bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Outcomes of Endoscopic Biliary Drainage in Postsurgical Anatomy Using Endoscopic Ultrasound and Enteroscopy: A Comparative Study
Authors: Jamwal Kapil Dev , Sharma Atul , Padhan Rajesh Kumar , Sharma Manoj Kumar
Published: October 2023

Objectives Biliary obstruction is a common problem encountered in postsurgical anatomy, which may lead to serious complications if not treated promptly. Endoscopic drainage is a minimally invasive and effective treatment option for such patients. However, the optimal route of endoscopic drainage, either SBE-ERCP (single-balloon enteroscopy with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography) or EUS-BD (endoscopic ultrasound-guided bile duct drainage), remains controversial. In this study, we aim to evaluate the feasibility and outcomes of endoscopic drainage using these two techniques in postsurgical biliary obstruction over a period of 7 years.

Materials and Methods We conducted a retrospective study of patients who underwent endoscopic drainage for postsurgical biliary obstruction using SBE-ERCP or EUS-BD techniques between 2015 and 2022. The demographic details, clinical presentation, procedure duration, number of sessions required, technical success, complications, and change of procedure from SBE-ERCP to EUS-BD or vice versa were recorded.

Results Seventy-five patients, predominantly females with a mean age of 48 years, underwent endoscopic drainage. Forty-eight patients underwent SBE drainage and 27 patients underwent EUS-HG (EUS-guided hepaticogastrostomy). The mean duration of procedure (44 vs. 77 minutes), number of complications (4 vs. 5), technical success rate (93.5 vs. 85%), change of procedure (0 vs. 3), and number of sessions (1.1 vs. 1.8) were significantly less in the EUS-HG as compared to SBE-ERCP.

Conclusions Endoscopic biliary drainage is feasible, safe, and effective in postsurgical biliary anatomy but requires high technical expertise. The study proposes an algorithm that can be applied in such group of patients to determine the route for choosing the drainage procedure. This requires further validation with a large prospective cohort.
Coexisting picoplankton experience different relative grazing pressures across an ocean productivity gradient
Authors: Landry Michael R. , Stukel Michael R. , Selph Karen E. , Goericke Ralf
Published: October 2023

Picophytoplankton populations [
Prochlorococcus
,
Synechococcus
(SYN), and picoeukaryotes] are dominant primary producers in the open ocean and projected to become more important with climate change. Their fates can vary, however, with microbial food web complexities. In the California Current Ecosystem, picophytoplankton biomass and abundance peak in waters of intermediate productivity and decrease at higher production. Using experimental data from eight cruises crossing the pronounced CCE trophic gradient, we tested the hypothesis that these declines are driven by intensified grazing on heterotrophic bacteria (HBAC) passed to similarly sized picophytoplankton via shared predators. Results confirm previously observed distributions as well as significant increases in bacterial abundance, cell growth, and grazing mortality with primary production. Mortalities of picophytoplankton, however, diverge from the bacterial mortality trend such that relative grazing rates on SYN compared to HBAC decline by 12-fold between low and high productivity waters. The large shifts in mortality rate ratios for coexisting populations are not explained by size variability but rather suggest high selectivity of grazer assemblages or tightly coupled tradeoffs in microbial growth advantages and grazing vulnerabilities. These findings challenge the long-held view that protistan grazing mainly determines overall biomass of microbial communities while viruses uniquely regulate diversity by “killing the winners”.
Frugivore-mediated seed dispersal in fragmented landscapes: Compositional and functional turnover from forest to matrix
Authors: González-Varo Juan P. , Albrecht Jörg , Arroyo Juan M. , Bueno Rafael S. , Burgos Tamara , Escribano-Ávila Gema , Farwig Nina , García Daniel , Illera Juan C. , Jordano Pedro , Kurek Przemysław , Rösner Sascha , Virgós Emilio , Sutherland William J.
Published: October 2023

Seed dispersal by frugivores is a fundamental function for plant community dynamics in fragmented landscapes, where forest remnants are typically embedded in a matrix of anthropogenic habitats. Frugivores can mediate both connectivity among forest remnants and plant colonization of the matrix. However, it remains poorly understood how frugivore communities change from forest to matrix due to the loss or replacement of species with traits that are less advantageous in open habitats and whether such changes ultimately influence the composition and traits of dispersed plants via species interactions. Here, we close this gap by using a unique dataset of seed-dispersal networks that were sampled in forest patches and adjacent matrix habitats of seven fragmented landscapes across Europe. We found a similar diversity of frugivores, plants, and interactions contributing to seed dispersal in forest and matrix, but a high turnover (replacement) in all these components. The turnover of dispersed seeds was smaller than that of frugivore communities because different frugivore species provided complementary seed dispersal in forest and matrix. Importantly, the turnover involved functional changes toward larger and more mobile frugivores in the matrix, which dispersed taller, larger-seeded plants with later fruiting periods. Our study provides a trait-based understanding of frugivore-mediated seed dispersal through fragmented landscapes, uncovering nonrandom shifts that can have cascading consequences for the composition of regenerating plant communities. Our findings also highlight the importance of forest remnants and frugivore faunas for ecosystem resilience, demonstrating a high potential for passive forest restoration of unmanaged lands in the matrix.
The benefits of nature exposure: The need for research that better informs implementation
Authors: Marvier Michelle , Kareiva Peter , Felix Desiree , Ferrante Brian J. , Billington Morgan B.
Published: October 2023

