bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Same Same but Different? Ideological Differentiation and Intra-jihadist Competition in the Syrian Civil War
Authors: Schwab Regine
Published: January 2023

How do rebel groups survive and thrive in multiparty civil wars where numerous groups not only fight against a common enemy but also compete with each other for support, recruits, and resources? Literature on the internal dynamics of civil wars has mostly focused on violence as the negative side of inter-rebel competition. The aim of this paper is threefold: First, it aims at explaining when armed groups attempt to use ideological differentiation instead of violence against rivals. Second, it analyzes when this strategy will succeed, and third, it demonstrates what successful differentiation means. The argument is probed by analyzing the puzzling case of Ahrar al-Sham in the Syrian war that emerged as both winner and loser of intra-jihadist competition with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra/Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Next to offering a new and original analysis of one of the most important Syrian insurgent groups based on interviews and primary documents, the article studies an under-researched rebel strategy whose use is relevant not only for armed groups themselves but also for local civilians, prospective recruits, and external supporters.
Parental Mental Health and Parenting Behaviors Following Very Preterm Birth: Associations in Mothers and Fathers and Implications for Child Cognitive Outcome
Authors: McMahon Grace E , Treyvaud Karli , Spittle Alicia J , Giallo Rebecca , Lee Katherine J , Cheong Jeanie L , Doyle Lex W , Spencer-Smith Megan M , Anderson Peter J
Published: January 2023

Objectives

To investigate the longitudinal associations between parental mental health symptoms within 4 weeks of birth, parenting behaviors at 1 year, and child general cognitive ability at 4.5–5 years in a sample of children born very preterm (VP). This study also examined whether these associations differed based on level of family social risk.

Methods

Participants were 143 children born <30 weeks’ gestation and their parents. Within 4 weeks of birth, mothers’ and fathers’ depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale-Anxiety Subscale. Parents’ sensitive and structuring parenting behaviors were assessed at 1 year using the Emotional Availability Scales. Child general cognitive ability was assessed at 4.5–5 years using the Wechsler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence–Fourth Edition.

Results

Higher maternal depressive symptoms were associated with lower levels of sensitive and structuring parenting behavior, while higher maternal anxiety symptoms were associated with higher levels of structuring parenting behavior. There was weak evidence for positive associations between mothers’ sensitive parenting behavior and fathers’ structuring parenting behavior and child general cognitive ability. There was also weak evidence for stronger associations between mothers’ mental health symptoms, parenting behaviors, and child general cognitive ability, in families of higher compared with lower social risk.

Conclusions

Depressive and anxiety symptoms experienced by mothers in the initial weeks following VP birth can have long-term effects on their parenting behaviors. Enquiring about parents’ mental health during their child’s hospitalization in the neonatal intensive care unit is crucial.
One-anastomosis gastric bypass reversal due to severe malnutrition and acute hepatic failure: a case report
Authors: Verboonen Sotelo José Sergio , Romero Manzano Jeffry , Vega Tostado Guillermo , Guzmán Barba José Aldo , Esparza Estrada Isaac , Orozco Álvarez Malo José Oscar , González Ojeda Alejandro
Published: January 2023

The one-anastomosis gastric bypass (OAGB) is one of the most popular performed bariatric surgeries and has good long-term success for treating obesity and metabolic diseases. However, some patients can develop severe complications such as malnutrition and hepatic steatosis, which can be corrected with a reversal procedure, as seen in this case. A 20-year-old woman underwent OAGB surgery, which was converted to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass 4 months after the initial procedure due to malnutrition, both surgeries were performed at a hospital in southern Mexico. After the second surgery, she presented to our hospital with intolerance to oral feeding, vomiting and loss of 44 kg in 4 months. The patient was stabilized and scheduled for reversion surgery to normal anatomy 5 months later. She had good short-term nutritional outcomes and at the 1-year follow-up her total weight gain was 14 kg.
Metabolism along the life journey of T cells
Authors: Peng Min , Li Ming O
Published: January 2023

T cells are one of few cell types in adult mammals that can proliferate extensively and differentiate diversely upon stimulation, which serves as an excellent example to dissect the metabolic basis of cell fate decisions. During the last decade, there has been an explosion of research into the metabolic control of T-cell responses. The roles of common metabolic pathways, including glycolysis, lipid metabolism, and mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, in T-cell responses have been well characterized, and their mechanisms of action are starting to emerge. In this review, we present several considerations for T-cell metabolism-focused research, while providing an overview of the metabolic control of T-cell fate decisions during their life journey. We try to synthesize principles that explain the causal relationship between cellular metabolism and T-cell fate decision. We also discuss key unresolved questions and challenges in targeting T-cell metabolism to treat disease.
Constraining the physics of star formation from CIB-cosmic shear cross-correlations
Authors: Jego Baptiste , Alonso David , García-García Carlos , Ruiz-Zapatero Jaime
Published: January 2023

