bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Christian Mission and Colonialism
Authors: Ahn Kyo Seong
Published: December 2022

Ever since the publication of Stephen Neill’s Colonialism and Christian Missions in 1966, the question of the relationship between mission and colonialism never stopped drawing scholars’ attention; yet it remains unanswered in many ways, all the more so when seen and reinterpreted from the perspectives of postcolonialism and the emerging historiography of world Christianity. New research sheds light on multifaceted aspects of mission and colonialism: Western and non-Western colonialism, nationalism of nationals and colonizers including missionaries, and the transformation and diversification of imperialism, ranging from political to social, economic, medical, and even cultural, all of which combine to influence mission and vice versa. Furthermore, new standpoints of hermeneutics, ideology, worldview, identity, and cultural studies break new ground in mission studies, particularly mission and colonialism. Not surprisingly, the rise of non-Western missiologists and non-Western mission force enriches this research area, by challenging the conventional concepts and patterns of mission.
Christian Mission and Communism
Authors: Bargár Pavol
Published: December 2022

This chapter explores the ways Christian mission was realized during the period of communist political rule in the second half of the twentieth century. Since communist governments were by and large openly hostile to Christian churches, disabling them from pursuing full-fledged ministry and societal involvement, and even persecuting those active therein, new and usually indirect ways of missionary engagement were examined and undertaken by churches and individual Christians. The chapter particularly focuses on the context of Protestant churches in the former Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Therefore, phenomena such as unofficial activities by congregations and ordained and lay individuals, youth work, Christian–Marxist dialog, and the Christian Peace Conference will be discussed. The overall thesis will then be that these kinds of Christian witness in the contexts of communism can contribute towards the broadening of our understanding of the notion of missio Dei.
Mission Studies and World Christianity
Authors: Robert Dana L.
Published: December 2022

This chapter asserts that reflection on cross-cultural mission encounters guided the unfolding understanding of Christianity as a worldwide, multicultural religion. After providing historical background to the theme, the chapter analyzes how during the mid to late twentieth century, mission scholars focused on the dynamic intersection of local contexts with the universalizing logic of the Christian Gospel. Mission studies as a formal academic discipline, therefore, played a major role in the emergence of world Christianity as an academic discourse. The chapter argues that contemporary postcolonial perspectives in mission studies continue to shape the field.
Mission as Inculturation
Authors: Phan Peter C.
Published: December 2022

The chapter begins with a definition of the concept of inculturation/contextualization and argues for its intrinsic connection with mission. The first part of the chapter discusses the various understandings of “culture” and the dynamics of the encounter between faith (the Gospel) and culture, especially in mission. It also analyses the possibilities and limits of inculturation. The second part critically reviews key models of inculturation developed by theologians from Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. The final part discusses the opportunities and challenges to mission as inculturation in a world that is increasingly globalized, culturally diverse, and religiously plural, and in a Christianity that has become a “world Christianity.”
Christian Mission and African Traditions
Authors: Asamoah-Gyadu J. Kwabena
Published: December 2022

This chapter discusses the main tensions between Christianity and African religio-cultural traditions against the backdrop of mission history. In dealing with these issues, African Christians have pursued religious innovations—such as the rise of the independent indigenous Pentecostal/charismatic churches and movements—whose spirituality responds to critical questions with which indigenous people have come to faith in Christ. The encounter between Christian mission and African religio-cultural realities has been a very intriguing enterprise. On the one hand, Christianity sought to supplant traditional religion through processes of demonization and conversion, often leading to tensions between the two faiths. On the other hand, although traditional religions were weakened by Christian mission, their underlying worldviews have remained resilient even within African expressions of Christianity today. Thus, although they seek to remain biblical in terms of Christian practices, African Christians have often operated with an amalgamated worldview that has brought together Christian and traditional beliefs.
Christian Mission and the Jewish People
Authors: Kessler Edward
Published: December 2022

The issue of mission is problematic in Jewish–Christian relations and the church has no clear consensus. There tend to be three positions: first, those who seek the conversion of all Jews because there is no exemption from the need for salvation in Christ; second, those who witness to faith in Christ, without targeting Jews specifically, and believe in sharing the Christian faith with all people; and third, those who have no conversionary outlook towards Jews, where mission is understood as joint witness in an unredeemed world. In recent decades, Christian mission to Jews (in terms of seeking converts) has declined significantly, partly because of a growing awareness of an intricate but traumatic history, and partly the recognition of a unique, intimate, and familial relationship between Judaism and Christianity which opens up numerous possibilities for each, not least working together to bring the Kingdom of God on earth.
Christian Missions and Muslims
Authors: Nwokoro Samuel , Azumah John
Published: December 2022