Concern about humanity’s detachment from nature has spawned a global push to increase the availability of green spaces within cities. One impetus for this movement is a growing collection of studies documenting an association between improved human well-being and exposure to nature. The challenge lies in translating this research into pragmatic recommendations for cities. The usefulness of the existing research portfolio is diminished by the limitations of prevailing research designs. For example, most nature exposure studies (>80%) are observational. The rare randomized manipulative experiments tend to be indoors or virtual and rely on nature exposures on the order of ten to fifteen minutes. “Nature” and “biodiversity” are commonly invoked together as benefiting human well-being despite little evidence that biodiversity has particular importance for human psychological and emotional health. The most glaring gap in nature exposure research is the neglect of differences among cultures and ethnic groups with respect to the nature they prefer. In the few cases where researchers looked for differences among groups, they often found heterogeneous responses. Finally, few studies have compared greening interventions to other possible efforts to improve urban life. Thus, the utopian city of the future might be resplendent with urban parks on every block, but it is not clear whether those parks should offer basketball and pickleball courts, or small woodlands with a cornucopia of birds. We advocate for the next generation of nature exposure research that better informs the envisioning of our future sustainable cities with enhanced and equitable access to nature.
Developing synthetic tools to decipher the tumor–immune interactome
Authors: Weizman Orr-El , Luyten Sophia , Lu Peiwen , Song Eric , Qin Kai , Mostaghimi Darius , Ring Aaron M. , Iwasaki Akiko
Published: October 2023

The ability of immune cells to directly interact with transformed cells is an essential component of immune surveillance and critical for optimal tissue function. The tumor–immune interactome (the collective cellular interactions between oncogenic cells and immune cells) is distinct and varied based on the tissue location and immunogenicity of tumor subtypes. However, comprehensive landscape and the consequences of tumor-interacting immune cells in the tumor microenvironment are not well understood. Current tools are limited in their ability to identify and record interactors in vivo or be utilized for downstream analysis. Here, we describe the development and validation of a technology leveraging synthetic Notch receptors reporting physical tumor cell–immune cell contact in vivo in order to decipher the tumor–immune interactome. We call this approach, Tumor–Immune Interactome Non-biased Discovery Retroviral Reporter or TIINDRR. Using TIINDRR, we identify the tumor–immune interactomes that define immunological refractory and sensitive tumors and how different immunotherapies alter these interactions. Thus, TIINDRR provides a flexible and versatile tool for studying in-vivo tumor–immune cell interactions, aiding in the identification of biologically relevant information needed for the rational design of immune-based therapies.
The total mass, number, and distribution of immune cells in the human body
Authors: Sender Ron , Weiss Yarden , Navon Yoav , Milo Idan , Azulay Nofar , Keren Leeat , Fuchs Shai , Ben-Zvi Danny , Noor Elad , Milo Ron
Published: October 2023

The immune system is a complex network of cells with critical functions in health and disease. However, a comprehensive census of the cells comprising the immune system is lacking. Here, we estimated the abundance of the primary immune cell types throughout all tissues in the human body. We conducted a literature survey and integrated data from multiplexed imaging and methylome-based deconvolution. We also considered cellular mass to determine the distribution of immune cells in terms of both number and total mass. Our results indicate that the immune system of a reference 73 kg man consists of 1.8 × 10
12
cells (95% CI 1.5–2.3 × 10
12
), weighing 1.2 kg (95% CI 0.8–1.9). Lymphocytes constitute 40% of the total number of immune cells and 15% of the mass and are mainly located in the lymph nodes and spleen. Neutrophils account for similar proportions of both the number and total mass of immune cells, with most neutrophils residing in the bone marrow. Macrophages, present in most tissues, account for 10% of immune cells but contribute nearly 50% of the total cellular mass due to their large size. The quantification of immune cells within the human body presented here can serve to understand the immune function better and facilitate quantitative modeling of this vital system.
Activity-induced MeCP2 phosphorylation regulates retinogeniculate synapse refinement
Authors: Tzeng Christopher P. , Whitwam Tess , Boxer Lisa D. , Li Emmy , Silberfeld Andrew , Trowbridge Sara , Mei Kevin , Lin Cindy , Shamah Rebecca , Griffith Eric C. , Renthal William , Chen Chinfei , Greenberg Michael E.
Published: October 2023

