework (Parsons 1990).
On the syntactic encoding of lexical interjections in Italo-Romance
Authors: Munaro Nicola
Published: January 2019

Based on evidence from Italo-Romance, in this article I argue that lexical interjections can be split into three categories, depending on whether they must, they can or they cannot be integrated with the associated clause; the degree of integration with the co-occurring clause depends on the merge position of the interjection. Only interjections lexicalizing the functional head SpeechAct° represent autonomous linguistic acts and are therefore prosodically and syntactically independent from the associated clause; from this position they can attract the associated clause to the corresponding specifier position or raise to the adjacent head Speaker° in order to provide the necessary contextual anchoring. Interjections lexicalizing the lower projection EvalSP do not have these properties and are intrinsically discourse-linked.
Indefinite articles and licensing of nominals in two Slavic varieties
Authors: Runić Marija
Published: January 2019

I address the status of an indefinite article in two understudied Slavic varieties spoken in Italy, Resian and Molise Croatian. By applying standard diagnostics, I show that both varieties have grammaticalized an indefinite article. I further compare the distribution of nouns in these two varieties, which allow bare nominals in argument position, on a par with other Slavic articleless languages, and conclude that Resian, but not Molise Croatian, has also developed a definite article. Considering that the distribution of the definite article in Resian is restricted to nouns with prenominal modifiers, I argue that the rise of the definite article is related to adjectival syntax – if adjectives are placed prenominally, which is the case in Resian but not in Molise Croatian, they prevent the noun from being in a local relation with a definite D(eterminer). I also claim that the development of an indefinite article is completely independent of the emergence of a definite article, which explains the similarities between the two varieties.
Negation and Speculation Detection
Authors: Cruz Díaz Noa P. , Maña López Manuel J.
Published: January 2019

Negation and speculation detection is an emerging topic that has attracted the attention of many researchers, and there is clearly a lack of relevant textbooks and survey texts. This book aims to define negation and speculation from a natural language processing perspective, to explain the need for processing these phenomena, to summarise existing research on processing negation and speculation, to provide a list of resources and tools, and to speculate about future developments in this research area. An advantage of this book is that it will not only provide an overview of the state of the art in negation and speculation detection, but will also introduce newly developed data sets and scripts. It will be useful for students of natural language processing subjects who are interested in understanding this task in more depth and for researchers with an interest in these phenomena in order to improve performance in other natural language processing tasks.
English and Italian land contracts
Authors: Diani Giuliana
Published: January 2019

Legal language has attracted increasing scholarly interest over the last three decades, and the importance of this field is constantly growing. The present chapter examines the textual and linguistic features of a type of legal text, contracts, and in particular land contracts, from a cross-linguistic perspective (English and Italian). Detailed consideration of the form and language of land contracts shows that they exhibit remarkable similarities in the two languages examined, but also differences in the handling of major linguistic strategies such as relativization, nominalization, binomials, or the resources employed to express deontic modality.
Drinking and crime
Authors: Claridge Claudia
Published: January 2019

This chapter investigates how drunkenness is presented during criminal proceedings in courtroom speech by focusing on words meaning ‘drunk’. A wide range of drunken terms are used by all courtroom participants, which differ in force, euphemistic potential and style, and are thus employed to negotiate degrees of drunkenness in the interaction between legal professionals and lay participants. Fairly common amplification and rarer downtoning of these terms also contribute to their use in courtroom argumentation. The referents of drunkenness expressions are most often third persons, rarely the addressee, but fairly commonly also the speakers themselves. Victims and defendants often attribute drunkenness to themselves, apparently presenting it as a mitigating factor in the context of the crime. In contrast, the insistent questioning on that topic and the frequent usage of drunk terms by judges speaks for a more negative assessment of drunkenness by professionals.
Exploiting epigenetic variation for plant breeding.
Authors: JiHua Xu , House M. , Booker H. , Tanino K.
Published: January 2019

