bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Military Reform in Imperial Iran
Authors: Ansari Ali M.
Published: December 2024

This paper looks at attempts to reform the Iranian military in the nineteenth century, focusing on the various approaches and the debate as to whether military reform might catalyze wider state reform or, as some European advisors argued, that political and economic reform had to underpin and support the modernization of the military. The paper charts the attempts of Abbas Mirza to impose reform, the challenges he faced, both foreign and domestic, the failure of that reform, and the ultimate decision by the end of the nineteenth century to adopt foreign officered military establishments, principally the Russian-backed Cossack Brigade, which became the principle military force in the country through the Great War. The paper argues that the failure to reform the military reflected wider political failures and was not a reflection of instinctive martial failure. On the contrary, European observers repeatedly applauded the aptitude of Iran’s military to adopt new techniques, not least the new science of artillery.
Diplomatic Encounters between Qing China and the West
Authors: Wang Wensheng
Published: December 2024

This chapter delves into China’s diplomatic interactions with European powers during the final imperial dynasty, the Qing. It commences by exploring deep-rooted traditional beliefs in the Chinese state’s universal authority and its global relations, as exemplified by the Sino-centric tributary system. It further dissects the predominant spatial framework centered around this system and its main features. From the sixteenth century onward, Western powers began employing a mix of diplomacy and military endeavors to gain economic and political access to China. This chapter traces a sequence of such initiatives, with a particular focus on the Macartney embassy of 1793, marking the first concerted effort by a European power to establish an equal relationship with China. The intensifying Western incursions, both during and after the two Opium Wars, destabilized the underpinnings of the traditional Chinese world order hinged on the tributary system. This turbulent period witnessed an unprecedented wave of diplomatic experimentation, including the establishment of the Zongli Yamen and a notable shift in Chinese diplomatic emphasis from continental affairs to maritime concerns. While forging new diplomatic ties with Western powers via treaty ports, the late Qing regime also adapted its tributary relationships with the remaining vassal states. This dual-track diplomatic approach enabled the declining empire to better navigate the exceptional array of geopolitical challenges posed by an increasingly intricate global and regional landscape.
Qajar Iran’s Global Diplomacy
Authors: Chehabi H. E.
Published: December 2024

Beginning the early nineteenth century, Iran under the new Qajar dynasty was embroiled in European diplomacy because of its geographic location between Russia and British India. As a buffer state, it was able to remain sovereign, maintain a diplomatic presence on the world scene, and sign treaties with other powers. Most importantly, it settled old conflicts with the Ottoman Empire, which in some ways became a role model because it was a fellow Muslim state. Over the course of the nineteenth century, Iran established legations and consulates around the world, by the early twentieth century even in South America. But the state remained weak, and dissatisfaction with the way the country was governed exploded in the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which was followed by a civil war. With the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 Iran was divided into zones of influence. The country’s sovereignty was further undermined when Russians and Ottomans fought on Iranian territory in the First World War. The government attempted to attend the Versailles conference to obtain reparations, but the Iranian delegation was not allowed to participate. Through astute maneuvering, however, the Iranian diplomats in Europe managed to extract guarantees for Iran’s sovereignty from the powers, culminating in an invitation to become a member of the League of Nations.
Ethiopia’s Monarchy and European Imperial Domination
Authors: Orlowska Izabela
Published: December 2024

This chapter sheds light on how the Ethiopian monarchy reinvented itself and adopted symbolic forms and political spectacle to re-establish strong imperial power at the time of European colonial expansion. It further addresses how, in the same period, this African government engaged with Western powers and managed to maintain sovereignty. The chapter further illustrates how in the process of dealing with internal challenges, Ethiopia opened up to modernity recognizing the technological advances it had to offer and embracing the necessary changes it demanded. It pays particular attention to how familiar symbols were channeled to fit Western patterns as well as convey authenticity and longevity of the Ethiopian statehood. From Western-type clothing, new gender conventions, or Western-style magazines to the Constitution, changes introduced served the purpose of “catching up” and creating the international language of diplomacy acceptable to the Western world.
Siam’s Monarchy and European Imperialism
Authors: Jory Patrick
Published: December 2024

Alone among the kingdoms of Southeast Asia, Siam famously avoided colonization in the second half of the nineteenth century. Despite this, however, historians tend to regard this period as one of “Westernization.” Yet within Siamese society a process of economic transformation had already begun prior to European encroachment in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. As this process accelerated during the Age of Empire, Siam’s courtly class took on a more bourgeois character in such areas as dress, manners, speech, social and gender relations, religious belief, and courtly ritual. What is commonly understood as “Westernization” should thus better be understood as the bourgeoisification of Siamese society in which the Siamese were active agents.
Closing the Moroccan Question
Authors: Roslington James
Published: December 2024

