bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection Among Children in Summer Schools Applying Stringent Control Measures in Barcelona, Spain
Authors: Jordan Iolanda , Fernandez de Sevilla Mariona , Fumado Victoria , Bassat Quique , Bonet-Carne Elisenda , Fortuny Claudia , Garcia-Miquel Aleix , Jou Cristina , Adroher Cristina , Melé Casas María , Girona-Alarcon Mònica , Hernández Garcia María , Pons Tomas Gemma , Ajanovic Sara , Arias Sara , Balanza Núria , Baro Bárbara , Millat-Martinez Pere , Varo Rosauro , Alonso Sergio , Álvarez-Lacalle Enric , López Daniel , Claverol Joana , Cubells Marta , Brotons Pedro , Codina Anna , Cuadras Daniel , Bruijning-Verhagen Patricia , Faust Saul , Munro Alasdair , Muñoz-Almagro Carmen , Català Martí , Prats Clara , Garcia-Garcia Juan José , Gratacós Eduard
Published: March 2021

Background

Understanding the role of children in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission is critical to guide decision-making for schools in the pandemic. We aimed to describe the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among children and adult staff in summer schools.

Methods

During July 2020, we prospectively recruited children and adult staff attending summer schools in Barcelona who had SARS-CoV-2 infection. Primary SARS-CoV-2 infections were identified through (1) a surveillance program in 22 summer schools of 1905 participants, involving weekly saliva sampling for SARS-CoV-2 reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) during 2–5 weeks; and (2) cases identified through the Catalonian Health Surveillance System of children diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection by nasopharyngeal RT-PCR. All centers followed prevention protocols: bubble groups, handwashing, face masks, and conducting activities mostly outdoors. Contacts of a primary case within the same bubble were evaluated by nasopharyngeal RT-PCR. Secondary attack rates and the effective reproduction number in summer schools (Re*) were calculated.

Results

Among the >2000 repeatedly screened participants, 30 children and 9 adults were identified as primary cases. A total of 253 close contacts of these primary cases were studied (median, 9 [interquartile range, 5–10] for each primary case), among which 12 new cases (4.7%) were positive for SARS-CoV-2. The Re* was 0.3, whereas the contemporary rate in the general population from the same areas in Barcelona was 1.9.

Conclusions

The transmission rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection among children attending school-like facilities under strict prevention measures was lower than that reported for the general population. This suggests that under preventive measures schools are unlikely amplifiers of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, supporting current recommendations for school opening.
Multivariate Hawkes process analysis of posts on a web service about uncomfortable gender experiences
Authors: Goda Masatoshi , Yano Ryosuke , Mizuno Takayuki
Published: March 2021

We propose a method for the modelling of the propagation of text data in web site space among some groups by using a multivariate Hawkes process with a sparse structure. For estimation, we introduced a hybrid method using a quasi-maximum likelihood estimator (QMLE) and a $L^1$-penalized QMLE. As a real example, we investigated posts on a Japanese web service about uncomfortable gender experiences, which we classified into 12 groups by age and sex, and we calculated the magnitude of the correlation between each group. In addition, we visualized the propagation structure of posts in each group by summarizing the results in a directed Hawkes graph and a heat map of time integrals of kernel functions.
HVSR analysis of a layered saturated half-space using diffuse-field theory
Authors: Ba Zhenning , Sang Qiaozhi , Liang Jianwen , Wu Mengtao
Published: March 2021

The recently constructed diffuse field theory from isotropic energy equipartition has been well developed in elasticity for full-wave interpretation of horizontal-to-vertical ratio (HVSR), which links the signal autocorrelation with the imaginary part of Green's function. Here, the theory is extended to the saturated layered medium within the framework of Biot's theory to account for the offshore environment. The imaginary parts of Green's functions are obtained using direct stiffness method accompanied with Fourier–Hankel transform. In particular, the upgoing wave amplitudes are modified to tackle the overflow during wavenumber integral and allow for fast calculations. After validating the method from the perspectives of Green's function calculation, emphasis is laid on evaluating the inaccuracies of HVSR calculation induced by model misuses in the lack of prior geological and geotechnical information. The numerical results considering the effects of layer sequence, impedance ratio, porosity and drainage condition show that the predominant frequency of the one-phase medium is slightly less than the two-phase medium with the maximum shift no more than 0.1 Hz, while their amplitude differences can be prominent as impedance ratio and porosity increase, with the maximum difference up to 29 per cent. The shallowest soft layer has the dominant effects on HVSR amplitudes, whereas the buried low-velocity layer at depth over one-wavelength contributes little to the peak amplitude. Finally, the method is applied to a realistic case at Mirandola, Northorn Italy, which suffered extensive liquefaction-induced damages in 2012 Emilia earthquake. The well identified pattern of the experimental HVSR using the two-phase medium model illustrates the application potential of our method to further assist the subsurface geology retrieval.
‘Peace throughout the oceans and seas of the world’: British maritime strategic thought and world order, 1892–1919
Authors: Halewood Louis
Published: March 2021

