bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Beyond host regulation: Changes in gut microbiome of permissive and non-permissive hosts following parasitization by the wasp Cotesia flavipes
Authors: Cavichiolli de Oliveira Nathalia , Cônsoli Fernando Luís
Published: December 2019

Koinobiont parasitoids regulate the physiology of their hosts, possibly interfering with the host gut microbiota and ultimately impacting parasitoid development. We used the parasitoid Cotesia flavipes to investigate if the regulation of the host would also affect the host gut microbiota. We also wondered if the effects of parasitization on the gut microbiota would depend on the host–parasitoid association by testing the permissive Diatraea saccharalis and the non-permissive Spodoptera frugiperda hosts. We determined the structure and potential functional contribution of the gut microbiota of the fore-midgut and hindgut of the hosts at different stages of development of the immature parasitoid. The abundance and diversity of operational taxonomic units of the anteromedial (fore-midgut) gut and posterior (hindgut) region from larvae of the analyzed hosts were affected by parasitization. Changes in the gut microbiota induced by parasitization altered the potential functional contribution of the gut microbiota associated with both hosts. Our data also indicated that the mechanism by which C. flavipes interferes with the gut microbiota of the host does not require a host-parasitoid coevolutionary history. Changes observed in the potential contribution of the gut microbiota of parasitized hosts impact the host's nutritional quality, and could favor host exploitation by C. flavipes.
Efficacy of intermittent short cycles of integrase inhibitor-based maintenance ART in virologically suppressed HIV patients
Authors: Calin Ruxandra , Landowski Stephanie , Valantin Marc-Antoine , Tubiana Roland , Palich Romain , Agher Rachid , Marcou Morgane , Blanc Christine , Katlama Christine , de Truchis Pierre
Published: December 2019

Background

Several studies have shown that NNRTI/PI-based triple therapy could be safely administered as a 4 days (4D) or 5 days (5D) a week maintenance strategy. We report here our experience of using an integrase inhibitor (INSTI)-based 4D/5D regimen in virologically suppressed HIV patients.

Methods

This cohort study enrolled adult patients on ART with viral load (VL) <50 copies/mL for >1 year, who switched to an INSTI-based triple regimen given 4D/5D a week. The primary endpoint was the virological efficacy rate at Week (W) 48, with virological failure defined as confirmed VL ≥50 copies/mL.

Results

A total of 73 patients were included (n = 28 for 4D, n = 45 for 5D): 54 men (74%), median (IQR) age 51 (45–57) years, ART duration 10 (6–18) years and duration of viral suppression 5 (2–9) years at baseline. As of 25 March 2019, the median follow-up was 21 (14–35) months, with a total of 161 patient-years of follow-up; all patients had reached the W24 visit, 66 (90%) W48 and 34 (47%) W96. Four patients discontinued the strategy: virological failure (n = 2) at W60 and W67, respectively, switch for renal toxicity (n = 1) at W28 and switch to rilpivirine/dolutegravir (n = 1) at W65. Overall the rate of virological success (95% CI) was 100% (94%–100%) at W24 and W48 and 93.7% (79.8%–98.2%) at W96.

Conclusions

While waiting for the final results of the large randomized QUATUOR ANRS-170 study, our real-life results suggest that the use of an intermittent maintenance triple-drug regimen given as a weekend (2 or 3 days) off is as effective with an INSTI-based regimen as with a PI or an NNRTI.
When antibiotics fail: a clinical and microbiological perspective on antibiotic tolerance and persistence of Staphylococcus aureus
Authors: Kuehl Richard , Morata Laura , Meylan Sylvain , Mensa Josep , Soriano Alex
Published: December 2019

Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen causing a vast array of infections with significant mortality. Its versatile physiology enables it to adapt to various environments. Specific physiological changes are thought to underlie the frequent failure of antimicrobial therapy despite susceptibility in standard microbiological assays. Bacteria capable of surviving high antibiotic concentrations despite having a genetically susceptible background are described as ‘antibiotic tolerant’. In this review, we put current knowledge on environmental triggers and molecular mechanisms of increased antibiotic survival of S. aureus into its clinical context. We discuss animal and clinical evidence of its significance and outline strategies to overcome infections with antibiotic-tolerant S. aureus.
Insufficient Knowledge in Kunduz: The Precautionary Principle and International Humanitarian Law
Authors: Marchant Emma J
Published: December 2019