The downfall of the Sultanate of Morocco, described in the European press as the “Sick Man of the West,” was long prophesied by Western policy-makers. Yet Morocco was not inevitably doomed to lose its independence. From the mid-nineteenth century, Moroccan diplomats were active participants in the so-called Moroccan Question, seeking to maintain the sultanate’s sovereignty by playing rival European states off against each other. In the face of external pressures, Moroccan diplomats successfully maintained their country’s independence by cultivating bilateral relations with European states. However, a series of policy missteps under Sultan ‘Abd al-Aziz led to a contingent crisis in 1901–1905, culminating in an ill-fated attempt at multilateral diplomacy at the Algeciras Conference in 1906. European states closed ranks at Algeciras, setting in train the closing of the Moroccan Question and ultimately the surrender of Moroccan independence in 1912.
Belief as Emotion
Authors: McCormick Miriam Schleifer
Published: December 2024

Belief as Emotion argues that belief is a type of emotion, where emotions are understood as irreducibly blended states that transcend the cognitive/non-cognitive divide. On this view, to believe is to feel that the way one represents the world is accurate and this feeling is a kind of evaluation. This view helps explain a number of puzzling phenomena in epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, and philosophy of religion. Further, thinking of beliefs as emotions helps us to understand the ethics of belief. It offers a better understanding of what are sometimes called “edge cases” of beliefs, ones that seem belief-like but that are hard to fit into most standard pictures of belief. These include delusions, religious and political attitudes, and belief in the context of trust. The view also illuminates the phenomena of self-deception, implicit bias, and deep disagreement. Ideal emotional maintenance is complex; thinking of beliefs as emotions acknowledges and embraces this complexity of our doxastic lives.
Belief as a Blended State
Authors: McCormick Miriam Schleifer
Published: December 2024

This chapter explains what it means for belief to be an emotion—namely, an irreducibly blended state—showing how beliefs satisfy widely accepted criteria of emotions, and argues that a number of prominent theories of emotions can accommodate beliefs as emotions. It is argued that to believe is to feel something is accurate, just as to fear is to feel something is dangerous. The chapter also explores the implications of this view and addresses common concerns about it, especially concerning seeming differences between beliefs and emotions. Once it is recognized that beliefs are evaluative in the same way as other emotions, these seeming differences dissolve. The chapter ends by considering how three distinct theories of emotion—neo-judgmentalist theories, perceptual theories, and attitudinal theories—would characterize beliefs as emotions.
Chronic diseases
Authors: Dye Christopher
Published: December 2024

Many consumers of tobacco, sugar and other causes of chronic diseases are trapped in a world of limited options (nothing but junk food), hard choices (tobacco addiction) and few resources (economic hardship), temporarily eased by postponing (discounting) the personal costs of future illness. Consumers are ultimately responsible for ‘behavioural’ risks to their health, but the behaviours in question are also those of manufacturers and governments. The burden of choice on consumers is lighter when shared. Governments, in particular, have the means to intervene between commercial supply and consumer demand. The most effective instruments of government are the most forceful—taxes and regulations—especially for the control of single, major causes of illness such as tobacco and sugar. In practice, governments under pressure from manufacturers tend to under-tax and under-regulate harmful commodities, so other enticements are needed too. Empirical studies show that campaigns to improve health (better food choices, greater physical activity) can complement those to prevent disease, especially when the joint benefits for health are large. The greater task, however, is to empower public demand for government action that favours health, and disempower commercial interests that drive the consumption of sugar, tobacco, and other causes of chronic disease.
Future positive
Authors: Dye Christopher
Published: December 2024

This book explores ways to resolve one of humanity’s most enduring dilemmas: whether to invest in staying healthy (‘prevention’ in the larger sense, both protecting and improving health) or take a chance on illness and medical treatment (‘cure’)? Resolution of this age-old dilemma begins with a timeless truth: the benefits of good health come at a cost; prevention is not better than cure at any price. Any study of health choices should begin without preconception—observing ‘what is’ (positive economics) before prescribing ‘what should be’ (normative economics), because rational choices are the logical consequences of subjective values. The six case studies in Chapters 3–8 investigate how choices depend on the circumstances in which they are made: in health services (cost of prevention in primary healthcare), and for epidemics (managing risk and uncertainty), endemic infections (recalibrating perceptions of hazard), chronic diseases (valuing the future, today), sanitation (health and the quality of life), and climate change (mitigation and adaptation on large and small population scales). Facing a variety of threats and opportunities, each of these challenges demands a different set of solutions to achieve the same ultimate goal—health as WHO’s ‘state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing’.
Global Mixed Migration Governance
Authors: Kortendiek Nele
Published: December 2024

