bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Algebraic structures formalizing the logic with unsharp implication and negation
Authors: Chajda Ivan , Länger Helmut
Published: October 2023

It is well-known that intuitionistic logics can be formalized by means of Heyting algebras, i.e. relatively pseudocomplemented semilattices. Within such algebras the logical connectives implication and conjunction are formalized as the relative pseudocomplement and the semilattice operation meet, respectively. If the Heyting algebra has a bottom element $0$, then the relative pseudocomplement with respect to $0$ is called the pseudocomplement and it is considered as the connective negation in this logic. Our idea is to consider an arbitrary meet-semilattice with $0$ satisfying only the Ascending Chain Condition (these assumptions are trivially satisfied in finite meet-semilattices) and introduce the operators formalizing the connectives negation $x^{0}$ and implication $x\rightarrow y$ as the set of all maximal elements $z$ satisfying $x\wedge z=0$ and as the set of all maximal elements $z$ satisfying $x\wedge z\leq y$, respectively. Such a negation and implication is ‘unsharp’ since it assigns to one entry $x$ or to two entries $x$ and $y$ belonging to the semilattice, respectively, a subset instead of an element of the semilattice. Surprisingly, this kind of negation and implication still shares a number of properties of these connectives in intuitionistic logic, in particular the derivation rule Modus Ponens. Moreover, unsharp negation and unsharp implication can be characterized by means of five, respectively seven simple axioms. We present several examples. The concepts of a deductive system and of a filter are introduced as well as the congruence determined by such a filter. We finally describe certain relationships between these concepts.
Exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, and tobacco-specific nitrosamines and incidence of esophageal cancer
Authors: Etemadi Arash , Poustchi Hossein , Chang Cindy M , Calafat Antonia M , Blount Benjamin C , Bhandari Deepak , Wang Lanqing , Roshandel Gholamreza , Alexandridis Apostolos , Botelho Julianne Cook , Xia Baoyun , Wang Yuesong , Sosnoff Connie S , Feng Jun , Nalini Mahdi , Khoshnia Masoud , Pourshams Akram , Sotoudeh Masoud , Gail Mitchell H , Dawsey Sanford M , Kamangar Farin , Boffetta Paolo , Brennan Paul , Abnet Christian C , Malekzadeh Reza , Freedman Neal D
Published: October 2023

Background

Studying carcinogens in tobacco and nontobacco sources may be key to understanding the pathogenesis and geographic distribution of esophageal cancer.

Methods

The Golestan Cohort Study has been conducted since 2004 in a region with high rates of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. For this nested study, the cases comprised of all incident cases by January 1, 2018; controls were matched to the case by age, sex, residence, time in cohort, and tobacco use. We measured urinary concentrations of 33 exposure biomarkers of nicotine, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, and tobacco-specific nitrosamines. We used conditional logistic regression to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals for associations between the 90th vs the 10th percentiles of the biomarker concentrations and incident esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Results

Among individuals who did not currently use tobacco (148 cases and 163 controls), 2 acrolein metabolites, 2 acrylonitrile metabolites, 1 propylene oxide metabolite, and one 1,3-butadiene metabolite were significantly associated with incident esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (adjusted odds ratios between 1.8 and 4.3). Among tobacco users (57 cases and 63 controls), metabolites of 2 other volatile organic compounds (styrene and xylene) were associated with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OR = 6.2 and 9.0, respectively). In tobacco users, 2 tobacco-specific nitrosamines (NNN and N’-Nitrosoanatabine) were also associated with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Suggestive associations were seen with some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (especially 2-hydroxynaphthalene) in nonusers of tobacco products and other tobacco-specific nitrosamines in tobacco users.

Conclusion

These novel associations based on individual-level data and samples collected many years before cancer diagnosis, from a population without occupational exposure, have important public health implications.
Exploring the Potential of a Thermionic LaB6 Virtual Source Mode Electron Gun for a High Angular Current Density and a Narrow Energy Distribution
Authors: Lee Ha Rim , Hwang Junhyeok , Ogawa Takashi , Kim Jisoo , Lee Jeong-Woong , Jung Haewon , Yun Dal-Jae , Lee Sangsun , Park In-Yong
Published: October 2023

To date, lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) thermionic electron sources have not been able fully to capitalize on their inherent potential, resulting in an ambiguous position within the application area. Although they exhibit higher brightness compared with a tungsten filament source, they still fall short of the performance of Schottky electron sources. This study aims to explore the capabilities of the LaB6 electron source under different operating conditions to bridge the gap, ultimately to realize its untapped potential. Simulations in virtual source mode indicated enhanced beam brightness and a reduced beam half-angle with an increase the extraction voltage, promising up to tenfold times higher beam brightness compared with the crossover mode. The energy distribution measured using a prelens retarding field energy analyzer revealed an energy distribution of 0.55 eV and a high angular current density of 33 mA/sr in the virtual source mode. Therefore, the virtual source mode of LaB6 can provide a narrow energy distribution akin to that of a ZrO/W Schottky electron gun (1600 K) while having an angular current density over 2,000 times higher. In addition, the stability of the virtual source mode is ±0.022%, while that of the crossover mode is ±0.138%.
An RNA thermometer in the chloroplast genome of Chlamydomonas facilitates temperature-controlled gene expression
Authors: Chung Kin Pan , Loiacono F Vanessa , Neupert Juliane , Wu Mengting , Bock Ralph
Published: October 2023