The targeting protocols applied by forces during armed conflict are some of the most secretive documents held by any military. However, their role in applying principles of international humanitarian law (IHL) means that they are key to understanding their development. This piece is primarily concerned with practical and operational application of the precautionary principle under IHL; how much knowledge is sufficient to carry out an attack lawfully during modern armed conflict. In order to establish if a standard has developed with the increase in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technology, this piece uses the framework of an investigation into an incident in Kunduz, Afghanistan in 2009. I explore the difficulties of obtaining information post-incident, the differential standards expected by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Bundesgerichtshof (German Federal Court of Justice), and the manner in which these can be evaluated through the principles of proportionality, distinction and precautions in attack. The piece looks at the interrelated issues raised by the Rules of Engagement and Tactical Directives, as well as the problems surrounding the clarity of intelligence available. I argue that this case is demonstrative of the failings inherent in the application and practical use of the precautionary principle outlined by IHL. The lack of transparency afforded in, and after, incidents of this nature prevents objective analysis and so the development of IHL can be obfuscated. I conclude that the lack of information following incidents of this kind confuses any intelligence standard that exists under IHL.
The Political Cost of Being Soft on Crime: Evidence from a Natural Experiment
Authors: Drago Francesco , Galbiati Roberto , Sobbrio Francesco
Published: December 2019

This study analyzes voters’ response to criminal justice policies by exploiting a natural experiment. The 2006 Italian Collective Pardon Bill, designed and promoted by the incumbent center-left (CL) coalition, unexpectedly released about one-third of the prison population, creating idiosyncratic incentives to recidivate across pardoned individuals. Municipalities where resident pardoned individuals had a higher incentive to recidivate experienced a higher recidivism rate. We show that in those municipalities voters “punished” the CL coalition in the 2008 parliamentary elections. A one standard deviation increase in the incentive to recidivate—corresponding to an increase of recidivism of 15.9%—led to a 3.06% increase in the margin of victory of the center-right (CR) coalition in the post-pardon national elections (2008) relative to the last election before the pardon (2006). We also provide evidence of newspapers being more likely to report crime news involving pardoned individuals and of voters hardening their views on the incumbent national government’s ability to control crime. Our findings indicate that voters keep politicians accountable by conditioning their vote on the observed effects of public policies.
PATENT ASSERTION ENTITIES AND EU COMPETITION LAW
Authors: Geradin Damien
Published: December 2019

Patent assertion entities (PAEs) are playing an increasingly active role in Europe. Their activities are controversial in that although they may be a source of efficiencies, they may also create anticompetitive harm. Given the growing trend of operating companies transferring patents to PAEs to increase their licensing revenues, the risks of anticompetitive harm created by PAE activities must be taken seriously. When analyzing the impact of PAE activities on competition, a distinction must be drawn between “pure” PAEs, which acquire patents from a variety of sources and generate revenues by asserting them, and “hybrid” PAEs, which acquire patents from operating companies and maintain a relationship with these companies postacquisition. Although pure PAEs create risks of exploitation, hybrid PAEs create exclusionary concerns as such PAEs may be used by operating companies to harm their rivals on downstream product markets. These exclusionary concerns are particularly serious when the operating company retains a significant degree of control over the PAE’s activities following the transfer of the patents. As there is currently no EU competition case-law on the activities of PAEs, this article attempts to show through hypotheticals that depending on the circumstances of each case, privateering may lead to exclusion.

JEL: K21, K41, L24, L40.
Does Type of Violence Matter for Interventions to Mitigate Mass Atrocities?
Authors: Broache Michael P , Cronin-Furman Kate
Published: December 2019

Preventing and mitigating mass atrocities is a critical challenge in international security. But international interventions to stop mass atrocities have met with mixed success, and the academic literature offers limited guidance on how to improve this record. We argue that more attention must be paid to the nature of violence, specifically whether violence targets identity groups as such or political opponents of the perpetrator more broadly. Using Krain's (2017) data on interventions and mass atrocities, we test for heterogeneous effects of interventions by violence type. We find that while antiperpetrator military interventions can reduce the severity of identity-based violence, nonmilitary actions have negligible effects. By contrast, in cases of politicide, “naming and shaming” is effective, while military intervention is not; neutral and properpetrator military interventions and economic sanctions are ineffective regardless of violence type. We conclude that intervention strategies should be more narrowly tailored on the basis of violence type.
Myelodysplastic Syndrome/Myeloproliferative Neoplasm with Ring Sideroblasts and Thrombocytosis with Cooccurrent SF3B1 and MPL Gene Mutations: A Case Report and Brief Review of the Literature
Authors: Park Chang-Hun , Yun Jae Won , Kim Hyun-Young , Lee Ki-O , Kim Sun-Hee , Kim Hee-Jin
Published: December 2019

Background

Myelodysplastic syndrome/myeloproliferative neoplasm with ring sideroblasts and thrombocytosis (MDS/MPN-RS-T) is a new disease entity in the current WHO classification. Genetically, 60%–90% of cases have mutations in SF3B1, strongly associated with RS, and more than half of them cooccur with JAK2 V617F. This report describes the rare case of MDS/MPN-RS-T with SF3B1 mutation cooccurring with an MPL mutation.

