bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Spherical accretion: Bondi, Michel, and rotating black holes
Authors: Aguayo-Ortiz Alejandro , Tejeda Emilio , Sarbach Olivier , López-Cámara Diego
Published: April 2021

In this work, we revisit the steady-state, spherically symmetric gas accretion problem from the non-relativistic regime to the ultrarelativistic one. We first perform a detailed comparison between the Bondi and Michel models, and show how the mass accretion rate in the Michel solution approaches a constant value as the fluid temperature increases, whereas the corresponding Bondi value continually decreases, the difference between these two predicted values becoming arbitrarily large at ultrarelativistic temperatures. Additionally, we extend the Michel solution to the case of a fluid with an equation of state corresponding to a monoatomic, relativistic gas. Finally, using general relativistic hydrodynamic simulations, we study spherical accretion on to a rotating black hole, exploring the influence of the black hole spin on the mass accretion rate, the flow morphology and characteristics, and the sonic surface. The effect of the black hole spin becomes more significant as the gas temperature increases and as the adiabatic index γ stiffens. For an ideal gas in the ultrarelativistic limit (γ = 4/3), we find a reduction of 10 per cent in the mass accretion rate for a maximally rotating black hole compared to a non-rotating one, while this reduction is of up to 50 per cent for a stiff fluid (γ = 2).
I. The effect of symmetric and spatially varying equilibria and flow on MHD wave modes: slab geometry
Authors: Skirvin S J , Fedun V , Verth G
Published: April 2021

Realistic theoretical models of magnetohydrodynamic wave propagation in the different solar magnetic configurations are required to explain observational results, allowing magnetoseismology to be conducted and provide more accurate information about local plasma properties. The numerical approach described in this paper allows a dispersion diagram to be obtained for any arbitrary symmetric magnetic slab model of solar atmospheric features. This proposed technique implements the shooting method to match necessary boundary conditions on continuity of displacement and total pressure of the waveguide. The algorithm also implements fundamental physical knowledge of the sausage and kink modes such that both can be investigated. The dispersion diagrams for a number of analytic cases that model magnetohydrodynamic waves in a magnetic slab were successfully reproduced. This work is then extended by considering density structuring modelled as a series of Gaussian profiles and a sinc(x) function. A further case study investigates properties of MHD wave modes in a coronal slab with a non-uniform background plasma flow, for which the governing equations are derived. It is found that the dispersive properties of slow body modes are more greatly altered than those of fast modes when any equilibrium inhomogeneity is increased, including background flow. The spatial structure of the eigenfunctions is also modified, introducing extra nodes and points of inflexion that may be of interest to observers.
Color classification of Earth-like planets with machine learning
Authors: Pham Dang , Kaltenegger Lisa
Published: April 2021

Atmospheric characterization of directly imaged exoplanets is currently limited to Giant planets and Mini-Neptunes. However, upcoming ground-based Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) and space-based concepts such as Origins, HabEx, and LUVOIR are designed to characterize rocky exoplanets. But spectroscopy of Earth-like planets is time-intensive even for upcoming telescopes; therefore, initial photometry has been discussed as a promising avenue to faster classify and prioritize exoplanets. Thus, in this article we explore whether photometric flux – using the standard Johnson filters – can identify the existence of surface-life by analysing a grid of 318 780 reflection spectra of nominal terrestrial planets with 1 Earth radius, 1 Earth mass, and modern Earth atmospheres for varying surface compositions and cloud coverage. Because different kinds of biota change the reflection spectra, we assess the sensitivity of our results to six diverse biota samples including vegetation, representative of modern Earth, a biofilm as a way for microbes to survive extreme environments, and UV radiation resistant biota. We test the performance of several supervised machine-learning algorithms in classifying planets with biota for different signal-to-noise ratios: Machine-learning methods can detect the existence of biota using only the photometric flux of Earth-like planets’ reflected light with a balanced accuracy between 50 per cent and up to 75 per cent. These results assess the possibility that photometric flux could be used to initially identify biota on Earth-like planets and the trade-off between two critical results when classifying biota: false-positive and false-negative rates. Our spectra library is available online and can easily be used to test different filter combinations for upcoming missions and mission designs.
The theory of kinks – I. A semi-analytic model of velocity perturbations due to planet–disc interaction
Authors: Bollati Francesco , Lodato Giuseppe , Price Daniel J , Pinte Christophe
Published: April 2021

A new technique to detect protoplanets is by observing the kinematics of the surrounding gas. Gravitational perturbations from a planet produce peculiar ‘kinks’ in channel maps of different gas species. In this paper, we show that such kinks can be reproduced using semi-analytic models for the velocity perturbation induced by a planet. In doing so we (i) confirm that the observed kinks are consistent with the planet-induced wake; (ii) show how to quantify the planet mass from the kink amplitude; in particular, we show that the kink amplitude scales with the square root of the planet mass for channels far from the planet velocity, steepening to linear as the channels approach the planet; and (iii) show how to extend the theory to include the effect of damping, which may be needed in order to have localized kinks.
Formation of Earth-sized planets within the Kepler-1647 system habitable zone
Authors: Barbosa G O , Winter O C , Amarante A , Macau E E N
Published: April 2021

