bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Anatomical substrates and connectivity for bradykinesia motor features in Parkinson’s disease after subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation
Authors: Kim Min Jae , Shi Yiwen , Lee Jasmine , Salimpour Yousef , Anderson William S , Mills Kelly A
Published: December 2023

Parkinsonian bradykinesia is rated using a composite scale incorporating the slowed frequency of repetitive movements, decrement amplitude and arrhythmicity. Differential localization of these movement components within the basal ganglia will drive the development of more personalized network-targeted symptomatic therapies. In this study, using an optical motion sensor, we evaluated the amplitude and frequency of hand movements during a grasping task with subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation ‘on’ or ‘off’ in 15 patients with Parkinson’s disease. The severity of bradykinesia was assessed blindly using the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Part III scale. The volumes of activated tissue of each subject were estimated where changes in amplitude and frequency were mapped to identify distinct anatomical substrates of each component in the subthalamic nucleus. The volumes of activated tissue were used to seed a normative functional connectome to generate connectivity maps associated with amplitude and frequency changes. Deep brain stimulation–induced change in amplitude was negatively correlated with a change in Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Part III scale for right (r = −0.65, P < 0.05) and left hand grasping scores (r = −0.63, P < 0.05). The change in frequency was negatively correlated with amplitude for both right (r = −0.63, P < 0.05) and left hands (r = −0.57, P < 0.05). The amplitude and frequency changes were represented as a spatial gradient with overlapping and non-overlapping regions spanning the anteromedial–posterolateral axis of the subthalamic nucleus. Whole-brain correlation maps between functional connectivity and motor changes were also inverted between amplitude and frequency changes. Deep brain stimulation–associated changes in frequency and amplitude were topographically and distinctly represented both locally in the subthalamic nucleus and in whole-brain functional connectivity.
Coastal towns as ‘left-behind places’: economy, environment and planning
Authors: Fiorentino Stefania , Sielker Franziska , Tomaney John
Published: December 2023

Many coastal towns in England face a unique set of overlapping challenges: a longstanding socio-economic stagnation and environmental threats coming from the physical location. This paper examines coastal communities in the context of the left-behind debate. The consequences of de-industrialisation and failures in public policies recall other left-behind geographies. We look at a selection of case studies, apparently dealing with the decline of traditional coastal economic activities, but really affected by a decoupling of their socio-economic profile from their coastal specificity. More work is needed to nurture the existing coastal imaginaries, requiring regional coordination and a place-based approach to regeneration.
Making a Change! Exploring Refugee Youth’s Civic Engagement in Out-of-School Programs to Cultivate Critical Consciousness
Authors: Cureton Ashley
Published: December 2023

Out-of-school time (OST) programs provide important contexts for youth’s development and well-being. Moreover, OST programs have the potential to serve as an anchor for refugee youth who lack familiarity with U.S. schools and communities. Youth civic engagement encompasses activities that are critical for empowering young people to participate in political, economic, and social initiatives, becoming agents of positive change. While civic engagement has been deemed an important activity, research that highlights refugee youth’s motivation, benefits, and engagement in civic duties within local communities is limited. Drawing on a critical consciousness framework, which entails becoming more aware of structural injustice and positioning oneself to participate in systemic change, this phenomenological study explores refugee youth’s motivation and types of civic engagement in OST programs. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 refugee youth resettled in Chicago, Illinois. These youth described the motivations leading them to become civically engaged, such as a sense of duty or obligation to learn and advocate for the rights of refugees and to build a sense of community with their peers and mentors. Recommendations are offered about how schools and community partners can assist refugee students in becoming more civically involved in OST settings.
Genomic loci involved in sensing environmental cues and metabolism affect seasonal coat shedding in Bos taurus and Bos indicus cattle
Authors: Durbin Harly J , Yampara-Iquise Helen , Rowan Troy N , Schnabel Robert D , Koltes James E , Powell Jeremy G , Decker Jared E
Published: December 2023

Seasonal shedding of winter hair at the start of summer is well studied in wild and domesticated populations. However, the genetic influences on this trait and their interactions are poorly understood. We use data from 13,364 cattle with 36,899 repeated phenotypes to investigate the relationship between hair shedding and environmental variables, single nucleotide polymorphisms, and their interactions to understand quantitative differences in seasonal shedding. Using deregressed estimated breeding values from a repeated records model in a genome-wide association analysis (GWAA) and meta-analysis of year-specific GWAA gave remarkably similar results. These GWAA identified hundreds of variants associated with seasonal hair shedding. There were especially strong associations between chromosomes 5 and 23. Genotype-by-environment interaction GWAA identified 1,040 day length-by-genotype interaction associations and 17 apparent temperature-by-genotype interaction associations with hair shedding, highlighting the importance of day length on hair shedding. Accurate genomic predictions of hair shedding were created for the entire dataset, Angus, Hereford, Brangus, and multibreed datasets. Loci related to metabolism and light-sensing have a large influence on seasonal hair shedding. This is one of the largest genetic analyses of a phenological trait and provides insight into both agriculture production and basic science.
Archaic Introgression Shaped Human Circadian Traits
Authors: Velazquez-Arcelay Keila , Colbran Laura L , McArthur Evonne , Brand Colin M , Rinker David C , Siemann Justin K , McMahon Douglas G , Capra John A
Published: December 2023