In classical genetics and plant breeding, plant phenotypes are explained by genotype, environment and their interactions. Currently, the epigenetic component is recognized as another element functioning together with genetics and environment to determine phenotypic traits. Understanding the mechanism of epigenetics, the sources of epigenetic variation and epigenome editing will aid in incorporating the epigenetic component into plant breeding systems. The property of transgenerational inheritance of epigenetic marks, such as DNA methylation, will allow breeders to capture the underlying epigenetic alterations associated with phenotypic changes. Stably inherited epigenetic features can be subjected to artificial selection, which makes it possible to use epigenetic variation to improve agronomic traits and plant adaptation to environmental stress for crop improvement.
Lipase-catalyzed synthesis of ethyl (R)-2-benzyloxy-2-isopropylhydrogenmalonate: a useful combination of chemical synthesis with enzymatic methods
Authors: Ding Jing , Yang Zhijun , Zhao Yu , Fang Weizhen , Lu Qun
Published: January 2019

Ethyl (R)-2-benzyloxy-2-isopropylhydrogenmalonate is a key intermediate for the synthesis of the side chain in ergopeptines. In this work, we adopted a method to prepare enantiomerically pure title monoester via immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B (Novozym 435)-catalyzed hydrolysis of the corresponding diester.
Achromatic plumage brightness predicts stress resilience and social interactions in tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor)
Authors: Taff Conor C , Zimmer Cedric , Vitousek Maren N
Published: January 2019

Theory suggests that signal honesty may be maintained by differential costs for high and low quality individuals. For signals that mediate social interactions, costs can arise from the way that a signal changes the subsequent social environment via receiver responses. These receiver-dependent costs may be linked with individual quality through variation in resilience to environmental and social stress. Here, we imposed stressful conditions on female tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) by attaching groups of feathers during incubation to decrease flight efficiency and maneuverability. We simultaneously monitored social interactions using an RFID network that allowed us to track the identity of every individual that visited each nest for the entire season. Before treatments, plumage coloration was correlated with baseline and stress-induced corticosterone. Relative to controls, experimentally challenged females were more likely to abandon their nest during incubation. Overall, females with brighter white breasts were less likely to abandon, but this pattern was only significant under stressful conditions. In addition to being more resilient, brighter females received more unique visitors at their nest-box and tended to make more visits to other active nests. In contrast, dorsal coloration did not reliably predict abandonment or social interactions. Taken together, our results suggest that females differ in their resilience to stress and that these differences are signaled by plumage brightness, which is in turn correlated with the frequency of social interactions. While we do not document direct costs of social interaction, our results are consistent with models of signal honesty based on receiver-dependent costs.
Predicting long-term renal and patient survival by clinicopathological features in elderly patients undergoing a renal biopsy in a UK cohort
Authors: Navaratnarajah Arunraj , Sambasivan Khrishanthne , Cook Terry H , Pusey Charles , Roufosse Candice , Willicombe Michelle
Published: January 2019

Background

Several publications have demonstrated the use of renal biopsy in elderly patients in establishing a diagnosis and enabling directed therapy. However, evidence on the long-term outcomes following biopsies is lacking. The aim of this study is to describe the renal and patient outcomes in elderly patients according to indication for biopsy, clinical parameters and the histological diagnosis.

Methods

We performed a retrospective cohort study of 463 patients >70 years old who underwent a renal biopsy at our centre between 2006 and 2015.