The Kepler-1647 is a binary system with two Sun-type stars (≈1.22 and ≈0.97 M⊙). It has the most massive circumbinary planet (≈1.52 MJup) with the longest orbital period (≈1107.6 d) detected by the Kepler probe and is located within the habitable zone (HZ) of the system. In this work, we investigated the ability to form and house an Earth-sized planet within its HZ. First, we computed the limits of its HZ and performed numerical stability tests within that region. We found that HZ has three subregions that show stability, one internal, one co-orbital, and external to the host planet Kepler-1647b. Within the limits of these three regions, we performed numerical simulations of planetary formation. In the regions inner and outer to the planet, we used two different density profiles to explore different conditions of formation. In the co-orbital region, we used eight different values of total disc mass. We showed that many resonances are located within regions causing much of the disc material to be ejected before a planet is formed. Thus, the system might have two asteroid belts with Kirkwood gaps, similar to the Solar system’s main belt of asteroids. The co-orbital region proved to be extremely sensitive, not allowing the planet formation, but showing that this binary system has the capacity to have Trojan bodies. Finally, we looked for regions of stability for an Earth-sized moon. We found that there is stability for a moon with this mass up to 0.4 Hill’s radius from the host planet.
Powerful winds in high-redshift obscured and red quasars
Authors: Vayner Andrey , Zakamska Nadia L , Riffel Rogemar A , Alexandroff Rachael , Cosens Maren , Hamann Fred , Perrotta Serena , Rupke David S N , Bergmann Thaisa Storchi , Veilleux Sylvain , Walth Greg , Wright Shelley , Wylezalek Dominika
Published: April 2021

Quasar-driven outflows must have made their most significant impact on galaxy formation during the epoch when massive galaxies were forming most rapidly. To study the impact of quasar feedback, we conducted rest-frame optical integral field spectrograph (IFS) observations of three extremely red quasars (ERQs) and one type-2 quasar at z = 2–3, obtained with the NIFS and OSIRIS instruments at the Gemini North and W. M. Keck Observatory with the assistance of laser-guided adaptive optics. We use the kinematics and morphologies of the [O iii] 5007 Å and H α 6563 Å emission lines redshifted into the near-infrared to gauge the extents, kinetic energies and momentum fluxes of the ionized outflows in the quasars host galaxies. For the ERQs, the galactic-scale outflows are likely driven by radiation pressure in a high column density environment or due to an adiabatic shock. The outflows in the ERQs carry a significant amount of energy ranging from 0.05 to 5 ${{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the quasar’s bolometric luminosity, powerful enough to have a significant impact on the quasar host galaxies. The outflows are resolved on kpc scales, the observed outflow sizes are generally smaller than other ionized outflows observed at high redshift. The high ratio between the momentum flux of the ionized outflow and the photon momentum flux from the quasar accretion disc and high nuclear obscuration makes these ERQs great candidates for transitional objects where the outflows are likely responsible for clearing material in the inner regions of each galaxy, unveiling the quasar accretion disc at optical wavelengths.
Long-term stellar activity variations and their effect on radial-velocity measurements
Authors: Costes Jean C , Watson Christopher A , de Mooij Ernst , Saar Steven H , Dumusque Xavier , Cameron Collier , Phillips David F , Günther Maximilian N , Jenkins James S , Mortier Annelies , Thompson Andrew P G
Published: April 2021

Long-term stellar activity variations can affect the detectability of long-period and Earth-analogue extrasolar planets. We have, for 54 stars, analysed the long-term trend of five activity indicators: log $R^{\prime }_\mathrm{{HK}}$, the cross-correlation function (CCF) bisector span, CCF full-width-at-half-maximum, CCF contrast, and the area of the Gaussian fit to the CCF; and studied their correlation with the RVs. The sign of the correlations appears to vary as a function of stellar spectral type, and the transition in sign signals a noteworthy change in the stellar activity properties where earlier type stars appear more plage dominated. These transitions become more clearly defined when considered as a function of the convective zone depth. Therefore, it is the convective zone depth (which can be altered by stellar metallicity) that appears to be the underlying fundamental parameter driving the observed activity correlations. In addition, for most of the stars, we find that the RVs become increasingly redshifted as activity levels increase, which can be explained by the increase in the suppression of convective blueshift. However, we also find a minority of stars where the RVs become increasingly blueshifted as activity levels increase. Finally, using the correlation found between activity indicators and RVs, we removed RV signals generated by long-term changes in stellar activity. We find that performing simple cleaning of such long-term signals enables improved planet detection at longer orbital periods.
Efficient splicing-based RNA regulators for tetracycline-inducible gene expression in human cell culture and C. elegans
Authors: Finke Monika , Brecht Dominik , Stifel Julia , Gense Karina , Gamerdinger Martin , Hartig Jörg S
Published: April 2021