While noting the wide scope of the topic of Christian missions and Muslims, this chapter focuses on the historical and missiological aspects of the subject, mainly through the lens of Africa, while drawing attention to other significant patterns of encounter across the world. The central thesis of the chapter is that although early modern missionary engagement with Muslims was shaped by Christians from Western Europe and North America, contemporary Christian–Muslim encounters in the Global South reflect interactions between local peoples and their shared sense of ethnic and religious identities and mission. On the Western front, the Danish Lutheran Folkekirkens’ engagement with asylum seekers illustrates how Christian mission among Muslims has evolved into an engagement with immigrant communities often through charitable intervention of Christian institutions. In the end, it is observed that shades of Christian missionary ethos still intersect with the lived experience of different contemporary Muslim communities.
Christian Mission and the Social Sciences
Authors: Burity Joanildo
Published: December 2022

This chapter presents an overview of the debate on the relationship between Christian missions, missiology, and social sciences, understood as terms that express missionary practice, theological reflection, and fields of knowledge that provide analyses of the conditions under which mission takes place and is assessed. It is argued that the link is both socially and conceptually constructed and can thus take many forms. This is done contextually, from a Latin American perspective and prioritizing authors from that context. A central feature of such views is an acute sense of the concrete challenges of poverty, inequality, oppression, and colonial legacies. It is argued that three basic orientations can be discerned: instrumental, dialogic, and activist. They all affirm the importance of the link, but construct it differently. From the idea that mission and the social sciences are fully constituted, separate, or opposing fields, the latter come to be seen as complementary and interconnected.
Mission and Migration
Authors: Frederiks Martha Th.
Published: December 2022

This chapter introduces the subject area of mission and migration by considering three of its dimensions. Firstly, the chapter discusses some methodological concerns and underscores the political and ethical sensitivities involved in research around the intersection of mission and migration. Second, the chapter sketches how, in both past and present, migrants have understood their relocation as an opportunity for mission as well as how migration has affected the understanding and practice of Christian mission. Thirdly, the chapter introduces a number of theologies that reflect on the intersection of mission and migration (for example, theologies of hospitality; reverse mission), highlighting the role of theology as a meaning-making tool in continuously changing contexts.
Global Mission Statistics and Religious Demography
Authors: Zurlo Gina A. , Johnson Todd M.
Published: December 2022

Cross-cultural missionaries have always produced what would now be called “social science” research, including statistics of many kinds. The production of such material was always a part of the missionary enterprise and made important contributions to the contemporary social scientific study of religion. Missionaries themselves were producers of data, but the global missionary enterprise itself was the object of quantitative study, particularly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This chapter covers a brief history of mission statistics from early Catholic missionaries to the present, including contributions by William Carey, David B. Barrett, and digital data in the twenty-first century. The chapter concludes with up-to-date statistics on mission and world Christianity from the World Christian Database (Brill, 2020), highlighting the continued shift of Christianity from the Global North to the Global South, estimates for major world religions, Christian affiliation by continent, and Christian activities such as media, finance, and mission.
Mission and Evangelization in Christian Doctrine
Authors: Mazzolini Sandra
Published: December 2022

The first part of this chapter introduces some etymological elements and theoretical aspects concerning the two notions of mission and evangelization; its purpose is to focus on the main data foundational to Christian doctrine about mission and evangelization. To highlight some of their shared principles is the aim of the second part, which briefly assesses perspectives of recent statements and documents of the global Christian bodies concerning mission and evangelization. They recognize different approaches and, in so doing, draw a wide-ranging understanding of mission and evangelization. The third part focuses on some doctrinal aspects of today’s Christian commitment to rethink mission and evangelization. In the framework of the search for the ecclesial unity and according to the instances of our time, to rethink mission and evangelization implies paying a specific attention to their anthropological foundation as well as its implications.
State Ownership and Project Financing
Authors: James Barclay E. , Vaaler Paul M.
Published: December 2022

