bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
‘Sing Willow, &c.’
Authors: Austern Linda Phyllis
Published: February 2022

From less than a century after Shakespeare’s death through the present time the search for the original ‘Song of Willow’ assigned to Desdemona in Othello (4.3) has occupied a wide range of antiquarians, philologists, musicologists, composers, and stage directors. What unifies these successive explorations is nostalgia for an English musical past and a literal reading of Desdemona’s claim that the song was already ‘an old thing’ and therefore part of collective memory in Shakespeare’s day. By the time of the early music movement and coincident folk-music revival of the 1950s and ’60s, one version, first identified as the original during the eighteenth century, had become central to what emerged as an ‘authentic Shakespeare music’ canon. It still remains the most recorded and widely circulating piece in the repertory of ‘original’ or ‘authentic’ Shakespeare music. This chapter traces its much-neglected history in the context of an entire genre of willow songs, all of which are concerned with musical and cultural remembrance, against the background of a nostalgic multi-century search for ‘original’ Shakespeare ephemera.
Shakespearean Concert Songs in Victorian England
Authors: Wilson Christopher R.
Published: February 2022

This chapter re-evaluates the status of settings of Shakespeare in the context of Victorian song from Macfarren to Henry Walford Davies, taking in Sullivan, Parry, MacKenzie, Stanford, Liza Lehmann, Maude Valérie White, Wood, and Somervell. Though often neglected today, Macfarren’s songs, including a number of Shakespeare settings, represented the ‘finest products of the period’. Seen as embodying the national emblem, Parry saw Shakespeare as central in his attempt to establish English ‘serious song’ comparable with the lieder of Schumann and Brahms and the dislodgement of commercial popular song prevalent in England. Parry’s settings of various sonnets in fact started life as German songs. Parry was not altogether successful in his mission; his only true disciple was Arthur Somervell. The last of the ‘Victorians’, Henry Walford Davies, was largely dismissed as a composer out of his time, his songs old-fashioned with their ‘forthright English melody’.
Shakespeare and Opera in the Czech Lands
Authors: Kopecký Jiří
Published: February 2022

Shakespeare inspired Czech Romantic composers almost exclusively in the genre of comic opera, but adapting a Shakespeare play into the form of a high-quality libretto was an extraordinarily difficult task, which then had to be matched by the musical setting and performance. Moreover, it was difficult to compete with Verdi’s Otello premiered in Prague in 1888 as the first production outside of Italy. Given these circumstances, it is not surprising that Shakespearean comic operas were first successfully produced at Prague’s National Theatre only once the quality of the opera company there had been stabilized, that is, around 1900: Karel Weis’s Viola (1892), Zdeněk Fibich’s The Tempest (1895), Josef Nešvera’s Perdita (1897), and Josef Bohuslav Foerster’s Jessika (1905). While it was through theatre that political questions were dealt with in the Czech lands under Habsburg rule, and Shakespeare became a leading artistic authority for the Czechs (unlike Schiller, whose legacy was fostered mainly by German theatres), the operas of Czech composers based on Shakespearean subjects aroused the hope of promoting the Czech arts in the struggle for national independence in an international context.
Audio-Visual Metaphors in Operatic Shakespeare
Authors: Kysová Šárka Havlíčková
Published: February 2022

This chapter considers both the ways of transforming Shakespeare’s plays into opera librettos, and the staging practice of particular Shakespearean operas. It focuses on staging of two operas based on Shakespeare’s plays composed by Giuseppe Verdi—Macbeth and Otello. The topic is treated with special reference to operatic scenography, especially regarding the issue of creating innovative audio-visual metaphors on stage. One of the essential questions may be summarized as follows: how are these (stage) metaphors rooted in Shakespeare’s plays as such? In the investigation of this topic, many specific productions of Shakespearean operas are included, both from the Czech Republic (and former Czechoslovakia, especially from the State Theatre in Brno) and from prominent world opera houses. The chapter’s central aim is to consider what operas based on Shakespeare’s plays bring to the theatrical stage, from the point of view of (for example) theatrical aesthetics and semantics, especially in the area of scenography—which is treated here not just as a visual parameter, but as an audio-visual artistic discipline.
Translation and Transformation in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Authors: Larson Katherine R. , Wiliford Lawrence
Published: February 2022

Benjamin Britten’s writings reveal a fascination with the question of how music evokes experiences of spatial and temporal change. Nowhere is this more evident than in his operatic reworking of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1960). This chapter’s argument begins in the forest surrounding Athens, which Britten foregrounds to a much greater extent than Shakespeare does. Both musically and structurally, the opera revolves around the forest, positioning the characters and the audience from its opening measures within a space that facilitates and demands ‘translation’. The forest’s effects are revealed most strikingly through the metamorphosis of Shakespeare’s ‘rude mechanicals’ into Britten’s ‘rustics’, and especially in Britten’s depiction of Francis Flute, who blossoms from nervous bellows-mender to self-assured thespian. The remarkable trajectory of this adolescent character offers a productive case study for considering how Britten’s opera reframes the transformative encounters that lie at the heart of Shakespeare’s celebrated comedy. Drawing on the experience of tenor and co-author Lawrence Wiliford, who has portrayed Flute in recent productions by the Canadian Opera Company and the Aldeburgh Festival, this chapter also illuminates the crucial interpretive role that directors and singers play in bringing Britten’s operatic adaptation to life.
‘If it’s good enough for Shakespeare, it’s good enough for us’
Authors: Francis Ben
Published: February 2022