What is “mixed migration” and how is it governed at the European and global level? This chapter provides the background for the empirical analysis. In 2015–16, migration and asylum were governed at the border with scanty, overlapping IO mandates, as well as fragmentary norms and policies. Ever-growing numbers of migrants and displaced people, along with the lack of a suitable institutional structures to process them, created a crisis. The chapter sketches the formal global governance landscape to show that mixed migration is increasingly becoming recognized as a topic of global political salience but still lacks an international regime. The chapter then presents current patterns of mixed movements and introduces the basic parameters of the European migration and refugee crisis. It discusses the EU’s policy response and introduces Chios as a central border crossing site and hotspot of the crisis.
Introduction
Authors: Bavoso Vincenzo
Published: December 2024

This chapter provides the background of the book as well as a preliminary understanding of the importance of this area of financial markets, and the urgency to rethink its regulation. It introduces the main functions of financial markets and key traditional distinctions between different channels of intermediation, namely bank finance and capital markets finance. Within the latter, this chapter highlights the centrality of debt channels and products relative to equity. It is critically observed that while there has been a functional integration of banks and capital markets, a distinction between different financing channels is still relevant for legal and regulatory purposes. This chapter also provides an overview of current regulatory and policy trends and illustrates the difficulty, to date, of regulating this area of finance. A structure of the rest of the monograph concludes this chapter.
A historical overview of debt capital markets
Authors: Bavoso Vincenzo
Published: December 2024

This chapter charts the historical development of debt capital markets. It shows their exponential growth since the 1980s, due primarily to the liberalization of financial markets that occurred as a result of regulatory changes implemented from the 1970s (with the end of Bretton Woods) until the end of the 1990s (with the final liberalization of derivatives markets, and the contextual legalization of mergers between different types of financial institutions). The analysis developed in this chapter employs data to show that much of the transactional innovation started in the 1980s and reached its climax in the early 2000s. In the same period, disintermediated forms of debt financing were becoming increasingly popular among different market participants. For corporations they became the chief mechanism to fund large-scale acquisitions, whereas for banks they contributed to shaping their business model and funding structure, creating a close interdependence between banks and wholesale channels of finance.
The regulatory framework of debt capital markets
Authors: Bavoso Vincenzo
Published: December 2024

This chapter provides a critical analysis of the regulatory framework that operates around capital markets, particularly since their growth in the 1980s. The general framework governing financial markets, and debt capital markets too, still hinges on the disclosure obligations that were engineered in the 1930s (in the US first under New Deal legislation and then across the most developed financial centres). Notwithstanding the evolution and growth of debt capital markets, this chapter observes how disclosure has remained the main regulatory technique. Attention in this chapter is also drawn to other attendant regulatory strategies, and particularly market discipline and private ordering, both consistent with the ideas of market efficiency explored earlier in this book. This chapter ultimately points at the shortcomings of disclosure in the context of markets (such as securitization), where in most cases disclosure rules are not applicable due to exemptions. Similarly, ideas of market discipline fell short in the realm of debt capital markets, where increased complexity led to widespread information failures.
Muddling through crises: Ways forward in debt capital markets
Authors: Bavoso Vincenzo
Published: December 2024

This concluding chapter starts by providing a picture of the current state of affairs in debt capital markets, pointing in particular at the risks arising in specific segments. It shows the ever-increasing level of private debt being created through channels of debt capital markets, and the expanding size of the shadow banking system—rebranded as market-based finance. This chapter recapitulates the overarching critique of post-2008 regulatory adjustments, building on the analysis developed in Chapter 7. It finally puts forward possible future directions in policies and regulation of debt capital markets.
Laboratory Lasers
Authors: Compton Robert N. , Duncan Michael A.
Published: December 2024

Although laser emission has been described for many materials, only a few of these provide useful devices with the efficient and reliable performance needed for laboratory instruments. The most common lasers used in laboratory instrumentation and experiments are introduced here, including their operating principles, performance characteristics, and typical applications. These include helium–-neon lasers, argon ion lasers, nitrogen lasers, and CO2 lasers, Nd:YAG and excimer lasers, dye lasers, optical parametric oscillators, diode lasers, and free-electron lasers. The wavelengths or spectral coverage of these lasers are given and pulsed versus continuous-wave (CW) laser output pulse energies or average powers are discussed. Electronic circuits and optical design configurations are discussed for gas versus solid versus liquid lasing materials.
Laser Refractometry
Authors: Compton Robert N. , Duncan Michael A.
Published: December 2024

The refractive index of materials is one of their most basic optical properties. In the case of liquids, the refractive index has been employed by chemists for many years to document sample purity. The simplest way to determine the refractive index is by measuring the angle at which light bends at an interface between two materials having different refractive indices. This experiment provides a simple configuration using a helium–neon laser transmitted through a carefully designed liquid–air interface that allows the refractive index of various liquids to be determined. Variations on the experiment such as the wavelength or temperature dependence of the refractive index are suggested.
Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy
Authors: Compton Robert N. , Duncan Michael A.
Published: December 2024

