bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
4. What can be done to accelerate development?
Authors: Goldin Ian
Published: March 2018

The extraordinary diversity of development experiences reveals the many different available pathways that countries have chosen in order to develop. Each requires a determination to succeed and the sacrifice of short-term benefits for longer-term and societal goals. It is hard to accelerate development and the gains can be easily reversed. ‘What can be done to accelerate development?’ looks at key areas that can affect and improve development prospects. These include literacy and education; health; reducing gender inequality; agriculture and improved food nutrition; investment in infrastructure; legal frameworks and equity; global trade; and peace and stability.
7. Globalization and development
Authors: Goldin Ian
Published: March 2018

The relationship between globalization and development is contested. For some, globalization is a powerful force for poverty reduction and has led to leaps in life expectancy and other key dimensions of development. For others, globalization has negative implications and is seen as a source of growing inequality, poverty, unemployment, and environmental destruction. ‘Globalization and development’ considers the important aspects of globalization that have an impact on development: global financial flows and different types of financial investment; the promotion of equitable trade for developing countries; technological progress; international regulation and cooperation to prevent transfer pricing and tax avoidance; and the impact of international migration and the rise of refugees due to civil war and genocide.
4. The human genome in biology and medicine
Authors: Archibald John
Published: March 2018

The initial phase of human genome sequencing is often referred to as ‘the’ Human Genome Project. But there were two different projects, one publicly funded, the other supported by a private company, Craig Venter’s Celera Genomics. ‘The human genome in biology and medicine’ explains that both projects used DNA samples from more than one person. It was not until 2007 that the first genome of a single individual was published. The structure of the nuclear DNA and mitochondrial genome is also described. Genomics research is having a profound impact on our understanding of the genetic, biochemical, and cell biological underpinnings of cancer, and how it can be detected and treated.
6. Genomics and the microbial world
Authors: Archibald John
Published: March 2018

Together, molecular biology and genomics have made it possible to explore the diversity and ecology of the 99 per cent of microbes that cannot be cultured in laboratories. ‘Genomics and the microbial world’ considers environmental gene sequencing; metagenomics, the isolation and analysis of large DNA fragments taken directly from the environment; and single-cell genomics and transcriptomics. It also examines the human microbiome; it is now clear that a complex array of factors contribute to the establishment and maintenance of the human microbiome over the course of a lifetime. Bioprospecting in the metagenomics era is also discussed along with the ambitious Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea project.
3. Seismology and the Earth’s internal structure
Authors: Lowrie William
Published: March 2018

Seismology is the most powerful geophysical tool for understanding the structure of the Earth. It is concerned with how the Earth vibrates. Physically, seismic behaviour depends on the relationship between stress and strain in the Earth. ‘Seismology and the Earth’s internal structure’ explains compressional and shear elastic deformation and the four types of seismic waves caused by earthquakes: P-waves and S-waves that travel through the body of the Earth, and Rayleigh and Love waves that spread out at and near the Earth’s surface. It describes the reflection, refraction, and diffraction of body waves and how their observation and measurement by seismometers can be used to understand the internal structure of core, mantle, and crust.
4. Seismicity—the restless Earth
Authors: Lowrie William
Published: March 2018

Hundreds of thousands of earthquakes occur worldwide each year, but most of them go unnoticed. Only a few are very destructive. Most earthquakes have a tectonic origin and happen in well-defined, relatively narrow seismic zones. ‘Seismicity—the restless Earth’ first describes the elastic rebound model that explains how an earthquake occurs. There are two measures of the size of an earthquake: its magnitude and intensity. Magnitude is a measure of the energy released by the earthquake classified by the Richter scale, while intensity is a qualitative measure based on observed effects using a twelve-part scale. Maps of the locations of earthquake epicentres show that these are concentrated in narrow seismically active zones. Earthquake monitoring and prediction are discussed.
4. The Great Acceleration
Authors: Ellis Erle C.
Published: March 2018

The challenge for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) in 1999 was how to integrate the evidence of humans transforming Earth’s functioning as a system into a coherent overview of global environmental change. The IGBP report Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure (2004) identified a dramatic mid-20th-century step-change in anthropogenic global environmental change, which would come to be called ‘The Great Acceleration’. ‘The Great Acceleration’ outlines the complex, multi-causal, system-level set of processes that have altered the Earth system, from domestication of land to human alterations of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. It also discusses tipping points that result in relatively rapid, non-linear, and potentially irreversible ‘step-changes’ in Earth’s climate system.
6. Oikos
Authors: Ellis Erle C.
Published: March 2018