Mutations in
MECP2
give rise to Rett syndrome (RTT), an X-linked neurodevelopmental disorder that results in broad cognitive impairments in females. While the exact etiology of RTT symptoms remains unknown, one possible explanation for its clinical presentation is that loss of
MECP2
causes miswiring of neural circuits due to defects in the brain’s capacity to respond to changes in neuronal activity and sensory experience. Here, we show that MeCP2 is phosphorylated at four residues in the mouse brain (S86, S274, T308, and S421) in response to neuronal activity, and we generate a quadruple knock-in (QKI) mouse line in which all four activity-dependent sites are mutated to alanines to prevent phosphorylation. QKI mice do not display overt RTT phenotypes or detectable gene expression changes in two brain regions. However, electrophysiological recordings from the retinogeniculate synapse of QKI mice reveal that while synapse elimination is initially normal at P14, it is significantly compromised at P20. Notably, this phenotype is distinct from the synapse refinement defect previously reported for
Mecp2
null mice, where synapses initially refine but then regress after the third postnatal week. We thus propose a model in which activity-induced phosphorylation of MeCP2 is critical for the proper timing of retinogeniculate synapse maturation specifically during the early postnatal period.
Development shapes the evolutionary diversification of rodent stripe patterns
Authors: Staps Merlijn , Miller Pearson W. , Tarnita Corina E. , Mallarino Ricardo
Published: October 2023

Vertebrate groups have evolved strikingly diverse color patterns. However, it remains unknown to what extent the diversification of such patterns has been shaped by the proximate, developmental mechanisms that regulate their formation. While these developmental mechanisms have long been inaccessible empirically, here we take advantage of recent insights into rodent pattern formation to investigate the role of development in shaping pattern diversification across rodents. Based on a broad survey of museum specimens, we first establish that various rodents have independently evolved diverse patterns consisting of longitudinal stripes, varying across species in number, color, and relative positioning. We then interrogate this diversity using a simple model that incorporates recent molecular and developmental insights into stripe formation in African striped mice. Our results suggest that, on the one hand, development has facilitated pattern diversification: The diversity of patterns seen across species can be generated by a single developmental process, and small changes in this process suffice to recapitulate observed evolutionary changes in pattern organization. On the other hand, development has constrained diversification: Constraints on stripe positioning limit the scope of evolvable patterns, and although pattern organization appears at first glance phylogenetically unconstrained, development turns out to impose a cryptic constraint. Altogether, this work reveals that pattern diversification in rodents can in part be explained by the underlying development and illustrates how pattern formation models can be leveraged to interpret pattern evolution.
The lipoprotein lipase that is shuttled into capillaries by GPIHBP1 enters the glycocalyx where it mediates lipoprotein processing
Authors: Song Wenxin , Beigneux Anne P. , Weston Thomas A. , Chen Kai , Yang Ye , Nguyen Le Phuong , Guagliardo Paul , Jung Hyesoo , Tran Anh P. , Tu Yiping , Tran Caitlyn , Birrane Gabriel , Miyashita Kazuya , Nakajima Katsuyuki , Murakami Masami , Tontonoz Peter , Jiang Haibo , Ploug Michael , Fong Loren G. , Young Stephen G.
Published: October 2023

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL), the enzyme that carries out the lipolytic processing of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TRLs), is synthesized by adipocytes and myocytes and secreted into the interstitial spaces. The LPL is then bound by GPIHBP1, a GPI-anchored protein of endothelial cells (ECs), and transported across ECs to the capillary lumen. The assumption has been that the LPL that is moved into capillaries remains attached to GPIHBP1 and that GPIHBP1 serves as a platform for TRL processing. In the current studies, we examined the validity of that assumption. We found that an LPL-specific monoclonal antibody (mAb), 88B8, which lacks the ability to detect GPIHBP1-bound LPL, binds avidly to LPL within capillaries. We further demonstrated, by confocal microscopy, immunogold electron microscopy, and nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry analyses, that the LPL detected by mAb 88B8 is located within the EC glycocalyx, distant from the GPIHBP1 on the EC plasma membrane. The LPL within the glycocalyx mediates the margination of TRLs along capillaries and is active in TRL processing, resulting in the delivery of lipoprotein-derived lipids to immediately adjacent parenchymal cells. Thus, the LPL that GPIHBP1 transports into capillaries can detach and move into the EC glycocalyx, where it functions in the intravascular processing of TRLs.
Beyond cannibalism
Authors: Borowski Gabriel
Published: October 2023

Commonly associated with the concept of cultural cannibalism, the artistic and critical legacy of Haroldo de
Campos (1929–2003) has constituted a significant metaphor in translation studies. Despite growing interest that this concept has
received in the European and North American discourse of the discipline, the idea of anthropophagy spreads unchecked, circulating
freely and contributing to a vast array of analytical approaches. Given a noticeable lack of in-depth insights into the nature of
de Campos’ theory, this process has resulted in a gradual loss of its original specificity. This article aims to provide an
analysis of instances of the use of the cannibalistic metaphor in the English discourse of translation studies, to help understand
the refractions detectable in the reception of de Campos’ concepts.
Enhancement of properties of a cell-laden GelMA hydrogel-based bioink via calcium phosphate phase transition
Authors: Kim Jueun , Raja Naren , Choi Yeong-Jin , Gal Chang-Woo , Sung Aram , Park Honghyun , Yun Hui-suk
Published: October 2023