This chapter will look at how some plays of Shakespeare have been adapted as Broadway musicals, and how, in turn, the Broadway musical has influenced some productions of Shakespeare. In The Boys from Syracuse (1938) and Kiss Me, Kate (1948) Shakespeare is both treated as a showbiz personality and revered, albeit humorously, as a divine figure who brings healing to the characters. In West Side Story (1957) Shakespeare is not mentioned by name, but the memory of Romeo and Juliet hangs over the show, providing an ironic contrast with the world of gang-divided New York where there is no authority figure to impose order. In the seventies the Broadway show becomes an object of nostalgia. Kenneth Branagh’s film version of Love’s Labours Lost (2000) used songs popularized by Fred Astaire to provide a thoroughly familiar context in which to understand the play. The musical has appropriated Shakespeare’s plays, and in doing so, has given the audience a potential new set of aesthetic rules by which they can appreciate the plays themselves.
‘Where should this music be?’
Authors: Cunningham John
Published: February 2022

This chapter analyses the main collections centred on Shakespearean music published in the nineteenth century with a view to determining the underlying cultural processes that led to their creation. Largely through the frequent revivals of the plays, by the early nineteenth century there developed a significant number of settings of the songs, several of which had held the stage since the early eighteenth century. William Linley was first to anthologize the plays’ songs, thus presenting them as a coherent body deserving of prominence in the cultural imagination. By the end of the century, the repertoire had become vast enough to warrant catalogues of musical references and musical settings. The central argument offered is that this emergence of ‘Shakespearean song’ as a sub-plot within bardolatory was an expression of cultural nationalism, in which the idea of Shakespeare as inherently musical dramatist filled the cultural void created by the perceived failure of English music.
Shakespeare, Music, and South Africa
Authors: Cooke Mervyn
Published: February 2022

Perhaps no production of a Shakespeare play has highlighted the controversies, contradictions, and misunderstandings attendant on promoting the Bard’s work in a postcolonial anglophone environment as vividly as Gregory Doran’s staging of Titus Andronicus at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, in 1995. This chapter examines the music for the production, by Dumisani Dhlamini, as well as Tayo Akinbode’s music for Doran’s later and similarly Africa-set production of Julius Caesar for the Royal Shakespeare Company (2012). In the process, the discussion draws on Natasha Stiller’s concept of ‘coconuttiness’ as an aid to understanding the cultural significance of—and the inevitable controversies engendered by—these bold stagings. The chapter concludes with a critical assessment of the striking transformation of Britten’s opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream by the Isango Ensemble into a distinctive brand of ‘township’ opera (2015), the project being a direct reflection of its remit to promote ‘performances with a strong South African flavour’ inspired by a ‘re-imagining [of] Western theatre classics within a South African or township setting and by creating new work reflecting South African heritage’.
Citizens’ Support for Democracy
Authors: Cho Youngho
Published: February 2022

This chapter examines the cultural deconsolidation of South Korean democracy from 1996 to 2018. Analysing the five waves of the World Values Survey, the chapter finds that public support for democracy has steadily eroded and openness to strongman and military rules has increased in South Korea. The analysis reveals that cultural deconsolidation of South Korean democracy started during the early 2000s and, more importantly, this downward trend continued even after the 2016–2017 Candlelight protest. Therefore, the cultural foundation of democracy in South Korea is shallow and its democracy has fallen into a low-equilibrium trap, in which resilient violation of liberal integrity among leaders is matched by the low confidence of citizens in democracy.
Protecting Water and Forest Resources against Colonization in the Indigenous Américas
Authors: Gómez-Barris Macarena
Published: February 2022

This chapter considers recent forms of uprising in the Global South that deal with the legacy of neoliberalism, debt, and economic imperialism that emanate from US economic imperialism and the Washington Consensus. It specifically addresses Chile as a laboratory for neoliberalism and the social and political movements that directly addressed histories of wealth accumulation through extractive and racial capitalism. It also addresses how state violence and an expanding prison and military infrastructure is used to criminalize protest and describe creative strategies of resistance and refusal.
Pacific Islands
Authors: Gentilucci Marta
Published: February 2022