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) represents a useful analytical tool for elemental analysis of solid or liquid materials. An intense pulsed laser can be employed, focused on the surface of the material, to ignite a spark and generate a plume of gaseous atoms and molecules in a distribution of excited states. By delaying the time between the laser impact and the recording of the emission spectrum, atomic and molecular spectra can be delineated. In this chapter the utility of LIBS is employed to record molecular spectra of carbon clusters from graphite, specifically the Swan bands of C2. The Swan bands are prominent in the spectra from which molecular constants can be determined. Also, using LIBS of a carbon sample in air, the emission from CN excited states can be detected and analyzed. Different kinds of pulsed lasers and spectrometers that can be used for this experiment are discussed.
Faraday Rotation
Authors: Compton Robert N. , Duncan Michael A.
Published: December 2024

The first observation of the relation between light and magnetism was by Michael Faraday and is known as the Faraday effect. Faraday noted that linearly polarized light passing through a transparent medium will be rotated by a magnetic field which is collinear with the propagation of the light. Unlike optical activity, which also rotates the polarization of light, the Faraday rotation increases upon multiple reflections through the material. The experiment described in this chapter is the first to perform multiple reflections in the Faraday measurements. The Verdet constant is determined for carbon disulfide.
Photoacoustic Spectroscopy of Methane
Authors: Compton Robert N. , Duncan Michael A.
Published: December 2024

The absorption of light in gases causes heating and subsequent thermal expansion. When this process is modulated or pulsed, acoustic sound waves are generated. In photoacoustic spectroscopy, the absorption is detected by measuring the sound generated as the scanned light source wavelength varies into and out of resonance. This chapter provides an example of photoacoustic spectroscopy of methane gas in the infrared region using an infrared optical parametric oscillator laser. The C–H stretching vibrational band is measured with partial rotational resolution, providing the frequency of this mode and the rotational constant. Coriolis interaction shifts the lines from those expected for a rigid rotor. The principles of IR spectra are introduced as well as a new state-of-the-art infrared laser system.
Child Labour Effects of Credit Rationing and Uninsured Shocks
Authors: Cigno Alessandro , Rosati Furio C.
Published: December 2024

This chapter presents the evidence on the impact of incomplete financial and insurance markets on the supply of child labour. Shocks substantially alter household decisions. In particular, a negative shock increases the probability that a child will work. Coupled with evidence from other research that child labour shows a high degree of persistence as in the case of the Rwanda genocide, this finding highlights the importance of protection from shocks. Risk-reduction schemes also have a beneficial and substantial effect on child work as, confirmed by experimental evidence regarding increased access to health insurance. However, shocks might also alter the returns to child labour and lead households to increase child labour in the presence of a positive shock. Such changes in the incentives facing the household must be kept in mind when designing actual policies.
Internal Policy
Authors: Cigno Alessandro , Rosati Furio C.
Published: December 2024

Single measures such as a ban on child labour, or compulsory education, are unlikely to be self-enforcing, and may be inefficient even if they are self-enforcing. If information is asymmetric (e.g., the use children make of their time when they are neither at school, nor working overtly in the labour market, is not observable by the government), neither a ban on child labour, nor compulsory education, is enforceable. The Second-Best policy package may include a ban on overt child labour, and compulsory school attendance nonetheless, but it will include direct or indirect taxes and subsidies designed to make it possible and desirable for parents to invest in their children’s education. A public pension system may be usefully added to the package because it discourages fertility.
Sense and Nonsense
Authors: Brown Gillian R. , Lala Kevin N.
Published: December 2024

Evolutionary theory is one of the most wide-ranging and inspiring scientific ideas, and it offers a battery of methods that can be used to interpret human behaviour. However, researchers disagree about the best ways to use evolution to explore humanity, and a number of schools of thought have emerged. Sense and Nonsense, third edition, provides an introduction to the ideas, methods, and findings of five such schools, namely sociobiology, human behavioural ecology, evolutionary psychology, cultural evolution, and gene–culture coevolution. In this revised and updated edition of their successful monograph, Brown and Lala provide a balanced and rigorous analysis that scrutinizes both the evolutionary arguments and the allegations of the critics, carefully guiding the reader through the mire of confusing terminology, claim and counter-claim, and polemical statements. This readable and informative introductory book will be of use to undergraduate and postgraduate students (e.g. in psychology, anthropology, and zoology), as well as experts on one approach who would like to know more about the other perspectives and lay-persons interested in evolutionary explanations of human behaviour. Having completed the book, the reader will feel better placed to assess the legitimacy of claims made about human behaviour under the name of evolution and to make judgements as to what is sense and what is nonsense.
Gene–culture coevolution
Authors: Brown Gillian R. , Lala Kevin N.
Published: December 2024