Research in management and related fields offers different answers to questions about how partial state ownership in large infrastructure projects (projects) affects overall investment risk. In this chapter, we review those answers and their underlying theoretical assumptions. We then offer our own answer hinging on two factors: the extent of state ownership in a project and the institutional stability of state policies where that project is announced, financed, constructed, and operated. Our answer proposes that state ownership generally increases investment risk unless there is low state policy stability in the host country where the project is located. Then, substantial but noncontrolling minority state ownership provides a second-best assurance against detrimental policy changes and decreases investment risk. We document empirical support for our proposition through analyses of state ownership and investment risk in 1190 projects announced but awaiting financing in 91 countries from 1990–2007. Regression and related empirical analyses indicate that minority state ownership reduces the likelihood that financing will be significantly delayed for projects located in host countries with low policy stability. Partial state ownership signals assurance against detrimental policy changes, but also possible interference under existing policies. Our study demonstrates the limited circumstances when the assurance signal dominates and partial state ownership acts as a helping rather than hindering hand to private investors and the projects they fund and govern.
State Capitalism as an Instrument of Diplomacy
Authors: Han Xia , Liu Xiaohui
Published: December 2022

Using survey data on Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs), we examine the effect of home-government diplomatic support on Chinese firms’ overseas performance. The findings indicate that the level of diplomatic support offered by the home government has a positive association with the overseas performance of Chinese MNEs. Strong political relations between China and the host country can further boost the effect of home-country diplomatic support on the subsidiary performance of these firms. Our study helps to resolve the puzzle concerning why emerging market MNEs tend to operate in countries where the political conditions are risky. State capitalism plays a key role in enabling emerging market MNEs to compete in overseas markets where strong political relations between a firm’s home government and the host country are in place.
State Capitalism and the Law
Authors: Lee Yong-Shik
Published: December 2022

This chapter examines the role of the law in state capitalism and assesses the law’s impact. The law forms the regulatory frameworks in which the state participates in the economy and attempts to regulate the manner and extent of such participation. The law is both a facilitator and a regulator of the state involvement in the economy. The legal facilitator of state capitalism is also relevant to the enhancement of economic development. This chapter introduces the successful development case of South Korea that adopted extensive state capitalism and examines how the state used the law to achieve economic development. This chapter, with the aid of the General Theory of Law and Development, finds that law, legal frameworks, and institutions in Korea were an essential implementation tool of state capitalism in Korea, which promoted successful economic development.
Public-Private Partnerships in Britain
Authors: Foreman-Peck James
Published: December 2022

Britain was in the forefront of utilizing Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) and contracting out from the 1980s, but recently has become increasingly disenchanted with the effectiveness of private finance and outsourcing in government procurement. Private contractors have not always proved better at managing government services than direct government supply. Nearly complete measurement of the government service is essential if the supply is to be successfully contracted out or provided by a PPP. Bundling different stages of supply, a typical feature of PPP, though potentially beneficial for controlling project whole life costs, boosts the size of the contract, reducing the number of potential competitors and the intensity of competition. Credible risk transfer from government to the private contractor continued to be challenging. Yet HM Treasury project appraisal was nevertheless biased in favor of private finance projects and yardstick competition between procurement routes remained underutilized. Private finance has been an expensive way of massaging the national debt-GDP ratio, with less than 10% of government investment at stake. On the other hand, considerable experience has been obtained in controlling whole life project costs with other, simpler, procurement routes.
Corporate Political Ties and State Capitalism
Authors: Gao Renfei , Sun Pei , Grosman Anna , Okhmatovskiy Ilya
Published: December 2022

Corporate political ties serve as a significant channel for business-government interactions and represent a prominent feature of state capitalism. Given the burgeoning scholarly interests in this topic over the last few decades, we identify the latest insights that emerge from this literature, with an emphasis on the strategy and performance implications of corporate political ties. We first define the scope of our overview of corporate political ties, noting the relevance of other forms of corporate political activity and state capitalism. We next review several important theoretical perspectives that have been used to study corporate political ties. This is followed by a detailed review of the recent research on the strategy and performance implications of corporate political ties and the emergent insights into the benefits and costs of corporate political ties. We conclude this chapter by proposing several directions and suggestions for future research.
State Capitalism in the United States
Authors: D’Amico Daniel J.
Published: December 2022

This paper describes the unique incentives at play within state produced and managed military and prison industries under democratic political arrangements. Unlike competitive market economies wherein competition guides productive and allocative efficiency, centrally managed state industries deviate from social efficiency in so far as discretion holders perceive value from growth, and or voting electorates exhibit bias. Thus, the proclivity for deviating from socially efficient equilibria is present in both authoritarian and democratic regimes lacking effective checks and balances in military and criminal justice arenas.
State Capitalism in Poland and Hungary
Authors: Bałtowski Maciej , Kozarzewski Piotr , Mickiewicz Tomasz
Published: December 2022