This chapter explores how Pacific islanders have the desire to be present and acknowledged within the global system. The first part provides an overview of colonial imperialism in the region. Decades of colonial and economic imperialism have capitalized the natural and human resources influencing the course of social change in the region. In all the colonies of the Pacific, plantations and mines have had a strong impact on the islands including the expropriation of lands, the arrival of foreign workers, and in general all the long-term ecological consequences. The second part of the chapter focusses on the ways conflict over markets, trade routes, the supply of labour, and control over strategic commodities might be progressively halted. Looking at the contextual particularities of economic imperialism in the Pacific Islands allow us to analyse the various forms through which the global economic system is articulated in a specific local context, focusing on the different ways in which social actors resist, transform, and domesticate the hegemonic elements coming from outside. Capitalism, in particular mining activity, is not necessarily perceived by indigenous peoples as an antagonistic by definition, as often emerges in mainstream Western environmental discourse. For some communities it is a means to achieve economic, social, and cultural goals. Analysing mining activity from the lens of indigenous eco-cosmologies, the goal is to identify an alternative space to the rigid dichotomy between subjection and resistance.
Extractivism and Resistance in North Africa
Authors: Hamouchene Hamza
Published: February 2022

Northern African countries are key suppliers of natural resources to the global economy, from large-scale oil and gas extraction in Algeria, to phosphate mining in Tunisia and Morocco, and to water-intensive agribusiness paired with tourism in Morocco and Tunisia. This extractivist model of development has reaffirmed the role of these countries as exporters of nature and as suppliers of natural resources, entrenching their subordinate insertion into the global capitalist economy. The cases presented in this chapter exemplify broader patterns of primitive accumulation in the global South, where accumulation by dispossession takes the brutal form of the extraction and pillage of natural resources, and the degradation of environments and ecosystems through the privatization and commodification of land and water. This is accompanied by a surge in the forces of resistance and ‘the entrance of new actors onto the scene’ who demand that wealth be shared and distributed equitably.
Railway Imperialisms in East Africa
Authors: Zajontz Tim
Published: February 2022

Physical infrastructure has been central to the century-long exploitation of Africa’s soil and peoples by external powers. This chapter sheds light on the pivotal role of railways in the political economies of historical and contemporary imperialisms in East Africa. It first recounts how rail infrastructure developments in Britain’s East Africa and Uganda Protectorates as well as in German East Africa fostered colonial primitive accumulation by forcing local and imported labour power to construct the means that would accelerate the theft of the continent’s natural wealth. In a second step, the chapter examines how contemporary infrastructure development in the region has continually served economic imperialisms. China’s transition from a provider of anti-imperial infrastructure, in the form of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), to a neo-imperial investor is problematized in the context of East Africa’s gradual integration into the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Drawing on David Harvey’s theorization of spatio-temporal fixes as a tendency inherent to capitalist imperialism, the chapter documents how debt-financed large-scale infrastructure projects, such as Kenya’s new Standard Gauge Railway, serve the geographical expansion of Chinese surplus capital and lock the region into Chinese-centred systems of accumulation. The chapter concludes that Africa’s contemporary infrastructure boom perpetuates the continent’s dependent integration into the global capitalist economy and facilitates new forms of accumulation by dispossession.
Marxist Theories of Imperialism in the Post–Cold War Era
Authors: Gürcan Efe Can
Published: February 2022

How have Marxist theories of imperialism evolved in the post–Cold War era? How do they inform us about contemporary forms of imperialism? This chapter reveals that post–Cold War theories of imperialism have developed in two distinct waves. The first wave was triggered mostly by reactions to the offensive of what one could call the ‘globalist’, or ‘transnationalist’ camp, which finds its strongest expression in the thesis of ‘empire’ and transnational capitalist classes. In turn, the detractors of globalism centred their analyses on the contradictions of neoliberalism as the strongest manifestation of contemporary imperialism, where states continue playing a leading role. With the recent decade, there has emerged a second wave of theorizing about imperialism, which took off following the crisis of global capitalism in 2007/2008 and the rise of imperialist interventionism since 2011. This second wave lays stronger emphasis on the North-–South divide without overlooking the chief role of states, and redeploys Lenin’s terminology of uneven development, labour aristocracy, and super-profits. Overall, the chapter uses the method of integrative review to re-visit contemporary theories of imperialism as a whole by discussing how they can contribute to a multidimensional understanding of the phenomenon of imperialism in (geo)political, economic, and sociocultural terms.
Development, Underdevelopment, and the North–South Divide
Authors: Raffer Kunibert
Published: February 2022

