bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Life cycle assessment research and application in Nigeria
Authors: Isah Mohammed Engha , Wasah Ayedu , Matsubae Kazuyo
Published: January 2025

Purpose

Life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology is becoming increasingly popular in developing countries, however, challenges such as lack of local data, spatial and temporal differentiation of impact categories, and uncertainty in the data and impact assessment methods remain. In this comprehensive review, we systematically conduct a literature review of LCA research in Nigeria, including a thorough assessment of the LCA studies according to ISO 14040 and 14044 standards.

Methods

A total of 30 peered reviewed and conference papers on LCA papers Nigeria as the study area of authors affiliated to institutions in the country were assessed. The assessment focused on functional unit, system boundary, data quality, allocation, impact assessment methods, database and LCA software used and interpretation methods.

Results and discussion

The results of the review showed that LCA is still in its infancy in Nigeria with 30 papers on the subject matter published between 2010–2023. These peer reviewed publications came from universities and research institutions, none from companies or government. In terms of the methodological choices, different functional units, system boundaries, impact assessment methods, allocation, data choices, databases and software were used. The Ecoinvent database is one of the most widely used for background data for potential environmental impacts while SimaPro and GaBi are the softwares of choice for most of the studies. Climate Change was the most assessed impact category at the midpoint level for life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). To ensure that uncertainties in LCA results are reduced, studies should ensure transparency in inventories, consider all the life cycle stages, use primary data and adapt local characterisation factors. Local impacts such as gas flaring, biodiversity, oil spills, soil erosion, and desertification should be the focus of LCA method developers in Nigeria as they are the prevailing environmental challenges affecting different parts of the country.

Conclusions and recommendations

Different methodological choices are used by researchers, they highlight a challenge that was noticeable in all the papers – a general lack of primary data. The studies are not equally distributed amongst the sectors of the economy. Most of them are concentrated in the agriculture, energy and transportation sectors. Based on our findings, the authors recommend the development of an LCI database for Nigeria and Nigeria-specific impact pathways, normalisation and weighting factors to enhance the reproducibility of the results. This study lays the foundation for the development of an integrated master plan for the development of LCA in Nigeria, with the potential to significantly contribute to improving environmental assessment and sustainable development.
Précis of A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness
Authors: Veit Walter
Published: January 2025

A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness aims to advance Donald Griffin’s vision of the “final, crowning chapter of the Darwinian revolution” by firmly integrating animals within the science of consciousness. Although this field has largely neglected the questions of when and why consciousness evolved, this book champions a Darwinian philosophy where the experiences of other animals are put centre-stage in investigations of consciousness. This synopsis offers a summary of the book’s core arguments for the advancement of a truly biological science of consciousness. This approach allows for an empirically rigorous investigation into what it is like to be a bat, a crow, a bee, or an octopus.
Video Game Structural Features Are Related to Internet Gaming Disorder and Motivations of Play: Design and Validation of the Video Game Structure Scale (VGSS)
Authors: Carmona Arnau , Carbonell Xavier , Bonilla Iván , Ivern Jan , Chamarro Andrés
Published: January 2025

Structural characteristics of video games influence the development of maladaptive behavioral patterns such as Internet gaming disorder (IGD). The aim of this study was to develop and validate a tool to evaluate users’ perceptions of video game structural features. The sample was composed of 502 gamers with an average age of 23.35 years (SD = 6.89). In total, 67.3% used a personal computer, 20.7% a desktop console, 11.4% a mobile platform, and 0.6% a portable console. Multiple exploratory factor analyses were conducted to identify the optimal model. Initial evidence of reliability, construct, and external validity was found (TLI and CFI > .90, RMSEA < .06, SRMR < .08). Structural features were categorized into three primary factors: social, control, and reward. After a multiple linear regression, structural features and gaming motivations explain 19% of the variance in IGD. In conclusion, the scale demonstrates solid psychometric properties for assessing how Spanish-speaking players perceive the structural characteristics of video games and how these relate to the development of IGD.
Learning to read and interpret tattoos
Authors: Byard Roger W.
Published: January 2025

Tattooing has been a facet of many civilizations and cultures for millennia with a recent resurgence in popularity in many Western countries. The reasons for tattooing are diverse ranging from simple decorative designs to enforced tattooing of concentration camp inmates. In a forensic context tattoos are frequently observed and may play a role in some cases of identification, even after decomposition, incineration or dismemberment. More broadly however, tattoos can provide significant information on a decedent’s name and age, country or region of origin, religion, names of family members and friends, pet ownership, political affiliations, sporting and recreational activities, military service, gang memberships, drug usage and medical data. Thus, careful reading of tattoos at the time of post mortem examination can sometimes be a very productive exercise delivering background material on a decedent that may not have been provided in police reports.
The significance of humorous tattoos
Authors: Byard Roger W.
Published: January 2025