Synthetic riboswitches gain increasing interest for controlling transgene expression in diverse applications ranging from synthetic biology, functional genomics, and pharmaceutical target validation to potential therapeutic approaches. However, existing systems often lack the pharmaceutically suited ligands and dynamic responses needed for advanced applications. Here we present a series of synthetic riboswitches for controlling gene expression through the regulation of alternative splicing. Placing the 5′-splice site into a stem structure of a tetracycline-sensing aptamer allows us to regulate the accessibility of the splice site. In the presence of tetracycline, an exon with a premature termination codon is skipped and gene expression can occur, whereas in its absence the exon is included into the coding sequence, repressing functional protein expression. We were able to identify RNA switches controlling protein expression in human cells with high dynamic ranges and different levels of protein expression. We present minimalistic versions of this system that circumvent the need to insert an additional exon. Further, we demonstrate the robustness of our approach by transferring the devices into the important research model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, where high levels of functional protein with very low background expression could be achieved.
KEA3: improved kinase enrichment analysis via data integration
Authors: Kuleshov Maxim V , Xie Zhuorui , London Alexandra B K , Yang Janice , Evangelista John Erol , Lachmann Alexander , Shu Ingrid , Torre Denis , Ma’ayan Avi
Published: April 2021

Phosphoproteomics and proteomics experiments capture a global snapshot of the cellular signaling network, but these methods do not directly measure kinase state. Kinase Enrichment Analysis 3 (KEA3) is a webserver application that infers overrepresentation of upstream kinases whose putative substrates are in a user-inputted list of proteins. KEA3 can be applied to analyze data from phosphoproteomics and proteomics studies to predict the upstream kinases responsible for observed differential phosphorylations. The KEA3 background database contains measured and predicted kinase-substrate interactions (KSI), kinase-protein interactions (KPI), and interactions supported by co-expression and co-occurrence data. To benchmark the performance of KEA3, we examined whether KEA3 can predict the perturbed kinase from single-kinase perturbation followed by gene expression experiments, and phosphoproteomics data collected from kinase-targeting small molecules. We show that integrating KSIs and KPIs across data sources to produce a composite ranking improves the recovery of the expected kinase. The KEA3 webserver is available at https://maayanlab.cloud/kea3.
A Comparison of Quit Outcomes for Men and Women in a Smoking Cessation Program Offering Personalized Nicotine Replacement Therapy and Counseling in Primary Care Clinics
Authors: Voci Sabrina , Veldhuizen Scott , Tien Stephanie , Barker Megan , Minian Nadia , Selby Peter , Zawertailo Laurie
Published: April 2021

Introduction

Women may have greater difficulty achieving long-term abstinence following a quit attempt compared to men. We sought to determine whether there were differences in treatment characteristics or outcome between female and male primary care patients enrolled in a smoking cessation program providing personalized nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) with counseling support.

Aims and Methods

The sample included 27 601 Ontarians (53% female, 47% male) who enrolled in the Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients program between 2016 and 2018. Dose, type, and duration of NRT supplied were personalized to need. Thirty-day point prevalence tobacco smoking abstinence was self-reported via online or telephone survey at 6 months after enrollment.

Results

Both female and male participants received a median of 8 weeks of NRT. Types of NRT received were similar, with 80% of both female and male participants receiving patch and short-acting NRT. The total cumulative dose was somewhat higher for men (1373 mg vs. 1265 mg, p < .001); but when calculated as dose per day, per cigarette smoked at baseline, the dose was slightly higher among women (1.6 mg vs. 1.5 mg, p < .001). Quit rates at 6 months were lower for women versus men (24% vs. 27%; adjusted OR = 0.84 [95% CI = 0.78 to 0.90], p < .001). There were no significant interactions between gender and dose, type, or duration of NRT supplied.

Conclusions

Women were slightly less likely to quit than men, despite receiving similar treatment. There was no evidence that women benefitted more or less from variations in dose, type, or duration of NRT supplied.

