bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
IntelliGenes: a novel machine learning pipeline for biomarker discovery and predictive analysis using multi-genomic profiles
Authors: DeGroat William , Mendhe Dinesh , Bhusari Atharva , Abdelhalim Habiba , Zeeshan Saman , Ahmed Zeeshan
Published: December 2023

In this article, we present IntelliGenes, a novel machine learning (ML) pipeline for the multi-genomics exploration to discover biomarkers significant in disease prediction with high accuracy. IntelliGenes is based on a novel approach, which consists of nexus of conventional statistical techniques and cutting-edge ML algorithms using multi-genomic, clinical, and demographic data. IntelliGenes introduces a new metric, i.e. Intelligent Gene (I-Gene) score to measure the importance of individual biomarkers for prediction of complex traits. I-Gene scores can be utilized to generate I-Gene profiles of individuals to comprehend the intricacies of ML used in disease prediction. IntelliGenes is user-friendly, portable, and a cross-platform application, compatible with Microsoft Windows, macOS, and UNIX operating systems. IntelliGenes not only holds the potential for personalized early detection of common and rare diseases in individuals, but also opens avenues for broader research using novel ML methodologies, ultimately leading to personalized interventions and novel treatment targets.

Availability and implementation

The source code of IntelliGenes is available on GitHub (https://github.com/drzeeshanahmed/intelligenes) and Code Ocean (https://codeocean.com/capsule/8638596/tree/v1).
Assigning mutational signatures to individual samples and individual somatic mutations with SigProfilerAssignment
Authors: Díaz-Gay Marcos , Vangara Raviteja , Barnes Mark , Wang Xi , Islam S M Ashiqul , Vermes Ian , Duke Stephen , Narasimman Nithish Bharadhwaj , Yang Ting , Jiang Zichen , Moody Sarah , Senkin Sergey , Brennan Paul , Stratton Michael R , Alexandrov Ludmil B
Published: December 2023

Motivation

Analysis of mutational signatures is a powerful approach for understanding the mutagenic processes that have shaped the evolution of a cancer genome. To evaluate the mutational signatures operative in a cancer genome, one first needs to quantify their activities by estimating the number of mutations imprinted by each signature.

Results

Here we present SigProfilerAssignment, a desktop and an online computational framework for assigning all types of mutational signatures to individual samples. SigProfilerAssignment is the first tool that allows both analysis of copy-number signatures and probabilistic assignment of signatures to individual somatic mutations. As its computational engine, the tool uses a custom implementation of the forward stagewise algorithm for sparse regression and nonnegative least squares for numerical optimization. Analysis of 2700 synthetic cancer genomes with and without noise demonstrates that SigProfilerAssignment outperforms four commonly used approaches for assigning mutational signatures.

Availability and implementation

SigProfilerAssignment is available under the BSD 2-clause license at https://github.com/AlexandrovLab/SigProfilerAssignment with a web implementation at https://cancer.sanger.ac.uk/signatures/assignment/.
Are current seed storage approaches suitable for Macrozamia fraseri (Cycadales), a temperate species used in restoration?
Authors: Turner Shane R , Pedrini Simone , Just Michael , Grose Damian , Willyams David , Dixon Kingsley W
Published: December 2023

In this study, we focused on understanding key storage traits of seeds from Macrozamia fraseri, an unusual though important species that is impacted by mining. To support current restoration activities, large amounts of seed from M. fraseri have been regularly collected and stored for up to 8 years under standard seed banking conditions (5°C and 20% relative humidity), though in situ recruitment from directly sown seed is poor. To investigate the underlying constraints to germination on demand, we set out to assess the viability of M. fraseri seeds that had been stored in a restoration seed bank from 6 to 66 months. Seed moisture content (MC) (fresh weight basis) was also determined for seeds with different storage histories to ascertain whether M. fraseri seeds display traits (i.e. high MC) that might suggest non-orthodox seed storage behaviour. The youngest seed accession (6 months old) was found to have a high MC (45.8 ± 5.4%—fresh weight basis), and >50% viability. In comparison, older (>30 months old) accessions were observed to have a marked reduction in both seed MC (10–35% MC) and viability (0–29.4%). While preliminary, we conclude that M. fraseri seeds appear to lose viability during conventional storage with younger accessions displaying both a higher seed MC and viability, compared to accessions stored for longer. Given the significance of these results, future research activities are recommended to better understand the interplay between seed MC and storage environment and how this relates to the seasonally dry Mediterranean climate where this species naturally occurs. As well, storage and propagation approaches are proposed to increase success when using M. fraseri for conservation and restorative activities.
Evaluating environmental effects of adopting automatic milking systems on Norwegian dairy farms
Authors: Martinsson Elin , Hansson Helena , Mittenzwei Klaus , Storm Hugo
Published: December 2023

We present a novel procedure based on eco-efficiency for assessing farm-level effects of technology adoption while considering secondary effects. Secondary effects are defined as structural and behavioural adaptations to technology that may impact environmental, social or economic outcomes. We apply the procedure to automatic milking systems (AMS) in Norway and find that AMS induces secondary effects, most strongly by decreasing labour per cow and increasing herd sizes. For estimating effects of AMS we employ a novel causal machine learning approach. AMS induce heterogenous effects on eco-efficiency, negatively associated with herd expansion and labour per cow.
A scoping review of empathy recognition in text using natural language processing
Authors: Shetty Vishal Anand , Durbin Shauna , Weyrich Meghan S , Martínez Airín Denise , Qian Jing , Chin David L
Published: December 2023

Objective

To provide a scoping review of studies on empathy recognition in text using natural language processing (NLP) that can inform an approach to identifying physician empathic communication over patient portal messages.