Riboregulators such as riboswitches and RNA thermometers provide simple, protein-independent tools to control gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. In bacteria, RNA thermometers regulate protein synthesis in response to temperature shifts. Thermometers outside of the bacterial world are rare, and in organellar genomes, no RNA thermometers have been identified to date. Here we report the discovery of an RNA thermometer in a chloroplast gene of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The thermometer, residing in the 5′ untranslated region of the psaA messenger RNA forms a hairpin-type secondary structure that masks the Shine–Dalgarno sequence at 25°C. At 40°C, melting of the secondary structure increases accessibility of the Shine–Dalgarno sequence to initiating ribosomes, thus enhancing protein synthesis. By targeted nucleotide substitutions and transfer of the thermometer into Escherichia coli, we show that the secondary structure is necessary and sufficient to confer the thermometer properties. We also demonstrate that the thermometer provides a valuable tool for inducible transgene expression from the Chlamydomonas plastid genome, in that a simple temperature shift of the algal culture can greatly increase recombinant protein yields.
ATM, KAP1 and the Epstein–Barr virus polymerase processivity factor direct traffic at the intersection of transcription and replication
Authors: Xu Huanzhou , Akinyemi Ibukun A , Haley John , McIntosh Michael T , Bhaduri-McIntosh Sumita
Published: October 2023

The timing of transcription and replication must be carefully regulated for heavily-transcribed genomes of double-stranded DNA viruses: transcription of immediate early/early genes must decline as replication ramps up from the same genome—ensuring efficient and timely replication of viral genomes followed by their packaging by structural proteins. To understand how the prototypic DNA virus Epstein–Barr virus tackles the logistical challenge of switching from transcription to DNA replication, we examined the proteome at viral replication forks. Specifically, to transition from transcription, the viral DNA polymerase-processivity factor EA-D is SUMOylated by the epigenetic regulator and E3 SUMO-ligase KAP1/TRIM28. KAP1’s SUMO2-ligase function is triggered by phosphorylation via the PI3K-related kinase ATM and the RNA polymerase II-associated helicase RECQ5 at the transcription machinery. SUMO2-EA-D then recruits the histone loader CAF1 and the methyltransferase SETDB1 to silence the parental genome via H3K9 methylation, prioritizing replication. Thus, a key viral protein and host DNA repair, epigenetic and transcription-replication interference pathways orchestrate the handover from transcription-to-replication, a fundamental feature of DNA viruses.
Comparison of cell response to chromatin and DNA damage
Authors: Luzhin Artyom , Rajan Priyanka , Safina Alfiya , Leonova Katerina , Stablewski Aimee , Wang Jianmin , Robinson Denisha , Isaeva Natalia , Kantidze Omar , Gurova Katerina
Published: October 2023

DNA-targeting drugs are widely used for anti-cancer treatment. Many of these drugs cause different types of DNA damage, i.e. alterations in the chemical structure of DNA molecule. However, molecules binding to DNA may also interfere with DNA packing into chromatin. Interestingly, some molecules do not cause any changes in DNA chemical structure but interfere with DNA binding to histones and nucleosome wrapping. This results in histone loss from chromatin and destabilization of nucleosomes, a phenomenon that we call chromatin damage. Although the cellular response to DNA damage is well-studied, the consequences of chromatin damage are not. Moreover, many drugs used to study DNA damage also cause chromatin damage, therefore there is no clarity on which effects are caused by DNA or chromatin damage. In this study, we aimed to clarify this issue. We treated normal and tumor cells with bleomycin, nuclease mimicking drug which cut predominantly nucleosome-free DNA and therefore causes DNA damage in the form of DNA breaks, and CBL0137, which causes chromatin damage without direct DNA damage. We describe similarities and differences between the consequences of DNA and chromatin damage. Both agents were more toxic for tumor than normal cells, but while DNA damage causes senescence in both normal and tumor cells, chromatin damage does not. Both agents activated p53, but chromatin damage leads to the accumulation of higher levels of unmodified p53, which transcriptional activity was similar to or lower than that of p53 activated by DNA damage. Most importantly, we found that while transcriptional changes caused by DNA damage are limited by p53-dependent activation of a small number of p53 targets, chromatin damage activated many folds more genes in p53 independent manner.
Brands Matter
Authors: Colombino Annalisa , Palladino Paolo
Published: October 2023

