bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Fundamentals of Quantum Mechanics
Authors: Zubairy M. Suhail
Published: June 2020

The laws of quantum mechanics were formulated in the year 1925 through the work of Werner Heisenberg, followed by Max Born, Pascual Jordan, Paul Dirac, and Wolfgang Pauli. A separate but equivalent approach was independently developed by Erwin Schrödinger in early 1926. The laws governing quantum mechanics were highly mathematical and their aim was to explain many unresolved problems within the framework of a formal theory. The conceptual foundation emerged in the subsequent 2–3 years that indicated how radically different the new laws were from classical physics. In this chapter some of these salient features of quantum mechanics are discussed. The topics include the quantization of energy, wave–particle duality, the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics, Heisenberg uncertainty relations, Bohr’s principle of complementarity, and quantum superposition and entanglement. This discussion should indicate how different and counterintuitive its fundamentals are from those of classical physics.
De Broglie Waves: Are Electrons Waves or Particles?
Authors: Zubairy M. Suhail
Published: June 2020

In 1924, de Broglie postulated that particles can behave like waves, thus complementing the observation by Einstein in 1905 that light can behave like particles. This wave–particle duality aspect for both particles and waves had a deep impact on the subsequent development of quantum mechanics. Some highly counterintuitive results, like the Heisenberg uncertainty relation and the Bose–Einstein condensation, that were motivated by wave–particle duality are discussed in this chapter. Following de Broglie’s hypothesis, a wave packet description for a particle is described. An analysis of the Heisenberg microscope is presented, thus motivating the Heisenberg uncertainty relation. The Davisson–Germer experiment that showed that electrons can behave like waves and the Compton effect that provided early conclusive evidence that light can behave like particles are also discussed.
EPR and Bell Theorem
Authors: Zubairy M. Suhail
Published: June 2020

The first round of the Einstein–Bohr debates took place when Einstein challenged Bohr’s principle of complementarity at the Solvay conference in 1927 and Bohr successfully defended it. The most serious challenge, however, came in 1935 when a paper by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) argued that quantum mechanics was incomplete through a gedanken experiment motivating an approach based on hidden variables. In this chapter, EPR’s arguments about the incompleteness of quantum mechanics and Bohr’s reply to them are presented. The ultimate answer came almost 30 years later, almost ten years after Einstein’s death, and was nothing that Einstein would have expected. Bell’s inequality and the subsequent Bell-CHSH inequality, that are satisfied by all theories based on the “self-evident truths” of reality and locality are discussed. The startling results that quantum mechanics violates Bell’s inequality and the experimental results are in agreement with the prediction of quantum mechanics are presented.
Price Promotions in Space and Time
Authors: Loy Jens-Peter , Glauben Thomas , Mongrowius Amelie
Published: June 2020

German consumers indicate a strong affection for locally produced beer brands and demand varies significantly throughout the year. In particular, nationwide distributed brands need to respond to consumer loyalty towards local brands (spatial pricing) and the seasonality of demand (temporal pricing) through their pricing strategy. Some theoretical models derive hypotheses for optimal spatial and temporal pricing strategies under these circumstances. Contrary to neoclassical intuition, brands promote more aggressively in their home markets and in periods of peak demand. Employing a detailed data set of weekly promotional prices for German beer during the period from 2000 to 2012, we find evidence to support these hypotheses. The results indicate that brand loyalty has dynamic effects and consumer search is more intensive in periods of peak demand.
Conceptualizing political support in democracies and autocracies
Authors: Mauk Marlene
Published: June 2020

This chapter conceptualizes political support in democratic and autocratic contexts. It first sets the basis for a comparison between democratic and autocratic contexts by defining both democracy and autocracy and outlining the fundamental differences between the two types of regimes, both in terms of institutional structures and functional logics. Taking into account how the different institutional structures and functional logics of democracies and autocracies affect the structure of political support, it distinguishes between three levels of political support: political value orientations, regime support, and incumbent support. Discussing their consequences for the stability of democratic and autocratic regimes, the chapter identifies regime support as the most consequential attitude for regime stability.
Visual Art
Authors: Hutchinson G. O.
Published: June 2020

