bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Political Theology of International Order
Authors: Bain William
Published: July 2020

This book investigates presuppositions of international order that originate in medieval theology. Part I examines rival conceptions of order that emerged out of a medieval dispute about the nature of God and the extent of his power. The theory of immanent order refers to an interconnected whole that imparts a rationally intelligible pattern of right order. The theory of imposed order refers to a contingent arrangement, established by will and artifice or the operation of an impersonal mechanism, which accommodates numerous patterns that can be made and unmade. Part II investigates the assimilation of medieval theological ideas in the thought of three emblematic thinkers: Martin Luther, Hugo Grotius, and Thomas Hobbes. This challenges the narrative of progressive secularization characterizing most international thought. Particular emphasis is placed on the transition from medieval to modern. The claim here is that continuity describes this transition as persuasively as the more familiar discourse of change. Part III uncovers a theological inheritance that shapes modern theories of international order. The language of system and society, as well as anarchy, balance of power, and contractual international law, reflects the intellectual commitments of nominalist theology. The conclusion explores the tension that arises from this theological inheritance in a world where God is only one of several postulates that can be called upon to fix the contingency of a constructed international order. The danger is that grounding international order in nothing more than human decision leaves what is made fundamentally indeterminate and precariously exposed to the whims of capricious power.
Renaissance, Reformation, and the Road to Westphalia
Authors: Bain William
Published: July 2020

The purpose of this chapter is to challenge the ubiquitous narrative that portrays the transition from medieval to modern as the start of the progressive secularization of international relations. Setting the emergence of the modern states system against the backdrop of medieval institutions and practices privileges evidence of change, while concealing evidence of continuity. The discourse of Westphalia provides the dominant interpretive frame of this narrative. This chapter recovers threads of continuity, without denying the significance of change, by explaining the transition from medieval to modern in the context of change within inherited continuity. It examines the role of the Renaissance and Reformation, events regularly portrayed as harbingers of revolutionary change, in carrying ideas associated with the theory of imposed order into the modern world. The main contention is that the boundary that separates medieval and modern is less fixed and more porous than most theorists of international relations seem to realize. Neither the Renaissance nor the Reformation inaugurate a turn away from religion. Both emphasize the primacy of the will, consistent with the theory of imposed order, which is given to imagining political order as a construction born of word and deed. Recovering the threads of continuity that connect medieval and modern is a crucial step in advancing the larger argument of this book, namely that modern theories of international order reflect a medieval inheritance that can be traced to nominalist theology.
International Order Beneath an Empty Sky
Authors: Bain William
Published: July 2020

This chapter lays out a tension that arises in a world that is dominated by the theory of imposed order, yet makes room for the theory of immanent order as a rhetoric that is set against what it done in the name of will and artifice. Theorizing international order in contemporary international relations can be interpreted as an attempt to negotiate these rival positions. However, the chapter makes the critical point that these theories of order represent incommensurable positions. The one cannot be assimilated to the other to form a coherent composite theory of order. The chapter discusses the implications of a world that is torn between these incommensurable positions. The theory of immanent order provides a sense of transcendent truth that conditions what human beings make and do, but in a constructed world, consistent with the theory of imposed order, this transcendent truth is an artefact of the same freedom it seeks to regulate. This is a consequence of substituting human decision in place of God to secure the regularity of international order. Secular alternatives to God are sustained in the same way that nominalist theologians repose confidence in God: through faith or belief. The chapter concludes by arguing that this theological inheritance begins to unravel at a certain point because, unlike God, human beings are conditionally, rather than absolutely, good. The danger is that abiding uncertainty exposes the regularity of international order to the arbitrary whims of power.
Damian of Alexandria and Peter of Callinicus
Authors: Zachhuber Johannes
Published: July 2020

This chapter is in its entirety devoted to the debate between the miaphysite Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, Damian and Peter of Callinicus. It is part of the tritheistic controversy. Damian accused Peter of tritheism while the latter thought Damian pandered to the heresy Sabellian. Much of the controversy turned on the interpretation of Cappadocian proof texts. It is therefore an excellent indicator of the extent to which these texts were the foundation of sixth-century debates. Damian identified hypostasis with the particular property. The three hypostases would thus inhere in the single divine substance. Peter objected that the properties were only characteristic of the hypostasis. Neither side was able to propose a plausible reconstruction of Cappadocian philosophy for the needs of the time, but their detailed discussions about universal substance, individual hypostases, properties, and substrates is indicative of the direction Patristic philosophy was taking at the time.
Laying the Foundations
Authors: Zachhuber Johannes
Published: July 2020

