bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Shy Widow: Black Widow Envenomations
Authors: Eisenstat Matthew
Published: February 2024

Latrodectus (black widow) envenomation, though rarely fatal, is a significant and painful event that emergency physicians should be knowledgeable about and comfortable with treating. Latrodectus species are ubiquitous in the United States and around the world. Bites may be difficult to detect and symptoms may be confused for other etiologies. Symptoms of envenomation include pain locally or systemically, muscle cramping, altered vital signs, nausea, vomiting, and more. Generally, treatment is supportive with pain medications; however, antivenom can be used in cases of refractory pain, hypertensive crisis, priapism, or pregnancy with evidence of fetal distress. Patients with symptoms of envenomation are likely to have resolution of their symptoms in 24–48 hours.
Cancer Caregiving and Meaning: Identity—Before and after Becoming a Cancer Caregiver
Authors: Applebaum Allison J. , Breitbart William S.
Published: February 2024

The second session of Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Cancer Caregivers focuses on the ways that the constructs of identity and meaning are connected. The main goal for Session 2 is to explore the topic of Caregiving and Meaning and the guiding theme, Identity—Before and after Becoming a Cancer Caregiver. Through an exploration of caregivers’ sense of identify before and after assuming the caregiving role, the session highlights the mutable and enduring aspects of identity in the context of caregiving. By the end of Session 2, caregivers will have an understanding of their authentic sense of identity, and the ways their identity has been shaped by caregiving.
Caregiver Workbook
Authors: Applebaum Allison J. , Breitbart William S.
Published: February 2024

The Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Cancer Caregivers (MCP-C) Caregiver Workbook is meant to be used by cancer caregivers engaging in the therapist-guided MCP-C sessions. The workbook provides caregivers with all the tools and handouts that are needed to get the most out of each of the seven sessions of MCP-C, including all seven experiential exercises, as well as handouts to facilitate work on the Self-Care and Legacy Projects. While the material included in the Caregiver Workbook can be helpful when used on its own by caregivers, it is most beneficial to use as a compliment to the sessions provided by MCP-C-trained therapists.
Identifying heavy stellar black holes at cosmological distances with next-generation gravitational-wave observatories
Authors: Fairhurst Stephen , Mills Cameron , Colpi Monica , Schneider Raffaella , Sesana Alberto , Trinca Alessandro , Valiante Rosa
Published: February 2024

We investigate the detectability of single-event coalescing black hole binaries with total mass of $100\!-\!600{\, {\rm {M}}_{\odot }}$ at cosmological distances (5 ≲ z ≲ 20) with the next generation of terrestrial gravitational wave observatories, specifically Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer. Our ability to observe these binaries is limited by the low-frequency performance of the detectors. Higher order multipoles of the gravitational wave signal are observable in these systems, and detection of such multipoles serves to both extend the mass range over which black hole binaries are observable and improve the recovery of their individual masses and redshift. For high-redshift systems of $\sim 200 {\, {\rm {M}}_{\odot }}$ we will be able to confidently infer that the redshift is at least z = 12, and for systems of $\sim 400 {\, {\rm {M}}_{\odot }}$ we can infer a minimum redshift of at least z = 8. We discuss the impact that these observations will have in narrowing uncertainties on the existence of the pair-instability mass gap, and their implications on the formation of the first stellar black holes that could be seeds for the growth of supermassive black holes powering high-z quasars.
A new mass and radius determination of the ultra-short period planet K2-106b and the fluffy planet K2-106c
Authors: Guenther E W , Goffo E , Sebastian D , Smith A M S , Persson C M , Fridlund M , Gandolfi D , Korth J
Published: February 2024

Ultra-short period planets (USPs) have orbital periods of less than 1 d. Since their masses and radii can be determined to a higher precision than long-period planets, they are the preferred targets to determine the density of planets which constrains their composition. The K2-106 system is particularly interesting because it contains two planets of nearly identical masses. One is a high-density USP, the other is a low-density planet that has an orbital period of 13 d. Combining the Gaia DR3 results with new ESPRESSO data allows us to determine the masses and radii of the two planets more precisely than before. We find that the USP K2-106 b has a density consistent with an Earth-like composition, and K2-106 c is a low-density planet that presumably has an extended atmosphere. We measure a radius of $\rm R_p=1.676_{-0.037}^{+0.037}$$\rm R_{{\oplus }}$, a mass of $\rm M_p=7.80_{-0.70}^{+0.71}$M⊕, and a density of $\rm \rho =9.09_{-0.98}^{+0.98}$$\rm g\, cm^{-3}$ for K2-106 b. For K2-106 c, we derive $R_p=2.84_{-0.08}^{+0.10}$$\rm R_{{\oplus }}$, $M_p=7.3_{-2.4}^{+2.5}$$\rm M_{{\oplus }}$, and a density of $\rm \rho = 1.72_{-0.58}^{+0.66}$$\rm g\, cm^{-3}$. We finally discuss the possible structures of the two planets with respect to other low-mass planets.
Serendipitous detection of the dusty Type IIL SN 1980K with JWST/MIRI
Authors: Zsíros Szanna , Szalai Tamás , De Looze Ilse , Sarangi Arkaprabha , Shahbandeh Melissa , Fox Ori D , Temim Tea , Milisavljevic Dan , Van Dyk Schuyler D , Smith Nathan , Filippenko Alexei V , Brink Thomas G , Zheng WeiKang , Dessart Luc , Jencson Jacob , Johansson Joel , Pierel Justin , Rest Armin , Tinyanont Samaporn , Niculescu-Duvaz Maria , Barlow M J , Wesson Roger , Andrews Jennifer , Clayton Geoff , De Kishalay , Dwek Eli , Engesser Michael , Foley Ryan J , Gezari Suvi , Gomez Sebastian , Gonzaga Shireen , Kasliwal Mansi , Lau Ryan , Marston Anthony , O’Steen Richard , Siebert Matthew , Skrutskie Michael , Strolger Lou , Wang Qinan , Williams Brian , Williams Robert , Xiao Lin
Published: February 2024