Historically shaped global economic structures do not support development, as orthodox economist have wrongly claimed. Starting from colonial times and based on Wallerstein’s World System theory, this Chapter analyses why the North-South divide does not disappear. It starts with what Max Weber dubbed capitalism based on the principle of looting, which transferred enormous values to the North, financing its industrialisation. Southern economies were destroyed and distorted to benefit colonialists. So far relatively few economies could shake off these distortions, essentially by not applying orthodox economic policies. Characteristic features of the present world economy are analysed. It is shown how trade disadvantages Southern Countries (SCs)—e.g. by Unequal Exchange or transfer pricing—how financial structures discriminate against SCs and their inhabitants, in particular by denying them any form of debtor protection. Tax evasion deprives SCs of resources needed to finance development. Although several SCs have specialised on helping tax dodgers, quite a few Northern Countries are also fostering tax evasion (e.g. Luxembourg, the US: Delaware). Finally, the role of international organisations, such as the IBRD, the IMF, or the WTO, or treaties such as Lomé-Cotonou in helping to hamper development and perpetuating the North-South divide is discussed.
Imperialism, Unequal Exchange, and Labour Export
Authors: Delgado Wise Raúl
Published: February 2022

In the international political economy, monopoly capital has become, more than ever, the central player. Through mega-mergers and strategic alliances, this fraction of capital has reached unparalleled levels of concentration and centralization. This trend, associated with the operations of Marx’s absolute general law of capital accumulation, has led to an increasing monopolization of finance, production, services, and trade, leaving every major global industry to be dominated by a handful of large multinational corporations. In the expansion of their activities, the agents of corporate, or monopoly, capitalism have created a global network and process of production, finance, distribution, and investment that has allowed them to seize the strategic and profitable segments of peripheral economies and appropriate the economic surplus produced at enormous social and environmental costs. The main aim of this chapter is to analyse the new modalities of unequal exchange engendered by the implementation of structural adjustment programmes in the Global South. These programmes have been the vehicle for disarticulating the economic apparatus in the periphery and its re-articulation to serve the needs of core capitalist economies, under sharply asymmetric and subordinated conditions. This has led to the emergence of a new international division of labour centred in the direct and indirect exportation of workforce which, in turn, has triggered new and extreme modalities of unequal exchange.
Closing the Gap
Authors: Anderson Ian
Published: February 2022

This chapter provides an overview of the negotiations led by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on the renewal of a set of agreements, first struck in 2008, referred to as the “Close the Gap” agenda. It covers three years of negotiations from 2017 to 2020. In the second phase of these negotiations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (hereafter also referred to as Indigenous) organizations were included as decision-making partners. This made a significant difference to the policy reforms and accountabilities outlined in the final agreement. The chapter provides an insight into how Indigenous Peoples can negotiate power in the context of liberal governmentality.
Rangatahi Māori and Youth Justice in New Zealand
Authors: Blank-Penetito Arapera , Tauri Juan , Webb Robert
Published: February 2022

An ongoing area of major concern for Māori communities in Aotearoa New Zealand is the criminal justice system, in particular the system’s responses to rangatahi (youth) and their whānau (families). This chapter examines the early findings from the Aotearoa leg of a larger qualitative research project on Māori and Samoan experiences of youth justice. Focusing upon Māori, it discusses the theme of marginalization of rangatahi and whānau, drawn from the analysis of Māori community narratives on how they experience state justice practices. This includes concerns over tokenism and being constrained by the system, the lack of alternatives to the mainstream justice processes, and the privileging of the individual focus over the collective Māori understandings and responses. It also discusses narratives on the silencing of rangatahi and whānau voices that impacts on community experiences of the criminal justice sector.
Jane Addams and Mary Parker Follett’s Search for Cooperation
Authors: Soeters Joseph
Published: February 2022

This chapter compares essentials in Jane Addams’s and Mary Parker Follett’s thinking on cooperation and the resolution of conflicts. The analysis shows that both scholars had much in common, including many theoretical and practical ideas, even though the domains of their activities differed. Their attempts to come to grips with the resolution of conflicts and the creation of cooperation turn out to be remarkably convergent, implying that their analyses strengthen each other. Both stressed the importance of actions accompanied by reflection, of rejecting the idea that conflicts necessarily have a zero-sum (win/lose) character, of being critical of vast disparities in income and wealth, of the belief that punishment is not the way to deal with difficult and “nasty” people, of striving for new things (i.e., social, political, and business innovations), of democratic action at the “grassroots” (i.e., community or neighborhood) level, and, last but not least, of women being part of all political, social, and business processes. Interestingly, these ideas stemming from about a century ago are validated in today’s research on cooperation that is based on computer simulations, game theoretical tests, and field experiments across countries.
Community-Engaged Music Theory Pedagogy
Authors: Stevens Daniel B.
Published: February 2022

Community-engaged learning provides students an opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills to problems that exist beyond the classroom. When music theory students work with community partners to address shared concerns, these collaborative encounters motivate students to stretch their thinking and creativity, to synthesize learning across domains, and to see the relevance of their musical abilities to solving everyday problems that impact others’ lives. This chapter recounts four community engagement projects completed by music theory students at the University of Delaware and provides a model process suitable for instructors across disciplines. The “pedagogies of encounter” described within identify new contexts for teaching and learning music theory that overcome disciplinary boundaries by decentering traditional content and prioritizing transformational encounters and social change.
Oliveria Prescott and the Musical Amateur
Authors: Lumsden Rachel
Published: February 2022