Results

The median age of the patients was 74.8 (range 70.0–89.6) years. The most frequent primary diagnoses were pauci-immune crescentic glomerulonephritis (GN; 12%), acute interstitial nephritis (10.8%) and membranous GN (7.1%). Death-censored renal survival at 1 and 5 years following the index biopsy was 85.2 and 75.9%, respectively, and patient survival at 1 and 5 years was 92.2 and 71.6%, respectively. Patients who progressed to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) were at higher risk of dying compared with patients who did not require dialysis [hazard ratio 2.41 (95% confidence interval 1.58–3.68; P < 0.001]. On multivariate analysis, factors associated with the risk of progression to ESRD were creatinine (P < 0.001), heavy proteinuria (P = 0.002) and a non-chronic kidney disease (CKD) biopsy indication (P = 0.006). A histological diagnosis of primary GN (P = 0.001) or tubulointerstitial nephritis (P = 0.008) was associated with a favourable renal outcome, while patients with vasculitis and paraprotein-related renal disease (PPRD) had the highest risk of requiring dialysis (P = 0.0002 and P = 0.003, respectively). PPRD was also an independent risk factor for death.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that renal biopsies in the elderly not only enable directed therapy, but also provide prognostic information on renal and patient survival.
Empathic Accuracy: Worse Recognition by Older Adults and Less Transparency in Older Adult Expressions Compared With Young Adults
Authors: Ruffman Ted , Halberstadt Jamin , Murray Janice , Jack Fiona , Vater Tina
Published: January 2019

Objectives

We examined empathic accuracy, comparing young versus older perceivers, and young versus older emoters. Empathic accuracy is related to but distinct from emotion recognition because perceiver judgments of emotion are based, not on what an emoter looks to be feeling, but on what an emoter says s/he is actually feeling.

Method

Young (≤30 years) and older (≥60 years) adults (“emoters”) were unobtrusively videotaped while watching movie clips designed to elicit specific emotional states. The emoter videos were then presented to young and older “perceivers,” who were instructed to infer what the emoters were feeling.

Results

As predicted, older perceivers’ empathic accuracy was less accurate relative to young perceivers. In addition, the emotions of young emoters were considerably easier to read than those of older emoters. There was also some evidence of an own-age advantage in emotion recognition in that older adults had particular difficulty assessing emotion in young faces.

Discussion

These findings have important implications for real-world social adjustment, with older adults experiencing a combination of less emotional transparency and worse understanding of emotional experience.
2-D P-SV and SH spectral element modelling of seismic wave propagation in non-linear media with pore-pressure effects
Authors: Oral Elif , Gélis Céline , Bonilla Luis Fabián
Published: January 2019

It has long been recognized that the effects of superficial geological layers, or site effects, can play a major role on the seismic ground motion at the free surface. In this study, we compute wave propagation in a 2-D asymmetrical basin considering both soil non-linearity and pore-pressure effects. Equations of elastodynamics of wave propagation are solved using the spectral element method (SEM). The geometry of the basin gives rise to basin-edge generated waves, that are different for in-plane (P-SV) and out-of-plane (SH) wave propagation and resulting in different non-linear response. Moreover, the excess-pore pressure development in superficial liquefiable layers (effective stress analysis) brings larger deformation and loss of strength than the analysis without pore-pressure effects (total stress analysis). The coupling of vertically propagating waves and the waves specifically generated in 1-D model leads to waves whose amplitude and duration are higher than the 1-D case. This multidimensional effect increases material non-linearity. Such complex wavefield provokes larger deformation and higher pore-pressure rise that cannot be predicted by 1-D modelling. Therefore, our paper suggests the use of multidimensional modelling while studying seismic wave propagation in both linear and non-linear complex media.
7. The International Context
Authors: Yilmaz Hakan
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines the major theoretical approaches to the issue of the international context of democratization. In particular, it considers democratization by means of ‘convergence’, ‘system penetration’, ‘internationalization of domestic politics’, and ‘diffusion’. It also discusses the principal dimensions of the international context, namely, the democracy promotion strategies of the United States and the European Union. The term ‘conditionality’ is used to describe the democracy promotion strategy of the EU. In the case of the United States, its leverage with respect to democracy promotion has been undermined by its military intervention and violation of human rights. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the effects of globalization and the formation of a global civil society on democratization.
15. Institutional Design in New Democracies
Authors: Bogaards Matthijs
Published: January 2019