When the ancestors of modern Eurasians migrated out of Africa and interbred with Eurasian archaic hominins, namely, Neanderthals and Denisovans, DNA of archaic ancestry integrated into the genomes of anatomically modern humans. This process potentially accelerated adaptation to Eurasian environmental factors, including reduced ultraviolet radiation and increased variation in seasonal dynamics. However, whether these groups differed substantially in circadian biology and whether archaic introgression adaptively contributed to human chronotypes remain unknown. Here, we traced the evolution of chronotype based on genomes from archaic hominins and present-day humans. First, we inferred differences in circadian gene sequences, splicing, and regulation between archaic hominins and modern humans. We identified 28 circadian genes containing variants with potential to alter splicing in archaics (e.g., CLOCK, PER2, RORB, and RORC) and 16 circadian genes likely divergently regulated between present-day humans and archaic hominins, including RORA. These differences suggest the potential for introgression to modify circadian gene expression. Testing this hypothesis, we found that introgressed variants are enriched among expression quantitative trait loci for circadian genes. Supporting the functional relevance of these regulatory effects, we found that many introgressed alleles have associations with chronotype. Strikingly, the strongest introgressed effects on chronotype increase morningness, consistent with adaptations to high latitude in other species. Finally, we identified several circadian loci with evidence of adaptive introgression or latitudinal clines in allele frequency. These findings identify differences in circadian gene regulation between modern humans and archaic hominins and support the contribution of introgression via coordinated effects on variation in human chronotype.
Surgical ablation of long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation: 1-year outcomes from the CArdioSurgEry Atrial Fibrillation (CASE-AF) registry
Authors: Grubitzsch Herko , Caliskan Etem , Ouarrak Taoufik , Senges Jochen , Doll Nicolas , Knaut Michael , Lewalter Thorsten , Eichinger Walter , Niemann Bernd , Friedrich Ivar , Hanke Torsten , Falk Volkmar ,   CASE-AF Investigators, Hanke Thorsten , Lewalter Thorsten , Senges Jochen , Grubitzsch Herko , Caliskan Etem , Ouarrak Taoufik , Knaut Michael , Eichinger Walter , Niemann Bernd , Friedrich Ivar , Falk Volkmar , Wehbe Mahmoud , Albert Marc , Vondran Maximilian , Ghazy Tamer , Warnecke Henning , Doss Mirko , Liebold Andreas , Eszlari Edgar , Rastan Ardawan , Mitrovic Ivana , Cvorak Adi , Fischlein Theodor , Sack Falk-Udo , Hindricks Gerd , Doll Nicolas
Published: December 2023

OBJECTIVES

The CArdioSurgEry Atrial Fibrillation (CASE-AF) registry is a prospective, multicentre study for collecting and analysing real-world data of surgical atrial fibrillation (AF) treatment. This study aimed to evaluate outcomes of surgery for long-standing persistent AF at 1 year.

METHODS

In total, 17 centres consecutively include all eligible patients with continuous AF lasting for ≥1 year. Exclusion criteria are missing informed consent or age <18 years. For patient-reported outcomes measures, the European Heart Rhythm Association score was used. No presence of AF (based on ECG findings including Holter ECG and/or implanted devices), no re-ablation, no further cardioversion and no rehospitalization due to AF after a 3-month blanking period defined no AF recurrence at 1 year.

RESULTS

From January 2017 to January 2020, a total of 1115 patients were enrolled in CASE-AF. Of them, 202 patients (mean age 69.7 ± 7.8 years, 27.2% female) underwent surgical ablation of long-standing persistent AF (study cohort), mostly accompanied by left atrial appendage closure (n = 180 [89%], resection n = 75 [42%]) and predominantly performed as concomitant (n = 174 [86%]) and left atrial only procedure (n = 144 [71%]). Early mortality (30 days) was 2.0% and morbidity was low. At follow-up (median 14.4 months, interquartile range, 12.7–17.6 months, 100% complete), 106 patients (56%) had no AF recurrence and 93% of them were asymptomatic. AF recurrence was accompanied by AF-related rehospitalization (n = 12, P = 0.003), direct current shock cardioversion (n = 23, P < 0.001), AF ablation (n = 7, P = 0.003) and stroke (n = 3, P = 0.059). Multivariable analysis identified cryoablation, predominantly performed endocardially including additional left atrial (74%) and biatrial (42%) lesions, as a significant factor for freedom from AF recurrence (odds ratio 2.7, 95% confidence interval 1.07–6.79, P = 0.035).

