bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A European survey of management approaches in chronic urticaria in children: EAACI Paediatric Urticaria Taskforce
Authors: Tsabouri Sophia , Arasi Stefania , Beken Burcin , Church Martin , Alvaro Montserrat , Caffarelli Carlo , Flohr Carsten , Janmohamed Sherief , Konstantinou George , Lau Susanne , Lefevre Sebastian , Mørtz Charlotte , Pajno Giovanni , Pite Helena , Rutkowski Chris , Staubach Petra , Poel Lauri Ann van der , Zuberbier Torsten , Leslie Tabie Anika
Published: September 2021

Background: Although well described in adults, there are scarce and
heterogeneous data on the diagnosis and management of chronic urticaria
(CU) in children (0-18 years) throughout Europe. Our aim was to explore
country differences and identify the extent to which the
EAACI/GA²LEN/EDF/WAO guideline recommendations for paediatric urticaria
are implemented. Methods: The EAACI Taskforce for paediatric CU
disseminated an online clinical survey among EAACI paediatric section
members. Members were asked to answer 35 multiple choice questions on
current practices in their respective centres. Results: The survey was
sent to 2,773 physicians of whom 358 (13.8%) responded, mainly
paediatric allergists (80%) and paediatricians (49.7%), working in 69
countries. For diagnosis, Southern European countries used significantly
more routine tests (e.g., autoimmune testing, allergological tests, and
parasitic investigation) than Northern European countries. Most
respondents (60.3%) used a 2nd generation antihistamine as first- line
treatment of whom 64.8% up dosed as a second- line. Omalizumab, was
used as a second line treatment by 1.7% and third-line by 20.7% of
respondents. Most clinicians (65%) follow EAACI/WAO/GA2LEN/EDF
guidelines when diagnosing CU, and only 7.3% follow no specific
guidelines. Some clinicians prefer to follow national guidelines
(18.4%, mainly Northern European) or the AAAAI practice parameter
(1.7%). Conclusions: Even though most members of the Paediatric Section
of EAACI are familiar with the EAACI/WAO/GA2LEN/EDF guidelines, a
significant number do not follow them. Also, the large variation in
diagnosis and treatment strengthens the need to re-evaluate, update and
standardize guidelines on the diagnosis and management of CU in
children.
Development of allergic rhinitis in early life: A prospective cohort study in high-risk infants
Authors: Masuda Sawako , Nagao Mizuho , Usui Satoko , Nogami Kazutaka , Tohda Yuji , Fujisawa Takao
Published: September 2021

Background: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is the most common allergic disease
in children and is closely associated with asthma in the context of
atopic march. The development process of AR in early childhood, however,
is not well understood due to the absence of definitive diagnostic
criteria. We prospectively investigated the process in regard to not
only the nasal symptoms and sensitization, but also the nasal cytology,
in relation to asthma in a high-risk cohort. Methods: Infants under 2
years of age with atopic dermatitis (AD) and/or food allergy (FA)
without a diagnosis of asthma were recruited and followed prospectively
for 2 years. The phenotype of perennial AR was classified based on the
presence/absence of 1) persistent nasal symptoms, 2) nasal eosinophils
and 3) HDM sensitization, the most common allergen for perennial AR in
Japan. AR-like phenotypes were defined as positive for at least 2 of
those 3 categories. Results: A total of 304 children were enrolled, and
242 subjects (80%) completed the 2-year observation. The prevalence of
eosinophilia in nasal secretions increased from 18.5% to 69.9%, while
HDM-specific IgE >0.35 kUA/L increased from 30.6% to
74.8%. AR-like phenotypes increased from 18.4% to 65.0%. The
cumulative incidence of physician-diagnosed asthma during the 2-year
follow-up was significantly higher in the subjects with an AR-like
phenotype at 1 year than in those with a non-AR phenotypes. Conclusions:
The prevalence of an HDM-related AR-like phenotype was markedly
increased during infancy in high-risk infants with AD/FA and was
associated with asthma.
Performance and pressure drop of CO2 absorption into task-specific and halide-free ionic liquids in a microchannel
Authors: Ma Daofan , Zhu Chunying , Fu Taotao , Ma Youguang , Yuan Xigang
Published: September 2021

The gas-liquid two-phase flow pattern, absorption rate and pressure drop
of CO2 absorbed into the aqueous solution of the task-specific ionic
liquid (1-aminopropyl-3-methylimidazole tetrafluoroborate
[Apmim][BF4] and 1- hydroxyethyl-3-methylimidazole
tetrafluoroborate [OHemim][BF4]) and halide-free ionic liquid 1-
butyl -3-methylimidazolium methylsulfate [Bmim][CH3SO4] were
investigated in a microreactor. The absorption mechanism of the three
ionic liquids was analyzed employing the 13C NMR spectroscopy. The
[Apmim][BF4] was found to have the best ability of CO2 capture
compared to the other two ionic liquids, as chemical absorption occurred
between [Apmim][BF4] and CO2, while only physical absorption
took place between [OHemim][BF4] / [Bmim][CH3SO4] and
CO2. The sequence of CO2 absorption rate in three ionic liquid aqueous
solutions is: [Apmim][BF4] > [Bmim][CH3SO4]
>[OHemim][BF4]. Furthermore, the effects of
gas-liquid flow rate and ionic liquids concentration on CO2 absorption
rate and pressure drop were studied, the pressure drop models based on
various flow patterns were proposed.
Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for Idiopathic Subtricuspid Ventricular Arrythmia
Authors: Patete Manuel , Rodriguez Ivo , Herrera Rafael , García Dulce , Liñero Mikel , Millan Keren , Quintero Niorali , Aquino Frank , Matos Carlos D.
Published: September 2021