Tattooing refers to the process of creating indelible designs and texts in the human skin by introducing a variety of dyes. It has found for millennia in a range of societies. The purpose of tattooing has ranged from marking individuals of significant social standing such as chieftains in Polynesia, to those who are regarded as outcasts such as prostitutes and criminals in Europe. In recent years tattooing has gained considerable popularity in the West including tattoos that have merely had a humorous content, either as an image or text. These types of tattoos often utilize natural body features such as the umbilicus, natal cleft, genitalia, breasts or scars, and may contain simple but explicit messages or suggest possible underlying mental disturbance. While the significance of these types of tattoos and the profile of individuals who have them is at present unknown further study could identify sociological and forensic features specific to this subgroup.
Dose-Dependent Effect of a New Biotin Compound in Hippocampal Remyelination in Rats
Authors: Yulug Burak , Kilic Ertugrul , Oğuz Tuba , Orhan Cemal , Er Besir , Tuzcu Mehmet , Ozercan Ibrahim Hanifi , Sahin Nurhan , Canpolat Sinan , Komorowski James , Ojalvo Sara Perez , Sylla Sarah , Cankaya Seyda , Sahin Kazim
Published: January 2025

Demyelination is commonly observed in neurodegenerative disorders, including multiple sclerosis (MS). Biotin supplementation is known to stabilize MS progression. To reduce the effective dose of biotin, we synthesized a new and superior form of biotin, a complex of magnesium ionically bound to biotin (MgB) and compared its dose-dependent effect with biotin alone after inducing demyelination using lysolecithin (LPC) in rats. Myelination was assessed using luxol fast blue staining and immunostaining against MBP protein, revealing that the most significant remyelination occurred in the MgB groups. Additionally, both biotin and MgB-treated animals showed dose-dependent improvements in spatial memory. Moreover, we detected a decrease in inflammatory proteins in both treatment groups, which was more prominent in high-dose MgB-treated animals and correlated with decreased expression of NF-κB p65, OP, and MMP-9 proteins. Further analysis of biotin-related proteins demonstrated that both biotin and, notably, MgB reversed the demyelination-dependent reduction of these proteins. Furthermore, biotin, particularly MgB, improved neuronal transmission proteins, Synapsin-1, PSD-93, and PSD-95. Additionally, both treatment groups exhibited increased BDNF, GAP43, and ICAM levels, with significant increments observed in high-dose MgB-treated animals. Increased GFAP, indicative of reactive gliosis, was observed in LPC-treated animals, and this effect was notably reversed by high-dose MgB treatment. The current data emphasize the dose-dependent beneficial effect on the remyelination process. Furthermore, the combination of biotin with Mg resulted in a more potent effect compared to biotin by itself. The strong influence of MgB encourages proof-of-concept studies using MgB in patients with MS.
Delayed Progression of Ataxia with a Static Cerebellar Lesion– Consider SCA27B
Authors: Wong Tsz Hang , Manuputty Jamie , van Seeters Tom , Kamsteeg Erik-Jan , van de Warrenburg Bart
Published: January 2025

Repeat expansions in the fibroblast growth factor 14 gene (FGF14), associated with spinocerebellar ataxia type 27B (SCA27B), have emerged as a prevalent cause of previously unexplained late-onset cerebellar ataxia. Here, we present a patient with residual symptom of gait ataxia after complicated meningioma surgery, who presented with progressive symptoms of oculomotor disturbances, speech difficulties, vertigo and worsening of gait imbalance, twelve years post-resection. Neuroimaging revealed a surgical resection cavity in the dorsolateral side of the left cerebellar hemisphere, accompanied by gliosis in left cerebellar hemisphere extending into the vermis, extensive non-specific supratentorial periventricular white matter abnormalities, and mild atrophy of the cerebellar vermis. Initially, her symptoms were attributed to re-emergence of her cerebellar symptoms related to the static cerebellar lesion, and due to a failure of compensatory mechanisms with aging. However, the progressive nature of her cerebellar symptoms and the emergence of novel downbeat nystagmus prompted genetic testing for FGF14 repeat expansion, confirming SCA27B as a significant contributor to her delayed, progressive cerebellar symptoms. This case highlights the significance of considering SCA27B in the differential diagnosis of delayed progressive cerebellar ataxia with oculomotor abnormalities in the presence of a static cerebellar lesion.
Digital Duplicates and Collective Scarcity
Authors: Lange Benjamin
Published: January 2025