This chapter turns to the Chalcedonian side of the debate. At its centre are two individuals who in different ways set out the case for the use of Cappadocian philosophy in the service of the Chalcedonian cause. John the Grammarian seems to have been the first to suggest that the classical, Cappadocian theory could be applied to Christology. He considered the two natures of Jesus Christ as universal divinity and humanity. Of those, humanity only existed as realized through insubsistence in the hypostasis of the Logos. Leontius of Byzantium shared the Grammarian’s intuition that the language of Cappadocian philosophy could underwrite Chalcedonian Christology, but he rejected his asymmetric insubsistence Christology. To explain the presence of the universal nature at the level of hypostasis he influentially introduced the term enhypostaton. Both John and Leontius rely almost exclusively on the abstract dimension of the Cappadocian theory. Thus far they modify it as much as their miaphysite contemporaries do.
Ethics, Security, and The War-Machine
Authors: Dobos Ned
Published: July 2020

If pacifists are correct in thinking that war is always unjust, then presumably we ought to eliminate the possibility and temptation of ever engaging in it: We should not build war-making capacity, and if we already have, then demilitarisation—or military abolition—would seem to be the appropriate course to take. On the other hand, if war is sometimes justified, as most of us believe, then presumably it must be permissible to prepare for it by creating and maintaining a military establishment. On this view, in order for war-building to be justified, it is both necessary and sufficient that war-making be justifiable. But this view is mistaken. Even if war can be morally permissible on occasion, it does not follow that it is acceptable for any state to build and maintain an institution devoted to it. That is because militaries are exceedingly costly, not to mention dangerous, and there are going to be cases where these costs and risks are prohibitive. Obviously, there are large amounts of money at stake, but the true cost of a military cannot be captured in economic terms alone. This book explores the moral and social costs of militarisation, and shines a light on the ways in which a civilian population compromises its own security by having a war-machine attached to it.
Cognitive Bias and the Misuse of Military Power
Authors: Dobos Ned
Published: July 2020

Wherever there is a military establishment, there is a danger that its use will not be confined to the prosecution of ‘just wars’ and interventions. In other words, there is a risk of the armed forces being overused or misused by the state. In this chapter I argue that some unjust wars are bound to be perceived as just by our political decision makers, not because of the unique pressures they face, or because they are morally deranged, or because they are ignorant of the facts, but simply because they carry the same unconscious biases as the rest of us. This means the prospect of military misuse is not limited to societies whose political elites are hawkish warmongers or sociopathic careerists. We can fully expect that even ‘decent’ governments, genuinely committed to never waging unjust wars, will wage them sometimes.
Introduction
Authors: Hirschmann Gisela
Published: July 2020

This introductory chapter highlights why pluralist accountability is an important empirical phenomenon in global governance that needs to be studied systematically. It demonstrates the limits of the existing literature on international organization (IO) accountability, which has focused on traditional, vertical accountability, whereby the implementing actors are held accountable directly by the mandating authority. The chapter introduces the concept of pluralist accountability as standard setting, monitoring, and sanctioning by independent third parties. It presents the argument that a competitive environment that stimulates third parties to act as accountability holders and the vulnerability of implementing actors regarding human rights demands shape the evolution of pluralist accountability. The chapter then outlines the implications of the book’s analysis for current International Relations and international law scholarship on IOs, in particular with regard to complex delegation, the role of nonstate actors and the study of IO legitimacy. It also contains an overview of the subsequent chapters.
Case Study
Authors: Leigland James
Published: July 2020

This chapter presents a case study of the Maputo Corridor toll road concession, linking South Africa with neighboring Mozambique. As the first cross-border transport PPP in SSA, this project is the first PPP in the region with a claim to the kind of “transformational” qualities that the G20 and the African Union have been hoping will dramatically improve infrastructure across the continent. The continent includes many landlocked countries as well as countries that are too small and poor to be able to finance adequate power and transport infrastructure without the collaboration of neighbors. However, this project is still the only cross-border toll road concession ever completed in SSA. Why have no similar projects ever been completed in Africa? What makes the Maputo toll road a unique project? What lessons can we learn from the Maputo project about the likely success of cross-border transformational PPPs in SSA?
Meditating Death in Medieval and Early Modern Devotional Writing
Authors: Chinca Mark
Published: July 2020

Meditating about death and the afterlife was one of the most important techniques that Christian societies in medieval and early modern Europe had at their disposal for developing a sense of individual selfhood. Believers who regularly and systematically reflected on the inevitability of death and the certainty of eternal punishment in hell or reward in heaven would acquire an understanding of themselves as unique persons defined by their moral actions; they would also learn to discipline themselves by feeling remorse for their sins, doing penance, and cultivating a permanent vigilance over their future thoughts and deeds. The book covers a crucial period in the formation and transformation of the technique of meditating on death: from the thirteenth century, when a practice that had mainly been the preserve of a monastic elite began to be more widely disseminated among all segments of Christian society, to the sixteenth, when the Protestant Reformation transformed the technique of spiritual exercise into a Bible-based mindfulness that avoided the stigma of works piety. The book discusses the textual instructions for meditation as well as the theories and beliefs and doctrines that lay behind them; the sources are Latin and vernacular and enjoyed widespread circulation in Roman Christian and Protestant Europe during the period under consideration.
Monastic Meditation Transformed
Authors: Chinca Mark
Published: July 2020

