bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Virtue and Law in Plato and Beyond
Authors: Annas Julia
Published: November 2017

The Laws is Plato’s second attempt to outline an ideal society. It does not, as often thought, introduce the rule of law as a rejection of the rule of virtue in the Republic. In the Laws the place of law in the development of virtue is rethought, and Plato tempers the importance of obedience to law with the need for citizens to understand their laws as structuring a virtuous way of life in which they actively participate. Plato now develops a fresh methodology for political thought, one which learns from the past, and recognizes the value in a good society of citizen participation, and of a number of modified Athenian political institutions, in which all citizens play a part, rather than most submitting to the expertise of a few. Less approachable than the Republic, the Laws is richer in political and ethical ideas and sets the project of an ideal society in a wider and richer context. One idea, namely that citizens should comprehend their laws as shaping a good way of life, is taken up and developed independently by Cicero and by Philo of Alexandria, who in different ways draw out some implications of the Laws.
Ringtone
Authors: Doz Yves , Wilson Keeley
Published: November 2017

In less than three decades, Nokia emerged from Finland to lead the mobile phone revolution. It grew to have one of the most recognizable and valuable brands in the world and then fell into decline, leading to the sale of its mobile phone business to Microsoft. This book explores and analyzes that journey and distills observations and lessons for anyone keen to understand what drove Nokia’s amazing success and sudden downfall. It is tempting to lay the blame for Nokia’s demise at the doors of Apple, Google, and Samsung, but this would be to ignore one very important fact: Nokia had begun to collapse from within well before any of these companies entered the mobile communications market, and this makes Nokia’s story all the more interesting. Observing from the position of privileged outsiders (with access to Nokia’s senior managers over the last twenty years and a more recent, concerted research agenda), this book describes and analyzes the various stages in Nokia’s journey. This is an inside story: one of leaders making strategic and organizational decisions, of their behavior and interactions, and of how they succeeded and failed to inspire and engage their employees. Perhaps most intriguingly, it is a story that opens the proverbial “black box” of why and how things actually happen at the top of organizations. Why did things fall apart? To what extent were avoidable mistakes made? Did the world around Nokia change too fast for it to adapt? Did Nokia’s success contain the seeds of its failure?
Considerations in Framing the Environmental Dimensions of Jus Post Bellum
Authors: Bruch Carl
Published: November 2017

This chapter seeks to place the environmental provisions of jus post bellum in the broader context of environmental peacebuilding. In considering the efforts to articulate a new body of jus post bellum, particularly as it relates to natural resources and the environment, it presents three key observations. First, there is a large and diverse body of experience related to environmental peacebuilding that can inform the development and framing of jus post bellum, including through state practice and customary international law. This experience argues for a broad view of the environment in jus post bellum. Second, notwithstanding the importance of the environment to post-conflict peacebuilding, most programming in conflict-affected countries pays little thought to law—and even less to international law. This is unfortunate, as there is a growing body of relevant international law from various sources. Third, the space for political dialogue on environmental peacebuilding has expanded dramatically.
The Ability of Environmental Treaties to Address Environmental Problems in Post-Conflict
Authors: Sjöstedt Britta
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines how international environmental law pertains in the transition phase from armed conflict to peace (post-conflict). Environmental treaties have the ability to fill an institutional and a normative gap in a post-conflict context, which is often characterized by institutional collapse and low priority of environmental protection work. Most environmental treaties have treaty bodies that can ensure that the treaties apply to protect the environment, also after armed conflict, and could therefore be of relevance in the search for a framework of jus post bellum. The argument is supported by describing the application of the World Heritage Convention in relation to the armed conflicts taking place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In the DRC, the treaty bodies established under the Convention have provided various means to protect the natural World Heritage Sites. Other similar environmental treaties may have an important role in the jus post bellum.
The Environment and Armed Conflict
Authors: Stefanik Kirsten
Published: November 2017

Armed conflict is inherently destructive of the environment. It can cause serious and irreversible damage and threaten the health and livelihoods of individuals and the planet as a whole. International environmental law (IEL) cannot and is not relegated to peacetime, but continues to apply and interact with international humanitarian law (IHL). Therefore, principles of IEL must play a role before, during, and after conflict. This chapter focuses on general principles of IEL, specifically intergenerational equity and the precautionary principle. It demonstrates that these principles can and should be used to interpret and apply existing IHL for civilian and environmental protection. It concludes with a look at peace agreements and truth commissions, arguing that despite limitations of their past use they can provide fertile ground for building sustainable peace.
Standard-setting Practices for the Management of Natural Resources in Conflict-Torn States
Authors: Dam-de Jong Daniëlla
Published: November 2017