This chapter explores the relationship between intellectual property right and biological resources by shifting the focus of attention away from processes of production to the act of consumption. It does so by attending to the eating of meat as both a metaphor and an empirical phenomenon. This enables us to frame a philosophical debate between Esposito and Nancy (2001) over bodies, flesh, and the Eucharist and Porcher’s (2017) more sociologically and ethnographically grounded analysis of relations between human and non-human animals. The encounter leads us to conclude that current debates over the relationship between property and biological resources might benefit from shifting the focus from Marx and processes of commodification to Mauss and an understanding of the gift as conceptually prior to exchange.
Modified Pearl Oysters and Repeatable Peaches
Authors: Ericson Kjell David
Published: October 2023

Questions about the place of living creatures in Japanese patent law have extended for over 100 years. This chapter introduces three pivotal conflicts in Japan that bookended the twentieth century. The earlier dispute touched on the issue of whether the induction of pearls through the surgical modification of living shellfish was subject to patent claims. The second traces the historical outlines of plant variety protection in Japan by focusing on the intensification of plant patent lobbying in the 1970s. And the third follows Kurakata Eizō, a Japanese fruit breeder who started his career in colonial Korea in the 1930s and who later became a key player in the 1970s plant-patent lobby. Kurakata’s 1977 application for a Japanese patent covering what he claimed as a new variety of peach was, over two decades later in 2000, the subject of the first-ever High Court ruling on plant patents in Japan.
Was the Roman Imperial Court an ‘Emotional Community’?
Authors: Kelly Benjamin
Published: October 2023

This chapter considers the Roman imperial court as an ‘emotional community’ with its own standards and expectations of the expression of emotions such as love and anger. It focuses on three periods with sufficient evidence to conduct such an investigation: the courts of Domitian, Trajan, and Hadrian in the late first and early second centuries; the Antonine court in the mid-second century; and the court in the late fourth century, from the late 350s to the 380s. The chapter shows that the Roman imperial court did function as a cohesive emotional community during the first two periods, but that normative expectations had broken down in the late fourth century. This final period therefore resembles an ‘emotional arena’ marked by conflicts regarding which emotions were acceptable at court and how they should be expressed.
Jurists as Courtiers from Augustus to Justinian
Authors: Harries Jill
Published: October 2023

This chapter explores the transition of jurists from outside experts to salaried court officials during the Roman Empire. In the first century, jurists were consulted for their legal expertise and did not hold any formal roles in the administration or at court. However, as equestrians replaced freedmen as the heads of the administrative bureaux in the second century, jurists were employed to manage the emperor’s letters and petitions, and even rose to the position of praetorian prefect, especially in the Severan period. This resulted in jurists playing prominent roles in the cutthroat politicking of the court. In Late Antiquity, the transformation of jurists into court functionaries was consolidated by the establishment of the office of quaestor sacri palatii. The reign of Justinian shows that actions of jurists, both positive and negative, were regarded as emblematic of the emperor’s own regime.
Representatives and Co-Rulers
Authors: Busch Anja
Published: October 2023

This chapter examines the public presentation and political roles of imperial women, with a focus on the women of the Theodosian dynasty. While most fourth-century women after the reign of Constantine had largely been denied official honours, the Theodosian women were distinguished with the title of Augusta and had coins minted in their own name. This new recognition mirrored the involvement of imperial women in politics and patronage, chiefly, but not only, in ecclesiastical matters. Aspects of female identity, such as virginity or child-bearing, could be used not only as elements of official imperial ideology, but also as tools of political persuasion. In the fifth century, the role of imperial women changed so that they could even be perceived as a partner in the emperor’s rule (consors imperii).
Splendid Isolation
Authors: Icks Martijn
Published: October 2023

This chapter explores the significance of the Oriental court, as it was imagined by Greek and Roman authors, as a parallel or counterpoint to the Roman court in the Principate and Late Antiquity, especially with regard to imperial seclusion and courtly splendour. In classical Greek discourse, the kings of the Assyrians, Medes, and especially the Persians, often exemplified the flaws of Oriental despotism, since they shielded themselves from their subjects and seemed to care for nothing but the unrestrained pursuit of physical pleasure. By the turn of the first century, this theme was picked up by Dio Chrysostom to contrast the aloof, secluded Domitian with the accessible Trajan. With the development of highly ceremonious ‘palace emperorship’ in Late Antiquity, the literary topos of the princeps clausus emerged in the works of authors and orators such as Synesius of Cyrene and Claudian, who once again evoked the ‘splendid isolation’ of Oriental kings to criticize more aloof, ritualized modes of imperial behaviour and display. Hence, these authors sought to make a vital distinction between the secluded Oriental despot and the active, accessible Roman princeps, even while the changing role of the late antique emperor put this traditional ideal under increasing pressure.
Organic Chemistry, Molecules, and the Implications for Atomism
Authors: Banchetti-Robino Marina Paola , Villani Giovanni
Published: October 2023