Materials and methods

We searched 6 databases to identify relevant studies published through May 1, 2023. The study selection was conducted through a title screening, an abstract review, and a full-text review. Our process followed the PRISMA-ScR guidelines.

Results

Of the 2446 publications identified from our searches, 39 studies were selected for the final review, which summarized: (1) definitions and context of empathy, (2) data sources and tested models, and (3) model performance. Definitions of empathy varied in their specificity to the context and setting of the study. The most common settings in which empathy was studied were reactions to news stories, health-related social media forums, and counseling sessions. We also observed an expected shift in methods used that coincided with the introduction of transformer-based models.

Discussion

Aspects of the current approaches taken across various domains may be translatable to communication over a patient portal. However, the specific barriers to identifying empathic communication in this context are unclear. While modern NLP methods appear to be able to handle empathy-related tasks, challenges remain in precisely defining and measuring empathy in text.

Conclusion

Existing work that has attempted to measure empathy in text using NLP provides a useful basis for future studies of patient-physician asynchronous communication, but consideration for the conceptualization of empathy is needed.
Predicting pediatric emergence delirium using data-driven machine learning applied to electronic health record dataset at a quaternary care pediatric hospital
Authors: Yu Han , Simpao Allan F , Ruiz Victor M , Nelson Olivia , Muhly Wallis T , Sutherland Tori N , Gálvez Julia A , Pushkar Mykhailo B , Stricker Paul A , Tsui Fuchiang (Rich)
Published: December 2023

Objectives

Pediatric emergence delirium is an undesirable outcome that is understudied. Development of a predictive model is an initial step toward reducing its occurrence. This study aimed to apply machine learning (ML) methods to a large clinical dataset to develop a predictive model for pediatric emergence delirium.

Materials and Methods

We performed a single-center retrospective cohort study using electronic health record data from February 2015 to December 2019. We built and evaluated 4 commonly used ML models for predicting emergence delirium: least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, ridge regression, random forest, and extreme gradient boosting. The primary outcome was the occurrence of emergence delirium, defined as a Watcha score of 3 or 4 recorded at any time during recovery.

Results

The dataset included 54 776 encounters across 43 830 patients. The 4 ML models performed similarly with performance assessed by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves ranging from 0.74 to 0.75. Notable variables associated with increased risk included adenoidectomy with or without tonsillectomy, decreasing age, midazolam premedication, and ondansetron administration, while intravenous induction and ketorolac were associated with reduced risk of emergence delirium.

Conclusions

Four different ML models demonstrated similar performance in predicting postoperative emergence delirium using a large pediatric dataset. The prediction performance of the models draws attention to our incomplete understanding of this phenomenon based on the studied variables. The results from our modeling could serve as a first step in designing a predictive clinical decision support system, but further optimization and validation are needed.

Clinical trial number and registry URL

Not applicable.
Reconstructing Income Inequality in Italy: New Evidence and Tax System Implications from Distributional National Accounts
Authors: Guzzardi Demetrio , Palagi Elisa , Roventini Andrea , Santoro Alessandro
Published: December 2023

This work reconstructs novel series on income distribution in Italy combining survey data, tax data, and National Accounts both at the national and regional levels, and it analyzes the overall progressivity of the tax system. Our new Distributional National Accounts allow to correct for remarkable misreporting of capital income in surveys, to provide more accurate estimates of consumption, and to better account for the role of informal economy. Our fresh estimates show higher income concentration at the top 1% and 0.1% with respect to previous studies in order of 1.5 percentage points. Moreover, the share of national income of the richest top 10%, top 1%, and top 0.1% has been steadily increasing after the 2008 crisis. Our results shed further light on the multifaceted nature of inequality in Italy: youngest individuals, women, and inhabitants of Southern regions have been increasingly exposed to growing levels of inequality. Finally, the Italian tax system is only slightly progressive up to the 95th percentile of the income distribution, and regressive for the top 5%. Moreover, it is regressive throughout the whole distribution when individuals are ranked with respect to their net wealth.
Composite Likelihood for Stochastic Migration Model with Unobserved Factor
Authors: Djogbenou Antoine , Gouriéroux Christian , Jasiak Joann , Bandehali Maygol
Published: December 2023