Introduction: In cases of recurrent ventricular arrythmias (RVA) after
radiofrequency ablation (RFA), stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT)
using a single high dose of has emerged as an effective treatment.
Methods And Results: SBRT was performed as treatment of an Idiopathic
Subtricuspid Ventricular Arrythmia recurrent to RFA with progressive
cardiac function deterioration despite the staggered use of
antiarrhythmic drugs. No sedation was required, and the patient
tolerated the procedure with no related complications. During
post-procedural follow-up the arrhythmic density dropped from 33% to
1% in 90 days. Conclusions: SBRT can be an effective treatment for RVA
that should be further investigated.
A COMPLICATED CASE OF PSEUDODEMENTIA AND PARKINSONISM TREATED WITH SELEGILINE
Authors: Sekhon Kurrun
Published: September 2021

The term “pseudodementia” has attracted much controversy. An elderly
man with major depressive disorder, single episode, was misdiagnosed
with dementia and subsequently Parkinson’s disease, A trial of high-dose
Selegiline at 60 mg per day produced substantial improvement with
complete resolution of cognitive impairment and disappearance of signs
of “Parkinson’s disease”.
Metabolic Reprogramming and Intervention During T Cell Exhaustion
Authors: Li Fei , Liu Huiling , Zhang Dan , Zhu Bingdong
Published: September 2021

Recent studies have shown that T cell metabolism has become a key
regulator of T cell function and even can determine T cell function at
last. Naïve T cells use fatty acid oxidation (FAO) to meet their
energetic demands. Effector T cells mainly rely on aerobic glycolysis to
supply energy and synthesize intermediate products. Similar to naïve T
cells, memory T cells primarily utilize FAO for energy. Exhausted T
cells, which can be induced by continuous activation of T cells upon
persistently chronic infections such as tuberculosis, mainly rely on
glycolysis for energy. The prevention and treatment of T cell exhaustion
is facing great challenges. Interfering T cell metabolism may achieve
the goal of prevention and treatment of T cell exhaustion. In this
review, we compiled the researches related to exhausted T cell
metabolism and put forward the metabolic intervention strategies to
reverse T cell exhaustion at different stages to achieve the purpose of
preventing and treating T cell exhaustion.
Comparison Of Harmonic Scalpel, Coblation And Cold Dissection For Tonsillectomy In Adult
Authors: Hu Xinqi , Li Jiaying , Cui Xidong , Sun Guangbin
Published: September 2021

Objectives: To compare the safety and effectiveness of tonsillectomy
with three different techniques. Design: A double-blinded randomized
prospective clinical trial Setting and Participants: Totally120 patients
with recurrent tonsillitis between April 2018 and April 2020 were
included. Main Outcome Measures: Operative time, intra and post
operative bleeding loss, pseudomembrane growth time, pseudomembrane
shedding time, postoperative pain, and necrosis depth of specimens were
compared of harmonic scalpel(HS), coblation and cold dissection(CD)
tonsillectomy. Results: The operative time and intraoperative bleeding
loss was significantly less in HS and coblation group than CD group(p
< 0.05). Pseudomembrane growth time and pseudomembrane
shedding time were significantly longer in the HS group compared with
the other groups(p < 0.05). The postoperative pain levels were
significantly higher on the first postoperative day in CD group(p
< 0.05), and significantly lower on the third and seventh
postoperative day in coblation group(p < 0.05). There was no
significant difference among three techniques in terms of postoperative
bleeding loss(p > 0.05). The deepest necrosis depth in
specimen was found in HS group(p > 0.05), while in CD
group, only edema was observed without necrosis. Conclusion: To compared
with HS and CD, coblation is a faster, safer and more painless technique
for tonsillectomy in adult.
Large paradoxical embolus through a patent foramen ovale following arteriovenous graft thrombectomy
Authors: Allam Chadi , Kadri Zeina , Azar Rabih
Published: September 2021

An 86-year-old man with end-stage renal disease on hemodialysis with an
arteriovenous fistula in his left upper extremity presented to his
hemodialysis session with thrombosis of his arteriovenous fistula. The
patient underwent surgical thrombectomy. The patient later showed
evidence of peripheral embolization and livedo reticularis.
Transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiograms revealed a large
thrombus (5x2 cm) in the left atrium prolapsing to the right atrium via
a patent foramen ovale and another thrombus (white arrow) adherent to
the apical wall of the right ventricle. The thrombus in the left atrium
was intermittently crossing the mitral valve and entering the left
ventricle.
Cow's milk allergy non-responsive to amino acid-based formula? A successful transplanted patient with Immune dysregulation, polyendocrinopathy, enteropathy, X-linked syndrome
Authors: Veramendi-Espinoza Liz Eliana , Rentería-Valdivi Claudia Alejandra , Díaz-Subauste Roxana , Aldave-Becerra Juan Carlos , Lozada Guisela Alva , Becilli Marco , Locatelli Franco
Published: September 2021