Human reshaping of ecology has been driving the Anthropocene transition since its very first beginnings. ‘Oikos’ explains that the Anthropocene poses even greater challenges for those working to conserve and restore natural habitats. What does ‘natural habitat’ even mean on a planet transformed by humans? The complex dynamics of human–environment interactions make it a challenge to detect whether a significant ecological change has occurred. The ‘historic range of variability’ or ‘baseline’ state of ecological parameters needs to be characterized. If human societies are now operating as a global force that is transforming Earth to the detriment of both humanity and non-human nature, what, if anything, is to be done about it?
Comparative Literature: A Very Short Introduction
Authors: Hutchinson Ben
Published: March 2018

Comparative literature is both the past and the future of literary studies. Its history is intimately linked to the political upheavals of modernity: from colonial empire-building in the 19th century to the postcolonial culture wars of the 21st century. But what is comparative literature? Comparative Literature: A Very Short Introduction tells the story of comparative literature as an agent of international relations, from the point of view both of scholarship and of cultural history. Outlining the complex history and competing theories of comparative literature, it offers an accessible means of entry into a notoriously slippery subject, and shows the value and importance of encountering literature from outside one’s own culture.
Introduction
Authors: Crawford Dorothy H.
Published: March 2018

The Introduction outlines the structure of this VSI. The first two chapters introduce viruses, their structure and diversity, how they live, and their effects. Then the constant battle between viruses and the immune system of the infected individual is outlined, followed by chapters about infection by emerging viruses, epidemic viruses, pandemic viruses, and those that persist in the body for a lifetime. Later chapters look at how our knowledge of viruses has advanced through the ages and how the recent molecular revolution has enhanced our ability to isolate new viruses and to diagnose and treat virus infections. The final chapter speculates about how humans and viruses might interact in the future.
Persistent viruses
Authors: Crawford Dorothy H.
Published: March 2018

‘Persistent viruses’ explains how some viruses have evolved strategies for overcoming immune mechanisms and survive inside their host for prolonged periods, even for a lifetime. Evasion strategies encompass three basic manoeuvres: finding a niche in which to hide from immune attack, manipulating immune processes to benefit the virus, and outwitting immune defences by mutating rapidly. Most persistent viruses have evolved to cause mild or even asymptomatic infections, since a life-threatening disease would not only be detrimental to the host, but would also deprive the virus of its home. The herpesvirus family, retrovirus family, HIV-1, and hepatitis viruses are described in detail.
Tumour viruses
Authors: Crawford Dorothy H.
Published: March 2018

One in three people develop cancer during their lives and 10–20 per cent of human cancers are linked to viruses. ‘Tumour viruses’ shows how viral oncogenes have been instrumental in uncovering the molecular mechanisms involved in cancer development. Tumours develop when a single cell in an organism is released from the usual constraints that regulate its growth and then replicates unchecked. This rogue cell then produces a mass of similar cells, forming a tumour (or cancer) that invades the surrounding tissues and may spread from its original site. The tumour-causing behaviour of oncogenic retroviruses, human T lymphotropic virus, herpesviruses, hepatitis viruses, and papilloma viruses are all considered.
Marx: A Very Short Introduction
Authors: Singer Peter
Published: March 2018

Karl Marx is one of the most influential philosophers of all time, whose theories have shaped and directed political, economic, and social thought for 150 years. Marx: A Very Short Introduction identifies the central vision that unifies Marx’s thought, enabling us to grasp Marx’s views as a whole. It presents Marx as a philosopher primarily concerned with human freedom, rather than as an economist or a social scientist. This new edition explores whether Marx remains relevant today, and if so, how. It concludes with an assessment of Marx’s legacy, asking if there is any realistic prospect of replacing capitalism with a better system of production and distribution in the 21st century.
9. Communism and revolution
Authors: Singer Peter
Published: March 2018

How, in Marx’s view, would capitalism be overthrown? And what kind of society did Marx believe would replace capitalism? The simple answers are: capitalism would be overthrown by revolution and replaced by communism. ‘Communism and revolution’ explains that Marx was reticent over the details of communist society. He believed that history owed its momentum to the development of the forces of production rather than the development of ideas. Marx saw his role as raising the revolutionary consciousness of the workers and preparing for the revolution that would occur when conditions were ripe. In proposing a solution to the problem of the individual and the community, Marx was contributing to a tradition in moral philosophy going back at least to Plato.
11. Is Marx still relevant?
Authors: Singer Peter
Published: March 2018

By the early 20th century, Marxism was the dominant ideology of the left, especially in Europe. Marxism spread significantly around the world after the two world wars, but Marx’s prominence went into abrupt decline in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then, China has been the most significant avowedly Marxist country. ‘Is Marx still relevant?’ considers whether Marx’s views are still relevant when dealing with worldwide inequality, global financial crises, the age of globalization, and climate change. It concludes that Marx’s ideas about the role that economic interests play in our intellectual and political lives will remain relevant, but that his prediction of the inevitability of a proletarian revolution will not.
Bayesian inference for network meta-regression using multivariate random effects with applications to cholesterol lowering drugs
Authors: Li Hao , Chen Ming-Hui , Ibrahim Joseph G , Kim Sungduk , Shah Arvind K , Lin Jianxin , Tershakovec Andrew M
Published: March 2018

Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) has been identified as a causative factor for atherosclerosis and related coronary heart disease, and as the main target for cholesterol- and lipid-lowering therapy. Statin drugs inhibit cholesterol synthesis in the liver and are typically the first line of therapy to lower elevated levels of LDL-C. On the other hand, a different drug, Ezetimibe, inhibits the absorption of cholesterol by the small intestine and provides a different mechanism of action. Many clinical trials have been carried out on safety and efficacy evaluation of cholesterol lowering drugs. To synthesize the results from different clinical trials, we examine treatment level (aggregate) network meta-data from 29 double-blind, randomized, active, or placebo-controlled statins +/$-$ Ezetimibe clinical trials on adult treatment-naïve patients with primary hypercholesterolemia. In this article, we propose a new approach to carry out Bayesian inference for arm-based network meta-regression. Specifically, we develop a new strategy of grouping the variances of random effects, in which we first formulate possible sets of the groups of the treatments based on their clinical mechanisms of action and then use Bayesian model comparison criteria to select the best set of groups. The proposed approach is especially useful when some treatment arms are involved in only a single trial. In addition, a Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling algorithm is developed to carry out the posterior computations. In particular, the correlation matrix is generated from its full conditional distribution via partial correlations. The proposed methodology is further applied to analyze the network meta-data from 29 trials with 11 treatment arms.
Urocortin-2 improves right ventricular function and attenuates pulmonary arterial hypertension
Authors: Adão Rui , Mendes-Ferreira Pedro , Santos-Ribeiro Diana , Maia-Rocha Carolina , Pimentel Luís D , Monteiro-Pinto Cláudia , Mulvaney Eamon P , Reid Helen M , Kinsella B Therese , Potus François , Breuils-Bonnet Sandra , Rademaker Miriam T , Provencher Steeve , Bonnet Sébastien , Leite-Moreira Adelino F , Brás-Silva Carmen
Published: March 2018

Aims

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a devastating disease and treatment options are limited. Urocortin-2 (Ucn-2) has shown promising therapeutic effects in experimental and clinical left ventricular heart failure (HF). Our aim was to analyse the expression of Ucn-2 in human and experimental PAH, and to investigate the effects of human Ucn-2 (hUcn-2) administration in rats with monocrotaline (MCT)-induced pulmonary hypertension (PH).

Methods and results

Tissue samples were collected from patients with and without PAH and from rats with MCT-induced PH. hUcn-2 (5 μg/kg, bi-daily, i.p., for 10 days) or vehicle was administered to male wistar rats subjected to MCT injection or to pulmonary artery banding (PAB) to induce right ventricular (RV) overload without PAH. Expression of Ucn-2 and its receptor was increased in the RV of patients and rats with PAH. hUcn-2 treatment reduced PAH in MCT rats, resulting in decreased morbidity, improved exercise capacity and attenuated pulmonary arterial and RV remodelling and dysfunction. Additionally, RV gene expression of hypertrophy and failure signalling pathways were attenuated. hUcn-2 treatment also attenuated PAB-induced RV hypertrophy.

Conclusions

Ucn-2 levels are altered in human and experimental PAH. hUcn-2 treatment attenuates PAH and RV dysfunction in MCT-induced PH, has direct anti-remodelling effects on the pressure-overloaded RV, and improves pulmonary vascular function.
Technology use and preferences to support clinical practice guideline awareness and adherence in individuals with sickle cell disease
Authors: Utrankar Amol , Mayo-Gamble Tilicia L , Allen Whitney , Novak Laurie , Kassim Adetola A , Bonnet Kemberlee , Schlundt David , Murry Velma M , Jackson Gretchen Purcell , DeBaun Michael , Cronin Robert M
Published: March 2018

Objective

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a chronic condition affecting over 100 000 individuals in the United States, predominantly from vulnerable populations. Clinical practice guidelines, written for providers, have low adherence. This study explored knowledge about guidelines; desire for guidelines; and how technology could support guideline awareness and adherence, examining current technology uses, and user preferences to inform design of a patient-centered guidelines application in a chronic disease.

Methods

This cross-sectional mixed-methods study involved semi-structured interviews, surveys, and focus groups of adolescents and adults with SCD. We evaluated interest, preferences, and anticipated benefits or barriers of a patient-centered adaptation of SCD practice guidelines; prospective technology uses for health; and barriers to technology utilization.

Results

Forty-seven individuals completed surveys and interviews, and 39 participated in three separate focus groups. Most participants (91%) were unaware of SCD guidelines, but almost all (96%) expressed interest in a guidelines application, identifying benefits (knowledge, activation, individualization, and rewards), and barriers (poor information, low motivation, and resource limitations). Current technology health uses included information access, care coordination, and reminders about health-related actions. Prospective technology uses included informational messaging and timely alerts. Barriers to technology use included lack of interest, lack of utility, and preference for direct communication.