The chapter has two purposes: to provide a survey of monastic traditions of meditation from roughly the sixth century to the end of the twelfth century, and to describe the transformation of those traditions in the thirteenth century into a systematic regimen of spiritual exercise with clear and explicit instructions that could be followed by users who did not have the resources of a monastic education and community to draw on. The key figure in this transformation is Bonaventure; the chapter concentrates on the ways in which he introduced greater technical rigor into the practice of meditation and endowed it with the directive quality of a method.
Touching Eternity
Authors: Chinca Mark
Published: July 2020

This chapter is concerned with Heinrich Seuse’s mystical treatise, the Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit (ca. 1330), and the way in which it seeks to bring about a meditative experience of life after death which it describes as enphintlich: “sensible” or “feeling.” The organs of this experience are the inner senses: spiritual analogues of the corporeal senses which, in a tradition of Christian mysticism descended from Origen, are capable of directly seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching God when they detect his presence in the divine Word. In Seuse’s version, readers of the Büchlein are encouraged to feel God’s eternity as an inner touch: an encounter in which the boundaries of the self dissolve because in the moment of contact it is impossible to distinguish between the one who touches and the one who is touched.
The ICTY is Dead! Long Live the ICTY!
Authors: Stahn Carsten
Published: July 2020

The chapter sets the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) legacies into a broader context of international criminal justice. It presents different approaches towards the many legacies of the ICTY. The chapter engages with the several phases that the Tribunal has passed, discussing their positive and negative points. It then examines the normative legacy of the ICTY, arguing that, although some gaps exist, the overall record of the ICTY is marked with several normative innovations. The chapter then visits the procedural legacy of the ICTY, in the sense of how the Tribunal made justice heard and seen. Lastly, the chapter discusses the institutional culture of the ICTY and its legacy to other international criminal tribunals. With this analysis, the chapter claims that the ICTY legacies are living beings, which will continue to be transformed throughout the history of international criminal justice.
A Partial View of History
Authors: Prosperi Luigi , Borda Aldo Zammit
Published: July 2020

In practice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has contributed significantly to the historical narratives of the conflicts in the Balkans. However, history writing as an objective of international criminal proceedings remains a contested issue and ICTY chambers have approached this objective differently. The role of history at the ICTY has fluctuated significantly and has been directly influenced by developments in other areas of the Tribunal’s work. While the histories written by the ICTY have helped promote better understanding of the conflicts, in other cases such histories, particularly those referring to third parties, have had problematic implications for the right to a fair trial. This chapter claims that the relationship between judging and history at the ICTY has been dynamic, contingent, and complex. International criminal tribunals are only able to write ‘judicial truths’; to expect them to write authoritative historical accounts is possibly to overburden them.
Defence Investigative Ethics
Authors: Karnavas Michael G.
Published: July 2020

The investigation of war crimes has proved to be a challenging task for the Defence at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). At the Court’s infancy, civil trained defence counsel with no experience in adversarial party-driven procedures were unfamiliar with aspects of case preparation and trial advocacy, such as gathering evidence by conducting their own investigation, or cross-examination through leading questions based on a coherent theory of the case. These adversarial modalities also came with specific ethical duties. This chapter offers some practical advice and best practices relevant to Defence Counsel practising in national jurisdictions of the former Yugoslavia region and elsewhere, where adversarial modalities similar to those found in the ICTY procedure have been adopted in reforming their criminal procedures—transitioning them from civil law to a more hybrid system.
Was it Worth it?
Authors: Finci Petar
Published: July 2020

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia’s (ICTY) Outreach Programme was a new effort in the field of international criminal justice, with little existing experience to build upon. Relying on fundraising for financing and operating in sometimes openly hostile political circumstances in the former Yugoslavia, the Outreach Programme nevertheless managed to engage its target groups over nearly two decades. This chapter starts with an analysis of the early activities of the Outreach Programme, with particular focus on evaluation (or the lack thereof) of the impact. It then offers a more detailed discussion of outreach projects implemented from 2010 onwards and some differences in evaluation of their short- and long-term impact. It concludes with some recommendations on possible ways to use the experiences beyond the closure of the ICTY.
Narratives of Justice and War in Croatia
Authors: Sokolić Ivor
Published: July 2020