We discuss the emerging economic systems of Poland and Hungary using the state capitalism approach and suggest some general lessons. We define state capitalism in the broad and narrow senses and propose six major manifestations of state capitalism of the populist variety, and five major state capitalism tools. Applying this framework to the post-Soviet, transition economies context, we discuss the origins of state capitalism formation in Poland and Hungary. We focus on specific features of the populist variety of state capitalism in these countries, including the relative importance of political capitalism, oligarchy, and the use of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as the source of rents, as well as the varieties of state control over the enterprise sector. We point out that the specific economic policies implemented in the two countries are conditioned by the past. We also underline the discrepancy between the features resulting from post-communist path dependence and the contemporary influences, mainly related to the membership of both countries in the EU.
Sovereign Wealth Funds
Authors: Bischoff Christine , Wood Geoffrey T.
Published: December 2022

This chapter introduces sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and where they stand in the world of state capitalism. SWFs are gradually becoming leading participants in the alternative investor ecosystem, and are another expression of state capitalism. This chapter highlights the challenges of categorizing state investment funds, and argue that what sets SWFs apart is an ostensibly inter-generational savings focus. Through the usage of examples, we highlight the great diversity in SWFs in terms of size, scope, and quality of governance, and contrast those that have some focus in internal investment to promote national development with those that are purely external focused. Again, we draw attention to the case of SWFs that have faced rapid depletion, and explore what sets them apart from more prosperous funds. Finally, we explore how SWFs may be theorized in terms of ethics, state capabilities and orientation, diplomacy, and via network theory.
State-owned Development Banks
Authors: Musacchio Aldo , Lazzarini Sergio G. , Makhoul Pedro , Simmons Emily
Published: December 2022

State-owned development banks are either seen as solving market imperfections or criticized for crowding out private lenders and encouraging politically motivated lending. We study six development banks—Chile’s Corfo, Brazil’s BNDES, Canada’s BDC, Germany’s KfW, Korea’s KDB, and China’s CDB, analyze the tools they use to address market failures, and create a typology according to their strategic focus. We identify two general strategic orientations of development banks—national-champion oriented (with a focus on large firms and with direct mechanisms of lending and equity investment) and entrepreneurship-oriented (with a focus on smaller firms and with more indirect tools to reduce market failure, such as credit guarantees). We conclude with several suggestions for research and public policy. For instance, we argue that, as local capital markets and institutions evolve, development banks should progressively become more entrepreneurship-oriented, focused on smaller entrepreneurial firms, and use of more indirect mechanisms to promote equity investment and alleviate credit constraints (such as credit guarantees). From a research standpoint, scholars should examine conditions and mechanisms through which development banks help develop novel and valuable private capabilities and how their internal organizational patterns influence the impact of their policies.
State Capitalism and the Financial Crisis
Authors: Campbell John L.
Published: December 2022

This chapter reviews the neoliberal origins of the 2008 financial crisis and explains how different types of nation-states coped with it. There were significant differences between how liberal and coordinated market economies responded. The chapter also examines the international response to the crisis and how banks reacted to it. The chapter concludes by reviewing the lessons learned from the crisis.
Digital Nudging
Authors: Ienca Marcello , Vayena Effy
Published: December 2022

Nudging (i.e. behavioural change programmes involving subtle environmental modifications (nudges) aimed at influencing lifestyle choices and behaviour) has been advocated as an efficient and cost-effective way to achieve public health objectives. Research shows that well-calibrated nudges can result in healthier dietary and nutritional choices, higher vaccination compliance, reduction in health-care expenditures, and other positive public health outcomes. In spite of these findings, nudging has been criticized for its possible impact on fundamental ethical notions such as personal autonomy and freedom of choice. This stems from the fact that nudging, unlike other public health strategies for lifestyle modification such as education and financial inducements, is characterized by a higher reliance on non-rational influence. With the advent of digital technology and online spaces, nudges are being increasingly administered in digital format. These ‘digital nudges’ include influencing lifestyle habits via wearable devices, predetermining choices via predictive analytics, segmenting user groups by psychometric variables, hijacking human attention through addictive user interfaces, and enabling surveillance and behavioural compliance via ubiquitous computing. While the ethics of analogue nudging has been largely debated in public health ethics, the ethical implications of non-rational behavioural change via digital technology have often eluded scrutiny. This chapter explores the ethical boundaries of digital nudging. It discusses the core features of digital nudges and their impact on the principle of autonomy and reviews emerging normative accounts of autonomy that may enable a greater degree of normative protection from non-rational influence via digital technology, namely, freedom of thought, mental integrity, and cognitive liberty.
The Ethics of Medical AI
Authors: Mishra Abhishek , Savulescu Julian , Giubilini Alberto
Published: December 2022