We present mid-infrared (mid-IR) imaging of the Type IIL supernova (SN) 1980K with the JWST more than 40 yr post-explosion. SN 1980K, located in the nearby (D ≈ 7 Mpc) ‘SN factory’ galaxy NGC 6946, was serendipitously captured in JWST/MIRI images taken of the field of SN 2004et in the same galaxy. SN 1980K serves as a promising candidate for studying the transitional phase between young SNe and older SN remnants and also provides a great opportunity to investigate its the close environment. SN 1980K can be identified as a clear and bright point source in all eight MIRI filters from F560W up to F2550W. We fit analytical dust models to the mid-IR spectral energy distribution that reveal a large amount (Md ≈ 0.002 M⊙) of Si-dominated dust at $T_\rm {dust}\approx 150$ K (accompanied by a hotter dust/gas component), and also computed numerical SED dust models. Radiative transfer modelling of a late-time optical spectrum obtained recently with Keck discloses that an even larger (∼0.24–0.58 M⊙) amount of dust is needed in order for selective extinction to explain the asymmetric line profile shapes observed in SN 1980K. As a conclusion, with JWST, we may see i) pre-existing circumstellar dust heated collisionally (or, partly radiatively), analogous to the equatorial ring of SN 1987A, or ii) the mid-IR component of the presumed newly-formed dust, accompanied by much more colder dust present in the ejecta (as suggested by the late-time the optical spectra).
Upper limits of 44Ti decay emission in four nearby thermonuclear supernova remnants
Authors: Weng Jianbin , Zhou Ping , Perets Hagai B , Wik Daniel R , Chen Yang
Published: February 2024

To identify progenitors and investigate evidence of He burning, we searched for decay radiation of freshly synthesized 44Ti in four young nearby thermonuclear supernova remnants: Kepler, SN 1885, G1.9+0.3, and SN 1006, by analysing the up-to-date NuSTAR archival data. No apparent flux excess from the 68 and 78 keV line emissions accompanying decay was detected above the power-law continuum applied for the remnants and the absorbed stray light. By comparing the inferred upper limits of the line flux and the initial 44Ti masses with a wide variety of supernova nucleosynthesis models, we placed constraints on the supernova progenitors. We derived the first NuSTAR line flux upper limit for Kepler and ruled out most of the double-detonation scenarios with a thick He layer under low density. We estimated, for the first time, the upper limit for SN 1885, which is high because of the large distance, yet still remains consistent with the He shell detonation. The new flux and mass limit of G1.9+0.3 derived from a longer total exposure is lower than the results from previous studies and evidently excludes explosive burning of He-rich matter. The relatively advanced age and the large spatial extent of SN 1006 have prevented meaningful constraints.
The number of nuclei in compacted embryos, assessed by optical coherence microscopy, is a non-invasive and robust marker of mouse embryo quality
Authors: Sobkowiak Aleksandra , Fluks Monika , Kosyl Ewa , Milewski Robert , Szpila Marcin , Tamborski Szymon , Szkulmowski Maciej , Ajduk Anna
Published: February 2024