To improve the properties of the hydrogel-based bioinks, a calcium phosphate phase transition was applied, and the products were examined. We successfully enhanced the mechanical properties of the hydrogels by adding small amounts (< 0.5 wt%) of alpha-tricalcium phosphate (α-TCP) to photo-crosslinkable gelatin methacrylate (GelMA). As a result of the hydrolyzing calcium phosphate phase transition involving α-TCP, which proceeded for 36 h in the cell culture medium, calcium-deficient hydroxyapatite was produced. Approximately 18 times the compressive modulus was achieved for GelMA with 0.5 wt% α-TCP (20.96 kPa) compared with pure GelMA (1.18 kPa). Although cell proliferation decreased during the early stages of cultivation, both osteogenic differentiation and mineralization activities increased dramatically when the calcium phosphate phase transition was performed with 0.25 wt% α-TCP. The addition of α-TCP improved the printability and fidelity of GelMA, as well as the structural stability and compressive modulus (approximately six times higher) after three weeks of culturing. Therefore, we anticipate that the application of calcium phosphate phase transition to hydrogels may have the potential for hard tissue regeneration.
Printable, adhesive, and self-healing dry epidermal electrodes based on PEDOT:PSS and polyurethane diol
Authors: Kateb Pierre , Fan Jiaxin , Kim Jinsil , Zhou Xin , Lodygensky Gregory A , Cicoira Fabio
Published: October 2023

Printable, self-healing, stretchable, and conductive materials have tremendous potential for the fabrication of advanced electronic devices. Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxithiopene) doped with polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) has been the focus of extensive research due to its tunable electrical and mechanical properties. Owing to its solution-processability and self-healing ability, PEDOT:PSS is an excellent candidate for developing printable inks. In this study, we developed printable, stretchable, dry, lightly adhesive, and self-healing materials for biomedical applications. Polyurethane diol (PUD), polyethylene glycol, and sorbitol were investigated as additives for PEDOT:PSS. In this study, we identified an optimal printable mixture obtained by adding PUD to PEDOT:PSS, which improved both the mechanical and electrical properties. PUD/PEDOT:PSS free-standing films with optimized composition showed a conductivity of approximately 30 S cm−1, stretchability of 30%, and Young’s modulus of 15 MPa. A low resistance change (<20%) was achieved when the strain was increased to 30%. Excellent electrical stability under cyclic mechanical strain, biocompatibility, and 100% electrical self-healing were also observed. The potential biomedical applications of this mixture were demonstrated by fabricating a printed epidermal electrode on a stretchable silicone substrate. The PUD/PEDOT:PSS electrodes displayed a skin-electrode impedance similar to commercially available ones, and successfully captured physiological signals. This study contributes to the development of improved customization and enhanced mechanical durability of soft electronic materials.
Performance analysis of aluminium wound double fed induction generator for cost-efficient wind energy conversion systems
Authors: Tezcan Mehmet Murat , Ayaz Murat
Published: October 2023

Currently, both limited fossil fuel resources and environmental factors have increased the use of renewable energy sources. Renewable energy resources, such as wind energy systems, are gaining popularity, resulting in increased competition among manufacturers. This study aims to achieve a cost-efficient wind energy conversion system by designing and analysing the performance of a 250 kVA aluminium wound double-fed induction generator (DFIG). The advantages and disadvantages of aluminium windings are compared with those of copper windings, and three DFIG models are created: Model-1 with a copper winding set, Model-2 with the same geometry as Model-1 but designed with an aluminium winding set, and Model-3 with an aluminium winding set and slightly different stator and rotor diameters. The three DFIG models were analysed using finite element analysis (FEA) in ANSYS Maxwell, and the simulation results were obtained. According to the FEA results, Model-1 with copper windings had a higher efficiency than Model-2 with aluminium windings, but Model-2 had better cost and weight performance than Model-1. Model-3 and Model-1 had similar efficiencies, but Model-3 had a slightly greater torque ripple compared to Model-1 because of a slightly different stator and rotor diameter. Although the total machine weight of the aluminium-wound DFIGs was slightly increased, the total manufacturing costs were less than those of the copper-wound DFIGs at the same efficiency levels.
fastlin: an ultra-fast program for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex lineage typing
Authors: Derelle Romain , Lees John , Phelan Jody , Lalvani Ajit , Arinaminpathy Nimalan , Chindelevitch Leonid
Published: October 2023

Fastlin is a bioinformatics tool designed for rapid Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) lineage typing. It utilizes an ultra-fast alignment-free approach to detect previously identified barcode single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with specific MTBC lineages. In a comprehensive benchmarking against existing tools, fastlin demonstrated high accuracy and significantly faster running times.