This chapter describes the sub-field of Gene–Culture Coevolution. After briefly setting out the history of the sub-field, the chapter describes three key concepts of this approach, namely comparisons between the rates of genetic and cultural evolution, niche construction theory, and constructing Gene–Culture Coevolution models. It then describes examples of Gene–Culture Coevolution research through three case studies on the topics of the coevolution of dairy farming and lactose tolerance, human cooperation and prosociality, and the heritability of cognitive and behavioural traits. A critical evaluation section then covers three discussion topics: the question of whether culture comes in clean, discrete packages; whether the human brain is subject to gene–culture coevolution; and idea that the mind is comprised of ‘cognitive gadgets’. The chapter describes the challenges of undertaking Gene–Culture Coevolution research, including the need for cross-disciplinary collaborations, and proposes that this approach provides the most comprehensive understanding of human evolution.
Introduction
Authors: Dechamma CC Sowmya
Published: December 2024

The Introduction charts prevalent notions around multilinguality that supposedly characterizes the Indian society. Connecting notions of multilingual to the acts of power, the introduction then maps how orality in the Indian context needs to be understood differently in its connection to writing, vernacular and history proper. It also attempts to analyze notions of orality, its relationship with writing especially in India, and the socio-political contexts associated with orality/writing. This chapter argues that communities invested with the power of writing underline dominant notions around language and communities that speak them. The implications this has on the languages of the minority and their speakers is what animates the discussion here.
Corporate Purpose and Stakeholder Value
Authors: Hopt Klaus J.
Published: December 2024

For whom is the corporation managed? The traditional idea is one of profit generation for shareholders. The new trend holds instead that the purpose of companies is the solution. Historically, state concessions for corporations were granted only if a public utility could be established. Yet the concession system faded away, and the targeted pursuit of general interest was assigned to antitrust, securities regulation, and other public laws. The chapter covers the current debate on corporate purpose, stakeholder participation, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) in the light of history and comparative law (in France, Germany, and the EU Corporate, Sustainability Due Diligence Directive). It analyses the current economic, social science, and policy arguments and the various legislative options (enlightened shareholder value, constituency statutes, balancing of interest, ESG, corporate sustainability due diligence, and climate change legislation). The most important challenge is to making stakeholder governance work. Enforcement options are disclosure and auditing, enterprise law, and public and private enforcement.
Corporate Purpose and the Blurred Boundaries of Internal and External Governance
Authors: Lipton Ann M.
Published: December 2024

Shareholder primacists argue that internal corporate governance processes should be designed to benefit shareholders, while external regulatory and market pressures should be used to align shareholder interests with those of the broader public. This chapter argues that even in the shareholder primacist framework, internal corporate processes must be sufficiently developed to be able to respond to societally created rewards and punishments for pro- and anti-social behaviour, necessitating some degree of outward-lookingness in design. The system viewed as a whole, then, is one where corporate governance is continually adjusted according to societal needs, regardless of whether one formally adopts a stakeholderist or a shareholder primacist position.
Leading Wherever They Want? CSR, ESG, and Directors’ Duties
Authors: Binder Jens-Hinric
Published: December 2024

The chapter examines the debate on corporate social responsibility (CSR), ESG, and corporate purpose and its implications for the legal duties of corporate directors against a theoretical and comparative background. It finds that positive, prescriptive obligations to cater for stakeholder interests are inconsistent with both corporate law systems traditionally following the shareholder value doctrine and those allowing for a greater role of stakeholder concerns to be addressed in corporate decision-making. It also presents a critical analysis of the regulatory policy followed in the EU, arguing that neither the current nor the incoming framework provides a clear-cut, coherent set of specific obligations but leave a wide margin of discretion and, thus, facilitate manipulative, evasive strategies instead.
Green Bonds and Their New Regulation in the EU
Authors: Kumpan Christoph
Published: December 2024

The current transformation of the global economy into a sustainable one depends in particular on the activation of private capital to help shoulder the costs. The transmission belts for the engagement of private capital are ‘green’ financial instruments, in particular green bonds. Green bonds are debt instruments designed to raise capital for projects that are climate-related. The market for green bonds is growing, and even though there are private standards, such as the Green Bonds Principles or the Climate Bonds Standard, the EU has nevertheless seen a need for its own regulation of these bonds. Hence, it has recently issued its so-called EU Green Bonds Regulation. This chapter provides an overview of green bonds and scrutinizes the new EU regulation by critically assessing its necessity, regulatory approach, and key provisions.
Role Reversal and the Difference Principle
Authors: Lister Andrew
Published: December 2024

