bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Veritable electronic characteristics in ZnO nanowire circuits uncovered by the four-terminal method at a low temperature
Authors: Li Xin , Zhang Qi
Published: April 2017

Understanding the natural electrical properties in semiconductor channels and the carrier transport across the metal-semiconductor contact is essential to improve the performance of nanowire devices. This work presents the true electronic characteristics of ZnO nanowire devices measured by a four-electrode method at a low-temperature environment. The temperature rise leads to the decrease in near-band-gap emission, which is attributed to two non-radiative recombination processes. For ZnO circuits, thermionic emission carrier transport mechanism plays a dominant role at Ti-Au/ZnO interface and the transport mechanism in ZnO nanowires is governed by two competitive thermal activation conduction processes: optical or acoustic phonons assisting hopping.
Lignocellulose pretreatment in a fungus-cultivating termite
Authors: Li Hongjie , Yelle Daniel J. , Li Chang , Yang Mengyi , Ke Jing , Zhang Ruijuan , Liu Yu , Zhu Na , Liang Shiyou , Mo Xiaochang , Ralph John , Currie Cameron R. , Mo Jianchu
Published: April 2017

Significance

Fungus-cultivating termites are icons of ecologically successful herbivores in (sub)tropical ecosystems, cultivating
Termitomyces
fungi for overcoming the rigid lignin barrier of wood resources. To date, research on these ectosymbiotic fungi has only identified laccases, rather than the typical ligninolytic peroxidases. Using 2D gel-state NMR, we chemically tracked the fate of lignin from the original poplar wood throughout the complex food-processing system in a farming termite. We found young worker termites rapidly depolymerize and degrade even the most recalcitrant wood lignin structures, facilitating polysaccharide cleavage by symbiotic fungi. These results suggest that the natural systems for lignin degradation/pretreatment are far beyond the systems currently recognized and are potential sources of novel ligninolytic agents, enabling more efficient plant cell wall utilization.
TSLP-activated dendritic cells induce human T follicular helper cell differentiation through OX40-ligand
Authors: Pattarini Lucia , Trichot Coline , Bogiatzi Sofia , Grandclaudon Maximilien , Meller Stephan , Keuylian Zela , Durand Melanie , Volpe Elisabetta , Madonna Stefania , Cavani Andrea , Chiricozzi Andrea , Romanelli Marco , Hori Toshiyuki , Hovnanian Alain , Homey Bernhard , Soumelis Vassili
Published: April 2017

T follicular helper cells (Tfh) are important regulators of humoral responses. Human Tfh polarization pathways have been thus far associated with Th1 and Th17 polarization pathways. How human Tfh cells differentiate in Th2-skewed environments is unknown. We show that thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP)–activated dendritic cells (DCs) promote human Tfh differentiation from naive CD4 T cells. We identified a novel population, distinct from Th2 cells, expressing IL-21 and TNF, suggestive of inflammatory cells. TSLP-induced T cells expressed CXCR5, CXCL13, ICOS, PD1, BCL6, BTLA, and SAP, among other Tfh markers. Functionally, TSLP-DC–polarized T cells induced IgE secretion by memory B cells, and this depended on IL-4Rα. TSLP-activated DCs stimulated circulating memory Tfh cells to produce IL-21 and CXCL13. Mechanistically, TSLP-induced Tfh differentiation depended on OX40-ligand, but not on ICOS-ligand. Our results delineate a pathway of human Tfh differentiation in Th2 environments.
Generating random factored ideals in number fields
Authors: Charles Zachary
Published: April 2017

We present a randomized polynomial-time algorithm to generate an ideal and its factorization uniformly at random in a given number field. We do this by generating a random integer and its factorization according to the distribution of norms of ideals at most

N
N

in the given number field. Using this randomly generated norm, we can produce a random factored ideal in the ring of algebraic integers uniformly at random among ideals with norm up to

N
N

, in randomized polynomial time. We also present a variant of this algorithm for generating random factored ideals in function fields.
From semigroups to subelliptic estimates for quadratic operators
Authors: Hitrik Michael , Pravda-Starov Karel , Viola Joe
Published: April 2017

Using an approach based on the techniques of FBI transforms, we give a new simple proof of the global subelliptic estimates for non-self-adjoint nonelliptic quadratic differential operators, under a natural averaging condition on the Weyl symbols of the operators, established by the second author in Subelliptic estimates for quadratic differential operators (Amer. J. Math. 133 (2011), no. 1, 39–89). The loss of the derivatives in the subelliptic estimates depends directly on algebraic properties of the Hamilton maps of the quadratic symbols. Using the FBI point of view, we also give accurate smoothing estimates of Gelfand–Shilov type for the associated heat semigroup in the limit of small times.
3. Facing wars, confronting threats: the UN Security Council in action
Authors: Hanhimäki Jussi M.
Published: April 2017