Understanding the physics of star formation is one of the key problems facing modern astrophysics. The cosmic infrared background (CIB), sourced by the emission from all dusty star-forming galaxies since the epoch of reionization, is a complementary probe to study the star formation history, as well as an important extragalactic foreground for studies of the cosmic microwave background. In this paper, we make high signal-to-noise measurements of the cross-correlation between maps of the CIB from the Planck experiment, and cosmic shear measurements from the Dark Energy Survey and Kilo-Degree Survey. Cosmic shear is a direct tracer of the matter distribution and thus we can use its cross-correlation with the CIB to directly test our understanding of the link between the star formation rate (SFR) density and the matter density. We use our measurements to place constraints on a halo-based model of the SFR that parametrizes the efficiency with which gas is transformed into stars as a function of halo mass and redshift. These constraints are enhanced by using model-independent measurements of the bias-weighted SFR density extracted from the tomographic cross-correlation of galaxies and the CIB. We are able to place constraints on the peak efficiency at low redshifts, $\eta =0.445^{+0.055}_{-0.11}$, and on the halo mass at which this peak efficiency is achieved today log10(M1/M⊙) = 12.17 ± 0.25. Our constraints are in excellent agreement with direct measurements of the SFR density, as well as other CIB-based studies.
Tracing of magnetic fields with gradients: subsonic turbulence
Authors: Ho K W , Lazarian A
Published: January 2023

The recent development of the velocity gradient technique shows the capability of the technique for tracing magnetic field morphology in diffuse interstellar gas and molecular clouds. In this paper, we perform a systematic numerical study of the performance of the velocity and synchrotron gradient for a wide range of magnetization in the subsonic environment. Addressing the studies of magnetic fields in atomic hydrogen, we also study the formation of velocity caustics in spectroscopic channel maps in the presence of thermal broadening. We show that the velocity caustics can be recovered when applied to the cold neutral medium and the gradient technique (GT) can reliably trace magnetic fields there. Finally, we discuss the changes in the anisotropy of observed structure functions when we apply to the analysis the procedures developed within the framework of GT studies.
From dark matter halos to pre-stellar cores: high resolution follow-up of cosmological Lyman–Werner simulations
Authors: Prole Lewis R , Schauer Anna T P , Clark Paul C , Glover Simon C O , Priestley Felix D , Klessen Ralf S
Published: January 2023

Molecular hydrogen allows cooling in primordial gas, facilitating its collapse into Population III stars within primordial halos. Lyman–Werner (LW) radiation from these stars can escape the halo and delay further star formation by destroying H2 in other halos. As cosmological simulations show that increasing the background LW field strength increases the average halo mass required for star formation, we perform follow-up simulations of selected halos to investigate the knock-on effects this has on the Population III IMF. We follow 5 halos for each of the J21  = 0, 0.01, and 0.1 LW field strengths, resolving the pre-stellar core density of 10−6 g cm−3 (1018 cm−3) before inserting sink particles and following the fragmentation behaviour for hundreds of years further. We find that the mass accreted onto sinks by the end of the simulations is proportional to the mass within the ∼10−2 pc molecular core, which is not correlated to the initial mass of the halo. As such, the IMFs for masses above the brown dwarf limit show little dependence on the LW strength, although they do show variance in the number of low-mass clumps formed. As the range of background LW field strengths tested here covers the most likely values from literature, we conclude that the IMF for so-called Pop III.2 stars is not significantly different from the initial population of Pop III.1 stars. The primordial IMF therefore likely remains unchanged until the formation of the next generation of Population II stars.
The imprint of bursty star formation on alpha-element abundance patterns in Milky Way-like galaxies
Authors: Parul Hanna , Bailin Jeremy , Wetzel Andrew , Gurvich Alexander B , Faucher-Giguère Claude-André , Hafen Zachary , Stern Jonathan , Snaith Owain
Published: January 2023

Milky Way-mass galaxies in the FIRE-2 simulations demonstrate two main modes of star formation. At high redshifts star formation occurs in a series of short and intense bursts, while at low redshifts star formation proceeds at a steady rate with a transition from one mode to another at times ranging from 3 to 7 Gyr ago for different galaxies. We analyse how the mode of star formation affects iron and alpha-element abundance. We find that the early bursty regime imprints a measurable pattern in stellar elemental abundances in the form of a ‘sideways chevron’ shape on the [Fe/H] – [O/Fe] plane and the scatter in [O/Fe] at a given stellar age is higher than when a galaxy is in the steady regime. That suggests that the evolution of [O/Fe] scatter with age provides an estimate of the end of the bursty phase. We investigate the feasibility of observing of this effect by adding mock observational errors to a simulated stellar survey and find that the transition between the bursty and steady phase should be detectable in the Milky Way, although larger observational uncertainties make the transition shallower. We apply our method to observations of the Milky Way from the Second APOKASC Catalogue and estimate that the transition to steady star formation in the Milky Way happened 7 – 8 Gyrs ago, earlier than transition times measured in the simulations.
Oxygen abundances in the narrow line regions of Seyfert galaxies and the metallicity–luminosity relation
Authors: Armah Mark , Riffel Rogério , Dors O L , Oh Kyuseok , Koss Michael J , Ricci Claudio , Trakhtenbrot Benny , Valerdi Mabel , Riffel Rogemar A , Krabbe Angela C
Published: January 2023