This chapter examines the relationship between war and justice narratives in Croatia, based on focus groups, dyads, and interviews conducted in 2014 and 2015. The war narrative is based on a pervasive conception of self-defence against a larger Serbian aggressor. It contrasts with a justice narrative that is focused on the norms of transitional justice and the expressivist effects of trials. The two narratives exist in the same space and interact with each other. This chapter outlines these narratives and analyses their reproduction. It argues that the emotional war narrative’s strength makes it difficult for the justice narrative to take hold and, consequently, for the trickle-down expressivist effects of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and human rights norms to occur. This tolerance for deviance was based on notions of legality that were defined differently in relation to Croats and Serbs.
The Legacy of the ICTY
Authors: Trahan Jennifer , Vukušić Iva
Published: July 2020

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has made significant contributions to justice, peace, and security, and creating an historical record about the violence that victimized hundreds of thousands of people during the 1990s. Yet, it has also given us a robust model for adjudicating large-scale atrocity crimes through its three-tiered approach to justice. This chapter focuses on Bosnia and Herzegovina where the ICTY’s impact on local proceedings was most significant and analyses the ways in which the Tribunal provided a roadmap for similar contexts in the future. By examining benchmarks for success, Trahan and Vukušić outline how success can be understood, measured, and increased in these complex contexts where there is a great need for justice but limited resources. They also examine how positive outcomes can be supported through case prioritization, clear communication, the setting of realistic expectations, and cooperation with other jurisdictions.
Vasantaka
Authors: Indu G.
Published: July 2020

This contribution deals with some special roles in the Kūṭiyāṭṭam tradition: the Vidūṣaka and the story teller. By giving a description of the story development in Mantrāṅkam, the author, who is an experienced Kūṭiyāttam actress herself, offers some interesting reflections on the development of the figure of the “jester” taking into account the historical background. Indu G. guides us through the structure of the play that continues until the thirty-seventh day and also explains the personal reflections attached to it. As these stories don’t aim at representing a specific historical period, they are not bound either to the present or to the past, and their reflections are not constrained to the ethics or morality of present time. On the other hand they question or mock it. In this sense, if we look at the deep structure, it has the quality to make the audience reconsider their static thinking patterns and make them flexible and vital.
Between the Twice Born and the Born Again
Authors: Desai Ashwin , Vahed Goolam
Published: July 2020

The rise and attraction of Pentecostalism for Indian South Africans is the focus of this chapter. Though Pentecostalism existed from the 1930s, it is only from the 1990s that the movement started making its presence felt in a significant way. It is now easily the fastest growing religion among Indians and we undertake a sociological analysis of the rise of this phenomenon mainly by focusing on home-grown pastors. The church, this chapter shows, is more than a place of prayer but becomes a locus of a variety of activities from sport to picnics and charitable outreach work.
Modi Meets Mohandas
Authors: Desai Ashwin , Vahed Goolam
Published: July 2020

This chapter examines the complex relationship between diaspora and citizenship. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi famously developed his tactic of satyagraha on South African soil, cementing a deep relationship with India. Against this background, this chapter examines new diasporic connections between Indian South Africans and India, buoyed by the Indian government’s introduction of a number of measures such as a new ministry, an annual official diaspora convention in India, and the offer of special status for members of the Indian diaspora, but fell short of granting dual citizenship, arguably over concerns about security. This chapter provides a detailed examination of the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to South Africa in 2016. This politically and strategically important visit of 2016 generated intense debates over the relationship between India and its diaspora, India and South Africa, Indians and Africans, and Hindus and Muslims.
The World of the In/visibles
Authors: Kaur Raminder
Published: July 2020

As we explore the anti-Kudankulam movement, we do not confine our focus solely to the most visible manifestations of anti-nuclear resistance even though this remains important. Chapter 4 therefore takes the focus to discourses of risk, radiation, and the (re)production of knowledge and ignorance as a necessary prologue to nuclear developments. While activists presented radioactivity as a pathological life invader, nuclear authorities channelled it through five somewhat contradictory registers: first, to do with denial and dismissal of any dangers; second, to do with domestication or normalization when it is held to be present everywhere on the planet; third, with respect to the high levels of technical manageability; fourth, in view of radioactivity’s many virtues in modern life; and fifth, aggrandizing it so as that ionizing radiation is actually ‘good’. We then consider how this radiation regime compared with views circulating around nuclear employees and the controversy over safe radiation levels.
The Sparks That Hover
Authors: Kaur Raminder
Published: July 2020