This chapter examines About Music, and What it is Made Of (1904), a book for amateurs written by Oliveria Prescott (1842–1917), which develops ideas she first presented in a public lecture series in 1894. Prescott highlights themes of nationalism, women musicians, and the role of amateur musicians in music’s development, while also including some advanced theoretical topics, such as chromaticism, key relationships, and sonata form. Ultimately, About Music reveals how public music scholarship provided an important opportunity for Prescott to attempt to forge a professional career—and to circulate her ideas on music—in an era in which women musicians were often consigned to the private, amateur sphere.
The Expansion of Rice and Millet Farmers into Southeast Asia
Authors: Rispoli Fiorella
Published: February 2022

In East Asia similar late-Pleistocenic adaptive processes prompted groups of hunter-gathers to make baked clay containers to process certain dietary components, including nutritious wild cereals (e.g., rice and millet). In the long run (~8000–4000 BC) human manipulation changed the natural morphology and characters of these cereals (domestication). The southward dispersal of rice out of its mid-low Yangtze domestication center (~5000–4500 BC) was associated with ceramic vessels decorated with a characteristic “incising and impressing” technique. The finding of actual rice grains and of this “I&I” technique archaeologically marks the dispersal of rice-growers and highlights the interactive processes between the incomers and the hunter-gatherers of subtropical modern South China adapted to its diverse ecosystems. From southern China (~2200–2000 BC) locally interbred agriculturists dispersed toward the plains of Mainland Southeast Asia facing local Early Neolithic nonagriculturists, new landscapes, and environments. As for millet in Neolithic Southeast Asia, some assumption has been proposed, but the data are too sparse and more research is required, with a degree of flexibility in considering whether a homogeneous, worldwide, all-inclusive “Neolithic package,” comprehensively consisting of fixed technological and ideological innovations, ever existed.
The Iron Age in Central Thailand
Authors: Rispoli Fiorella
Published: February 2022

The emergence of iron metallurgy in Mainland Southeast Asia (~fifth century BC) marks a major breakthrough rather cohesive, although strongly regionalized cultural traditions rooted in the southward, long- haul agricultural dispersal originating from south-central China. With the establishment of the centralized states of the Qin (221–206 BC) and Western Han (206 BC–AD 23) dynasties, the northern belt of Mainland Southeast Asia (Lingnan region, Yunnan lacustrine plains, and Song Hong River valley) attracted the expansionist policies of the Chinese empire. The southern regions of Southeast Asia, including central Thailand, followed a different path leading to interactive contacts with the Indian subcontinent and to increased regional trade networks. Iron tools, surplus management, population expansion, and a progressive localization of exotics cultural traits drove the elites of central Thailand toward a step-by-step growth in cultural complexity with the emergence of medium-complex social systems/chiefdom analogues.
The Dian Culture in Southwest China
Authors: Chiou-Peng TzeHuey
Published: February 2022

The excavations of Bronze Age sites in the Central Lake region of Yunnan have resulted in a wealth of burial goods, including bronze kettledrums and cowrie vessels from the Shizhaishan necropolis near Lake Dian. Multidisciplinary analyses of these materials point to the existence of hierarchical societies of the Dian culture that flourished during the first millennium BC; the communities were ruled by an “aristocratic” elite who maintained contact with cultural groups in surrounding regions as well as far-flung areas. Recent archaeological investigations around Lake Dian also revealed occupation sites in association with the Bronze Age cemeteries in the same area. These new sites delineate a complex settlement system composed of nucleated groups with varied degrees of social complexity; among them the largest cluster near Shizhaishan appeared to have represented the heartland of Dian domain. Stratigraphic studies indicate that these settlements stemmed from a local Neolithic base that had existed in the Dian basin and low-lying areas further south, and that the Dian culture emerged independently from direct cultural/technological impacts from the Chinese central plains.
The Civilizations of Central and East Java and Bali
Authors: Miksic John N.
Published: February 2022

In the eighth century, a new center of economic, political, and artistic achievement arose in central Java. The major remnants of this period are the Buddhist monument of Borobudur and the Hindu temple complex of Prambanan. After two centuries of prosperity founded on a combination of maritime trade and agrarian development, this center vanished for reasons that are still unclear. Several new centers of population and economic activity arose in East Java, but monumental structures only reappeared in the thirteenth century. Indonesia’s greatest kingdom, Majapahit, flourished in the fourteenth century, then declined as new Islamic polities formed in the seaports of the north coast. Bali had close relations with Java during the ninth to fifteenth centuries, during which the nobility of the two islands intermarried, but Bali was not simply a peripheral reflection of Java. Bali’s distinctive modern culture evolved in a very different direction from Java.
Perspectives on Maritime Archaeology in Southeast Asia
Authors: Pham Charlotte , Craig Jennifer , Walker Vadillo Veronica
Published: February 2022