Availability and implementation

fastlin is freely available at https://github.com/rderelle/fastlin and can easily be installed using Conda.
French Spectral Music and Improvisation
Authors: Lehman Stephen
Published: October 2023

This chapter provides an account of the overlapping histories of French spectral music and Afrological forms of improvisation. A brief overview of the major concerns and preoccupations of both musics is presented, with particular attention paid to the concept of liminality. The author also presents a brief overview of the ways in which his own involvement with French spectral music, jazz, and other forms of Afrological improvisation has informed his current work as a composer. In the process of working towards a more comprehensive understanding of these musical practices the author has been able to begin constructing a rich conceptual framework for his work as a composer/performer. In particular, by focusing on perceptual thresholds as they relate to the harmonic, rhythmic, formal, and improvisational aspects of the author’s music, the author has sought to reinforce some of the important correspondences between the distinct musical traditions informing his work.
Electroacoustics, Optics, and Microtonal Aesthetics in the Music of Georg Friedrich Haas
Authors: Bauer Amy , Morrison Landon
Published: October 2023

The music of Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas (b. 1953) is often aligned with the spectralist school of composition, although the composer resists descriptions of his approach that characterize it in terms of any one technical attribute, choosing instead to construct a heterogeneous microtonal aesthetic that cuts across conventional boundaries of genre and style.

Haas’s prodigious and varied output since the eighties treats instrumental sound-color and texture as central elements of musical discourse. The expressive force of pitch and timbral effects in his music has long been bound to a theatrical play with light and shadow, extended in more recent works through a use of electroacoustic technologies to implement tape-delay and additive synthesis models during live performance. The authors attend here to both of these neglected aspects of Haas’s oeuvre through a detailed analysis of excerpts from three mixed works—String Quartet no. 4 (2003), Ein Schattenspiel (2004) for solo piano, and the large ensemble piece …und… (2008–9), and through an analytical treatment of light as a metaphoric and literal aspect of composition in the large-scale orchestral pieces in vain (2000) and Hyperion (2006). These analyses are set against historical and theoretical background (with focus on the theoretical work of Wyschnegradsky) for the composer’s eclectic microtonal aesthetics, a consideration of the enjoinment of pansonic and panoptical spaces, and a reflection on the “microtonal ethics” of Haas’s approach and his recent venture into cultural politics in the work I can’t breathe for solo trumpet in memoriam Eric Garner (2015).
Spectralisms in the Music of Rozalie Hirs and Their Points of Departure in Research and Innovation
Authors: Hirs Rozalie
Published: October 2023

The term spectral music is often understood to refer strictly to use of spectral analysis as the basis for additive instrumental synthesis. This definition is limiting, however, and overlooks the aesthetic impulse at the heart of this practice, namely the quest for new musical materials grounded in empirical research into acoustic and psychoacoustic phenomena. This chapter attempts to expand the definition of spectral compositional practice by proposing a variety of compositional techniques that share the same aesthetic impulse, with applied examples drawn from the authors’ own catalogue: Sacro monte (1997), Book of mirrors (2001), In LA (2003), article 4 (2004), Pulsars (2007), Roseherte (2008), and Venus (2010), among others.
Music History and Historiography in the Chinese Context
Authors: Yang Hon-Lun Helan
Published: October 2023

Chinese music has a long history, and the sonic features of current musical practices are continuously changing as they are passed from person to person through oral transmission; this is music that represents living traditions. In China—just as elsewhere, undoubtedly—ideologies, histories, and music have been intertwined, and geopolitics have shaped and will continue to shape historical narratives. This chapter advocates the safeguarding of different forms of memory-keeping in music and challenges biases produced in written histories, as they tend to reflect the narratives of the victor, the powerful, and the dogmatic—those who have access to the privilege of discourse.
The Amateur and the Professional in Wuhan’s Park Pop
Authors: Horlor Samuel
Published: October 2023

Singers who present versions of Chinese pop classics at daily shows in the parks of Wuhan make good livings from cash tips offered by supporters in the audience. While this may be reason to think of them as “professional” musicians, they also derive various benefits in their relationships with patrons from insisting on “amateur” status. This chapter considers complexities behind the ideals of the amateur and the professional, revealed not only in the individual economic and ideological circumstances of musicians but also in the constitution of these park performances as wider musical occasions. The shows see a melding of amateur and professional qualities in their organizational ethos and underlying modes of communication and creativity, their spatial and orientational setups, and their integration into a system of overlapping publics. Highlighting this melding serves to challenge certain scholarship on Chinese music inclined to idealize one or other notion.
Liveness and Mediation in Chinese Art Music
Authors: Gil-Curiel Germán
Published: October 2023