Prior to 1914, British strategic thinkers considered the question of how to maintain British world power in the twentieth century. They developed visions of co-operation at sea between not only Britain and the Dominions, but also other states in the international system. During the First World War, these ideas merged with plans for the League of Nations, which British policymakers envisaged as a tool for enforcing peace through the use of sea power. This article explores these ideas, providing a different interpretation of the origins of the League, and the maritime strategic thought of key individuals including Halford Mackinder.
A conceptual framework for latecomer linkage capabilities
Authors: Reinauer Tobias , Hansen Ulrich Elmer
Published: March 2021

In this article, we put forward a framework for conceptualizing processes of linkage capability-building in firms based in developing countries, so-called latecomer firms. To do this, we combine the literature on latecomer capabilities with insights from the literature on industrial marketing and supply-chain management. Our framework distinguishes between different levels of development across three capability categories: envisioning opportunities for useful market and knowledge-based linkages, engaging with external partners in ways that create suitable organizational arrangements, and exploiting relationships for technological learning.
Market power and R&D investment: the case of China
Authors: Sun Xiaohua , Yuan Fang , Wang Yun
Published: March 2021

This article presents an in-depth analysis of market power and its impact on firm research and development (R&D) investment in China. Two opposing theories have been proposed in the literature. The first, due to Schumpeter, suggests that monopoly power has a positive effect on firms’ propensity to innovate hence their investment in R&D. The alternative view, first proposed by Arrow, suggests that firms invest in R&D in order to escape competition, and thus market competition stimulates innovation. In testing these theories, prior studies have measured market power in different ways. Some use the so-called Lerner index, which measures the profit margin of a particular firm. Others use measures of industry concentration, for example, the Herfindahl index. This article tests the competing theories using a sample of 300,095 Chinese manufacturing firms in 29 two-digit manufacturing industries. We unify the two measures of market power, using a hierarchical linear model, to determine whether industry-level measures add power to specifications based on firm-level markups alone. We find, first, that firms are less likely to carry out R&D activities as their market power intensifies. The effect is nonlinear: firms with higher markups spend even less on R&D than a linear specification predicts. This finding supports Arrow’s theory and contradicts Schumpeter’s theory. Second, for the sample as a whole, the impact of industry-level concentration is negligible. However, when we break the sample into large, medium, and small firms, industry concentration has a significant effect on large and medium-sized firms but no impact on small firms. Thus, large firms with high markups in concentrated industries spend less on R&D than large firms with high markups in less concentrated industries. We interpret this as further evidence in support of the escape competition theory: less concentrated industries are more competitive, forcing the leaders to invest more heavily on R&D.
Impact of Index Insurance on Moral Hazard in the Agricultural Credit Market: Theory and Evidence from Ghana
Authors: Dougherty John P , Gallenstein Richard A , Mishra Khushbu
Published: March 2021

Recent research suggests that coupling microfinance loans with an index insurance policy may be a cost-effective way to expand credit market access to smallholder farmers in developing countries. Index insurance can increase demand for credit and encourage increased supply of credit by protecting borrowers and lenders from covariate production shocks that discourage credit market expansion. In this paper, we propose that index insurance, when bundled with credit, may also reduce a different barrier to credit market access: high transaction costs caused by moral hazard in the credit market. We develop a theoretical model of a competitive credit market with moral hazard. In this market, lenders use either dynamic incentives or collateral to mitigate the moral hazard problem. The model shows that index insurance bundled with loan contracts can reduce moral hazard and increase borrower welfare. We then test the model and find some empirical support using a subset of data from a randomised control trial in northern Ghana.
Exploring the history of pronouns in South America with computer-assisted methods
Authors: Rojas-Berscia Luis Miguel , Roberts Sean
Published: March 2021

Pronouns as a diagnostic feature of language relatedness have been widely explored in historical and comparative linguistics. In this article, we focus on South American pronouns, as a potential example of items with their own history passing between the boundaries of language families, what has been dubbed in the literature as ‘historical markers’. Historical markers are not a direct diagnostic of genealogical relatedness among languages, but account for phenomena beyond the grasp of the historical comparative method. Relatedness between pronoun systems can thus serve as suggestions for closer studies of genealogical relationships. How can we use computational methods to help us with this process? We collected pronouns for 121 South American languages, grouped them into classes and aligned the phonemes within each class (assisted by automatic methods). We then used Bayesian phylogenetic tree inference to model the birth and death of individual phonemes within cognate sets, rather than the typical practice of modelling whole cognate sets. The reliability of the splits found in our analysis was low above the level of language family, and validation on alternative data suggested that the analysis cannot be used to infer general genealogical relatedness among languages. However, many results aligned with existing theories, and the analysis as a whole provided a useful starting point for future analyses of historical relationships between the languages of South America. We show that using automated methods with evolutionary principles can support progress in historical linguistics research.
Congenital Coccidioidomycosis: A Case Report and Review of the Literature
Authors: Naeem Fouzia , Vijayan Vini , Kim Bonnie Y , Rahmati Elham , McCarty James
Published: March 2021