This chapter focuses on electoral systems and institutional design in new democracies. It first compares Maurice Duverger’s electoral laws with those of Giovanni Sartori before discussing the main insights from the literature on electoral systems in established democracies as well as evidence from new democracies. It then considers the impact of the electoral law on the type of party system and its role as intermediary between society and government in plural societies. It also examines the party system as an independent variable, along with dependent variables such as the number of political parties, social cleavages, and presidentialism. Finally, it discusses consociational democracy and how electoral system design can be used in managing ethnic conflicts.
1. Introducing the Mosaic of Integration Theory
Authors: Diez Thomas , Wiener Antje
Published: January 2019

This chapter introduces the ‘mosaic of integration theory’ as a pluralist approach and heuristic device which centres on the variety of research questions and objectives raised by the broad spectrum of integration theorists operating in different areas and pursuing different purposes. The metaphor of the ‘mosaic’ indicates that each theoretical approach can be seen as a stone that adds to the picture of the EU as an unfinished and changing order. The mosaic approach rests on general conceptual definitions, for example, of ‘integration’ and ‘theory’ based on distinctions between ‘narrow’ and ‘broader’ definitions of integration: broader definitions of integration include both a social process (the shifting of loyalties) and a political process (the construction of new political institutions) while narrower definitions centre on the political institutions. The chapter differentiates three distinct uses of theory that are represented by this book’s contributions and form part of the mosaic approach, for example, theory as ‘explanation and understanding’, as ‘description and analysis’, or as ‘critique and normative intervention’. These uses are applied to study politics, polity, and policy as the three main areas of integration over distinct periods. Finally, the chapter introduces this book’s common research questions about economic, refugee, and security crises, and introduces all contributions.
2. Federalism and European Integration
Authors: Kelemen R. Daniel
Published: January 2019

Theories of federalism can provide a set of assumptions, concepts, and arguments that shed light on many aspects of European integration. Applying the federalism perspective opens up EU scholars to a range of relevant comparative cases that provide analytic leverage and insight on the EU. This perspective also enables EU scholars to draw on and contribute to a well-established literature in comparative politics, thus connecting their findings about the EU to broader academic debates. EU scholars have applied theories of federalism to help explain a wide range of questions about European integration, from general questions about why and how the EU came together as a political system to narrow questions about very specific policy areas, to the causes and consequences of the EU’s recent crises. This chapter discusses the main assumptions, concepts, and methodologies in federalism theories of the EU, and explores how this perspective can shed light on the eurozone crisis and the crisis of democratic backsliding among EU member states.
5. Governance Approaches to European Integration
Authors: Börzel Tanja A.
Published: January 2019

After twenty years of continuous deepening and widening, European integration has entered an era of recurrent crises. Most students of the European Union (EU) seem to agree that the constitutional equilibrium between intergovernmental and supranational institutions has changed. Some see ‘new intergovernmentalism’ and ‘integration without supranationalization’ prevailing. Others contend that we are witnessing a series of functional and institutional spillovers empowering supranational institutions. This chapter argues that governance approaches are particularly useful to address the puzzling counter-positions represented in the current debate about the ‘nature of the beast’. They are better equipped to explore how and to what end institutional structures and processes have responded to the crises than mainstream integration theories. The chapter starts with introducing the ‘governance turn’ in EU studies as the attempt of EU scholars in the early 1990s to capture the nature of the EU. It then presents a typology that is based on a broad concept of governance as institutionalized forms of political coordination. The empirical part of the chapter uses this typology to give an overview of the structures and processes of EU governance before applying it to the financial and the migration crises. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the major challenges for European integration (theories) from a governance perspective, particularly with regard to managing current and preventing future crises.
7. Social Constructivism and European Integration
Authors: Risse Thomas
Published: January 2019