Optical coherence microscopy (OCM) visualizes nuclei in live, unlabeled cells. As most cells are uninucleated, the number of nuclei in embryos may serve as a proxy of the cell number, providing important information on developmental status of the embryo. Importantly, no other non-invasive method currently allows for the cell number count in compacted embryos. We addressed the question of whether OCM, by providing the number of nuclei in compacted mouse embryos, may help evaluate embryo quality. We subjected compacted embryonic Day 3 (E3.0: 72 h after onset of insemination) mouse embryos to OCM scanning and correlated nuclei number and developmental potential. Implantation was assessed using an outgrowth assay (in vitro model meant to reflect embryonic ability to implant in vivo). Embryos with more cells at E3.0 (>18 cells) were more likely to reach the blastocyst stage by E4.0 and E5.0 (P ≪ 0.001) and initiate hatching by E5.0 (P < 0.05) than those with fewer cells (<12 cells). Moreover, the number of cells at E3.0 strongly correlated with the total number of cells in E4.0 and E5.0 embryos (ρ = 0.71, P ≪ 0.001 and ρ = 0.61, P ≪ 0.001, respectively), also when only E4.0 and E5.0 blastocysts were considered (ρ = 0.58, P ≪ 0.001 and ρ = 0.56, P ≪ 0.001, respectively). Additionally, we observed a strong correlation between the number of cells at E3.0 and the number of trophectoderm cells in E4.0 and E5.0 blastocysts (ρ = 0.59, P ≪ 0.001 and ρ = 0.57, P ≪ 0.001, respectively). Importantly, embryos that had more cells at E3.0 (>18 cells) were also more likely to implant in vitro than their counterparts with fewer cells (<12 cells; P ≪ 0.001). Finally, we tested the safety of OCM imaging, demonstrating that OCM scanning affected neither the amount of reactive oxygen species nor mitochondrial activity in the embryos. OCM also did not hinder their preimplantation development, ability to implant in vitro, or to develop to term after transfer to recipient females. Our data indicate that OCM imaging provides important information on embryo quality. As the method seems to be safe for embryos, it could be a valuable addition to the current repertoire of embryo evaluation methods. However, our study was conducted only on mouse embryos, so the proposed protocol would require optimization in order to be applied in other species.
Relative survival in patients with cancer and kidney failure
Authors: Oliveras Laia , Rosales Brenda Maria , De La Mata Nicole , Vajdic Claire M , Montero Nuria , Cruzado Josep M , Webster Angela C
Published: February 2024

Background

The population with kidney failure is at increased risk of cancer and associated mortality. Relative survival can provide insight into the excess mortality, directly or indirectly, attributed to cancer in the population with kidney failure.

Methods

We estimated relative survival for people all ages receiving dialysis (n = 4089) and kidney transplant recipients (n = 3253) with de novo cancer, and for the general population with cancer in Australia and New Zealand (n = 3 043 166) over the years 1980–2019. The entire general population was the reference group for background mortality, adjusted for sex, age, calendar year and country. We used Poisson regression to quantify excess mortality ratios.

Results

Five-year relative survival for all-site cancer was markedly lower than that for the general population for people receiving dialysis [0.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.23–0.26] and kidney transplant recipients (0.55, 95% CI 0.53–0.57). In dialysis, excess mortality was more than double (2.16, 95% CI 2.08–2.25) that of the general population with cancer and for kidney transplant recipients 1.34 times higher (95% CI 1.27–2.41). There was no difference in excess mortality from lung cancer between people with kidney failure and the general population with cancer. Comparatively, there was a significant survival deficit for people with kidney failure, compared with the general population with cancer, for melanoma, breast cancer and prostate cancers.

Conclusion

Decreased cancer survival in kidney failure may reflect differences in multi-morbidity burden, reduced access to treatment, or greater harm from or reduced efficacy of treatments. Our findings support research aimed at investigating these hypotheses.
Palliative Care Interventions and End-of-Life Care for Patients with Metastatic Breast Cancer: A Multicentre Analysis
Authors: Lucchi Elisabeth , Berger Frédérique , Milder Maude , Commer Jean-Marie , Morin Sophie , Capodano Geraldine , Thomaso Muriel , Fogliarini Anne , Bremaud Nathalie , Henry Aline , Mastroianni Benedicte , Chvetzoff Gisele , Bouleuc Carole
Published: February 2024

Background

The aim of this study was to describe the implementation of integrated palliative care (PC) and the intensity of care in the last 3 months before death for patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Materials and Methods

We conducted a multicentric study of all adult patients with metastatic breast cancer who died over a 4-month period. Complete data were collected and checked from clinical records, including PC interventions and criteria regarding EOL care aggressiveness.

Results

A total of 340 decedent patients from 12 comprehensive cancer centres in France were included in the study. Sixty-five percent met the PC team with a median time of 39 days between the first intervention and death. In the last month before death, 11.5% received chemotherapy, the frequency of admission to intensive care unit was 2.4%, and 83% experienced acute hospitalization. The place of death was home for 16.7%, hospitalization for 63.3%, PC unit for 20%. Univariate and multivariate analyses showed factors independently associated with a higher frequency of chemotherapy in the last month before death: having a dependent person at home, meeting for the first time with a PC team < 30 days before death, and time between the first metastasis and death below the median.