Methods

We report a 79-year-old man who was referred because of generalized edema. Peripheral blood testing showed macrocytic anemia and thrombocytosis, and bone marrow analysis demonstrated dyserythropoiesis with RS and increased megakaryocytes. A molecular study was performed to detect SF3B1 mutations and recurrent mutations in MPN disease (JAK2 V617F/exon 12, CALR gene exon 9, and MPL gene exon 10 mutations).

Results

The molecular study revealed SF3B1 K666T and MPL W515R mutations, while BCR-ABL1 or JAK2 V617F/exon 12 and CALR mutations were all negative.

Conclusion

This is a rare case of concomitant SF3B1 and MPL mutations in MDS/MPN-RS-T.
Expanding the type IIB DNA topoisomerase family: identification of new topoisomerase and topoisomerase-like proteins in mobile genetic elements
Authors: Takahashi Diane T , Da Cunha Violette , Krupovic Mart , Mayer Claudine , Forterre Patrick , Gadelle Danièle
Published: December 2019

The control of DNA topology by DNA topoisomerases is essential for virtually all DNA transactions in the cell. These enzymes, present in every organism, exist as several non-homologous families. We previously identified a small group of atypical type IIB topoisomerases, called Topo VIII, mainly encoded by plasmids. Here, taking advantage of the rapid expansion of sequence databases, we identified new putative Topo VIII homologs. Our analyses confirm the exclusivity of the corresponding genes to mobile genetic elements (MGE) and extend their distribution to nine different bacterial phyla and one archaeal superphylum. Notably, we discovered another subfamily of topoisomerases, dubbed ‘Mini-A’, including distant homologs of type IIB topoisomerases and encoded by extrachromosomal and integrated bacterial and archaeal viruses. Interestingly, a short, functionally uncharacterized motif at the C-terminal extremity of type IIB topoisomerases appears sufficient to discriminate between Mini-A, Topo VI and Topo VIII subfamilies. This motif could be a key element for understanding the differences between the three subfamilies. Collectively, this work leads to an updated model for the origin and evolution of the type IIB topoisomerase family and raises questions regarding the role of topoisomerases during replication of MGE in bacteria and archaea.
Au23(CR)14 nanocluster restores fibril Aβ’s unfolded state with abolished cytotoxicity and dissolves endogenous Aβ plaques
Authors: Zhang Wenkang , Gao Guanbin , Ma Zhongjie , Luo Zhuoying , He Meng , Sun Taolei
Published: December 2019

The misfolding of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides from the natural unfolded state to β-sheet structure is a critical step, leading to abnormal fibrillation and formation of endogenous Aβ plaques in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Previous studies have reported inhibition of Aβ fibrillation or disassembly of exogenous Aβ fibrils in vitro. However, soluble Aβ oligomers have been reported with increased cytotoxicity; this might partly explain why current clinical trials targeting disassembly of Aβ fibrils by anti-Aβ antibodies have failed so far. Here we show that Au23(CR)14 (a new Au nanocluster modified by Cys-Arg (CR) dipeptide) is able to completely dissolve exogenous mature Aβ fibrils into monomers and restore the natural unfolded state of Aβ peptides from misfolded β-sheets. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity of Aβ40 fibrils when dissolved by Au23(CR)14 is fully abolished. More importantly, Au23(CR)14 is able to completely dissolve endogenous Aβ plaques in brain slices from transgenic AD model mice. In addition, Au23(CR)14 has good biocompatibility and infiltration ability across the blood–brain barrier. Taken together, this work presents a promising therapeutics candidate for AD treatment, and manifests the potential of nanotechnological approaches in the development of nanomedicines.
The Classical Guitar Companion
Authors: Berg Christopher
Published: December 2019

The Classical Guitar Companion is an anthology of exercises, études, and pieces organized according to technique or musical texture. Students are encouraged to work in multiple chapters, simultaneously depending on advice from a teacher or their own assessment of what they need. The author’s dual perspective, as an active performing artist and as a teacher who has trained hundreds of guitarists, results in a combination of pedagogical thoroughness and artistic insight. The book opens with a large section devoted to establishing a thorough knowledge of the guitar fingerboard through a systematic and rigorous study of scales and fingerboard harmony, which will lead to ease and fluency in sight-reading and reduce the time needed to learn a repertoire piece. The chapters cover scales exercises and studies, repeated notes, slurs, harmony, arpeggios, melody with accompaniment, counterpoint, and florid/virtuoso studies. Each section contains text and examples that connect material to fingering practices of composers and practice strategies to open a path to interpretive freedom in performance. Exploring advice found in the standard pedagogical literature for guitar that effectively places constraints on a student’s long-term development, the book offers information designed to help students recognize and overcome these constraints. When the book presents the simple version of a technique, it does so through consideration of the technique’s advanced version. Many guitar composers are represented but there are also transcriptions of relevant lute music that expand the scope of the book. The book is designed to serve as a companion for years of guitar study.
Repeated Notes
Authors: Berg Christopher
Published: December 2019