The chapter presents a short overview on social constructivism as a distinct research programme and shows what it contributes to the study of European integration. Social constructivism represents a meta-theory or an ontology, not one more substantive theory of European integration. The substantive contribution of social constructivism to the various theories of European integration is to insist on taking meaning construction, discourse, and language seriously, and to point out the mutual constitution of agency and structure. Moreover, social constructivism emphasizes the constitutive features of social institutions including the EU as not just constraining behaviour, but also affecting the identities, interests, and preferences of actors. The chapter then uses the question of European identity to illustrate empirically social constructivism ‘at work’. A constructivist account of the euro and the migration crises demonstrates that European political leaders reacted largely to the mobilization of exclusive-nationalist identities by (mostly) right-wing populist parties and movements. In sum, the social constructivist research programme in EU studies has quickly left the stage of meta-theorizing and concern for ontology and epistemology behind, and has now entered the realm of concrete empirical work dealing with real puzzles of European political life.
2. The European Union: Establishment and Development
Authors: Phinnemore David
Published: January 2019

The focus of this chapter is the emergence of the European Communities in the 1950s, their evolution in the three decades thereafter, and the establishment and early development of the European Union (EU) in the 1990s. The chapter explores key developments in the first four decades of European integration and some of the tensions that have shaped them. It considers the ambitions of the architects and supporters of the European Communities and how their hopes and aspirations played out as integration became a reality in the 1950s and 1960s. It looks at how their ambitions grew and how the process then lost momentum in the 1970s before the idea of ‘European union’ was rekindled in the 1980s with the Single European Act (1986) and the Single Market project. These acted as catalysts for a new era of dynamic European integration with the now expanded Communities at its core. The chapter then explores how, through ‘Maastricht’ and the adoption and implementation of the Treaty on European Union (1992), the European Union was established. The chapter assesses the unique and incomplete form of the new ‘union’ and examines the impact on it of reforms introduced by the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) and the Treaty of Nice (2000) as the EU sought to prepare itself for the further enlargement and the challenges of the initial years of the twenty-first century.
6. Theorizing the European Union after Integration Theory
Authors: Rosamond Ben
Published: January 2019

This chapter deals with recent theoretical work on the European Union. Three broad analytical pathways that depart from the classical debate are discussed in this chapter: comparative political science; a revitalized international relations (IR); and ‘critical theories’. Two additional pathways—governance and normative political theory—are considered in other chapters (see Chapters 7 and 9). This chapter discusses in turn the contribution to EU studies of comparative political science in general and new institutionalist political science, and in particular the emergence of social constructivist approaches to the EU, IR’s contribution to the theorization of EU external action, together with approaches from the subfield of international political economy (IPE), and a variety of critical theoretical readings of the EU. The chapter also explores how IR theories might be brought back into EU studies. The purpose of the chapter is to show how the EU still raises significant questions about the nature of authority, statehood, and the organization of the international system. These questions are doubly significant in the present period of crisis, where the issue of ‘disintegration’ comes to the fore.
10. The European Commission
Authors: Egeberg Morten
Published: January 2019