Role Reversal and the Difference Principle assesses competing accounts of the original position, and examines whether they can justify the difference principle. Choice under uncertainty forces one to consider the positions of others, but threatens to support average utilitarianism. The ‘complaint model’ of reasonable rejection involves not only putting oneself in the shoes of another, but withdrawing one’s complaint when it is much smaller. This rule limits the possibility for many smaller gains higher up to outweigh fewer individually larger losses lower down. Yet it can also prohibit many individually smaller gains lower down from outweighing one larger loss at the top end, justifying greater inequality that worsens the position of the worst off. The chapter develops an alternate model of reasonable rejectability, which is to require that complaints be invariant to positional reversal in the outcome that will obtain if the complaint is accepted as decisive. This model does a better job of justifying the difference principle but doesn’t provide any way of relaxing the priority it assigns to raising the least advantaged position, and will be highly restrictive of aggregation.
Conclusion
Authors: Lister Andrew
Published: December 2024

The Conclusion summarizes the main claims of the book, e.g. that reciprocity can be a limiting condition as well as a duty, and that relational conceptions of equality give us reason to accept such conditions, but that duties of justice can still be unconditional. The chapter then comments on the ways that reciprocity figures in Rawls’s later theory of a merely political liberalism. The tendency to answer in kind that figures in Rawls’s moral psychology is distinct from the criterion of reciprocity in justification that animates the ideal of public reason. Yet the idea that reciprocity reconciles the point of view of self and other constitutes a deep connection between justice as fairness and political liberalism.
Environmental Assessment as a Tool for Climate Change Mitigation
Authors: Mayer Benoit
Published: December 2024

The focus of environmental assessment procedures has long been on local environmental issues, such as air, water, and land pollution. In recent years, however, these procedures have increasingly been used to consider the emission of greenhouse gases and climate change. When applying environmental assessment to climate change, governments thus face difficult issues, for instance when determining what constitutes a significant climate impact, assessing carbon leakage, and promoting public participation in the absence of affected populations. This book aims to enrich our understanding of the modalities and, ultimately, the opportunity of the climate assessment of proposed activities. It presents and discusses jurisdictional developments and national debates in a global comparative perspective. While many jurisdictions face similar policy issues when applying environmental assessment as a tool for climate change mitigation, they have adopted different solutions. In this context, national debates could benefit from international perspectives. This book documents the use of environmental assessment as a tool for climate change mitigation. It identifies the main conceptual and practical issues facing climate assessment. The analysis leads to an evaluation of the solutions that jurisdictions have contemplated or implemented to address these issues. The book concludes by identifying 10 practices that lawmakers, regulators, national agencies, judges, and lawyers should consider when developing and applying the law on climate assessment.
Industry Dynamics and Path Dependencies
Authors: Sydow Jörg , Schreyögg Georg , Endo Takahiro
Published: December 2024

Industry dynamics are about stability and change on the field level of analysis. This chapter uses the lens of path dependence to study the emergent field of renewable energy. On this level of analysis, path dependence theory has to address not only technological but also organizational and institutional dynamics that intricately interact. More specifically, by means of such a multi-dimensional lens, this chapter will look at the increasing generation of electric energy through wind power to illustrate different industry dynamics in four countries. The United Kingdom and Japan will illustrate the persistence of an established path in generating electric energy through fossil fuels and nuclear, while the German and, more tenuously, Chinese cases serve as examples for path-breaking change and the conditions making the emergence of renewables, and in particular wind energy, possible.
Magistracies and Liturgies
Authors: Giannakopoulos Nikos
Published: December 2024

This chapter discusses magistracies and liturgies as mechanisms of civic self-administration. Specialization and compartmentalization as means to achieve efficiency should be assessed against the background of malversation, favouritism, and abuse of coercive power. Although civic financing of office holding was still important, increasing liturgization combined with decreasing formal accountability enhanced tendencies towards the concentration of power in the hands of the local notables. Elections remained a local affair, defined by the need to fill in rotation often burdensome civic posts, under pressure exercised both from the political class on its individual members and from below. The need to adapt to the new realities and priorities resulting from Roman rule led to the creation of new offices, but direct Roman interventions, although decisive when they occurred, appear sporadic and highly localized. More importantly, these interventions were mostly deployed through local magistrates and through methods already used by the Greek cities.
Euergetism
Authors: Chin Marcus
Published: December 2024