Repeated notes are used frequently in compositions for the guitar as a way to provide the illusion of greater sustain or as a technique to add brilliance. Modern guitarists usually think of tremolo technique when they think of repeated notes, but tremolo technique is relatively recent. This chapter documents the practices used by early lutenists and 19th-century guitarists to play repeated notes and it provides material for studying the various ways these musicians developed their techniques. The discussion of Fernando Sor’s use of the right-hand thumb and index finger for repeated notes will be of interest to today’s guitarists. This chapter also explores the ways in which 19th-century guitarists played passages that modern guitarists might assume to be examples of modern tremolo technique. The fingering practices in this chapter are not covered in standard modern method books.
Slurs
Authors: Berg Christopher
Published: December 2019

Explanations of slur technique, known also as ligado, in guitar methods tend to be limited. This chapter looks at what Matteo Carcassi and Ferdinando Carulli called “vibration” or “´écho” slurs, which allow players to keep slurs aligned with strong and weak beats. Other composers, such as Felix Horetsky and Mauro Giuliani, indicated slurs that occur across beats as left-hand fingers slur all notes on a string within a position, regardless of the metric divisions. Music in this chapter explores both of these idiomatic techniques. The chapter concludes with an in-depth look at advanced slur technique by examining the relationship between where the left-hand fingertip contacts the string and the path the left-hand finger must take after the slur. Included are original diagrams and original exercises.
Counterpoint
Authors: Berg Christopher
Published: December 2019

The technique required to perform counterpoint convincingly on the guitar is not idiomatic to the instrument. Left-hand fingers must be able to sustain one note while other fingers move to form other notes. In order to take advantage of the instrument’s contrapuntal capabilities, guitarists need to design meticulous fingerings that are connected to musical intent for both hands. This chapter first looks at two-voice pieces by Enriquez de Valderrabano, Mauro Giuliani, Marco Aurelio Zani de Ferranti, and Dionisio Aguado and then proceeds to explore pieces by Fernando Sor that make use of freistimmigkeit textures. The chapter concludes with a recercar by Giovanni Maria da Crema and four fantasias by Francesco da Milano, the latter being some of the finest sixteenth-century lute music. Music in this chapter requires increasingly developed left-hand finger independence.
Florid or Virtuoso Études
Authors: Berg Christopher
Published: December 2019

Most of the music in The Classical Guitar Companion makes use of the same technique or musical texture throughout. High-level virtuoso playing requires that guitarists become adept at navigating ever-changing musical textures and the techniques required to produce them. Florid or virtuoso études present the challenges of combining and switching between various technical elements, such as arpeggios, scales, slurs, and shifts, at rapid tempi. Of special interest is the brief discussion of “latency” at high speeds, which is applicable to these studies, and how virtuoso players transcend the limits of the central nervous system when initiating a movement or series of movements that must occur in less time than it takes for the signal to move to get from the brain to the hands (100 milliseconds).
What Next?
Authors: Berg Christopher
Published: December 2019

The final chapter poses questions to readers who have successfully navigated material in the book in the interests of determining the steps best suited for their long-term artistic development: Do I have the foundational background to study successfully my next repertoire piece? Do I have the experience to make artistic and nuanced decisions, or will my ear be compromised by a struggling, exercise-like reading of a work? Am I only drawn to the type of music that comes easily to me, or am I willing to strike out in new directions? The answers may highlight differences between unexamined received wisdom and critical thinking. It is in these differences that a student’s development as an artist can begin to take flight.
Practical Knowledge
Authors: Schwenkler John
Published: December 2019

This chapter discusses the argument of Sections 44-48 of G.E.M. Anscombe’s Intention. It begins by situating her appeal to the concept of practical knowledge in relation to the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. Following this, the chapter shows how several elements in Aquinas’ account are drawn on by Anscombe in her argument that an agent’s self-knowledge of her act is “the cause of what it understands”. It is argued that Anscombe meant to characterize an agent’s practical knowledge as both formal and efficient cause of its object. Finally, the chapter considers whether Anscombe succeeds in defending her thesis that intentional action is necessarily known without observation. Here it is argued, first, that knowledge of one’s act is not a strict requirement of doing something intentionally, and second, that the role of observation in an agent’s self-knowledge is different from that of evidence in observational knowledge of the world.
Apollo as a New Paradigm for Kingship
Authors: Brumbaugh Michael
Published: December 2019