This chapter provides a general introduction to the European Commission, the main executive body of the European Union (EU). It argues that it is more productive to compare the Commission to national executives or to a government than to a secretariat of a traditional international organization. It begins with a summary of the Commission’s functions within the EU’s policy process. It then considers the question of Commission influence and autonomy, before moving on to look at the structure, demography, and decision behaviour within the organization—that is, at the role of the President of the Commission and the Commissioners, at the Commissioners’ personal staffs, and at the Commission administration. It then examines the committees and administrative networks that link the Commission to national administrations and interest groups, and also deals with the recent growth of EU agencies. The chapter concludes by emphasizing that the Commission is much more of a European(ized) and supranational institution than it was at its inception.
11. The European Council and the Council of the European Union
Authors: Lewis Jeffrey
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines the components that constitute the Council system: the European Council and the Council of the EU (henceforth ‘the EU Council’ or simply ‘the Council’). Together, these institutions (the European Council and EU Council) form the part of the Union that unabashedly represents national interests in the European integration process. The EU Council is thus a site of intense negotiation, compromise-building, and at times acrimonious disagreement among the member states. Confusing to many academics and observers alike, the EU Council is not a single body, but rather a composite of national officials working at different levels of political seniority and policy specialization. From the heads of state and government, to the ministers, and all the way down the ladder to the expert-level fonctionnaires (officials), the EU Council and the European Council embed governments of the EU into a networked club of collective decision-making that deeply penetrates into the national capitals and domestic politics of the member states. In authority, scope, and procedural methods the Council system represents the most advanced, intensive forum of international cooperation between sovereign nation states in the modern world.
14. Interest Groups and the European Union
Authors: Eising Rainer
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines the role of interest groups in European Union (EU) politics. It also considers the way in which the EU institutions influence interest group structures and activities. The chapter begins with an overview of the relationship between the EU institutions and interest groups and examines the steps taken thus far to regulate that relationship. It then looks at the evolution and the structure of the interest group system, focusing in particular on two salient aspects: the difference between national and EU organizations; and the difference between specific and diffuse interests.
18. Enlargement
Authors: Juncos Ana E. , Pérez-Solórzano Borragán Nieves
Published: January 2019

The process of enlargement has transformed the European Union. It has had far-reaching implications for the shape and definition of Europe, and for the institutional set-up and the major policies of the Union. This has been accomplished through a number of enlargement rounds, which the first section of the chapter analyses in detail. This is followed by a review of the enlargement process itself, with a focus on the use of conditionality and the role of the main actors involved. The contributions of neo-functionalism, liberal intergovernmentalism, and social constructivism to explaining the EU’s geographical expansion are evaluated in the third section of the chapter. The success and prospect of future enlargement are discussed in the context of wider EU developments, especially the effect of the economic crisis in the euro area, ‘enlargement fatigue’, the domestic context in the candidate countries, and Brexit.
26. The Euro Crisis and European Integration
Authors: Hodson Dermot , Puetter Uwe
Published: January 2019

This chapter discusses the European Union’s (EU) response to the euro crisis that emerged in late 2009, two years after the global financial crisis struck. It identifies the challenges this crisis has posed to the existing institutional set-up of economic and monetary union (EMU) and shows that it had a lasting impact on discussions over the EU’s future well beyond its most dramatic moments. A timeline of the euro crisis is provided and the main changes to the institutional framework of European economic governance at the time of writing are reviewed. The chapter considers whether the crisis was caused by a deficit of centralized decision-making and whether it has served, in turn, as a catalyst for deeper economic and political integration in the euro area and the Union more generally. The consequences of the crisis for the EU’s legitimacy are also explored from competing theoretical perspectives.
Immune Relevant and Immune Deficient Mice: Options and Opportunities in Translational Research
Authors: Radaelli Enrico , Santagostino Sara F , Sellers Rani S , Brayton Cory F
Published: January 2019

In 1989 ILAR published a list and description of immunodeficient rodents used in research. Since then, advances in understanding of molecular mechanisms; recognition of genetic, epigenetic microbial, and other influences on immunity; and capabilities in manipulating genomes and microbiomes have increased options and opportunities for selecting mice and designing studies to answer important mechanistic and therapeutic questions. Despite numerous scientific breakthroughs that have benefitted from research in mice, there is debate about the relevance and predictive or translational value of research in mice. Reproducibility of results obtained from mice and other research models also is a well-publicized concern. This review summarizes resources to inform the selection and use of immune relevant mouse strains and stocks, aiming to improve the utility, validity, and reproducibility of research in mice. Immune sufficient genetic variations, immune relevant spontaneous mutations, immunodeficient and autoimmune phenotypes, and selected induced conditions are emphasized.
En-Bloc U-Shaped Osteotomy of the Mandible and Chin for the Correction of a Prominent Mandibular Angle With Long Chin
Authors: Lai Chenzhi , Jin Xiaolei , Zong Xianlei , Song Guodong
Published: January 2019

Background:

Lower face contouring surgery has become a popular aesthetic surgery in East Asian countries. Various surgical methods have been used to improve lower face aesthetics. When a patient has a wide as well as long lower face, procedures like chin polishing or T-type osteotomy are traditionally performed, but these surgical methods have several disadvantages. The authors devised a simple and reliable method to correct the wide and long lower face, without the complications associated with the traditional methods.