Digital duplicates reduce the scarcity of individuals and thus may impact their instrumental and intrinsic value. I here expand upon this idea by introducing the notion of collective scarcity, which pertains to the limitations faced by social groups in maintaining their size, cohesion and function.
MicroRNA in neuroexosome as a potential biomarker for HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders
Authors: Arizono Kotaro , Sedohara Ayako , Tuvshinjargal Khulan , Tanaka Takahiro , Koga Michiko , Nakahara Fumio , Ootani Amato , Kanno Yoshiaki , Ikeuchi Kazuhiko , Saito Makoto , Adachi Eisuke , Tsutsumi Takeya , Yotsuyanagi Hiroshi
Published: January 2025

HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) is a complication of chronic inflammation caused by HIV infection that impairs cognitive and motor functions. HAND can occur at any age, regardless of the duration of infection, even in people living with HIV (PLWH) whose blood viral load is controlled by antiretroviral therapy. The diagnosis of HAND requires a battery of neuropsychological tests, which is time-consuming and burdensome, limiting its effectiveness for screening PLWH. Here, we aimed to identify biomarkers for quantitatively diagnosing and screening for HAND using minimally invasive blood tests. Neuronal-derived exosomes (neuroexosomes) were isolated from the peripheral blood of PLWH, and the transcriptomes of their microRNAs (miRNAs) were analyzed. We identified five upregulated miRNAs (hsa-miR-16-5p, hsa-miR-26a-3p, hsa-92a-3p, hsa-miR-103a-3p, and hsa-miR-185-5p), and two downregulated miRNA (hsa-miR-3613-3p and hsa-miR-4668-5p) in PLWH diagnosed with HAND (HAND PLWH). Functional analysis of five miRNAs whose expression levels increased in HAND PLWH using the database showed that these miRNAs are involved in motor proteins and endocytosis, which are associated with nerve function. The expression levels of hsa-miR-16-5p, hsa-miR-103a-3p, and hsa-miR-185-5p were significantly higher than those in the non-HIV controls and non-HAND PLWH, suggesting that these miRNAs are potential biomarkers for HAND. Since there were no changes in known dementia miRNA biomarkers in HAND PLWH, the miRNAs identified in this study will allow for early differentiation of HAND.
Perfectionism and compulsive exercise: a systematic review and preliminary meta-analysis
Authors: Bills Elizabeth , Muir Shannon R. , Stackpole Rose , Egan Sarah J.
Published: January 2025

Purpose

There is a consistent link between perfectionism and compulsive exercise, and both are implicated in the maintenance of eating disorders, however no meta-analysis to date has quantified this relationship. We hypothesised that there would be significant, small-moderate pooled correlations between perfectionism dimensions and compulsive exercise.

Methods

Published, peer-reviewed articles with standardised measures of perfectionism and the Compulsive Exercise Test were included. There were 7 studies included (N = 3117 participants, M age = 21.78 years, 49% female).

Results

Total perfectionism (r = 0.37), perfectionistic strivings (r = 0.33), and perfectionistic concerns (r = 0.32) had significant pooled positive associations with compulsive exercise. Most studies (67%) were rated as fair or good quality as an indication of risk of bias. Limitations included the low number of available studies, the inclusion of only one clinical sample, and predominately cross-sectional studies which precluded causal inference.

Conclusion

Higher perfectionism was associated with higher compulsive exercise. More research is needed on compulsive exercise to determine the best intervention approach given its relationship to perfectionism and relevance in the context of eating disorders.

Level of evidence

Level I: Evidence obtained from a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Alternative Powertrains and Fuels in Heavy Non-Road Mobile Machinery and Their Future Expectations - A Review
Authors: Pesonen Jarkko , Prinz Robert , Ovaskainen Heikki , Kauranen Pertti , Poikela Asko , Kärhä Kalle
Published: January 2025

Purpose of the Review

This literature review focused on studies on alternative powertrains and fuels of non-road mobile machinery (NRMM) during the last 15 years and investigated their future potential and expectations. The goal was to evaluate different alternative powertrains based on previous research and highlight the possibilities and challenges of each technology. Additionally, the aim was to conduct a comprehensive overview about the technology development phase of alternative powertrains.

Recent Findings

This review covered a total of 115 studies consisting of hybrid, full-electric, biofuels, biogas, and hydrogen solutions. The results highlighted that hybrid and full-electric technologies have the greatest potential to replace conventional diesel engines in the future. The main challenges identified were battery reliability and high technology costs. Regarding biofuel, biogas, and hydrogen, the benefits were mainly lower emissions while the challenges were high costs and low production. Full-electric and hydrogen powertrains were found to reach zero local emissions during operations, while compared to diesel, repair and maintenance caused less emissions of 36–46% during the life cycle with full-electric and hydrogen solutions. With hybrid, biofuels, and biogas powertrains, the emission reduction potential ranged from 37 to 81% during operations and 36–66% during the entire life cycle. The highest Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) were identified for hybrid and full-electric technologies in industrial machinery (6.9–7.4). The lowest measurable TRL (2.5) was with biogas powered construction machinery. The TRLs of biogas and hydrogen of forest machinery were excluded from this review due to the lack of research.