Natural resources have financed a number of armed conflicts in the last decades. Restoring governance over these natural resources to the government is an essential component of strategies to enable a transition to durable peace for resource rich states which have suffered from armed conflict. The UN Security Council has played a key role in efforts to break the link between natural resources and conflict financing, including by setting standards for the proper management of natural resources. This chapter identifies the standards that have been developed by the Security Council in relation to Liberia and the DRC and examines their implementation in the mandates of peacekeeping operations and in programmes set up by regional and international organizations. It is argued that the Security Council through its standard-setting helps to shape the normative content of the applicable jus post bellum.
Eco-Struggles
Authors: Gillett Matthew
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the provisions of international criminal law applicable to serious environmental harm, particularly during non-international armed conflicts ('NIAC'). After describing incidents of serious environmental harm arising in armed conflicts, the analysis surveys the provisions of international criminal law applicable to environmental harm during NIACs, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and aggression. It then examines the basis for extending to NIACs the protection against military attacks causing excessive environmental harm (set out in Art. 8(2)(b)(iv) of the Rome Statute), which is currently only applicable in IACs. The examination of this possible amendment of the Rome Statute covers a broad range of instruments and laws forming part of international and national legal codes, all addressing grave environmental harm. Finally, the analysis turns to accountability for environmental harm as a facet of jus post bellum, emphasizing the interconnected nature of environmental harm and cycles of violence and atrocities.
Divine Agency and Divine Action, Volume I
Authors: Abraham William J.
Published: November 2017

This book lays the groundwork for a constructive contribution to the contemporary debate regarding divine action. It argues that the concept of divine action is not a closed concept, like knowledge, but an open concept with a variety of context-dependent meanings. In the first part of this volume, the author charts the history of debate about divine action among key Anglophone philosophers of religion, and observes that they were largely committed to this erroneous understanding of divine action as a closed concept. After developing an argument that divine action should be understood as an open, fluid concept, the author engages the work of William Alston, Process metaphysics, quantum physics, analytic Thomist philosophy of religion, and the theology of Kathryn Tanner. Deficiencies in these proposals regarding divine action are noted appreciatively. Then the author argues that divine action as an open concept must be shaped by distinctly theological considerations, and thus all future work on divine action among philosophers of religion must change to accord with this vision. Only deep engagement with the Christian theological tradition will remedy the problems ailing contemporary discourse on divine action.
Electrowetting: the switch on the wettability
Authors: Mugele F.
Published: November 2017

The present lecture notes provide first a brief review of basic principles of wetting, followed by a discussion of the physics of electrowetting (E.W.). In particular we discuss the origin of E.W. from a macroscopic perspective of global energy minimization and from a microscopic perspective taking into account the local force balance on the drop surface.
Introduction to molecular simulations in soft matter
Authors: Barrat J.-L. , de Pablo J. J.
Published: November 2017

We describe the main features of the coarse-grained models that are typically useful in modelling soft interfaces, from force fields to the continuum descriptions involving density fields. We explain the theoretical basis of the main numerical methods that are used to explore the phase space associated with these models. Finally, three recent examples, illustrating the spirit in which relatively simple simulations can contribute to solving pending problems in soft matter physics, are briefly described. Clearly, a short series of lectures can offer, at best, a biased and restricted view of the available approaches. Our aim here will be to provide the reader with such an overview, with a focus on methods and descriptions that ‘bridge the scale’ between the molecular scale and the continuum or quasi-continuum one. The objective to present a guide to the relevant literature—which has now to a large extent appeared in the form of textbooks.
Plural Agency
Authors: Ludwig Kirk
Published: November 2017

Chapter 2 reviews the multiple agents analysis of plural action and the account of shared intention and we-intentions of participants in joint intentional action developed in From Individual to Plural Agency (OUP 2016). It shows how to project the event analysis of individual action sentences to plural action sentences in light of their ambiguity between a plural and collective reading so as to show that only individual agents are involved. For a group of people to do something is for each of them to contribute to bringing something about. Shared intention, on the account, is a matter of each member of a group having a we-intention directed at the group bringing something about in accordance with a shared plan. The chapter reviews what joint intentional action comes to give this account of shared intention. Finally, it reviews the nature of conditional intentions, which play a role in the account of conventions and status functions.
Status Functions and Conventions
Authors: Ludwig Kirk
Published: November 2017

Chapter 9 argues first that the assignment of a status function to an object or type of object for use on repeated occasions constitutes a convention. The relevant notion of convention is that of collective acceptance by a group of a solution to a coordination problem. This is contrasted with David Lewis’s account of convention. Next, it provides an analysis of collective acceptance as a matter of members of a group having either appropriately interlocking we-intentions directed at particular objects or appropriately interlocking conditional we-intentions directed at objects or types of objects. Finally, it explains, in light of this, in what sense a status function is an intention dependent function, that is, a function that cannot be performed by an object having it unintentionally.
Solving the Internet Jurisdiction Puzzle
Authors: Svantesson Dan Jerker B.
Published: November 2017