Coccidioidomycosis in neonates is rare and the acquisition of disease in this age group is not well understood. Congenital coccidioidomycosis is very rare, usually associated with coccidioidal placentitis. Only a handful of cases of congenital coccidioidomycosis have been described in the literature. We describe an infant with congenital coccidioidomycosis delivered by cesarean section to a mother who was diagnosed with disseminated disease in the second trimester and summarize the available literature on congenital coccidioidomycosis.
Endoscopic lithotripsy for Bouveret syndrome complicated by small bowel obstruction secondary to gallstone fragments
Authors: Goonawardhana Dulani , Huynh Roy , Rabindran Joel , Becerril-Martinez Guillermo
Published: March 2021

Bouveret syndrome is a rare complication of cholecystitis, in which impaction of a gallstone creates a cholecystoduodenal fistula leading to gastric outlet obstruction. We report a case of a 90-year-old female who presented with nausea and vomiting on a background of previous necrotic cholecystitis managed conservatively. Computed tomography of the abdomen demonstrated a large gallstone impacted in the third part of the duodenum leading to gastric outlet obstruction. Given her frailty, the patient underwent endoscopy to relieve the obstruction; however, complete retrieval of the gallstone fragments after lithotripsy was not possible. She subsequently developed distal gallstone ileus due to migration of the gallstone fragments and underwent laparotomy, enterotomy and retrieval of the fragments. This case highlights the dilemma of managing elderly patients with Bouveret syndrome with open or endoscopic surgery and the importance of retrieving all gallstone fragments after lithotripsy to avoid iatrogenic complications, such as gallstone ileus.
The transcription factor WRKY32 affects tomato fruit colour by regulating YELLOW FRUITED-TOMATO 1, a core component of ethylene signal transduction
Authors: Zhao Weihua , Li Yuhang , Fan Shaozhu , Wen Tengjian , Wang Minghui , Zhang Lida , Zhao Lingxia
Published: March 2021

Fruit quality in most fleshy fruit crops is fundamentally linked to ripening-associated traits, including changes in colour. In many climacteric fruits, including tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), the phytohormone ethylene plays a key role in regulating ripening. Previous map-based cloning of YELLOW FRUITED-TOMATO 1 (YFT1) revealed that it encodes the EIN2 protein, a core component in ethylene signal transduction. A YFT1 allele with a genetic lesion was found to be down-regulated in the yft1 tomato mutant that has a yellow fruit phenotype and perturbed ethylene signalling. Based on bioinformatic analysis, yeast one hybrid assays and electrophoretic mobility shift assays, we report that transcription factor WRKY32 regulates tomato fruit colour formation. WRKY32 binds to W-box and W-box-like motifs in the regulatory region of the YFT1 promoter and induces its expression. In tomato fruits of WRKY32-RNAi generated lines, ethylene signalling was reduced, leading to a suppression in ethylene emission, a delay in chromoplast development, decreased carotenoid accumulation, and a yellow fruit phenotype. These results provide new insights into the regulatory networks that govern tomato fruit colour formation via ethylene signal transduction.
Comparative Evaluation of the Modified Carbapenem Inactivation Method for Phenotypic Detection of Guiana Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamase-Type Carbapenemases in Enterobacterales
Authors: Lee A-Jin , Suh Hun Suk
Published: March 2021

Objective

We comparatively evaluated the performance of 3 phenotypic tests for the detection of carbapenemase production.

Materials and Methods

Carbapenemase production was evaluated using the modified Hodge test (MHT), the modified carbapenemase inhibition method (mCIM), and the Rapidec Carba NP test (RCNP).

Results

Among the 170 isolates, 79 were CP-CRE and 91 were non-CP-CRE. The CP-CRE isolates produced GES-5 (n = 66), KPC (n = 4), NDM (n = 7), NDM and OXA-48 (n = 1), and VIM (n = 1). For KPC producers, all 3 methods showed a sensitivity of 75%. The sensitivities of MHT, mCIM, and RCNP were 14.3%, 100%, and 71.4%, respectively, for NDM producers, and 1.5%, 12.1%, and 18.2% for GES-5 producers, respectively.

Conclusion

The performance of the phenotypic tests varied depending on the type of carbapenemase. For intensive infection control, phenotypic and molecular tests are required for the detection of common and rare types of carbapenemases.
Rapid-response radio observations of short GRB 181123B with the Australia Telescope Compact Array
Authors: Anderson G E , Bell M E , Stevens J , Aksulu M D , Miller-Jones J C A , van der Horst A J , Wijers R A M J , Rowlinson A , Bahramian A , Hancock P J , Macquart J-P , Ryder S D , Plotkin R M
Published: March 2021