Over the past few years, artificial intelligence (AI) solutions have been increasingly explored and developed for health-care settings. This trend is only expected to accelerate. ‘AI’ in this chapter refers primarily to deep learning models and the chapter considers the main ethical concerns that arise on the basis of (a) bias, discrimination, and fairness; (b) patient-centred medicine; (c) AI and value-based decision-making; (d) responsibility, accountability, and explanation; and (e) the broader long-term societal effects of AI in health care. The various questions posed under these themes are considered, the main arguments are assembled, and directions for future research are considered.
The Surveillance Delusion
Authors: Véliz Carissa
Published: December 2022

This chapter explores the ethics of surveillance in the digital age by assessing its lights and shadows. After assessing the consequences of surveillance for freedom and democracy, it argues that we should resist the surveillance delusion: the assumption that surveillance has no significant moral costs. Under the surveillance delusion, only the benefits of surveillance are considered, and, as a result, surveillance is taken to be a convenient solution to problems that could be solved through less intrusive means—all without realizing that surveillance itself may be creating more weighty problems in the long run than the ones it is solving.
Lyric Backwardness
Authors: Mitchell Dianne
Published: December 2022

What would it mean to take seriously the idea that there is something backward about Renaissance women’s lyrics? Appearing belatedly in our critical purview, female-authored poems have seemed out of step with the supposed trajectories of English poetry. However, interpretive methods offer models for reading the recalcitrant. Backwardness represents a problem only if we assume that ‘forward’ is the direction in which literature must go. This chapter reclaims ‘backwardness’ as a formal condition of early modern women’s lyric. It argues for three types of lyric backwardness: the ‘negative, shameful, and difficult’ feelings that Heather Love has termed ‘feeling backward’; the temporal backwardness of collections created across distinct moments in time; and how manuscripts incite a literal mode of backward reading. Arguing for the value of reading backward both within and across lyrics, this chapter advocates for critical approaches that are more attuned to early modern women’s perverse and innovative poetic trajectories.
Women and Fiction
Authors: Dodds Lara
Published: December 2022

Virginia Woolf’s thought experiment—or fiction—of Judith Shakespeare was part of a larger investigation of the problem of ‘women and fiction’. This chapter returns to this problem with an investigation of the different ways that early modern women were associated with fiction: as patrons, addressees, readers, writers, and theorists. This chapter provides an overview of women’s participation in fiction in the earlier part of the seventeenth century. The examples of Margaret Tyler and Mary Sidney Herbert demonstrate women’s influence on the development of early modern fiction as translators, editors, and co-authors. Further, the association of women and fiction in the period created ‘women and fiction’ as a complex of ideas that shaped women’s engagement with fiction as both readers and writers. This chapter analyses Mary Wroth and Margaret Cavendish’s fictional works, demonstrating how these writers developed theories about the power of fiction to reflect and shape the conditions of women’s lives.
Receiving Early Modern Women’s Drama
Authors: Wray Ramona
Published: December 2022

Drama is the literary genre most readily associated with the early modern period, and was a genre in which early modern women excelled. In the early 1980s, many feminist critics brought these achievements to light. However, little of this work has significantly touched mainstream criticism of early modern drama. Why are women dramatists invariably peripheral to such discussion? This chapter explores the disciplinary implications of challenging such resilient assumptions. It emphasises women as participants in a well-networked community of creatives. It understands women dramatists not only in terms of gender but also region and class, in so doing unmooring the assumption that elite social categories are determining factors. By detailing how women dramatists take energy from writing and culture more generally, this chapter makes a case for an approach which highlights the need for adjustments to scholarship and the early modern canon.
Romance and Race
Authors: Braganza V. M.
Published: December 2022

Throughout the seventeenth century, female authors use the evolving concept of race to reshape romance’s investment in identity in search of their own. Women’s romances use perceived instabilities in racialised identities to carve out social and literary agency for female authors and subjects. However, as they craft their identities via racial metaphors and politics, instability, not identity, ultimately prevails. This chapter tracks the evolution of this process across the fictions of Mary Wroth, Margaret Cavendish, Hester Pulter, and Aphra Behn. These writers’ literary engagements with different conceptual aspects of race transform romance from a genre centred on the discovery of identity to one which destabilises—and is destabilised by—racial and gendered identities. In this way, women’s romances do not just reflect the identity politics of emergent racialism: they are complicit in creating and encoding it. Romance ultimately helps to create the very world in which it fails.
‘People of a Deeper Speech’
Authors: Killeen Kevin
Published: December 2022