Chapter 11 reviews the history and legacy of the people’s movement around Kudankulam while providing a summary of the book’s contents. It ends with a focus on People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) convenors’ entry into electoral politics in 2014. S.P. Udayakumar, Michael Pushparayan and Father Michael Pandian Jesuraj made a reluctant decision to partake in state elections as single-issue candidates for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Lok Sabha polls. AAP was an emergent power with the main aim to eradicate corruption in Indian politics, and was pitched against the mighty weight of Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Key AAP figures Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan had earlier visited PMANE in Idinthakarai in 2012 to show their solidarity as well as enlist their support. The chapter considers why the electoral route was adopted, then exited, the risks the protagonists undertook once outside of Idinthakarai, and what remains of eco-friendly and demos-centric movements today.
Socrates
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: July 2020

Socrates raises some of the basic questions of ethical theory through his question ‘How ought we to live?’, which he takes to mean ‘How ought we to live in order to be happy?’ His answer is that we ought to acquire and practise the virtues. His inquiries reveal that people lack a clear conception of the nature of the virtues. To correct our views, we should recognize that the virtues are inseparable, that knowledge is sufficient for virtue, and that virtue is sufficient for happiness. Socrates defends these convictions, in the Protagoras and the Gorgias. Socrates’ one-sided successors, the Cyrenaics and Cynics, develop his arguments in opposed directions.
Plato
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: July 2020

Plato rejects Socrates’ belief that knowledge of the good is sufficient for being virtuous; he argues that human souls have a non-rational part (emotions, impulses), and that the virtues require not only knowledge, but also the correct training of the non-rational part. He rejects Socrates’ belief that virtue is sufficient for happiness. Instead he argues that the virtuous person is always happier than anyone else. He defends this view in the most difficult case, the other-regarding virtue of justice. Plato recognizes that one may plausibly argue that my justice is good for other people, but harmful to me. None the less he rejects this argument. The appropriate relation between the rational and the non-rational parts of the soul promotes both the agent’s good and the good of others; that is why the just person is happier than anyone else. Those who suppose that the just person may be worse off by being just do not understand the character of the human good.
Scepticism
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: July 2020

Sceptics maintain that they cannot find any rational resolution of the apparent conflicts among different people’s views on ethics (among other things), and that their inability causes them to suspend judgment. In the face of variation among ethical beliefs between different people and different societies they recognize no rational grounds for forming any ethical beliefs. In drawing this conclusion from ethical variation the Sceptics disagree with Aristotle’s argument to show that variation does not undermine ethical beliefs. They claim to live without ethical beliefs, and indeed claim to achieve happiness this way, identifying happiness with the tranquillity that results from freedom from the anxiety that disturbs anyone who tries to form rational beliefs. Opponents of the Sceptics argue that life without beliefs leaves the Sceptics incapable of the sort of action that constitutes a tolerable human life.
Kant and Some Critics
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: July 2020

Kant argues that an understanding of the relation between morality and rational agency reveals the nature of moral rightness. Moral principles give us reasons for acting apart from our feeling or preferences. They give us reasons that apply to all rational agents alike. Principles that embody such reasons conform to a categorical imperative that states a universal law for all rational agents. Against critics who contend that this universal law is too general to tell us anything useful about right and wrong, Kant argues that it requires us to treat rational agents as ends in themselves, not to be sacrificed simply for the sake of other people’s goals. This attitude of mutual respect among rational agents is the basis for a moral and social order that realizes human freedom.
Hegel
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: July 2020

Hegel believes that we can grasp the character of morality by reflexion on different aspects of the rational will. In willing we will a particular goal, but we also will it as our own goal, as the goal of a rational agent who has other ends. As rational agents we apply critical standards to the goals that we will. Kant is right to argue that morality includes these critical standards, but (as Schopenhauer argues) he is wrong to suppose that the critical standards alone give us the true content of morality. We find the correct morality in so far as we find the goals that meet the right critical standards; these are the goals that fully realize the nature of the rational agent. If we find these goals, we overcome (contrary to Schopenhauer) any opposition between self-interest and morality.
Meta-Ethics
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: July 2020

Moore’s arguments begin a debate that revives sentimentalist and rationalist arguments. According to Moore, ‘good’ is indefinable, because there is no definition of it that mentions only ‘natural’ properties. Non-naturalist objectivists argue that we know about objective moral properties, but not in the way we know about other properties. Non-cognitivists argue that goodness is not an objective property at all; when we say that something is good, we are not stating a fact about it, but expressing an emotion, or issuing some prescription. Even if objectivism is correct about the meaning of moral judgments, we may still deny that any moral judgments are true, on the ground that we have no reason to believe that there are any moral facts of the sort that objectivists claim to describe. Further discussion of these arguments against objectivism requires closer attention to the difference between moral concepts and moral properties.
Polymorphism in Molecular Crystals
Authors: Bernstein Joel
Published: July 2020