We introduce the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) rapid-response mode by presenting the first successful trigger on the short-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB) 181123B. Early-time radio observations of short GRBs may provide vital insights into the radio afterglow properties of Advanced LIGO- and Virgo-detected gravitational wave events, which will in turn inform follow-up strategies to search for counterparts within their large positional uncertainties. The ATCA was on target within 12.6 h post-burst, when the source had risen above the horizon. While no radio afterglow was detected during the 8.3 h observation, we obtained force-fitted flux densities of 7 ± 12 and $15 \pm 11\, \mu$Jy at 5.5 and 9 GHz, respectively. Afterglow modelling of GRB 181123B showed that the addition of the ATCA force-fitted radio flux densities to the Swift X-ray Telescope detections provided more stringent constraints on the fraction of thermal energy in the electrons (log $\epsilon _e = -0.75^{+0.39}_{-0.40}$ rather than log $\epsilon _e = -1.13^{+0.82}_{-1.2}$ derived without the inclusion of the ATCA values), which is consistent with the range of typical ϵe derived from GRB afterglow modelling. This allowed us to predict that the forward shock may have peaked in the radio band ∼10 d post-burst, producing detectable radio emission ≳3–4 d post-burst. Overall, we demonstrate the potential for extremely rapid radio follow-up of transients and the importance of triggered radio observations for constraining GRB blast wave properties, regardless of whether there is a detection, via the inclusion of force-fitted radio flux densities in afterglow modelling efforts.
L-GALAXIES 2020: The evolution of radial metallicity profiles and global metallicities in disc galaxies
Authors: Yates Robert M , Henriques Bruno M B , Fu Jian , Kauffmann Guinevere , Thomas Peter A , Guo Qi , White Simon D M , Schady Patricia
Published: March 2021

We present a modified version of the L-galaxies2020 semi-analytic model of galaxy evolution, which includes significantly increased direct metal enrichment of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) by supernovae (SNe). These more metal-rich outflows do not require increased mass-loading factors, in contrast to some other galaxy evolution models. This modified L-galaxies2020 model is able to simultaneously reproduce the gas-phase metallicity ($Z_{\rm {g}}$) and stellar metallicity (Z*) radial profiles observed in nearby disc galaxies by MaNGA and MUSE, as well as the observed mass – metallicity relations for gas and stars at z = 0 and their evolution back to z ∼ 2−3. A direct CGM enrichment fraction of ∼90 per cent for SNe-II is preferred. We find that massive disc galaxies have slightly flatter $Z_{\rm {g}}$ profiles than their lower-mass counterparts in L-galaxies2020, due to more efficient enrichment of their outskirts via inside-out growth and metal-rich accretion. Such a weak, positive correlation between stellar mass and $Z_{\rm {g}}$ profile slope is also seen in our MaNGA-DR15 sample of 571 star-forming disc galaxies, although below log10(M*/M⊙) ∼ 10.0 this observational result is strongly dependent on the metallicity diagnostic and morphological selection chosen. In addition, a lowered maximum SN-II progenitor mass of $25\, {\rm M}_{\odot }$, reflecting recent theoretical and observational estimates, can also provide a good match to observed $Z_{\rm {g}}$ and Z* profiles at z = 0 in L-galaxies2020. However, this model version fails to reproduce an evolution in $Z_{\rm {g}}$ at fixed mass over cosmic time, or the magnesium abundances observed in the intracluster medium (ICM).
Ciliary Rootlet Coiled-Coil 2 (crocc2)Is Associated with Evolutionary Divergence and Plasticity of Cichlid Jaw Shape
Authors: Gilbert Michelle C , Tetrault Emily , Packard Mary , Navon Dina , Albertson R Craig
Published: March 2021

Cichlid fishes exhibit rapid, extensive, and replicative adaptive radiation in feeding morphology. Plasticity of the cichlid jaw has also been well documented, and this combination of iterative evolution and developmental plasticity has led to the proposition that the cichlid feeding apparatus represents a morphological “flexible stem.” Under this scenario, the fixation of environmentally sensitive genetic variation drives evolutionary divergence along a phenotypic axis established by the initial plastic response. Thus, if plasticity is predictable then so too should be the evolutionary response. We set out to explore these ideas at the molecular level by identifying genes that underlie both the evolution and plasticity of the cichlid jaw. As a first step, we fine-mapped an environment-specific quantitative trait loci for lower jaw shape in cichlids, and identified a nonsynonymous mutation in the ciliary rootlet coiled-coil 2 (crocc2), which encodes a major structural component of the primary cilium. Given that primary cilia play key roles in skeletal mechanosensing, we reasoned that this gene may confer its effects by regulating the sensitivity of bone to respond to mechanical input. Using both cichlids and zebrafish, we confirmed this prediction through a series of experiments targeting multiple levels of biological organization. Taken together, our results implicate crocc2 as a novel mediator of bone formation, plasticity, and evolution.
Profiling of RNA ribose methylation inArabidopsis thaliana
Authors: Wu Songlin , Wang Yuqiu , Wang Jiayin , Li Xilong , Li Jiayang , Ye Keqiong
Published: March 2021