Implications

Women who received personalized NRT with counseling support in a primary care setting had lower quit success than men. Although the absolute difference in quit outcome was small, the public health impact may be large given the burden of disease associated with continued smoking. NRT supplied was similar for women and men, and there was no evidence upon which to suggest tailoring the dose, duration, or type, based on gender alone. Further research to identify the underlying biological and social factors responsible for reduced quit success will help identify ways to optimize treatment for women.
Dawn of Immigrant Incarceration
Authors: Young Elliott
Published: April 2021

In the mid-1880s, scores of Chinese migrants were sentenced to six months hard labor at McNeil Island prison off the coast of Washington. After serving their sentences, these Chinese remained in prison when Canada refused to accept them back. The indefinite detention of the Chinese was the first time the government was faced with the contradiction between the still emerging immigration law and the demands of justice. This episode also reveals that the standard narrative that immigration was not criminalized until 1929 is wrong. Further investigation into this prison’s population from 1880 to 1940 uncovered a world of immigrant incarceration, largely based on drug and alcohol offenses. The early history of McNeil Island prison is evidence that the criminalization of immigrants and migration began long before our present era of mass immigrant detention.
“A Particularly Serious Crime”
Authors: Young Elliott
Published: April 2021

Machado was just five years old in 1990 when she was brought to the United States by her mother, who was desperate to escape the civil war raging in their home country of El Salvador; she wanted a better life for her two young daughters. In 2015, she was picked up in a traffic stop in Arkansas which triggered her deportation based on a felony conviction from a decade earlier. Machado’s story reveals a radical shift that had been happening since the mid-1990s. Unprecedented numbers of immigrants were being caught in a system that penalized people with mandatory deportations for relatively low-level crimes. Machado does not fit easily into the Manichean distinction made by President Obama in 2014 between “felons” on the one hand and “families” on the other. Machado, like so many others, is both.
The Medieval Classic
Authors: Haynes Justin A.
Published: April 2021

This book considers how ancient and medieval commentaries on the Aeneid by Servius, Fulgentius, Bernard Silvestris, and others can give us new insights into four twelfth-century Latin epics—the Ylias by Joseph of Exeter, the Alexandreis by Walter of Châtillon, the Anticlaudianus by Alan of Lille, and the Architrenius by John of Hauville. Virgil’s influence on twelfth-century Latin epic is generally thought to be limited to verbal echoes and occasional narrative episodes, but evidence is presented that more global influences have been overlooked because ancient and medieval interpretations of the Aeneid, as preserved by the commentaries, were often radically different from modern readings of the Aeneid. By explaining how to interpret the Aeneid, these commentaries directly influenced the way in which twelfth-century Latin epic imitated the Aeneid. At the same time, these Aeneid commentaries allow us a greater awareness of the generic expectations held by the original readers of twelfth-century Latin epic. Thus, this book provides a new way to look at the development of allegory and contributes to our understanding of ancient and medieval perceptions of the Aeneid while exploring the importance of commentaries in shaping poetic composition, imitation, and reading.
Myth in the Ylias and Alexandreis
Authors: Haynes Justin A.
Published: April 2021

Evidence drawn from Bernard Silvestris, Servius, and others shows that myth (fabula), specifically in the form of the divine apparatus, was believed to be an essential component of the Aeneid in the twelfth century. Yet, most medieval Latin epics did not have a divine apparatus, so the allegiance of the Ylias and Alexandreis to the Aeneid stands out even more starkly by comparison. What is more, evidence is presented that the divine apparatus of the Alexandreis and Ylias function in a similar way to the twelfth-century interpretation of the Virgilian divine apparatus—through allegory as personification. The chapter closes with an argument that the Ylias and Alexandreis, when read in their twelfth-century context, are more closely aligned with Virgil than Lucan. This conclusion contradicts the current scholarly consensus.
Multiple-Voting Share Structures
Authors: Anand Anita Indira
Published: April 2021

This chapter focuses on multiple-voting share (MVS) structures, which allow insiders to control governance, thus building the potential for conflicts of interest into the corporation’s own rules. When a firm goes public using an MVS structure, it issues two or more classes of shares, one to the public and another to insiders. The shares that are issued publicly have limited voting rights, while the class issued to insiders carries more voting rights, allowing the insiders to control the company without owning a majority of shares of the firm. This corporate structure disrupts the one-to-one ratio of votes to shares that, in non-MVS firms, gives minority shareholders a voice in the boardroom proportionate to their investment. By allowing issuers to accept public capital without relinquishing control of the corporation, MVS structures raise important questions relating to the rights of investors.
The Public’s Health
Authors: Goldman Wendy Z. , Filtzer Donald
Published: April 2021

The war saw a protracted mortality crisis among civilians. The movement of millions of refugees and evacuees with little access to sanitary facilities, clean water, or medical care led to widespread epidemics. Evacuation took an especially heavy toll on small children, who died from a measles epidemic as well as starvation, diarrhea, and pneumonia. Widespread hunger and nutritional deficits damaged the health of people of all ages. In 1943 and 1944 starvation and tuberculosis—a disease highly sensitive to malnutrition—together became the largest single contributor to adult mortality. Defense production exposed workers to new, toxic chemicals. The war made unprecedented demands on public health, but health officials and medical staff lacked almost everything they needed. After the majority of medical professionals were drafted, only a “skeleton staff” remained to treat the civilian population. Yet public health officials managed to contain the worst epidemic outbreaks. During the final years of the war starvation and malnutrition became the country’s primary health hazard.
The Welcome Arrival
Authors: Shadle Douglas W.
Published: April 2021