Internet jurisdiction has emerged as one of the greatest and most urgent challenges online, severely affecting areas as diverse as e-commerce, data privacy, law enforcement, content take-downs, cloud computing, e-health, Cyber security, intellectual property, freedom of speech, and Cyberwar. In this innovative book, Professor Svantesson presents a vision for a new approach to Internet jurisdiction––for both private international law and public international law––based on sixteen years of research dedicated specifically to the topic. The book demonstrates that our current paradigm remains attached to a territorial thinking that is out of sync with our modern world, especially, but not only, online. Having made the claim that our adherence to the territoriality principle is based more on habit than on any clear and universally accepted legal principles, Professor Svantesson advances a new jurisprudential framework for how we approach jurisdiction. He also proposes several other reform initiatives such as the concept of ‘investigative jurisdiction’ and an approach to geo-blocking, aimed at equipping us to solve the Internet jurisdiction puzzle. In addition, the book provides a history of Internet jurisdiction, and challenges our traditional categorisation of different types of jurisdiction. It places Internet jurisdiction in a broader context and outlines methods for how properly to understand and work with rules of Internet jurisdiction. While Solving the Internet Puzzle paints a clear picture of the concerns involved and the problems that needs to be overcome, this book is distinctly aimed at finding practical solutions anchored in a solid theoretical framework.
Revisionist Just War Theory and the Impossibility of a Moral Victory
Authors: Brown Chris
Published: November 2017

Recently, the militarization of the police has received much comment while less attention has been given to the application of civilian legal and moral standards to soldiers in combat zones. This shift is partly the product of ‘revisionist’ just war theorists, who understand war in terms of individual responsibility, challenging conventional views on the rights of states to defend themselves and replacing the Law of Armed Conflict with International Human Rights Law. This is a retrograde step; it loses contact with realities of warfare and validates the critique of just war thinking as encouraging a Manichean worldview. Classical just war thinking is about discrimination, avoiding the absolutism of both pacifism and an amoral realpolitik; revisionist just war theory is effectively pacifist insofar as no actual war could be fought that would satisfy its conditions. Discrimination disappears, and with it the possibility of a moral or any other kind of victory.
The Homeric Simile in Comparative Perspectives
Authors: Ready Jonathan L.
Published: November 2017

The Homeric Simile in Comparative Perspectives: Oral Traditions from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia investigates both the construction of the Homeric simile and the performance of Homeric poetry from neglected comparative perspectives. The first part considers similes in five modern oral poetries—Rajasthani epic, South Sumatran epic, Kyrgyz epic, Bosniac epic, and Najdi lyric poems from Saudi Arabia—and studies successful performances by still other verbal artists, such as Egyptian singers of epic, Turkish minstrels, and Chinese storytellers. In applying these findings to the Homeric epics, the second part offers a new take on how the Homeric poets put together their similes and alters our understanding of how the poets displayed their competence as performers of verbal art. Engaging intensively with a diverse array of scholarship from outside the field of classics, from folkloristics to cognitive linguistics, this book changes how we view not only a central feature of Homeric poetry but also the very nature of Homeric performance.
Advanced Monte Carlo methods
Authors: Allen Michael P. , Tildesley Dominic J.
Published: November 2017

This chapter describes the ways in which the Monte Carlo importance sampling method may be adapted to improve the calculation of ensemble averages, particularly those associated with free energy differences. These approaches include umbrella sampling, non-Boltzmann sampling, the Wang–Landau method, and nested sampling. In addition, a range of special techniques have been developed to accelerate the simulation of flexible molecules, such as polymers. These approaches are illustrated with scientific examples and program code. The chapter also explains the analysis of such simulations using techniques such as weighted histograms, and acceptance ratio calculations. Practical advice on selection of methods, parameters, and the direction in which to make comparisons, are given. Monte Carlo methods for modelling phase equilibria and chemical reactions at equilibrium are described.
Mesoscale methods
Authors: Allen Michael P. , Tildesley Dominic J.
Published: November 2017

Coarse-graining is an increasingly commonplace approach to study, as economically as possible, large-scale, and long-time phenomena. This chapter covers the main methods. Brownian and Langevin dynamics are introduced, with practical details of the solution of the modified equations of motion. Several techniques which aim to bridge the gap to the hydrodynamic regime are described: these include dissipative particle dynamics, multiparticle collision dynamics, and the lattice Boltzmann method. Several examples of program code are provided. In the last part of the chapter, the derivation of a coarse-grained potential from an atomistic one is considered using force-matching and structure-matching, and the limitations of these approaches are discussed.
Person, Case, and Agreement
Authors: Bárány András
Published: November 2017