There has not been a World War III, so has the United Nations been successful? Alternatively, no day has gone by since 1945 without a military conflict somewhere around the world, so has the UN been unsuccessful? ‘Facing wars, confronting threats: the UN Security Council in action’ considers whether the existence and proliferation of nuclear weapons has acted as a deterrent against a direct military confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Security Council is not irrelevant, but it can only be effective when the five permanent members (China, France, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States) are in agreement. Despite this, the UN has been remarkably successful and active.
5. Was America different?
Authors: Allison Robert J.
Published: April 2017

America differed from the old world: its physical landscape, the population's high rate of literacy, and the institution of slavery. After the Revolution, these features continued to set America apart, but so did religious diversity and government institutions. The loosely constructed confederation of thirteen autonomous states was not working. ‘Was America different?’ describes the creation of a national government with a two-house legislature, executive, and judiciary. The new government elected under the Constitution met in the spring of 1789. George Washington was unanimously chosen as the first president of the United States with John Adams elected vice president. The development of political parties and the impact of the French Revolution are also described.
3. Party organizations: What do they look like? What do they do?
Authors: Maisel L. Sandy
Published: April 2017

‘Party organizations: What do they look like? What do they do?’ examines each of those questions and reveals that political party organizations in the United States reflect the nation's federal system. The party is organized at each electoral level. The main purpose of the party is to assist their candidates to get into office. The party organization does not define party policy nor do its leaders exercise much authority of those elected under the party label. This is a situation that has changed quite markedly over the last century as changes have taken place in the electoral process.
6. Subnational nominations and elections
Authors: Maisel L. Sandy
Published: April 2017

‘Subnational nominations and elections’ examines how candidates are selected to run for office below the level of the presidency, and how they run in general election campaigns. The importance of single-member districts, the ways in which electoral districts are drawn and the financing of elections, and the ways that campaigns are contested are each explored, though it is concluded that the overwhelmingly important factors in these elections are whether the president and party in power are popular and whether the electorate is satisfied with their performance. If they are, the status quo will be maintained. Incumbents of an unpopular party are, however, difficult to unseat.
2. Revolution: how oxygen changed the world
Authors: Ball Philip
Published: April 2017

‘Revolution: how oxygen changed the world’ charts the discovery of oxygen. Antoine Lavoisier found that water and air were not actually elements, and in the process discovered oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. Lavoisier's work ushered in an age of ‘pneumatick chemistry’ — the study of gases. This new science was still prejudiced by classical ideas. For instance, contemporary thinkers thought that a substance called phlogiston existed, and was the essence of flammability. Lavoisier determined that burning did not release phlogiston into the air, but actually removed oxygen. One could think that atmospheric oxygen exists to give us life, but it was in fact life that gave the world oxygen, through biological processes.
4. The eightfold path: organizing the elements
Authors: Ball Philip
Published: April 2017

‘The eightfold path: organizing the elements’ explains the history and rationale of the Periodic Table. Atomic theory was not fully accepted until Jean Perrin proved the existence of atoms in 1908. Rutherford et al went further, elucidating subatomic particles. This provided new insights into the Periodic Table, created decades earlier by Mendeleyev. Mendeleyev was not the first to attempt to group the elements. However, an improved set of atomic weights published in 1860 caused an upsurge in research. Mendeleyev's Table showed the order underlying the elements, left gaps for new elements, and questioned irreconcilable data. This data was eventually reconciled partly by Rutherford, and partly by Bohr's application of quantum theory.
Vital signs: the molecules of life
Authors: Ball Philip
Published: April 2017

‘Vital signs: the molecules of life’ outlines the molecular basis of life. Understanding molecular life is as much about understanding interactions between molecules and their position within the hierarchical system as it is about identifying the actors. Proteins are a specific type of molecule that perform a huge number of processes inside a biological cell. They are formed by subunits, which in turn are formed from long chains of amino acids. The instructions for these chains are contained, transmitted, and effected using DNA and RNA, another species of long, repeating chains of molecules. The molecular processes and interactions involving these molecules are well understood, but molecular understanding will never give the full story.
Good little movers: molecular motors
Authors: Ball Philip
Published: April 2017

‘Good little movers: molecular motors’ examines molecular motors in cells, before looking at the field of nanotechnology. There are many types of movement in the human body powered by motor proteins. Dynein and kinesin are used to beat respiratory cilia and move items around cells. More visibly, the sliding filament theory explains how actin, myosin, and tropomyosin control muscle contraction. The smallest mechanical motors currently made by humans dwarf these systems. Nanotechnology may provide a means to control motion at the molecular level and enable precise chemical synthesis, but it may be easier to use existing protein motors than to construct them from scratch.
3. African American Christianity: The early phase (1760–1863)
Authors: Glaude Eddie S.
Published: April 2017