Visual art shows the ancient interest in motion palpably, and helps in perceiving both differences between depictions in art and literature and aspects they have in common. Mostly well-known works of art are chosen for detailed discussion. A Corinthian arbyallos shows leaping in a dance as an action admired in itself; a Boeotian skyphos gives a dynamic picture of Odysseus blown by the wind. The stele of Dexileos presents a moment of motion just before a decisive event, as does a wall-painting of Pentheus. Still further back before events come the discus-thrower (Discobolus) and a painting of Medea. A wall-painting of Hades and Persephone and Exekias’ vase-painting of Dionysus show gods in motion at the start and in the sequel of events. Artistic depictions exploit space, visual detail, and the regularity of motion; the viewer’s knowledge is important, as in literature. Lessing misguidedly thinks that literature is more suited to depicting motion; literature can do more with time, but less with physical detail and space. The contribution of the reader’s or listener’s imagination does not reduce the significance of described motion, any more than the contribution of the viewer reduces the significance of depicted thought. Part of literature’s interest in art is an interest in motion, as in ekphrasis or Pindar. Art and literature together show important variables (like speed), oppositions (as between individual and a group), structures (as of male and female). In literature, language is important to what motion arrests attention.
Reframing the Pedagogical Map
Authors: Furas Yoni
Published: June 2020

Chapter 1 examines the evolution of the Palestinian and Hebrew education systems from the late Ottoman period into the Mandate and brings forward key players and institutions in this process. The chapter highlights the differences and commonalities between the two systems. Under British rule, the Arab system was administered by the colonial Department of Education, headed by colonial officials, while the Hebrew system remained autonomous to determine its general goals and curriculum. The chapter underlines the importance of the British national home policy according to the Balfour Declaration and its influence on the education of Arabs in Palestine.
Peeking over the Fence
Authors: Furas Yoni
Published: June 2020

Chapter 3 investigates the engagement of both the Arab and Jewish communities with the education of the national Other, while stressing the importance that Arab and Jewish scholars, publicists, security apparatuses, and educators attributed to the way in which the other community was being educated and the reflective effect of this engagement. The first part of the chapter is dedicated to texts in Arabic and texts in Hebrew, written by educators, journalists, and intellectuals. The second part is dedicated to the work of the Shai, the Haganah’s intelligence service, and its engagement with Arab education. The chapter stresses the importance of the Shai’s reports as a characteristic of the Yishuv’s view of Arab education.
Teaching History
Authors: Furas Yoni
Published: June 2020

Chapter 6 examines the teaching of history through an administrative and pedagogical prism. It discusses the historical evolution of the Mandate’s curricula and history syllabi and traces their origins. The history syllabus is viewed as a complex colonial document that reflects the pedagogical negotiations, negations, and oversights in history instruction. The pedagogical characteristics of history teaching are surveyed in pedagogical articles and books published during the Mandate period. The chapter concludes with the problematic intersection between the educational aspirations reflected in the syllabus and the pedagogical discourse of the intellectual elite with the ‘normal’ or peripheral classroom, and the challenges facing rank-and-file teachers, while trying to comply with both.
Demosthenes’ Early Career
Authors: Westwood Guy
Published: June 2020

Chapter 2 begins the case studies by examining Demosthenes’ four speeches from the 350s BC: one for personal delivery (Against Leptines) and three for delivery by others (Against Androtion, Against Timocrates, and Against Aristocrates). The chapter argues that Demosthenes’ use of historical material in Against Leptines is part of a wide-ranging assault on what the orator constructs as an atrophied political consensus, whose members’ defective understanding of the Athenian past Demosthenes fashions as a cogent reason for the jurors to reject Leptines’ law. The project demonstrates that the young Demosthenes already had a sophisticated grasp of what the past could achieve when mobilized in a major public trial, and this is reflected in the other three speeches. Chapter 2.1 offers an introduction and an overview. Chapter 2.2 shows how Demosthenes deploys imagery of hypothetical takeover by tyrants or oligarchs (and the example of the Athenian tyrannicides) to expose the problems inherent in the opposition’s arguments and actions. Chapter 2.3 explores how Demosthenes’ arguments exploit the symbolic, rather than material significance of the aspects of the past under discussion. By the time of the Assembly speeches, this has become typical of his strategic conception of the world of the city’s past. Chapter 2.4 offers a conclusion.
The Crown Trial
Authors: Westwood Guy
Published: June 2020

Chapter 6 discusses the ‘Crown trial’ of 330 BC, the other major court clash between Aeschines (prosecutor) and Demosthenes (defending his associate Ctesiphon) for which we have extant speech texts from each side. The chapter shows that part of the success of On the Crown lies in Demosthenes’ ability to find ways to capitalize on the strategic error Aeschines had made in assuming that reviving the modes of accusation used in the Embassy trial could work in a context where the direction Demosthenes helped take Athens in nearly a decade earlier still apparently commanded broad popular approval, despite the fact that it had led to Macedonian hegemony. Demosthenes builds on this in On the Crown with an optimistic strategy—in which historical material plays a crucial role—which gives his audience much better versions of their past, present, and future to believe in than those assumed by Aeschines. After an introduction and overview in Chapter 6.1, which includes an assessment of the nature of our speech texts and some contextualization of Demosthenes’ strategies within those of his political group (especially Hyperides), Chapters 6.2, 6.3, and 6.4 show Demosthenes confronting Aeschines’ historically related set pieces with a series of set pieces of his own which cover the same thematic ground and act as persuasive usurpations of the originals, seeking to upstage them. Chapter 6.5 offers a succinct conclusion.
Space
Authors: Carman John , Carman Patricia
Published: June 2020