Conclusion

PC team integration was frequent and late for patients with metastatic breast cancer. However, PC intervention > 30 days is associated with less chemotherapy in the last month before death. Further studies are needed to better understand how to implement a more effective mode of PC integration for patients with metastatic breast cancer.
Austrian Venice, 1815–1866
Authors: Romano Dennis
Published: February 2024

The construction of the railway bridge linking Venice to the mainland is symptomatic of the radical changes that Venice faced in the nineteenth century, one of the most momentous periods in the city’s history. The bridge points to the major trends of the time, including the growing heavy industrialization of the city, the increasing popularity of tourism, debates over historic conservation versus restoration, and Venice’s uncertain relationship to the emerging Italian nation-state. In a revolt against their Austrian overlords, the Venetians looked both back to their old Republic and forward to unification with Italy but could not overcome the centuries-old city/terraferma divide. Venice captured the Romantic imagination as a place of disease, decay, and death; and the lagoon and water took on new significance as an obstacle to be overcome with bridges and the infilling of canals. In 1866 Venice became part of the Kingdom of Italy.
Jerusalem through the Ages
Authors: Magness Jodi
Published: February 2024

What makes Jerusalem special? Why is it sacred to billions of followers of the three Abrahamic faiths worldwide? What drew the first inhabitants to this spot, and how did it become one of the most contested places on earth? Jerusalem Through the Ages answers these and other questions as it tells Jerusalem’s story from its beginnings to the Middle Ages. Each chapter focuses on a key moment of transition in the city’s long and turbulent history, enabling readers to experience Jerusalem’s many transformations as it changed hands and populations—Jebusites and Canaanites, Israelites and Judahites, Greeks and Romans, Jews and Christians, Muslims, and Crusaders.
Judahite Jerusalem (587 bce)
Authors: Magness Jodi
Published: February 2024

This chapter focuses on Jerusalem one year before the Babylonians destroyed the city and Solomon’s temple and exiled the inhabitants. After Solomon’s death, the United Kingdom had split into two: the kingdom of Israel in the north, with its capital (eventually) at Samaria; and the southern kingdom of Judah, with its capital at Jerusalem. In 722 bce, the kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrian Empire and its inhabitants were sent into exile. Jerusalem’s population exploded as refugees from the northern kingdom poured into the city, creating a new suburb on the southwestern hill. Two decades later the Assyrians besieged but did not take Jerusalem, which had been provisioned in advance by king Hezekiah with a new wall and water system.
Roman Jerusalem (Aelia Capitolina) (200 ce)
Authors: Magness Jodi
Published: February 2024

Jewish hopes of rebuilding the temple were crushed when the emperor Hadrian announced plans to refound Jerusalem as a pagan Roman city named Aelia Capitolina, with a temple on the Temple Mount dedicated to the city’s new patron deity, Capitoline Jupiter. Hadrian’s announcement sparked the outbreak of a Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (132–135 ce), which ended disastrously for the Jews. Hadrian established Aelia Capitolina as planned, banned Jews from the city and its environs, and changed the name of the province from Judea to Syria-Palestina. Aelia Capitolina displays features typical of Roman city planning, including a grid created by intersecting north-south and east-west streets and forums with public buildings such as basilicas.
Latinizing Milton in the English West Indies
Authors: Mennis Katie
Published: February 2024

This chapter discusses Thomas Power’s Latin translation of Paradise Lost in ways that highlight the impression that place can have on language. After publishing book 1 of his translation in Cambridge in 1691, Power travelled to the English West Indies to preach in Bermuda, Antigua, and Nevis from 1693 until his early death in 1698. This chapter shows that Power continued to translate Paradise Lost into Latin after his voyage, completing his translation in manuscripts. From book 2 onwards, colonial discourse becomes central to Power’s reading of Paradise Lost and, as the translation develops this discourse, the significance of Latin as its medium is transformed. The translation prioritizes three key Miltonic themes—vision, divine accommodation, and colonialism—mediated by Power’s reading and citation of Augustine. An awareness of Power’s context in the English West Indies enables us to see a different side to Latin translation, as an imperial venture.
The Bering Sea Fur Seal Arbitration—The Lawyers Try, But Fail, to Save the Seals
Authors: Crook John R
Published: February 2024

In 1893, the United States and the United Kingdom resorted to international arbitration to resolve a bitter dispute triggered by US arrests of Canadian vessels hunting fur seals at sea in the North Pacific. The fashion industry’s demand for seal furs had led to extensive pelagic hunting that threatened the seal herd’s survival. The United States claimed rights to protect the seals, which summered and gave birth to their young on the US-owned Pribilof Islands, partly based on misunderstandings regarding historic Russian rights thought to have been acquired with the US purchase of Alaska. The arbitration tribunal rejected these US claims to jurisdiction and its invitation to develop nineteenth-century international law to protect a threatened species. While the tribunal ruled for the United Kingdom, it also exercised an unusual power to devise its own regime intended to preserve the seals. The tribunal’s regime, proclaimed without a sound scientific foundation, failed and pelagic sealing increased. As the seal population neared collapse, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States agreed in 1911 on the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention, a landmark in the development of international law for the protection of living resources.
Apuleius in European Literature
Authors: Harrison Stephen , May Regine
Published: February 2024

The Latin romance of Cupid and Psyche by Apuleius (second century ce), in which the god of love falls in love with a mortal princess, is one of the most charming, sophisticated, and durable love stories from the Greco-Roman world. It has had a particularly rich reception in literature since the Renaissance. This study is the first to provide an overview of its influence in European literature since 1650, showing its particular importance in the France of Louis XIV, in the Germany of Goethe, and especially in literature in English, and its close connection with the development of the European genres of novel and fairy tale.
Cupid and Psyche, Decadence, and Fairy Tales, 1885–1905
Authors: Harrison Stephen , May Regine
Published: February 2024