The majority of African Americans are Christian. Black Christianity has played a critical role in the history of African American responses to white supremacy in the United States. ‘African American Christianity and Its Early Phase (1760–1863)’ is the first of four chapters that examine this complex history and introduce key moments and personalities, as well as the importance of black churches over the course of three historical periods. The early phase covers the period when the economy of slavery dominated political matters up to the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the plantation regime. Slavery defined the contours, even among free black populations, of black Christianity during this period.
6. African American Christianity since 1980
Authors: Glaude Eddie S.
Published: April 2017

‘African American Christianity Since 1980’ is concerned with the contemporary phase, beginning with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and the significant demographic and political shifts that have changed the landscape of American Christianity. The neighborhood church is fast disappearing. More and more African Americans are joining large megachurches and are engaged in neo-Pentecostal worship. The influence of celebrity preachers continues to grow as they leverage various media to propagate their message and their brand. All the while the political and economic circumstances of black America continue to worsen, and one wonders what role might this particular expression of African American Christianity play in the lives of so many who suffer in the shadows.
3. Patents and their discontents
Authors: Vaidhyanathan Siva
Published: April 2017

No truly global patent system exists; some treaties ensure that there is mutual respect for patents, but unlike copyright, patents must be registered in individual states to ensure maximum protection. “Patents and their discontents” outlines how patents work, how a patent is acquired, and how it is enforced. Using the case of nanotechnology, which bridges the conceptual gaps between substance and information, hardware and software, and technology and science, it examines the complexities and contradictions of the patent system. It concludes that the struggle to design an ideal patent system—one that creates just enough incentive to drive invention forward yet does not stifle markets nor drive up prices for important products—continues.
5. Other rights: Domain names, publicity, trade secrets, data, and designs
Authors: Vaidhyanathan Siva
Published: April 2017

Many other forms of intellectual property beyond the big three—copyright, patent, and trademark—reflect particular national agendas and political power structures. Some of them exist only in particular countries. Others protect narrow interests. “Other rights” describes some of these rights: domain names, geographic marks, personality rights, trade secrets, and misappropriation and data protection. The rise of these sui generis regimes and the proposals to create a new right for fashion design in recent years reveal the extent to which intellectual property is a function more of politics and the power of special interests than carefully balanced policy decisions or high-minded theory.
Warrior: Alexander’s army
Authors: Bowden Hugh
Published: April 2017

‘Warrior: Alexander's Army’ describes Alexander's military campaigning, which he continued throughout his reign and for which he is perhaps most famous. The title of ‘Undefeated’ is deservedly attached to him. Despite the fact that much has been written about Alexander's generalship, the evidence on which these accounts and plans are based is not easy to use; there is much about his achievements that remains a matter of guesswork. The ancient accounts of Alexander's battles and sieges were less concerned with the details of military formations and command structures, and more interested in illustrating the less obvious aspects of war.
Commander: Alexander and the Greeks
Authors: Bowden Hugh
Published: April 2017

‘Commander: Alexander and the Greeks’ describes what is known about Alexander's treatment of the Greek cities. The narrative accounts of Alexander's life tell us a great deal about how Alexander dealt with the Greek cities. Ancient orators and modern scholars have analysed the question of whether Alexander was a liberator or an oppressor. A better understanding of the issues can be found by looking at the inscriptions put up by the cities themselves at the time. These tell us a great deal about Alexander's actions and their impact. There are two central issues that are important for understanding Alexander's relationship with the Greek cities: the meaning of the word autonomia and the existence of factionalism and rivalry.
Traveller: Alexander in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Authors: Bowden Hugh
Published: April 2017

‘Traveller: Alexander in Afghanistan and Pakistan’ considers Alexander's five-year tour away from Persepolis from the Spring of 330 onwards. This journey to the East attracted more unusual stories, and more moralizing commentary, than any other aspect of his career. It is a time in his life that we are still fascinated with. For modern scholars, Alexander's difficulty in dealing with insurgency in Afghanistan and the surrounding areas is the earliest evidence of the impossibility of governing that country. For ancient writers, he was seduced by the idea of luxury in the East. Until recently, there existed little firm evidence to show what Alexander's eastern campaign involved.
6. Balancing rights—free speech and privacy
Authors: Clapham Andrew
Published: April 2017

‘Balancing rights—free speech and privacy’ considers the human rights that have built-in limitations. The thrust of international human rights law for these rights is that limitations to rights must be justified by reference to pre-existing accessible laws that allow for proportionate action necessary to achieve a legitimate aim such as national security, public order, or the rights of others. Human rights simultaneously claim to protect freedom of expression and the right to privacy, but how do you balance these rights and put them into practice? It all depends on the context and proportionality.
8. Discrimination and equality
Authors: Clapham Andrew
Published: April 2017