Alternative powertrains can eventually replace diesel engines, if the challenges with implementation, production, and reliability are solved. Furthermore, the benefits of electric and renewable technologies/fuels are unambiguous from the emission reduction and energy efficiency perspectives. Consequently, we recommend that future research focus especially on the implementation of alternative technologies as well as the improvement of the manufacturing infrastructure.
Bank Resolution and Judicial Review: Lessons of the Banco Popular Litigation
Authors: Lamandini Marco , Ramos Muñoz David
Published: January 2025

Resolution of a troubled institution and the allocation of losses among creditors can be an efficient way to avoid contagion and minimize taxpayer support, but raises major issues of fairness and equity towards shareholders and creditors, which are a source of tensions. The Banco Popular litigation saga offers clear empirical evidence of these tensions. This essay discusses the main lessons that can be drawn from that litigation.
The Flourishing Child: Understanding how Adults and Children Perceive Flourishing from the Start of Life
Authors: Davis Jacqueline A , Davey Belinda , Segers Emily , Talati Zenobia , Silva Desiree , Prescott Susan L , Gibson Lisa Y
Published: January 2025

The current narrative surrounding children’s health and wellbeing often focuses on adversity and dysregulation with a lack of positive messaging. However, promoting protective and buffering factors may be as important as reducing adverse exposures. While the concept of flourishing is commonly applied in the context of adults, defining what flourishing means for children in current academic literature remains unclear. Our study addressed this gap by undertaking a grounded theory approach and consulting extensively with consumers and key stakeholders, both adults and children. This enabled us to elucidate a conceptual framework and identify determinants, as well as to examine perceived barriers and enablers to early childhood flourishing. Triangulating our data revealed that key domains related to childhood flourishing were physical safety, love and family, positive lifestyle, physical and mental health, and fun and happiness. Parents with limited time was a key barrier, while ready access to supports was identified as a key enabler. This conceptualisation of flourishing within the early years lays a theoretical and community informed framework necessary for developing practical tools that will enable parents and carers to assess a child’s capacity to flourish into adolescence and adulthood, thus reinforcing the importance of a healthy start to life.
Non-accountability as post-colonial harm: rethinking the responsibilities of arms producers
Authors: McEvoy Bretton J. , Hönke Jana
Published: January 2025

Despite the inherent dangers of arms production, the responsibility of arms companies to prevent adverse human rights impacts in their business is too often surrounded by silence. What is more, the responsibilities of arms companies are rarely subject to critical historical interrogation, with contemporary arms trade literature paying primary attention to singular export control decisions from a lens of methodological nationalism. This forum contribution brings a post-colonial analysis to the (lack of) political and legal responsibilities demanded of arms companies over time by zooming in on apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. Grounding in the discursive and material struggles between South African civil society actors and European arms manufacturers/states over the terms of responsibility, we suggest that limited notions of historical responsibility are themselves productive of non-accountability and contemporary harms. The article advocates for a broader understanding of responsibility in the arms sector, and calls for more critical attention and research to be directed towards the historical and transnational situatedness of arms companies and their home states. Such a focus must include recognition of the ways that the denial of reparations serves to (re)produce harm.
Three-dimensional boundary element sensitivity analysis of anisotropic thermoelastic materials
Authors: Fahmy Mohamed Abdelsabour
Published: January 2025

The fundamental goal of this research is to develop a new three-dimensional boundary element method (BEM) for solving thermal stress sensitivity problems in anisotropic materials with a heat source. The problem at hand is incredibly tough to address analytically. As a result, we devised a novel boundary element technique to address this problem. The use of quadratic isoparametric elements and constant volume heat source to depict displacement and temperature fields is one of the driving forces behind the requirement to quantify thermal stresses in engineering structures. In three-dimensional scenarios, the impacts of isotropic, orthotropic, and anisotropic due to the presence or absence of a heat source on thermal stress sensitivity are investigated. The resulting linear systems were solved using the three-block splitting (TBS) iteration strategy, which reduced both the number of iterations and CPU time. The new TBS iteration method converges quickly and does not require complex calculations. It exceeds the other iterative methods for solving the resulting BEM linear system. To compare with other articles in the literature, we only considered the two-dimensional model as a subset of our three-dimensional model. The numerical data illustrate the accuracy, precision, and effectiveness of our proposed BEM methodology, as the BEM results are highly consistent with the finite difference method (FDM) and finite element method (FEM) results.
Advances in Knowledge Regarding Arterial Curvature and its Relationship to Ischemic Stroke: A Narrative Review
Authors: Zhang Lin-Han , Cao Fei
Published: January 2025