Among the fieriest writings in early modernity are a set of women’s political, wild poetic responses to the Bible. While these tracts are ‘enthusiastic’, they constitute a carefully crafted mode of writing. It is a style that is precise but tempestuous, drawing on the Scriptures and a class-conscious hermeneutic that constitutes a community of, per Anna Trapnel, ‘people of a deeper speech’. Such writing has not been neglected by scholars, but its biblical idiom has remained baffling. This chapter considers Trapnel’s The Cry of a Stone (1654) in relation to the biblical prophets’ function as one of discordance. It argues that prophetic typology crafts its style as a response to a deeply unstable spiritual-political ontology. It makes the case that women prophets of the revolution understood themselves to be working within a scriptural poetic that is possibly experimental, in that they aim to disrupt the parameters of language and coherence.
Daughters of the House
Authors: Sanders Julie
Published: December 2022

This chapter explores the place-based work of a number of seventeenth-century women playwrights, arguing for their site-specificity but also that their work was inflected by broader theatrical and literary movements in the period. Likely written at Penshurst, Lady Mary Wroth’s Love’s Victory can be understood not only through intertextual relationships with the work of Ben Jonson and her famous relations but as a site-specific work imbued with spatial practices and daily activities that informed family life there. Jane and Elizabeth Cavendish’s ‘Pastorall’ was written while running Welbeck Abbey for their father, and is read alongside Rachel Fane’s 1620s Apethorpe productions, in particular her 1627 ‘May Masque’. These case studies are examples of ‘daughters of the house’: women producing place-based and place-making art in powerful family, regional, and national contexts, and the importance to them of their experiences of managing and of living inside these ‘producing houses’.
Archipelagic Feminism
Authors: Prescott Sarah
Published: December 2022

This chapter takes an archipelagic comparative approach to chart the geographical production and spatial networks of women’s poetry across the national and linguistic borders of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales in the period 1540–1700. Methodologically, the chapter explores the potential of archipelagic approaches for thinking differently about women’s writing, particularly what might be termed the feminist impulse at the heart of devolutionary critical methods. The chapter argues that a devolved attention to the geographically marginal can result not only in a reappraisal of that perceived marginality but also lead to different conclusions as to the status of particular poets and the significance of their oeuvre. It also considers the implications of an archipelagic approach for a reassessment of the ‘canon’ of women’s literary production in this period and the contexts in which it is read. Overall, the chapter asks: can archipelagic literary criticism work as a different form of feminist recovery?
Desire, Dreams, Disguise
Authors: Starza Smith Daniel , Veronese Leah
Published: December 2022

The virtually unknown writings of Elizabeth Bourne present remarkable but opaque opportunities to explore the creative interior life of an Elizabethan woman—albeit one in extraordinary circumstances. Subject to domestic violence, Bourne escaped the family home and found protection in a legal guardian, Sir John Conway—with whom she then fell in love. In a series of exchanges with Conway, which included the exchange of books and poetry, Bourne’s letters pick up tropes of literary forms including Spenserian romance, dream visions, Latin translation, coded sexual fantasy, and even intelligence activity. Bourne used her letters to craft a literary space to imagine passion, peace, and happiness. Those letters were themselves subject to misogynistic archival violence in the nineteenth century and come down to us almost by accident. This chapter sets out the literary achievements they preserve for the first time by attending to how Bourne’s writings construct and navigate social networks.
Elizabeth Melville
Authors: Verweij Sebastiaan
Published: December 2022

This chapter discusses the poetry, poetics, and publication strategies of Scottish poet Elizabeth Melville, Lady Culross (fl. 1599–1631), locating her within Scottish and English cultural networks. It is often assumed Melville was exceptional if not unique as a practising poet: she was the first Scottish woman to publish poetry, and the first to produce the sizeable corpus of over 4,000 lines of verse. This chapter tests these assumptions by considering issues of poetics and influence, and publication and propaganda. The chapter also considers how Melville’s religion and poetics reflect the contents of a neglected Melville family library. Melville’s publication strategies suggest various ways in which her poetry functioned socially, including occasional and targeted manuscript publication in support of friends. This chapter ultimately suggests that Melville was perhaps never an outlier, but also that her voice and contribution, not only to women’s writing but also to Scottish and British letters, were distinct.
Material Texts
Authors: Reynolds Anna
Published: December 2022