‘Discrimination and equality’ considers the prohibited grounds of discrimination (based on age, sexuality, religion, nationality, gender, and disability); what new grounds may be emerging; and when distinctions can be drawn between people reasonably and therefore legitimately. Despite the existence of obvious inequalities at birth, justice and fairness demand a system to give everyone equal access to opportunities and, in some versions, redistribute resources to ensure that the least well-off are prioritized in an attempt to achieve equality of outcomes. These philosophical approaches provide much of the ballast for the human rights rules on discrimination—and the moral case for developing these rules to achieve greater social justice globally.
Water, water everywhere …
Authors: Finney John
Published: April 2017

Water (H2O) is the most abundant compound on the Earth’s surface and occurs naturally in gas, liquid, and solid forms. It is estimated that there are 1.9 billion billion tonnes of water on our planet with even more in the Earth’s mantle. ‘Water, water everywhere …’ outlines how water arose from the Big Bang, how it got to Earth, and describes how scientists deciphered its molecular structure. But why do we need it? Water maintains our climate, keeps all living things alive, is a major influence in forming the surface topography of the planet, and is also critical in what happens in planetary interiors, as well as in the location and eruptive style of volcanoes.
The anomalies explained
Authors: Finney John
Published: April 2017

‘The anomalies explained’ considers why water behaves differently from most other liquids and why this is so important chemically, biologically, and environmentally. Ice contracts on melting; a normal liquid expands. Below 4°C liquid water contracts on heating; a normal liquid expands. Between the melting point and 46°C, water’s compressibility falls as temperature increases; for a normal liquid it increases. Water’s viscosity at or below about 30°C falls as pressure increases from 1 to 1,000 atmospheres; it increases for a normal liquid. The local intermolecular geometry is responsible for these ‘anomalies’. The electrical properties of the water molecule result in other distinct properties: water is a very powerful solvent and it conducts electricity.
Why believe in God?
Authors: Bowker John
Published: April 2017

‘Why believe in God?’ provides some examples of the many different answers that have been given to that question. Change and reliability in understanding God and the universe are considered. There are many hypotheses about God and many different characterisations of God in the different religions, even among those that are based on what is believed to be Revelation—as, for example, in Bible, Quran or Veda. What is important for many believers is the consequence of God in life and in experience. What that experience means and how it is related to recent research in the neurosciences is then explored.
7. The wisdom of crowds
Authors: Wyatt Tristram D.
Published: April 2017

Recent work on collective animal behaviour shows that relatively simple behaviours by each animal acting individually can together produce complex, emergent behaviours larger than the parts. This self-organization occurs despite the limited cognitive abilities of individual animals and despite each animal’s limited access to global information, or the ‘big picture’. ‘The wisdom of crowds’ explains this phenomenon termed swarm intelligence by considering the murmurations of starlings, schools of fish, ant trails, and termite nest-building. The behaviour of individual animals and the rules of interaction, from which the collective behaviours emerge, have evolved under natural selection just like other behaviours. The application of such self-organization models is also discussed.
2. The social mind
Authors: Crisp Richard J.
Published: April 2017

Social cognition is how we encode, analyse, store, and use information about the people we meet and the relationships that define us. ‘The social mind’ considers the theories that have been developed to show how the social mind does this: Fritz Heider’s ‘naïve scientists’, who build mental models to represent how the world works; attribution theory; Kelley’s 1967 co-variation model; attributional bias; Fiske and Taylor’s ‘cognitive misers’ who rely on timesaving mental shortcuts known as heuristics; social priming; and schemas, scripts, and stereotypes. Studies show that we are motivated tacticians using the continuum model of impression formation—both naïve scientists and cognitive misers, but which we are depends upon the situation.
4. Obedience, oppression, and aggression
Authors: Crisp Richard J.
Published: April 2017

‘Obedience, oppression, and aggression’ considers when social influence turns bad—how obedience to authority can compel normal people to behave in bad ways. It then looks at social oppression. Is there is a ‘prejudiced’ personality, and are some people just predisposed towards aggression and intolerance towards minorities? While some people are more prejudiced than others, this cannot explain the widespread and pervasive nature of prejudice in modern society. Rather, there are psychological processes that provide the potential for prejudice in us all. Social psychology has helped us to understand the nature of prejudice, and has provided new ways of tackling this pervasive social problem.
5. Intergroup relations
Authors: Crisp Richard J.
Published: April 2017

‘Intergroup relations’ considers a range of theories that encompass the perceived relationships between the individual, their own group, and other groups, and that provide a range of psychological approaches for preventing prejudice, intolerance, and conflict, and for promoting more positive intergroup relations. Theories include the minimal group paradigm, the mere categorization effect, the category differentiation model, social identity theory, the common ingroup identity model, and the contact hypothesis, which proposed that contact would only decrease conflict under certain conditions such as when contact takes the form of a cooperative interaction. Experiencing pro-social behaviour promotes a more positive pro-social orientation for the individual in general.
5. Foreigners in Assyria
Authors: Radner Karen
Published: April 2017