This chapter considers liveness and mediation in Chinese music from two different but related perspectives. First, it focuses on the role of technology mediating live music from the perspective of “total art” in the case of The Map: Concerto for Cello, Video and Orchestra by Tan Dun 譚盾. Second, it considers mediation as the passage of art from one medium (painting) into another (music), in the case of Along the River during the Qingming Festival, a scroll and a symphonic picture. Taken together, these case studies help to transcend the common conceptualization of liveness and mediation in terms of binary oppositions (i.e., liveness as the opposite of the mediated, or as the opposite of a deadly performance). Instead, liveness and mediation are shown to be inextricably connected, with the latter the precondition for the former, as liveness refers to the living blocks of culture that require mediation to be transmitted, disseminated, and renewed.
Traditional Instruments and Heterophonic Practice
Authors: Thrasher Alan R.
Published: October 2023

This chapter is an overview of the most significant common-practice Han Chinese instruments, together with an examination of their heterophonic interaction within selected regional ensembles. The instruments themselves are grouped within the Chinese four-part classification system of plucked strings, bowed strings, wind instruments, and percussion. Their interaction within traditional ensembles is heterophonic in principle, a system commonly known as “weaving sound form” (zhisheng ti 織聲體). Chinese heterophony is a system of great sophistication, in which all musicians perform the same basic melody with simultaneous “variations” suitable to instrumental idioms and, importantly, in accordance with well-established interactive principles of the texture—such as the “complex-simple principle” (fanjian fa 繁簡法), in reference to the division of a melody into simultaneous variations of greater and lesser complexity. Three regional ensemble systems are explored: Chaozhou xianshi 弦詩, Fujian nanyin 南音, and Jiangnan sizhu 絲竹.
Identifying New Juridical Sources and Business Practices in Taiwan’s Music Ecosystem
Authors: Lu Chien-Chih (Jesse)
Published: October 2023

Copyright provides music authors with economic incentives to deliver contributions that will benefit the cultural community. Technology has facilitated a digital breakthrough to make music content more accessible. Taiwan’s copyright expansion directly correlates to the development of the Mandarin music industry and case studies seem to illustrate that Taiwan’s copyright protection is the principal ignition and stimulation of the Mandarin music market’s evolution. Its licensing system is constructed on the basis that the music marketplace needs specific levels of government regulations and contractual restrictions, which are imposed through proper licensing provisions in the Taiwan Copyright Act. This chapter argues that modernizing the standards of what is deemed to be copyright infringement will further encourage the prosperity of music creativity and business in Taiwan’s market. Apart from conventional collective management, nonexclusive licensing arrangements in Taiwan’s marketplace will generate creative autonomy and business opportunities in a brand-new way.
‘Ev’ry Hotsy Totsy Nazi Stand and Cheer’
Authors: Grosch Nils , Scheiblhofer Susanne
Published: October 2023

This chapter discusses portrayals of National Socialism in popular musical theatre, focusing on such typical works as Schweyk im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Schweyk in the Second World War, 1957), The Sound of Music (1959), Cabaret (1966), and The Producers (2001). It analyses their structural elements, such as the construction and musical depiction of Nazi characters as well as the dramaturgical forms that deal with them. Specifically, the authors examine double-layer dramaturgy, alienation strategies, and the use of caricature and irony. The essay explores how the behaviour of Nazi figures is framed and sometimes de-demonised by the fabric and theatrical tools of both musical comedy and the musical play. It also looks at the reception of these works, especially in German-speaking countries, and investigates their function in mirroring and developing processes regarding Vergangenheitsbewältigung (i.e. ‘coming to terms with the past’), politics of memory, and denazification.
Pacific Overtures
Authors: Perlman Gary
Published: October 2023

Amon Miyamoto’s 2000 Japanese-language production of Stephen Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures, the 1976 oddity about the American-driven opening of isolationist Japan in the nineteenth century, reflected a starkly different perception of events from the American version. As opposed to the daring Kabuki-like format used on Broadway to highlight the ‘exotic’ nature of the Japanese, the Tokyo production took a naturalistic approach, incorporating the deeper understanding of the history and culture being portrayed. This led to a subtle shift in theme: the Japanese version is concerned less with the perils of progress than with its inevitability, a warning not against change but against a refusal to change. The result makes for a fascinating study in varying perspectives.
The French spectacle musical
Authors: Cerchiari Luca
Published: October 2023

Although the composer Jacques Offenbach was one of the founders of the genre, France’s contribution to international musical theatre during the last century has, for various reasons, been comparatively minor. But from the early 1970s onward, inspired by the rock operas of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, a new generation of French writers began creating their own concept recordings, which they later staged as big spectacles in huge venues, to great popular acclaim. Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil’s La Revolution Française (1973) and Les Misèrables (1980), are two of these spectacles musicaux; the latter was picked up by the British producer Cameron Mackintosh, who helped revise the Victor Hugo adaptation and then exported it globally, with tremendous success. This essay also deals, in critical terms, with other prominent examples of the subgenre, including shows by Luc Plamondon, Michel Berger, Riccardo ‘Richard’ Cocciante, and Gérard Presgurvic, including Starmania, Notre-Dame de Paris, and Roméo et Juliette: De la haine à l’amour.
‘They Dated out of Pure Love’
Authors: Šotkovský Jan
Published: October 2023