CONCLUSIONS

According to CASE-AF, surgical ablation of long-standing persistent AF is most effective when concomitantly performed using endocardial cryoablation. Ongoing follow-up allows further elucidation of efficacious treatment strategies.
Adaptation and Validation of a Questionnaire to Measure Satisfaction With Telephone Care Among Individuals Living With Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Authors: Foncham Jermia Nehwa , Rohatinsky Noelle , Fowler Sharyle , Bhasin Sanchit , Boklaschuk Shannon , Guzowski Tom , Wicks Kendall , Wicks Mike , Peña-Sánchez Juan Nicolás
Published: December 2023

Background

Individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) require routine medical follow-up. The usage of telephone care (TC) appointments increased because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We aimed to adapt a questionnaire to evaluate satisfaction with TC use and validate it among IBD individuals.

Methods

A committee of experts adapted the Telehealth Usability Questionnaire to the TC context and validated its use in individuals with IBD. This committee included three IBD gastroenterology care providers (GCPs), two IBD-patient partners, and two healthcare researchers. The committee evaluated the content validity of the adapted items to measure TC satisfaction. A pilot study assessed the readability and usability of the questionnaire. Individuals with IBD in Saskatchewan completed an online survey with the adapted questionnaire between December 2021 and April 2022. Data were analyzed using descriptive and correlational techniques. Psychometric analyses were conducted to examine the reliability and validity of the questionnaire.

Results

The committee of experts developed the Telephone Care Satisfaction Questionnaire (TCSQ patient), with 16 items and one overall item for TC satisfaction. After the pilot, 87 IBD individuals participated in the online survey. A strong correlation was observed between the 16-item standardized level of TC satisfaction and the overall item, r = 0.85 (95%CI 0.78–0.90, p < 0.001). The TCSQ patient had optimal internal reliability (α = 0.96). Two dimensions were identified in the exploratory factor analysis (i.e., TC usefulness and convenience).

Conclusion

The TCSQ patient is a valid and reliable measure of TC satisfaction among individuals with IBD. This questionnaire demonstrated excellent psychometric properties and we recommend its use.
Class Conflict and Spatial Domination in the Neoliberal City
Authors: Castilhos Rodrigo B
Published: December 2023

This article analyzes spatial domination in middle-classed spaces—the spaces that cater to the dispositions, status, and lifestyle ideals of middle-class groups—of the neoliberal city. Grounded in interdisciplinary scholarship on the neoliberal city, the article introduces a typology of middle-classed spaces, which maps out different combinations of cross-class hostility and cordiality in dynamics of spatial domination. Through an extended case study of a new upscale neighborhood bordering a slum area in a southern Brazilian city, the article unveils the socio-historic conditions that inform the localized cross-class relations and situate it in the spatial typology. With the support of a semiotic square, the article then identifies, relates, and analyzes the hostile (“takeover” and “repression”) and cordial (“makeover” and “concession”) spatial practices by which dominant agents produce one specific type of middle-classed space. Through these practices, dominant agents improve the status, experience, and market value of the neighborhood for target upper-middle-class consumers, while further disenfranchising the poor from its spaces—effectively reproducing deep-rooted historical patterns of social exclusion. This study extends research on status consumption and spatiality while also adding insights into the role of the state in consumption and market dynamics.
An efficient thermal error prediction model using neural networks and key temperature points for gantry machining centers
Authors: Chiu Hao-Sung , Chang Chin-Han , Huang Yu-Chen , Lai Yung-Chieh , Yang Cheng-Jyun , Chen Yu-Bin
Published: December 2023

The gantry machining center is popular for various fabrications, such as milling and tapping. However, thermal errors introduced by the rotation of spindle, workpiece processing, and cooling significantly degrade fabrication precision. The objective of this study is to establish an appropriate and efficient thermal error prediction model for the spindle of gantry machining center. The model will then aid real-time compensation for the error. Firstly, this study presents a systematic strategy for selecting key temperature points on the gantry machining center, reducing the number of required sensors. Subsequently, a thermal error model is developed based on the selected key temperature points. The model will be capable of predicting thermal errors in the x- and z-direction. Finally, this work both validates the thermal error model and exhibits real-time compensation capabilities using a real machine.
Neuro-Behçet’s disease with atypical subcortical nodular lesions: A case report and treatment approach
Authors: Yoshimoto Kiyomi , Kobayashi Tadanao , Matsuoka Hidetoshi , Nishimura Nobushiro , Kawashima Hiromasa , Yoneima Ryo , Tsushima Emiko , Ono Shiro , Nishio Kenji
Published: December 2023