‘Foreigners in Assyria’ looks at Assyrian interactions with the wider world by focusing on foreigners in the city of Aššur and how they got there. The first two cases explore Assyrian political and cultural links to the Mesopotamian south in the second millennium bc. The third case shows Assyrian diplomacy in action when an Anatolian ruler—Seni, king of Daienu—was invited, like it or not, to visit Aššur. The last two cases focus on inhabitants of the city of Aššur who had been relocated there by force from Iran and serve to emphasize how the Assyrian heartland was an increasingly multicultural, cosmopolitan environment during its imperial phase.
2. Between the crime and the court
Authors: Roberts Julian V.
Published: April 2017

‘Between the crime and the trial’ discusses the procedures undertaken by the police and prosecution services after a crime has taken place and before court proceedings begin. Out of court disposals can be used for less serious crimes and where the allegations are not contested. Police may issue ‘on the spot’ fines for public disorder or impose conditional cautions. Failure to comply with the conditions will trigger prosecution. After an arrest, the prosecution guides the proceedings. Pre-trial developments include decisions on whether to: charge the defendant; bail them or remand them to custody; negotiate justice through plea bargaining; or offer to reduce the sentence if the accused will plead guilty.
5. In and out of prison
Authors: Roberts Julian V.
Published: April 2017

‘In and out of prison’ considers the state of prisons today; the typical prison population; the crimes that result in imprisonment; the costs of imprisonment; the process of release and the pros and cons of parole; life after release; and re-offenders. We expect our prisons to punish and to rehabilitate, but often there are numerous ‘pains of imprisonment’: incarceration, assault, homicide, accidental death by drug overdose, self-harm, and then the long-term financial impact and adverse life events on release from custody. Rehabilitation in the prison system is also difficult and costly to provide. Alternatives such as managing offenders in home confinement through intensive forms of electronic monitoring are also considered.
6. Hearing the crime victim?
Authors: Roberts Julian V.
Published: April 2017

Within the traditional adversarial model of justice, the victim often serves as the principal prosecution witness and, having served this function, plays no further part in criminal proceedings. In inquisitorial systems, the victim plays a greater role with rights for input into proceedings. ‘Hearing the crime victim?’ explains how much progress has been made in improving the criminal justice response to victims. Victims can now submit victim impact statements, which can be used to guide or inform decision-making throughout the CJS. Additional attention is paid to crime victims and they are offered more services, but are these reforms sufficient? Restorative justice initiatives are also described.
5. Making and breaking nuclei
Authors: Close Frank
Published: April 2017

‘Making and breaking nuclei’ describes the process by which the atomic elements came to be in the early universe. The heat energy in the big bang, some 13.7 billion years ago, converted into counterbalanced particles of matter and antimatter. The seeds of atomic nuclei were initially the simplest constituents: quarks. During the last 5 billion years, the majority of elements found on earth were formed inside a long-dead star, where they were all cooked from protons, which were synthesised within the first second of the universe. The processes of stellar nucleosynthesis, the CNO cycle, supernovae nucleosynthesis, and cosmic spallation are explained along with the dating of the age of the Earth.
The climate change debate
Authors: Maslin Mark
Published: April 2017

‘The climate change debate’ describes the combination of factors that led to recognition and acceptance of climate change, including that it was anthropogenic, beginning with climate change science research carried out in the 1950s and early 1960s. The next stages of research into this area came later in the 1980s: the observed upturn in the global temperature data set; the increased knowledge of past climate change; significant advances in global climate modelling; the emergence of global environmental awareness; increased media interest in the confrontational nature of the debate; and finally politicians and economists taking the climate change threat seriously since the late 1990s.
Envisioning the future
Authors: Maslin Mark
Published: April 2017

‘Envisioning the future’ considers some of the deep questions of why humanity seems unable to deal with the question of pollution. The challenge of climate change must be seen within the current dominant political and economic landscape. Only by understanding the fundamental societal and economic causes of carbon emission can we hope to be able to build systems that can rapidly reduce them. In doing so we may also provide solutions to global environmental degradation, poverty, and security. Future policies and international agreements need to provide win-win solutions that deal with the biggest challenges which face humanity in the 21st century.
1. World
Authors: van Es Bart
Published: April 2017

‘World’ looks at the ‘world’ of Shakespearean comedy, isolating the distinctive way that its stories play out in space. There is something dreamlike about all Shakespeare’s comedies—whether they are set in forests, courts, or cities—and more than anything else this is a consequence of their locational elasticity, bending properties of space and time. Many Shakespearean comedies start in a court and move out to the country: they end in this wild space outside the bounds of civilization, but with the promise of a festive return. Some, however, employ a more dynamic structure, where two distinct places are put in contrapuntal dialogue, which is distinctive to Shakespeare.
3. Love
Authors: van Es Bart
Published: April 2017