Cow’s milk allergy non-responsive to amino acid-based formula must raise
suspicion of Immune dysregulation, polyendocrinopathy, enteropathy,
X-linked syndrome. This is a potentially fatal disease associated with
food allergy, sometimes leading to diagnostic delay. In our case, early
diagnosis and management provided life-saving therapy.
On hyponormal and dissipative correct extensions and restrictions
Authors: Kakharman Nurbek , Tulenov Kanat , Zhumanova Lyazzat
Published: September 2021

The main aim of this paper is to study hyponormal and dissipative
correct restrictions and extensions as well as their applications to
differential operators.
Output increasing ways for nanogenerators of PVDF nanofibers: A Review
Authors: Aghayari Sedigheh
Published: September 2021

PVDF has special piezo/pyro/ferroelectric, flexibility, low weight,
biocompatibility, economical, good chemical/thermal, and high mechanical
properties such as excellent nontoxic fiber/film formation. It has polar
and nonpolar phases of α, β, γ, ε, and δ that the nonpolar α phase is
the most stable one, but the β phase is the best of all because it has
good piezo/pyro/ferroelectric properties. Copolymers are attractive
because of their low weight, nontoxic, chemical acid resistance,
flexibility, and ease of processing. These aspects result in them in
applications such as piezoelectric nanogenerators, cooling/heating
sensors, electronic devices (fuel cells, lithium-ion batteries (as
separators) and dye sensitive solar cells), filtration, oil/water
separation, and photoelectric nanodevices. This review highlights the
main aspects of the last decade’s articles, and the focus is on the
synthesis methods of PVDF nanofibers and their properties in different
fields of industry and especially focuses on finding ways to increase
output of PVDF nanofibers nanogenerators (weight/acoustic pressure
nanogenerators).
Customized exogenous ferredoxin functions as an efficient electron carrier
Authors: Song Zhan , Wei Cancan , Li Chao , Gao Xin , Mao Shuhong , Lu Fuping , Qin Hui-Min
Published: September 2021

Ferredoxin (Fdx) is regarded as the main electron carrier in biological
electron transfer and acts as an electron donor in metabolic pathways of
many organisms. Here, we screened a self-sufficient P450-derived
reductase PRF with promising NADPH reduction activity and 9OHAD
production yield and proved the importance of [2Fe-2S] clusters of
Fdx-containing oxidoreductase in transferring electrons in steroidal
conversion. The truncated Fdx domain in all oxidoreductases, together
with mutagenesis data, further elucidated the indispensable role of
[2Fe-2S] clusters in the electron transfer process. By adding the
independent plant-type Fdx to the reaction system, the AD conversion
rate have been significantly improved. A novel efficient electron
transfer pathway of PRF+Fdx+KshA in the reaction system rather than
KshAB complex system was proposed based on analysis of protein-protein
interactions and redox potential measurement. Adding free Fdx created a
new conduit for electrons to travel from reductase to oxygenase. This
electron transfer pathway provides new insight for the development of
efficient exogenous Fdx as an electron carrier.
DFT calculation for the electronic properties and quantum capacitance of pure and doped Zr2CO2 as electrode of supercapacitors
Authors: Xu Shuo , Wang Shi-Jie , Xiao-Hong Li , Cui Hong-Ling
Published: September 2021

Defect and doping are effective methods to modulate the physical and
chemical properties of materials. In this report, we investigated the
structural stability, electronic properties and quantum capacitance
(Cdiff) of Zr2CO2 by changing the dopants of Si, Ge, Sn, N, B, S and F
in the substitutional site. The doping of F, N, and S atoms makes the
system undergo the semiconductor-to-conductor transition, while the
doping of Si, Ge, and Sn maintains the semiconductor characteristics.
The Cdiff of the doped systems are further explored. The B-doped system
can be used as cathode materials, while the systems doped by S, F, N, Sn
atoms are promising anode materials of asymmetric supercapacitors,
especially for the S-doped system. The improved Cdiff mainly originates
from Fermi-level shifts and Fermi-Dirac distribution by the introduction
of the dopant. The effect of temperature on Cdiff is further explored.
The result indicates that the maximum Cdiff of the studied systems
gradually decreases with the increasing temperature. Our investigation
can provide useful theoretical basis for designing and developing the
ideal electrode materials for supercapacitors.
BLOOD CYSTS OF THE CARDIAC VALVES IN ADULTS Review and analysis of published cases
Authors: Bortolotti Uberto , Vendramin Igor , Lechiancole Andrea , Sponga Sandro , Pucci Angela , Milano Aldo , Livi Ugolino
Published: September 2021