We introduce the conditional maximum composite likelihood (MCL) estimation method for the stochastic factor ordered probit model of credit rating transitions of firms. This model is recommended for internal credit risk assessment procedures in banks and financial institutions under the Basel III regulations. Its exact likelihood function involves a high-dimensional integral, which can be approximated numerically before maximization. However, the estimated migration risk and required capital tend to be sensitive to the quality of this approximation, potentially leading to statistical regulatory arbitrage. The proposed conditional MCL estimator circumvents this problem and maximizes the composite log-likelihood of the factor ordered probit model. We present three conditional MCL estimators of different complexity and examine their consistency and asymptotic normality when n and T tend to infinity. The performance of these estimators at finite T is examined and compared with a granularity-based approach in a simulation study. The use of the MCL estimator is also illustrated in an empirical application.
Defusing the legal and ethical minefield of epigenetic applications in the military, defense, and security context
Authors: Dalpé Gratien , Huerne Katherine , Dupras Charles , Cheung Katherine , Palmour Nicole , Winkler Eva , Alex Karla , Mehlman Maxwell , Holloway John W , Bunnik Eline , König Harald , Mansuy Isabelle M , Rots Marianne G , Erwin Cheryl , Erler Alexandre , Libertini Emanuele , Joly Yann
Published: December 2023

Epigenetic research has brought several important technological achievements, including identifying epigenetic clocks and signatures, and developing epigenetic editing. The potential military applications of such technologies we discuss are stratifying soldiers’ health, exposure to trauma using epigenetic testing, information about biological clocks, confirming child soldiers’ minor status using epigenetic clocks, and inducing epigenetic modifications in soldiers. These uses could become a reality. This article presents a comprehensive literature review, and analysis by interdisciplinary experts of the scientific, legal, ethical, and societal issues surrounding epigenetics and the military. Notwithstanding the potential benefit from these applications, our findings indicate that the current lack of scientific validation for epigenetic technologies suggests a careful scientific review and the establishment of a robust governance framework before consideration for use in the military. In this article, we highlight general concerns about the application of epigenetic technologies in the military context, especially discrimination and data privacy issues if soldiers are used as research subjects. We also highlight the potential of epigenetic clocks to support child soldiers’ rights and ethical questions about using epigenetic engineering for soldiers’ enhancement and conclude with considerations for an ethical framework for epigenetic applications in the military, defense, and security contexts.
Numeral completeness of weak theories of arithmetic
Authors: Kahle Reinhard , Oitavem Isabel , Santos Paulo Guilherme
Published: December 2023

We study numeral forms of completeness and consistency for $\mathsf {S}^1_2$ and other weak theories, like $\mathsf {EA}$. This gives rise to an exploration of the derivability conditions needed to establish the mentioned results; a presentation of a weak form of Gödel’s Second Incompleteness Theorem without using ‘provability implies provable provability’; a provability predicate that satisfies the mentioned derivability condition for weak theories; and a completeness result via consistency statements. Moreover, the paper includes characterizations of the provability predicates for which the numeral results hold, having $\mathsf {EA}$ as the surrounding theory, and results on functions that compute finitist consistency statements.
Growing local arm inferred by the breathing motion
Authors: Asano Tetsuro , Kawata Daisuke , Fujii Michiko S , Baba Junichi
Published: December 2023

Theoretical models of spiral arms suggest that the spiral arms provoke a vertical bulk motion in disc stars. By analysing the breathing motion, a coherent asymmetric vertical motion around the mid-plane of the Milky Way disc, with Gaia DR3, we found that a compressing breathing motion presents along the Local arm. On the other hand, with an N-body simulation of an isolated Milky Way-like disc galaxy, we found that the transient and dynamic spiral arms induce compressing breathing motions when the arms are in the growth phase, while the expanding breathing motion appears in the disruption phase. The observed clear alignment of the compressing breathing motion with the Local arm is similar to what is seen in the growth phase of the simulated spiral arms. Hence, we suggest that the Local arm’s compressing breathing motion can be explained by the Local arm being in the growth phase of a transient and dynamic spiral arm. We also identified the tentative signatures of the expanding breathing motion associated with the Perseus arm and also the Outer arm coinciding with the compressing breathing motion. This may infer that the Perseus and Outer arms are in the disruption and growth phases, respectively.
Stereotactic radiosurgery for nonfunctioning pituitary tumor: A multicenter study of new pituitary hormone deficiency
Authors: Dumot Chloe , Mantziaris Georgios , Dayawansa Sam , Peker Selcuk , Samanci Yavuz , Nabeel Ahmed M , Reda Wael A , Tawadros Sameh R , Abdelkarim Khaled , El-Shehaby Amr M N , Emad Reem M , Abdelsalam Ahmed Ragab , Liscak Roman , May Jaromir , Mashiach Elad , De Nigris Vasconcellos Fernando , Bernstein Kenneth , Kondziolka Douglas , Speckter Herwin , Mota Ruben , Brito Anderson , Bindal Shray Kumar , Niranjan Ajay , Lunsford Dade L , Benjamin Carolina Gesteira , Abrantes de Lacerda Almeida Timoteo , Mao Jennifer , Mathieu David , Tourigny Jean-Nicolas , Tripathi Manjul , Palmer Joshua David , Matsui Jennifer , Crooks Joe , Wegner Rodney E , Shepard Matthew J , Vance Mary Lee , Sheehan Jason P
Published: December 2023

Background

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is used to treat recurrent or residual nonfunctioning pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (NFPA). The objective of the study was to assess imaging and development of new pituitary hormone deficiency.