Conclusions

This study’s findings can inform the design of clinical practice guideline applications, suggesting a promising role for technology to engage patients, facilitate care decisions and actions, and improve outcomes.
Analysis of Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion Healthcare Costs via the Value-Driven Outcomes Tool
Authors: Reese Jared C , Karsy Michael , Twitchell Spencer , Bisson Erica F
Published: March 2018

BACKGROUND

Examining the costs of single- and multilevel anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is important for the identification of cost drivers and potentially reducing patient costs. A novel tool at our institution provides direct costs for the identification of potential drivers.

OBJECTIVE

To assess perioperative healthcare costs for patients undergoing an ACDF.

METHODS

Patients who underwent an elective ACDF between July 2011 and January 2017 were identified retrospectively. Factors adding to total cost were placed into subcategories to identify the most significant contributors, and potential drivers of total cost were evaluated using a multivariable linear regression model.

RESULTS

A total of 465 patients (mean, age 53 ± 12 yr, 54% male) met the inclusion criteria for this study. The distribution of total cost was broken down into supplies/implants (39%), facility utilization (37%), physician fees (14%), pharmacy (7%), imaging (2%), and laboratory studies (1%). A multivariable linear regression analysis showed that total cost was significantly affected by the number of levels operated on, operating room time, and length of stay. Costs also showed a narrow distribution with few outliers and did not vary significantly over time.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that facility utilization and supplies/implants are the predominant cost contributors, accounting for 76% of the total cost of ACDF procedures. Efforts at lowering costs within these categories should make the most impact on providing more cost-effective care.
Geography of Contention
Authors: Volkman Lucas P.
Published: March 2018

Chapter 1 argues that the development of Missouri as a trans-Mississippi southwest border state colonized by benevolent-minded northeastern missionaries provided the basic demographic context spurring ecclesiastical ruptures over slavery in the Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches of the state beginning in the late 1830s. Among other things, it shows that the schisms were most virulent when they pitted town-dwelling, middle-class Methodists and Presbyterians who supported slavery against their more liberal-minded, antislavery urban counterparts who had immigrated to the frontier from the Northeast and from Europe. On the other hand, Baptists, who largely immigrated from the Upper South and settled in rural Missouri, were more inclined to remain unified behind proslavery theology during their schism.
Church Property Litigation, Liberty of Conscience, and the Ordeal of African Methodists in St. Louis
Authors: Volkman Lucas P.
Published: March 2018

Focusing on the St. Louis Circuit Court case Farrar v. Finney, which culminated in a Supreme Court of Missouri decision, chapter 3 reveals that intra-congregational conflicts over church property among Methodists became especially heated when they pitted independently minded urban slave and free black congregants against all-white proslavery congregational factions. Like civilly and ecclesiastically disempowered white women, African American congregants, both men and women, had substantial spiritual and material stakes in the biracial churches they helped to build. The Supreme Court of Missouri, however, discounted informal biracial church customs for handling the affairs of virtually independent black congregations and ignored rules of law and equity in order to safeguard the material interests of proslavery churchgoers. As well, chapter 3 reveals that highly publicized litigation battles over church property, such as Farrar v. Finney, occurred almost exclusively in the slaveholding border states of Missouri, Kentucky, and Virginia.
Textual Criticism and the Book of Mormon
Authors: Hardy Grant
Published: March 2018

The last several decades have seen the emergence of academically rigorous textual criticism of the Book of Mormon. This scholarly development has largely been based on a detailed analysis of the two earliest manuscripts and twenty of the most significant printed editions. Royal Skousen, a linguist at Brigham Young University, has been the driving force behind these efforts, which have culminated in the publication of multi-volume textual commentaries, photographical and typographical facsimiles of the manuscripts, and a reconstructed earliest version. Grant Hardy, in his “Textual Criticism and the Book of Mormon,” presents how these invaluable studies can be used by scholars to provide clues about the 1829 translation/dictation process of Joseph Smith and his scribes, the transmission of text, details of the narrative, and Smith’s attitudes toward the scripture he produced.
Intertextuality and the Purpose of Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible
Authors: Wayment Thomas A.
Published: March 2018

Joseph Smith’s Bible revision project has existed on the canonical periphery of LDS scripture since its inception. In “Intertextuality and Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible,” Thomas Wayment explores the beginning moments of the Bible revision by exploring the first document produced as part of the project and how it led Smith to re-envision the Bible. The Bible project initially sought to expand upon a “revelation . . . which God spake to Moses.” As the Bible revision project took shape over a three-year period, other interests emerged, such as re-envisioning the Old Testament as a Christian epic, and a subsequent effort to improve the readability of the King James Version of the Bible. Wayment charts the changing texture of the Bible revision project through time.
Joseph Smith and the Conspicuous Scarcity of Early Mormon Documentation
Authors: Barney Ronald O.
Published: March 2018