Curvature of large arteries in the cervical and intracranial regions represents a common morphological vascular alteration. However, the precise mechanisms underlying its formation and progression remain unclear. Increasing evidence suggests a potential correlation between arterial curvature and ischemic stroke. This manuscript involves a review of the relevant literature that delineates the measurement techniques for assessing arterial curvature, the mechanisms contributing to its formation, and recent evidence linking arterial curvature to stroke. Arterial curvature is primarily influenced by genetic factors, hypertension, sex, and age, and it may indicate weakened arterial walls. Furthermore, the haemodynamic changes associated with arterial curvature can result in reduced cerebral perfusion pressure, endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and inflammatory responses. These factors contribute to the development of atherosclerosis and the formation of arterial dissections. The degree of arterial curvature may serve as a risk factor for cerebral ischemia, alongside traditional vascular risk factors. Further investigation into arterial curvature could yield valuable insights for clinicians managing patients with curved vessels.
Wisdom, Intellectual Virtue, and Epistemology
Authors: Ryan Shane
Published: January 2025

This paper argues that a wise person is an intellectually virtuous person. The intellectual virtue requirement is explained as a necessary condition for wisdom, intuitively the highest epistemic good. This provides an answer to Duncan Pritchard’s question as to the significance of the intellectual virtues for the epistemological project. In other words, the requirement explains why the intellectual virtues are central to the concerns of epistemology. The paper starts by providing an overview of intellectual virtue. An overview of recent analytic philosophical literature on wisdom is set out. This discussion leads to the claim that the wise person understands how to live well. The claim that intellectual virtues are required for understanding how to live well is then examined. The case is made that understanding how to live well in a modally robust way requires possession of the intellectual virtues.
Ethical Guidelines for the Application of Generative AI in German Journalism
Authors: Hofeditz Lennart , Jung Anna-Katharina , Mirbabaie Milad , Stieglitz Stefan
Published: January 2025

Generative Artificial Intelligence (genAI) holds immense potential in revolutionizing journalism and media production processes. By harnessing genAI, journalists can streamline various tasks, including content creation, curation, and dissemination. Through genAI, journalists already automate the generation of diverse news articles, ranging from sports updates and financial reports to weather forecasts. However, this raises ethical questions of high relevance for media organizations and societies especially when genAI is used for more sensitive topics and at larger scale. To not jeopardize trustworthiness in journalistic organizations, it is important that the use of genAI in journalism is guided by moral principles. We therefore conducted 18 interviews with researchers and practitioners with expertise in AI-based technologies, journalism, and ethics from a German perspective in order to identify guidelines for the ethical use of genAI in media organizations. We derived requirements for the ethical introduction of genAI and actionable guidelines which explain how decision makers in media organizations should address ethical principles for the use of AI in the news production life cycle, in order to contribute to trustworthiness of journalistic organizations and products.
The impact of logistics and political decisions on greenhouse gas emissions in market transformation
Authors: Kulagin Viatcheslav , Kuklina Anna , Grushevenko Dmitriy
Published: January 2025

The transport sector is the second largest emitter of global greenhouse gas emissions. For this reason, the global community is currently making a lot of efforts to decarbonize transport: active electrification of transport is underway, various subsidies are introduced to stimulate demand for more environmentally friendly types of transport, requirements for the sulfur content in bunker fuel are tightened, etc. However, few people think about how futile all these actions can be without paying due attention to the optimality of logistics in world trade. In this article, calculations were made based on geopolitical restrictions introduced between Russia and Western countries since 2022, as well as a scenario of reduced trade through the Red Sea (observed in 2024). According to the calculation results, it was revealed that the annual increase in emissions due to suboptimal logistics only in the trade of Russian hydrocarbons and the redirection of goods through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait instead of the Red Sea will amount to 630–690 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq). This exceeds the total emissions from all economic sectors in countries such as Australia, Turkey, Spain and Argentina, or even the UK and the Netherlands. Therefore, international logistics is another key area that deserves close attention when formulating tasks in terms of decarbonization of the global transport sector, in particular, and global low-carbon development in general. That is, the sanctions policy and various geopolitical restrictions can negatively affect the achievement of the goals of the Paris Agreement, which is an integral part of the Sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Graphical Abstract
Scoping review of the societal impacts of compound climate events
Authors: Fehlman Caroline A. , Ryan Sophia C. , Lysne Kristen G. , Rundgren Quinn M. , Spurlock Taylin J. , Orbison Rustyn O. , Runkle Jennifer D. , Sugg Margaret M.
Published: January 2025