Chapter 1 argues the basis of the book: that the category ‘battle’ is one that has not been subject to any systematic attempt to understand it as a phenomenon, and it therefore examines the place of battle in Western modes of thought. The chapter also sets out the distinction (so frequently elided) between the battle as event and the place where it took place. It looks at the kinds of places sought as battlefields at different periods of the past and at the idea of ‘the battle’ as conventionally understood in order to challenge that conventional understanding.
The ‘Archives of Terror’
Authors: Bercault Olivier
Published: June 2020

This chapter discusses the unlikely discovery of the abandoned archives documenting crimes of Hissène Habré and his regime by members of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) team. These were the lost archives of Habré's former political police, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS). It was a trove of evidence that would prove critical in Habré's eventual prosecution. The victims of Hissène Habré's regime started a criminal case against their former dictator in 1999–2000 based on hundreds of detailed testimonies, data gathered by the victims' organization and the conclusions of the 1992 Chadian Truth Commission. The recovery of the DDS archives proved to be decisive for the case. These archives corroborated the statements made in court and shed new light on the scale, pattern, and systematic organization of Habré's political police and ‘machine of repression’. The archives also helped to establish Hissène Habré's personal criminal responsibility. The DDS was directly subordinated to Habré, who was in total control over its structure and agents.
Professionalizing a Political Trial
Authors: Ba Aboubacry
Published: June 2020

This chapter highlights the ways in which the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) clerking experience compared to that of other Senegalese courts. In any trial, the clerk is a critical link as the guarantor of the proceedings. The EAC, under Senegalese jurisdiction, had qualified clerks to accompany the Administration, the different courts, and the Prosecutor's Office in the preparation, investigation, and judgment of the Hissène Habré case. It should be noted that the Habré trial, which was a first for Senegal, was almost a leap in the dark for clerks as they had had no experience with or training on the international courts which usually dealt with the types of crimes being brought before the African Chambers. The clerks nonetheless executed their work quite satisfactorily at the various posts to which they were assigned. Ultimately, the Habré trial was a rich experience in all manner of ways. On a professional level, it allowed some of the clerks to complete or participate in procedures that they had previously known only in theory. The trial is of immense pedagogical interest as it was the first time that a former president was tried on African soil. The chapter then considers the professionalization of political trials in Africa.
The Habré Trial Judgment
Authors: Gall Élise Le
Published: June 2020

This chapter focuses on the judgment of the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) in the Hissène Habré trial. The EAC Trial Court ruling of 30 May 2016, found Hissène Habré guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the autonomous crime of torture. He was acquitted on several counts of war crimes, namely: unlawful transfer; deprivation of a prisoner of war or any other person of the right to a fair and impartial trial by a court; destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity; and pillage. For the crimes of which he was found guilty, the judges of the EAC upheld Hissène Habré's individual criminal liability, as well as his liability pursuant to joint criminal enterprise and command responsibility. As punishment, the judges of the Trial Chamber sentenced Hissène Habré to life imprisonment but did not impose the penalty of confiscation of the seized property. The Chamber also rendered a second decision on 29 July 2016, as to civil interests granting individual reparations to the victims. The chapter then highlights the key points of the Trial Chamber's judgments.
Reparations and the Habré Trial in Context
Authors: Sperfeldt Christoph
Published: June 2020

This chapter focuses on the particular problem of victim satisfaction, considering reparations. One of the interesting features of the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) is that its victim participation scheme allows individual victims of crime to submit claims for reparations. The promise that reparations can be delivered through international criminal justice has now been around for more than two decades, but the first practice has only emerged in the last few years. The adjudication of the first reparations claims before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) has been arduous and revealed disagreement within and outside these courts over the nature, extent, and purpose of reparations in an international criminal justice framework. Considerable uncertainty surrounds whether these reparations schemes can live up to expectations placed upon them. It is in this context that an examination and a comparative discussion of the EAC's approach to reparations might provide some fruitful insights.
‘Sexualized Slavery’ and Customary International Law
Authors: Sellers Patricia Viseur , Kestenbaum Jocelyn Getgen
Published: June 2020