In “Joseph Smith and the Conspicuous Absence of Early Mormon Documentation,” Ronald O. Barney considers three aspects of Joseph Smith’s distinctive leadership style. First, contrary to what one might expect, Smith largely kept to himself the sacred experiences that bore on his divine authority as a religious leader. Second, he refrained from inserting himself into the public sphere by literary means, even among his own people, when it was his prerogative to do so. Third, Smith appears to have had an aversion, or at least little to no interest, in having his numerous sermons captured and distributed. When taken together, these considerations suggest clues to his personality that complicate the view, taken by some, of Smith as a person preoccupied with chronicling his own experiences in order to bolster his credibility as an authentic religious personality.
Catholicizing Girlhood
Authors: Del Socorro Castañeda-Liles María
Published: March 2018

The author argues that as the mothers of the women interviewed for this study introduced them to Mexican popular Catholic expressions of faith, they also socialized their daughters into the strict gender expectations of the institutional Church. The chapter offers an intersectional analysis of dress codes, Mass attendance, prayer, language, and ethnicity as experienced by the women in all three age groups. The author argues that the differences in the women’s religious education and practices relate to whether they grew up in a pre– or post–Vatican II Catholic Church, their generation, geographical location, and migration. The extent to which these women were expected by their mothers and the Church to abide by a strict Catholic code of conduct also influenced the development of their religious practices.
Conclusion
Authors: Del Socorro Castañeda-Liles María
Published: March 2018

The Conclusion focuses on a theme that spans across all the chapters of the book and offers a more extensive definition of what the author calls Mexican Catholic imagination. The chapter discusses the broader implications this study has for the advancement of the study of lived religion, feminist research, and pastoral work. The author also proposes the concept of (fe)minism as a useful theoretical lens to understand what religious beliefs and social circumstances propel women to exercise their agency on behalf of themselves and their children. Finally, the author suggests a series of questions to consider for further development of Our Lady of Guadalupe studies.
Track 1
Authors: Bell Adam Patrick
Published: March 2018

Fifty-three-year-old guitarist Michael is the figurative flag-bearer of learning anew in the digital age. Despite decades of experience making multitrack recordings at home and professionally, Michael found himself in unfamiliar territory when first encountering the DAW Ableton Live. Leaning on skeuomorphic design cues and refusing to be bound by the learning approaches that characterize “digital immigrants,” Michael clicked his way through frustration to discover the din of his dreams. Without the aid of a teacher in any sense of the word, Michael matter-of-factly summarized his learning approach: “I didn’t have anybody tutoring me and I didn’t have any help files, so I just had to figure it out for myself.” His music-making processes exemplify how the quest for a specific sound (timbre) is foundational in DIY home recording.
Track 3
Authors: Bell Adam Patrick
Published: March 2018

Tyler credits the Internet as both his principal music instructor (e.g., YouTube) and influence (e.g., Facebook). Living in cramped quarters, the twenty-seven-year-old has modularized his bedroom such that it allows him to eat, sleep, work, play, and make music in the same two-hundred-square-foot space. By concocting a social network of avatars, Tyler has mapped out a lifetime’s worth of music he will author under the guise of these different heteronyms (personas). Tyler’s music-making with Ableton Live emphasizes the importance of editing and timbre tinkering. He spends little time recording performances, but literally a decade perfecting them by cutting, pasting, looping, equalizing, pitch shifting, and rewriting after repeated listenings.
Introduction
Authors: Hammer Espen
Published: March 2018

Franz Kafka’s The Trial stands as one of the most influential and emblematic novels of the twentieth century. Yet, as the overused adjective “Kafkaesque” suggests, rather than as a work of art in its full complexity, it has all too often been received as an expression of some vaguely felt cultural or psychological malaise—a symbol, perhaps, of all that we do not seem to comprehend, but that nevertheless is felt to haunt and influence us in inexplicable ways. Its plot, however, is both complex and completely unforgettable. A man stands accused of a crime he appears not to have any recollection of having committed and whose nature is never revealed to him. In what may ultimately be described as a tragic quest-narrative, the protagonist’s search for truth and clarity (about himself, his alleged guilt, and the system he is facing) progressively leads to increasing confusion before ending with his execution in an abandoned quarry. Josef K., its famous anti-hero, is an everyman faced with an anonymous, inscrutable yet seemingly omnipotent power. For all its fundamental strangeness, the novel seems to address defining concerns of the modern era: a sense of radical estrangement, the belittling of the individual in a bureaucratically controlled mass society, the rise perhaps of totalitarianism, as well as the fearful nihilism of a world apparently abandoned by God....
Before the Law
Authors: Rush Fred
Published: March 2018