Climatic extremes have historically been seen as univariate; however, recent international reports have highlighted the potential for an increase in compound climate events (e.g., hot and dry events, recurrent flooding). Despite the projected increase in the frequency of compound climate events and the adoption of compound event terminology, few studies identify climate extremes as compound climate events and little evidence exists on the societal impacts of these compound climate events. This scoping review summarizes key findings and knowledge gaps in the current state of empirical studies that focus on the societal impacts of compound climate events. We identified 28 eligible studies published in four databases reporting on the societal impacts of compound climate events in four sectors: agriculture, public health, the built environment, and land use. Overall, we found the need for more research explicitly linking compound climate events to societal impacts, particularly across multiple compound climate events, rather than single case study events. We also noted several key findings, including changes in agricultural productivity, loss of habitat, increased fire risk, poor mental health outcomes, decreased health care access, and destruction of homes and infrastructure from these events. Additional research is needed both globally and locally to understand the implications of compound climate events across different geographic regions and populations to ensure responsive adaptation policies in a compound climate event framework.
Hidden Music
Authors: Mermikides Milton
Published: January 2025

This book explores the intersection of data sonification (the systematic translation of data into sound) and musical composition. Section 1 engages with existing discourse and offers an original model (the sonification continuum) which provides perspectives on the practice of sonification for composers, science communicators and those interested in this rapidly emerging field. Section 2 engages with the sonification process itself, exploring techniques, models of translation, data fidelity, analogic and symbolic data mapping, temporality and the listener experience. In Section 3 these concepts and techniques are all made concrete in the context of a selection of the author's projects (2004–2023). Finally, some reasons are offered on how sonification as a practice might enrich composition, communication, collaboration, and a sense of connection.
Rhythm and Heritage in Modern Flamenco Guitar
Authors: Tongeren Carlos van
Published: January 2025

Discourses about rhythmic skill and feel have often been associated with forms of non-Western, and especially African and Afro-diasporic identity and heritage. How can we rethink rhythmic skill for the contemporary world where concepts of heritage and belonging are attaining new meanings across cultural and geographical borders? This Element addresses this question through the case study of modern flamenco guitar, an instrumental practice that has achieved daunting levels of rhythmic sophistication and has been flourishing across the globe for decades, even before flamenco was inscribed into UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2010. Drawing on examples from local guitar traditions in Jerez de la Frontera and Morón de la Frontera and from an online guitar contest launched during the Covid-19 pandemic, this Element explores how rhythm can shape new ways of understanding and performing heritage in the global and digital age.
The Logic of Precedent
Authors: Horty John
Published: January 2025

Unlike statutory law, which relies on the explicit formulation of rules, common law is thought to emerge from a complex doctrine of precedential constraint, according to which decisions in earlier cases constrain later courts while still allowing these courts the freedom to address new situations in creative ways. Although this doctrine is applied by legal practitioners on a daily basis, it has proved to be considerably more difficult to develop an adequate theoretical account of the doctrine itself. Drawing on recent work in legal theory, as well as AI and law, this book develops a new account of precedential constraint and the balance achieved in the common law between constraint and freedom. This account, which involves construction of a group priority ordering among reasons, is then applied to other topics including the semantics of open-textured predicates and the practice of making exceptions to general rules.
British Romanticism and the Matter of Voice
Authors: Rhodes Alice
Published: January 2025

Physiological, political, and poetic studies of the relationship between the human body and voice saw increased attention and took on new significance in British literature of the politically turbulent period between the 1770s and the 1820s. Focusing on Erasmus Darwin, John Thelwall, and Percy Bysshe Shelley, three writers whose works draw together the fields of science, politics, language, and literature, and who were subject to charges of political radicalism and materialist philosophy, Alice Rhodes draws attention to a developing theory of spoken and poetic utterance which, for its subscribers, suggested a fundamental, material, and reciprocal connection between the speaking body and the physical, social, and political worlds around it. By investigating the Romantic-era fascination with the mechanics and physiology of speech production, she explores how Darwin, Thelwall, and Shelley came to present the voice as a form of physical, autonomous, and effective political action.
Homotopy Theory of Enriched Mackey Functors
Authors: Johnson Niles , Yau Donald
Published: January 2025

This work develops techniques and basic results concerning the homotopy theory of enriched diagrams and enriched Mackey functors. Presentation of a category of interest as a diagram category has become a standard and powerful technique in a range of applications. Diagrams that carry enriched structures provide deeper and more robust applications. With an eye to such applications, this work provides further development of both the categorical algebra of enriched diagrams, and the homotopy theoretic applications in K-theory spectra. The title refers to certain enriched presheaves, known as Mackey functors, whose homotopy theory classifies that of equivariant spectra. More generally, certain stable model categories are classified as modules - in the form of enriched presheaves - over categories of generating objects. This text contains complete definitions, detailed proofs, and all the background material needed to understand the topic. It will be indispensable for graduate students and researchers alike.
Active and inactive contributions to the wall pressure and wall-shear stress in turbulent boundary layers
Authors: Deshpande Rahul , Vinuesa Ricardo , Klewicki Joseph , Marusic Ivan
Published: January 2025

A phenomenological description is presented to explain the intermediate and low-frequency/large-scale contributions to the wall-shear-stress (