We present oxygen abundances relative to hydrogen (O/H) in the narrow line regions (NLRs) gas phases of Seyferts 1 (Sy 1s) and Seyferts 2 (Sy 2s) active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We used fluxes of the optical narrow emission line intensities [$3\, 500\lt \lambda ($Å$)\lt 7\, 000$] of 561 Seyfert nuclei in the local Universe ( z ≲ 0.31) from the second catalogue and data release (DR2) of the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey, which focuses on the Swift-BAT hard X-ray (≳ 10 keV) detected AGNs. We derived O/H from relative intensities of the emission lines via the strong-line methods. We find that the AGN O/H abundances are related to their hosts stellar masses and that they follow a downward redshift evolution. The derived O/H together with the hard X-ray luminosity (LX) were used to study the X-ray luminosity–metallicity (LX–ZNLR) relation for the first time in Seyfert galaxies. In contrast to the broad-line focused (LX–ZBLR) studies, we find that the LX–ZNLR exhibit significant anticorrelations with the Eddington ratio (λEdd) and these correlations vary with redshifts. This result indicates that the low-luminous AGNs are more actively undergoing interstellar medium enrichment through star formation in comparison with the more luminous X-ray sources. Our results suggest that the AGN is somehow driving the galaxy chemical enrichment, as a result of the inflow of pristine gas that is diluting the metal rich gas, together with a recent cessation on the circumnuclear star-formation.
Estimating the feasibility of ‘standard speed-gun’ distances
Authors: Hodgson Jeffrey A , L’Huillier Benjamin , Liodakis Ioannis , Lee Sang-Sung , Shafieloo Arman
Published: January 2023

In a previous paper, we demonstrated a single-rung method for measuring cosmological distances in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that can be used from low redshift (z < 0.1) to high redshift (z > 3). This method relies on the assumption that the variability seen in AGNs is constrained by the speed of light during a flare event and can therefore be used to estimate the size of an emitting region. A limitation of this method is that previously, the Doppler factor was required to be known. In this paper, we derive an extension of the ‘standard speed-gun’ method for measuring cosmological distances that depends on the maximum intrinsic brightness temperature that a source can reach, rather than the Doppler factor. If the precise value of the intrinsic brightness temperature does not evolve with redshift, and flares are statistically independent, we can in principle improve the errors on measurements of the matter content of the Universe (in a flat Lambda cold dark matter model) statistically. We then explored how well a future observing programme would constrain cosmological parameters. We found that recovering the input cosmology depends critically on the uncertainty of the intrinsic brightness temperature and the number of flares observed.
The FANCC–FANCE–FANCF complex is evolutionarily conserved and regulates meiotic recombination
Authors: Singh Dipesh Kumar , Gamboa Rigel Salinas , Singh Avinash Kumar , Walkemeier Birgit , Van Leene Jelle , De Jaeger Geert , Siddiqi Imran , Guerois Raphael , Crismani Wayne , Mercier Raphael
Published: January 2023

At meiosis, programmed meiotic DNA double-strand breaks are repaired via homologous recombination, resulting in crossovers (COs). From a large excess of DNA double-strand breaks that are formed, only a small proportion gets converted into COs because of active mechanisms that restrict CO formation. The Fanconi anemia (FA) complex proteins AtFANCM, MHF1 and MHF2 were previously identified in a genetic screen as anti-CO factors that function during meiosis in Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, pursuing the same screen, we identify FANCC as a new anti-CO gene. FANCC was previously only identified in mammals because of low primary sequence conservation. We show that FANCC, and its physical interaction with FANCE–FANCF, is conserved from vertebrates to plants. Further, we show that FANCC, together with its subcomplex partners FANCE and FANCF, regulates meiotic recombination. Mutations of any of these three genes partially rescues CO-defective mutants, which is particularly marked in female meiosis. Functional loss of FANCC, FANCE, or FANCF results in synthetic meiotic catastrophe with the pro-CO factor MUS81. This work reveals that FANCC is conserved outside mammals and has an anti-CO role during meiosis together with FANCE and FANCF.
Estimating the Size of Illicit Tobacco Market in Lithuania: Results from the Discarded Pack Collection Method
Authors: Liutkutė-Gumarov Vaida , Galkus Lukas , Miščikienė Laura , Petkevičienė Janina , Štelemėkas Mindaugas , Telksnys Tadas , Vaitkevičiūtė Justina , Ross Hana
Published: January 2023

Introduction

For decades in Lithuania, the threat of illicit trade has been used to weaken evidence-based tobacco-control policies and to undermine efforts to reduce smoking prevalence and its attributable burden, while also depriving the government of much-needed tax revenue. The aim of this study is to estimate the size of the illicit cigarette market in Lithuania using data from a nationally representative discarded pack collection.