Neuro-Behçet’s disease (NB) is a rare complication of Behçet’s disease (BD) characterised by central nervous system involvement. While NB typically presents with brainstem lesions, we report an unusual case of NB in a 27-year-old male with multiple subcortical nodular brain lesions but without brainstem, thalamic, or basal ganglia involvement, making this presentation exceptionally rare. The patient had a prior diagnosis of BD and was HLA-B51 positive. He presented with a sudden loss of consciousness, which was attributed to a seizure. Imaging studies showed low-density areas in the white matter of the bilateral temporal lobes and the right frontoparietal lobe on brain CT. Cerebrospinal fluid examination indicated elevated initial pressure and protein concentration, along with increased interleukin-6. Despite presenting with nodular brain lesions, distinguishing between NB and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) was challenging, and required brain biopsy revealing vasculitis. However, even with this biopsy result, TB could not be ruled out, so TB was treated at the same time. Treatment with anti-TB drugs and standard steroid therapy initially failed to improve the patient’s condition. However, increasing the steroid dosage considering the increased steroid degradation by rifampicin, including pulse therapy with 2 g of methylprednisolone, followed by 18 mg of betamethasone, led to remission of the nodular brain lesions and resolution of the nasopharyngeal ulcer. This case highlights the diagnostic challenge of differentiating between NB and TB based on imaging alone and the potential efficacy of high-dose steroid therapy in cases of steroid-resistant NB with subcortical nodular brain lesions.
A KDPG sensor RccR governsPseudomonas aeruginosacarbon metabolism and aminoglycoside antibiotic tolerance
Authors: Wang Yujue , Wang Zhipeng , Chen Weizhong , Ren Ze-Hui , Gao Hui , Dai Jiani , Luo Guan-Zheng , Wu Zhaowei , Ji Quanjiang
Published: December 2023

Pseudomonas aeruginosa harbors sophisticated transcription factor (TF) networks to coordinately regulate cellular metabolic states for rapidly adapting to changing environments. The extraordinary capacity in fine-tuning the metabolic states enables its success in tolerance to antibiotics and evading host immune defenses. However, the linkage among transcriptional regulation, metabolic states and antibiotic tolerance in P. aeruginosa remains largely unclear. By screening the P. aeruginosa TF mutant library constructed by CRISPR/Cas12k-guided transposase, we identify that rccR (PA5438) is a major genetic determinant in aminoglycoside antibiotic tolerance, the deletion of which substantially enhances bacterial tolerance. We further reveal the inhibitory roles of RccR in pyruvate metabolism (aceE/F) and glyoxylate shunt pathway (aceA and glcB), and overexpression of aceA or glcB enhances bacterial tolerance. Moreover, we identify that 2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogluconate (KDPG) is a signal molecule that directly binds to RccR. Structural analysis of the RccR/KDPG complex reveals the detailed interactions. Substitution of the key residue R152, K270 or R277 with alanine abolishes KDPG sensing by RccR and impairs bacterial growth with glycerol or glucose as the sole carbon source. Collectively, our study unveils the connection between aminoglycoside antibiotic tolerance and RccR-mediated central carbon metabolism regulation in P. aeruginosa, and elucidates the KDPG-sensing mechanism by RccR.
Masters of the Continental Worlds
Authors: Miller Bryan K.
Published: December 2023

This chapter investigates the transformations in political culture and landscapes of empire that emerged during the latter era of the Xiongnu. It illustrates how the steppe rulers, who were enmeshed with sweeping geopolitics of Eurasia, increasingly engaged long-distance continental trade as a form of imperial revenue and as the focus of political prestige for a cosmopolitan imperial culture. At the same time, detailed archaeological analyses further demonstrate that while Xiongnu rulers fostered a dependence of local communities on the far-reaching networks of exchange which they controlled, they also compelled local elites throughout their realms to embrace more uniform practices of empire. Archaeological data across Inner Asia are then employed in a nested multiscalar examination of the matrix of empire—from royal tombs to local elites at the frontier—to elucidate the significant structural effects of imperial participation and integration that occurred within peripheral regions just as they did in individual valleys of the empire.
Putting on Her Face
Authors: Vesey Alyxandra
Published: December 2023

Chapter 4 extends the previous chapter’s discussion of branded fashion by considering how female and femme-identified musicians use cosmetics to negotiate the beauty industry’s conventions and practices. In particular, it analyzes how Rihanna has mobilized her Afro-Caribbean heritage, transnational following, and relationships with Roc Nation and luxury conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessey to reinvent herself as a beauty mogul in the 2010s by reframing branded cosmetics as technologies of inclusivity and resilience. These strategies culminated in the 2017 launch of Fenty Beauty, a cosmetics line heralded for diversity-oriented products like the brand’s Pro Filt’r foundation, which accommodates a wide range of skin tones and boasts distribution in over 150 countries. First, this chapter investigates how Rihanna accumulated the industrial clout to build a cosmetics empire throughout her recording career as a CoverGirl spokesmodel, as a partner with Parlux Fragrances, and as a MAC Cosmetics brand ambassador. It also examines how Rihanna used social media, particularly Instagram, to construct intimate proximities with fans through stories, tutorials, and announcements related to various Fenty Beauty products. Finally, Rihanna’s social media presence facilitates the mediation of fans’ engagement with her products, which she and her team seize upon by recruiting them to serve as spokesmodels for the brand.
Playing Her Guitar
Authors: Vesey Alyxandra
Published: December 2023