${\tau }_w$

) and wall-pressure (

$\,{p}_w$

) spectra of canonical turbulent boundary layers, both of which are well known to increase with Reynolds number, albeit in a distinct manner. The explanation is based on the concept of active and inactive motions (Townsend, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 11, issue 1, 1961, pp. 97–120) associated with the attached-eddy hypothesis. Unique data sets of simultaneously acquired

${\tau }_w$

,

${p}_w$

and velocity-fluctuation time series in the log region are considered, across a friction-Reynolds-number (

$Re_{\tau }$

) range of

$ {O}(10^3) \lesssim Re_{\tau } \lesssim {O}(10^6)$

. A recently proposed energy-decomposition methodology (Deshpande et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 914, 2021, A5) is implemented to reveal the active and inactive contributions to the

${\tau }_w$

- and

$p_w$

-spectra. Empirical evidence is provided in support of Bradshaw's (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 30, issue 2, 1967, pp. 241–258) hypothesis that the inactive motions are responsible for the non-local wall-ward transport of the large-scale inertia-dominated energy, which is produced in the log region by active motions. This explains the large-scale signatures in the

${\tau }_w$

-spectrum, which grow with

$Re_{\tau }$

despite the statistically weak signature of large-scale turbulence production, in the near-wall region. For wall pressure, active and inactive motions respectively contribute to the intermediate and large scales of the

$p_w$

-spectrum. Both these contributions are found to increase with increasing

$Re_{\tau }$

owing to the broadening and energization of the wall-scaled (attached) eddy hierarchy. This potentially explains the rapid

$Re_{\tau }$

-growth of the

$p_w$

-spectra relative to

${\tau }_w$

, given the dependence of the latter only on the inactive contributions.
Multiclass hate speech detection with an aggregated dataset
Authors: Walsh Sinéad , Greaney Paul
Published: January 2025

Detecting and removing hate speech content in a timely manner remains a challenge for social media platforms. Automated techniques such as deep learning models offer solutions which can keep up with the volume and velocity of user content production. Research in this area has mainly focused on either binary classification or on classifying tweets into generalised categories such as hateful, offensive, or neither. Less attention has been given to multiclass classification of online hate speech into the type of hate or group at which it is directed. By aggregating and re-annotating several relevant hate speech datasets, this study presents a dataset and evaluates several models for classifying tweets into the categories ethnicity, gender, religion, sexuality, and non-hate. We evaluate the dataset by training several models: logistic regression, LSTM, BERT, and GPT-2. For the LSTM model, we assess a range of NLP features using a multi-classification LSTM model, and conclude that the highest performing feature combination consists of word

$n$

-grams, character

$n$

-grams, and dependency tuples. We show that while more recent larger models can achieve a slightly higher performance, increased model complexity alone is not sufficient to achieve significantly improved models. We also compare this approach with a binary classification approach and evaluate the effect of dataset size on model performance.
Athenian Democracy and Distrust
Authors: Schwartzberg Melissa
Published: January 2025

The Currency of Politics is a major contribution to the history of economic thought, a history too often neglected by political theorists. Especially important are Eich’s arguments about the fragility of trust, and the way in which money both enables and undermines such trust. In his words, monetary trust “does not simply imply the enforcement of existing contracts but the realization of a more fundamental, and more equitable, social contract that requires a sharing of sacrifices and benefits. … In a democratic society monetary trust must be tied to a negotiation over justice” (18). In discussing Aristotle and the Greek world, Eich retrieves claims about the role of currency in contributing to reciprocal justice, especially if not exclusively in democracies. Money is a tool of reciprocity and equality—coinage can enable the spread of a “specifically egalitarian political ideology” (37). Money enables us to recognize injustices, and “possibly, amend them. Currency contains within itself the necessary condition for its own improvement” (27).
Geldpolitik
Authors: Chambers Samuel A.
Published: January 2025

The Currency of Politics should: change the way political theorists understand their texts and contexts; lead to the reworking of their concepts and events; and ultimately alter the very subject matter that constitutes their field. For too long the subfield of political theory, along with the whole discipline of political science, has been complicit in the bankrupt project of neoclassical economics. I call modern economics bankrupt because its founding assumptions and fundamental models have repeatedly been proved false, untenable, and unproductive for our understanding of the economic forces and relations that partially constitute the capitalist social orders in which we live. I call political science (and acutely, political theory) complicit because in hiving off economic questions—or worse, “the economy”— and leaving those issues to economists we have reified the very dichotomy between politics and economics that capitalism itself instantiates and exacerbates.1
The Avant-Garde Practices of Gwendolen Bishop
Authors: Shepherd Simon
Published: January 2025