Aims and Methods

The study employed a two-stage cluster design by first randomly selecting 65 well-defined population settlements (30 cities and 35 townships), representing both urban and rural areas, in all 10 counties in Lithuania. Next, we randomly selected 358 polling districts within these settlements. Each polling district had one route along which discarded packs were collected between September 2019 and 2020.

Results

In total, 28.9% (95% CIs = 27.7 to 30.1) of discarded cigarette packs were classified as illicit. The vast majority (90.1%) of illicit packs originated from Belarus with most (86.9%) packs produced in the Grodno Tobacco Factory Neman. Tax stamps were present on 93.6% of legal packs and also on 76% of illegal packs.

Conclusions

Data from this study suggest that the illicit cigarette trade in Lithuania is more widespread than indicated by other methods and primarily supplied by the neighboring Belarus state-owned tobacco factory in Grodno. This signals the need to adopt Belarus-specific border control and security measures.

Implications

This study presents data from the first national industry-independent study on illicit tobacco trade in Lithuania using discarded cigarette pack collection method. As customs seizure data show, our results also indicate that the illicit cigarette market is primarily supplied by Belarus state-owned Grodno Tobacco Factory Neman known for filling Europe with cheap cigarettes. An estimate derived from this study is higher than both the industry-independent estimate obtained by the survey method and the estimates offered by the tobacco industry. This adds to the evidence that the difference in estimates obtained by different methods reflects the strengths and weaknesses of each. The study also demonstrates the impact of a rogue neighbor on the illicit market in an adjacent country and offers suggestions on how to address it.
American Drug Use Quietly Escalates, 1842–1867
Authors: Gray Elizabeth Kelly
Published: January 2023

Americans’ use of opiates escalated between 1842 and 1867, and while public attention to the topic was sporadic, commentators typically sympathized with white, middle-class users while doubting that people who were black or poor needed drugs. The temperance movement caused some drinkers to switch to opiates. Some ill and injured Civil War soldiers who took opiates became habituated. Primarily, however, increased use resulted from doctors prescribing them to middle-class women. Some elite women used chloroform. Ill health became almost fashionable. And while many people believed that a person could end drug use by summoning willpower, those who knew habitués personally tended to sympathize with them. Views formed along lines of race and class. News stories implied that poor drug users schemed to acquire opiates, although many impoverished users were honest. And slave owners doubted enslaved people’s assertions that they were ill, thus rejecting the notion that they could need opiates.
The Global Context, 1774–1862
Authors: Gray Elizabeth Kelly
Published: January 2023

Pleasure-seeking and habitual drug use was largely hidden in the United States until the 1860s, and many early Americans, including doctors, learned about it primarily from European travelers’ descriptions of such use in parts of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Some wrote of people using opium and cannabis to forget their troubles, enjoy the effects, or allay hunger, and others likened the use to that of tobacco or alcohol. Still others described drug dependency, tolerance, and withdrawal. The information enhanced medical knowledge, and American newspapers carried it because it intrigued readers. Some information was inaccurate, such as suggestions that opium habitués could be identified on sight and that all addicted users died young. Although some noted that drug use could enhance endurance, many associated widespread nonmedical drug use by these non-Western populations with an apparent lack of productivity and concluded that extensive nonmedical drug use prevented the societies’ progress.
The Drug Trade and Habitual Use in China, 1804–1881
Authors: Gray Elizabeth Kelly
Published: January 2023

China tried to end widespread opium smuggling in 1839, Great Britain declared war in response, and Americans who followed news of the First Opium War learned about the international drug trade and the consequences of widespread habituation. Great Britain was determined to continue the trade because the government depended on sales of opium, which was produced in India. Many Americans back home were disappointed that Great Britain, a predominantly Christian nation, would go to war to preserve the pernicious traffic, while the non-Christian Chinese adopted a moral stance. Most American merchants who were in China sold opium but, for the most part, prevented their involvement from becoming widely known back home. They justified their participation by suggesting that smoking opium was akin to drinking alcohol, pointing out that some Chinese officials participated in the commerce, and asserting that someone else would sell it if they did not.
Music for Prime Time
Authors: Burlingame Jon
Published: January 2023