This monograph discusses the interaction of person features, case-marking, and agreement across languages, and models the variation using parameters and parameter hierarchies. In both inverse agreement and global case splits, the subject and the object determine the form of the verb or case-marking on its arguments together. After proposing a detailed, novel analysis of differential object marking in Hungarian, it is shown that similar agreement alternations and case splits in other languages can be analysed in a uniform way since they both rely on person. Languages differ in the way they grammaticalize person, however, explaining why in some languages definiteness determines agreement and case-marking, while in others animacy does. In this book, both types are analysed as interactions of hierarchically organized person features and the verb. The approach to person features adopted here captures effects of so-called person or animacy hierarchies in syntax by treating different persons as sets of features with different cardinalities, ordered by subset/superset relations. The author relates this analysis to the interaction of Case and agreement, implements existing generalizations about the alignment of case and agreement and discusses a new one: the analysis predicts exactly the attested types of case and agreement alignment in ditransitive constructions, and rules out an unattested one. The book presents data from eight different language families.
Fiction, Testimony, Belief, and History
Authors: Stock Kathleen
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines to what extent it is true that fiction is a problematic source of information about empirical matters. This is done via a comparison with what are often thought of as paradigmatic sources of empirical knowledge, at least in well-formed cases: historical texts. The focus of the discussion is on testimony—roughly, the conveying of information to a hearer with the aim of being believed, partly on the speaker’s say-so—as it occurs in both historical and fictional texts. The chapter concludes that despite appearances, in many typical cases fiction can be a relatively solid source of information about the world, so that indignant responses to occasions of inaccuracy in fiction may not be misplaced after all.
The Nature of Science
Authors: Levin Frank S.
Published: November 2017

Chapter 1 begins with a broad definition of science and then describes in detail how it functions. Of prime importance is that science is strictly concerned with natural phenomena, explanations of which must be based solely on nature. The need for testing is emphasized. The four elements common to all science are specified: facts, hypotheses, laws, and theories. Data do not become facts until the experimental results are verified, while even so-called facts are seen initially to be provisional because they can be wrong, examples of which are presented. Laws are identified as empirically based. The “if, then” aspect of hypotheses is illustrated by four examples, and it is shown how a hypothesis can become a theory. Special attention is focused on the word theory, whose scientific meaning is so different from its everyday usage. To help clarify this, two similar scientific definitions of theory are presented.
The Quantum Hypothesis
Authors: Levin Frank S.
Published: November 2017

Although 1900 ended with the classical physics of Newton and Maxwell reigning supreme, that reign did not last long, and Chapter 4 shows why. The first crack in this edifice was the failure to detect the presence of the ether, the medium that supposedly carried electromagnetic waves. Next was Thomson’s discovery of the electron, proving that atoms, believed to have been indestructible, were not: they had a structure. Yet another new development, the discovery of radioactivity, also could not be explained by classical physics. Nor could it explain the experimental data from blackbody radiation measurements, yet Planck’s peculiar formula involving his quantum hypothesis, did so perfectly. It introduced a new fundamental constant, named for him. And while his quantum hypothesis did not gain any traction for five years, in 1905 Einstein used it to explain the photoelectric effect, which classical electrodynamics had been unable to do.
Creating Quantum Mechanics
Authors: Levin Frank S.
Published: November 2017

In addition to recounting some contemporary scientific history, Chapter 6 describes the hypothesis that matter, like light, can display wavelike properties, and the creation of the various formulations of quantum mechanics. That matter could have a wavelength was proposed in 1924 by Louis de Broglie, who presented a specific formula for calculating it, one that was verified experimentally in 1927. However, de Broglie’s hypothesis was overshadowed by the creation of three versions of quantum mechanics in 1925/26. The first, denoted matrix mechanics, was proposed by Werner Heisenberg. It was quickly and successfully applied by Wolfgang Pauli to the hydrogen atom. Paul Dirac introduced the next version, which was followed by that of Erwin Schrödinger via a wave equation whose solutions, denoted wave functions, were soon interpreted byMax Born to be related to the probability that certain outcomes or events will occur: classical-physics determinism was thereby removed from quantum mechanics.
Ancient Prophecy
Authors: Nissinen Martti
Published: November 2017

This book is a comprehensive treatment of the ancient prophetic phenomenon as it comes to us through biblical, Near Eastern, and Greek sources. Once a distinctly biblical concept, prophecy is today acknowledged as yet another form of divination and a phenomenon that can be found all over the ancient Eastern Mediterranean. Even Greek oracle, traditionally discussed separately from biblical and Mesopotamian prophecy, is essentially part of the same picture. The book gives an up-to-date presentation of textual sources, whether cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia, the Hebrew Bible, Greek inscriptions, or ancient historians, the number of which has increased substantially in recent times. In addition, the book includes comparative essays on topics such as prophetic ecstasy; temples as venues of prophetic performances; prophets and political rulers; and the prophets’ gender which can be either male, female, or non-gendered. The book argues for a common category of ancient Eastern Mediterranean prophecy, even though the fragmentary and secondary nature of the sources allows only a restricted view to it. The ways prophetic divination manifests itself in ancient sources depend not only on the socio-religious position of the prophets but also on the genre and purpose of the sources. The book shows that, even though the view of the ancient prophetic landscape is restricted by the fragmentary and secondary nature of the sources, it is possible to reconstruct essential features of prophetic divination.
The Process: Brexit and the Anatomy of Article 50
Authors: Craig Paul
Published: November 2017