Shakespearean comedy is about getting the girl or the boy, but it is also about love, and one ingredient that makes this possible is the sonnet. ‘Love’ argues that love is not only a consistent concern in Shakespeare’s comedy, but also an original one. Shakespeare provides sustained, two-way courtship in which the affection of women is taken seriously despite the ludicrous confusion that inevitably occurs. This confused courtship lies at the heart of romantic comedy, a modern genre that Shakespeare could be said to invent. Some successful films based on Shakespeare’s comedies are described, including 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), based on The Taming of the Shrew.
4. Time
Authors: van Es Bart
Published: April 2017

‘Time’ considers the strange ways in which Shakespeare manipulates time. In 1570, Lodovico Castelvetro stated that the perfect comedy should be restricted to events lasting no longer than twelve hours and, according to Aelius Donatus, there were four parts to a good comedy: the prologue, the protasis, the epitasis, and the catastrophe. The combination of Castelvetro and Donatus thus provided a formula for a faultless comedy. Clocks, seasons, and the process of aging ceaselessly fascinate Shakespeare as comic dramatist. In the comedies, the normal laws of time are suspended. This manipulation of time is an exceptional achievement that sets the comedies apart from other plays.
11. Cosmic stopped clocks
Authors: Ellam Rob
Published: April 2017

‘Cosmic stopped clocks’ explains how, using isotopes that are the daughters of isotopes that no longer exist, isotope geochemistry has been able to assemble a chronology for the formation and growth of the Solar System and the Earth. Our Solar System began around 4.5 billion years ago. Within a few million years, the earliest solid minerals crystallized. After about ten million years, small astronomical bodies had formed and, within 100 million years, the planets had not only formed but had differentiated into bodies fundamentally similar to the Earth we live on.
5. Molecular interactions
Authors: Divan Aysha , Royds Janice A.
Published: April 2017

Every nucleated diploid cell in the body, with the exception of B and T cells of the immune system, has the same genome as its originating single fertilized egg. During development, this single cell differentiates into a complex multicellular organism composed of various cells and tissues each carrying out specialized functions. Although each cell contains a genome of data it needs to select the relevant information from this genetic blueprint to fulfil its own specific function. ‘Molecular interactions’ shows that proteins must be produced in the right place and at the right time. This requires regulation of gene expression in conjunction with a myriad of bio-molecular interactions to coordinate this.
6. Genetic engineering
Authors: Divan Aysha , Royds Janice A.
Published: April 2017

Gene-cloning processes enable us to produce large amounts of a DNA sequence so that its function can be studied. These technologies can also be applied in medicine and agriculture to genetically engineer production of biological proteins or whole organisms with new or modified traits. At the heart of these applications is the capability to produce recombinant proteins from cloned genes in host cells. ‘Genetic engineering’ outlines some of these applications: recombinant pharmaceuticals, monoclonal therapeutic antibodies, recombinant protein vaccines, gene therapy, and genetically modified foods. It also considers some of the concerns with these applications.
1. A contemporary overview
Authors: Theodoulou Stella Z. , Roy Ravi K.
Published: April 2017

Essentially, ‘public administration’ refers to the wide array of leadership and management functions and mandates carried out by civil officials involved with public sector ‘governance’, which, by its very nature, is intertwined with politics. ‘A contemporary overview’ shows that a defining characteristic of contemporary public administration involves the perpetually vexing question of where the politics of decision-making should end and the politically neutral business of management and administration should take over. There is an ongoing conflict between the democratic values of ‘equity’ and ‘equality’, and the market values of ‘performance’ and ‘efficiency’. Today’s public administrator needs to adopt flexible strategies and practices to cope with ever-changing political and economic landscapes.
2. The journey from Westphalia to Philadelphia
Authors: Theodoulou Stella Z. , Roy Ravi K.
Published: April 2017

‘The journey from Westphalia to Philadelphia’ provides a historical overview of the Anglo-American administrative traditions that have shaped contemporary administrative systems. It discusses the foundations of the modern state and the emergence of popular sovereignty, which provides the roots for the political philosophy underpinning modern democratic administrative systems in countries such as Britain, the United States, France, and India. It also explains that ‘public’ administration, as distinct from other forms of civil administration, is interconnected with democratic governance. The origins of contemporary governance and administration are popularly attributed to the birth of the modern state that emerged with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
1. Myth and science
Authors: Segal Robert A.
Published: April 2017

One of the modern challenges to myth has been on grounds of scientific credibility. Did creation really occur in a mere six days, as the first of two creation stories in Genesis claims? Was there really a worldwide flood? Is the earth truly but six or seven thousand years old? ‘Myth and science’ explains how the biggest difficulty for the view of myth as the primitive counterpart to science is that it conspicuously fails to account for the retention of myth in the wake of science. If myth functions to do no more than science, why is it still around?
7. Myth and structure
Authors: Segal Robert A.
Published: April 2017