Methods:

From July 2015 to January 2018, 30 patients with a prominent mandibular angle, long chin, and no malocclusion underwent en-bloc mandibular U-shaped osteotomy through an oral incision, in order to shorten the mandibular angle, body of the mandible, and the chin, and to improve the facial contour. The authors assessed the effectiveness of surgery through comparisons between pre- and postoperative radiographs, patient satisfaction, and surgical complications in the postoperative period.

Results:

It was observed that all oral incisions healed by primary intention, and did not develop hematoma, infection, or osteonecrosis. Lower lip numbness occurred in 16 patients. After 6 to 12 months, all patients showed complete recovery from the numbness. All the patients were satisfied with their appearance after surgery.

Conclusions:

En-bloc mandibular U-shaped osteotomy is an improved form of mandibular surgery. The osteotomy line involves the whole mandible, which makes the length and width of the mandible considerably smaller. This surgery can effectively correct a prominent mandibular angle with long chin.
Conjunction or co-activation? A multi-level MVPA approach to task set representations
Authors: Deraeve James , Vassena Eliana , Alexander William H.
Published: January 2019

While representing and maintaining rules in order to govern behavior is a critical function of the brain, it remains an open question as to how collections of rules - task sets - are represented in cortex. One possibility is that task sets are represented as the co-activation of representations of the simple rules from which a task set is composed. Alternatively, task sets could be encoded in a conjunctive manner as the unique combination of rules that belong to a task set. Using a novel multi-level MVPA approach in combination with fMRI, we attempted to answer both “where” and “how” task sets are represented in the brain. Subjects performed a delayed match-to-sample task using task sets composed of multiple, partially overlapping rules that governed which feature dimensions subjects should attend to, and MVPA was used to identify regions that encoded task set information. We identified voxels most relevant for classifying task sets, and, using these voxels as input to a second MVPA analysis, were able to identify regions in prefrontal cortex with activity consistent with co-active representation, while activity in visual cortex was consistent with conjunctive representation. These results highlight the utility of feature selection methods in neuroimaging analyses.
SpoIVA-SipL complex formation is essential forClostridioides difficilespore assembly
Authors: Touchette Megan H. , Puebla Hector Benito de la , Ravichandran Priyanka , Shen Aimee
Published: January 2019

Spores are the major infectious particle of the Gram-positive nosocomial pathogen,Clostridioides(formerlyClostridium)difficile, but the molecular details of how this organism forms these metabolically dormant cells remain poorly characterized. The composition of the spore coat inC. difficilediffers markedly from that defined in the well-studied organism,Bacillus subtilis, with only 25% of the ~70 spore coat proteins being conserved between the two organisms, and only 2 of 9 coat assembly (morphogenetic) proteins defined inB. subtilishaving homologs inC. difficile.We previously identified SipL as a clostridia-specific coat protein essential for functional spore formation. Heterologous expression analyses inE. colirevealed that SipL directly interacts withC. difficileSpoIVA, a coat morphogenetic protein conserved in all spore-forming organisms, through SipL’s C-terminal LysM domain. In this study, we show that SpoIVA-SipL binding is essential forC. difficilespore formation and identify specific residues within the LysM domain that stabilize this interaction. Fluorescence microscopy analyses indicate that binding of SipL’s LysM domain to SpoIVA is required for SipL to localize to the forespore, while SpoIVA requires SipL to promote encasement of SpoIVA around the forespore. Since we also show that clostridial LysM domains are functionally interchangeable at least inC. difficile, the basic mechanism for SipL-dependent assembly of clostridial spore coats may be conserved.