Maritime archaeology in Southeast Asia is a vibrant area of research that entails a hugely diverse dataset. Historical and anthropological records are combined with archaeological material in attempts to interpret the tangible and intangible heritage connected to the use of the aquatic environment. Seas, rivers, and lakes create fluid environments and provide space for socioeconomic activities. The role of maritime archaeologists is to interpret that connection and exchange by looking at the issue from a water perspective, taking into account the intricate entanglement between humans, objects, and the watery environment that make up maritime communities. From this perspective, maritime archaeology has also developed specific theoretical frameworks to interpret archaeological data. This chapter provides an overview of the discipline in Southeast Asia, of the current projects and trends, and explores different ways of inquiry that can be used to apprehend human-environment interactions in sea, rivers, and lakes.
Language Families of Southeast Asia
Authors: Sagart Laurent
Published: February 2022

This chapter briefly describes the state of the art of linguistic research on the main language families represented in Southeast Asia: Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Tai-Kadai, Hmong-Mien, and Sino-Tibetan. It reviews the vocabulary of agriculture, and more generally of subsistence, that can be reconstructed to each family’s proto-language. It attempts to clarify the dates and locations of the respective proto-languages and to throw light on the circumstances surrounding the population expansions that gave rise to them. The deepest linguistic divide in the region is thought to be between Austroasiatic and the rest. Kra-Dai is regarded as a subgroup of Austronesian. Based on original observations by M. Ratliff, the author suggests that Hmong-Mien and Austronesian (including Kra-Dai) are sister families. It is further argued that this large south-eastern group is related to Sino-Tibetan, with an origin in the language of the Císhān-Péilǐgāng culture of northern Chinese neolithic millet farmers.
Simultaneous Multilateral Search
Authors: Glebkin Sergei , Yueshen Bart Zhou , Shen Ji
Published: February 2022

This paper studies simultaneous multilateral search (SMS) in over-the-counter markets: When searching, a customer simultaneously contacts several dealers and trades with the one offering the best quote. Higher search intensity (how often one can search) improves welfare, but higher search capacity (how many dealers one can contact) might be harmful. When the market is in distress, customers might inefficiently favor bilateral bargaining (BB) over SMS. Such a preference for BB speaks to the sluggish adoption of SMS trading, like request-for-quote protocols, in over-the-counter markets. Furthermore, a market-wide shift to SMS may not be socially optimal.
Early childhood sleep trajectories and association with maternal depression: a prospective cohort study
Authors: Gui Yiding , Deng Yujiao , Sun Xiaoning , Li Wen , Rong Tingyu , Wang Xuelai , Jiang Yanrui , Zhu Qi , Liu Jianghong , Wang Guanghai , Jiang Fan
Published: February 2022

Study Objectives

To investigate trajectories of early childhood sleep in the first 3 years and their association with maternal depressive symptoms.

Methods

Data were from 243 Chinese mother–child dyads. Children’s sleep duration and night-waking were assessed using the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (BISQ) at 42 days, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months postpartum. The Center for Epidemiological Survey-Depression Scale (CES-D), Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and Profile of Mood States (POMS) were used to assess maternal depressive symptoms at late pregnancy, 42 days, and 36 months postpartum, respectively. Early childhood sleep trajectories were estimated with group-based trajectory models. The association between early childhood sleep trajectories and maternal depressive symptoms was examined with binary and multinomial logistic regression models and linear regression models.

Results

Three trajectories of daytime sleep duration (“short”, 14.4%; “medium”, 60.4%; “long”, 25.2%), nighttime sleep duration (“increasing”, 17.6%; “stable”, 76.3%; “decreasing”, 6.1%), and total sleep duration (“short”, 21.5%; “medium”, 59.9%; “long”,18.6%), and two trajectories of night-waking (“resolving”, 22.9%; “persistent”, 77.1%) were identified. Controlling for confounding factors, maternal depression at 42 days postpartum was associated with higher risks for short daytime sleep duration and persistent night-waking in children. Persistent night-waking in children was associated with increased maternal depressive symptoms at 36 months postpartum.

Conclusion

Early childhood sleep follows distinct trajectories in the first 3 years of life. The trajectories of short daytime sleep duration and persistent night-waking are associated with maternal depression. The findings indicate tailored interventions should target both unfavorable early childhood sleep trajectories and maternal depression.
The Analgesic Dipyrone Affects Pregnancy Outcomes and Endocrine-Sensitive Endpoints in Female and Male Offspring Rats
Authors: Passoni Marcella Tapias , Krebs Ribeiro Daniele Cristine , França de Almeida Samara Christina , Furtado da Costa Bruna , Grechi Nicole , Lima Tolouei Sara Emilia , Curi Tatiana Zauer , Degraf Cavallin Mônica , Romano Renata Marino , Romano Marco Aurélio , Spercoski Katherinne Maria , Carvalho dos Santos Ariany , Carvalho Souza Roosevelt Isaias , Dalsenter Paulo Roberto , Martino-Andrade Anderson Joel
Published: February 2022