The chapter offers a holistic legal analysis of the treaty provision regulating withdrawal from the EU. Craig examines Article 50 TEU and maintains that the process of exit from the EU should be divided into three stages, each of which raises major substantive and procedural questions. Stage 1 is the triggering of Article 50 TEU. Stage 2 concerns the withdrawal negotiations, and stage 3 relates to the outcome of the negotiations. As Craig explains, each stage poses specific challenges both for the EU and for the UK, and there are legal questions that have been—and will have to be—answered along the way. According to Craig, however, politics will heavily shape the law, with both the EU and the UK seeking to leverage specific legal argument in support of their preferred bargaining position.
Brexit and EU Institutional Balance
Authors: Puetter Uwe
Published: November 2017

The chapter focuses on the implications of Brexit on the EU inter-institutional balance, and inter-state relations, and argues that not much change is to be expected here. According to Puetter, the UK already dramatically reduced its engagement inside the EU institutions. It isolated itself within the European Council and it was the only Member State together with Hungary to vote against the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker as Commission President in 2014. The UK lost influence in the European Parliament as a result of David Cameron’s decision to take the Conservative party out of the European Peoples’ Party. Brexit may make room for greater roles for countries like Italy and Spain, yet, the German–French axis will probably remain dominant. Puetter suggests that the inter-institutional equilibrium within the EU will not change. Brexit is unlikely to shift the balance from the European Council back towards the European Commission.
Brexit and EU Treaty Reform
Authors: Fabbrini Federico
Published: November 2017

The chapter argues that Brexit compels the EU institutions and the Member States to engage in constitutional change at EU level. Several provisions of the EU treaties and quasi-constitutional EU norms will need to be amended to adapt to the reality of a Union of twenty-seven. The revision of these legal norms, however, may provide an opportunity to discuss radical changes to the EU constitutional system—a prospect that had been discussed during the euro-crisis, and in the context of the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the Rome Treaties Treaty reform in the EU has been mixed, and there are many obstacles toward a new constitutional settlement in Europe. Nevertheless, the growing calls for a multispeed Europe signal a credible alternative: after Brexit, integration by a sub-group of states remains a distinctive possibility in case the efforts to reform the EU constitutional system should falter got idiosyncratic national reasons.
Para-Narratives in the Odyssey
Authors: Alden Maureen
Published: November 2017

This book offers the first full-length study in English of the relationship between the Odyssey’s main narrative and its para-narratives, the secondary narratives and episodes in a minor key which frequently suspend its progress. Many of the latter group take the form of paradigmatic secondary narratives about matters apparently external to the poem, which are related by the poet and his characters. For the characters, such stories may provide a model of action for imitation or avoidance in their immediate contexts. At a deeper level, they influence the reception of some aspect of the main narrative by the poet’s audience. They draw on Cyclic Epic, folk tales and international stories, alleged personal experience (the material of αἶνος‎), and mythology, which may be altered if necessary to achieve a closer correspondence to the parallel situation in the main narrative. Where details are suppressed or altered, the audience may still experience the reverberations of the better-known version of the tradition: this is particularly apparent in the poem’s unusual use of the Oresteia story. Analogous or parallel situations are inserted into the narrative itself, so that one episode resembles and sheds light on another. Minor-key episodes narrated in the poet’s voice reflect on significant episodes of the main narrative and influence and guide its interpretation. As the poem draws to its close, religious rituals, particularly the Plynteria and Arrephoria, become another kind of para-narrative, their procedures mimicked by the characters as they undergo the transitions effected at the poem’s dénouement.
The Metrics of Info-Metrics
Authors: Golan Amos
Published: November 2017

In this chapter I present the key ideas and develop the essential quantitative metrics needed for modeling and inference with limited information. I provide the necessary tools to study the traditional maximum-entropy principle, which is the cornerstone for info-metrics. The chapter starts by defining the primary notions of information and entropy as they are related to probabilities and uncertainty. The unique properties of the entropy are explained. The derivations and discussion are extended to multivariable entropies and informational quantities. For completeness, I also discuss the complete list of the Shannon-Khinchin axioms behind the entropy measure. An additional derivation of information and entropy, due to the independently developed work of Wiener, is provided as well.
Efficiency, Sufficiency, and Optimality
Authors: Golan Amos
Published: November 2017