This chapter details how Kallimachos resumes the patron/client discourse from the Hymn to Zeus in the Hymn to Apollo by depicting a hierarchy linking Apollo, the narrator-poet, and the chorus he leads. Here, however, Kallimachos revises the relationship between Apollo and his traditional client. Instead of simply detailing the similarities between the poet and Apollo, as he did in his first hymn, Kallimachos casts the poet as a gatekeeper, controlling access to the god’s transformative gifts. In his place, Kallimachos sets the founder-king as Apollo’s client. In the context of likening “my own king” to Apollo, the narrator-poet issues a gnomic admonition against striving with the gods. Echoing the Iliad, Kallimachos uses the intertext to engage in a discussion about humans with pretentions of godlikeness, in which he implicitly validates Ptolemy’s claims to divinity. By contrast, Kallimachos situates the ἀλιτρός, “transgressor,” in the Hymn to Apollo and the Hymn to Artemis as an anti-client who arrogantly oversteps his bounds. Kallimachos substitutes the harmful strife associated with such transgressors for the conflict traditionally associated with members of the divine family, as in the Homeric Hymns where there are constant reminders of the forces that might bring down Zeus’ regime. Intra-family strife is instead portrayed ironically, as with Artemis and Apollo’s charming sibling rivalry in the third hymn. In this way, Kallimachos depicts the divine family and its clients as unified in their opposition to external enemies who are unambiguously wicked.
Hope in America?
Authors: Stitzlein Sarah M.
Published: December 2019

This chapter describes the contemporary political landscape in America, where political despair is growing as citizens increasingly feel cynical about our political system, skeptical that they can impact public policy, and distrustful of their peers and leaders. It offers insight into some of the conditions causing political despair, including structural inequality, disconnect between polarized citizens, pursuit of personal material goods, and apathy. It shows how citizens often get swept up in campaign rhetoric, but quickly find themselves disappointed because the form of hope they endorse is not one that they actually act on in their lives. It traces presidential campaign slogans and speeches related to hope and suggests that we need a more sustainable alternative in order to truly support democracy.
Hope as Habits
Authors: Stitzlein Sarah M.
Published: December 2019

This chapter explains that hope is not something that one merely holds or asserts, but rather is a way of life. This chapter focuses in on the unique pragmatist view of habits as proclivities and predispositions to act. Drawing on the work of philosopher John Dewey, this chapter explains how habits are formed and nurtured as well as changed through inquiry and reflection. It argues that hope is best understood as a set of habits that predispose citizens toward possibility and change for the betterment of each citizen and, often, others. The chapter explains how this understanding of hope is more deeply social and political than the individualist notions typically used. By linking citizens in action to each other, hope as habits chart new paths for reviving democracy, in part by building trust and agency among citizens. The chapter closes out by noting some of the benefits and shortcomings of a pragmatist account of political hope, some of which are most pronounced in the struggles of citizens of color.
The Legitimacy of Representation
Authors: Dienstag Joshua Foa
Published: December 2019

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance examines the classic democratic paradox and proposes an unusual resolution. How can representation be legitimate, many democratic theorists have asked, when it rests on political exclusions? Rather than a legitimacy that rests on voting rules or legal obligations, we see in this film the bond between a society and its representative forged as an erotic relationship of debt and obligation. A good representative, on this account, is someone who sacrifices part of his or her identity for the sake of others. The means for doing so is a narrative that gathers together reason and power into an expression that ties the representative to the constituents. But this experience is costly for all parties, and it demonstrates the permanent tension between freedom and happiness that is a feature of political pessimism. Representative systems are sustained by our endurance of this tension.
Representing Evil
Authors: Dienstag Joshua Foa
Published: December 2019

The films of Lars von Trier, especially Europa and Melancholia, grapple with the problem of representing evil and insist that the avoidance of evil is a failure of representation. Evil presents a peculiar problem for any theory of political representation. Is a political society the better for including the representation of evil or avoiding it? Von Trier’s films address this problem by depicting evil as something omnipresent and yet difficult for some to see or to acknowledge. To be a faithful representative in a world that contains evil is not an easy vocation. A representative may have the unpopular task of bringing to light not just what a population says or thinks, but what they are in the whole, for better or worse. A good representative, then, may not be a popular one.
Transcendent Parenting
Authors: Lim Sun Sun
Published: December 2019

In digitally connected middle-class households with school-going children, from toddlers through varsity students, the practice of transcendent parenting has arisen. Smartphones and other mobile devices virtually accompany families through all aspects of their everyday existence. The growing sophistication of mobile communication has unleashed a proliferation of apps, channels, and platforms that link parents to their children and key institutions in their lives. Throughout every stage of their children’s development, from infancy to adolescence to emerging adulthood, mobile communication plays an increasingly critical role in family life. Transcendent parenting has emerged in light of significant transformations in the mobile media landscape that allow parents to transcend many realms: the physical distance between them and their children, their children’s offline and online social interaction spaces, as well as timeless time that renders parenting duties ceaseless. In mobile communication, parents parent all over and all of the time, whether their children are by their side or out of sight. Drawing on experiences of urban middle-class families in Asia, this book shows how transcendent parenting embodies and conveys parenting priorities in these households. Paramount are the inculcation of values in their children, oversight of children to protect them from harm, adverse influences, and supporting their children in academic endeavors. It explores how mobile communication allows parents to be more involved than ever in their children’s lives but also questions whether parents have become too involved as a result. It further reflects on the consequences of transcendent parenting for parents’ well-being and children’s personal development.
Transcendent Parenting and the Media-Rich Household
Authors: Lim Sun Sun
Published: December 2019