This chapter examines the doctrinal avenues for the recognition and prosecution of ‘sexualized slavery’. The Hissène Habré trial and appellate judgments represent watershed legal decisions rendering long-denied justice to victims of the brutal Chadian regime. Delayed charges of credible sexual violence inflicted upon both males and females challenged the judges of the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) in Senegal. Legal characterizations of sexual assaults ultimately attributed to Habré represent significant jurisprudential advancements on rape, sexual slavery, and torture as international crimes. The EAC's observations acknowledge that sexual slavery constitutes part of the actus reus of enslavement as crime against humanity and of slavery as a war crime. While agreeing with the Chambers that sexual slavery is anchored in customary international law, the chapter deepens the inquiry into the international legal prohibition of sexual slavery. It posits that, in fact, the 1926 Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery (1926 Slavery Convention) proscribed what is identified as ‘sexual slavery’ because sexualized violence is and always has been part and parcel of both de jure (legal) and de facto (customary) forms of slavery.
Why History?
Authors: Bloxham Donald
Published: June 2020

What is the point of history? Why has the study of the past been so important for so long? Why History? A History contemplates two and a half thousand years of historianship to establish how very different thinkers in diverse contexts have conceived their activities, and to illustrate the purposes that their historical investigations have served. At the core of this work, whether it is addressing Herodotus, medieval religious exegesis, or twentieth-century cultural history, is the way that the present has been conceived to relate to the past. Alongside many changes in technique and philosophy, Donald Bloxham’s book reveals striking long-term continuities in justifications for the discipline. The volume has chapters on classical antiquity, early Christianity, the medieval world, the period spanning the Renaissance and the Reformation, the era of the Enlightenment, the nineteenth and early twentieth century, and developments down to the present. It concludes with a meditation on the point of history today.
The ‘Middle Age’
Authors: Bloxham Donald
Published: June 2020

The first two sections of the chapter illustrate continuity with late antique and classical historiography in the areas of History as Identity, History as Memorialization, and History as Lesson. Remaining sections show that within historically oriented medieval thought there were three tendencies for which the medieval world is not generally renowned: the conceptualization of human cultural difference over time, with its associations of an awareness of anachronism and accompanying debates over the relevance of the past to the present; a literal sense of the past, with its associations of specificity and accuracy; and the capacity for often quite sophisticated source criticism. As we traverse time and place, distinctions between Latin and vernacular Histories also become relevant, as do distinctions between, say, monastic Histories and urban Histories, or baronial and royal genealogies. Each of these sorts of History had the potential to imply a different scale and periodization of time—a different ‘temporality’—as did technical and economic developments. A section is devoted to religious hermeneutics and theological–philosophical shifts, some of which cohered with Christian History as Speculative Philosophy, some of which ran separately to it, and some of which stood in tension with it. In the eleventh–thirteenth centuries the clergy made a great contribution to developments in source evaluation, and increasingly their endeavours took account of the different contexts in which the sacred texts had been written and those in which they were read.
Building a Career
Authors: Dasgupta Ushashi
Published: June 2020

This chapter discusses Dickens’s journalism and fiction of the 1830s and 1840s, and identifies the features of his urban style. It places his writing on tenancy in the context of comic theatre: namely, an influential tradition of lodging-house farce. The chapter surveys a number of plays and identifies the conventions of lodging-house farce, and it explores how Dickens adapts these materials to paint a vivid picture of life in London lodgings. The two-dimensional characters of the farce universe offer Dickens a reference point for theorizing the ‘flattening’ of identity in the city’s rented spaces. Dickens is especially interested in the landlady as a comic trope, social reality, and important figure in women’s history. Both the landlady and her lodgers provide Dickens with a set of tools to contemplate the nature of nineteenth-century authorship and readership: the lodging house, he discovers, is a literary space, and his early writing is witty and metafictional.
‘Is This an Hotel? Are There Thieves in the House?’
Authors: Dasgupta Ushashi
Published: June 2020

This chapter suggests that tenancy plays a major role in nineteenth-century detective fiction, an emerging genre that counted Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Charles Warren Adams as enthusiastic early practitioners. The chapter starts by investigating the relationship between geography, class, and morality in contemporary social discourses, focusing on the ‘low’ or ‘common’ lodging house in London. Low lodging houses were widely associated with criminal behaviour, and Dickens and Collins were interested in the function they could perform in their fiction. The chapter moves on to examine the murders that take place in Bleak House, The Moonstone, and The Notting Hill Mystery, and argues that rented space becomes a tool in the battle between detective and criminal. The chapter ends with an extended reading of Krook’s lodging house and rag-and-bone shop in Bleak House. Here, a mystery narrative intersects with farce and the Gothic, attesting to the porosity between aesthetic forms.
Kant on Nonhuman Animals and God
Authors: Goy Ina
Published: June 2020