This chapter sets out to define the distinctiveness of euergetism—that is, honourable public giving in the Greek polis—in the Imperial period (1st to 3rd centuries ad). It briefly lays out the historiographical background and its historical roots in the Classical and Hellenistic (and especially late Hellenistic) periods. The chapter then considers how interactions and tensions between the elite and non-elite continued to shape Imperial-era euergetism, with elite wealth becoming visible in benefactions like buildings, distributions, and festivals, while this allowed the elite to shape civic identity more distinctly than before. The imperial framework formed a second major factor shaping euergetism, with the emperor interceding in local rivalries around benefaction, and provincial geography providing new horizons for thinking about local culture. The result was that euergetism was reified as a cultural practice, allowing for its imitation, but also criticism of it.
Cities and Koina
Authors: Edelmann-Singer Babett
Published: December 2024

This chapter discusses the complex relationship of cities to the regional and supra-regional city leagues. The provincial assemblies form the focus of the study because of their importance to both cities and empire, but also because of their rich epigraphic tradition. However, the Ionian koinon, the regional koina of the core Greek area, the Delphic amphictyony, and the Panhellenion are also discussed. The starting point of the study are the lines of tradition and rupture that exist between the Imperial-era koina and their Hellenistic predecessors. Building on this, the chapter enquires about the role of the city federations in the self-image of the Greek cities under Roman rule; the form and realization of league membership; and the repercussions of this cooperation on intra-urban politics and the urban elites. The significance of the koina for urban competition and the formation of a provincial aristocracy and identity is also addressed.
Civic Hierarchies
Authors: Zoumbaki Sophia
Published: December 2024

The structure of civic societies in the Greek poleis in the Roman period needs to be perceived in close connection with the evolution of political thought and organization of a range of communities and constitutions, which developed in the Greek world, and of civic participation in them. This chapter first defines ‘civic’ as a concept presupposing the institutionalized framework of the polis. This framework is not limited to the political sphere or to citizens only, but covers the entire social spectrum, the public and urban aspects of life of a city as well as various folds of communal life. The chapter then focuses on subgroups within civic societies of Roman-era Greek poleis. The complex, but dynamic and flexible, hierarchical civic structure of various poleis is examined by taking into account older traditions, Roman influence, and innovative features which can be traced in the written and material evidence.
Women in Civic Societies
Authors: Stavrianopoulou Eftychia
Published: December 2024

A high number of women performed public functions as magistrates, priestesses of the imperial cult, or benefactresses in the cities of the eastern provinces, especially in Asia Minor. This is an epigraphic phenomenon largely unparalleled in other parts of the Roman Empire. It is argued that the new civic roles assumed by (elite) women should be interpreted in the context of the adaptation of the domus Augusta. The introduction of the double priesthood in the imperial cult, a model that was also applied to some civic magistracies and liturgies, led not only to the acceptance of women but also to an understanding of their role as essential to the strengthening of their families. This is reflected both in the difficulty of attributing types of civic munificence solely to women, and in the parallelism of honorific titles for women and men.
Intellectual Education and the City
Authors: Stebnicka Krystyna
Published: December 2024

This chapter focuses on intellectual education in Greek cities during the early centuries of Roman rule. The education system remained almost unchanged since the Hellenistic period and comprised three stages of teaching: the elementary level (the learning of writing, reading, and basic mathematics), a secondary level focused on the study of Greek poets in the grammatical schools, and the final stage when young individuals studied in rhetorical, philosophical, and medical schools. This chapter also explores educational institutions in Greek poleis and emphasizes the participation of cities in organizing education mostly through gymnasia. However, it acknowledges that education was primarily provided by private schools and was accessible mainly to young people from the elite. It also examines our understanding of the organization of private schools as well as the role of teachers in cities as officials and local benefactors.
Variations Over Time in Mode of Birth and Perinatal Outcomes in Women With One Previous Cesarean in the Netherlands: A 20-Year Population-Based Study
Authors: Koorn Ian , Vis Linda C. , Verschueren Kim J.C. , Rosman Ageeth N. , van den Akker Thomas
Published: December 2024

(Abstracted from Birth 2024;51:459–467

Cesarean delivery (CD) rates around the world have been increasing. Despite the maternal and perinatal risks, about a third are performed without a medical indication.
Clinical Effectiveness of Newborn Screening for Spinal Muscular Atrophy: A Nonrandomized Controlled Trial
Authors: Schwartz Oliver , Vill Katharina , Pfaffenlehner Michelle , Behrens Max , Weiß Claudia , Johannsen Jessika , Friese Johannes , Hahn Andreas , Ziegler Andreas , Illsinger Sabine , Smitka Martin , von Moers Arpad , Kölbel Heike , Schreiber Gudrun , Kaiser Nadja , Wilichowski Ekkehard , Flotats-Bastardas Marina , Husain Ralf A. , Baumann Matthias , Köhler Cornelia , Trollmann Regina , Schwerin-Nagel Annette , Eisenkölbl Astrid , Schimmel Mareike , Fleger Martin , Kauffmann Birgit , Wiegand Gert , Baumgartner Manuela , Rauscher Christian , Cirak Sebahattin , Gläser Dieter , Bernert Günther , Hagenacker Tim , Goldbach Susanne , Probst-Schendzielorz Kristina , Lochmüller Hanns , Müller-Felber Wolfgang , Schara-Schmidt Ulrike , Walter Maggie C. , Kirschner Janbernd , Pechmann Astrid ,   for the SMARTCARE Study Group
Published: December 2024