Methods

Patients treated with single-session SRS for a NFPA were included in this retrospective, multicenter study. Tumor control and new pituitary dysfunction were evaluated using Cox analysis and Kaplan–Meier curves.

Results

A total of 869 patients (male 476 [54.8%], median age at SRS 52.5 years [Interquartile range (IQR): 18.9]) were treated using a median margin dose of 14Gy (IQR: 4) for a median tumor volume of 3.4 cc (IQR: 4.3). With a median radiological follow-up of 3.7 years (IQR: 4.8), volumetric tumor reduction occurred in 451 patients (51.9%), stability in 364 (41.9%) and 54 patients (6.2%) showed tumor progression.

The probability of tumor control was 95.5% (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 93.8–97.3) and 88.8% (95%CI: 85.2–92.5) at 5 and 10 years, respectively. A margin dose >14 Gy was associated with tumor control (Hazard Ratio [HR]:0.33, 95% CI: 0.18–0.60, P < 0.001). The probability of new hypopituitarism was 9.9% (95% CI: 7.3–12.5) and 15.3% (95% CI: 11–19.4) at 5 and 10 years, respectively. A maximum point dose >10 Gy in the pituitary stalk was associated with new pituitary hormone deficiency (HR: 3.47, 95% CI: 1.95–6.19). The cumulative probability of new cortisol, thyroid, gonadotroph, and growth hormone deficiency was 8% (95% CI: 3.9–11.9), 8.3% (95% CI: 3.9–12.5), 3.5% (95% CI: 1.7–5.2), and 4.7% (95% CI: 1.9–7.4), respectively at 10 years.

Conclusions

SRS provides long-term tumor control with a 15.3% risk of hypopituitarism at 10 years.
Bioinspired 3D flexible devices and functional systems
Authors: Cheng Xu , Shen Zhangming , Zhang Yihui
Published: December 2023

Flexible devices and functional systems with elaborated three-dimensional (3D) architectures can endow better mechanical/electrical performances, more design freedom, and unique functionalities, when compared to their two-dimensional (2D) counterparts. Such 3D flexible devices/systems are rapidly evolving in three primary directions, including the miniaturization, the increasingly merged physical/artificial intelligence and the enhanced adaptability and capabilities of heterogeneous integration. Intractable challenges exist in this emerging research area, such as relatively poor controllability in the locomotion of soft robotic systems, mismatch of bioelectronic interfaces, and signal coupling in multi-parameter sensing. By virtue of long-time–optimized materials, structures and processes, natural organisms provide rich sources of inspiration to address these challenges, enabling the design and manufacture of many bioinspired 3D flexible devices/systems. In this Review, we focus on bioinspired 3D flexible devices and functional systems, and summarize their representative design concepts, manufacturing methods, principles of structure-function relationship and broad-ranging applications. Discussions on existing challenges, potential solutions and future opportunities are also provided to usher in further research efforts toward realizing bioinspired 3D flexible devices/systems with precisely programmed shapes, enhanced mechanical/electrical performances, and high-level physical/artificial intelligence.
Applicability of Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid and Plasma Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing Assays in the Diagnosis of Pneumonia
Authors: Han Dongsheng , Yu Fei , Zhang Dan , Yang Qing , Shen Ruting , Zheng Shufa , Chen Yu
Published: December 2023

Background

Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) provides innovative solutions for predicting complex infections. A comprehensive understanding of its strengths and limitations in real-world clinical settings is necessary to ensure that it is not overused or misinterpreted.

Methods

Two hundred nine cases with suspected pneumonia were recruited to compare the capabilities of 2 available mNGS assays (bronchoalveolar lavage fluid [BALF] mNGS and plasma mNGS) to identify pneumonia-associated DNA/RNA pathogens and predict antibiotic resistance.

Results

Compared to clinical diagnosis, BALF mNGS demonstrated a high positive percent agreement (95.3%) but a low negative percent agreement (63.1%). Plasma mNGS revealed a low proportion of true negatives (30%) in predicting pulmonary infection. BALF mNGS independently diagnosed 65.6% (61/93) of coinfections and had a remarkable advantage in detecting caustic, rare, or atypical pathogens. Pathogens susceptible to invasive infection or bloodstream transmission, such as Aspergillus spp, Rhizopus spp, Chlamydia psittaci, and human herpesviruses, are prone to be detected by plasma mNGS. BALF mNGS tests provided a positive impact on the diagnosis and treatment of 128 (61.2%) patients. Plasma mNGS, on the other hand, turned out to be more suitable for diagnosing patients who received mechanical ventilation, developed severe pneumonia, or developed sepsis (all P < .01). BALF mNGS was able to identify resistance genes that matched the phenotypic resistance of 69.4% (25/36) of multidrug-resistant pathogens.