Eukaryotic rRNAs and snRNAs are decorated with abundant 2′-O-methylated nucleotides (Nm) that are predominantly synthesized by box C/D snoRNA-guided enzymes. In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, C/D snoRNAs have been well categorized, but there is a lack of systematic mapping of Nm. Here, we applied RiboMeth-seq to profile Nm in cytoplasmic, chloroplast and mitochondrial rRNAs and snRNAs. We identified 111 Nm in cytoplasmic rRNAs and 19 Nm in snRNAs and assigned guide for majority of the detected sites using an updated snoRNA list. At least four sites are directed by guides with multiple specificities as shown in yeast. We found that C/D snoRNAs frequently form extra pairs with nearby sequences of methylation sites, potentially facilitating the substrate binding. Chloroplast and mitochondrial rRNAs contain five almost identical methylation sites, including two novel sites mediating ribosomal subunit joining. Deletion of FIB1 or FIB2 gene reduced the accumulation of C/D snoRNA and rRNA methylation with FIB1 playing a bigger role in methylation. Our data reveal the comprehensive 2′-O-methylation maps for Arabidopsis rRNAs and snRNAs and would facilitate study of their function and biosynthesis.
Systemic CLIP-seq analysis and game theory approach to model microRNA mode of binding
Authors: Serra Fabrizio , Bottini Silvia , Pratella David , Stathopoulou Maria G , Sebille Wanda , El-Hami Loubna , Repetto Emanuela , Mauduit Claire , Benahmed Mohamed , Grandjean Valerie , Trabucchi Michele
Published: March 2021

microRNAs (miRNAs) associate with Ago proteins to post-transcriptionally silence gene expression by targeting mRNAs. To characterize the modes of miRNA-binding, we developed a novel computational framework, called optiCLIP, which considers the reproducibility of the identified peaks among replicates based on the peak overlap. We identified 98 999 binding sites for mouse and human miRNAs, from eleven Ago2 CLIP-seq datasets. Clustering the binding preferences, we found heterogeneity of the mode of binding for different miRNAs. Finally, we set up a quantitative model, named miRgame, based on an adaptation of the game theory. We have developed a new algorithm to translate the miRgame into a score that corresponds to a miRNA degree of occupancy for each Ago2 peak. The degree of occupancy summarizes the number of miRNA-binding sites and miRNAs targeting each binding site, and binding energy of each miRNA::RNA heteroduplex in each peak. Ago peaks were stratified accordingly to the degree of occupancy. Target repression correlates with higher score of degree of occupancy and number of miRNA-binding sites within each Ago peak. We validated the biological performance of our new method on miR-155-5p. In conclusion, our data demonstrate that miRNA-binding sites within each Ago2 CLIP-seq peak synergistically interplay to enhance target repression.
High Inpatient Health Care Utilization and Charges Associated With Injection Drug Use–Related Infections: A Cohort Study, 2012–2015
Authors: Rapoport Alison B , Fine Danielle R , Manne-Goehler Jennifer M , Herzig Shoshana J , Rowley Christopher F
Published: March 2021

Our study describes the characteristics of patients hospitalized with injection drug use–related infection over a multiyear period in a region highly impacted by the opioid epidemic. Intensive health care needs were common in this young cohort, including high rates of readmission, high hospitalization costs, and prolonged lengths of stay.
Populism in Japan
Authors: Fahey Robert A. , Hino Airo , Pekkanen Robert J.
Published: March 2021

While populism has become a major force in many nations in recent decades, the extent to which the phenomenon is found in Japan’s politics is a contested topic on which scholars have asserted positions ranging from claims that it simply does not exist in Japan, to opposing claims that Japan’s most powerful and influential recent prime ministers have in fact been populists, with various positions in between those extremes also being represented. Some of this contestation arises from different definitions of “populism” that were developed in parallel in Japanese and Western literature, both of which also further differ from the vernacular usage of the term in Japanese political and media discourses. Consequently, scholars following different definitions have drawn quite different conclusions regarding the populist nature of Japanese political actors. This chapter outlines the correspondences and contrasts between the different definitions and uses them to examine claims that prominent contemporary political figures, including former prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzō Abe, as well as regional governors Toru Hashimoto, Yuriko Koike, and Takashi Kawamura, have been populists or have utilized populist rhetoric in their campaigns. We find that while overt populism in Japan—at least according to the definitions used internationally—is generally confined to regional politics, national leaders have also displayed proclivity to borrow limited aspects of populist rhetoric and strategy in support of their political campaigns and policy objectives.
Music Lovers. Listening in (and to) Composer Biopics
Authors: Heldt Guido
Published: March 2021

In composer biopics, listening to music is as important a feature as composing and performing; it fulfils a multitude of narrative functions and deeply affects the films’ ideological construction of music. The chapter discusses twenty-six scenes from sixteen biopics about “classical” composers to map typical (and some untypical) ways of intradiegetic listening to music, differentiating between types of listeners (“general listeners,” mostly in concert settings; listeners with a personal relationship to the protagonists; other musicians as expert witnesses; the composers themselves) and different narrative functions and structures, such as different types of focalization. It also discusses basic features of the relationship between the extrafictional listening of audiences in the cinema to such intradiegetic listeners, as a springboard for further study of listening in musician biopics.
Sensing Time and Space through the Soundtracks of Interstellar and Arrival
Authors: Richardson John , Pääkkölä Anna-Elena , Qvick Sanna
Published: March 2021