First recognized in 1822, polymorphism of crystals is now a widely recognized and observed phenomenon, with both fundamental and commercial ramifications in disciplines and industries that study and utilize solid forms of matter. The purpose of this edition is to summarize and to bring up to date the current knowledge and understanding of polymorphism in molecular crystals, and to concentrate it in one source. The information has been gleaned from a wide variety (~2500) of sources in the open literature; however, because of the increasing commercial importance of the phenomenon, a significant portion of the information is less accessible, we have attempted to include both the information from those sources as well with full details of their citations. An introductory chapter on fundamental concepts, definitions, and historical development is followed by a presentation of the physical and structural bases for crystallization and polymorphism. The exploration of the crystal form landscape is described in detail, including polymorph screens, concomitant polymorphs, and disappearing polymorphs. A survey of analytical methods for studying and characterizing polymorphs is followed by a discussion of rapidly developing computational methods for studying and attempting to predict polymorphic behavior. A chapter with many examples of the utilization of polymorphic systems to investigate structure–property relationships in solids precedes three individual chapters on the role and importance of polymorphism in pharmaceuticals, high energy materials, and pigments. The book closes with a chapter on the role of polymorphism in establishing and protecting intellectual property connected with polymorphs through the patent system.
Fundamentals
Authors: Bernstein Joel
Published: July 2020

The physical and structural fundamentals of polymorphism are introduced, including a review of the phase rule and the thermodynamic relations in polymorphs. The latter are used to introduce energy–temperature diagrams, leading to the definition of the concepts enantiotropism and monotropism describing the thermodynamic relationships between and among polymorphs with appropriate examples. The alternate representation of phase diagram in terms of pressure and temperature is also presented. These lead to a number of rules regarding the relationships between polymorphs and ways to understand and predict some important physical properties: the heat-of-transition rule, the heat-of-fusion rule, the entropy-of-fusion rule, the heat-capacity rule, the density rule, and the infrared rule. Structural aspects include the distinction between crystal form and crystal habit and methods for characterizing and comparing structures in polymorphic systems. Current developments are discussed that deal with the ramifications of nanoscale situations on structural concepts and thermodynamic relationships.
Polymorphism and structure–property relations
Authors: Bernstein Joel
Published: July 2020

Chapter 6 deals with the connection between the structure and properties of solids as revealed and studied in polymorphic systems. The subject is divided into properties that depend on the one hand on the bulk—that is, the three-dimensional arrangement of the molecules and the interactions among them—and on the other hand the consideration of the crystal as an “oriented gas” serving to act as a matrix for the molecules to permit the study of molecular properties. Among the properties described in the former category are electrical conductivity, organic magnetic materials, photovoltaicity and photoconductivity, second harmonic generation, chromoisomerism, photochromism, thermochromism and mechanochromism, and the mechanosalient effect. The latter category includes a discussion of spectroscopic studies (infrared, Raman, and ultraviolet/visible), excimer phenomena, time-resolved studies of excited states, photochemical reactions and thermal and gas reactions, along with a variety of emission phenomena. The chapter closes with a brief survey of rapidly emerging and developing high pressure studies
Polymorphism of pharmaceuticals
Authors: Bernstein Joel
Published: July 2020

Chapter 7 deals with polymorphism in pharmaceuticals. Following a discussion of the problem of determining the statistics of the occurrence of polymorphism in pharmaceuticals, I present a discussion and examples of the connection between polymorphism and the rate of dissolution and solubility, bioavailability, and the importance of phase changes and mixtures of forms in pharmaceutical preparations. I survey some of the considerations and techniques involved in screening for crystal forms: solvent selection, specific screening for solvates and hydrates, gel crystallization, crystallization in ionic liquids, the challenge of difficult to obtain stable forms and unstable new forms, and the outlook on new techniques and conditions for crystallization. The chapter also deals with polymorphism in pharmaceutical co-crystals, excipients, and amorphous forms and the importance and utility of chemical microscopy in the study of polymorphism of pharmaceuticals.
Polymorphism of pigments and dyes
Authors: Bernstein Joel
Published: July 2020

The occurrence of the polymorphism of pigments is surveyed, with a special emphasis on three of the most important classes of pigments: quinacridones, perylenes, and phthalocyanines. Organic pigments are molecular crystals of very low solubility that provide the colors for industrial and consumer products. The properties of those compounds, including color, stability, light fastness, etc., all depend intimately on the structure, hence on the existence of polymorphism and the specific polymorphic form. The chapter summarizes much of the known information of the known and reported polymorphism of pigments in tabular form, including the scientific and patent literature, patent references, and entries in the Cambridge Structural Database. The chapter closes with a discussion of the isomorphism of pigments.
Fish oil supplementation reduces osteoarthritis-specific pain in older adults with overweight/obesity
Authors: Kuszewski Julia C , Wong Rachel H X , Howe Peter R C
Published: July 2020

Objectives

OA is a leading cause of chronic pain and disability. Next to inflammation, vascular pathology has been hypothesized to play a role in its aetiology and progression. Owing to side effects and the low efficacy of pharmacological treatments, dietary supplements are popular as alternative treatments, but evidence of efficacy is limited. We tested whether fish oil and curcumin supplementation can reduce chronic pain and OA burden in older adults.