Background and aim of the study: Blood cysts of cardiac valves are
generally seen in newborns and infants and very rarely in adults.
Although in most cases they are incidental findings they may be
associated to severe cardiac or systemic complications. This study
analyzes incidence, presentation and treatment of valvular blood cysts
in adults. Methods: A review of the pertinent literature through a
search mainly on PubMed and Medline was performed. Results: In patients
≥ 18 years of age, our search disclosed 54 patients with mitral blood
cysts (mean age, 48±18 years), 9 with a tricuspid valve cyst (mean age,
67±15 years), 3 with a blood cyst on the pulmonary valve (age 31, 43 and
44 years) and 1 aortic valve cyst in a 22-year-old man. Most patients
were asymptomatic while stroke, syncope or myocardial infarction
occurred in 6 patients with a mitral valve cyst. Blood cysts were
removed surgically in 70% of patients with a mitral cyst, in 55% with
a tricuspid cyst and in all those with a pulmonary or aortic cyst. At
histology the cyst wall was composed mainly by fibrous tissue and with
the inner surface lined with typical endothelium. Conclusions: Blood
cysts of cardiac valves are rare in adults but may cause
life-threatening complications particularly when located on the mitral
valve. For such reason surgical removal appears advisable, with low-risk
procedures. Widespread use of multimodality imaging techniques will most
likely increase the number of valvular blood cysts diagnosed also in
adults.
Middle Miocene (Badenian) tusk shells (Scaphopoda) of the Visnjica area near Belgrade (Serbia)
Authors: Jovanovic Gordana , Jovanovic Jovica
Published: September 2021

We re-examined the fossil scaphopod assemblage from the Middle Miocene (Badenian) deposits in Visnjica locality near Belgrade (Serbia) reveals high biodiversity of this neglected fossil group. The study of the nearly 300 specimens has revealed the presence of twelve species of scaphopoda, two of which are mantiened in open nomenclature. They belong to seven genera (in both orders, Dentaliida Da Costa, 1778 and Gadilida starobogatov, 1974): Fissidentalium badense (Partsch in H?rnes, 1856), Antalis cf. taurocostatum(Sacco, 1897), Antalis mutabilis (H?rnes 1856 ex Doderlein ms), Antalis cf. subprismaticum (Baluk, 1972), Antalis sp., Paradentalium sexangulum (Gmelin, 1790), Paradentalium michelottii (H?rnes, 1856), Dentalium sp., Omniglypta jani (Hoernes, 1856), Omniglypta emersoni (Caprotti, 1979), Gadilina taurogracilis Sacco, 1897, Pulsellum miocaenicum (Boettger, 1901). Representatives of the order Dentaliida da Costa, 1778, predominate. Among the identified species, Fissidentalium badense is the most common in the investigated material and comprised 40% of the collected specimens. the order Gadilida is represented only by Pulsellum miocaenicum (Boettger, 1901).
Structure and conceptualization of acceptance: a split-sample exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis approach to investigate the multidimensionality of acceptance of spinal cord injury
Authors: Aaby Anders , Lykkegaard Ravn Sophie , Kasch Helge , Andersen Tonny Elmose
Published: September 2021

Objective: To determine the multidimensionality of acceptance of spinal cord injury (SCI). Participants: Adults with SCI who were admitted to an SCI centre between 1991 and 2020. Methods: All eligible participants (n=686) were invit-ed to complete a survey via REDCap. A 4-dimensional model was hypothesized, which included “Accepting Reality”, “Value Change”, “Letting Go of Control” and “Behavioural Engagement”. Items from 3 accept-ance scales were selected to collectively reflect these 4 dimensions: (i) Spinal Cord Lesion-related Coping Strategies Questionnaire, (ii) Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced, and (iii) a modified Acceptance and Action Questionnaire. A split-sample principal component analysis (PCA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach was used. Results: Complete data were provided by 431 participants (62.8%). A PCA on sub-sample one suggest-ed a 4-factor model based on eigenvalues ≥ 1, corresponding to the hypothesized model of acceptance. A CFA on sub-sample 2 showed good model fit, adding further support to the model. Conclusion: These findings suggest that acceptance is a multidimensional construct with 4 facets that represent distinct, but interconnected, psychological processes. This model of acceptance can be used as a framework for future research and clinical practice to deepen our understanding of acceptance processes following severe injuries, such as SCI. Lay abstract Acceptance has long been considered a core principle of adjustment in rehabilitation psychology. However, several distinct ways of defining and measuring acceptance exist in the literature. The aim of this study was therefore to explore the nuances of acceptance by combining these different definitions in a multidimensional model of acceptance, and testing it empirically. The sample included 431 adults with spinal cord injury who responded to 3 acceptance questionnaires that defined acceptance differently. The statistical analysis showed that acceptance should be regarded a multidimensional construct with 4 facets: “Accepting Reality”, “Value Change”, “Letting Go of Control” and “Behavioral Engagement”. These facets of acceptance reflect distinct, but interconnected, psychological processes, which necessitates a shift in how researchers and healthcare professionals approach this complex topic. We need to be mindful of these nuances in our understanding of acceptance, but also in our measurement strategy and communication with other professionals and patients.
Introduction
Authors: Priest Claire
Published: September 2021

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the origins of the credit economy in the United States. The British American colonial credit economy must be understood as part of the broader financial revolution of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. There were many facets to the eighteenth-century economy: from the politics of empire, to the revolution in government finance, to the Atlantic slave trade, to legal reforms related to land. One pivotal moment was Parliament's Stamp Act of 1765, which many historians view as the act that triggered the American Revolution. The book suggests that the legal commodification of land and slaves as collateral and the creation of legal institutions for recording property titles and foreclosing on mortgages and debts were important underpinnings of the future capitalist society.
English Property Law, the Claims of Creditors, and the Colonial Legal Transformation
Authors: Priest Claire
Published: September 2021