Conclusions

Our data reveal new insights into the advantages and disadvantages of 2 different sequencing modalities in pathogen identification and antibiotic resistance prediction for patients with suspected pneumonia.
Introduction
Authors: Zaidi Nishat
Published: December 2023

This chapter focuses on Dhanpat Rai Srivastava better known by his pen name, Premchand, who had the extraordinary privilege of being located in the interstitial space between the two dominant strands of North Indian culture, Hindi and Urdu. It discusses how Premchand is credited with the unique distinction of launching both Hindi and Urdu literature into their modernist phase, and how his life and works reveal the complexities of nation-making processes. It also analyzes Premchand’s writings that embody literary aesthetics attuned to his environment, the sociopolitical upheavals of his times, and the moorings of common people reeling under colonial rule. The chapter points out how Premchand’s play Karbala unfolds the making of a modern intellectual, involved in the profound task of imagining the nation. It summarizes Premchand’s predicament in negotiating his way through Hindi–Urdu, Hindu–Muslim divisions, and his critics’ dilemma over his legacy.
Tell it to the World
Authors: Savran David
Published: December 2023

Tell It to the World: The Broadway Musical Abroad studies how the Broadway musical has traveled the world, influencing and transforming local idioms and traditions. It focuses on the ways the musical has been indigenized in South Korea and Germany, two nations occupied by the United States after World War II that have become key commercial centers for Broadway musicals. By the 1990s, Broadway imports were all the rage in both, while home-grown musicals transformed the US prototypes. Part I of the book considers the fundamental questions: What is a musical? Why is it the great success story of US theatre? How has it been assimilated to musical theatre traditions around the world? Part II focuses on musical theatre in South Korea, studying the import/export business in large-scale musicals about Korean history and innovative experiments that mix local performance traditions with the Broadway style. Part III moves to Germany to survey the history of musicals from 1945 until the fall of the Berlin Wall, the reconfiguration of musical theatre conventions by experimental directors, and the groundbreaking German-language productions of Broadway classics by Barrie Kosky and other innovative directors.
Using Commas before Short Bits at the Ends of Sentences
Authors: Spector Stephen
Published: December 2023

I play John Wayne in every picture regardless of the character, and I’ve been doing all right, haven’t I?
Quotes within Quotes
Authors: Spector Stephen
Published: December 2023

“They inspire me to be more confident every day. When I wake up in the morning, I feel just like any other insecure 24-year-old girl. But then I say, ‘[Expletive], you’re Lady Gaga, you better . . . get up and walk the walk today,’ because they need that from me.”
Run-on Sentences
Authors: Spector Stephen
Published: December 2023

Comma splices and run-on sentences are partners in crime. A comma splice involves separating two main clauses or sentences with just a comma. A run-on, by contrast, has no punctuation at all to separate main clauses or sentences, and no joining word to connect them. Both are mistakes in formal expository prose. But writers can use run-ons to poetic effect in portraying speech or thought, as in this line by Cormac McCarthy:
Semicolons (;)
Authors: Spector Stephen
Published: December 2023

A lot of people think we have a weight problem in this country; I don’t agree with them. I don’t believe we’ll have a weight problem until we’re all physically touching each other all the time.
Stories of Vínland
Authors: Zori Davide
Published: December 2023

This penultimate chapter focuses on the evidence for the famous Viking colony of Vínland. The Viking voyages to North America occupy a space in Viking Studies between legend and history. The journeys are evidenced in written sources and the archaeological record. Two Icelandic sagas provide complementary narratives about the voyages, but they disagree about key facts such as the number of settlements established. Later texts track efforts to visit places mentioned in the sagas but mention no additional settlements. Only one site has been verified archaeologically: L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. L’Anse aux Meadows offers a clear example of scholars seeking a very specific level of confirmation of the sagas from archaeological evidence. The archaeological site has confirmed the basic saga narrative that Viking Age Scandinavians reached North America. But how detailed can the correspondence be? This chapter pursues this question and shows how much more we know now from the combination of sagas, archaeology, and new scientific analyses. Finally, the chapter shows the value of exploring the contradictions among texts, archaeology, and the sciences. These specific contradictions are ripe for scholarly disagreement and offer rich avenues for further research.
Introduction
Authors: Eisenberg Daniel , Raghavan Ramesh
Published: December 2023

This introductory chapter highlights the three questions that motivate this book. In short, these questions are: What are the best investments in children’s mental health? To what extent are these investments being made? What can be done to promote these investments? The chapter presents an overview of how the authors approach these questions; this approach stems from the authors’ varying academic backgrounds and training in economics, public health, medicine, and implementation science, among other fields. This chapter concludes by suggesting ways in which the readers of this book can use the information to play an active role in improving the well-being of our nation’s children.
Freedom of Testamentary Disposition
Authors: Miller Paul B.
Published: December 2023