This essay summarises the main tendencies in the history of Czech musical theatre of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; it covers indigenous works as well as productions of foreign, especially British and American, musicals. The Czech musical developed as a series of creative departures from the Broadway norm, even today tending towards looser cabaret and revue formats. These formats are often the result of cultural nostalgia, whose various manifestations are closely related to the complicated political history of the Czech Republic after 1918. In its discussion of the pre-war period, the essay explores the Osvobozené divadlo (Liberated Theatre) and its political jazz revues, which took the form of historical parables and were innovative even by comparison on an international level. The chapter emphasises the particular contribution of small and studio ‘song theatres’ during the communist regime of 1948–1989, the difficulties state operetta theatres had adapting to the repertoire of musical theatre, and some of the extraordinary achievements in the field of film musicals in the 1960s. When focusing on the democratic period after 1989, the essay covers the great boom of musical theatre as a business—often approached with naïveté and without practical know-how—which has led to aiming for a balance between the production models of the two Czech sectors, subsidised and commercial musical theatre.
Aesthetic Choice in the Age of Ecological Awareness
Authors: Lehtinen Sanna
Published: October 2023

In this chapter, I discuss how environmentally conscious aesthetic values become explicit in the form of preferences and concrete choices in everyday situations in which one is able to choose between two or more equally accessible alternatives. Climate awareness, in particular, is affecting attitudes and the experienced responsibility for one’s personal aesthetic preferences and concrete situations in which one is choosing between two or more options with varying degrees of environmental implication. This type of accountability for the long-term sustainability of subjective choices and deliberation between different types of possibly conflicting values is present in many everyday situations ranging from the mundane to more complex matters. The chapter presents case examples in which the need to make everyday decisions is directly linked to aesthetic value and consumption choices. The broader claim made in the article is that these moments of everyday aesthetic decision-making cause mental friction and affect the well-being of an individual in complex ways. Environmental and aesthetic values can and do coexist but they do not necessarily align neatly and neither does one always possess required knowledge to make thoroughly informed decisions.
Positive Psychiatry and Mental Health
Authors: Schouler-Ocak Meryam
Published: October 2023

In traditional psychiatry, the main treatment goals are symptom relief and relapse prevention, while in positive psychiatry the main objective is recovery, increased well-being and posttraumatic growth, and successful aging. Positive psychiatry goes along with a shift towards a new paradigm of promoting prevention in general and mental health. Its main concept is based upon certain psychobiological traits, mainly resilience, optimism, and coping strategies along with additional environmental factors such as social support, and access to medical and psychological care. The key point is to improve well-being, which can be optimized through an increase in positive psychosocial characteristics. Moreover, positive psychiatry expands the scope of traditional psychiatry by focusing on promoting the positive psychosocial attributes of individuals to foster their recovery. Therefore, positive psychiatry should be an integral part of the education of psychiatrists.
State Aid and International Taxation
Authors: Lampreave Márquez Patricia
Published: October 2023

Member states of the EU are free to choose the tax policy they deem most appropriate. However, their tax sovereignty should be exercised in accordance with EU law.

The European Commission enacted in the late 1990s the state aid rules, due to the risk of distortion that fiscal subsidies granted by member states could cause competition between economic operators acting in the internal market. In parallel, the EU Code of Conduct was adopted to root out harmful tax regimes established in national laws which could jeopardize competition between member states. The divergences and convergences between measures to tackle harmful tax competition and to eradicate unlawful state aid are examined, as they are tools that complement one another, but are divergent in many respects. The European Commission has subsequently published state aid decisions against several member states regarding tax rulings granted in favour of certain multinational groups. The role and potential limits of the Commission in reviewing the mentioned practice is analysed through relevant case law from the EU Courts, to explore whether state aid rules provide an appropriate instrument for the control of profit shifting by multinational groups.
International Tax Law and the EEA/EFTA
Authors: Knörzer Patrick
Published: October 2023

This chapter studies international tax law and the European Economic Area (EEA) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The EFTA was founded in 1960 as a free-trade zone and was intended to be an alternative economic integration to the European Economic Community (EEC). The EEA was established based on the EEA Agreement, which was concluded in Porto on 2 May 1992, by the then seven EFTA member states and the then twelve member states of the European Community (EC). It was designed as a mechanism to allow EFTA member states to actively participate in the process of the European economic integration by having full access to the internal market without transferring any political competences to the EU bodies. Currently, the EEA comprises twenty-seven EU member states and the three EEA EFTA states—Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. The chapter then looks at the principles of taxation in the EEA.
Jurisdictional Underpinnings of International Taxation
Authors: Rosenbloom H. David , Shaheen Fadi
Published: October 2023

This chapter discusses the jurisdictional underpinnings of international taxation. It looks at certain principles of public international law and raises related questions that may be useful to consider when efforts are made to reach a broad consensus on changes to the rules of international taxation. The chapter assesses whether, from a public international law standpoint, existing domestic tax laws and bilateral income tax treaties can rise to the level of customary international law and, as such, impose limitations on jurisdiction to tax.
Taxation of Imports
Authors: Bieber Thomas
Published: October 2023