This chapter examines the legal doctrines relating to credit markets and commodification, looking at the issue of assets the legal system protected from the claims of creditors. It describes how colonial legislatures reformed English law to expand the scope of creditors' remedies against land and slaves. The chapter then considers the way that, prior to 1732, colonial legislatures used debtor–creditor law strategically to advance local interests vis-à-vis English creditors. Colonial legislatures were also responsible for creating the law of slavery, a foreign concept to English law. Laws were enacted throughout the colonial era defining slaves variously as “real estate” or “chattel” to achieve alternate ends.
Managing Risk through Property
Authors: Priest Claire
Published: September 2021

This chapter investigates the fee tail, or entail, the principal private means by which individuals could shield wealth from creditors. In particular, it examines how the legal device of holding property in fee tail was used in some colonies as a means of designating some forms of property as outside the reach of creditors. Historical scholarship on the fee tail during the colonial period has typically looked backward from the founding era, when states' decisions to abolish the fee tail became a symbol of the power of republican ideology and its hostility to legal forms that might support an aristocracy. The chapter looks at the fee tail through a different lens: as a legal means to reduce risk. This practice had particular importance in Virginia, where the current historiography suggests that a significant amount of land was entailed at the time of the American Revolution, and thus shielded from English creditors and removed from market exchanges.
Conclusion
Authors: Priest Claire
Published: September 2021

This concluding chapter explains how the history of the laws and legal institutions underlying the colonial credit economy speaks to the history of American democracy and capitalist society. The rise of representative government was closely connected with the ownership of property — both land and slaves — in the history of the United States. In colonial British America, democracy originated in assemblies of property owners often at odds with the policies of royally appointed governors. These first representative legislatures viewed the protection of property interests as a principal role of government. At the same time, however, the credit system promoted the growth of slavery. Property held in slaves was a central underpinning of colonial American credit markets; mortgages on slaves were used to purchase yet more slaves. Indeed, the economic prosperity that better access to credit made possible for White Americans rested in part on the increased suffering of enslaved Africans.
Introduction
Authors: Roach Levi
Published: September 2021

This introductory chapter provides an overview of medieval forgery. In the European Middle Ages, the most common form of forgery was the manufacture of false documents. Indeed, the period has, with some justification, been seen as a golden age of documentary forgery, a time before modern means of criticism, when the counterfeit was king. Well over half of the surviving diplomas in the names of the Merovingian Frankish rulers of mainland Europe are products of forgery; a third of the charters of the Lombard rulers of northern Italy are suspect; and over a third of the documents from pre-Conquest England have been tampered with in some way. The defining feature of these early fakes is a desire to use the past to cement current claims. It is no coincidence that most of them belong to religious houses. In ancient Egypt and the Middle East, as in medieval Europe, the religious classes were specialists in literacy, some of the few capable of presenting and recording complex claims in written form. They also possessed a strong sense of corporate identity (like the later medieval clergy), which encouraged the creation of such false narratives.
Forging Exemption: Fleury from Abbo to William
Authors: Roach Levi
Published: September 2021

This chapter examines how Abbo, the well-connected abbot of Fleury (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire) in the Orléanais, sought out papal protection in the mid-990s. As the terms of the bull he solicited from Gregory V reveal, he was out to remove the monastery almost entirely from established networks of patronage and association. Saint-Benoît would henceforth be an exempt house, answering only to Rome and the pope. This was a dramatic decision, and it was not one Abbo took lightly. It was occasioned by his difficulties with the local bishop of Orléans, Arnulf. Arnulf was also a close associate of the king, Hugh Capet, and as such posed a double threat. Just as Anno had found immunity the best means of fending off the local count of Worms, so papal exemption offered Abbo the ideal solution to his problems with Arnulf. Indeed, it was to evade interference from the bishop of Orléans that the monks of Fleury would resort to forgery in later years. The result was a set of false papal privileges, intended to remove Saint-Benoît from the control of the local diocesan bishop. To understand how and why, the chapter turns from national to local affairs, appreciating the delicate balance of secular and ecclesiastical power within the Orléanais.
True Lies: Leo of Vercelli and the Struggle for Piedmont
Authors: Roach Levi
Published: September 2021

This chapter investigates how the appointment of Leo to the episcopal seat of S. Eusebio opened a new chapter in Vercelli's history. Leo certainly exploited the opportunity of producing his own diplomas to cast Vercelli in the best possible light. In the tumultuous politics of the late ninth century, the see had been sacked at least once, resulting in substantial archival losses. Where elsewhere forgery was used to plug such gaps, Leo resorted to more subtle means of documentary manipulation: he improved one of the few surviving diplomas for his see (in the name of Charles the Fat), while furnishing his own texts with numerous historical asides, which helped anchor his claims in the bishopric's longer history. From the present perspective, the interest of Leo's experiences lies in the light they shed on the use and abuse of charters within the Italian realm. Leo's diplomas are genuine, even if their content is often tendentious. They provide a welcome reminder that modern scholarly judgements of forgery and authenticity are analytical, not moral, ones. Just as counterfeits can tell the truth, so authentic texts are often deeply deceitful.
Introduction
Authors: Carroll Ross
Published: September 2021