American law is notoriously solicitous of property owners’ testamentary freedom. Interpretive theorists cannot but acknowledge its centrality to enabling law. Yet freedom of testamentary disposition has attracted criticism on normative grounds for centuries. Indeed, it is widely viewed as one of the most tenuous of incidents of private ownership. This chapter examines leading defences of testamentary freedom and, finding them lacking, offers an alternative. Viewed within conventional frames of the general morality of property, wide testamentary freedom proves difficult to justify. Arguments from property, autonomy, social utility, and an obligation of provision each fail to ground laws enabling testamentary freedom. This chapter argues that testamentary freedom is better defended on the footing of the morality of gift relationships, with particular attention to the value of testamentary benefaction in enabling the expression of moral motivation, the practice of virtue, and realisation of goods essential to human flourishing. An advantage of this approach is that it recognises moral complexity, allowing one to appreciate the value of dispositions that comport with the focal moral sense of benefactions as gifts, while at the same time pinpointing ways in which other dispositions can prove morally defective despite their legal validity.
Tone and morphological structure in a documentation-based grammar of Choguita Rarámuri
Authors: Caballero Gabriela
Published: December 2023

Documentation of tonal systems cross-linguistically increasingly addresses the role that tone may play in morphological systems: What are possible morphosyntactic triggers of tone? And what are ways in which tone can be autonomously morphological? The empirical base available to answer these questions is, however, narrow given that the state of tonal documentation is still poor in many areas of the world. This chapter addresses the challenges of characterizing the tonal system of Choguita Rarámuri (CR) (Uto-Aztecan; Mexico) within the context of a documentation-based reference grammar of the language. This chapter discusses: (i) the role that tone serves in the morphological organization of CR; (ii) challenges of characterizing this system within the context of a reference grammar; and (iii) how synchronic variation in tonal realization is incorporated in the grammatical description of CR and its implications for assessing change in progress in the language.
Wage polarization and labour fragmentation
Authors: Radley Ben
Published: December 2023

Proponents of the African Mining Consensus have argued that foreign-owned industrial mining will drive higher wages than those available in the surrounding economy, and the expenditure of these increased wages can stimulate broader local processes of economic development and structural transformation. This claim is also frequently promoted by the mining industry itself. The purpose of this chapter is to problematize this line of thinking. The main argument is that since the early twentieth century, most worker wages associated with foreign-owned mining in South Kivu have been comparable to, or below, those found in labour-intensive mining locally and generally stagnant. Combined with the high capture of total wages by a narrow foreign managerial class, this has limited the ability of worker wages to stimulate economic development. Meanwhile, the global industry shift to corporate outsourcing in the twenty-first century has weakened the collective strength of workers to resist and transform their conditions.
Strawson on Other Minds
Authors: Cassam Quassim
Published: December 2023

This chapter outlines and evaluates Strawson’s various responses to the conceptual and epistemological problem of other minds. Questions are raised about his way of motivating the conceptual problem and his solution to the problem. His attempt to dissolve the epistemological problem is shown to be unsuccessful, since it fails to demonstrate that in order to ascribe states of consciousness to oneself, one must have knowledge of other minds. Strawson’s explanation of how we ascribe mental states to others is also shown to be excessively narrow. It is a mistake to explain other-ascriptions in exclusively behavioural terms, without taking proper account of other potential grounds. Empathy is of particular interest in this connection, both as grounding ascriptions of mental states to others and as a potential source of understanding of other minds.
P. F. Strawson and the ‘Pseudo-Material Shadows’
Authors: Montague Michelle
Published: December 2023

In section IV of ‘On Referring’ (1950), P.F. Strawson warns us of the ‘long philosophical shadows’ cast by the subject-predicate distinction. ‘The distinctions between particular and universal, between substance and quality’, he says, ‘are such pseudo-material shadows, cast by the grammar of the conventional sentence in which separable expressions play distinguishable roles’. Although Strawson later offered some qualifications on this claim, this chapter shows how, in his book Individuals (1959), he adheres to its basic spirit. There he holds that just as the fundamental form of thought is not the subject-predicate form, so too the fundamental form of reality is not the particular-universal form.
Concepts and Experience in Bounds of Sense and Beyond
Authors: Glock Hans-Johann
Published: December 2023

This chapter explores a theme which is central both to Strawson’s descriptive metaphysics and to his analytic Kantianism—the relation between concepts and experience. Strawson’s account of ‘the necessary cooperation of sensibility and understanding’ in experience is immensely powerful but also problematic. Strawson is right in diagnosing limits to the concept of a possible experience, yet wrong in suggesting that those limits imply that any conceivable experience must be conceptual and can be enjoyed only by subjects that can ascribe experiences to themselves. Furthermore, these limits are not of a sui generis kind specific to a Kantian metaphysics of experience. They have to do with the role that certain concepts and propositions play within our overall conceptual scheme. The insights descriptive metaphysics has to offer are best conceived neither as synthetic a priori (contrary to orthodox Kantianism), nor as straightforwardly analytic or ‘grammatical’ (contrary to Wittgensteinian commentators), but as conceptual truths of a special, mediated, kind.
Editions
Authors: Goldschmidt Nora
Published: December 2023