This chapter examines Kant’s account of the nature of nonhuman and human animals in the Critique of the Power of Judgement. It discusses how Kant thought that a complete account of the forms of explanation commit one to belief in God. It concludes, firstly, that Kant’s account implies an unhealthy anthropocentrism and an Enlightenment prejudice in the form of the overestimation of reason, and secondly, that the Kantian model of God lacks one of the main characteristics of the Christian conception of God: the universal divine love, a power that unifies and embraces all beings, including nonhuman and human animals and their orders.
Hope and Despair at the Kantian Chicken Factory
Authors: Chignell Andrew
Published: June 2020

People who like animal products but believe it is wrong to consume them are often so demoralized by the apparent inefficacy of their individual, private choices that they are unable to resist. Although he was a deontologist, Kant was also aware of this ‘consequent-dependent’ side of our moral psychology. One version of his ‘moral proof’ is designed to respond to the threat of such demoralization in pursuit of the Highest Good. It provides a model for a contemporary, secular argument regarding what is permitted in order to sustain resolve in contemporary industrial contexts (like that of industrial animal agriculture). The argument’s conclusion is that one of the things we can rationally hold, as an item of defeasible moral faith, is a certain decision-theoretic principle regarding what it is to ‘make a difference’.
Collaborating with Underserved Communities to Contribute to Decarbonization in the United States
Authors: Paddock LeRoy , Vithanage Achinthi
Published: June 2020

In the United States, vulnerable populations are often disproportionately impacted by exposure to pollutants from fossil-fuelled power plants and petroleum-fuelled vehicles. This chapter examines several legal developments that hold promise for addressing the distributive energy injustices in the United States that result from reliance on fossil fuels. It begins with examining how an energy non-governmental organization in Chicago has utilized a variety of legal tools to improve energy efficiency and its role in working with community partners to advocate for a new law, the Illinois Future Energy Jobs Act, that provides new funding for energy efficiency improvements in underserved communities and creates a new path for bringing renewable energy to underserved communities. The chapter also examines legal pathways in other jurisdictions to create community-based solar energy programmes. Finally, it explores recent developments in working with underserved communities to provide access to electric vehicles and electric vehicle infrastructure.
Energy Justice and the Design of Climate Change Legislation
Authors: Barton Barry , Campion Jennifer
Published: June 2020

The concept of energy justice can be applied to the specific problem of making climate change mitigation laws and policies that are fair and equitable. This chapter inquires into the design of climate change laws to minimize undue adverse effects on low-income households. It examines the literature about the risk of climate change policies being regressive in their distributional effect. It examines carbon pricing, consumer fuel subsidies, transport, electric vehicle incentives, and energy efficiency in housing. It finds that laws can be improved to achieve justice goals, but it is often difficult. The recycling of carbon price revenues for the benefit of low-income households is important, as is the reduction of distinctions between the policy spheres of climate change and social welfare. It is concluded that climate change laws can be made more just, and more effective, if distribution is a central part of their design.
Energy Poverty in the Middle East and North African (MENA) Region
Authors: Olawuyi Damilola S.
Published: June 2020

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region provides a classic illustration of how energy injustice cannot be separated from other social ills, such as conflicts, political instability, social exclusions, and extreme vulnerability to climate change. The MENA region is home to some of the world’s highest exporters of oil and natural gas. However, despite its vast oil and gas reserves, it is also home to a significant portion of the world’s energy-poorest people. About 65 million of 214.8 million living in the region have no access to electricity, while an additional 60 million suffer from prolonged power outages and undersupply. This chapter examines the divergent dimensions of energy poverty in the MENA region. It discusses law and governance innovations for promoting the availability, affordability, and accessibility of sustainable energy, especially electricity and modern fuels, across the region.
‘Christ’s College and the Latitude-Men’ Revisited: A Seminary of Heretics?
Authors: Lewis Marilyn A.
Published: June 2020

This chapter examines the notorious quarrel between Ralph Widdrington and Ralph Cudworth concerning the mastership of Christ's College. This prosopographical study of the fellowship at Christ's College between 1644 and 1669 yields two conclusions. First, Widdrington's opposition required that Cudworth be ever vigilant as master of the college, especially during the Restoration of the Monarchy. Perhaps without Widdrington's sour and vindictive temper and personal ambition there would have been less urgency in Henry More's and Cudworth's formation and consolidation of a congenial fellowship, but it was necessary to create an environment in which the Platonist philosophers and their pupils could work freely. More and Cudworth, as close friends and philosophical allies, formed the nucleus of a community with a particular intellectual character. This leads to the second and much more important conclusion: all of that effort was necessary because there was definitely something going on intellectually in the college which had to be defended. Widdrington and his high church allies took umbrage at what the ‘latitude-men’ were thinking, saying, and writing at the ‘seminary of Heretics’. The chapter then looks at the circle of Christian Platonists in Cambridge whose collective thinking would eventually become known as ‘Cambridge Platonism’.
The Hebrew Reclamation
Authors: Zuckermann Ghil'ad
Published: June 2020