This chapter talks about the utility of ridicule and how this can help in building community. It discusses John Hobbes' view of ridicule and refers to it as 'Hobbesian,' an understanding of laughter as an expression of prideful superiority. To look at ridicule through a Hobbesian lens is to call into doubt the very possibility of a safe or inoffensive jest. For Hobbes, then, the problem was not that the strong would constantly laugh at the weak but that vainglorious mockers would provoke angry retaliation from those whose dignity they managed to offend. The chapter also discusses the Shaftesburian view of ridicule as a contrast to the Hobbesian view. Shaftesburian laughter could be more easily shared in company without anyone present feeling slighted or diminished. No philosophy that grounded laughter in individual self-glory could account for how shared laughter forged friendship and conviviality. Ridicule, on this view, was effective against vice because, once exposed, vice naturally inspires contempt in anyone with an uncorrupted moral sense. For Shaftesburians, certain behaviours and traits were intrinsically ridiculous, meaning that any properly constituted mind should dismiss them with laughter once exposed. On the Shaftesburian view, the element of contempt that had been so central to the Hobbesian view could never be disavowed completely. On the contrary, it was from contempt that ridicule derived both its danger and its practical efficacy as an instrument of enlightenment. The chapter presents the argument that declaring ridicule uncivil is to deny its sociable and emancipatory potential.
Sociability, Censorship and the Limits of Ridicule from Shaftesbury to Hutcheson
Authors: Carroll Ross
Published: September 2021

This chapter discusses Sensus Communis: An Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humour. The Sensus Communis became the urtext of the ridicule debate for the remainder of the century. The chapter situates Sensus Communis in its political context and shows how Shaftesbury's commitment to ridicule received an early test when the High Churchman Henry Sacheverell used a sermon at St Paul's Cathedral to mock Whig pieties concerning toleration. By agreeing with Whig efforts to suppress Sacheverell's sermonizing through parliamentary impeachment, Shaftesbury conceded that the coercive power of the state was sometimes needed to create space for the more sociable exchanges he preferred. The chapter concludes in the 1720s with two of Shaftesbury's most influential early readers: Bernard Mandeville and Francis Hutcheson. The chapter shows that it was in the disagreement between these two philosophers (one a champion of Shaftesbury, the other his most trenchant critic), that the significance of ridicule to the debate on sociability comes truly into focus.
Scoffing at Scepticism
Authors: Carroll Ross
Published: September 2021

This chapter focuses on Hume's Aberdonian adversaries: Thomas Reid and James Beattie. These common sense philosophers took a keen interest in the psychology of laughter and were anxious to undermine Hobbes's argument that laughter was ultimately an expression of contempt. But they never disavowed ridicule in philosophical argumentation and public debate. On the contrary, Beattie in particular championed it as an antidote to scepticism, a philosophy he deemed both absurd (and hence immune to rational refutation) and dangerously persuasive. Far from being a frivolous or uncivil mode of speech, therefore, Reid and Beattie made ridicule into a shield for the common sense understandings that held society together.
Speaking of Death
Authors: Parker John
Published: September 2021

The chapter highlights the rise of the Asante forest kingdom and what oral histories of that epochal event have to say about death, dying and the dead. It focuses on an aspect of Akan mortuary culture touched on in the previous chapters: the ways in which death was spoken about or, as was often the case, not spoken about. Asante tradition records that the kingdom was forged by the combined genius of two men: Osei Tutu, the omanhene of Kumasi and then the first Asantehene, and Komfo Anokye, the ritual specialist or 'priest' (okomfo) Anokye; these two were ably assisted by a third figure, the military commander Amankwatia. Theirs is a history that was familiar throughout Asante across the centuries, one endlessly recounted at firesides alongside the mythic cycles of odamankomasem and anansesem and the traditions of settlement of families, clans and stools. Yet it is a history that is characterized too by silences, contradictions and interpretive complexities.
Ghosts and Vile Bodies
Authors: Parker John
Published: September 2021

This chapter looks into the two colonial courts established by the start of 1897 to assist in the governance of Kumasi: one presided over by the British Resident Captain Stewart and the other by Kumasi's cantonment magistrate. It emphasizes the inaugural session of the latter, as the opening case involved the suspected murder of a pregnant woman, named Abena Baidu, and the brutal treatment of her corpse. As the chapter recalls, death during pregnancy or in childbirth was categorized by the Akan as atofowu, a transgressive or blasphemous death. In such an event, the corpse was 'thrown away' without a funeral. Like the putrefying remains of unburied slaves, criminals and debtors, it became a vile body: ebin, filth. The spirit of the deceased, meanwhile, was also destined to become something nasty: an otofo (pl. atofo), an unworthy, restless ghost. The focus of the chapter, however, is less on the colonial appropriation of capital punishment than on understandings of atofowu, and on the result of such blasphemous death: the lingering presence of atofo, or 'ghosts'.
The Colony of Medicine
Authors: Parker John
Published: September 2021