This chapter deals with the taxation of imports, where customs law, excise duties and import VAT coincide. As imports of goods are governed by the common framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), this chapter first provides a short outline of the GATT provisions regarding their VAT content. From an EU law perspective, the chapter presents an overview of the principles of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and discusses in more detail the taxation of imports according to the VAT Directive 2006/112/EC.
The US Perspective on International Tax Law
Authors: Clausing Kimberly A.
Published: October 2023

This chapter evaluates the US perspective on international tax law. Prior to the 2017 tax law, the US system of international taxation for multinational companies was widely viewed as seriously flawed. Critics faulted it for being excessively complicated, out of line with international norms, and insufficiently attentive to the problem of corporate tax base erosion due to profit shifting. The 2017 tax law did not solve any of these problems, and it created some new ones. Still, in some respects, the 2017 tax law provides a better starting point for future international tax reform. In the short term, the new minimum taxes can be strengthened, combating profit shifting and reducing tax competition pressures. In the longer term, more fundamental reforms can be considered.
The Emerging Consensus on Value Creation
Authors: Christians Allison
Published: October 2023

This chapter illustrates the emerging consensus on value creation in international tax law. It begins with a brief review of the emergence of value creation as a part of the lexicon of international taxation, examining its quick take-up and causes for intrigue. The chapter then examines three features that simultaneously make value creation an intuitively compelling concept yet ultimately render it an incomplete tax principle, namely that in tax terms, value is a legislated construct rather than a science; that value is inconsistently identifiable and quantifiable; and that value and its causes of origin often defy geo-location, even though this is the express purpose of using the term in the first place. These features all point to interesting problems of tax cooperation that will almost certainly remain unresolved in the current iteration of global tax policymaking. The chapter therefore concludes that the concept of value creation is likely to continue to intrigue and frustrate scholars while serving as a useful rhetorical flourish for advocates of various policy preferences across the worldwide tax community.
The Allocation of Taxing Rights under Pillar One of the OECD Proposal
Authors: Navarro Aitor
Published: October 2023

This chapter examines Pillar One of the OECD proposal to address changes in the allocation of taxing rights of business profits at an international level. This initiative comes as a reaction to the tension generated by the inadequacies of the international tax regime that are significantly exacerbated by the digitalization of the economy, and aims at achieving a long-standing, consensus-based solution on the matter. The chapter analyses issues related to the outdated character of the international tax regime, the formation of the Unified Approach advocated by the OECD in which Pillar One is integrated as a possible solution, the specific components of the proposal, and evaluates Pillar One from a normative standpoint and its compromise-based rationale.
Effective Minimum Taxation under Pillar Two of the OECD Proposal (‘GloBE’)
Authors: Englisch Joachim
Published: October 2023

This chapter reviews international effective minimum taxation under OECD/G20 Pillar Two. The second pillar on minimum taxation was initially envisaged as a complementary anti-base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) instrument, in contrast to Pillar One on a genuine realignment of the international tax system. This was reflected in the name for the new minimum tax concept: ‘GloBE’ as a short form for the ‘Global Anti-Base Erosion’ proposal. The GloBE concept calls for a ‘top-up tax’ on foreign-sourced profits of large multinational enterprises (MNEs) whose effective tax rate (ETR) is below the politically agreed minimum rate of 15%. Two basic mechanisms are foreseen for the collection of this top-up tax: an income inclusion rule (IIR) if a parent company is liable to pay top-up tax, or an undertaxed payments rule (UTPR) if the tax is collected from a company making intra-group payments.
International Tax Law and Personal Nexus
Authors: Dirkis Michael
Published: October 2023

This chapter focuses on the importance of individuals (persons) as a source of taxation revenue. When jurisdictions seek to tax foreign and cross-border income, profits, gains, or consumption (international taxation), the tax consequences are also linked back to persons. The chapter first briefly explores the limitation of sufficient connection on the sovereignty of jurisdictions to tax individuals. It then reviews the nexus criteria used to justify the taxation of individuals on their worldwide income, gains, or profits and used to justify location-based (territorial) taxation of individuals located in other jurisdictions. In doing so, the chapter highlights the origins of the key personal nexus criteria, and the commonality and diversity of the nexus criteria adopted by jurisdictions, and assesses whether the development of more objective tests could lead to more consistent nexus tests for individuals in the context of international taxation.
Borges
Authors: Willson Patricia
Published: October 2023

In this chapter, typical representations of Borges as translator are removed from the unifying and retrospectively established matrix of a literary life, which neatly integrates and gives coherence to his translation work in a single persona. Instead, three different representative figures are proposed: Borges, the Translator of Magazines; Borges, the Translator on Commission; and Borges, the Retranslator. To illustrate each of these figures, a translation by or attributed to Borges is discussed, focusing on his translation strategies, reconstructing the context in which each translation occurred, and examining the publishing discourse framing the publication of each.