This first chapter introduces the concept of transcendent parenting and how it emerges out of the media-rich household in Asia. It defines transcendent parenting—what constitutes it and how it is manifested in parenting practices through always on, always available mobile media. It then covers the landscape of media use in urban middle-class households in Asia, from China to South Korea to Vietnam, with a focus on Singapore. This is followed by a discussion on typical media-use patterns throughout the child’s life, from preschool to emerging adulthood. It ends with an outline of the remaining book chapters.
The Dropout Prevention Specialist Workbook
Authors: Blonsky Howard M.
Published: December 2019

This workbook is intended for school social workers and others who find themselves in positions either in a school or school district, working in the area of attendance improvement and dropout prevention and recovery. It is intended as a practical guide to going about actually doing this complex, multifaceted, and very important job. Many books and articles have been written regarding why students drop out of school, along with numerous suggestions for how to address this nationwide problem, but none has provided detailed directions for actually going into a school and beginning the task of tackling this challenging problem.
School Climate and Culture and Its Relationship to Dropout Prevention
Authors: Blonsky Howard M.
Published: December 2019

This chapter describes how a positive school climate can contribute to students bonding with and staying in the school. It also describes how a negative or “toxic” school climate can contribute to the dropout problem. The chapter looks at the important role of teacher(s) and how they contribute to students staying in or leaving school prior to graduation. The chapter also looks at school climate as a “therapeutic intervention.”
Building Comprehensive Dropout Prevention and Recovery/Re-Entry Programs
Authors: Blonsky Howard M.
Published: December 2019

This chapter looks at effective strategies and programs that have proved successful in addressing and preventing students dropping out of school. It cites the findings of the What Works Clearinghouse with regard to various programs and whether they were found to show evidence of effectiveness.
Introduction
Authors: Ayoub Samy A.
Published: December 2019

It is the contention of this book that analysis of Islamic law and society on the basis of a supposed epistemological conflict between law and imperial power is simplistic and inaccurate in the Ottoman context. Instead, Ottoman jurists (and late Ḥanafī jurisprudence in particular) viewed Ottoman imperial enactments as authoritative and legitimate expressions of power. Late Ḥanafīs affirmed that Ottoman subjects were morally obligated to obey the sultan. However, they stressed that this authority was not absolute and that its validity was contingent on its meeting objectives of the sharīʿa, such as fairness and justice.
Policy as Practice
Authors: Schmidt Patrick
Published: December 2019

Policy as Practice: A Guide for Music Educators explores how policy impacts the lives of teachers, arguing that policy participation can matter greatly to how educational experiences are constructed. Articulating a progressive view of policy and its intersection with music education, the book helps the reader to see how policy as a concept and practice has permeated the deepest recesses of civil society and has had particular impact on the lives of those who are actively connected to the educational process. Indeed, for teachers, policy often evokes images of a forbidden or alien environment; it has been seen as above their pay grade, beyond their duties and responsibilities, or outside the reach of their capacities. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. Challenging these assumptions, the book serves as a guide to those interested in the potential of policy and concerned with rethinking its meaning. Just as critically, it aims to help music teachers understand policy more broadly while providing doorways into policy practice. The goal is not to add policy conceptualization and practice to the myriad other requirements that befall teachers today. Rather, the book aims to position policy thinking and practice as already part of what they do and value, providing tools for music educators to own their place as participants and contributors to the policy process. The book offers a measured argument, providing conceptual and research-based findings in balance with practical exemplification, strengthening music teachers’ impact within learning and professional communities.
Becoming Part of the Policy Process
Authors: Schmidt Patrick
Published: December 2019

In this chapter, a number of issues discussed throughout the book return to the forefront. The chapter presents a final argument as to how policy knowhow is connected to an effort to bring synergy to the professional work of music educators. The chapter further explores these synergies and how they are present in the daily work of music teachers, offering some strategic ways to consider policy as a practice. The main message in this chapter is that schools and communities of learning are interdependent systems, dependent on what our contexts demand and offer. The chapter invites music teachers not to “close their doors” but rather to move toward local policy participation, discovering how they may contribute to the educational environment that surrounds them.
Introduction
Authors: Stanwood Owen
Published: December 2019