This meticulously researched and anecdote-filled chronicle is the first serious examination of the history of original music for television in America (and a number of programs that originated in England but became hits in the US). Drawing on hundreds of interviews with composers, producers, music editors, and music supervisors, it follows the history of this unique musical form—both themes and dramatic scores—from the earliest days of the medium until today. Each chapter focuses on a different TV genre (dramas, comedies, action-adventure, science-fiction and fantasy, animation, news and documentaries, TV-movies and miniseries, etc.) and, largely through the words of the songwriters and composers themselves, traces the evolution of television music, from the earliest days of the medium through today’s cable and streaming offerings. Rare and, in some cases, previously unseen photographs and illustrations, help to tell the story. Rare musical examples, in the original composer’s hands, from “Peter Gunn” to “Twilight Zone,” are also included. Interviews with every major composer (and many minor ones) in TV music history are included, from Henry Mancini and John Williams to Jerry Goldsmith and Lalo Schifrin; the contributions of such leading contemporary film composers as Thomas Newman, James Newton Howard, and Michael Giacchino are included.
English Vocabulary Elements
Authors: Leben William R. , Kessler Brett , Denning Keith
Published: January 2023

This unique textbook is designed to help the student acquire an understanding of learned, specialized, and scientific vocabulary using the tools of modern linguistics. It builds familiarity with over 350 Latin and Greek word elements in English, which are the building blocks for thousands of different words. As background to building skills for word analysis, the book introduces and offers practice with many of the fundamental concepts of linguistics. Tracing the history of English words back to their origins, the book describes important changes in sound and meaning as the language evolved; it also comments on issues faced by speakers whose language is constantly changing. This book will be useful to upper level high school students, undergraduates in English, linguistics, and classics departments, ESL students, and anyone interested in building vocabulary skills.
Usage and Variation
Authors: Leben William R. , Kessler Brett , Denning Keith
Published: January 2023

This chapter examines issues that arise in speech communities in response to changes in the language. Some usages are more appropriate for formal contexts than for informal ones, while usages out of place in formal contexts may be perfectly fine in informal ones. Schooling tends to accord formal styles a privileged status over others, while a great deal of change comes from the language spoken more casually. While the singular noun English encourages us to view the language as a single, unified speech form, this has never been so. A standard language is a set of linguistic norms established by some generally accepted political or social authority. But different speech communities can have different standards, leading to greater variety across English dialects. Furthermore, each dialect by itself encompasses a variety of “standards,” depending on whether we are speaking or writing and to whom. Writing is generally more conservative, while oral language changes far more readily—to the dismay of those who prefer to leave things as they are.
Addressing Health Inequities in People with Serious Mental Illness
Authors: Cabassa Leopoldo J.
Published: January 2023

People with serious mental illness (SMI, e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder) die at a younger age than people in the general population largely due to preventable medical conditions like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. This mortality gap has persisted for decades and continues to worsen despite advances in the access to and quality of medical care for the general population. A Call to Action focuses on answering two questions: Why do people with SMI die at an earlier age than those in the general population without these disorders? And what can be done to address these deadly health inequities? This book draws from existing research conducted by the author’s team and others who are trying to understand the factors that shape the physical health of people with SMI and describes interventions, programs, and policies aimed at improving the health of this underserved population. The book goes beyond the data and the numbers and presents stories of people who live, struggle, and cope with SMI and physical health problems. It also tells the stories of clinicians, researchers, and policymakers who work to address these health disparities. The book strives to balance the presentation of scientific data, case studies, and personal narrative to raise awareness and foster compassion for this overlooked public health crisis and discuss ways to solve it.
Turing’s question
Authors: Summerfield Christopher
Published: January 2023

The reader is introduced to the problem of building artificial general intelligence (AGI). There is a discussion about how AGI research offers the promise of general theories for neuroscience and cognitive science. The chapter introduces the debate between optimists, who believe that AGI is possible soon, and the pessimists, who believe that it is unlikely or impossible. The chapter surveys recent progress in the field, starting from the rise of deep learning systems for image recognition and machine translation, and then discusses more recent advances in natural language processing (NLP) and reinforcement learning (RL).
The nature of intelligence
Authors: Summerfield Christopher
Published: January 2023

This chapter introduces the question of how we might define an intelligent agent, and the overlooked centrality of this question for artificial general intelligence (AGI) research. It considers that whilst some human individuals may have superlative abilities in some domains, such as maths or reasoning, most people show remarkable versatility across a wide range of situations. It discusses the history of psychometric testing, and the difficulty of measuring intelligence in an unbiased fashion in the lab. Turning to artificial intelligence (AI) research, the lack of robustness of current AI systems is considered and counterpointed to human behaviour. Finally, the question of whether the nature of human intelligence is relevant to the project of building AGI is introduced and discussed.
The structure of knowledge
Authors: Summerfield Christopher
Published: January 2023

The chapter begins by considering the ways in which information is represented in memory, and how memories can be formed and represented in networks of neurons. It outlines the history of research into connectionist models, beginning with the perceptron. The chapter considers the success of neural networks, including deep convolutional neural networks, in explaining the representations in primate sensory systems. It discusses supervised and self-supervised approaches to concept learning. The chapter concludes by considering the relative roles of primate dorsal and ventral streams in visual perception, and the need to build artificial intelligence systems with a sense of space.
Zoom, Gloom, and the Workroom
Authors: Joshi Mahesh , Rastogi Gaurav , Klein J.R.
Published: January 2023