(Abstracted from JAMA Pediatr 2024;178(6):540–547

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle weakness and atrophy, with the most severe cases leading to ventilator dependency or death within 2 years. Three new therapies have significantly improved outcomes, especially with early treatment.
Suicide Mortality During the Perinatal Period
Authors: Zivin Kara , Zhong Chuwen , Rodríguez-Putnam Alejandro , Spring Emma , Cai Qingyi , Miller Alyson , Johns Lily , Kalesnikava Viktoryia A. , Courant Anna , Mezuk Briana
Published: December 2024

(Abstracted from JAMA Network Open 2024;7(6):e2418887

Suicide in the perinatal period is a leading cause of maternal mortality in the United States. It contributes to 8.4% of pregnancy-related deaths and is considered preventable by 36 state maternal mortality review committees.
Automatic Ploidy Prediction and Quality Assessment of Human Blastocysts Using Time-Lapse Imaging
Authors: Rajendran Suraj , Brendel Matthew , Barnes Josue , Zhan Qiansheng , Malmsten Jonas E. , Zisimopoulos Pantelis , Sigaras Alexandros , Ofori-Atta Kwabena , Meseguer Marcos , Miller Kathleen A. , Hoffman David , Rosenwaks Zev , Elemento Olivier , Zaninovic Nikica , Hajirasouliha Iman
Published: December 2024

(Abstracted from Nat Commun 2024;15(1):7756

Assisted reproductive technology, including in vitro fertilization, has become an important treatment for individuals who desire familial expansion but are unable to conceive. A crucial part of this process is the determination of embryo viability and the selection of the highest quality embryos for transfer into the uterus.
Gastric and Esophageal Cancer in Pregnancy: A Review
Authors: Taylor Kaitlyn H. , Dajani Nafisa K. , Whittington Julie R. , Magann Everett F.
Published: December 2024

Importance

Upper gastrointestinal cancers such as gastric and esophageal cancers are rare malignancies with poor prognosis because it is usually diagnosed in latter stages. Presenting symptoms are frequently presumed pregnancy related rather than malignancy related. This review will raise awareness to consider these aggressive cancers in evaluating gastrointestinal complaints during pregnancy.

Objectives

This review describes pregnancies with gastric and esophageal cancers including presenting symptoms, diagnosis stage, treatments, pregnancy complications, and maternal/fetal outcomes.

Evidence Acquisition

Electronic databases (PubMed/EMBASE) were searched with English language limitation. Search terms, 1970–2023, included “stomach cancer” OR “gastric cancer” AND “etiology” OR “risk factors” OR “diagnosis” OR “treatment” OR “management” OR “prognosis” AND “pregnancy” OR “pregnancy complications” OR “Esophageal Neoplasms” OR “esophageal carcinoma” OR “esophageal malignancy” OR “esophageal cancer” OR “esophageal neoplasm” AND Pregnancy OR “Pregnancy.”

Results

Of 611 abstracts reviewed, 63 full articles were identified as the basis of review. Gastric cancer stage was advanced stage III or IV in 88% of patients. Maternal mortality rate was 76%. First-trimester diagnosis occurred in 16%; second, 27%; and third, 18% totaling 61%. Thirty nine percent were found postpartum, postmortem, or undetermined. Ethnic groups most affected were East Asian. Half had cesarean delivery, 29% delivered vaginally, and the rest were not reported. Treatment varied: supportive care only, 8%; chemotherapy only, 34%; and chemotherapy and surgery, 21%. Neonatal outcomes were good overall: 90% survival among cases reported.

Conclusions

Gastric and esophageal cancers are rare and frequently asymptomatic in early stages. When diagnosed in pregnancy, it is usually advanced with poor prognosis and high maternal mortality rate. Diagnostic testing and treatment should proceed as needed during pregnancy with close maternal and fetal surveillance. Abdominal delivery is reserved for usual obstetrical indications.

Relevance

Gastric and esophageal cancers are rare conditions often missed or found late that affect management, mode of delivery, and maternal/fetal outcomes.

Target audience

Obstetricians and gynecologists, family physicians.

Learning Objectives

After completing this activity, the learner will be better able to describe patient demographic that is at highest risk for gastric cancer in pregnancy; identify early symptoms and warning signs of gastric cancer in pregnancy; and discuss the maternal and neonatal outcomes of those affected by gastric cancer.