Methods

A 16-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 2 × 2 factorial design supplementation trial with fish oil (2000 mg/day docosahexaenoic acid + 400 mg/day eicosapentaenoic acid), curcumin (160 mg/day) or a combination of both was undertaken in sedentary overweight/obese older adults. Secondary outcomes included treatment-induced changes in self-reported chronic pain and OA burden and whether changes were related to changes in small artery elasticity (surrogate marker for microvascular function), CRP (inflammatory marker) and well-being.

Results

The majority of participants (131 of 152) reported chronic pain, which was predominantly OA specific. Fish oil significantly reduced OA-specific pain (P = 0.002, Cohen’s d = 0.56) and burden (P = 0.015, Cohen’s d = 0.45) compared with no fish oil treatment; reductions were correlated with improvements in microvascular function and well-being. Curcumin, alone or in combination with fish oil, did not reduce pain measures.

Conclusion

Our findings indicate potential for fish oil to alleviate OA pain and burden in overweight/obese older adults. Further investigations should be undertaken in patients with clinically diagnosed OA to evaluate fish oil alone and as an adjunct to conventional pharmacotherapy and to investigate underlying mechanisms.

Trial registration

Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Register, https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=370788, ACTRN12616000732482p.
Ranitidine Withdrawn From the Market
Authors: Aschenbrenner Diane S.
Published: July 2020

The H2 blocker ranitidine (Zantac) has been withdrawn from the U.S. market because of concerns over levels of the contaminant N-nitrosodimethylamine, which can increase with time and temperature, posing a risk of cancer.

Patients should be told to discard all products containing ranitidine.
Building a Foundation of Evidence to Support Nurses Returning to School: The Role of Empowerment
Authors: Sarver Wendy L. , Seabold Kelly , Kline Melissa
Published: July 2020

AIM

The aim of the study was to investigate the role of Kanter’s theory of workplace empowerment in nurses’ attitude toward returning to school.

BACKGROUND

Increasing the percentage of BSNs has a positive effect on outcomes, but few hospitals offer formal support systems beyond tuition reimbursement. Workplace empowerment theory may explain attitudes toward returning to school.

METHOD

A mixed-methods design was used with a cross-sectional survey and focus group.

RESULTS

Significant predictors of attitude toward returning to school (n = 162) were formal power (p = .003), access to support (p = .007), and access to resources (p = .050). Focus group themes (n = 3) were resources important to returning to school/manager support, timing, becoming aware of opportunities after enrolling, and intrinsic desire to return to school.

CONCLUSION

Exploring relationships between workplace empowerment and attitudes toward returning to school will guide hospital executives in building support systems for nurses returning to school.
Pinna-Imitating Microphone Directionality Improves Sound Localization and Discrimination in Bilateral Cochlear Implant Users
Authors: Fischer Tim , Schmid Christoph , Kompis Martin , Mantokoudis Georgios , Caversaccio Marco , Wimmer Wilhelm
Published: July 2020

Objectives:

To compare the sound-source localization, discrimination, and tracking performance of bilateral cochlear implant users with omnidirectional (OMNI) and pinna-imitating (PI) microphone directionality modes.

Design:

Twelve experienced bilateral cochlear implant users participated in the study. Their audio processors were fitted with two different programs featuring either the OMNI or PI mode. Each subject performed static and dynamic sound field spatial hearing tests in the horizontal plane. The static tests consisted of an absolute sound localization test and a minimum audible angle test, which was measured at eight azimuth directions. Dynamic sound tracking ability was evaluated by the subject correctly indicating the direction of a moving stimulus along two circular paths around the subject.

Results:

PI mode led to statistically significant sound localization and discrimination improvements. For static sound localization, the greatest benefit was a reduction in the number of front-back confusions. The front-back confusion rate was reduced from 47% with OMNI mode to 35% with PI mode (p = 0.03). The ability to discriminate sound sources straight to the sides (90° and 270° angle) was only possible with PI mode. The averaged minimum audible angle value for the 90° and 270° angle positions decreased from a 75.5° to a 37.7° angle when PI mode was used (p < 0.001). Furthermore, a non-significant trend towards an improvement in the ability to track moving sound sources was observed for both trajectories tested (p = 0.34 and p = 0.27).