Although the notion of chemical structure had been used prior to the work of Alexander Butlerov, he gave it a new meaning when he included in it the disposition of interatomic bonds. The introduction of the theory of molecular structure radically altered organic chemistry. Instead of engaging in blind attempts during the synthesis of new compounds, the new approach followed a method that was based on knowledge of the structure of the starting products and of those that were being synthesized. Successful syntheses thus confirmed the fertility of the theory of molecular structure, and its validity has never since been called into doubt. Although the theory could not predict the existence of optical and geometric isomers, the development of stereochemistry did not undermine it but, rather, gave it greater depth. Replacing the concept of entity with that of the molecule (structured entity) not only modified chemistry but also profoundly altered the conception of the microscopic world. For chemists, the material world had always been formed by a large variety of different substances to which they attributed distinct names. The concept of molecular structure gave substance to these differences by assigning a distinctive molecular structure for each type of molecule. The difficulty of explaining what held atoms together remained open. However, to overcome this difficulty, it would become necessary to enter into the atom itself and discover that it is not an elementary entity at all but is itself also structured.
The Emergence of the Concept of Macromolecule
Authors: Banchetti-Robino Marina Paola , Villani Giovanni
Published: October 2023

The concept of biological macromolecule emerged in the first half of the 20th century and was the product of overcoming two epistemological obstacles: the possibility of having such large molecules held together by normal chemical bonds and the obstacle created by aperiodic polymers. The emergence of the concept of the aperiodic polymer, which is made up of several repeating units, is one of the ideas that grounds the concept of the biological macromolecule. In this chapter, we will begin by discussing the protoplasmic theory and the theory of the colloidal state, and continue with the role that two new experimental techniques, the X-ray and the ultracentrifuge, played in helping early-20th-century biochemists approach the new concept of macromolecules. We will then analyze the general problem of protein folding, the role of the environment, and the use of statistics and self-organization aspects in this process. Finally, we will highlight the difference between the concepts of structure and of shape in molecules and macromolecules.
From the Gene to Metagenomics: The Frontiers of Molecular Biology
Authors: Banchetti-Robino Marina Paola , Villani Giovanni
Published: October 2023

This chapter will begin by examining Mendel’s research on biological heredity and his theory that hereditary elements are passed on through discrete units. This idea would eventually lead to the discovery of DNA. Mendel’s formulation of the laws governing the transmission of characteristics from one generation to the next constituted a fundamental conceptual evolution in biology. Mendel’s ideas were also fundamental in the process that led to the molecularization of biology. After the 20th-century rediscovery of Mendel’s work, biologists identified and determined the structure of the molecule responsible for storing and passing on genetic information. This molecule is DNA, and the information that it carries is closely related to its molecular structure. Hence, the chapter traces the historical and philosophical development that led from the unit of heredity to the concept of the gene, to its molecularization in DNA, and to the latest developments in epigenetics and metagenomics. Particular focus is placed on DNA because this concept has transcended its strictly scientific role. Because this molecule is the seat of the identity not only of all living beings but also of all biological species, DNA represents both a medical resource and the possibility of genetic manipulation to selectively “improve” the human genome. These abilities to manipulate DNA have given rise to a great deal of philosophical debate and a wide range of ethical concerns about genetics.
Cellular Chemism
Authors: Banchetti-Robino Marina Paola , Villani Giovanni
Published: October 2023

In this chapter, we focus on the components and processes that occur in the cell, the cellular chemism. By examining the cell, we are dealing with the components and processes of living things in general. The identification of the cell with the fundamental unit of living things has required both philosophical clarifications and some scientific considerations, starting from the determination of what a living being is. More specifically, we analyze the internal state of the cell and the relationship of the cell with the environment, its ability to “know” it and react to it. We then consider the “code” within the cell and all the processes connected to it. Next we discuss two classes of chemical reactions in cells, molecular and macromolecular, and their grouping in pathways, which are often cyclical. In the case of macromolecular reactions, we also consider how they can occur in enzymatic action. Finally, we examine the energy metabolism of the cell and reveal that it is not distinct from cell chemism.
Dancing Mestizo Modernisms
Authors: Reynoso Jose Luis
Published: October 2023

Dancing Mestizo Modernisms analyzes how national and international dancers contributed to developing Mexico’s cultural politics and notions of the nation at different historical moments. It emphasizes how dancers and other moving bodies resisted and reproduced racial and social hierarchies stemming from colonial Mexico (1521–1821). Relying on extensive archival research, choreography as an analytical methodology, and theories of race, dance, and performance studies, the book examines how dance and other forms of embodiment participated in Mexico’s formation after the Mexican War of Independence (1821–1876), the Porfirian dictatorship (1876–1911), and postrevolutionary Mexico (1919–1940). In so doing, the book analyzes how underlying colonial logics continued to influence relationships among dancers, other artists, government officials, critics, and audiences of different backgrounds as they refashioned their racial, social, cultural, and national identities. The book proposes and develops two main concepts that explore these mutually formative interactions among such diverse people: embodied mestizo modernisms and transnational nationalisms. “Embodied mestizo modernisms” refers to combinations of indigenous, folkloric, ballet, and modern dance practices in works choreographed by national and international dancers with different racial and social backgrounds. The book contends that these mestizo modernist dance practices challenged assumptions about racial neutrality with which whiteness historically established its ostensible supremacy in constructing Mexico’s “transnational nationalisms.” This argument holds that notions of the nation-state and national identities are not produced exclusively by a nation’s natives but also by historical transnational forces and (dancing) bodies whose influences shape local politics, economic interests, and artistic practices.
Embracing the Indigenous while Establishing a Mestizo Nation
Authors: Reynoso Jose Luis
Published: October 2023