The introduction begins with the story of Élie Neau, to show how Huguenots promoted themselves as religious heroes but were also political actors who used their myriad connections in a world of states and empires to forge a place for themselves over a century of tribulation. Surveying the material of the book, the introduction defines Huguenots as “chosen people” in two senses. They viewed themselves as God’s elect, destined to do great things in the world, but they also promoted themselves as economic chosen people, whose talents could help develop the far reaches of the world in the service of other people’s empires.
Disappearing to Survive
Authors: Stanwood Owen
Published: December 2019

In the wake of war Huguenot communities in the Indies seemed to disappear. Faced with pressures to conform, the refugees and their descendants tended to adopt the language and manners of their English or Dutch neighbors. This chapter examines this assimilation and concludes that it was above all a strategy for survival in an imperial world, one that foretold the transformation but not the end of the Huguenot Refuge. The chapter looks at several case studies of Huguenot communities in the Cape Colony, New York, Virginia, and South Carolina, all of which were marked by disputes between Huguenots and also with their imperial masters, who often sought to undermine Huguenot independence. The results were uneven, however. Huguenots remained attached to their larger cause, even as they became less overt about their separate identity.
Staging Ethnologic Dance
Authors: Kowal Rebekah J.
Published: December 2019

Chapter 2 examines La Meri’s controversial legacy in American concert dance. An Anglo-American dance artist who specialized in Asian and Latin American dance practices, La Meri fashioned herself as a dance polyglot, having studied with instructors at stops along the way of her worldwide performance tours in the 1920s and 1930s. When World War II commenced in Europe, La Meri settled in New York City in 1940 and established herself as one of the world’s foremost ethnologic performers. This chapter investigates debates that surrounded La Meri in the 1940s to illuminate the tensions that developed between so-called ethnic dance and modern dance, on the one hand, and cultural formations of whiteness, on the other.
Introduction
Authors: Kowal Rebekah J.
Published: December 2019

In 1948, New York City celebrated the unification of its five boroughs with a Golden Jubilee Celebration, organized by Grover Whelan, who had directed the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Included in the slate of events was an international dance festival, produced by famed impresario, Sol Hurok. The Introduction investigates the phenomenon of the international dance festival to mobilize its central contentions about the cultural significance of international dance performance and embodied cultural otherness in mid-century America. In this case, the international dance festival amplified New York City’s global cultural dominance while at the same time symbolizing the contributions of diverse peoples to the city’s rich cultural life. Moreover, as illustrated, international dance performance on concert stages in New York City and elsewhere in the US contributed to broad scale national efforts to enhance America’s image on the geopolitical stage. Additionally, the Introduction identifies and defines key terminology used throughout the book and establishes the book’s seminal argument, that aesthetic and cultural debates over the meanings of international dance performances in the mid-century proxy larger national struggles over how to become a diverse and multicultural society.
Deference
Authors: Lawson Gary , Seidman Guy I.
Published: December 2019

Deference is perhaps the most important concept and practice in law. It lies at the core of every system of precedent, appellate review, federalism, and separation of powers, all of which center on how one actor should deal with previous decisions. Oddly enough, deference is also one of the most underanalyzed and undertheorized legal concepts and practices, perhaps because its applications are so varied. This book’s goal is to provide a definition of and vocabulary for deference that can be used to describe, explain, and/or criticize deference in all of its manifestations in the law, including some manifestations that are not always identified by legal actors as instances of deference, such as practices of precedent in which institutional actors consider their own prior decisions. This book undertakes a descriptive and conceptual, not normative or critical, analysis of deference. It leaves to others the question whether deference, in any particular context, is “legitimate” or “bad,” and it does not seek to prescribe whether and how any legal system should apply deference in any specific circumstance or to critique any particular deference doctrines. Rather, it hopes to bring the very concept of deference to the forefront of legal discussion; to identify, catalogue, and analyze at least the chief among its many legal applications; to set forth the many and varied rationales that can be and have been offered in support of (some species of) deference in different legal contexts; and thereby to provide a vocabulary and conceptual framework that can be employed in future projects, whether those projects are descriptive or prescriptive. While this book draws its material almost entirely from American law and practice, we hope in future work, perhaps with the help of other scholars, to expand the study to include the law and practice in other countries and particularly in non-common-law legal systems.
Other Views of the Cathedral
Authors: Lawson Gary , Seidman Guy I.
Published: December 2019