While previous chapters focus on female musicians’ use of feminine-branded consumer goods to elongate their careers, Chapter 6 investigates their opposition to gear’s implied masculine address by making instruments accessible to a wider range of players while showcasing women’s instrumental virtuosity. This chapter examines Annie Clark’s partnership with Ernie Ball Music Man Guitars under her alias, St. Vincent. In 2016, Clark became the first woman to develop a signature collection for the company. Clark used the partnership to problematize the electric guitar’s gendered address by designing a “gender-neutral” guitar that was meant to be accessible to feminine and gender-nonconforming players. It first contextualizes the industrial efforts to make the electric guitar more accessible to girls during Clark’s adolescence and their limitations. It then analyzes Clark’s promotional strategies for the collection. Most branding opportunities available to female music industry professionals interested in extending their commercial shelf life affirm conventionally feminine modes of creative self-expression, like fashion and cosmetics. Clark’s guitar challenges such gender essentialism by highlighting her own virtuosity as a queer musician, songwriter, and producer while giving players a different set of tools with which to create new sounds.
Introduction
Authors: Zori Davide
Published: December 2023

The story of the Vikings is one of voyages. In the Viking Age, Scandinavian voyagers from today’s Denmark, Norway, and Sweden encountered new people and novel landscapes with an unprecedented intensity. The movement of people brought transfers of ideas, sharing of technologies, trade in material goods, intermarriage, and warfare. The Viking Age (c. 790–1100) is primarily represented in popular culture as a violent age, and it was. It was also much more. Vikings were farmers, raiders, traders, and settlers. Viking Age Scandinavians were opportunists looking for ways to better their own situation in life, and that of their family and offspring. The overwhelming majority of people were farmers, but at an unprecedented scale, leaving the farm for other economic activities became possible and lucrative. This book too is about voyages, not just those of the Vikings, but voyages through historical sources, archaeological evidence, and new scientific approaches to the Vikings. Recent advances in excavation methods and archaeological science, coupled with a re-evaluation of oral traditions and written sources, inspire the telling of new stories that further our understanding of the Viking Age. This book proposes that we directly address “the three Cs”—confirmation, contradiction, and complementarity—that emerge when we juxtapose the independent data sets of archaeology, written sources, and scientific analysis.
From Subsistence Economy to Political Order
Authors: Zori Davide
Published: December 2023

This chapter shows explores the connection between Viking economics and the formation of political groups by looking closely at the practice of Viking feasting. The image of the hard-drinking convivial Viking raising his horn at a raucous feast has become a cliché in popular culture. As this chapter shows, however, there is substantial historical truth to the image. But Viking Age feasts were not at all simple. This chapter argues that feasting was the main way that surplus food production could be used to make statements of political power. The ideal Viking feast is first sought in the Old Norse poems and myths. A close examination of these texts will show a preoccupation with the essential products of the feast—alcohol and meat—and stress the importance of the socially constructed arena of feasting within the feasting hall. Looking closely at the sagas, the chapter unravels the dynamics of feasting first among kings in Scandinavia and then among chieftains and farmers in Iceland. Archaeological evidence of feasting is then explored by specifically focusing on traces of feasting found inscribed on stones, left in graves, and preserved in halls. Finally, by combining our datasets, the chapter examines the challenges and potentials of maintaining Scandinavian feasting customs on the margins of the Viking world, in Iceland, and takes up a case study that shows the importance of a chieftain family’s feasting potential for their changing political fortunes.
Overview of Current Evidence and Practice
Authors: Eisenberg Daniel , Raghavan Ramesh
Published: December 2023

This chapter discusses the overall state of evidence for interventions to promote children’s mental health and then compares this evidence to current practice. The chapter begins with a discussion of why relying upon evidence is important, and it then examines the main characteristics of useful evidence. Randomized control trials (RCTs) typically yield evidence with high internal validity, but other aspects of evidence are also important, such as external validity and feasibility of implementation and sustainability. The chapter then moves to identifying reputable sources of evidence, such as “what works” repositories or clearinghouses maintained by independent groups that evaluate various programs and communicate their methods and results in a transparent manner. The chapter then summarizes data suggesting that current practice does not generally align with evidence on what works for children’s mental health and concludes with an overview of factors that are likely responsible for that gap.
A Path toward Better Investments
Authors: Eisenberg Daniel , Raghavan Ramesh
Published: December 2023

The final chapter provides a series of recommendations based on the findings in this book. These recommendations are organized by audience: decision makers (e.g., policymakers, administrators, and other community and organization leaders); frontline providers (e.g., educators, therapists, counselors, and social workers); researchers and funders of research; and families, concerned citizens, and young people themselves. The recommendations offer tangible ideas for how each of these groups can help communities apply effective intervention strategies more often and more completely to promote children’s mental health. Efforts to improve the mental health of children can only succeed if they are collective. Each of us has a key role to play.
Justificanda
Authors: Hudson Jessica , Mitchell Charles
Published: December 2023