Conclusions:

Our results demonstrate that PI mode can lead to improved spatial hearing performance in bilateral cochlear implant users, mainly as a consequence of improved front-back discrimination with PI mode.
The Effect of Increasing Interphase Gap on N1 Latency of the Electrically Evoked Compound Action Potential and the Stimulation Level Offset in Human Cochlear Implant Users
Authors: Skidmore Jeffrey , He Shuman
Published: July 2020

Objective:

This study reports two potential biomarkers of the physiological status of the cochlear nerve (CN) in cochlear implant users.

Design:

This project represents a complementary analysis on a subset of electrophysiological data from our recently published study. This study compared changes in N1 latency and stimulation level (i.e., N1 latency offset and stimulation level offset) with increasing interphase gap of a biphasic pulse between children with cochlear nerve deficiency and children with normal-sized CNs.

Results:

Children with cochlear nerve deficiency showed smaller N1 latency offsets and larger stimulation level offsets than children with normal-sized CNs at all electrode locations tested.

Conclusions:

The N1 latency and stimulation level offsets differ in two patient populations with different physiological statuses of the CN. These parameters may be useful for evaluating CN function in individual cochlear implant patients.
Comparison the effect of kinetic parameters of innovative storing-restoring hybrid passive (comfort gait) ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) with posterior leaf spring AFO in drop-foot patients: a prospective cohort study
Authors: Saeedi Hassan , Pourhoseingholi Ensieh
Published: July 2020

Background:

Drop-foot syndrome is a disorder in which the dorsiflexor muscles are weakened or completely paralyzed, leading to foot slapping after the initial contact and foot-dragging during the swing phase. Passive and hybrid passive ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs) are often prescribed as an intervention for this disorder; however, the effects of these AFOs on kinetic parameters during the gait of drop-foot patients seem unclear. This study aimed to compare the affected lower limb joints of ankle, knee, and hip kinetics parameters (moments and powers) during walking in drop-foot patients using an innovative AFO storing-restoring hybrid passive AFO, named “Comfort Gait” and posterior leaf spring (PLS) AFO.

Methods:

Ten drop-foot patients were recruited in the current study to walk at a comfortable self-selected speed while wearing two different AFO selections. Kinetic parameters with a motion capture system were obtained for these patients.

Results:

The results of this study revealed a significant increase in the peak values of kinetic parameters of the lower limb of the affected side (ankle, knee, and hip moments and powers) with the innovative designed AFO when compared to PLS AFO (P<0.05).

Conclusions:

The significant increase of kinetic parameters in drop foot with use of the Comfort Gait as compared to the PLS AFO might suggest the effectiveness of this innovative AFO in improving the gait of foot drop patients more than the use of PLS AFO.

Level of Evidence:

Level II
Placenta-specific protein 1 enhances liver metastatic potential and is associated with the PI3K/AKT/NF-κB signaling pathway in colorectal cancer
Authors: Ma Jiachi , Li Lei , Du Jun , Pan Chengwu , Zhang Chensong , Chen Yuzhong
Published: July 2020

To better explore the underlying mechanism of liver metastatic formation by placenta-specific protein 1 (PLAC1) in human colorectal cancer, we investigated the proliferation, invasion and angiogenic capabilities of human colorectal cancer cells with different liver metastatic potentials as well as the mechanism of action of PLAC1 in the metastatic process. The expression of PLAC1 was detected by reverse transcriptase PCR, western blot, and real-time PCR. The effect of PLAC1 on metastatic potential was determined by proliferation, invasion, and angiogenesis assays, including an in-vitro coculture system consisting of cancer cells and vascular endothelial cells that were used to detect the relationship between cancer cells and angiogenesis. In addition, we also determined PLAC1 downstream targets that preferentially contribute to the metastatic process. PLAC1 was expressed in HT-29, WiDr, and CaCo-2 colorectal cancer cells but not in Colo320 colorectal cancer cells. PLAC1 not only enhanced significantly the proliferation of CoLo320 and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) but also promoted the invasion of CoLo320 cells. The angiogenesis of HUVECs was enhanced by PLAC1 in a dose-dependent manner. In cocultured systems, angiogenesis was significantly increased by coculture with HT-29 cells. In addition, PLAC1 could promote angiogenesis in coculture with HT-29 cells. Furthermore, PLAC1-enhanced metastatic potential of colorectal cancer cells was dependent on the activation of the PI3K/Akt/NF-κB pathway. The activation of PI3K/Akt/NF-κB signaling by PLAC1 may be critical for metastasis of colorectal cancer cells. According to our results, we suggest that modification of PLAC1 function might be a promising new therapeutic approach to inhibit the aggressive spread of colorectal cancer.