While tracing the transition from the Porfirian dictatorship to a revolutionary state, this chapter focuses on three dance artists consecrated in Europe—Anna Pavlova, Norka Rouskaya, and Carmen Tórtola Valencia. It analyzes how these artists functioned as legitimizing agents whose work contributed to establishing mestizaje as the official cultural and racial ideology in postrevolutionary Mexico between 1919 and the mid-1920s. Rouskaya reimagined the Aztec as a figure of representation. Valencia’s indigenized dance, inspired by the Incas of Peru and performed in Mexico City, reflected Mexico’s position within a Latin American pan-indigeneity central to imagining post/colonial national and hemispheric identities. Pavlova’s performance of the folkloric Jarabe Tapatío en pointe consolidated the dance’s prominent role in the nationalist dance repertoire and the state’s project of establishing a mestizo state. Analyzing these artists’ mestizo modernisms reveals aspects of the colonial racial unconscious underlying the coloniality of modernist dance practices and artistic subjectivities.
The Making of a Postrevolutionary Modern Dance Form
Authors: Reynoso Jose Luis
Published: October 2023

This chapter argues that the effects of the Great Depression and the rise of fascism in Europe influenced how debates over the relationship between aesthetics and politics in dance contributed to Mexico’s institutionalization of the revolution and a mestizo state. In so doing, the chapter discusses artistic and political ideologies central to developing a state-sponsored modern dance form that could be genuinely Mexican in character and universal in appeal. The discussion starts with Russian dancer Hipólito Zybin’s efforts to institutionalize professional dance training, exemplifying how dancers, government officials, and critics embraced different approaches to the relationship between (rigorous) dance technique and political ideology. It analyzes Mexican choreographers Nellie and Gloria Campobello’s revolutionary mass dances and compares US choreographers Anna Sokolow’s and Waldeen Falkenstein’s contrasting choreographic practices. These examples illuminate how mestizo modernisms simultaneously challenged and reproduced ideologies of universalism, racial neutrality, and exoticism in creating a Mexican modern dance form.
Coda
Authors: Reynoso Jose Luis
Published: October 2023

This coda introduces the idea of contemporary mestizo modernisms relative to the concept of transnational nationalisms to illustrate the impact people of Mexican descent (dancers and non-dancers) have in shaping the United States as a nation. It summarizes the book’s key concepts and expands on debates that Anna Sokolow, Waldeen, and their collaborators had during and after the 1940s. An account of José Limón’s visit to Mexico City in the early 1950s emphasizes his background as an immigrant to discuss Mexico-US migration patterns and their role in developing notions of US modernity. A discussion about Primera Generación, an up-and-coming contemporary dance collective formed by first-generation Mexican American dancers, highlights their work’s explicit ethnoracial and class elements as a challenge to color-blind ideologies within the contemporary (experimental) dance tradition. It contextualizes their work within larger Latina/o/x/e communities shaping the United States as a nation while navigating racialization and social stratification processes.
The Exorcist Effect
Authors: Laycock Joseph P. , Harrelson Eric
Published: October 2023

This chapter presents an overview of The Exorcist Effect, in which religious beliefs and experiences inspire horror films that inspire subsequent beliefs and experiences, which in turn become fodder for more horror films. By way of illustration, it begins by discussing a sermon delivered by Cardinal John O’Connor in 1990, in which he read from the novel The Exorcist in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. This event heightened media interest in exorcism, resulting in a Catholic exorcism being filmed for network television. The chapter offers some preliminary evidence drawn from psychological studies suggesting that horror movies can influence religious belief. The chapter concludes by discussing the implications of this research and providing an outline of the book.
The Martin Cycle
Authors: Laycock Joseph P. , Harrelson Eric
Published: October 2023

This chapter examines the life of Malachi Martin and the influence of his 1976 book, Hostage to the Devil, on Christian demonology as well as horror films. Through his book, as well as numerous media appearances, Martin did much to persuade the public that exorcism is not a rare phenomenon, but actually common. In addition, this chapter argues that Martin was unfamiliar with Catholic traditions of exorcism and simply used his authority as a priest and his storytelling abilities to invent plausible details about demonology and exorcism. In doing so, he effectively rewrote the Catholic tradition of exorcism. Finally, Martin’s writings did much to link contemporary discussion of exorcism to a milieu of conspiracy theories. This chapter also traces how Martin’s ideas of exorcism have come to be used by Catholic authorities, mental health professionals, and horror movies.
Satanic Panic
Authors: Laycock Joseph P. , Harrelson Eric
Published: October 2023