This chapter examines ‘the express trust’ and ‘trusts law’ as objects for justification, and asks what, exactly, is being justified by the body of theoretical literature seeking to justify ‘the trust’ and ‘trusts law’. Too little attention has been paid to this question and a closer investigation of it makes it possible to form a clearer understanding of the work that different justifications can and cannot do. This chapter argues that ‘the trust’ is a set of legal propositions that are designed to interact with one another as a system to produce an overall effect, which is to allow the parties to redefine the trustee’s authority as the titleholder of trust property. ‘The trust’ thus presents multiple objects for justification, being the individual legal propositions that constitute it, their overall system-level effect, and the parties’ powers to create ‘the trust’. The chapter then goes on to explain how the one body of ‘trusts law’ comprises different types of legal rules that provide for the creation and operation of ‘the trust’. This is followed by a discussion on how attention to these matters can help us form a clearer and more finely textured understanding of how some justifications for ‘the trust’ and ‘trusts law’ can work, such as the autonomy rationale.
Trusts, Estates, and Personhood
Authors: Douglas Simon
Published: December 2023

Most theories of the trust seek to explain the institution through an account of the legal relations between the relevant parties, namely, the ‘beneficiary-trustee’ relation and the ‘beneficiary-third party’ relation. This chapter argues that such ‘relational’ accounts cannot offer a complete explanation of the trust, as it is commonplace for express trusts to have no extant beneficiaries. The challenge is to articulate a principle which explains how a trust can exist as something other than a web of legal relations. It is suggested that such a principle can be located in the concept of an ‘estate’, which is a legally distinct pool of assets and liabilities. While estates are normally an incident of legal personhood, this chapter shows that they can exist independently of a person, the prime example being the estate of a deceased person. It is argued that the trust can be understood in similar terms, that is, as an estate without legal personality. This has several consequences for the law of trusts, including the role of the trustee (who ought to be viewed as a representative of the trust’s estate) and equitable compensation (which depends upon showing a loss to the trust’s estate).
A Fresh Look at Purpose Trusts
Authors: Harding Matthew
Published: December 2023

The chapter argues for a fresh look at purpose trusts. It begins by emphasising that, as is the case with other legal forms, the existence of purpose trusts depends on acts of interpretation about which reasonable minds might disagree. The chapter then argues that purpose trusts offer settlors a distinctive facility because, in addition to enabling settlors to deploy the benefit of property as all trusts do, they entail a particular mode of governance that cannot be accessed fully using other legal forms. Next, the chapter turns to the distinction often drawn between valid charitable purpose trusts and invalid non-charitable purpose trusts, arguing that this distinction, as currently drawn, is difficult to defend. Finally, the chapter considers where to draw the limits when it comes to the recognition of private purpose trusts, and it discusses how such trusts might be appropriately enforced.
Administrators as Trustees of Australian Class Action Settlements
Authors: Degeling Simone
Published: December 2023

On the settlement of an Australian Federal class action, any settlement monies may be held by an Administrator pursuant to a court-sanctioned private express trust for eligible group members. This chapter argues that such trusts ensure that any monetary award is assured; that it is actually delivered to the hands of group members. This is because trusts offer a structure of delegated authority and decision-making. The Administrator is the court’s delegate and permits the Administrator to assume responsibility for administering the recovery while also being closely supervised by the court. The trust offers a direct line of reporting, responsibility, and supervision. Correlatively, the trust also facilitates the enrolment of suitable actors as Administrator. Further, the stable yet flexible character of the trust form permits the ability to craft bespoke terms reflecting the terms of a particular settlement, while also permitting asset segregation and partitioning, enrolment of suitable Administration and delegation. However, the trust is not simply a structure of delegated decision-making. Crucially, it also carries with it a set of rules which ensure that the Administrator as trustee adheres to the terms of the settlement distribution scheme and the ability of the court directly to carry into execution the terms of the settlement distribution scheme should the Administrator fail to do so. The trust thus offers a more perfect or absolute form of the administration of justice, because equity’s default posture is to supervise and compel the Administrator as trustee to perform the trust.
Illegality, Tax in Another Jurisdiction, and an Express Trust
Authors: Mumford Ann
Published: December 2023

This chapter addresses an argument in the 2016 High Court case of Hniazdzilau v Vajgel, in which counsel attempted to engage the private law illegality defence to prevent a claimant from benefitting from an express trust which was established, in part, to obstruct Russian tax law. Counsel aimed to frame the issue as a question of the UK courts’ support (or not) for ‘comity’ between nations, or, more specifically, Russian tax law. He also argued that developments in UK criminal law indicate broad Parliament’s support for an expansive (perhaps even extra territorial) approach to crimes involving taxation. Ultimately, the (unsuccessful) argument ran, there is something especially terrible about tax abuse, such that allowing Mr. Hniazdzilau to succeed would offend a wider, international understanding of the rule of law. A social justice consideration of this argument, achieved through a consolidation of arguments advanced by Dagan, and Murphy and Nagel, may support counsel’s argument, at least in theory. The challenge is that this would require a new way of thinking.
Toward a non-teleological account of demonstrative reinforcement
Authors: Goldstein David
Published: December 2023