This chapter introduces an original analysis of the Hebrew reclamation, resulting in ‘Israeli’, a term first used by Zuckermann (1999). A language is a col-lect-ion, an abstract ensemble of lects (idiolects, sociolects, dialects, and other lects) rather than an entity per se. It is more like a species than an organism. Still, the genetic classification of Israeli as a consistent entity has preoccupied linguists since the language emerged at the end of the nineteenth century. As a consequence, Israeli affords insights into the politics and evolution not only of language, but also of linguistics and revivalistics. The chapter proposes that the languages spoken in Israel today is a semi-engineered, Semito-European hybrid language. Its complexity should be acknowledged and celebrated, regardless of what one chooses to call it. The chapter also introduces two useful principles to the analysis of revival languages: The Founder Principle and the Congruence Principle. In revivalistics, the Founder Principle proposes that the impact of the mother tongues of the revivalists—in the critical period of the emergence of the revival language—is much greater than that of following generations. The Congruence Principle in revivalistics proposes that the more contributing languages a feature exists in, the more likely it is to persist in the emerging revival language.
Defying Religion and Deifying Nationhood
Authors: Zuckermann Ghil'ad
Published: June 2020

This chapter explores the widespread phenomenon of semantic secularization. An example of an ideologically-neutral semantic secularization is visible in the transition of the meaning for the English word cell from ‘monk’s living place’ to become instead ‘autonomous self-replicating unit from which tissues of the body are formed’. The main focus of this chapter, however, is on secularizations involving ideological what I call ‘lexical engineering’, as exemplified by deliberate, subversive processes of extreme semantic shifting, pejoration, amelioration, trivialization, and allusion. An example of such transvaluation, the transition of semantic value, is [bəloˈri:t]. In Mishnaic Hebrew this term means ‘Mohawk, an upright strip of hair that runs across the crown of the head from the forehead to the nape of the neck’, a distinctive of the abominable pagan and not to be touched by the Jewish barber. But, defying religious values as well as negating the Diaspora (where Jews by and large had tidy hair), secular Socialist Zionists use blorít with the meaning ‘forelock, hair above the forehead’, which becomes one of the defining characteristics of the ‘Sabra’ (‘prickly pear’ a metaphor for a native Israeli)—as if proposing that the ‘new Jew’ is a pagan. In line with the prediction made by Gershom Scholem in his famous letter to Franz Rosenzweig (Bekenntnis über unsere Sprache, 1926), some ultra-orthodox Jews have tried to launch a ‘lexical vendetta’: using secularized terms as dormant agents, as a shortcut to religious concepts, thus trying to convince secular Jews to go back to their religious roots.
Feature selection for classification of blazars based on optical photometric and polarimetric time-series data
Authors: Uemura Makoto , Abe Taisei , Yamada Yurika , Ikeda Shiro
Published: June 2020

Blazars can be divided into two subtypes, flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and BL Lac objects, which have been distinguished phenomenologically by the strength of their optical emission lines, while their physical nature and relationship are still not fully understood. We focus on the differences in their variability. We characterize the blazar variability using the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck (OU) process, and investigate the features that are discriminative for the two subtypes. We used optical photometric and polarimetric data obtained with the 1.5 m Kanata telescope for 2008–2014. We found that four features, namely the variation amplitude, characteristic timescale, and non-stationarity of the variability obtained from the light curves and the median of the degree of polarization (PD), are essential for distinguishing between FSRQs and BL Lac objects. FSRQs are characterized by rare and large flares, while the variability of BL Lac objects can be reproduced with a stationary OU process with relatively small amplitudes. The characteristics of the variability are governed not by the differences in the jet structure between the subtypes, but by the peak frequency of the synchrotron emission. This implies that the nature of the variation in the jets is common in FSRQs and BL Lac objects. We found that BL Lac objects tend to have high PD medians, which suggests that they have a stable polarization component. FSRQs have no such component, possibly because of a strong Compton cooling effect in sub-parsec-scale jets.
Response speed measurements on the psychomotor vigilance test: how precise is precise enough?
Authors: Basner Mathias , Moore Tyler M , Nasrini Jad , Gur Ruben C , Dinges David F
Published: June 2020

Study Objectives

The psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) is frequently used to measure behavioral alertness in sleep research on various software and hardware platforms. In contrast to many other cognitive tests, PVT response time (RT) shifts of a few milliseconds can be meaningful. It is, therefore, important to use calibrated systems, but calibration standards are currently missing. This study investigated the influence of system latency bias and its variability on two frequently used PVT performance metrics, attentional lapses (RTs ≥500 ms) and response speed, in sleep-deprived and alert participants.