This chapter explores the relationship between horror films and the Satanic Panic. It is generally acknowledged by historians that depictions of Satanism in horror films in the 1970s contributed to the Satanic Panic by familiarizing the public with images of Satanic cults and rituals. In particular, the phenomenon of “recovered memory” therapy led to many people recalling images from these films and mistaking them for repressed memories of Satanic ritual abuse. This chapter also examines how actual Satanists used horror films as a resource to design their own rituals and aesthetics. Finally, this chapter situates films about Satanism within a larger horror trope of “the religious other.” As such, it also considers “folk horror,” including such films as The Wicker Man.
Older Veterans
Authors: Fletcher Kari L. , Martin James A. , Black Eric R. , Dekel Rachel , Rooney Mariah , Albright David L.
Published: October 2023

Given the paucity of research on aging veterans, this chapter examines research and data from the United States, where more than 8.5 million veterans are age sixty-five or older. The authors highlight several important considerations—including military duties and service life, and post-service experiences—important when considering the well-being of veterans across their lifespan. During military service, individuals are exposed to an array of physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and/or spiritual stressors. Over time, stress is cumulative and may have both immediate and long-term implications for both physical and mental health and overall well-being. It is important to note that, even when not present earlier, trauma-related stressors may emerge and present themselves in the lives of older veterans. Finally, the authors discuss additional implications for practice, policy, and research. Within each section of the chapter, a case vignette is provided to support the discussion.
The Pleasure of theSonnets
Authors: Garrison John S.
Published: October 2023

This chapter pursues two interrelated questions: what constitutes pleasure in Shakespeare’s poems and what pleasure does the reader derive from reading them? The discussion utilizes Roland Barthes’s The Pleasure of the Text as a heuristic framework for pursuing these questions, and the chapter takes Sonnet 18 as its central case study, as this poem captures an elevated state of love that is at heart indescribable. The discussion is enhanced by analysis of collective memory and the promise of bliss in Sonnet 55, Sonnet 122, and Sonnet 126. The discussion underscores how memory—both the speaker’s and the reader’s—cannot be disaggregated from the pleasures described in the poems.
‘Betweenness’
Authors: Ahnert Ruth , Ahnert Sebastian E.
Published: October 2023

In his highly influential 1973 paper, ‘The strength of weak ties’, Mark Granovetter argued that people’s social worlds tend to be made up of strong and weak ties, but that weak ties are much more important for the transmission of information. Chapter 3 explores the extent to which we can identify such weak links in the transmission of early modern intelligence with a particular off-the-shelf algorithm: ‘betweenness centrality’. Betweenness centrality reveals that the quickest routes through the Tudor epistolary network are both via central government hubs and bridging figures. By using a second network metric, the degree of a node, we can sort the bridges from the hubs. As a result this chapter is able to demonstrate how the key figures for the transmission of information, both across communities and geographical remove, are a heterogeneous body of figures who served diplomatic functions both formal and informal, including international intellectuals, bishops and reformers, merchants, military leaders, and soldiers.
Participatory Science for Equitable Urban Biodiversity Research and Practice
Authors: Perkins Deja J. , Nichols Lauren M. , Dunn Robert R.
Published: October 2023

Citizen, community, and other forms of participatory science are incredibly valuable tools for documenting the natural world—especially in cities—while simultaneously involving the public in the process of science. This engagement is critical for building an awareness and sense of belonging to nature. However, crowdsourced data that result from citizen science are invariably structured by the biases in who does and does not participate in these studies. For example, breeding bird observations tend to be disproportionately made by White, relatively affluent participants that are 400 times more likely than chance to work in STEM fields. These observers tend to observe the places they live and frequent, more so than other parts of cities. Accordingly, our understanding of the diversity and distribution of urban biodiversity is spatially biased by the geographic structuring of race and wealth in cities, as well as the racial and socioeconomic nonrandomness of who participates in crowdsourced studies. This work reviews these spatial racial gaps, focusing on data from across diverse cities. Further, it considers the historic factors in the US that led to the spatial structuring of race in modern American cities. The work concludes by detailing some of the approaches that can be used to account for the biases in our understanding of urban biodiversity, while identifying the opportunities that are implicit in seeing that diversity in a less biased way. It highlights the kinds of discoveries that are possible by resolving urban/rural, spatial-racial, and global gaps in datasets.
Fiscal State Aid Law and Harmful Tax Competition in the European Union
Authors: Kyriazis Dimitrios
Published: October 2023