This chapter discusses the recent science fiction films Interstellar (2014; music by Hans Zimmer) and Arrival (2016; music by Jóhann Jóhannsson) as benchmarks for new ways of configuring the listening body in time and space. These films are characterized by soundtracks that emphasize visceral as much as audiovisual involvement. Both draw on influences from postminimalism and electronic music with historical allusion to produce sonic end results that convey a texturally rich but semantically impervious sense of the otherworldly. Our analyses draw on theories of multisensory cinema to explain how the soundtracks create experiences of altered time and space. While evoking a sense of monumentalism reminiscent of tropes of the sublime, the music of these films communicates also optimism about futures where conflict and ecological shortsightedness give way to something more intuitive and all encompassing.
“If You Know Arabic, Indian Songs Are Easy for You”
Authors: Young Katie
Published: March 2021

With the arrival of cinema halls in northern Ghana in the mid-1950s, Indian and Hollywood films circulated among diverse audiences with varying religious, economic, and educational backgrounds. In Ghana, educational approaches to listening differed greatly between Christian and Islamic schools: mission schools promoted English literacy, centered around contextual understanding and moral readings of English text, while Islamic schools taught Qur’anic recitation through aural and oral transmission, with precedence given to the indexical experience of untranslated religious text. This chapter explores how contrasting modes of listening developed in mission and Islamic schools shaped Christian and Muslim experiences of early postcolonial Hollywood and Hindi films, both inside and outside the cinema hall.
Listen Again
Authors: Westrup Laurel
Published: March 2021

This chapter encourages scholars to listen again to music video. While music videos are often defined as moving images synchronized to a song, they have frequently incorporated sounds associated with cinematic sound design—sound effects, dialogue, and score—that are not part of the featured song(s). Even when a particular song remains central to a music video’s sonic address, it is often rearranged or extended to emphasize elements within the audiovisual mix. Through case studies featuring Logic, Janet Jackson, and the work of Jonathan Glazer, this chapter explores three key functions of cinematic sound in music video: building a fuller narrative, reinforcing the atmosphere or mood of the song, and subverting or challenging the song’s ostensible meaning. These motivations are not mutually exclusive, nor exhaustive; rather, this critical framework is offered as a means of opening up a larger conversation about the interplay between music video and cinematic sound.
Evolving Storylines and Patterns of Listening
Authors: Stilwell Robynn J.
Published: March 2021

While cinematic listening is typically associated with narrative immersion and uninterrupted viewing experiences, television listening has been theorized as distracted and fragmented, because of consumption in spaces that challenge attention and the “pollution” of the broadcast flow by commercials and program/channel switching. Time-shifting, DVD box-sets, and streaming have gradually generated highly focused and engaged “binge-watching.” Invasion (ABC, 2005–06), a truncated show with an initial three-season plan, emerged between box sets and streaming, presaging many qualities that make a television show “bingeworthy.” The music participates intimately in an intricate, long-arc narrative, blending cinematic and television scoring strategies. Themes are primarily “situational” rather than character-based, but ramify across the single season and occasionally shift meaning or add unexpected layers—for instance, a theme suggesting the uncanny comes to signify family and community, and another gives hints of storylines that were never developed because of cancellation. Listening to the show thus rewards the kind of intense engagement thus far primarily associated with watching.
iPod Listening as an I-voice
Authors: Cenciarelli Carlo
Published: March 2021

Walkman and iPod devices have often been discussed in quasi-cinematic terms. This typically implies an analogy between the personal stereo user and the transcendental subject of film theory, who is allowed to see and hear without being seen or heard. This chapter offers an alternative route. Taking as starting point a cinematic moment in which iPod listening is turned into a first-person voiceover, it suggests that cinematic and personal stereo listening share not only an orientation towards privatization and individualization but also a fantasy of communication: one that blurs the lines between “self” and “other” and between listening and speaking. Analyzing a wide range of films and historical marketing campaigns by Sony and Apple, the chapter shows how mainstream cinema—through its representational tropes and modes of spectatorial address—feeds into a broader cultural construction of personal stereo listening as a highly individualized activity that is always imaginatively open-ended.
Performing Political Ideologies
Authors: Finlayson Alan
Published: March 2021

This chapter shows the importance of performance studies to the theory and analysis of political ideas and ideologies. Reviewing ways in which these have been studied in political science it argues that there is a need to understand more about how ideologies are manifested in and through their public performance. In particular, drawing on Rhetorical Political Analysis (RPA), it argues that rhetorical performances of ethos—of character in various dimensions—are fundamental to the manifestation of ideologies. Using examples from British and American political rhetoric the chapter demonstrates how political leaders perform fidelity to a political tradition, draw rhetorical authority from it, and promote, perform, and embody a particular sort of ideological ethos. The chapter further discusses how performances of ethos may draw on very general archetypes, the playing of parts in larger ideological social dramas, and the ways in which polities governs and sets limits to the range of performances possible.
Performing Political Empathy
Authors: Bleiker Roland , Hutchison Emma
Published: March 2021