Methods

PVT data from one acute total (N = 31 participants) and one chronic partial (N = 43 participants) sleep deprivation protocol were the basis for simulations in which response bias (±15 ms) and its variability (0–50 ms) were systematically varied and transgressions of predefined thresholds (i.e. ±1 for lapses, ±0.1/s for response speed) recorded.

Results

Both increasing bias and its variability caused deviations from true scores that were higher for the number of lapses in sleep-deprived participants and for response speed in alert participants. Threshold transgressions were typically rare (i.e. <5%) if system latency bias was less than ±5 ms and its standard deviation was ≤10 ms.

Conclusions

A bias of ±5 ms with a standard deviation of ≤10 ms could be considered maximally allowable margins for calibrating PVT systems for timing accuracy. Future studies should report the average system latency and its standard deviation in addition to adhering to published standards for administering and analyzing the PVT.
Limited Role for Antibiotics in COVID-19: Scarce Evidence of Bacterial Coinfection
Authors: Wei Wenjing , Ortwine Jessica K. , Mang Norman S. , Joseph Christopher , Hall Brenton C. , Prokesch Bonnie C.
Published: June 2020

Background

There is currently a paucity of data describing bacterial coinfections, related antibiotic prescribing patterns, and the potential role of antimicrobial stewardship in the care of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Methods

This prospective, observational study was conducted from March 10, 2020 to April 21, 2020 in admitted patients with confirmed COVID-19. Patients were included if ≥ 18 years old and admitted to the hospital for further treatment. Data was collected via chart review from the enterprise electronic health record database. Data collected include factors driving antibiotic choice, indication, and duration of therapy as well as microbiological data.

Findings

Antibiotics were initiated on admission in 87/147 (59%) patients. Of these, 85/87 (98%) prescriptions were empiric. The most common indication for empiric antibiotics was concern for community-acquired pneumonia (76/85, 89%) with the most prescribed antibiotics being ceftriaxone and azithromycin. The median duration of antibiotic therapy was two days (interquartile range 1-5). No patients had a community-acquired bacterial respiratory coinfection, but 10/147 (7%) of patients were found to have concurrent bacterial infections from a non-respiratory source, and one patient was diagnosed with active pulmonary tuberculosis at the time of admission for COVID-19.

Interpretation

Bacterial coinfection in patients with COVID-19 was infrequent. Antibiotics are likely unnecessary in patients with mild symptoms. There is little role for broad-spectrum antibiotics to empirically treat multidrug resistant organisms in patients with COVID-19, regardless of disease severity. Antimicrobial stewardship remains important in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Funding

The authors received no funding for this work.
Mathematical Modeling of Coronavirus Reproduction Rate with Policy and Behavioral Effects
Authors: Anzum Rabeya , Islam Md. Zahidul
Published: June 2020

In this paper a modified mathematical model based on the SIR model used which can predict the spreading of the corona virus disease (COVID-19) and its effects on people in the days ahead. This model considers all the death, infected and recovered characteristics of this disease. To determine the extent of the risk posed by this novel coronavirus; the transmission rate (R0) is utilized for a time period from the beginning of spreading virus. Particularly it includes a novel policy to capture the Ro response in the virus spreading over time. The model estimates the vulnerability of the pandemic according to John H. Cochrane’s method with a prediction of new cases by estimating a time-varying R0 to capture changes in the behavior of SIR model implies to new policy taken at different times and different locations of the world. This modified SIR model with the different values of R0 can be applied to different country scenario using the real time data report provided by the authorities during this pandemic. The effective evaluation of R0 can forecast the necessity of lockdown as well as reopening the economy.
Genomic balancing selection is key to the invasive success of the fall armyworm
Authors: Yainna Sudeeptha , Tay Wee Tek , Fiteni Estelle , Legeai Fabrice , Clamens Anne-Laure , Gimenez Sylvie , Frayssinet Marie , Asokan R , Kalleshwaraswamy CM , Deshmukh Sharanabasappa , Meagher Robert L. , Blanco Carlos A. , Silvie Pierre , Brévault Thierry , Dassou Anicet , Kergoat Gael J. , Walsh Thomas , Gordon Karl , Nègre Nicolas , d’Alençon Emmanuelle , Nam Kiwoong
Published: June 2020