The theme of this book is the relationship between harmful tax competition measures and prohibited fiscal State aid. It aims to present a targeted examination of the use of State aid rules against national tax measures, for example tax schemes and tax rulings, following the adoption of the EU Code of Conduct for Business Taxation in 1997. The fiscal State aid decisions and judgments covered include Commission decisions and ECJ judgments of the (early) 2000s, which are labelled the ‘first wave’, and recent Commission decisions and investigations into tax schemes and individual tax rulings, most notably the Apple, Fiat, Starbucks, and Amazon investigations, which are labelled the ‘second wave’. The characteristics and common threads of each wave are presented, similarities and differences between the two waves are dissected, and their nexus to the EU’s fight against harmful tax competition is explored. It is argued that an important factor connecting the two waves is the link they share to the fight against harmful tax competition. It is also maintained that the first wave cases that were linked to this fight have substantially influenced State aid doctrine, and have also had the effect of rendering State aid rules a more effective tool against harmful tax competition. This trend would have continued had the ECJ endorsed the Commission’s novel and creative approach in the second wave of fiscal State aid decisions. This approach is not legally sound, and was thus correctly rejected by the Grand Chamber of the ECJ in November 2022.
Early EU and OECD Initiatives against Harmful Tax Competition
Authors: Kyriazis Dimitrios
Published: October 2023

This chapter examines how the EU and the OECD had initially conducted their campaign against harmful tax competition by framing it as a collective action problem, how their strategy has evolved through time, and what conclusions can be drawn from it. The purpose of this chapter is to place the EU’s early fiscal State aid initiatives, the Commission’s first fiscal State aid wave, in their broader political context, so that the way in which State aid rules interact with soft law instruments and EU legislative measures can become evident. This is important for a variety of reasons, most notably because this interaction is key in understanding the exact points of contact between State aid doctrine, on the one hand, and the early initiatives by the EU and the OECD, on the other.
In Praise of Bad Prose
Authors: Knapper Daniel
Published: October 2023

This chapter explores how Renaissance humanists resolved the problems and apparent weaknesses of Paul’s style in their biblical scholarship by performing what may be called “recuperative readings” of his texts. It shows that, in their efforts to defend its coherence and skill, humanists associated Paul’s style with four grammatical and rhetorical forms—verbal omission (ellipsis), inverted syntax (hyperbaton), digressive sentence structure (anacoluthon), and Hebraisms—and they inscribed these forms with positive rhetorical effects, particularly power, speed, and profundity. After highlighting the prominence of the forms in general discussions of Paul’s style, the chapter considers the various arguments and metaphors used by humanists to justify their rhetorical integrity and aesthetic quality. Broadly speaking, humanists transform Paul’s stylistic weaknesses into strengths in order to defend the integrity and authority of Paul’s texts, as well as Paul’s character as a sacred, divinely inspired author.
Toward Enlightenment
Authors: Knapper Daniel
Published: October 2023

The concluding chapter explores the broad conceptual changes that Paul’s style underwent in the latter half of the seventeenth century. It shows that larger developments in the practice of biblical criticism—and the effects of these developments on theologies of scripture—led to changing conceptions of and attitudes toward Paul’s style among leading figures on the shifting intellectual and cultural landscapes of early Enlightenment Europe. Such changes emerged most immediately in the works of heterodox theologians and philosophers, who developed new critiques of Paul’s style by reforming or else rejecting the theoretical premises upon which humanist discussions of it were based. Other critics and poets continued to support Paul’s eloquence, particularly orthodox Protestants, though they too worked to reimagine Paul’s style for early Enlightenment readers, specifically by associating its effects with emerging conceptions of literary-aesthetic sublimity.
The Logical Renaissance
Authors: Ettenhuber Katrin
Published: October 2023

The Logical Renaissance is the first substantial account of early modern English literature’s relationship with logic. Logic was at the centre of early modern education: during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, university students spent at least two years of their degree studying it, and many grammar school students encountered it in the final phase of their training. The book aims to help readers understand the central terms and concepts of early modern logic, and to show how they can be found in some of the most important works of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literature. The Logical Renaissance argues that logic played a crucial role in the processes of literary composition and reading: it aided writers in the discovery of material and taught them how to arrange it, while readers drew on the rules of logic to develop a structured understanding of texts. The book covers a broad range of early modern writing (including epic and lyric poetry, drama, and religious prose) by Andrewes, Donne, Milton, Shakespeare, Sidney, and Spenser. It suggests that the influence of rhetoric on early modern writing has been overstated, and that greater attention to logic will give us a fuller and richer understanding of literary production in the period.
Sex and the Disjunctive Syllogism
Authors: Ettenhuber Katrin
Published: October 2023

This chapter investigates the applications of logical terms and processes in the poetry of John Donne. After an analysis of logic teaching at Oxford, where Donne attended university in the 1580s, the chapter addresses three different aspects of logic use in Donne’s works. It focuses on the role of logical disputation in the Holy Sonnets, of the Aristotelian categories in the verse letters, and of the hypothetical syllogism in the Songs and Sonets. In the three literary examples discussed in the chapter, Donne’s speakers invoke the formal mechanisms of logic to impose control on threatening or confusing feelings. Sometimes this process is presented as a moral necessity; at other times, however, Donne is careful to draw attention to the limitations of this strategy, while also acknowledging the temptations of managing complex emotions through comfortingly predictable structures.
Andrewes, Spenser, and Reforming the Arts of Discourse
Authors: Ettenhuber Katrin
Published: October 2023