New York-based philanthropist and entrepreneur Jeannette Thurber (1850–1946) founded the National Conservatory of Music in 1885 to provide a world-class but low-cost professional music education to students from across the United States. Though it progressed in fits and starts, the conservatory eventually earned a congressional charter in 1891, giving it a unique stature compared to national rivals. A year later, Thurber hired Antonín Dvořák, the famous Bohemian composer, to be its executive musical director—easily the highest-profile individual to hold the position. The US public expected Dvořák to transform the National Conservatory into the international powerhouse Thurber had always envisioned.
The Racial Challenge
Authors: Shadle Douglas W.
Published: April 2021

After the US Civil War, African American musicians and intellectuals had increasingly turned to European classical music as a tool of socioeconomic advancement while acknowledging the importance of antebellum vernacular music for defining racial identity. Violinist and composer Will Marion Cook (1869–1944) used the platform of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition to demonstrate Black achievement in the arts. Meanwhile, Jeannette Thurber and Antonín Dvořák had opened the National Conservatory to Black students free of charge, thus expanding educational opportunities for talented Black musicians. The premiere of the New World Symphony in December 1893 reignited a widespread and vicious public debate about the place of Black music and musicians in American national life.
Opening
Authors: Cole Allan Hugh
Published: April 2021

This personal narrative chapter details events occurring after the author’s family returned home to Austin, Texas, from their trip to Italy and France. After having a dream, when the author’s family visited his parents in coastal South Carolina, he finally discloses his illness to his parents, nearly eleven months after the diagnosis. The author recounts this conversation as well as how it led to telling his children about his illness, a conversation that he also shares in detail. The next difficult conversation will be with his boss and his colleagues, an event that he recounts in the Epilogue.
Neural Syntheses
Authors: Nakai You
Published: April 2021

One of Tudor’s last projects used an instrument custom-made for him using the neural network chip that had just been developed. The Neural Synthesizer began as an attempt to build a universal instrument that would synthesize the proliferation of his modular devices. But the actual mechanism of the analog chip, which happened to be an extensive array of amplifiers, shifted the nature of the endeavor, causing a return to the no-input works from the 1970s. In this way, the neural network instrument, used against its usual purpose of extracting patterns from past examples, nonetheless found a strange connection with reminiscences of Tudor’s own past. The analyses of Neural Syntheses and Neural Network Plus, two series of works Tudor made using his new synthesizer, further brings up the issue of memory concerning the performance of his music, which is different every time yet open to revivals, something he tried to capture by setting a number to each performance. This also connects to the problem of how Tudor thought of passing his music on to others so that they could be performed in his absence, a natural concern in the last years of his life, but also something that reflected his lifelong interest in the role of memory and reminiscence in music.
Crustaceans Used in Biotechnology
Authors: Cecilia Gortari María , Hours Roque Alberto
Published: April 2021

Exploitation of aquatic natural resources contributes to important economic and social services to the world’s population. According to the latest FAO statistics, aquaculture production reached 167.2 million tons in 2014, representing values of nearly USD285 billion. Particularly, crustacean production represents 9% of the total, representing almost 7 Mt, which generates a great amount of waste, mainly from the exoskeletons. The increasing tendency toward a responsible and sustainable production that combines economic development and the conservation of natural resources has generated changes regarding production management. Within this framework, the biotechnological use of waste not only provides an added value to materials that have been traditionally discarded but also can reduce the environmental contamination resulting from their chemical processing. Thus, there is an opportunity for the preparation of substances with high aggregate value, such as chitin and its derivatives (chitosan, chito-oligosaccharides, and glucosamine), proteins, lipids, and carotenoid pigments. Byproducts resulting from the processing of crustaceans have potential applications in the food, pharmaceutical, textile, biomedical, and agricultural industries as well as in bio- and nanotechnology. In addition, the biomimetic of the structures, functions, and properties of the exoskeletons of crustaceans and the processes involved in their formation constitute the basis for the development of diverse structures, such as laminates or buildings, the creation of new materials that are potentially useful in diverse areas, and the adoption of novel modes of technologies.
Decision Rules
Authors: Phelps Charles E. , Madhavan Guru
Published: April 2021

Group decisions are driven by rules—constitutions, bylaws, contracts. Often the set of choices voted on by the group has been winnowed down by a committee or a backroom process that can strongly control the outcome by determining what choices are offered (and how they are described). This prescreening is often filled with obscure rules and processes. Organizations that come to crucial decision points (sometimes vital to the organization’s future) may find themselves suddenly looking at their bylaws (or whatever controls these processes) to find out how things should be done, but when those rules are poorly constructed (or give immense power to a few select people within the group), bad decisions can emerge that please very few people. The time to review organizational bylaws and rules is before crucial votes appear, not in the midst of major decisions themselves.
Time and Effort
Authors: Mitchell Neil J.
Published: April 2021