Papyrus is not the only (or even the main) way in which fragments of ancient texts have come down to modernity. Most survive through indirect transmission: not as material fragments broken off from once complete manuscripts, but quoted, digested, and paraphrased in the words of other authors. This chapter considers scholarly editions of classical texts that have survived in this way, as well as parallel textual interventions made by classical philologists. It looks at the use of Franz Bücheler’s edition of Petronius in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, at the epigraph from Hermann Diels’ edition of the Presocratic philosophers in Burnt Norton, and at the fragmentation of the Odyssey via debates in Homer scholarship in what became Ezra Pound’s Canto I. Showcased in paratextual positions in three of the works that came to define the modernist canon, the work of classical scholars was co-opted into the modern struggle for textual and cultural recovery over loss. But where classical scholars had tried to develop a scientific philology of the fragment, in the new contexts of modernism, their techniques and results became enmeshed with the fragmentary concerns of modernity. Transposed to new settings, the task of philology was retrospectively re-cast to involve not so much the production of scientifically reconstructed wholes, but of fragments that mirrored the literary modes of modernism.
Intercultural Explorations and the Court of Henry VIII
Authors: van Pelt Nadia T.
Published: December 2023

Seldom has a royal court invited such intensive study as that of Henry VIII, or become so prominent in popular culture. Nonetheless, this book is committed to offering a fresh perspective on Tudor court culture, by using continental sources to contextualize, nuance, and challenge long-held perspectives that have been formed through the use of well-studied, Anglophone sources. Using a wide variety of textual sources, from ambassadorial correspondence, account books, legal records, and marital contracts, to cookery books and travel accounts, this study presents original research in history, literature, and cultural history. The case studies in this monograph address specific questions that challenge what we know or think we know about Tudor court culture. For example: was it good taste to bring a jester to a royal deathbed? Was John Blanke really the first Black musician to perform at the Tudor court, or did he follow the footsteps of another celebrated performer of African descent? When Charles V came to meet Henry VIII, did he eat from his own plate? And why did courtiers express themselves negatively about Anne of Cleves’s appearance? By addressing such specific questions, this book will show that however quintessentially ‘English’ Henry VIII’s court, it was essentially a place of cultural and intercultural encounters that is best understood when studied in dialogue across languages, geographical barriers, and scholarly disciplines.
Origins and Current Status
Authors: Golding Gabrielle
Published: December 2023

This chapter engages in an historical and comparative analysis of a selection of well-recognised terms implied by law into English and Australian employment contracts. It conducts the same analysis in respect of those contracts which also have the potential to be implied by law into the broader category of contracts for the performance of work. The origins and current status of each select term across both jurisdictions are traced, navigating the initial origins of the selected terms up to a case (or cases) cited in recent times, ignoring incidental decisions in between. Ultimately, this analysis demonstrates that when implying these terms by law, courts have tended to avoid any adequate consideration of why they are necessary incidents. Their application to some, or all, instances of employment, and—in certain cases—potentially to the broader category of contracts for the non-standard performance of work, is simply presumed. There is a clear carry-over of obligations that underpinned the former master and servant regime, which have now found their way into shaping the employment contract, and possibly also the broader category of contracts for the performance of work, contributing to blurring the distinction between employment and non-standard modes of work.
Mutual Trust and Confidence and Good Faith
Authors: Golding Gabrielle
Published: December 2023

This chapter examines the English and Australian emergence and present operation of the duties of mutual trust and confidence and good faith, primarily in respect of employment contracts, but with reference to their potential broader application to contracts for the performance of work. The chapter adopts a substantially similar methodological approach as Chapter 3, tracing the historical origins and current status of both duties in England and Australia, as well as highlighting the peculiar divergences between jurisdictions. It opens with an examination of the origins and current status of the implied duty of mutual trust and confidence in England, and then recounts the possible rise of the mutual trust and confidence duty in Australia, followed by its definite fall following the High Court of Australia’s decision in Commonwealth Bank of Australia v Barker. The mutual trust and confidence duty’s potential application beyond employment in both England and Australia receives dedicated attention. A similar historical analysis of the implied duty of good faith is then engaged in by considering its origins and current status, both in England and Australia. The chapter finishes by canvassing the potential application of a good faith duty beyond employment in contracts for the performance of work in respect of both jurisdictions.
Employment as a Class of Contract
Authors: Golding Gabrielle
Published: December 2023