Business scholars and pundits have spent decades speculating how the workforce would change as technology’s disruptive influence continues to play out. One of the changes discussed in those conversations was the concept of working remotely. The emergence of cloud workers was the harbinger of the idea and, even in its infancy, was fast beginning to change thinking about working in place and the foundations of the workforce model. As repetitive tasks were increasingly the domain of automation, the future of work has been a topic of much debate. Then came COVID-19. This unplanned, unwanted, and unexpected pandemic event did much more than increase the level of the conversation; it forced workers and theorisers into the middle of the future.
Collective Preferences, Obligations, and Rational Choice
Authors: Gilbert Margaret
Published: January 2023

Someone may say, “Our family prefers to take our holidays by the shore.” Such commonplace locutions raise the question: What is a collective preference? This chapter defends a joint commitment account of collective preferences as understood in everyday life, in response to doubts expressed by economist Robert Sugden. First, it argues that collective preferences entail obligations of the parties, discussing the kinds of reactions those with a collective preference are likely to evince when one of them acts in ways liable to prevent the satisfaction of that preference. These responses express an understanding that the person in question was obligated to the others to act in ways expressive of the collective preference, an understanding that person is likely to share. Second, it argues that one can validly argue from a premise about what we collectively prefer to a conclusion about what I ought to do, all else being equal, without reference to what I personally prefer. It is emphasized that neither the “oughts” nor the obligations to others associated with collective preferences need be the last word as to what a given person ought to do, all things considered. In concluding, the chapter connects the foregoing discussion with aspects of the theory of rational choice.
Can a Wise Society Be a Free One?
Authors: Gilbert Margaret
Published: January 2023

This chapter invokes the idea of a wise society, something that has received little attention in contemporary social and political philosophy, though it was of considerable interest to Plato, for example. It argues that given certain plausible interpretations of the relevant terms, the wiser a society is, the less free it is. Even if one prefers a different account of a wise society, the argument is significant, for on this account a wise society has a feature that is likely to be considered good in itself: it makes many true value judgments. But what is it for a society to make a true value judgment? An account is proposed, and it is argued that on this account there is an important sense in which the more true value judgments a society makes, the less free it is. A number of questions that may be prompted by this argument are then discussed.
Regarding A Theory of Political Obligation
Authors: Gilbert Margaret
Published: January 2023

This chapter begins with a brief overview of the author’s book A Theory of Political Obligation (2006) and goes on to address a number of questions about it from several commentators. Topics addressed include the reasonableness of thinking of political societies as constituted by one or more joint commitments, the content of any such constitutive commitments, the possibility of “signing on” to a joint commitment, the nature of the obligations of joint commitment and their relationship to moral requirements, the fact that the author’s theory of political obligation relates to the obligations of joint commitment as opposed to moral requirements, and the relationship of the theory to “actual contract” theories of political obligation.
A Virtuous Circle Beyond the State in Afghanistan
Authors: Stollenwerk Eric
Published: January 2023

Chapter 6 analyses the International Security Assistance Force’s (ISAF) involvement in Afghanistan as an external actor in the security sector. Afghanistan, as an empirical case, differs from Sub-Saharan Africa in numerous respects, and functions as a plausibility probe for the findings from Chapters to 5. Chapter 6 focuses on the interplay between security perceptions and ISAF’s legitimacy as an external actor. This part of the study analysed survey data for more than 3,800 Afghans in eighty villages from Northeast Afghanistan for the years 2009 to 2013. The results show that a virtuous circle of governance existed for ISAF in Afghanistan. Afghans who felt secure and attributed their security explicitly to ISAF were also more likely to view ISAF as legitimate. This underscores the relevance of effective governance as a source of legitimacy for external actors and supports arguments of output-based legitimacy. On the other hand, Afghans who viewed ISAF as legitimate were also more likely to feel safe, supporting arguments that anticipate a positive confirmation bias for people viewing governance actors as legitimate. Together with Chapter 5, Chapter 6 emphasizes that virtuous circles of governance can exist for external and non-state actors in areas of limited statehood. Chapter 6 also stresses the diversity of sources that contribute to the legitimacy of external actors like ISAF and to effective governance. Moreover, this chapter shows that virtuous circles of governance are possible even for governance tasks with high complexity such as security.
Theodor W. Adorno and the Negativist Paradigm of Critical Theory
Authors: Ibsen Malte Frøslee
Published: January 2023