In this chapter I provide additional rationalization for using the info-metrics framework. This time the justifications are in terms of the statistical, mathematical, and information-theoretic properties of the formalism. Specifically, in this chapter I discuss optimality, statistical and computational efficiency, sufficiency, the concentration theorem, the conditional limit theorem, and the concept of information compression. These properties, together with the other properties and measures developed in earlier chapters, provide logical, mathematical, and statistical justifications for employing the info-metrics framework.
Modeling and Theories
Authors: Golan Amos
Published: November 2017

In this chapter I concentrate on model and theory building, including model-based hypotheses, based on limited information. I show that the info-metrics framework provides a coherent perspective that helps to identify the elements that are needed for building a logically sound model. The examples given in this chapter show how the info-metrics framework can guide the construction of both theories and models. I start the chapter by introducing conceptual building blocks and providing very simple toy examples. Then a more detailed example, taken from the social sciences, is introduced. A detailed discussion of the falsification and validation of models is also provided.
Opera for the People
Authors: Preston Katherine
Published: November 2017

Opera for the People is an in-depth examination of a completely forgotten chapter in American social and cultural history: the love affair that middle-class Americans had with continental opera (translated into English) in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s. This work challenges a common stereotype that opera in nineteenth-century America was as it is in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: elite, exclusive, expensive, and of interest to a niche market. It also demonstrates conclusively that the historiography of nineteenth-century American music (which utterly ignores English-language opera performance and reception history) is completely wrong. Based on information from music and theatre periodicals published in the United States between 1860 and 1900; letters, diaries, playbills, memoirs, librettos, scores, and other performance materials; and reviews, commentary, and other evidence of performance history in digitized newspapers, this work shows that more than one hundred different companies toured all over America, performing opera in English for heterogeneous audiences during this period, and that many of the most successful troupes were led or supported by women—prima donna/impresarios, women managers, or philanthropists who lent financial support. The book conclusively demonstrates the continued wide popularity of opera among middle-class Americans during the last three decades of the century and furthermore illustrates the important (and hitherto unsuspected) place of opera in the rich cornucopia of late-century American musical theatre, which eventually led to the emergence of American musical comedy.
Phytophthora parasiticaEffector PpRxLR2 SuppressesNicotiana benthamianaImmunity
Authors: Dalio R. J. D. , Maximo H. J. , Oliveira T. S. , Dias R. O. , Breton M. C. , Felizatti H. , Machado M.
Published: November 2017

Phytophthora species secrete several classes of effector proteins during interaction with their hosts. These proteins can have multiple functions including modulation of host physiology and immunity. The RxLR effectors have the ability to enter plant cells using the plant machinery. Some of these effectors have been characterized as immunity suppressors; however, very little is known about their functions in the interaction between Phytophthora parasitica and its hosts. Using a bioinformatics pipeline, we have identified 172 candidate RxLR effectors (CREs) in the isolate IAC 01_95 of P. parasitica. Of these 172 CREs, 93 were found to be also present in eight other genomes of P. parasitica, isolated from different hosts and continents. After transcriptomics and gene expression analysis, we have found five CREs to be up-regulated in in-vitro and in-planta samples. Subsequently, we selected three CREs for functional characterization in the model plant Nicotiana benthamiana. We show that PpRxLR2 is able to completely suppress INF-1-induced cell death, whereas PpRxLR3 and PpRxLR5 moderately suppressed N. benthamiana immunity in a less-extensive manner. Moreover, we confirmed the effector-triggered susceptibility activity of these proteins after transient transformation and infection of N. benthamiana plants. All three CREs enhanced virulence of P. parasitica during the interaction with N. benthamiana. These effectors, in particular PpRxLR2, can be targeted for the development of biotechnology-based control strategies of P. parasitica diseases.
Baseline Sensitivity and Control Efficacy of Tetramycin Against Phytophthora capsici Isolates in China
Authors: Ma Dicheng , Zhu Jiamei , He Leiming , Cui Kaidi , Mu Wei , Liu Feng
Published: November 2017