The most familiar incentive to delegate is to save time and effort. For parents, it might involve finding others to look after the baby. For shareholders, it involves finding managers to take proper care of their investments. For the thirty-two owners of teams in the National Football league it involves appointing a commissioner to negotiate deals with the media or players on the owners’ behalf. For citizens, it involves electing representatives to run the government. For governments it may involve outsourcing security tasks to militias. There is evidence that delegating some activities makes us happier, but as the chapter describes, it is challenging to keep agents on task.
Perception
Authors: Stoltz Jonathan
Published: April 2021

This chapter provides an overview of Buddhist accounts of perceptual knowledge as articulated by Dignāga and Dharmakīrti. It identifies the key features of these two epistemologists’ accounts of perception and discusses the important ways in which these two thinkers’ accounts differ from one another. The second half of the chapter explores the question of how far the scope of perceptual knowledge can be extended and looks at the various subtypes of perception that are adopted by Buddhist epistemologists including reflexive perception, mental perception and yogic perception. The chapter concludes by exploring how perceptual cognitions differ from instances of illusion and hallucination.
Testimony
Authors: Stoltz Jonathan
Published: April 2021

This chapter provides a discussion of the epistemology of testimony as it plays out in classical Buddhist accounts of knowledge. The chapter begins by describing the contrast between the (non-Buddhist) Nyāya School’s account of testimony and Dharmakīrti’s (Buddhist) account of testimony. The chapter then proceeds to illuminate various other differences between the Nyāya and Buddhist accounts, focusing principally on the distinction between reductive and nonreductive theories of testimonial knowledge and on the distinction between speaker conditions and hearer conditions for testimonial knowledge. The chapter concludes with a section on the transmission theory of testimony and investigates whether the transmission theory would be supported by classical Buddhist epistemologists.
The Great Wall of Mexico
Authors: Popkin Samuel L.
Published: April 2021

Ted Cruz appeared to be in the driver’s seat in the race for the 2016 GOP nomination. He won the backing of key evangelical groups and his message also appealed to nonreligious Tea Party members. He was backed by three billionaires and large numbers of small donors. Then he ran into the “Great Wall of Mexico.” Chapter 4 illustrates how the entire GOP establishment was so discredited from overpromising and underdelivering that an outsider like Donald Trump—bragging about his money while attacking everyone else as corrupt—attracted record crowds and a cult-like following to his “identity festivals.” His “birther” claims about President Obama won him a large following among people who didn’t want to accept a nonwhite president. He was the only candidate with a solution to the immigration stalemate—deportation—and the only one to propose taxing the rich to protect Social Security and Medicare. Trump wasn’t the first to come up with these ideas—nearly every single proposal he made had been made earlier by other Republicans—but he was the first to recognize the anger in the GOP’s voting base, and to take Ted Cruz’s incendiary tactics to an even greater extreme.
Conclusion
Authors: Hallinan Dara
Published: April 2021

This concluding chapter argues that European data protection law, under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), can and ought to be looked at to play a central role in the protection of genetic privacy in biobanking in Europe. In the first instance, the substantive framework presented by the GDPR already offers an impressive baseline level of protection for genetic privacy. In turn, while numerous problems with this baseline standard of protection are identifiable, the GDPR offers the normative flexibility to accommodate solutions to these problems, as well as the procedural mechanisms to facilitate the realisation of solutions. The interaction between GDPR and biobanking is still, however, in the early stages. Whether this potential is realised now depends on the decisions and actions of regulatory stakeholders in the biobanking space. Their decisions have the potential to optimise or undermine the GDPR as a system for the protection of genetic privacy in biobanking. The biobanking community also have consequential choices as to how they perceive and operationalise the GDPR.
Digital Health
Authors: Perakslis Eric D. , Stanley Martin , Brodwin Erin
Published: April 2021

Digital health has been touted as a true transformation of health care, but all medical interventions have associated risks that must be understood and quantified. The Internet has brought many advancements, which quickly jumped from our computers into our pockets via powerful and completely connected mobile devices that are now being envisioned as devices for medical diagnostics and care delivery. As health care struggles with cost, inequity, value, and rapid virtualization, solid models of benefit-risk determination, new regulatory approaches for biomedical products, and clear risk-based conversations with all stakeholders are essential. Detailed examination of emerging digital health technologies has revealed 10 categories of digital side effects or “toxicities” that must be understood, prevented when possible, and managed when not. These toxicities include cyberthreat, loss of privacy, cyberchondria and cyber addiction, threats to physical security, charlatanism, overdiagnosis and overtreatment, medical/user error, and the plague of medical misinformation. For digital health to realize its promise, these toxicities must be understood, measured, warned against, and managed as concurrent side effects, in the same fashion as any other medical side effect.
The Evolution of Digital Technologies in Health Care
Authors: Perakslis Eric D. , Stanley Martin
Published: April 2021