Chapter 3 offers a reconstruction of Theodor W. Adorno’s negativist paradigm of critical theory, which is methodologically grounded in his attempt to free dialectics from Hegel’s affirmative and system-building embrace and unleash negative dialectics as an open-ended remembrance of suppressed non-identity. This method is put to practice in his and Horkheimer’s dark masterpiece, the Dialektik der Aufklärung, which interprets human history and the enlightenment project as a long struggle to wrest power over human life from nature’s hands that ultimately reverts into blind human domination of not only external nature but also inner human nature as well as other human beings, culminating in the collapse of enlightened civilization into fascist barbarism, total war, and the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Moreover, Adorno also develops an exceedingly bleak sociological account of late-capitalist society, which sees individual subjects in thrall to all-powerful and pervasive forces of social heteronomy through the administered world and a universal system of delusion—maintained, in part, by the culture industry’s reduction of art to the manipulation of needs. The chapter argues that Adorno’s work is animated by a firm albeit dialectical normative commitment to a conception of freedom as autonomy and Mündigkeit, which calls for an individual ethics of resistance to social heteronomy and a mimetic reconciliation with nature that can only, however, be grasped at in our present, comprehensively reified form of life.
An accidental biblical archaeologist?
Authors: Dark Ken
Published: January 2023

This chapter tells the story of how the author became involved in the archaeology of Nazareth, and especially how he came to direct fieldwork from 2006 to 2010 on the famous ‘House of Jesus’ at the Sisters of Nazareth site. This is a more personal account of the project than any previously published extended description, discussing the background and initial establishment of the author’s archaeological research project on Nazareth and its immediate surroundings (the Nazareth Archaeological Project) in narrative form. It also corrects media and other misconceptions about the motivation and rationale for this project, and the sort of people involved in it.
Archaeology and first-century Nazareth
Authors: Dark Ken
Published: January 2023

Exploring what the evidence considered in this book tells us about first-century Nazareth, this chapter discusses how little we know about Nazareth as a place from written sources. Archaeological research is shown to have produced much more information about the physical form of the first-century settlement at Nazareth, its everyday life, culture, and economy. The possible identification of the Sisters of Nazareth site with Jesus’ childhood home is then considered, including a brief consideration of the historical evidence for Jesus and the possible implications of such an identification. This concludes with the author’s view that it is currently impossible either to prove or refute the interpretation that this was the house where Jesus was brought up. Nevertheless, archaeological evidence and interpretation shed much new light on first-century Nazareth as a whole and in this way give a new understanding of Jesus’ Nazareth.
Projection and Information as Explanations for the Perceptual Bias
Authors: Walgrave Stefaan , Soontjens Karolin , Sevenans Julie
Published: January 2023

This chapter zooms in on a psychological explanation for the inaccuracy of politicians’ public opinion perceptions and right-wing bias, namely their tendency to “project”—that is: to let their perceptions of public opinion be influenced by their own opinions. The chapter finds that Belgian politicians’ own opinion indeed affects their public opinion estimation, and that this partially explains the perceptual inaccuracy of politicians whose preferences do not match those of the(ir) voters. Yet, projection cannot account for the general right-wing bias because even left-wing politicians estimate the public to be more right-wing than it actually is. Therefore, the chapter moves on to more general explanations: it argues that the success of right-wing parties and their leaders, the potential right-wing bias in the traditional press, combined with the right-wing representation of public opinion present on social media, may be driving politicians’ joint understanding of the public as being right-wing.
Balance laws of forces and moments for small deformations
Authors: Anand Lallit , Kamrin Ken , Govindjee Sanjay
Published: January 2023

This chapter covers special considerations that arise when deformation gradients are known to be very small, as occurs in many practical engineering situations. Simplifications of the differential equations that arise from the small deformation gradient assumption are carefully presented. These are then applied to the strain-displacement relations and the equations of motion.
Stress and strain are symmetric second-order tensors
Authors: Anand Lallit , Kamrin Ken , Govindjee Sanjay
Published: January 2023

The concepts of stress and strain are properly represented by tensors. This chapter introduces the formal mathematical definition of a second-order tensor. Components of tensors with respect to an orthonormal basis are discussed, as are numerous important special tensor operations and types, such as transpose, symmetric and skew-symmetric tensors, trace, deviatoric tensors, tensor inner products, and tensor magnitudes. The matrix of tensor components is discussed. The transformation rules for components of a vector and a tensor under a change in basis are presented. Further, eigenvalues and eigenvectors of symmetric tensors are discussed, and expressions for tensor invariants are presented.
Linear viscoelasticity
Authors: Anand Lallit , Kamrin Ken , Govindjee Sanjay
Published: January 2023

This chapter introduces the essential elements of linear viscoelastic material behaviour and modelling in a one-dimensional setting. Stress-relaxation and creep phenomena are discussed and modelled using Boltzmann’s superposition principle, leading to stress-relaxation integral and creep integral forms of the stress-strain relations. A rheological model known as the standard linear solid is introduced, and the resulting kernel functions for stress-relaxation and creep are discussed. The correspondence principle between linear viscoelasticity and linear elasticity is introduced and used to connect relaxation and creep formulations. This principle is also used to discuss the solution of structural problems involving the bending of beams and torsion of shafts made from linear viscoelastic materials. A rheological model known as the generalized Maxwell model together with the attendant Prony series form of the stress-relaxation function are presented, and a time-integration procedure for the resulting constitutive equation for linear viscoelasticity using the Herrmann–Peterson recursion relation is derived.
Bazaar Literature
Authors: Thorne-Murphy Leslee
Published: January 2023