This chapter considers the first element of the test for implying a term by law as a necessary incident of employment contracts: that the term must be necessary in the ‘class’ of employment contracts. It undertakes a comprehensive analysis of employment contracts as a ‘class’ into which terms are implied by law, which, by its nature, includes an assessment of what separates that class of contract from other types of contracts for the performance of work. The discussion in this chapter demonstrates that, in the context of implying terms by law, the class of employment contracts is not easily identifiable. In fact, the so-called ‘class’ is an overly generalised and inconsistently defined category into which terms have been and are implied by law. In that sense, the employment contract does not necessarily confine itself to a unique definition or understanding. It retains a whole range of characteristics that are also present in other types of contracts, including the broader category of contracts for the performance of work. Courts have paid sparse attention to identifying and understanding employment contracts as a distinctive class of contract when they imply terms by law. There is scope for courts to develop that understanding. Generating this further understanding will assist courts in developing the common law that shapes employment contracts. It will also allow for more accurate predictions as to how common law is likely to develop as it continues to shape those agreements.
Truth and Instrumental Value
Authors: Wrenn Chase B.
Published: December 2023

This chapter begins a retail case against the idea that truth confers value on beliefs. It addresses the case of instrumental value. Does the truth of a proposition confer instrumental value on states of believing it? Instrumentally valuable beliefs help us to achieve our goals. The chapter argues that truth as such doesn’t make a belief helpful in achieving our goals. In stereotypical cases, we credit our successes to true belief and our failures to false belief. That, however, has more to do with our stereotypes than with truth itself. The chapter criticizes two arguments for the claim that truth confers instrumental value on beliefs. They are the “argument from means-end beliefs” and the “dangerous falsehoods argument”. The latter is unable to establish the instrumental value of true beliefs, in general, as such. Both fail to appreciate the holistic way in which our beliefs, true and false, guide our actions in the world. Whether a belief helps us get what we want depends largely on what else we believe in the context of our action. Sometimes a true belief would help us, and sometimes we need a false one. The chapter also considers the sense in which we really should value true beliefs as means to our ends. Properly understood, it does not require resources beyond the what the Strong Virtue Theory provides.
Truth and Epistemic Standards
Authors: Wrenn Chase B.
Published: December 2023

This chapter addresses one way truth might be an “epistemic good”. An epistemic good is something that is valuable from the purely epistemic perspective, which sets aside all practical, moral, and other non-intellectual concerns. It can appear that truth matters even from that limited perspective. But why? The chapter focuses on the idea that truth’s value helps to explain or rationalize our epistemic standards, which we deploy in deciding what to believe or assessing the justification of beliefs. If that idea is correct, then we can call truth a “regulative epistemic good”. One way for truth to be a regulative epistemic good is given by the regulative epistemic value-conferral model. On that model, the truth of a proposition confers special value on states of believing it, and our epistemic standards are responses to our recognition of that value. Such an account of truth as a regulative epistemic good would conflict with the Strong Virtue Theory. After outlining the regulative epistemic value-conferral model, the chapter discusses a debate between Paul Horwich and Gurpreet Rattan. Horwich denies that truth is a regulative epistemic good, while Rattan contends that it is. But neither offers a compelling argument. The chapter then draws on insights from both Horwich and Rattan to construct an alternative account of truth as a regulative epistemic good, without resort to the regulative epistemic value-conferral model.
National Treatment
Authors: Schneiderman David
Published: December 2023

The chapter emphasizes recurring interpretive problems that have plagued national treatment analysis, including the difficulty of identifying proper comparators and determining acceptable justifications for deviating from the standard of treatment. In addition, some largely neglected issues are addressed, including standards of scrutiny and the claim that investors secure no greater rights than host state nationals. As national treatment is only a relative, and not an absolute, standard of treatment it is typically considered a modest restriction on state policy space. It is argued, however, that this standard authorizes intrusive international control of state action. This standard of treatment is not so much concerned with unjust discrimination as it is with securing open markets for powerful economic actors. The author concludes by proposing that there should be less interest in adverse impacts on investors than on intentionally discriminatory conduct directed at foreigners.
Most Favoured Nation Treatment
Authors: Yilmaz Vastardis Anil
Published: December 2023

Most favoured nation (MFN) treatment clauses in investment treaties have been one of the most inconsistently applied standards in the realm of investment treaty arbitration. At the heart of the controversy about MFN clauses in investment law is their usage in arbitral case law to ‘import’ substantive standards and procedural rights from third-party investment treaties that ostensibly provide better investor protection. This chapter challenges the utilization of MFN clauses to import external standards into investment treaties. It revisits the non-discrimination rationale of MFN clauses and discusses the pivotal moments when the interpretation of MFN clauses took a turn for the worst within the jurisprudence. What is lacking from many arbitral awards is a consideration of whether the mere presence of the ‘imported’ external standard actually amounts to a less favourable treatment of the investor in real terms. Nor do tribunals consider whether an investor protected by the third-party treaty, who is similarly situated to the claimant investor, has actually benefited from such a standard and placed in a distinct competitive advantage vis-à-vis the claimant. This chapter critiques the departure of investment law practice from the core ingredient of MFN, the non-discrimination principle.