The famous fairy-tale-style version of the ‘Cupid and Psyche’ story in Walter Pater’s Marius the Epicurean (1885), closely examined here, was not only a major motivation for the 1890s fairy stories of Oscar Wilde, but also an influence on the ‘Dutch Oscar Wilde’, the major novelist Louis Couperus, who in 1898 wrote a full and interestingly fantastic version of the ‘Cupid and Psyche’ story entitled Psyche. C&P is thus central to British Decadence, and leaves further traces in continental Decadence in the work of J. K. Huysmans and Gabriele D’Annunzio. Another British strand in this period is the work of Andrew and Nora Lang, which combined the early anthropology of the folk tale with the presentation of stories for children, both important for C&P as they presented it.
(Un)thinking Philosophy
Authors: Allen-Paisant Jason
Published: February 2024

Energized by the introduction’s notes and aphorisms that set up the book’s philosophical parameters, this chapter is concerned with the place of poetry in and as philosophy, locating the inspirations for this line of thought in the work of Césaire, which, as the chapter explains, is engaged, not just in thinking knowledge, but more broadly, Western philosophy’s apparatus of what it means to be a thinking being: Césaire’s work is engaged in a praxis of thinking thinking. His concern with an African metaphysics of ‘poetry’—involving the relationship between poetry and spirit—and the question of what it contributes to philosophy, and more particularly to epistemology, takes on pressing importance in the light of colonialism, whose domination is predicated on the hegemonic disruption and erasure of indigenous knowledges. Through his re-evaluation of Western epistemology, Césaire shows that what is at stake in African/diasporic, and indeed planetary, futures, is a radical reframing of the category of philosophy and the possibility of an alternative relation to objects. The issue of coloniality’s imbrication in a Western ontology of objects takes on amplified importance in the light of current capitalist crises, including ecological collapse.
Possession as Paradigm of Consciousness
Authors: Allen-Paisant Jason
Published: February 2024

Pursuing the reflection on spirit and poetry, this chapter particularizes Césaire’s views on poetry through the lens of spirit possession. It shows how spirit possession offers a philosophical paradigm through which Césaire challenges the narrative of European humanism, anchoring Négritude in an alternative, decolonial sense of what it means to be human. Articulating a view of humanness that connects the world of ancient Greece to that of Haitian Vodou, Césaire’s theorization of ‘poetry’ (as a mode of knowledge, engagement, and production that involves energy exchanges and human participation in the living world) brings useful perspectives to current debates surrounding capitalist crises, ecological collapse, and epistemic freedom. Through the links the chapter makes between ‘spirit’, ‘poiesis’, and ‘animism’ here, it expands understandings of Césaire’s work and Négritude. From a weak iteration of Pan-Africanism or strong senses of diaspora, the latter is reframed as a deep poetic sensibility with its own metaphysics and ethical commitment to earth and land, and their entanglement with Being.
The Religion of the Ṛgveda
Authors: Oberlies Thomas
Published: February 2024

This comprehensive new presentation of the religion of the Ṛgveda is the result of an attempt to extrapolate historical circumstances from that literary text and present them chiefly from the perspective of the adherents to this religion. Many aspects of this religion that remained largely untreated until now are explored in depth by focusing on the interplay of societal organisation, religious concepts, and the structure and purpose of rituals and rites. Just as the way of life among the Vedic tribes alternates between peaceful settling and predatory raids, so too their power structures take widely varying forms (monoarchic versus an- or polyarchic), and different gods come to the fore in these different phases. Which rituals are to be performed at what times is also influenced by these fluctuations. The rituals are carried out by ‘priests’ embodying the gods of the Rigvedic pantheon. Here we encounter particular associations—such as that of the war god Indra with the priest who recites the hymns inviting the gods—that help us solve many of the riddles that the text still poses to this day. Out of what has been called the ‘Vedic haze’ in which the poets envelop the visions that they put into words, the picture emerges of a religion that reflects their society and its institutions.
The Ṛgveda
Authors: Oberlies Thomas
Published: February 2024

The text of the Ṛgveda consists of 1,028 hymns, short poems of mostly eight to twelve stanzas. Also referred to as songs, they are crafted according to a highly developed tradition of poetry and metre and are arranged in the Ṛgveda according to the family membership of the poets who composed them. Significantly, this chapter notes the relationship of Ṛgvedic hymns to the poetry of other old Indo-European languages, such as the Old Norse Edda and texts of classical antiquity. A comparison of these sources reveals many parallels, providing insights that point to what are possibly aspects of an Indo-European poetry. The strong ties of the Ṛgveda to the Old Avestan texts of Zoroastrianism are highlighted.
The Indo-European Religion
Authors: Oberlies Thomas
Published: February 2024