Dipyrone is an analgesic and antipyretic drug commonly used in many countries. Although generally not recommended during pregnancy, it is known that many women use dipyrone during the gestational period. In this study, we investigated the endocrine and reproductive effects of dipyrone in female and male offspring rats exposed in utero from gestational days 10–21. Pregnant rats were treated with dipyrone at 25, 75, and 225 mg/kg/day via oral gavage. Developmental landmarks—anogenital index (AGI), number of nipples, vaginal opening, first estrus, and preputial separation—were evaluated in the offspring. Reproductive parameters, including estrous cycle regularity, daily sperm production, weight and histopathology of reproductive organs, steroid hormone levels, and gene expression of selected markers of reproductive function were assessed at adulthood. At the highest dose, dipyrone induced a significant increase in postimplantation losses/fetal death and delayed parturition in dams. Offspring exposed in utero to the highest dose also exhibited significant changes in some early life markers of endocrine disruption, in particular increased AGI in females, indicating a proandrogenic effect, and increased rate of retained nipples in males, indicating an antiandrogenic response. No changes were observed in markers of puberty onset or reproductive parameters at adulthood. These results suggest that exposure to therapeutically relevant doses of dipyrone may induce mild endocrine disruptive effects that can be detected in late pregnancy and early life. Such effects may be relevant considering dipyrone use by pregnant women and the possibility of coexposures with other endocrine disruptors.
Factors affecting poor measles vaccination coverage in sub-Saharan Africa with a special focus on Nigeria: a narrative review
Authors: Majekodunmi Omololuoye B , Oladele Edward A , Greenwood Brian
Published: February 2022

Measles is a highly contagious infection that can cause severe illness in children. Vaccination is the primary means of controlling the infection, with elimination a possibility. However, the measles-containing vaccine coverage in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is 70% while that for Nigeria is 54% according to official estimates and 64.7% from household surveys. This review aims to identify factors that contribute to the poor coverage rate and proposes appropriate recommendations to address these factors. We conducted a comprehensive search of five databases (MEDLINE, Embase, Global Health, CINAHL Plus and PubMed) using the PICOTS (population, intervention, comparison, outcome, timing, study type) framework. The search was conducted in September 2017 in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and inclusion criteria were studies conducted in SSA, that evaluated measles vaccine coverage gaps, evaluated strategies for improving measles vaccination coverage and were published in English. The database search yielded 23 publications. Several different factors influencing measles vaccine coverage were identified and were grouped into four main areas: immunization system, information and communication, family characteristics and parental attitudes and knowledge. Fears and misconceptions were common reasons for non-vaccination. Activities to improve vaccination coverage were identified, including structural reforms such as siting health centres within or proximal to target communities, improving female literacy and conducting measles vaccination campaigns. Multiple reasons for poor measles vaccination coverage were identified. Factors influencing the immunization system and information and communication factors can be fixed at the country level, but challenges relating to family characteristics and parental attitudes and knowledge require solutions adapted to the community of concern. However, vaccination campaigns are an effective means of improving vaccination coverage and they reduce geographic and socio-economic inequities.
Hepatitis C Virus Elimination in Methadone-treated Patients: Implementation of Hepatology Clinic in a Methadone Treatment Program
Authors: Katchman Helena , Adelson Miriam , Avitan Oren , Mattatov Mira , Sason Anat , Levitt Stela , Dvorak Lior , Schreiber Shaul , Peles Einat
Published: February 2022

Objectives

Patient ignorance and bureaucratic obstacles prevent initiation of hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment in patients participating in methadone treatment program. Despite high safety and efficacy of currently available oral medications, the rate of patient-initiated treatment remains low. We evaluated the impact of an interventional program on treatment success rate and factors associated with treatment engagement.

Methods

An intervention performed from 2018 to 2020 included an on-site Fibroscan and hepatologist evaluation, anti-viral HCV treatment initiation, and close support and follow-up by a dedicated team. Demographic and medical data were collected and comparison between patients who completed vs. patients who did not complete HCV treatment was done.

Results

Fifty-nine out of 74 HCV polymerase chain reaction-positive patients (79.7%) were willing and capable of undergoing on-site hepatologist and Fibroscan evaluations. Twelve (25%) of the participants had cirrhosis, 2 of whom were decompensated. Fifty of the 57 patients that got an anti-viral medication prescription (87%) initiated the treatment. Premature treatment discontinuation was rare (3 patients), intention-to-treat sustain virologic response (SVR) rate was 81% and per-protocol SVR rate was 97%. The rate of treatment initiation during the intervention was significantly higher than the patients’ self-initiation rate (44 vs 12 patients). The main factors associated with successful completion of the care cascade was full abstinence from street drugs for 6 months before treatment initiation.