The last two decades have seen a turn towards material histories of texts and embodied acts of reading. Cultural representations of women’s encounters with books and the traces left behind by female readers have been central to our understanding of the material history of reading, as well as the recent turn away from texts contained within books to early modern textual culture more broadly. This chapter begins with an act of critical imagining, overviewing textual encounters elite, middling, and lower status women may have experienced. It attends to paper’s centrality to the literary negotiations of Lady Mary Wroth’s Urania. Absent from the historical record because of their ephemerality and apparent triviality, Urania reveals connections between household sheets and the pages of Wroth’s romance. The ways in which paper might be handled, preserved, and destroyed, proves to be vital in how Wroth positions herself in relation to existing literary forms and traditions.
‘Sing and let the song be new’
Authors: Wilcox Helen
Published: December 2022

In many aspects of early modern women’s lives, Christianity was a severe constraint. However, there was one area in which spiritual experience may have had an empowering effect: the writing of devotional verse. This chapter traces the development of women’s devotional lyrics, from Anne Locke and Mary Sidney to the woman known only as ‘Eliza’ and Julia Palmer. It is important to consider how further factors may have played a vital role in the female poets’ development of this genre, such as material circumstances or doctrinal allegiances. This chapter concludes by asking two questions about women writers’ relationship to devotional poetry. To what extent is it possible to discern a line of development in this genre as it emerges in women’s hands across nearly two centuries? How far do the surviving material witnesses of these texts give us an idea of why and for whom the poems were written?
North-West Europe
Authors: Haselgrove Colin , Krausz Sophie
Published: December 2022

This chapter examines the evolution of Iron Age societies in north-west Europe. In recent decades, vast numbers of rural sites have been excavated across north-west Europe, complementing long-standing research on fortified sites and cemeteries. As would be expected of highly interconnected societies, continental and insular developments were broadly in step throughout the period, but regional diversity is apparent in settlement architecture and mortuary and ritual practices. Underpinned by an increasingly reliable agricultural base, population rose dramatically during the period in most regions, and many hitherto little-exploited areas of landscape were opened up to settlement. Craftworking became more specialized and new types of central foci emerged, often with important economic or cult functions, and sometimes reaching monumental proportions. After 125 BC, Roman intervention impacted progressively on north-west Europe, promoting ethnogenesis and other changes; the final section considers the Roman Iron Age in areas that remained outside the Empire.
Abscisic acid promotes auxin biosynthesis to inhibit primary root elongation in rice
Authors: Qin Hua , Wang Juan , Zhou Jiahao , Qiao Jinzhu , Li Yuxiang , Quan Ruidang , Huang Rongfeng
Published: December 2022

Soil compaction is a global problem causing inadequate rooting and poor yield in crops. Accumulating evidence indicates that phytohormones coordinately regulate root growth via regulating specific growth processes in distinct tissues. However, how abscisic acid (ABA) signaling translates into auxin production to control root growth during adaptation to different soil environments is still unclear. In this study, we report that ABA has biphasic effects on primary root growth in rice (Oryza sativa) through an auxin biosynthesis-mediated process, causing suppression of root elongation and promotion of root swelling in response to soil compaction. We found that ABA treatment induced the expression of auxin biosynthesis genes and auxin accumulation in roots. Conversely, blocking auxin biosynthesis reduced ABA sensitivity in roots, showing longer and thinner primary roots with larger root meristem size and smaller root diameter. Further investigation revealed that the transcription factor basic region and leucine zipper 46 (OsbZIP46), involved in ABA signaling, can directly bind to the YUCCA8/rice ethylene-insensitive 7 (OsYUC8/REIN7) promoter to activate its expression, and genetic analysis revealed that OsYUC8/REIN7 is located downstream of OsbZIP46. Moreover, roots of mutants defective in ABA or auxin biosynthesis displayed the enhanced ability to penetrate compacted soil. Thus, our results disclose the mechanism in which ABA employs auxin as a downstream signal to modify root elongation and radial expansion, resulting in short and swollen roots impaired in their ability to penetrate compacted soil. These findings provide avenues for breeders to select crops resilient to soil compaction.
Glutathione attenuated lambda-cyhalothrin-induced alteration of serum total cholesterol concentration and oxidative stress parameters in rats
Authors: Ganiyat Akande Motunrayo , Caleb Ogunnubi Johnson , Dezi Akumka David , Adamu Mohammed
Published: December 2022

Background

Lambda-cyhalothrin is a type II pyrethroid insecticide that is used for pest control in agricultural, domestic, and industrial settings. Glutathione is an antioxidant that has been reported to confer protection on biological systems against the adverse impacts of insecticides.