The chapter focuses textually on the embedded parable “Vor dem Gesetz” and the surrounding scene at the Cathedral. It discusses the conception of law at the heart of the parable, its surrounding scene, and The Trial more generally. The author argues that Kafka’s conception of law is actually a collision of two mutually incompatible ways of thinking about and experiencing authority. As to the first, law is experienced as obscure in its demand, and in particular obscure in relation to the modern human expectation that such demands be rational. As to the second, law is experienced as a convergence of contingency that is “necessary” in a very special sense, i.e., that such convergence crowds out space for uniquely human possibility. These aspects are interdependent, the collision typifying Kafka’s approach to the question of what roots humans in both alienation and striving.
On the Ethical Character of Literature
Authors: Gibson John
Published: March 2018

This chapter articulates a concept of the ethical concerns of literature suitable for the abstractions and innovations of the modernist narrative. The interpretative challenges of The Trial bring into view the “literary ethics,” in a manner such that something general is confessed about the nature of a properly literary notion of the ethical. If philosophers traditionally think of the ethical as residing in a literary work’s expression of attitudes of approval and censure in respect to the aspects of the cultural life it represents, The Trial so complicates the idea of an expression of an “attitude” that it acts as a rebuke to the philosophical tradition itself. Here, The Trial is seen as emblematic of the respect in which modernism reinvents the ethical as a promise of autonomy in thought and feeling, and it does so in a manner that is nonredemptive and antitheoretical.
The Role of Economic Culture in Social Interdependence
Authors: Uskul Ayşe K , Over Harriet
Published: March 2018

This chapter discusses economic group differences in responses to social exclusion in children and adults. It begins by outlining evidence that different economies give rise to different habits and social practices and that these habits and social practices lead to differences in the extent to which individuals perceive themselves to be independent from, or interdependent with, others. It then argues that differences in social interdependence are associated with differences in how individuals respond to social exclusion. Drawing on the authors’ own research with an interdependent farming community and a more independent herding community, the chapter describes cultural differences in how individuals perceive social exclusion, respond to being excluded, and morally evaluate those who exclude others.
Israeli National Security
Authors: Freilich Charles D.
Published: March 2018

This book is the most comprehensive study to date of Israel’s national security. It combines an exhaustive analysis of the military, diplomatic, demographic, and societal challenges Israel faces, with the responses it has developed, to present a detailed proposal for an overall new national security strategy, the first such proposal ever published on Israel. The book argues that Israel’s national security strategy has been highly successful, that Israel can manage the major military threats that remain, and that delegitimization, the Palestinian issue, and demography are the greatest challenges Israel faces today. It thus proposes a more long-term approach, with greater emphasis on restraint, defense, and diplomacy, and in which resolving the Palestinian issue, ensuring Israel’s Jewish and democratic character, preventing Iran from going nuclear, maintaining the “special relationship” with the United States, and preserving the resolve of Israeli society are the primary objectives.
The Changing Military Threat
Authors: Freilich Charles D.
Published: March 2018

Chapter 3 argues that the military threat Israel faces has changed dramatically. Attacks by Arab armies are now the least likely, and the overall threat has diminished. Israel’s conventional superiority led its adversaries to adopt a decades-long strategy of attrition designed to lead to Israel’s collapse. Iran is the most sophisticated adversary Israel has ever faced, its ongoing nuclear program the greatest threat. Hezbollah’s rockets are the primary immediate threat. Iran, Hezbollah, and Syria now constitute one joint front. They and Hamas believe that the home front is Israel’s Achilles heel, which allows them to offset its military superiority, and it has become the primary battlefield, leading to wars of mutual deterrence and destruction. Hamas’s Gaza is the embodiment of Israel’s fears of a Palestinian state. Terrorism is a strategic threat, swaying elections and negotiations. A large regional conventional buildup is underway. Cyberattacks now pose one of the greatest threats.
Nonmilitary Threats
Authors: Freilich Charles D.
Published: March 2018

Chapter 4 argues that diplomatic and demographic challenges are almost as dangerous to Israel’s future as military threats. Efforts to isolate and delegitimize Israel and constrain its freedom of military action have had mixed success. Israel has broader ties than ever, sanctions and boycotts have achieved little, and it continues to act militarily. Nevertheless, Israel’s international standing has deteriorated severely, and the nature and outcome of military operations have been affected. No issue has undermined Israel’s standing more than the settlement policy. Inexorable demographic trends, stemming from the control of the West Bank, threaten Israel’s Jewish and democratic character. Already today only a small majority of Israel and the West Bank are Jewish. Ongoing settlement undermines the viability of the “two-state solution” and the point of no return may be nearing. Demography also explains Israel’s reluctance to conduct ground maneuver, undermining its ability to achieve military decision.
Israeli Society and National Security
Authors: Freilich Charles D.
Published: March 2018