‘Myth and structure’ examines the contributions of Claude Lévi-Strauss to the study of myth. Lévi-Strauss treats myth as a coldly intellectual phenomenon: the oppositions expressed in myth constitute logical puzzles rather than existential predicaments. In calling his approach to myth ‘structuralist’, Lévi-Strauss intends to distinguish it from ‘narrative’ interpretations, or those that adhere to the plot of myth. In his unique brand of myth-ritualism, myths and rituals operate together, but as structural opposites rather than, as for other myth-ritualists, parallels. Other structuralists—Vladimir Propp, Georges Dumézil, Louis Gernet, and Marcel Detienne—are then considered. They have sought to decipher underlying patterns in myth and then to link those patterns to ones in the culture at large.
5. The perils of modernity
Authors: Beller Steven
Published: April 2017

In addition to the ‘irrationalist’ critique of ‘Jewish’ modernity that informed some antisemitism, there was another, ‘rational’ side to antisemitism. ‘The perils of modernity’ considers the irony that the biggest threat to Jews in Central and Eastern Europe was the modernization of society given the form that this modernization took. The influence of racial theory was also closely bound up with the much increased prestige of nationalism in early 20th-century Europe. Once the definition of modernity had shifted to the more ‘organic’ and collectivist model, in which the ‘reactionary rationalism’ of biological thinking—and race—played such a large role, Jewish difference became racially defined, and hence impossible to overcome.
1. Primordial rocks
Authors: Zalasiewicz Jan
Published: April 2017

A rock is a piece of solid matter made up of minerals or with a composition that is fixed within certain limits. ‘Primordial rocks’ considers the first minerals that appeared some millions of years after the Big Bang, during the dramatic finale of supernovae. These comprised: carbon in the form of diamond; a few carbides and nitrides; a few oxides including corundum; and a form of olivine, a member of the silicate minerals that dominate the surface of Earth. The first rocks—asteroids—were a result of a second generation of stars. Remnants from the primordial planetary building processes are seen as meteorites, which are divided into ‘stony’ achondrites and ‘iron-rich’ chondrites.
3. A legal right
Authors: Wacks Raymond
Published: April 2017

Privacy is acknowledged as an essential human right, recognized by a number of international declarations, among which the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are the most significant. Interpreting these provisions, the European Court of Human Rights provides important guidance in respect of the attempt to balance privacy against competing rights and interests, and this is briefly discussed. Leading decisions of the courts of various jurisdictions illustrate the problems of definition and the attempt to balance privacy against other competing rights. Cases before the US Supreme Court have generated an enormous, divisive debate concerning, in particular, the subject of abortion, which the Court has conceived to be an element of the right to privacy. A discussion of the celebrated US Supreme Court judgement in Roe v Wade is fundamental to an analysis of the meaning and limits of individual privacy.
5. Data protection
Authors: Wacks Raymond
Published: April 2017

The routine functions of government and private institutions require a continual supply of data about us in order to administer effectively the many services that are an integral part of modern life. The provision of health services, social security, credit, insurance, and the prevention and detection of crime assume the availability of a considerable quantity of personal data and, hence, a willingness by individuals to supply it. The ubiquity of computers and computer networks facilitates almost instant storage, retrieval, and transfer of data, a far cry from the world of manual filing systems. At the core of all data protection legislation is the proposition that data relating to an identifiable individual should not be collected in the absence of a genuine purpose or the consent of the individual concerned. Adherence to, and enforcement of, this idea (and the associated rights of access and correction) has been mixed in the nearly 100 jurisdictions that have enacted data protection legislation. This chapter assesses the extent to which these statutes have succeeded in protecting personal data.
2. Seafloor spreading and magnetic anomalies
Authors: Molnar Peter
Published: April 2017

‘Seafloor spreading and magnetic anomalies’ begins with the Vine–Matthews Hypothesis, which proposed that strips of seafloor parallel to the mid-ocean ridges, where two plates diverge from one another, were magnetized in opposite directions because the Earth’s field had reversed itself many times. A test of the Vine–Matthews Hypothesis, which required determining the age of the seafloor, became a test of seafloor spreading. Dating the ocean floor using magnetic anomalies detected by magnetometers towed behind ships and core samples extracted during the Deep-Sea Drilling Project confirmed the hypothesis. With magnetic anomalies to date the seafloor and a curve relating seafloor depth and age, the difference between the Atlantic, with its ‘ridge’, and the Pacific and its ‘rise’ became comprehensible. With a theory for predicting the depths of oceans, it was also possible to understand the history of sea-level changes.
3. Fracture zones and transform faults
Authors: Molnar Peter
Published: April 2017