This chapter looks into Ghana's significant change which affected the whole of Africa: the continent's population had begun to increase dramatically by the middle of the twentieth century. The chapter shows the demographic historians' arguments over the reason for this, some pointing to rising birth rates and others to falling death rates. While available evidence suggests that in most regions women's fertility levels remained broadly the same over the first half of the century, there are indications of an accelerating decline in mortality rates, particularly among infants and young children. Yet the overall impact is clear: Africans were, on average, living longer and dying older. The chapter turns to discuss a crucial factor in the increasing denial of death: modern medicine. As individual life expectancy and the overall population in the Gold Coast begun to increase dramatically, the chapter examines how these changes impacted upon attitudes towards death and upon the experience of dying.
Wills and Dying Wishes
Authors: Parker John
Published: September 2021

This chapter seeks to extend the discussion of writing and reading about death in the Gold Coast's late-nineteenth-century print media. It presents a crucial difference in these two uses of literacy: whereas newspapers were the principal medium of an emergent public sphere, wills — like Christianity — can be seen to represent a shift towards a greater individualization of death, removing matters of inheritance from custom and community to the private, 'bourgeois' realm. Although written wills may have been an innovation that spread from the European outposts on the Gold Coast, the chapter argues that African societies already possessed a testamentary tradition in the form of a nuncupative (i.e., oral) will which could legally override custom: the deathbed deposition known as samansie, usually translated as 'that left aside by a ghost'. Orality, that is to say, remained entangled with the written word, as did older concerns with the sanctity of the deathbed and with the lingering power of ancestral asamanfo, 'ghosts.'
Reordering the Royal Dead
Authors: Parker John
Published: September 2021

This chapter narrates Agyeman Prempeh's return to Asante in 1924 from exile in the Seychelles. It unfolds how he had changed in the course of his 28 years in detention and repatriated as a private citizen, Mr Edward Prempeh. Two years later, having cemented a reputation among British officials as a progressive figure, he was appointed 'Kumasihene', head of the reconstituted Kumasi division of colonial Ashanti. That said, in his own mind and in those of his people, Agyeman Prempeh remained Asantehene. Despite his embrace of Anglicanism and colonial modernity, Prempeh was acutely conscious of this historical role and worked assiduously until his death to heal the wounds of the past and to ensure a reinvigorated future by attending to the dignity of the royal dead. The chapter examines his project, which took the form of three interconnected campaigns: to reorder the dominion of the dead in Kumasi; to rebuild the destroyed mausoleum at Bantama; and to repatriate the remains of those who died in the Seychelles and elsewhere. Together, they constitute a key episode in the political life of dead bodies in colonial West Africa.
Thomas Cole and the Landscape of Evangelical Print
Authors: Tharaud Jerome
Published: September 2021

This chapter defines the central concept of evangelical space. It shows how the evangelical print that flooded the nation in the 1820s and 1830s combined with an emerging landscape art culture that produced spectacular visualizations of the evangelical spatial imagination. It also mentions illustrated religious tracts, almanacs, and Bibles alongside one of the most iconic landscape paintings of the period, Thomas Cole's View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm. The chapter reveals that landscape art enacted a symbolic synthesis of two competing impulses in northern evangelical culture: the individual believer's inward pilgrimage toward God and the collective work of global missionary activism. It reconstructs an immersive form of looking closely that is tied to evangelical reading practices and shows how devout viewers used the landscape to orient themselves in sacred history.
Abolitionist Mediascapes
Authors: Tharaud Jerome
Published: September 2021

This chapter traces how American abolitionists took up evangelical media strategies in the mid- and late 1830s, launching circulating antislavery libraries that adapted evangelical space to the geographies of slavery. It mentions that the American Anti-Slavery Society urged readers to extend their “ethical horizon” beyond the local. It also details how the Society used events in the Caribbean and elsewhere to refocus evangelical zeal from Asia to the U.S. South, which transformed the world missionary enterprise into a model for national reform in the process. The chapter shows how abolitionists adapted traditional sacred geographies to chart the global contours of modernity's cruelest and most insidious institution. It maps the cosmic contours of the abolitionist spatial imagination and intervenes in scholarly debates surrounding the history of abolitionism, religious reform movements, and American literary and cultural studies.
Pilgrimage to the “Secular Center”
Authors: Tharaud Jerome
Published: September 2021

This chapter revises standard accounts of the secularization of antebellum culture by examining the widespread practice among Protestant travelers of using physical landscapes as media for visualizing sacred history. It refers to tourism literature, aesthetic treatises, and best-selling sentimental novels by Susan Warner and Maria Cummins to uncover the clash of religious and secular interpretations in tourist landscapes. It also redefines the “secular center” of the American 1850s, not as a cultural space from which religion has been evacuated but one in which the proliferation of religious “options” plays out. The chapter examines the literary and visual production generated around the Catskill Mountain House and similar tourist sites. It analyzes how popular mediascape offers a way to rethink standard scholarly accounts that tell the story of antebellum culture as an orderly, linear transition away from the pieties of the Puritan past and toward the spiritual crisis of the Civil War.
Epilogue
Authors: Tharaud Jerome
Published: September 2021