This chapter examines religious elements that can be reconstructed for an Indo-European period based on a comparison of the Ṛgveda with other ancient Indo-European texts. It is possible to reconstruct a number of individual deities that very likely already existed as part of an Indo-European religious tradition. The inherited deities are not merely marginal entities but include important participants of the pantheon such as a Father Sky, the Dragon Slayer, the Divine Twins, and others. When the Vedic tribes first set foot in India, they brought with them religious views and cultic forms that were closely related to those of the people who would later become Zoroastrians, enshrining as they did a number of gods, myths and forms of worship very like those in the Avesta, the holy texts of Zoroastrianism.
Myths
Authors: Oberlies Thomas
Published: February 2024

Myths, defined as traditional tales that are authoritative within the society that shares them, supply information about the gods, including their relationships and conflicts. In the central myth of the Rigveda, reflecting the significance of martial life in the Ṛgvedic society, a battle between gods portrays the foundation of the contemporary world; a clash that marks the caesura between this world and prehistory. The war is waged between the Asuras, primeval gods of the prevailing chaos which had made life impossible, and the gods who conquered and disempowered them. When the victors come into power the world is created, with some parts of it emerging from (some parts of) the defeated gods—for example, heaven—while other parts are pushed aside to the marginal areas of the world where they abide at a safe distance from (Vedic) society, which emerges in the centre of the world. Handed down in various versions, this cosmogonic myth—interwoven with an ancient myth about the succession of power—is also political, in that it tells of the (present-day) conquest of lands for settlement, noting that the war-god Indra, for example, is incarnated in the leader of the tribe.
Julio-Claudian Emperors as Fathers and Sons
Authors: Cowan Eleanor
Published: February 2024

The Julio-Claudian family came to be represented as a dynasty in which members of the domus of Augustus (men and women, adults and children) were ideologically and iconographically important. This chapter examines two sets of representations within this wider web of relationships: the emperor as father and the emperor as son. It argues that potent and powerful images of the emperor as good father and dutiful son were central to the emerging language of power and legitimacy in the early Principate, but that they also prompted and informed a critical assessment of each of the Julio-Claudian emperors as ‘bad father’ and ‘bad son’. These representations of the emperor as father and as son drew on long-standing ideas about fathers and sons at Rome, but were given particular impetus at a time when the emperor was also being represented as father of all, pater patriae. Representing an emperor as a good or bad father, therefore, had implications for the community as a whole.
Roman Emperors in Montesquieu’s Considerations
Authors: Malik Shushma
Published: February 2024

In his Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence (1734, rev. 1748), the French political philosopher Montesquieu presented his theory concerning the decline and fall of the Roman empire. For a while, Rome maintained its greatness through prudence and audacity in war, and through impeccable statecraft. However, once Augustus instituted the system of the Principate, Rome irreversibly lost its spirit of greatness. Although extremely well versed in a range of ancient sources (both Latin and Greek), Montesquieu uses evidence with such a high level of selectivity that his emperors became essentially unrecognizable to those with any knowledge of Roman imperial history. This chapter explores how and why Montesquieu chose Tacitean style over ancient content to create his version of the Roman empire. It argues that Considérations serves his broader philosophical purpose as a warning about absolute monarchy. This is conditioned by Montesquieu’s context and seventeenth-to-eighteenth century French imperialism.
Fictions of Power
Authors: Scourfield J. H. D.
Published: February 2024

Unlike their most famous nineteenth-century counterparts, in which the protagonists are fictional, many of the most distinguished ‘Roman’ historical novels of the twentieth century centre on Roman emperors or closely related figures. This chapter explores two notable examples, both written in the United States in the period after the Second World War: Thornton Wilder’s The Ides of March (1948) and John Williams’s Augustus (1972). Unusually cast in a documentary mode that reflects but goes beyond the tradition of the epistolary novel, both works present a broad range of predominantly fictional material, mimicking the manner of a historical sourcebook. Highlighting the challenges delivered by the form, content, and arrangement of these novels to our understanding of (Roman) history and particularly to notions of historicity and fictionality, the chapter examines their representations of Julius Caesar in the last seven months of his life (Wilder) and Augustus over a period of almost sixty years (Williams). Together, it is argued, the novels offer a varied set of perspectives on the central theme of power and, in their common recognition that nothing can be known for certain, present an essentially anti-teleological view of history, emerging less as instances of historical storytelling than as vehicles for philosophical exploration.
Epilogue
Authors: Grosescu Raluca
Published: February 2024

This chapter summarizes the book’s findings and discusses their implication for research on international criminal law (ICL). It argues that semi-peripheries of the global system—such as Latin America and Central Eastern Europe—are central to contestations and reformulations of hegemonic readings of this body of law. Legal actors from such regions often adapt ICL to the national and regional contexts of specific mass atrocities, because such traumatic pasts have been ignored or even intentionally left out of the scope of ICL during international negotiations. Rather than a harmful phenomenon, such reinterpretations can be seen as transformative visions that contribute to the gradual development of a more inclusive ICL. The chapter also highlights how the education, political values, and visions of legal actors about dictatorial pasts impacted their understanding—and thus their transformation—of different norms and principles. Such a sociological approach offers a better understanding of how law functions and how it is systematically fashioned and refashioned at the intersection of history, political decision-making, and the subjective attitudes of those involved in these processes. Finally, the chapter calls for more ethnographic and cultural research alongside the analysis of the jurisprudence as a way to fully understand how judicial officials and justice activists employ and understand international law across the globe.
De Systematibus Civitatum
Authors: Holland Ben
Published: February 2024