Although digital health often is touted as something revolutionary and brand new, the truth is that electronic biomedical equipment has existed for decades and many new digital health tools are simply incremental enhancements. In some cases, a device has been miniaturized for convenience and home use. In other cases, novel algorithms are being placed into clinician workflow as decision aids, not unlike the Physicians’ Desk Reference (PDR) that often was consulted during clinical encounters. The part that is new is Internet connectivity and all the accompanying benefits and risks. In this chapter, the history of biomedical tools and their evolution over the last three decades is reviewed in detail with an eye toward understanding incremental advancements, such as miniaturized heart arrhythmia measurement tools, as well as leaps in progress, such as the widespread adoption of electronic health records.
The Technology of Biotechnology and Big Data in Medicine Development
Authors: Perakslis Eric D. , Stanley Martin
Published: April 2021

The rise of big data and digital health in medicine have been concurrent over the last two decades. Often confused, while virtually all digital health solutions, such as sensors wearable devices, and diagnostic algorithms, involve big data, not all big data in health care originates from digital health tools. Genomic sequencing data being one example of this. In this chapter, the role and importance of big data in medicines and medical device discovery and development are detailed with the specific focus of providing a detailed understanding of the product discovery, product development, clinical trials, regulatory authorization, and marketing processes. Concepts such as “dirty data,” regulatory decision-making, remote and virtualized clinical trials, and other key elements of digital health are discussed.
The Patient as a Mobile Health Care Consumer
Authors: Perakslis Eric D. , Stanley Martin
Published: April 2021

Many believe that digital health will be a catalyst to enable health care to become more market-centric and consumer-driven. Indeed, the Covid-19 pandemic has essentially redefined the concept of “elective” procedures based almost entirely on patient preference and behaviors, much of which was unexpected. Although the concept of educated and empowered patient consumers paints a compelling vision, many fear the unintended consequences of removing or minimizing trusted caregiver guidance from the equation. What are the risks and unintended consequences of self-managed care? Will patients properly prioritize? Will the benefits, risks, and potential trade-offs be understood? How will fact be separated from hype, misinformation and confirmation bias? In this chapter the opportunities and hazards of patients as mobile health consumers are detailed with a specific focus on potential harms and corresponding mitigations.
Surnaming
Authors: Qi Xiaoying
Published: April 2021

The conjunction in China of market reform and the one-child policy underlies new child-surnaming practices, discussed here for the first time. For a number of reasons, wives from daughter-only families are disrupting an established practice by giving their own surnames, rather than the husband’s, to their child(ren). Through development of the concept of “veiled patriarchy,” the chapter makes an original contribution to understanding child surnaming and inheritance practices in contemporary China. Veiled patriarchy relates to an obscuration of continuing patriarchal control, amid conditions of growing women’s rights. The chapter also addresses the emotional aspect of surnaming, which, incidentally, is the least researched element in this sparsely examined sociological topic. More generally, in demonstrating how surnaming is connected to intergenerational relations, gender contestation, and economic power asymmetry, the chapter realigns surnaming theory and the theory of gender through empirical investigation and conceptual innovation.
Flowering at Sunset
Authors: Qi Xiaoying
Published: April 2021

Through an examination of remarriage and repartnering among the elderly, this chapter explores the occurrence of later-life cohabitation, the issues it raises for participants, and the intergenerational considerations it generates. Whereas the mainstream literature tends to treat remarriage or cohabitation among older persons as a private matter between the couples, the Chinese cases discussed in the chapter provide a contrasting perspective, in which the attitudes and expectations of adult children, especially regarding inheritance, but also in terms of the provision of eldercare, impact the cohabitation and remarriage decisions of the elderly. The chapter also identifies otherwise neglected aspects of social relationships, including concerns about the face of the persons directly involved, as well as more distant others.
Enhancing Civilian Risk Mitigation by Expanding the Commander’s Information Aperture
Authors: Corn Geoffrey S. , Meier Michael W.
Published: April 2021

Debates continue over the significance of reverberating effects of an attack during armed hostilities and how they implicate proportionality assessments. Some argue commanders bear an obligation to integrate consideration of such effects in their proportionality judgments; others argue that such effects are too speculative. But this debate reveals the vital role of process in attack judgments. That process will ideally provide commanders with information related to judgments that seek to ensure the balance between military necessity and humanity, relying on battle-staff experts working through a doctrinal process to filter and refine such information. In this chapter, we suggest a new staff principal: the civilian risk mitigation expert. Such an expert will contribute to expanding the commander’s aperture related to civilian risk considerations and better enable the commander to foresee and consider all attack effects, thereby enhancing both civilian protection and the legitimacy of attack judgments.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Authors: Raimondi Guido
Published: April 2021