Objective

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of glutathione on the serum lipid profile and oxidative stress parameters of rats exposed to lambda-cyhalothrin toxicity.

Methods

Thirty-five rats were assigned into 5 groups each. Distilled water was given to the first group, whereas the second group received soya oil (1 mL/kg). Lambda-cyhalothrin (25 mg/kg) was administered to the third group. The fourth group was given lambda-cyhalothrin (25 mg/kg) and glutathione (100 mg/kg) successively, whereas the fifth group received lambda-cyhalothrin (25 mg/kg) and glutathione (200 mg/kg) consecutively. The treatments were administered once daily by oral gavage for 21 days. The rats were sacrificed after the completion of the study. The serum lipid profile and oxidative stress parameters were assessed.

Results

A significant (P < 0.05) increase was observed in the total cholesterol concentration of the lambda-cyhalothrin group. The serum malondialdehyde level was elevated (P < 0.05) in the lambda-cyhalothrin group. The superoxide dismutase activity of the lambda-cyhalothrin+glutathione200 group was enhanced (P < 0.05). The results revealed that lambda-cyhalothrin perturbed the total cholesterol concentration of the rats, whereas glutathione (particularly at 200 mg/kg, indicating a dose–response effect) ameliorated the disruptive impacts of lambda-cyhalothrin.

Conclusion

The advantageous effects of glutathione may be ascribed to its antioxidant property.
Exploring the Stories of Parents’ Experiences With Infant Hearing-Loss Screening and Diagnosis in the United States
Authors: Robinson Tanner L. , Bowman Emma B. , Barker Brittan A.
Published: December 2022

Objectives:

For the past 20 years, birthing hospitals in the United States have required newborns to undergo a hearing-loss screening before leaving the hospital. Since the initial newborn hearing screening mandates, there has been much outcome research documenting the successes and barriers of the programs. However, we know little about the experiences of their parents during the time between screening and diagnosis. We propose that elucidating the parents’ experiences with newborn hearing-loss screening and diagnosis—via their own stories—is a first step toward understanding their varied experiences and has the potential to ultimately improve hearing healthcare for both children and their families. Thus, to better understand the early hearing screening and detection experience from hearing parents’ perspectives, we asked the following research question: what are parents’ experiences with their newborns' hearing-loss screening and diagnosis in the United States?

Design:

The present study employed a prospective, cross-sectional qualitative design. Specifically, we gathered stories from 13 hearing parents who each have a child born in the United States and diagnosed with hearing loss no later than 14 mo of age between the years of 2016 and 2020. We used thematic analysis to uncover common themes across parent narratives. Saturation was reached at interview no. 4; thus no further sampling was needed.

Findings:

Two major themes emerged from the data: (1) hearing healthcare experiences and (2) parents’ early experiences during the period between their child’s newborn hearing-loss screening and diagnosis. Subthemes were also uncovered. Three emergent subthemes related to health-care experiences included: (1) downplayed newborn hearing screening referrals, (2) clinician-centered care, and (3) medical expenses and health coverage. The three subthemes of the second theme were as follows: (1) parent-to-parent support, (2) “mom guilt,” and (3) a new reality.

Conclusion:

The present study’s narrative accounts from parents about their infants’ early hearing detection experiences revealed several, different subthemes that emerged from the same, mandated newborn experience in US families. These findings highlight important moments throughout the hearing-loss screening and detection process, which could benefit from more effective, family-centered hearing healthcare. This knowledge also facilitates the field’s move toward improved education of future and current providers and regarding family-centered approach, which could address concerns and expectations of new parents at the very start of their newborns’ hearing-loss journeys.
Continuous Passive Elongation Through an External Fixator: A Versatile and Beneficial Adjunct Technique to Treat Severe and Recurrent Cases of Dupuytren Contracture
Authors: Chan Peter YW , Marcus Alexander , Tan Virak
Published: December 2022

Dupuytren disease and its associated digit contracture often negatively impact the quality of life for patients. Severe cases of Dupuytren contracture and symptom recurrence are both difficult for hand surgeons to treat. Improved treatment options are therefore needed. One method is continuous passive elongation (CPE). In CPE, a device is affixed to the digit, which applies a continuous extending force to pull the affected finger out of flexion. Multiple external fixators used to induce CPE have been reported. However, a low-profile, hand-specific external fixator, the DigiFix, provides benefits over previously reported devices. We present the technique of CPE using DigiFix as a beneficial and versatile adjunct treatment for severe and recurrent cases of Dupuytren contracture.