It has long been debated whether morphosyntactic change is teleological. Jespersen (1917: 4), for instance, maintained that emphatic negative constructions are created in response to the weakening of older negative adverbs. Others have argued that such therapeutic models of change are flawed, since novel grammatical forms do not owe their existence to a deficit (e.g., Haspelmath 2018: 112). This paper takes up the question of teleological change by examining the definiteness cycle of van Gelderen 2011 (197-244). According to the definiteness cycle, the development of a definite article from a demonstrative (e.g., Latin ILLE ‘that’ > Old French li ‘the’) entails feature loss, which is repaired through reinforcement of the demonstrative (e.g., Latin ECCE ILLE ‘that’ > Old French cel ‘that’). It is shown that the definiteness cycle is beset by too many problems to be an adequate model of demonstrative reinforcement. Decoupling demonstrative reinforcement from the grammaticalization of definite articles offers two key advantages. First, it accounts for the fact that demonstrative reinforcement occurs before and after definite articles emerge. Second, it allows reinforced demonstratives to exhibit meanings that go beyond spatial deixis.
The value of family relations for revitalization
Authors: Mithun Marianne
Published: December 2023

For many Indigenous communities engaged in language revitalization projects, records of the traditional language are limited. In some cases, however, they can be enriched from what is known about related languages and their histories of development. Such possibilities are illustrated here with Susquehannock, an Iroquoian language indigenous to what is now southeastern Pennsylvania. The language was last used by first-language speakers in the mid-eighteenth century, but two wordlists, recorded a century earlier, in combination with what is known about related languages, allow us to reconstruct what the scribe must have heard, what the words and short phrases actually meant, and their internal grammatical structure. Knowledge about related languages also lets us recognize some of the constructions as “foreigner talk,” not representative of the syntactic complexity of language.
The return and spread of the transnational mining corporation in the African periphery
Authors: Radley Ben
Published: December 2023

The aim of this chapter is to historically situate the case of mining in the Congo within its broader regional context. It is organized in three sections, each corresponding to a separate stage of the process that led to transnational mining corporations again becoming the dominant force assuming ownership and management of industrial mining projects across the continent. The first stage involved a diagnosis of the economic challenges faced by African economies from the mid-1970s as due to misguided state intervention and government corruption. Based on this diagnosis, during the second stage, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank advocated for, financed, and often directly oversaw the liberalization, privatization, and deregulation of mining sectors in low-income African economies. The third stage required criminalizing African miners involved in labour-intensive forms of production and, if required, forcibly displacing them to make way for the construction of capital-intensive, foreign corporate-owned mines.
The Harmonic Resonator
Authors: Eichler Alexander , Zilberberg Oded
Published: December 2023

In this chapter, we briefly repeat those features of harmonic oscillators that are important for the rest of the book, including second-order differential equations without and with damping and driving, stability of solutions, the transfer matrix formalism, Floquet theory, and linear instability due to parametric pumping
Experimental Systems
Authors: Eichler Alexander , Zilberberg Oded
Published: December 2023

The last chapter of this book is devoted to three examples of physical systems that can be used to realize parametric oscillators, namely a nanomechanical resonator made from a carbon nanotube, an electrical resonator with a nonlinear capacitance, and an optical ring resonator. In each case, we briefly derive the relevant equation of motion and indicate realistic numerical values for the coefficients. We conclude by showing how such values can be rescaled to avoid numerical problems.
Ownership of Proceeds of Corruption in International Law
Authors: Olaniyan Kolawole
Published: December 2023

Recovery of proceeds deriving from corruption is now increasingly recognized as a principle of contemporary international law. Through the analyses of human rights jurisprudence and the theories of justice, public trust, and the rule of law, this book explores the ideas of people’s sovereign and ownership rights of proceeds of corruption on the basis of their right to wealth and natural resources and the corresponding rights to justice, effective remedies, and reparations (ie restitution, compensation, satisfaction, rehabilitation, and guarantees of non-repetition). The book challenges the conventional wisdom that sovereign and ownership rights over wealth and natural resources, and, by extension, ownership of proceeds of corruption, should be exclusively exercised by states. It argues that the populations of victim-states ought to be empowered to pursue grand corruption and asset recovery actions when their governments are either unwilling or unable to take such actions. The book shows the relationship between the right to wealth and natural resources and proceeds of corruption, and how contemporary international human rights law and jurisprudence define permissible restrictions on the exercise of states’ sovereign and ownership rights of proceeds of corruption. The book proposes theoretical and legal foundations for non-state actors, and particularly for the populations of victim-states—who are the real victims of corruption—to enjoy the right to justice and effective remedies in the processes, procedures and mechanisms to recover proceeds of corruption, which may contribute to the development of domestic laws on the subject.
Links between Corruption in the Public Sector and Private Sector
Authors: Olaniyan Kolawole
Published: December 2023