‘Fracture zones and transform faults’ introduces fracture zones, huge, long linear scars in the seafloor first mapped in the 1950s, and their interpretation in terms of a new concept, transform faulting. Fracture zones are made at mid-ocean ridges, where the seafloor spreads apart. Segments of zones of spreading intersect fracture zones at right angles, along which transform faulting transfers the spreading on one spreading zone to another. As the seafloor spreads, and plates move apart at mid-ocean ridges, fracture zones grow longer. Testing this idea relied on the study of earthquakes that occurred on the transform faults, using seismographs on distant continents. This chapter introduces readers to the pertinent seismological methods by which this was achieved.
7. Introduction to matrices
Authors: Higgins Peter M.
Published: April 2017

Matrices represent the central algebraic vehicle for advanced computation throughout mathematics as well as the physical and social sciences. ‘Introduction to matrices’ explains that matrices are simply rectangular arrays of numbers. There are some natural, simple operations that can be performed on matrices. Scalar multiplication is where all entries in a matrix are multiplied by a fixed number. Network theory is one of the major applications of linear algebra, which is the branch of the subject that is largely represented by matrices and matrix calculations. Another application of matrices is to the geometry of transformations.
8. Matrices and groups
Authors: Higgins Peter M.
Published: April 2017

‘Matrices and groups’ continues with the example of geometric matrix products to see what happens when we compose the mappings involved. It explains several features, including the identity matrix, the inverse matrix, the square matrix, and the concept of isomorphism. If a collection of matrices represent the elements of a group, such as the eight matrices that represent the dihedral group D, then each of these matrices A will have an inverse, A
−1, such that AA-1 = A-1A =I, the identity matrix. This prompts the twin questions of when the inverse of a square matrix A exists and, if it does, how to find it.
4. Dead reckoning, longitude, and time
Authors: Bennett Jim
Published: April 2017

What was the state of the mathematical science of navigation at the end of the 17th century? ‘Dead reckoning, longitude, and time’ describes the different techniques of sailing—plane sailing, Mercator sailing, middle-latitude sailing, and great-circle sailing—employed to set and reckon a course in the 17th‐18th centuries. Although longitude could be found by dead reckoning, a more reliable method was required to improve navigation. The Royal Observatory, founded in 1675, and the Board of Longitude, which followed in 1714, were crucial to the emergence of longitude methods by chronometers and lunar distances (or ‘lunars’). The work of key characters such as John Hadley and John Harrison is described.
5. The zenith of the mathematical seaman
Authors: Bennett Jim
Published: April 2017

New solutions to the longitude problem led to a revision of the whole approach to the practice of navigation. ‘The zenith of the mathematical seaman’ explains that position would still be stated as a latitude and a longitude, but the two need not be found in separate and distinct operations. The sextant and chronometer became more closely associated and took on a new engagement with spherical trigonometry. Seamen still needed to follow a bearing and measure their course so dead reckoning remained routine, but was aided by improved instrumentation. These techniques still required the use of charts and the 19th century saw significant improvements in hydrographic survey and chart production.
6. Refugees and asylum-seekers
Authors: Koser Khalid
Published: April 2017

Asylum-seekers are those who have applied for international protection. Asylum status is still governed by the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. ‘Refugees and asylum-seekers’ explains the changing geography of refugees and the causes and consequences of refugee movements. Refugees tend not to travel very far, putting strain on the poorest countries, and mostly settle in camps, which suffer from aid misappropriation. There are three durable solutions for refugees: voluntary repatriation, local integration, and third-country settlement. Each can be problematic and none is working well at the moment, as demonstrated by rising numbers of refugees, the increasing proportion of protracted refugee situations, and fewer returns.
3. A case of obsessional neurosis
Authors: Pick Daniel
Published: April 2017

‘A case of obsessional neurosis’ discusses the case of a patient that Sigmund Freud first met in 1907. This particular and complicated patient was known as ‘The Rat Man’. The patient faced a desperate internal situation and was also incredulous, as his analysis unfolded, that he could be so encumbered by thoughts and driven to actions that defied rational sense. Freud went to extraordinary lengths to grasp the ideas behind his patient’s apparently nonsensical activities, to trace his psychic history, and to understand how obsessional doubts governed his life. Freud’s 1923 model of the mind and its three agencies—the superego, ego, and id—are also considered.
4. Oedipus
Authors: Pick Daniel
Published: April 2017

‘Oedipus’ considers the Oedipus complex, a pivotal but much criticized idea in psychoanalysis. Freud suggested the ancient story of the murder of the father and union with the mother has such power because it resonates with a psychic truth about archaic states of mind in all of us. The psychological, anthropological, and political implications of Freud’s account have been much explored. It can be argued that with its focus upon such core triangular relationships in the mind it affords a useful perspective, and one with considerable purchase on psychic truth and people’s lived experience. Whatever the particular familial details, analysts would argue, the Oedipus complex plays a fundamental part in personality structuring.