Bazaar Literature reorients our understanding of Victorian social reform fiction by reading it in light of the copious amount of literature generated for charity bazaars. Bazaars were ubiquitous during the nineteenth century, part of the vibrant and massive private sector response to a rapidly industrializing society. Typically organized and run by women, charity bazaars were often called fancy fairs since they specialized in ladies’ hand-crafted “fancy” work. Indeed, they were a key method women used to intervene in political, social, and cultural affairs. Yet their conventional purpose—to raise money for charity—has led to their being widely overlooked and misunderstood. Bazaar Literature remedies these misconceptions by demonstrating how the literature written in conjunction with bazaars shaped the social, political, and literary movements of its time. This study draws upon a wide variety of texts printed to be sold at bazaars, including literature by Robert Louis Stevenson, Harriet Martineau, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, alongside fictional depictions of fancy fairs by Charlotte Yonge, George Eliot, Frances Trollope, and Anthony Trollope. Bazaar Literature revises our understanding of the larger literary market in social reform fiction, revealing a parodic, self-critical strain that is paradoxically braided with strident political activism and its realist sensibilities.
Myth and Revelation
Authors: Thorne-Murphy Leslee
Published: January 2023

Chapter 6 examines the depiction of a charity bazaar in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss. Scholars have tended to overlook the novel’s bazaar, though it is a lynchpin event in the narrative. Eliot places the fancy fair at a crossroads in the novel, when Maggie is at her social zenith. The bazaar both represents her greatest social triumph and impels her demise; it functions as a microcosm for the community of St. Ogg’s, an event allowing its author to explore an ethical problem at the heart of the novel—the nature of charitable action. How does one person act to benefit another? This question is posed in the founding myth of St. Ogg’s, when Ogg himself takes action to help a poor woman and her infant. It is a moral dilemma that recurs throughout the novel, driving its plotline and impelling its ethics. The dilemma comes to the fore at the bazaar and becomes entwined with Maggie’s fateful performance as a bazaar woman.
(Un)Truthful Narration
Authors: Thorne-Murphy Leslee
Published: January 2023

In The Vicar of Wrexhill, Frances Trollope offers a rollicking, irreverent, and satiric portrayal of a charity bazaar, centering on a duplicitous evangelical vicar who preys on vulnerable women. Frances’s bazaar exposes the vile deceit of her villain. Yet her condemnation of his untruthfulness redounds as critics of the novel accuse her of inaccuracy, exaggeration, and deceit. Nearly thirty years later, Anthony drew upon and revised his mother’s depiction of a bazaar in Miss Mackenzie. Like his mother, he mocked the saleswomen, the social jockeying, the entire chaos of the occasion. Seeing Anthony’s depiction in light of Frances’s fictional charity bazaar illuminates an entanglement of altruism and greed, profit and charity, and, notably, deception and truth. At key moments when the two novels intersect, they echo and amplify one another, suggesting that truth and falsehood are nuanced and complex, and that an author’s manner of negotiating them aligns with the attributes and methods of the typical bazaar woman.
Fancy Fair or Nonesuch Bazaar?
Authors: Thorne-Murphy Leslee
Published: January 2023

The conclusion narrates the fate of bazaar discourse in the twentieth century, and it revisits the three main claims of the book. First, that Victorian-era charity bazaars were distinctly feminized sites of civil society, and that the print matter surrounding them is essential to understanding women’s contributions to social reform. Second, that bazaar literature revises our understanding of the larger literary market in social reform fiction, revealing a self-critical strain that is paradoxically braided with strident political activism and realist sensibilities. Third, that depictions of bazaars within realist reform fiction invite authors to re-evaluate their social roles and aesthetic methods according to the logic of bazaar discourse.
Uganda
Authors: Makara Sabiti , Wang Vibeke
Published: January 2023

This chapter takes a closer look at how attempts at further democratization in Uganda since the return to multiparty politics in 2006 have been stalled as the Museveni regime has consistently manipulated legal mechanisms and international relations to subvert the opposition. In the quest to retain power, Museveni and the National Resistance Movement (NRM) have relied on legal strategies to shore up their political positions and to constrain the liberalizing efforts of Uganda’s relentless pro-democracy actors, oftentimes in conjunction with patronage and violence. The persistent autocratic nature of the incumbent regime has been propelled by increased use of autocratic lawfare, thus compromising the courts’ ability to safeguard opposition rights and impose accountability. Despite holding significant leverage vis-à-vis the regime, international actors have been both unable and unwilling to use it. Instead, the incumbent has been able to strategically employ its international relationships to cater for both domestic and international audiences whilst serving his own political agenda—the politicization of gender rights being a prime example.