Tetramycin is a new biopesticide that combines high-level and broad-spectrum fungicidal activity, low toxicity, and environmental safety. In this study, 90 Phytophthora capsici isolates obtained from various regions in southern China were characterized for their baseline sensitivity to tetramycin. The protective and curative activities of tetramycin against P. capsici were determined on leaves of pepper, and the control efficacy of tetramycin in greenhouse experiments was also determined. Compared with mycelial growth, the formation of sporangia and the discharge of zoospores were inhibited by lower concentrations of tetramycin, approximately 5 µg ml−1 on V8 media. The frequency distribution curves for the tetramycin sensitivity were unimodal, with mean values for the fungicide concentration that reduced mycelial growth, sporangia formation, and zoospore discharge by 50% compared with the control of 1.18 ± 0.91, 0.64 ± 0.42, and 0.63 ± 0.30 µg ml−1, respectively. In addition, no correlation was observed between tetramycin and other fungicides tested, including mandipropamid, azoxystrobin, mefenoxam, fluazinam, fluopicolide, and famoxadone. Tetramycin exhibited both protective and curative effects against P. capsici in vitro, and its protective activity was better than its curative activity. In greenhouse experiments, tetramycin concentration of 60 and 90 µg ml−1 provided a protective control efficacy of 47.1 to 56.4% and curative efficacy of 43.3 to 52.7%. These results demonstrated that tetramycin could serve as an excellent alternative fungicide to control Phytophthora blight of pepper.
Competency Crosswalk: A Multispecialty Review of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Milestones Across Four Competency Domains
Authors: Edgar Laura , Roberts Sydney , Yaghmour Nicholas A. , Leep Hunderfund Andrea , Hamstra Stanley J. , Conforti Lisa , Holmboe Eric S.
Published: November 2017

Purpose

To identify common and overlapping themes among the interpersonal and communication skills (ICS), practice-based learning and improvement (PBLI), professionalism (PROF), and systems-based practice (SBP) milestones of the transitional year and 26 specialties.

Method

In May 2017, milestones were accessed from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education specialties website. A thematic analysis of the ICS, PBLI, PROF, and SBP milestones was performed to determine unique and common themes across these competencies and across specialties. Keywords from the common program requirements were initially applied as codes to the milestones. Codes were then grouped into common themes.

Results

Twenty-two themes were identified: 15 (68%) were unique to a given competency (3 related to ICS, 4 related to PBLI, 5 related to PROF, and 3 related to SBP), and 7 (32%) appeared in the milestones of more than one core competency. Eleven themes (50%) were used by 20 or more specialties, and 6 themes (27%) by 10 or fewer specialties. No theme was present across all specialties.

Conclusions

The ICS, PBLI, PROF, and SBP milestones contain multiple themes with areas of overlap among these four competencies and substantial variability across specialties. This variability may create differential expectations of residents across specialties, complicate faculty development, and make sharing assessment tools difficult. The thematic analysis provides important insights into how individual specialties interpret and operationalize the ICS, PBLI, PROF, and SBP competency domains and can inform future revisions of milestones to enable harmonization and shared understanding of these competencies across specialties where appropriate.
Disparities in Chronic Conditions Among Women Hospitalized for Delivery in the United States, 2005–2014
Authors: Admon Lindsay K. , Winkelman Tyler N. A. , Moniz Michelle H. , Davis Matthew M. , Heisler Michele , Dalton Vanessa K.
Published: November 2017

OBJECTIVE:

To estimate trends in the prevalence and socioeconomic distribution of chronic conditions among women hospitalized for obstetric delivery in the United States.

METHODS:

A retrospective, serial cross-sectional analysis was conducted using 2005–2014 data from the National Inpatient Sample. We estimated the prevalence of eight common, chronic conditions, each associated with obstetric morbidity and mortality, among all childbearing women and then across socioeconomic predictors of obstetric outcomes. Differences over time were measured and compared across rural and urban residence, income, and payer subgroups for each condition.

RESULTS:

We identified 8,193,707 delivery hospitalizations, representing 39,273,417 delivery hospitalizations occurring nationally between 2005 and 2014. Identification of at least one chronic condition increased significantly between 2005–2006 and 2013–2014 (66.9 per 1,000 delivery hospitalizations in 2005–2006 compared with 91.8 per 1,000 delivery hospitalizations in 2013–2014). The prevalence of multiple chronic conditions also increased during the study period, from 4.7 (95% CI 4.2–5.2) to 8.1 (95% CI 7.8–8.4) per 1,000 delivery hospitalizations between 2005–2006 and 2013–2014. Chronic respiratory disease, chronic hypertension, substance use disorders, and pre-existing diabetes were the disorders with the greatest increases in prevalence over time. Increasing disparities over time were identified across all socioeconomic subgroups analyzed including rural compared with urban residence, income, and payer. Key areas of concern include the rate at which substance use disorders rose among rural women and the disproportionate burden of each condition among women from the lowest income communities and among women with Medicaid as their primary payer.

CONCLUSION:

Between 2005–2006 and 2013–2014, the prevalence of chronic conditions increased across all segments of the childbearing population. Widening disparities were identified over time with key areas of concern including disproportionate, progressive increases in the burden of chronic conditions among women from rural and low-income communities and those with deliveries funded by Medicaid.
Within-Family Analysis of Interpregnancy Interval and Adverse Birth Outcomes
Authors: Class Quetzal A. , Rickert Martin E. , Oberg Anna S. , Sujan Ayesha C. , Almqvist Catarina , Larsson Henrik , Lichtenstein Paul , D'Onofrio Brian M.
Published: November 2017

OBJECTIVE:

To examine associations among interpregnancy interval, the duration from the preceding birth to the conception of the next-born index child, and adverse birth outcomes using designs that adjust for measured and unmeasured factors.