Importance

The metabolically dormant spore-form of the major nosocomial pathogen,Clostridioides difficile, is its major infectious particle. However, the mechanisms controlling the formation of these resistant cell types are not well understood, particularly with respect to its outermost layer, the spore coat. We previously identified two spore morphogenetic proteins inC. difficile: SpoIVA, which is conserved in all spore-forming organisms, and SipL, which is conserved only in the Clostridia. Both SpoIVA and SipL are essential for heat-resistant spore formation and directly interact through SipL’s C-terminal LysM domain. In this study, we demonstrate that the LysM domain is critical for SipL and SpoIVA function, likely by helping recruit SipL to the forespore during spore morphogenesis. We further identified residues within the LysM domain that are important for binding SpoIVA and thus functional spore formation. These findings provide important insight into the molecular mechanisms controlling the assembly of infectiousC. difficilespores.
LipoGlo: A sensitive and specific reporter of atherogenic lipoproteins
Authors: Thierer James H. , Ekker Stephen C. , Farber Steven A.
Published: January 2019

Apolipoprotein-B (APOB) is the structural component of atherogenic lipoproteins, lipid-rich particles that drive atherosclerosis by accumulating in the vascular wall. As atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, there is an urgent need to develop new strategies to prevent lipoproteins from causing vascular damage. Here we report the LipoGlo system, which uses a luciferase enzyme (NanoLuc) fused to ApoB to monitor several key determinants of lipoprotein atherogenicity including particle abundance, size, and localization. Using LipoGlo, we are able to comprehensively characterize the lipoprotein profile of individual larval zebrafish and collect the first images of atherogenic lipoprotein localization in an intact organism. We discover multiple unexpected extravascular lipoprotein localization patterns, as well as identifypla2g12bas a potent regulator of lipoprotein size. ApoB-fusion proteins thus represent a uniquely sensitive and specific approach to study atherogenic lipoproteins and their genetic and small molecule modifiers.
LINE-1 retrotransposition impacts the genome of human pre-implantation embryos and extraembryonic tissues
Authors: Muñoz-Lopez Martin , Vilar Raquel , Philippe Claude , Rahbari Raheleh , Richardson Sandra R. , Andres-Anton Miguel , Widmann Thomas , Cano David , Cortes Jose L. , Rubio-Roldan Alejandro , Guichard Etienne , Heras Sara R. , Sanchez-Luque Francisco J. , Morell Maria , Aguilar Elisabet , Garcia-Cañadas Marta , Sanchez Laura , Macia Angela , Vilches Pedro , Nieto-Perez Maria Concepcion , Gomez-Martin Antonio , Gonzalez-Alzaga Beatriz , Aguilar-Garduno Clemente , Ewing Adam D. , Lacasana Marina , Alvarez Ignacio S. , Badge Richard , Faulkner Geoffrey J. , Cristofari Gael , Garcia-Perez Jose L.
Published: January 2019

Long Interspersed Element 1 (LINE-1/L1) is an abundant retrotransposon that has greatly impacted human genome evolution. LINE-1s are responsible for the generation of millions of insertions in the current human population. The characterization of sporadic cases of mosaic individuals carrying pathogenic L1-insertions, suggest that heritable insertions occurs during early embryogenesis. However, the timing and potential genomic impact of LINE-1 mobilization during early embryogenesis is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that inner cell mass of human pre-implantation embryos support the expression and retrotransposition of LINE −1s. Additionally, we show that LINE-1s are expressed in trophectoderm cells of embryos, and identify placenta-restricted endogenous LINE-1 insertions in newborns. Using human embryonic stem cells as a model of post-implantation epiblast cells, we demonstrate ongoing LINE-1 retrotransposition, which can impact expression of targeted genes. Our data demonstrate that LINE-1 retrotransposition starts very shortly after fertilization and may represent a previously underappreciated factor in human biology and disease.