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the role of performance in the relationship between emotions and politics. To do so it focuses on the role that empathy plays in processes of reconciliation after conflict and trauma. Emotions triggered by conflict often perpetuate existing antagonisms. They tend to reproduce the hostile attitudes that have created violence in the first place. A performative approach illuminates not only how emotions perpetuate conflict but also how they can help divided societies adopt more reflective cultures of reconciliation. The performative dimensions of emotions are crucial because they link individual emotions with collective ones. Drawing on a range of conceptual sources the chapter shows how actively drawing on empathy can promote alternative ways of dealing with conflict. A short case study examines the roles that art, and theater in particular, play in peacebuilding in Sri Lanka. An active appreciation of the whole spectrum of emotions—not only fear, anger, and resentment, for instance, but also compassion—may facilitate forms of social healing and reconciliation.
National Identity
Authors: Klivis Edgaras
Published: March 2021

This chapter aims at presenting the complex correlations between nationalism and modern theater with a special focus on performative construction of national identity. Whether seen as primordial essence or as a social construction national identity is grounded on public rituals and artistic practices (rather than rational ideological systems) which makes theatrical stage, along with print, museums, other media, central to understanding how imagined communities come into being and continue their existence into the global contemporary society. The chapter addresses the question of how the theatrical apparatus of bourgeois theater and staged representations in national theaters function in forming theatrical nationhood as well as concepts (postcolonialism), strategies (theatrical public sphere), artists (Jean Genet), and practices (interweaving performance cultures) that contest the dominant modes of performing national identity.
Law, Presence to Absence
Authors: Leader Kate
Published: March 2021

The live presence of a defendant at trial is a long-standing feature of adversarial criminal trial. So much of what constitutes the adversarial method of adjudication is dependent on qualities that arise from this presence: confrontation and demeanor assessment, among other factors, play important roles in how truth is constructed. As such, performative matters—how a defendant enacts and inhabits her role, how she is positioned or silenced-- have long been of concern to legal scholars. These performative concerns are also centrally implicated in defendant rights, such as the right to a fair trial. But today we face new challenges that call into question fundamental beliefs around trials, defendant presence, and fairness. First, technological advances have led to defendants appearing remotely in hearings from the prison in which they are held. Second, the trial itself is arguably vanishing in most adversarial jurisdictions. Third, the use of trials in absentia means that criminal trials may take place in a defendant’s absence; in England and Wales for less serious offenses this can be done without inquiring why a defendant isn’t there. This chapter therefore seeks to understand the performative implications of these challenges by shifting the conversation from presence to absence. What difference does it make if a defendant is no longer there? Does being there facilitate greater fairness, despite the obvious issues of constraint and silencing? Drawing on sociolegal, political, and performance theory the chapter considers the implications of absence in the criminal trial, asking what happens when the defendant disappears.
Eroticism and the Politics of Representing the Abused Body
Authors: Fitzpatrick Lisa
Published: March 2021

This chapter discusses the photographic and dramatic representation of sexual violence in conflict and the potential for such visual spectacle to be received as erotic or titillating. The chapter begins with a brief consideration of the human fascination with horror, then draws upon the work of Judith Butler on vulnerability, and Susan Sontag and Georges Bataille on suffering to analyze the relationship between pornographic imagery and the images of Abu Ghraib prison. Taking an example of a dramatic representation of wartime rape, Colleen Wagner’s The Monument, the author’s decision not to display the body is explored as one strategy to avoid the exposure of the body to the gaze of the spectator.
Taking a Position
Authors: Coleman Stephen
Published: March 2021

This chapter is stimulated by the author’s collaboration with the renowned choreographer Sharon Watson and dancers from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance to produce a contemporary dance work exploring the feelings of people who had voted for and against Brexit in the UK referendum of 2016. Suggesting that through attention to corporeal experience we might find ways of encapsulating prevalent political moods, it considers the ways in which political affect can exceed the capacities of typical scientific representation. Focusing on what it means to take a position, the chapter argues that dance has the potential to provide ways of attending to deep, prereflective, affective moods underlying and surrounding political situations. The chapter reflects upon the work of translation through which a choreographic devising process was informed by qualitative data. The idea of affective framing is outlined as a new way of thinking about such translatory work. Four arguments for further imaginative collaboration between artists and social scientists are offered, with a view to developing modes of political attention that capture the dynamics of politics as a felt experience.
The Bible in Modern Chinese Fiction
Authors: Starr Chloë
Published: March 2021

This essay surveys existing scholarship on the appearance and use of the Bible in modern Chinese fiction, including chronological, biographical, and thematic studies, while offering its own approach to the Bible in fiction through the type and degree of literary engagement. This ranges from direct, sustained dialogue with the Bible, as in stories based on a particular biblical scene or pericope or the many semi-fictional Lives of Christ produced in the first half of the twentieth century, through to much more diffuse or passing references to biblical themes or allusions. The essay begins with the representation of the physical Bible in literature before considering the transcribed Bible, in direct citation of Bible passages in stories or novels, while the second part of the essay considers literary or thematic engagement.
The Bible and the Public Square in China
Authors: Chia Philip P.
Published: March 2021