This chapter investigates Pufendorf’s concept of systema civitatum or ‘system of states’. The chapter illuminates the concept by excavating it in several contexts. First, it examines the evolution of the term in Pufendorf’s own writings, from his early dissertations on systems of states and irregular states to the posthumously published second edition of his analysis of the Holy Roman Empire. Second, this evolution is plotted against the background of Pufendorf’s conceptual innovations that enabled such an extension, namely, his application of a composite model of human decision-making at the level of what he would call the ‘moral person’ of the state. Third, Pufendorf’s writings on systems of states are discussed in the light of the international political situation in Europe. Fourth, and finally, the chapter turns briefly to the twentieth century and the appropriation of Pufendorf’s concept of a system of states in the theory of international relations.
Between Voters and Eurocrats
Authors: Karremans Johannes
Published: February 2024

How do governments justify their budgets towards the national parliament? Are their socioeconomic policies shaped more by electoral pressures or by institutional constraints? This book presents a framework and methodology for studying these questions. Based on theories of democratic legitimacy, the book argues that if governments temporarily pursue unpopular policies with the justification that they need to be fiscally responsible, in subsequent years they need to become more responsive again to domestic socioeconomic demands in order to maintain the trust of citizens. The recent crises faced by European countries have repeatedly evoked the impression that European economic governance constrains governments’ ability to be responsive to domestic demands. Presuming that during the years of the sovereign debt crisis fiscal discipline was the main imperative for national budgetary policy in the eurozone, this book raises the question whether there was a return to responsiveness in subsequent years, or whether instead this return was prevented by European budgetary rules. This question is investigated in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The empirical evidence shows that fiscal responsibility was indeed the dominant criterion for decision-making during the years of the sovereign debt crisis, but declined progressively from 2014 onwards, with responsiveness gradually becoming a more prominent criterion. The findings thus show that European economic governance per se has not cancelled out the mechanisms by which governments maintain a balance between institutional responsibility and democratic responsiveness.
Working with a disease or disability
Authors: Siegrist Johannes , Li Jian
Published: February 2024

How does impaired health affect people’s opportunities of continuing their employment? In this chapter essential information on work trajectories following chronic disease or disability is provided. We start by considering serious conditions that result in early exit from paid work, with a focus on socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. This part is followed by an illustration of the diversity of work trajectories among employed people who return to work. To this end, three scenarios are presented, exemplified by three disorders: job continuity (acute myocardial infarction), job change (spinal cord injury), and job instability (depression). Within each scenario, important psychosocial aspects of re-adaptation and sustainable development are emphasized. Moreover, different models of professional support are discussed, with a focus on evidence of their efficacy. In summary, the chapter documents the bi-directionality of associations between work and health, and it familiarizes readers with concepts and new metrics required to analyse the complexities of these associations.
Modes of Consenting
Authors: Goodin Robert E.
Published: February 2024

This chapter considers five distinct modes of consenting and to what extent each of them can be considered genuinely morally transformative. They are: (1) explicit consent; (2) tacit consent which can reasonably be inferred, sometimes from the ‘nature of the business’ at hand; (3) presumed consent, best in cases of on-going activities or where people are ‘on notice’, explicitly or customarily, that consent will be inferred from silence; (4) consent that is implicit, logically or pragmatically; and (5) consent that ‘ought to’ be given, even if it has not actually been given. It is decreasingly credible that consent has genuinely been given, or ought to be considered morally transformative, the further you go down that list.
Consent by Extension
Authors: Goodin Robert E.
Published: February 2024

Many failed attempts have tried to tie the obligation to obey the law from consent. This chapter explores three more, all of which also fail. One is to derive implicit consent from the ‘nature of the business’ of either politicians standing for office or voters casting ballots. A second asserts a logical entailment between engaging in a collective decision procedure and the outcome of that procedure constituting a binding collective decision (‘a collective decision’ may be analytic, whether morally binding is a wholly separate question). Neither does consent to lower-order rules necessarily logically imply consent to higher-order rules. At most consenting to something becoming law by voting in an election or a legislature may pragmatically imply consent to the institutional infrastructure required to make that law-on-the-ground.
Constitutional Courts and the Exceptionality of Regime Change
Authors: Yam Julius
Published: February 2024