This chapter turns from the first part of logic (dedicated to the invention or discovery of material) to the second part, which was preoccupied with the formal structures of argument in which the materials of discourse could be presented. It uses the writings of Philip Melanchthon to show how logical methods of dividing and arranging arguments became crucial weapons in the religious controversies of the mid- and late sixteenth century. After introducing the main elements of Melanchthon’s logic, the chapter presents two literary case studies that illustrate the impact of his method in Elizabethan England. Through an analysis of Spenser’s engagement with the so-called devil’s syllogism, the chapter demonstrates the importance of sound reasoning in the face of religious despair. Lastly, the chapter examines Lancelot Andrewes’ recourse to logical techniques of division and definition to resolve conflicts of conscience.
Von Neumann’s Hilbert Space Formalism
Authors: Duncan Anthony , Janssen Michel
Published: October 2023

This chapter covers the completion of the formalism of quantum mechanics and its statistical interpretation in the first two installments of a remarkable trilogy of work by von Neumann in 1927. In the first, von Neumann introduces the modern Hilbert space formalism and demonstrates the equivalence of matrix and wave mechanics by showing that they are just two different instantiations of Hilbert space, one being the space of square-summable sequences, the other being the space of square integrable functions. In the second, drawing on work by von Mises on the foundations of probability theory, he provides a careful formulation of the statistical interpretation of this formalism. In doing so, he introduces such staples of modern quantum mechanics as density operators characterizing quantum statistical ensembles and the distinction between pure and mixed states.
Conclusion: Arch and Scaffold
Authors: Duncan Anthony , Janssen Michel
Published: October 2023

This chapter elaborates and reflects on the authors’ use of the “arch-and-scaffold” metaphor to characterize the transition from classical mechanics, via the old quantum theory, to modern quantum mechanics. It discusses in detail why this metaphor does justice to both continuous and discontinuous aspects of this transition, as well the various ways in which the metaphor applies to the contents of both volumes of the work. It contrasts the account of this transition based on the “arch-and-scaffold” metaphor with an account based on Kuhn’s notion of a paradigm shift. This shift occurs, resulting in the understanding in which the continuous aspects of the transition from classical to quantum mechanics are lost.
Introduction
Authors: Aston Nigel
Published: October 2023

An introduction to the book, which is laid out in three interconnected sections: ‘Intellectual Presence’, ‘Institutional Presence and Interactions’, and ‘Cultural Constructions, connections, and tensions’. It is a consideration of a major institution and its place in the life of Britain and beyond, assessing what Oxford University was supposed to do, what it did, identifying cultural connections, and pondering the extent to which it may be considered ‘enlightened’. The University was not condemned to marginality in eighteenth-century national and international life because of its apparent reluctance to introduce a modernising curriculum, or endorse progressive politics. It had a capacity for adaptation to an unsuspected degree, with a scope for intellectual and political pluralism that should not be underestimated. Throughout this period, its existence was bound up with the defence and perpetuation of the Established Church, but only from the 1760s were its loyalist instincts uncompromisingly given to the Hanoverian dynasty.
Oxford and British academic contexts after the Glorious Revolution
Authors: Aston Nigel
Published: October 2023

Chapter 2 provides an overview of Oxford within British academia as a whole in the decades following the 1688 Revolution, when the support of the monarchy that the Church had enjoyed in the early 1680s was tempered. It qualifies and, to a degree, repudiates, the prevailing view that Oxford was a Tory bastion unable to adapt to the late Stuart and early Hanoverian order. Scholarship in history and the classics flourished; the Bodleian Library received visitors from across Europe; the University was substantially rebuilt as a ‘new Athens’. The chapter argues that if Oxford at first adjusted awkwardly to the new dispensation, then that was no less the case for all British universities, especially those in Scotland where direct government obtrusion upon their affairs was more conspicuous. And the traffic between universities north of the border and Oxford gave zest to the latter’s intellectual life through the transmission of Newtonian mathematics.
The defence of Christian belief and the Church of England
Authors: Aston Nigel
Published: October 2023

The third chapter, on the defence of the Christian faith in its Anglican expression, is foundational to the whole study. The intellectual life of the University pivoted on this theme. The defence of the University was a defence of the whole Church of England as the University was the cornerstone of the Church-state polity. The chapter covers the various proposals for new translations of the Bible that engaged Oxford, the importance of preaching across the University, plus the increasing importance of preparing men for ordination. The variety of Oxford voices is also shown: Methodism had its origins here and Christian orthodoxy was regularly challenged. From the 1760s, Oxford Anglicanism was committed to the Hanoverians and ready for the challenges of the French Revolution in which University members displayed a persuasive rhetorical ingenuity in protecting the faith upheld by the Established Church. Oxford was primary in helping to keep the country recognisably and corporately Christian in this century.