Against the background of corruption in business and the effects of bribery in the world’s economy, growth, and development, Chapter 3 examines the links between corruption in the public sector and private sector. It addresses the role of corrupt business practices in contributing to and facilitating grand corruption, including the socio-economic effects of commercial organizations bribing PEPs to obtain or retain business or an advantage in the conduct of business. The chapter attempts to address some of the key issues surrounding settlements of foreign bribery cases, particularly the sharing of proceeds of foreign bribery (eg fines, disgorged profits, and reparations collected by supply-side jurisdictions) with the people of demand-side jurisdictions. It then looks at the challenges of combating private sector corruption and how these might undermine the global efforts to tackle grand corruption by high-ranking public officials and to recover its proceeds.
Ernest Dowson
Authors: Stark Robert
Published: December 2023

By meticulous analysis of his holograph notebook, dating each composition, and reading his oeuvre chronologically for the first time, Ernest Dowson: Lyric Lives finally dispels the myths which have masqueraded as literary criticism of Dowson’s life and work for more than a century. The cornerstone of the so-called ‘Dowson Legend’, the authorial and critical promotion of Adelaide Foltinowicz as the incontrovertible muse of his writing, is, simply, a canard: Dowson did not write extensively about her, in verse. Liberated from the stubborn observer effect of this mythopoeic interference—the more authority is invested in the legend, the less fathomable become all datapoints which do not adequate to myth, no matter how intrinsically knowable they are—Dowson’s extraordinary writing is free to assume the importance and prominence it deserves. His relationship with Aesthetic and Decadent tradition; his Catholicism; his love of France, its literature and culture; his long battle with tuberculosis; and final abandonment of creative writing, all come fully into focus in the first comprehensive, chronological study of a dynamic writer at the epicentre of the aesthetic and cultural debates of the fin de siècle, who wrote about the subjects that poets have always written about, under the sway of the same miscellaneous passions. The pun, in short, is intended: Ernest Dowson: Lyric Lives reinstalls an author of flesh-and-blood at the heart of this astonishing, but disregarded, oeuvre and, doing so, reclaims the author and his works from probable oblivion.
Judges and the Judiciary
Authors: Hendley Kathryn , Solomon Peter H.
Published: December 2023

Chapter 3 focuses on judges. Like much of continental Europe, Russia has a career judiciary. Those who have at least five years of legal experience following receipt of their law degrees are eligible to become trial-level judges. The requirements ratchet upwards for higher-level courts. Applicants are assessed for their competence and political reliability by judicial qualification commissions. These commissions also hear complaints about judicial misconduct and are responsible for disciplining errant judges. Russian judges tend to come onto the bench in their thirties and stay for their career, typically seeking out higher-level judicial posts as they gain experience. Promotion depends on judges’ ability to manage their caseload efficiently, to avoid reversals, and to get along with their bureaucratic superiors, especially their court chairmen. Judges who rock the boat are not promoted and are often drummed out of the judicial corps, sometimes on flimsy pretexts. With the exception of justices of the peace, who are expected to be jacks of all trade, Russian judges specialize. The staff members of courts make up the largest share of applicants for the bench, though judges who handle criminal cases are often former prosecutors.
Lawyers
Authors: Hendley Kathryn , Solomon Peter H.
Published: December 2023

Chapter 4 educates readers as to the structure of the Russian legal profession. Much like other continental legal systems, it is divided into specialties. These divisions have persisted at a formal level in the post-Soviet era, though moving between them is easier. Though many contemporary Russian lawyers continue to work for the state, they now have greater opportunities to engage in private practice. Acting as a representative for the state or for a private client in the Russian courts generally requires advanced (university-level) legal education. While anyone with this training can represent a client in a non-criminal case, only lawyers who are licensed members of the bar (advokaty) are legally entitled to represent criminal defendants. The Constitution guarantees representation to criminal defendants. In the post-Soviet era, new specializations have arisen in response to market-driven demands, as have private law firms designed to service companies. The demand for legal assistance has also contributed to a dramatic increase in the number of educational institutions training lawyers, though the quality of these institutions is uneven. Yet, the straightforward language of the procedural codes has made it possible for many Russians to represent themselves successfully in simple, non-criminal cases.
Justice-of-the-Peace Courts and Everyday Law
Authors: Hendley Kathryn , Solomon Peter H.
Published: December 2023

Chapter 7 details the evolution of the justice-of-the-peace courts, which were created towards the end of Yeltsin’s tenure and came to fruition under Putin. They were intended to alleviate the crush of cases being handled at the district court level and to maximize the accessibility of courts. Their jurisdiction has been adjusted from time to time to achieve the desired flow of cases. During their relatively short lifetime, these courts have become the workhorses of the Russian judicial system, handling a majority of civil cases, almost all administrative cases, and many low-level criminal cases. Justices of the peace have been able to manage their heavy caseload thanks to procedural innovations that allow straightforward cases to be resolved on the basis of the pleadings, without hearings on the merits.