This chapter challenges two common ways of understanding constitutional courts in transitional regimes—the Descriptive View and the Normative View. The Descriptive View describes constitutional courts as active participants in transitional politics, while the Normative View suggests that successful transition requires constitutional courts taking up a democracy-building role. The chapter argues that both have failed to properly account for the exceptionality of regime change. The exceptional nature of transitions suggests that there is tremendous diversity among the paths of transitional regimes, patterns of constitutional politics, and courts’ involvement during transitional periods. The fact that courts are operating in transitional regimes tells us very little about their actual judicial roles. The exceptional nature of transitional regimes also has normative implications. The chapter contends that the exceptionality of regime change can potentially work against judicial intervention. Exceptionality, in and of itself, is not a justification for a stronger judicial role. It is argued that there are situations where it is, in fact, desirable for courts to stay out of transitional politics.
The Impact of COVID-19
Authors: Grogan Joelle
Published: February 2024

This chapter reflects on whether the COVID-19 crisis has served as a catalyst for deeper commitment to constitutional consolidation and proof of the resilience of democratic institutions in Asia and Africa or as a means of furthering democratic decay and deconsolidation. It traces the central themes, questions, and issues raised by the case studies as regards the measures adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It connects this with an examination of whether the predicted dangers of the abuse of emergency powers took place and whether countries were successful in limiting the potential for abuse, as well as preventing or sanctioning it. It considers the degree to which constitutional limits on the use of emergency powers during a pandemic, as well as provisions for parliamentary oversight and judicial scrutiny, have provided an effective safeguard against the abuse or misuse of power during pandemic among the case studies.
Prospects for Democratic Consolidation in The Gambia
Authors: Nabaneh Satang
Published: February 2024

After 22 years of uninterrupted authoritarian government headed by Yahya Jammeh, in 2017, The Gambia formally began the transition to democracy after the ‘unprecedented’ 2016 presidential elections. Incumbents in semi-competitive authoritarian regimes often retain power despite having to regularly compete in multiparty elections. What happened in The Gambia is the first time in post-colonial Africa’s political history that a ‘military-turned-civilian’ dictator lost an election. This transition sparks a key question: what are the prospects for democratic consolidation and constitution endurance in the Gambian case? While conventional assumptions categorised The Gambia as a ‘least likely’ case, it is argued that there is a fair chance for democratic consolidation, given The Gambia’s context of the withering of an authoritarian regime and its replacement by a democratic government. This chapter gives an overview of the constitutional change processes, the role of governing and judicial institutions, and the influence of entrenched political culture on democratic constitutional performance after more than two decades of autocratic rule.
Ethiopia’s Transition
Authors: Abebe Adem Kassie
Published: February 2024

This chapter describes and interrogates the (hopes for) transition to democracy in Ethiopia that was set off by the protest-induced reshuffle within the ruling party in April 2018 (mainly up to October 2020). In addition to describing the main issues, actors, and reforms in the transition, the chapter outlines some insights relevant to policy and scholarly understanding of political transitions and constitutional design. The chapter observes that the transition not only failed to deliver democracy, but it has also degenerated into civil war, necessitating a more confounding double transition from conflict to peace and to democracy. The chapter highlights the importance of constitutional arrangements even in authoritarian settings, the need to build a coalition of democracy to backstop a transition and ameliorate inherent vulnerabilities to conflict, and the criticality of reforms outside the legal and constitutional framework. The chapter concludes with observations on the magnetic pool of a socio-political tradition of authoritarianism in stalling, and even reversing and worsening, democratic and constitutional transitions.
Making Progress on a Rocky Path
Authors: Vern Wilson Tay Tze
Published: February 2024

This chapter examines the significance of Malaysia’s ‘regime change’ in the general election of 2018 and its tumultuous aftermath. It contextualises the ‘regime-change event’ within the ethnocentric landscape of Malaysian politics, setting out the prelude to the landmark events of 2018. This chapter also explains why the driving forces behind the watershed moment of 2018 were able to make only limited reforms at best and ultimately lost their grasp on power altogether. Nonetheless, this analysis argues that despite the appearance of the ‘old guard’ having returned to power, the Malaysian political landscape has been altered in profound and long-lasting ways which bring Malaysia closer towards genuine multiparty democracy. Constitutional mechanisms for a transition of power at federal level have been successfully tested and developed, marking further steps in the country’s path towards a mature democracy. Most importantly, the political crises that have rocked Malaysia in recent years have served to underscore the resilience of constitutional democracy and institutions in the country. The practices and principles of constitutional democracy has been severely tested by the political turmoil of 2018–2021 and the concurrent onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia, and have held firm. There are grounds for cautious optimism as we look to the future.
Pikins
Authors: Fields-Black Edda L.
Published: February 2024

This chapter discusses how the rice that held the Lowcountry aristocracy together is what simultaneously threatened to destroy it. It describes the hydraulic irrigation system that nourished the rice fields and generated a commercial industry, but also produced ideal breeding places for mosquitoes and mosquito-borne illness. It also cites Charles Ball’s memoir of slavery, which implies how no “stranger” could spend a week in a rice swamp during the summer months without falling ill. The chapter describes the good deal of fever and malaria and chills on Paul’s Place Plantation, where Old Head Andrew Wyatt worked as plowman and field hand. It mentions apologists for slavery that used the notion that Blacks were immune to fevers and agues as a justification for enslaving them.