This essay examines the Bible as it manifested in the public square in China, both before and after 1949 as the communist power ruled New China. It looks at: (1) the context and controversy of the Bible in the public square; (2) the concentration and conservation of the Bible in the public square; (3) the culture and control of the Bible in the public square; (4) the current and construction of the Bible in the public square; and (5) the challenge and contribution of the Bible in the public square. A broader and brighter prospect is provided, as insights and lessons drawn from history, with a positive perspective looking forward to the Bible and the public square in China.
Bible Translations for Ethnic Minority Groups in China
Authors: Yu Suee Yan
Published: March 2021

There are fifty-five officially recognized ethnic minority groups in China. There were concerted efforts to translate the Bible into some of these languages from the nineteenth century ce until now, resulting in the publication of various vernacular Bible translations, especially among the Miao, Lisu, and Yi groups, events that impacted these communities in significant ways. Since people groups of the same ethnicity live in China as well as in other countries, Bibles translated in these countries could perhaps be used by those in China. Careful linguistic analyses and mappings are needed so that people groups who do not yet have the Bible can access the Scriptures in their heart language or mother tongue.
The Bible and Christian Poetry in Modern China
Authors: Rong Guangqi , Bao Zhaohui
Published: March 2021

With the arrival of Christianity and the translation of the Bible in China, Chinese culture and society have experienced tremendous transformation. On the one hand, the Chinese Bible, Chinese Union Version (CUV) in particular, influences modern Chinese poets in that they learn from the Bible words, images, imagination, stories, and narrative modes different from traditional literature; on the other hand, it affects them spiritually, with concepts of life, world, and values from the Bible. This essay looks at the above relationship between the Chinese Bible and Christian poetry in People’s Republic of China. Many Chinese poets in the twentieth century have indispensable dialogues with Christianity in their writing, particularly the Bible, which endows Chinese modern literature with unique life experience and world imagination. From modern to contemporary times, Chinese Christian literature has gradually improved, from the initial superficial influence of the Bible to the internalized life experience, thus leading to a profound artistry that gains respect in the public sphere.
New Testament Monograph and Commentary in Contemporary China
Authors: Changping Zha
Published: March 2021

Biblical studies in China more than twenty years ago was characterized by two aspects: (1) more studies of the constituent parts than of whole books of the New Testament (hereafter NT); and (2) more research in religious studies than in the theology of NT texts. This essay looks at representative new perspectives in New Testament studies (1976–2018) by the following scholars: Choong Chee Pang, Xie Wenyu, Yang Yan, K. K. Yeo, Zha Changping, and Zhao Dunhua. The new perspectives selectively covered are rhetorical literary, socio-rhetorical, historical, and philosophical, as well as history-logic criticisms.
The Chinese Face of Jesus Christ
Authors: Malek Roman
Published: March 2021

Jesus Christ has been the subject of manifold and intensive reflection in the Chinese context and has shown various faces. The essay surveys the innumerable works of biblical, apologetical, catechetical, liturgical, general theological, literary, and art-historical nature on Jesus Christ covering the periods from Tang and Yuan dynasties (seventh–ninth centuries and twelfth–fourteenth centuries) to the “Cultural Revolution” (1966–1976). The essay observes how various Chinese portraits of Jesus Christ engage with Chinese religions, and how the Chinese context limited the possibilities for the unfolding of a specific face and image of Jesus much more than other Asian and Western contexts. It raises the question of the future: Which faces and images of Jesus Christ will the Chinese context still generate? In this vast part of Asia, will he remain a vox clamantis in deserto?
The Bible and Ethics in Chinese Society
Authors: Wong Bernard K. , Jun Song
Published: March 2021

Confucianism, the dominant ideology of Chinese culture, exerts significant influence on how Chinese Christians read the Bible for ethics. Confucian pragmatism and emphasis on ethics causes readers to accentuate the ethical function of the Bible. Early converts in the nineteenth century championed a common morality between the Bible and Confucian classics as an apologetic strategy. The Confucian ethical framework of “inner sageliness and outer kingliness” has been widely adopted by Chinese interpreters, informing how Christian intellectuals read the Bible for “national salvation by character” in the early twentieth century. When Christianity became rooted in China, Confucian concepts and maxims continued to be used to help Chinese understand the Bible. Besides Confucianism, other factors that shape how an interpreter reads the Bible for ethics include the reader’s historical and social context, theological tradition, and intellectual and educational background.
Biblical Presence in Chinese Contemporary Films
Authors: Xu Jinghan
Published: March 2021

This essay aims to look at the exploration of the Christian faith by means of Chinese contemporary photographic images through categorizing Christianity-related image artwork in China. The exploration will focus on the “film” genre, including documentaries and the artists involved. In terms of territories, it mainly focuses on works produced in mainland China but also discusses some works from Hong Kong and Taiwan that have had some influence reaching China. After surveying art films and experimental films, commercial and popular films, the essay re-reads the films using biblical lenses and images.