This chapter looks beyond the American Civil War to consider the ways evangelical space continued to shape how Americans saw the landscape and themselves in literary realism to the conservation movement. It mentions how Mark Twain became a representative figure of how a secularizing America remained haunted by a sense of sacred presence rooted in the soil itself. It reviews the story about the rise of white Protestant evangelicals within U.S. national culture and how their form of evangelical space became American space by the eve of the Civil War. The chapter explores the ironic story about how evangelical space escaped control as writers and artists from other traditions reconfigured the relationship between landscape representation, media, and the sacred to produce their own apocalyptic geographies. It recounts how William Apess, Frederick Douglass, Phillis Wheatley, Robert S. Duncanson, and Henry Obookiah appropriated and adapted evangelical space.
Firepower
Authors: Lacombe Matthew J.
Published: September 2021

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is one of the most powerful interest groups in America, and has consistently managed to defeat or weaken proposed gun regulations — even despite widespread public support for stricter laws and the prevalence of mass shootings and gun-related deaths. This book provides an unprecedented look at how this controversial organization built its political power and deploys it on behalf of its pro-gun agenda. Taking readers from the 1930s to the age of Donald Trump, the book traces how the NRA's immense influence on national politics arises from its ability to shape the political outlooks and actions of its followers. The book draws on nearly a century of archival records and surveys to show how the organization has fashioned a distinct worldview around gun ownership and has used it to mobilize its supporters. It reveals how the NRA's cultivation of a large, unified, and active base has enabled it to build a resilient alliance with the Republican Party, and examines why the NRA and its members formed an important constituency that helped fuel Trump's unlikely political rise. The book sheds vital new light on how the NRA has grown powerful by mobilizing average Americans, and how it uses its GOP alliance to advance its objectives and shape the national agenda.
Introduction
Authors: Lacombe Matthew J.
Published: September 2021

This chapter focuses on the political power of the National Rifle Association (NRA), and asks the questions: What is the source of its power? How does it operate? How has it shaped gun policy and the broader political system? It looks beyond the NRA's use of financial resources and turns instead to what the chapter describes as ideational resources: the identity and ideology it cultivates among its members, which have enabled it to build an active, engaged, and powerful constituency. The chapter contends that the NRA has played a central role in driving the political outlooks and political activity of its supporters — activity that has had both direct and indirect influence on federal gun policy in the United States. Even from its earliest days as a relatively small organization dedicated to marksmanship, competitive shooting, and military preparedness, the NRA cultivated a distinct worldview around guns — framing gun ownership as an identity that was tied to a broader, gun-centric political ideology — and mobilized its members into political action on behalf of its agenda. The chapter analyzes how a group can construct an identity and an ideology, and what happens when it aligns these behind a single party.
Gun Policy during the NRA’s Quasi-Governmental Phase
Authors: Lacombe Matthew J.
Published: September 2021

This chapter focuses on the National Rifle Association's (NRA) efforts during its quasi-governmental phase. Looking at the National Firearms Act and Federal Firearms Act from the 1930s, as well as the Gun Control Act of 1968, the chapter explores how the NRA used this worldview to influence gun policy outcomes during its quasi-governmental phase. The chapter also demonstrates how the NRA harnessed this worldview to advance its political agenda during a period in which it abstained from partisan politics. The chapter then shifts to investigate how these were intertwined with — and often went beyond — other potential sources of power, such as the NRA's financial resources. It digs into a wide range of archival materials to identify how the NRA mobilized gun owners to defeat or weaken gun control legislation in the 1930s through the 1960s. Ultimately, the chapter aims to show that the NRA's ideational resources had independent impacts on key policy outcomes — that they mattered above and beyond any other advantages and resources that the NRA may have had.
Gun Policy during the NRA’s Partisan Phase
Authors: Lacombe Matthew J.
Published: September 2021

This chapter looks back to the beginning of the National Rifle Association's (NRA) partisan phase in order to explore the effects of this position on the group's ability to influence gun policy outcomes. The chapter — examining a number of gun policy cases from the 1980s through the 2010s — questions how would NRA's efforts to advance its agenda — and the effectiveness of those efforts — shift in light of its new place in the political system. It also investigates how would the ideational resources it had used in previous gun control battles come into play. Ultimately, the chapter displays how NRA's relationship with the GOP has opened up new avenues, including influence over both the contents and timing of the legislative agenda.
Martians?
Authors: Weintraub David A.
Published: September 2021

This chapter analzyes the collective thinking about Mars that has been shaped by two centuries of gradually improving astronomical observations of the red planet. It mentions several generations of astronomers that used their increasingly powerful telescopes to map the surface of Mars from the late seventeenth century into the mid-nineteenth century. It also talks about astronomers of recent centuries that believed they were discovering clues at the far ends of their telescopes that revealed Mars was likely the home of Martians. The chapter discusses the international community of astronomers that undertook a decades-long effort to map the Martian globe after they had determined that Mars shared intriguing similarities with Earth. It highlights the ongoing twentieth- and twenty-first-century searches for evidence of life on Mars as the indirect legacy of Giovanni Schiaparelli's discoveries and of Percival Lowell's unfettered imagination and indefatigable efforts to promote his ideas about Mars to the public.