A successful biological invasion involves survival in a newly occupied environment. If a population bottleneck occurs during an invasion, the resulting depletion of genetic variants could cause increased inbreeding depression and decreased adaptive potential, which may result in a fitness reduction. How invasive populations survive in the newly occupied environment despite reduced heterozygosity and how, in many cases, they maintain moderate levels of heterozygosity are still contentious issues1. The Fall armyworm (FAW; Lepidoptera: Spodoptera frugiperda), a polyphagous pest, is native to the Western hemisphere. Its invasion in the Old World was first reported from West Africa in early 2016, and in less than four years, it swept sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, finally reaching Australia. We used population genomics approaches to investigate the factors that may explain the invasive success of the FAW. Here we show that genomic balancing selection played a key role in invasive success by restoring heterozygosity before the global invasion. We observe a drastic loss of mitochondrial polymorphism in invasive populations, whereas nuclear heterozygosity exhibits a mild reduction. The population from Benin in West Africa has the lowest length of linkage disequilibrium amongst all invasive and native populations despite its reduced population size. This result indicates that balancing selection increased heterozygosity by facilitating the admixture of invasive populations from distinct origins and that, once heterozygosity was sufficiently high, FAW started spreading globally in the Old World. As comparable heterozygosity levels between invasive and native populations are commonly observed1, we postulate that the restoration of heterozygosity through balancing selection could be widespread among successful cases of biological invasions.
Genome-wide CRISPR knockout screen reveals membrane tethering complexes EARP and GARP important for Bovine Herpes Virus Type 1 replication
Authors: Tan Wenfang S. , Rong Enguang , Dry Inga , Lillico Simon G. , Law Andy , Whitelaw Christopher B.A. , Dalziel Robert G.
Published: June 2020

We produced a genome wide CRISPR knockout library, btCRISPRko.v1, targeting all protein coding genes in the cattle genome and used it to identify host genes important for Bovine Herpes Virus Type 1 (BHV-1) replication. By infecting library transduced MDBK cells with a GFP tagged BHV-1 virus and FACS sorting them based on their GFP intensity, we identified a list of pro-viral and anti-viral candidate host genes that might affect various aspects of the virus biology, such as cell entry, RNA transcription and viral protein trafficking. Among them were VPS51, VPS52 and VPS53 that encode for subunits of two membrane tethering complexes EARP and GARP. Simultaneous loss of both complexes in MDBKs resulted in a significant reduction in the production of infectious cell free BHV-1 virions, suggesting the vital roles they play during capsid re-envelopment with endocytosed membrane tubules prior to endosomal recycling mediated cellular egress. We also observed potential capsid retention and aggregation in the nuclei of these cells, indicating that they might also indirectly affect capsid egress from the nucleus. The btCRISPRko.v1 library generated here greatly expanded our capability in BHV-1 related host gene discovery; we hope it will facilitate efforts intended to study interactions between the host and other pathogens in cattle and also basic host cell biology.
Green growth dynamics in OECD countries: an application of grey relational analysis
Authors: Koçak Deniz
Published: June 2020

Purpose

Nowadays, growth is the common target of all societies. But rather than growth, it is more important to ensure the sustainability of growth. Worldwide climate changes, damages to natural capital and financial crises necessitate the transition to green growth. The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution of socio-economic context to green growth, which represents the sum of environmental and resource productivity, natural asset base, the environmental dimension of quality of life and technology.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses grey relational analysis together with the entropy method to examine the weight of 22 green growth indicators. The green growth indicators based on the compilation of the data from 36 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in 2015.

Findings

The results point out carbon dioxide emissions and environment-related technology are the most essential indicators in achieving green growth across the world.

Originality/value

It provides an objective evaluation of the green growth indicators that creates awareness-raising in green growth, enables the measurement of global developments and the determines opportunities and risks.
Task motion planning for anthropomorphic arms based on human arm movement primitives
Authors: Gong Shiqiu , Zhao Jing , Zhang Ziqiang , Xie Biyun
Published: June 2020

Purpose

This paper aims to introduce the human arm movement primitive (HAMP) to express and plan the motions of anthropomorphic arms. The task planning method is established for the minimum task cost and a novel human-like motion planning method based on the HAMPs is proposed to help humans better understand and plan the motions of anthropomorphic arms.

Design/methodology/approach

The HAMPs are extracted based on the structure and motion expression of the human arm. A method to slice the complex tasks into simple subtasks and sort subtasks is proposed. Then, a novel human-like motion planning method is built through the selection, sequencing and quantification of HAMPs. Finally, the HAMPs are mapped to the traditional joint angles of a robot by an analytical inverse kinematics method to control the anthropomorphic arms.

Findings

For the exploration of the motion laws of the human arm, the human arm motion capture experiments on 12 subjects are performed. The results show that the motion laws of human arm are reflected in the selection, sequencing and quantification of HAMPs. These motion laws can facilitate the human-like motion planning of anthropomorphic arms.

Originality/value

This study presents the HAMPs and a method for selecting, sequencing and quantifying them in human-like style, which leads to a new motion planning method for the anthropomorphic arms. A similar methodology is suitable for robots with anthropomorphic arms such as service robots, upper extremity exoskeleton robots and humanoid robots.