Conclusions

Installing a hepatology clinic in an methadone treatment program center was associated with a 3-fold increase in the HCV treatment, with high adherence to treatment levels, and a high SVR rate. The main factor associated with low engagement to treatment was ongoing street drug use.
Changes in Cannabis Use Risk Behaviors during the First and Second COVID-19 Lockdown in Israel: A Short-term 2-wave Longitudinal Study
Authors: Sznitman Sharon R.
Published: February 2022

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic, and stringent lockdown measures implemented to curb transmission, might be related to increased cannabis use risk behaviors. This rapid response short-term longitudinal study investigated predictors of increased cannabis use risk behaviors and their association with severity of cannabis dependence during 2 separate COVID-19 lockdown periods.

Methods

Analyses were based on data from 116 monthly cannabis users who responded to 2 survey waves, corresponding to the first and the second lockdown periods in Israel. Multinomial regressions predicted risk of increased cannabis use, solitary use, and morning use during 1 or both of the lockdown periods as a function of sociodemographic factors and coping motives. Robust regression analyses assessed whether changes in cannabis use risk behaviors predicted severity of cannabis dependence at wave 2.

Results

A substantial proportion reported increased cannabis use, solitary use, and use before noon during both lockdown periods. Coping motives were related to reported increases in cannabis use and more frequent use before noon at 1 and both lockdown periods. Respondents who reported increases in cannabis use and use before noon at both lockdown periods, but not those who reported increases at only 1 lockdown period, had more severity of cannabis dependence at wave 2.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have ongoing and long-term effects on the health of the population, including those related to increased cannabis use risk behaviors. Continued monitoring of individual differences and long-term changes in cannabis use is needed to assess consequences of lockdown restrictions.
Measuring Stakeholder Assessments of Postsurgical Facial Scars: A Retrospective Cohort Inter-rater Analysis of Patients, Physicians, and Medical Student Observers
Authors: Shao Kimberly , Zullo Shannon W. , Fix William , Taylor Lynne , Zhang Junqian , Miller Christopher J. , Etzkorn Jeremy R. , Shin Thuzar M. , Giordano Cerrene N. , Higgins William H. , Sobanko Joseph F.
Published: February 2022

BACKGROUND

The relationship of postoperative facial scar assessments among patients, physicians, and societal onlookers is not clearly defined.

OBJECTIVE

To identify differences in perceived scar outcomes by different stakeholders.

METHODS AND Materials:

Retrospective cohort study at a single Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) center during which scars were assessed by: patients, physicians, and medical student observers not involved in patients' care using the Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale (v.2). Eighty-one patients graded their scars at 2 visits: 1 to 2 weeks post-MMS and 3 months post-MMS. Deidentified patient photographs were taken at each visit and graded by 4 physicians and 12 observers.

RESULTS

At week 1, there was a significant difference in overall opinion of scar appearance between patient and physicians (p = .001) and medical student observers and physicians (p < .001). Physicians graded scars more favorably. At 3 months, there remained a difference in scar evaluations between patient and physicians (p = .005), whereas medical student observers rated scars more similarly to physicians (p = .404).

CONCLUSION

Postoperative scar perceptions differ among stakeholders. Physicians must be mindful of this disparity when counseling patients in the perioperative setting to align patient expectations with realistic scar outcomes.
Recurrent Bleeding after Head Trauma Caused by Acquired Factor XIII Deficiency
Authors: Wakabayashi Nao , Nishioka Hiroshi , Yuzuriha Shunsuke
Published: February 2022

Factor XIII (FXIII) is the final factor in the coagulation cascade. FXIII plays a critical role in clot stabilization by cross-linking fibrin and making the clot denser and stiffer. FXIII plays crucial roles in platelet clot retraction, wound healing, and tissue repair. When FXIII is deficient, unusual bleeding that persists for several days, delayed healing, and morbid granulation may occur. We present a case of acquired FXIII deficiency presenting as recurrent bleeding after head trauma. A 66-year-old man fell from a ladder and sustained a head injury. The patient had a history of postremission acute myeloid leukemia and Stanford type B aortic dissection and was on three antihypertensives but no antiplatelets or anticoagulants. Approximately 1 month postinjury, the patient suddenly experienced repeated bleeding and hematoma. Routine coagulation tests were normal; therefore, we suspected another type of coagulation disorder. Low FXIII activity was identified 39 days postinjury. We immediately administered concentrated human coagulation FXIII (Fibrogammin P). The patient’s head contusion was completely healed by day 55 postinjury. Acquired FXIII deficiency should be considered when routine coagulation test results are normal. Plastic surgeons who treat injuries routinely must be cognizant of FXIII deficiency because the condition can be life-threatening and early detection is important. Whenever the process of wound healing is unusual or hematoma and bleeding recur unexpectedly with no clear explanation—despite suitable treatments—FXIII deficiency should be suspected and, if present, must be appropriately treated without delay.