Many other authors have attempted to define deference, though none of those definitions were grounded in a full description of the practices of US federal courts. Many of those other efforts were overtly normative, aimed at deriving an ideal structure for deference that can be used to criticize actual practices. Nonetheless, some of those efforts offer valuable insights even for a purely descriptive project. We reject efforts to limit the definition of deference only to instances in which the deferring body changes its decision in some way; mere consideration of another’s decision is sufficient to constitute deference. From Paul Horwitz we take the idea that deferees must be attentive to their role in a system of deference, and from Aileen Kavanaugh we take the idea that deference can sometimes be justified on prudential, or strategic, grounds. But consideration of others’ views does not change our basic definition of deference as: “The giving by a legal actor of some measure of consideration or weight to the decision of another actor in exercising the deferring actor’s function.”
The Pogroms of the Civil War and the Soviet-Jewish Alliance
Authors: Bemporad Elissa
Published: December 2019

Chapter 1 dissects the genocidal impulses that emerged during the Russian Civil War, in reaction to the Bolshevik Revolution, through a series of case studies in the ethnography of violence. The close-up examination of anti-Jewish violence in one place helps underscore the rationale for the Jewish alliance with Soviet power. This chapter sheds light on the long-term effects of these pogroms—in particular on the legacy of sexual violence against Jewish women and girls, a common feature of this violence. These pogroms triggered the redistribution of the Jewish population away from the former Pale of Settlement. But aside from a geographic resettlement, the pogroms also prompted an emotional resettlement: many responded to the trauma of destruction and rape, searching for anonymity, assimilation, and Sovietization through a symbiotic relationship with the state. A foundational experience for Soviet Jews, the pogroms hastened their process of urbanization, encouraging ideological and cultural choices and erasures.
How the Ritual Murder Accusation Persisted in the Soviet Landscape
Authors: Bemporad Elissa
Published: December 2019

Chapter 4 explains the endurance and permutation of the ritual murder accusation in the Soviet landscape of the interwar years. The occurrence of the blood libel epitomizes some aspects of the nature of the Bolshevik experiment, and becomes an indicator of the limits (and triumphs) of the Soviet attempt to modernize society. Ritual murder accusations grew out of the power of slander and denunciatory frenzy that enveloped Soviet society. But the accusation also resulted from the encounter between Jews and peasants in the context of a system that violently promoted urbanization and new socioeconomic structures. The intensity of the anti-religious propaganda inadvertently played a role in maintaining this powerful anti-Jewish myth, as the attack on circumcision and kosher slaughtering reinforced anti-Jewish stereotypes. Finally, the transformation of ritual murder echoes the process of Jewish women’s empowerment: only in Soviet society could Jewish women become perpetrators of ritual murder.
Looking Up and Ahead
Authors: Suls Jerry , Wheeler Ladd
Published: December 2019

This chapter describes how integrating attribution processes with social comparison theory resolves some long-standing ambiguities about the role of similarity and motives in Festinger’s original theory. The Goethals and Darley attributional reformulation, which clarified some of these ambiguities, is first described, along with a brief survey of empirical evidence. Then, the proxy model of ability comparison and the triadic model of opinion comparison, which expand on the attributional reformulation, are reviewed. A major focus of proxy and the triadic theories is identifying the specific questions social comparisons can answer: “Can I do X?”, “Am I correct about X?”, “Do I like or agree with X?”, and “Will I like X?” A central theme is that the tendency to compare to those who perform better or ahead of us (i.e., tried “X” before we did) is adaptive. This approach leads us to the conclusion that motives for self-knowledge and for self-enhancement, which have long been considered to be opposing motives, are intertwined.
Envy and Social Comparison
Authors: de Ven Niels van , Zeelenberg Marcel
Published: December 2019

Upward social comparison can give rise to the emotion of envy: the pain caused by the good fortune of others. This chapter explains what envy is and what the possible function of envy is to an organism experiencing it. The authors provide an overview of past work on envy, the distinction between two subtypes (benign and malicious envy), possible antecedents of envy, possible consequences of envy, and the responses to being envied by others. In each of these areas, there are clear links to research on social comparison and research on envy has greatly benefited from insights from the social comparison literature. Given the surge in research on envy in the last decade, the authors hope that the findings on envy inspires those investigating social comparisons.
Approaches to Comparison and Their Influence on Social Comparison
Authors: Markman Arthur B.
Published: December 2019

Cognitive psychology identifies different assumptions about the mental representations that form the basis of theories of comparison. Each representation requires a different process to generate a comparison, and both the computational complexity and the output of the different processes differ. Spatial models require a low-complexity process but only reveal the distance between points representing individuals. Featural models are more intensive than spatial comparisons but provide access to particular commonalities and differences. Structural models are more computationally intensive but support a distinction between alignable and nonalignable differences. Social comparison theories make assumptions about how knowledge is represented, but they are rarely explicit about the type of comparison process that is likely to be involved. The merging of work on social comparison with more explicit cognitive science theories of comparison science has the potential to both identify gaps in the literature and expand our knowledge about how comparison operates in social settings. This chapter first discusses the concept of mental representation and then addresses spatial models of comparison, featured models of comparison, structural models of comparison, transformation models. The chapter concludes with a discussion of similarity models and social comparison.