The Grand Chamber delivered fourteen judgments and one decision in 2018. In Naït-Liman v. Switzerland, concerning the victims of acts of torture, the Court ruled on whether the national courts are required to examine compensation claims in cases where the alleged acts of torture were committed outside the national territory by, or under the jurisdiction of, a third state (Article 6). In S., V. and A. v. Denmark, the Court had the chance to revisit its previous case-law regarding preventive detention. In Navalnyy v. Russia, the Court examined whether the arrest on several occasions of an opposition political activist who was detained and penalised for taking part in public gatherings was compatible with Articles 5, 6, and 11. Finally, in Molla Sali v. Greece, the Court examined a case concerning the application of Islamic religious law (Sharia law) to an inheritance dispute against the wishes of the beneficiary of the will.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Authors: Viljoen Frans
Published: April 2021

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights is the newest of the three regional human rights courts. This brief analysis provides an overview of the most salient aspects of the Court’s 2018 case-law with respect to jurisdiction, provisional measures, admissibility, merits decisions, and reparations orders. Continuing its trajectory of increasing productivity, the Court in 2018 handed down the highest number of merits decisions in its brief history. As in previous years, most of these were fair-trial-related cases against Tanzania. The Court’s 2018 case-law contains a number of firsts. In Gombert v. Côte d’Ivoire, the Court for the first time ruled as inadmissible a case previously settled by an African subregional court, the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States. In Anudo v. Tanzania, dealing with the right to nationality, the Court for the first time found a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on the basis that the Declaration has attained the status of customary international law. In Makungu v. Tanzania, it for the first time ordered the applicant’s release as an appropriate remedy for serious fair trial violations. The Court’s most significant decision of 2018 is the Mali Marriage case, in which it held aspects of the 2011 Malian Family Code to be in violation not only of human rights treaties emanating from the African Union, but also the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women.
Introduction
Authors: Strasburg James D.
Published: April 2021

The introduction sketches out the theological, diplomatic, and political commitments of ecumenical and evangelical Protestantism in twentieth century America. It likewise discusses the twentieth-century origins of Christian nationalism and Christian globalism in American Protestant thought, surveying in particular how the two world wars and onset of the Cold War both activated and refined these competing theologies of global engagement. Beyond the American context, it outlines the German Protestant pushback to American efforts to reconstruct Germany on an American basis. Wrestling with the legacy of their own nationalist theologies, German Protestants drew on the devastation of the Second World War to outline a new “third way” theology that positioned Protestant churches as global mediators within the intense ideological landscape of the Cold War. When a growing number of American Protestants found themselves converted to this line of thought, it became clear that their efforts to remake Europe had in fact begun to remake them.
Epilogue
Authors: Strasburg James D.
Published: April 2021

The epilogue considers how the spiritual reconstruction of Europe solidified Christian nationalism and Christian globalism as enduring theologies of global engagement within American Protestant churches. It traces the legacy of these Cold War theologies through an era of decolonization, the global growth of Christianity, and new international challenges at the start of the twenty-first century. In particular, it surveys how the “third way” theology of European Protestants such as Karl Barth and Martin Niemöller led American Protestants to rethink their commitments to American Christian nationalism. Yet a new wave of spiritual “cold warriors” helped ensure the struggle for the soul of Europe and the United States would continue well into the start of a new century.
Zap! II: Introduction
Authors: Wilk Stephen R.
Published: April 2021

A look back at my earlier book How the Ray Gun Got Its Zap! and the reason I write these essays. I re-iterate my purposes of providing entertainment and “education by stealth” in my pieces about strange and unusual optical phenomena. Besides mentioning several of the science popularizers whose names may be familiar to most readers,” I write about two more of the essayists who inspired me—David Brewster and Jearl D. Walker—and their approach to teaching science through asking unusual questions and posing challenges. This helps the readers to search for the answers themselves.
Globulism
Authors: Wilk Stephen R.
Published: April 2021

In the beginning of the 19th century, the theory arose that biological tissues were composed of spherical “globules,” probably of uniform size, much as solid matter was composed of relatively uniform atoms. Where did this notion come from? Was it strictly an analogy with physical science? Is it possible that it came from an underlying philosophy of uniformity of constituents? Or did it have its origins in the limitations of the microscopes and other optical devices used in studying the tissues? There are and have been proponents of each of these views. The timing of the resolution of the conflict may say something about its origins.
I Was a Teenage Optical Engineer
Authors: Wilk Stephen R.
Published: April 2021

Lawrence Talbot, the Wolf Man of Universal horror films of the 1940s was played by Lon Chaney, Jr. Surprisingly, the character was an optical engineer in the original movie. He installed a telescope in the Talbot family home. In the original script, in fact, he is not even a relative of the family, but was brought in explicitly to install the telescope. Few things in a movie script are left to chance, but are either inspired by events, or else have some symbolic significance. Why did screenwriter Curt Siodmak settle upon someone in Optics for this role, when he might have used any profession as a means of inserting his character into the story?