Chapter 5 presents the primary societal changes in Israel in recent decades and their ramifications for its national security. The motivation to serve and bear the defense burden, national security consensus, and societal resilience remain strong. Conversely, Israel has become two societies, one at the forefront of international technology; the other, largely the ultra-orthodox and Arab populations, lags behind and may cause an economic crisis. Deep divisions over the West Bank, the one major exception to the national security consensus, and fundamental cleavages over domestic issues erode Israel’s societal strength. Public, media, judicial, and market considerations increasingly constrain national security decision-making, as does the institutionalization of casualty aversion into the process. When an effective case is made, however, Israeli society remains highly supportive of military operations. Israeli politics have been stalemated over the West Bank issue for decades, and Israel has been unable to chart a clear national course.
Introduction
Authors: Ó Briain Lonán
Published: March 2018

This introduction begins with three anecdotes that recount the researcher’s experiences in northern Vietnam: a concert of traditional music at the Vietnamese Institute for Musicology, a day at the Khâu Vai “Love Market,” and a post-work party at a family home in rural Sa Pa. These anecdotes are followed by a historical contextualization of the study, a presentation of the theoretical framework, and a description of the research methodology. An outline of the book’s organization includes detailed chapter descriptions. The introduction concludes with a discussion of ethical considerations in relation to research on the music of or associated with minority groups.
Hmong Traditional Music and Folklore
Authors: Ó Briain Lonán
Published: March 2018

Chapter 3 presents an in-depth ethnographic account of Hmong traditional music and folklore practices in the Sa Pa district of Lào Cai province, where Lương Kim Vĩnh conducted his research in the 1970s. This comparative research foregrounds minority interpretations of cultural diversity to challenge simplistic ethnic subdivisions based on dress color. Melodic and lyrical analyses illustrate how the folkloric style of kwv txhiaj forms the basis of Hmong instrumental music. The changing roles of, and micro-industries supported by, the iconic Hmong free-reed aerophone (qeej) in Sa Pa demonstrate how traditional music is evolving to meet the demands of new socioeconomic contexts. Other instruments traditionally associated with the Hmong, such as the mouth-harp and the two-stringed fiddle, are contrasted with their Vietnamese equivalents. This chapter presents an overview of traditional music from the perspectices of the Sa Pa Hmong to counter the reductive representations critiqued in the preceding chapters.
Introduction
Authors: McCrory Calarco Jessica
Published: March 2018

How does the middle class secure advantages in school? Research provides clear evidence that parents’ education and income are the best predictors of children’s educational outcomes. Explanations for that middle-class advantage typically focus on the match between middle-class culture and school culture. From that perspective, teachers reward students whose behaviors meet their expectations. This book argues that the middle-class advantage is also, at least in part, a negotiated advantage. Middle-class students secure advantages not only by complying with teachers’ expectations but also by requesting (and successfully securing) support in excess of what is fair or required. This chapter provides an overview of the book as a whole, describing the research questions, the data and methods used to answer those questions, and the answers to those questions. This chapter also situates those questions and answers in a review of prior research and concludes with a brief summary of the remaining chapters.
Alternative Explanations
Authors: McCrory Calarco Jessica
Published: March 2018

Chapter 7 answers a number of lingering questions about the processes that generate inequalities in schools. Drawing both on data from the current study and on an analysis of prior research, this chapter discusses the significance of class-based strategies and how they change as students move through school. It examines how gender and race might matter in shaping students’ interactions with teachers, how class-based patterns might vary across schools with different types of characteristics, and the extent to which students might learn class-based behaviors from their peers. The findings in this chapter highlight the difficulty involved in trying to learn new class-based behaviors, either through exposure to peers or through more formal training.
How Is Breast Cancer Evaluated?
Authors: Cutter Mary Ann G.
Published: March 2018

The question “How is breast cancer evaluated?” raises a host of considerations, including ones about the role of values in clinical concepts, the kinds of clinical values in medical thinking, and the extent to which our evaluations of clinical phenomenon provide clinical certainty. What we find is that, initially, breast cancer is a treatment warrant and appears to fit the view of a clinical entity that is value-neutral. But things are not as simple as one would initially think. Upon reflection, descriptions and explanations of breast cancer are nested in evaluative frames of reference through which they are seen, interpreted, and acted upon. Clinical evaluations of breast cancer are complex and involve appeals to functional, instrumental, aesthetic, and ethical values. As a consequence, clinicians and patients face the recognition that clinical evaluations of breast cancer are to some extent uncertain, and a healthy sense of skepticism provides a check against an idealized sense of evaluation in breast cancer medicine.
Extended Musings
Authors: Cutter Mary Ann G.
Published: March 2018