Gwendolen Bishop is a name that appears in the margins of my recent account of the English avant-garde theatre. Prior to that she barely made it even into the margins, and then often with some rather significant indecision as to how actually to spell her name. The aim of this essay is to retrieve her from the margins and bring her more centrally into view. In doing so I consciously weave together her arts practices and her personal life, for these are deeply connected. The making of an avantist culture in early twentieth-century England was done not simply by arts experiments but also by kinds of behavior that challenged dominant ideas. In our Western twenty-first century we note and make much of Edwardian behaviors that contested assumptions about gender and sexuality, but we should note, alongside that, some equally striking challenges to ideas about class. Both are apparent in the Bishop story, which I tell more or less as a biographical narrative. The danger when one recovers a person from the shadows is that, in trying to situate them among their contemporaries, one writes overmuch about those contemporaries, such that our person fades again into the mists. With our biographical focus fixed solidly on her we can, I hope, discover how Gwendolen Bishop made her very particular contribution to this exciting cultural period on the eve of modernism.
Pioneering Turkish Muslim Actresses: Afife Jale and Bedia Muvahhit's Trajectories in the Turkish Stage
Authors: İyibozkurt Elif Baş
Published: January 2025

Emanating beyond the confines of academia, the poignant narrative of the renowned Turkish thespian Afife Jale has garnered widespread recognition within Türkiye. Amid a pantheon of successors, her tale stands as the most profoundly heartrending. It has been immortalized through theatrical productions and cinematic adaptations. Despite the widespread familiarity with her story, the enigmatic underpinnings of her tragedy have perpetually shrouded it in mystery. In an effort to cast light upon the chronicle of her life, a convergence of political and societal truths has emerged. Afife Jale's story, in its very essence, embodies the ideals expounded by Joan W. Scott. The realm of feminist historiography endeavors to bring prominence to women's narratives, elucidating their endeavors to champion their entitlements and autonomy within historical contexts. It seeks to delve into the causalities behind the historical obscurity that has veiled women's contributions, while also revealing the obstructions that have curtailed their authority and efficacy. This article aspires to achieve this objective by scrutinizing the careers of the first Turkish Muslim actresses, Afife Jale (1902–41) and Bedia Muvahhit (1896–1994), who commenced their artistic journeys at the onset of the twentieth century. Whereas Afife Jale's stage debut in 1920 coincided with the twilight of Ottoman rule, Bedia Muvahhit made her inaugural appearance in 1923, the very year that saw the founding of the Turkish Republic. Despite this seemingly minor difference, the professional journeys of these two actresses were characterized by stark disparities. Afife Jale bore the weight of authoritarian oppression and persecution, and her legacy remained largely overlooked, even after the Turkish Republic was founded. In contrast, Bedia Muvahhit thrived under the patronage and backing of the political elite, leading to a lengthy and prosperous career.
Okinawan Absence: Ma in Kumiodori
Authors: DOBKOWSKA SYLWIA
Published: January 2025

This article considers the Okinawan aesthetic of Kumiodori and the role of absence in making a performance. There are two case studies of Kumiodori performances selected for this article, both written by the maker of this theatre style – Tamagusuku Chōkun. I watched both performances of Kōkō no Maki and Nidō Tekiuchi in the National Theatre in Okinawa. I discuss the concept of absence, described as ma (間), through the theory and the interpretation of those performances. The article begins with a brief outline of Kumiodori and the cultural context of the Ryukyu Kingdom, followed by description of the concept of ma in literature, live performance and the culture in general. Finally, two case studies are introduced. The article aims to present an example of the Okinawan version of ma in theatre.
Honour and Reputation as Gender Politics in Ali Abdel-Nabi Al Zaidi's Rubbish (1995) and Amir Al-Azraki's The Widow (2014)
Authors: NASER ALYAA A. , MIDHIN MAJEED MOHAMMED
Published: January 2025

The two related notions of honour and reputation are closely associated with the social status of individuals (male or female), particularly in a society governed by traditional, patriarchal moral values. However, writing about honour and reputation in Iraq (and in the Middle East in general) means talking about women's chastity and their sexual morality specifically. Eclipsing honour and societal reputation to women's bodies are deep-rooted patriarchal norms that stigmatize women's involvement in sexual relations (mainly outside marriage codes) and exclude men from this adultery framework. The current paper investigates the concepts of honour, chastity and reputation in relation to gender norms in Iraq through two contemporary Iraqi plays. First, the article introduces the two concepts through the social, traditional and religious context in the Middle East, focusing on Iraq. The discussion in the second section moves to tackle Ali Al Zaidi's play Rubbish (1995), while the third section deals with Amir Al-Azraki's The Widow (2014). In these two sections the study looks critically at how the two plays dramatize the concepts of honour and chastity through their characters. Being written respectively during and after wars, the two plays are seen as reactions to such issues. Hence they represent the new complex visions of two male perspectives challenging dramatically and shaking the settlement of such notions of morals and their impact on women as well as on society.