METHODS:

In this prospective cohort study, we used population-based Swedish registries from 1973 to 2009 to estimate the associations between interpregnancy interval (referent 18–23 months) and adverse birth outcomes (ie, preterm birth [less than 37 weeks of gestation], low birth weight [LBW; less than 2,500 g], small for gestational age [SGA; greater than 2 SDs below average weight for gestational age]). Analyses included cousin and sibling comparisons and postbirth intervals (ie, the interval between secondborn and thirdborn offspring predicting secondborn outcomes) to address unmeasured familial confounding.

RESULTS:

Traditional cohort-wide analyses showed higher odds of preterm birth (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.51, 99% CI 1.39–1.63, 5.99% preterm births]) and LBW (adjusted OR 1.25, 99% CI 1.13–1.39, 3.32% LBW) after a short interpregnancy interval (0–5 months) compared with offspring born after an interpregnancy interval of 18–23 months (3.21% preterm births, 1.92% LBW). Except for preterm birth (adjusted OR 1.72, 99% CI 1.26–2.35), associations were attenuated in cousin comparisons. A small association between a short interpregnancy interval and preterm birth remained in sibling comparisons (adjusted OR 1.22, 99% CI 1.11–1.35), but associations with LBW (adjusted OR 0.83, 99% CI 0.74–0.94) and SGA (adjusted OR 0.74, 99% CI 0.64–0.85) reversed direction. For pregnancy intervals of 60 months or more, odds of preterm birth (adjusted OR 1.51, 99% CI 1.43–1.60, 5.07% preterm births), LBW (adjusted OR 1.61, 99% CI 1.50–1.73, 3.43% low-birth-weight births), and SGA (adjusted OR 1.54, 99% CI 1.42–1.66, 2.49% SGA births) were also higher when compared with the reference interval (1.53% SGA). Associations between long interpregnancy interval and adverse birth outcomes remained through cousin and sibling comparisons. Postbirth interval analyses showed familial confounding is present for short interpregnancy intervals, but supported independent associations for long interpregnancy intervals.

CONCLUSION:

Familial confounding explains most of the association between a short interpregnancy interval and adverse birth outcomes, whereas associations with long interpregnancy intervals were independent of measured and unmeasured factors.
Placental Complications Associated With Psychostimulant Use in Pregnancy
Authors: Cohen Jacqueline M. , Hernández-Díaz Sonia , Bateman Brian T. , Park Yoonyoung , Desai Rishi J. , Gray Kathryn J. , Patorno Elisabetta , Mogun Helen , Huybrechts Krista F.
Published: November 2017

OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate whether psychostimulants used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are associated with risk of adverse placental-associated pregnancy outcomes including preeclampsia, placental abruption, growth restriction, and preterm birth.

METHODS:

We designed a population-based cohort study in which we examined a cohort of pregnant women and their liveborn neonates enrolled in Medicaid from 2000 to 2010. Women who received amphetamine–dextroamphetamine or methylphenidate monotherapy in the first half of pregnancy were compared with unexposed women. We considered atomoxetine, a nonstimulant ADHD medication, as a negative control exposure. To assess whether the risk period extended to the latter half of pregnancy, women who continued stimulant monotherapy after 20 weeks of gestation were compared with those who discontinued. Risk ratios and 95% CIs were estimated with propensity score stratification to control for confounders.

RESULTS:

Pregnancies exposed to amphetamine–dextroamphetamine (n=3,331), methylphenidate (n=1,515), and atomoxetine (n=453) monotherapy in early pregnancy were compared with 1,461,493 unexposed pregnancies. Among unexposed women, the risks of the outcomes were 3.7% for preeclampsia, 1.4% for placental abruption, 2.9% for small for gestational age, and 11.2% for preterm birth. The adjusted risk ratio for stimulant use was 1.29 for preeclampsia (95% CI 1.11–1.49), 1.13 for placental abruption (0.88–1.44), 0.91 for small for gestational age (0.77–1.07), and 1.06 for preterm birth (0.97–1.16). Compared with discontinuation (n=3,527), the adjusted risk ratio for continuation of stimulant use in the latter half of pregnancy (n=1,319) was 1.26 for preeclampsia (0.94–1.67), 1.08 for placental abruption (0.67–1.74), 1.37 for small for gestational age (0.97–1.93), and 1.30 for preterm birth (1.10–1.55). Atomoxetine was not associated with the outcomes studied.

CONCLUSION:

Psychostimulant use during pregnancy was associated with a small increased relative risk of preeclampsia and preterm birth. The absolute increases in risks are small and, thus, women with significant ADHD should not be counseled to suspend their ADHD treatment based on these findings.