This inquiry shows that breast cancer is not an object simply to be discovered. It is a family of diseases. It is an evolving notion that provides structure and significance to patient narratives and clinical reality within social contexts. In the end, philosophy teaches us a number of lessons about how to understand and treat breast cancer and how to navigate the uncertainty of breast cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Alternatively, breast cancer teaches us a number of philosophical lessons about our understanding of nature, knowledge, and what and how we value. The hope is that a fruitful dialogue between philosophy and medicine continues. This is not just an academic wish; it is a personal one for anyone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Self-Creation and Responsibility
Authors: Callard Agnes
Published: March 2018

Aspiration, unlike Talbot Brewer’s “dialectical activities,” is a learning process in which someone moves from an inadequate to an adequate grasp of some value. Because we cannot learn what is not there, we can only take ourselves (or others) to aspire when we think there is something there to aspire to. Aspiration is distinct from ambition, in which agents make large-scale changes in the world without coming to learn why they are doing so. If some pursuit—e.g., becoming a gangster—is bereft of value at the endpoint, it cannot be engaged in aspirationally. This gives rise to an asymmetrical theory of moral responsibility for self: we are responsible for our valuational successes to the extent that we arrived at them aspirationally, and we are responsible for our valuational defects to the extent that they are the products of culpable failure to aspire.
{ Prologue }
Authors: Goodman Nan
Published: March 2018

This chapter sets out the argument of the book: the Puritans in New England in the second half of the seventeenth century were cosmopolitan people—not simply as a result of their widely dispersed trade networks, but because they adopted and internalized the law of nations. Looking past the strict sense of cause and effect or crime and punishment that characterized Puritan texts in the first half of the seventeenth century, the Puritan literature of the second half of the century was often shaped by and in dialogue with the principles of and treaties inspired by the law of nations, revealing a different type of Puritan narrative, which gave voice to stories of belongings that went far beyond the domestic sphere.
The Manufactured Millennium
Authors: Goodman Nan
Published: March 2018

The Puritans reconceptualized the millennium—their vision of peace in the world to come. As a religiously inspired end-of-the-world scenario, most political and legal historians see the millennium as the product of Christian universalism, whose exclusionary and apocalyptic nature the law of nations was designed to overcome. Looking closely at its changing profile among late seventeenth-century Puritans, we find that the millennium developed in parallel with and was informed by the cosmopolis that stood geopolitically and hermeneutically at the center of the law of nations. Once described in abstract terms lacking spatial specificity, the reorganized geopolitical millennium appears in three book-length sermons by Cotton Mather and includes a variety of jurisdictions in what the West had considered newly discovered territories, such as the New World colonies, as well as newly appreciated old territories, such as the Ottoman Empire, giving it many of the attributes of a cosmopolis itself.
Gendered State Assemblages and Temporary Labor Migration
Authors: Gunawardana Samanthi J.
Published: March 2018

This chapter draws on “assemblage thinking” to understand how the gendered state relates in seemingly contradictory ways to its citizens going overseas as temporary labor migrants. Using Sri Lanka as an illustrative case, the chapter presents the argument that there are three distinct but interrelated gendered state assemblages: regulatory gendered state assemblages, protective gendered state assemblages, and brokerage gendered state assemblages. Thus, migration flows are sustained while acknowledging and attempting to address gendered harm. The particular configuration of power relations within the constitutive elements of the assemblage helps to produce the gendered state, which, in turn, produces and reproduces gender.
Commodity Exchanges and Regulation
Authors: Markham Jerry W.
Published: March 2018

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) intensively regulates commodity futures, options, and swaps pursuant to the provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and federal banking agencies also have some jurisdiction over derivative financial instruments. This chapter describes the CFTC regulations, including registration requirements for designated contract markets, clearinghouses, and various swap market participants. It also describes the financial responsibility requirements imposed on futures commission merchants and safeguards for customer funds in the futures markets. Additionally, the chapter addresses prohibitions against misleading sales activities, deceptive trading practices, and price manipulations. Finally, it reviews the role of the SEC and bank regulators in regulating financial derivative contracts, particularly securities derivatives and foreign currency exchange transactions.
Behavioral Aspects of Commodity Markets
Authors: Nofsinger John R.
Published: March 2018

Are behavioral biases prevalent in commodities and futures markets? Although retail equity investors display many psychological biases, investors who are more sophisticated exhibit fewer biases. The market makers, traders (locals), speculators, hedgers, and institutions of the commodities and futures markets tend to be professional participants, and thus less prone to behavioral biases. Nevertheless, the fast-paced action of these markets is an environment that fosters behavioral errors. This chapter reviews the literature on the pervasiveness of prospect theory behavior and other biases in these markets. Strong evidence indicates that market participants exhibit loss aversion, the impact of reference points, the disposition effect, and overconfidence. They also engage in positive feedback trading and momentum investing. Lastly, the chapter reviews risk-taking and behavioral biases by the type of market participant, particularly focusing on market makers, floor traders, clearing members, and the public.