bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
International and Constitutional Law in the Americas
Authors: Herrera Juan Camilo , Acosta-Alvarado Paola Andrea
Published: February 2024

This chapter explains the interrelations between constitutional and international law with special emphasis on the sources or clauses of international projection in the Constitutions of the Americas and the Caribbean. Through the description and analysis of the normative taxonomies of each of the 36 Constitutions in force in the region, we offer a big picture of the internationalization of constitutional law and at the same time of the elements that make up the constitutionalization of international law in the region. The connections are demonstrated through practical examples of the impact on domestic legal systems in the areas of human rights, regional integration, and investment law. The main contribution of this study lies in subsuming in a few pages the identification of the intersections of international and constitutional law in the Americas with a view to the relations between the local, national, regional, and international.
Humanism and Republicanism
Authors: Kirste Stephan
Published: February 2024

Since the time of Cicero in ancient Rome to the Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment and into the era of modern and contemporary theories, many republican philosophers were or are also humanists. Given the vagueness of the term ‘humanism’ and the fact that we can barely discern a coherent ‘humanist movement’, this chapter addresses the question of what humanism can contribute to republicanism not by tracing out a full historical account but rather by exploring the lasting impressions that humanism can make on republican thought. This approach has the effect of reintroducing positive freedom into the theory of republicanism. The contribution of humanism to republicanism consists in demonstrating that republican freedom is not only negative freedom and that positive freedom is not only the freedom of the old. By giving clear contours to the concept of human dignity, humanists can establish it as the basis of an individual positive freedom to participate in the shaping of the republic. Despite this grounding of republican freedom on human dignity, the contribution of freedom to the common good and the rule of law is not neglected, but made compatible with modern individualism in the first place. At the same time, in humanism, the ancient, Renaissance, continental, and English traditions of republicanism are brought together again more closely.
A Republican Theory of Elections
Authors: Weinstock Daniel M.
Published: February 2024

Republican theorists have paid scant attention to the choice of electoral systems. They seem to hold that as long as some fair, majoritarian system of elections is put in place, nothing of republican value is gained by having any particular form of system. But republican values speak in a more discerning way to the choice of electoral system than these theorists have held. In particular, a republican dilemma emerges when one realizes that the two values that Philip Pettit has put forward as desiderata for democratic systems pull in opposite directions with respect to electoral systems. The concern with control would seem to militate for a ‘first-past-the-post’ system, whereas a concern with equality would seem to argue for a system of proportional representation. Single transferable vote systems reduce this tension, by attempting to equalize the impact that each voter has on electoral outcomes through the full range of voter preferences among candidates.
Republicanism and Religion
Authors: Murphy Andrew R.
Published: February 2024

Much of the literature on the relationship between republicanism and religion has focused on a purported tension between republican thinkers and Christianity. Rousseau famously denied the possibility of a Christian republic (‘these terms are mutually exclusive’), while Machiavelli’s effusive praise of Numa’s use of Roman religion to unite the populace amplified his denunciations of the Christianity of his day. This chapter examines these two important exemplars while also going beyond them to consider the broader Anglo-American republican tradition, which displays a more nuanced and complex relationship between republicanism and religion. Atlantic republican thinkers drew on classical sources as well as Jewish and Christian ones, articulating a ‘godly’ or ‘Christian’ republicanism; later scholars theorized on the importance of ‘civil religion’ in ways more friendly to Christianity than Machiavelli’s or Rousseau’s formulations. Rather than an inherent hostility to Christianity (to say nothing of ‘religion’ more generally), the republican tradition offers a range of possible theoretical and institutional arrangements in a similarly wide range of historical contexts. As long as political thinkers, actors, and ordinary citizens view their political and religious liberties as intertwined, and draw meaning and value from both political and religious communities, the relationship between republicanism and religion will remain a vibrant site of inquiry.
Culture, Identity, and Foreign Policy
Authors: Julka Amit
Published: February 2024

This chapter traces the evolution of research on identity and culture in foreign policy analysis (FPA) and international relations (IR). Apart from analysing convergences and divergences in IR and FPA, it argues that both fields conceptualize identity and culture in an ahistoric fashion, which leads to a very static (and de-politicized) understanding of these terms. Second, the chapter suggests that both concepts are bracketed as ideational, thus re-enforcing the reductionist binary of ‘material versus ideas’. Instead, the chapter calls for a more historical-materialist treatment of identity and culture which takes into account the role of historical forces in making certain ideas possible. Furthermore, the chapter calls for a reconceptualization of materiality that places human embodiment and environmental forces at the core of its analysis. A broader understanding of materiality will thus allow space for considering the role of phenomena such as emotions in shaping culture and identity.
Public Opinion, News, Digital Media, and Foreign Policy
Authors: Boucher Jean-Christophe
Published: February 2024

This chapter looks at the current state of the field of public opinion, and news and digital media. The central question organizing this research programme focuses on measuring and delineating the interactive relationship between the public, news media—and to some extent social media—and decision-makers. The literature on these issues is extensive and both theoretically and empirically rich and well developed. Nevertheless, with the rapid digitalization of our modern society, it is a field of research ready for disruption. New research questions on the role of the digital world in the realm of foreign policy as well as the development of new methodologies, especially those assisted by artificial intelligence, will possibly represent the future of Foreign Policy Analysis.
Autocratic Institutions and Foreign Policy
Authors: Jost Tyler
Published: February 2024

This chapter discusses the study of foreign policy in authoritarian states. Traditionally, authoritarian foreign policy was studied through coarse comparisons between democratic and non-democratic regimes. A new wave of scholarship suggests that differences between authoritarian regimes can also shape patterns in foreign policy behavior. Some scholars emphasize political accountability – the ability to remove rulers when adopt foreign policies that deviate from elite or societal preferences. Other scholars instead emphasize the effectiveness of bureaucratic institutions responsible for advising foreign policy decisions and coordinating foreign policy implementation – and the institutional trade-offs that authoritarian rulers face between domestic political security and bureaucratic performance. Future scholarship can further advance the field though incorporating insights from emerging research on bureaucracy, comparative politics, and foreign policy analysis.
Executives and Foreign Policy
Authors: Kaarbo Juliet , Lantis Jeffrey S.
Published: February 2024

This chapter highlights the important role that foreign policy executives play in foreign policy decision-making around the world. In contrast to traditional international relations (IR) theories that argue foreign policies are determined primarily by systemic pressures of anarchy, economic interdependencies, and prevailing norms, we focus on two key themes that emerge in foreign policy analysis (FPA) research on executives in particular: power and processes. Our survey of the literature suggests just how important it is to study executive behaviour ‘in the rooms where it happens’ for FPA. The chapter also identifies promising future directions for research on these themes, calling for attention to the nature of states and implications for executive foreign policy powers and a widening of empirical, methodological, and conceptual lenses in analyses of executive foreign policy-making. These developments could strengthen bridges between FPA and IR, as well as between FPA and public policy and comparative politics.
Foreign Policy Analysis and Liberalism
Authors: Hadfield Amelia
Published: February 2024

Within the area of foreign policy analysis (FPA), liberalism plays a vital role, with its emphasis on domestic politics, decision-making processes, and the interdependence of structures and agents. Representing a rich and varied a group of perspectives, both classical and contemporary, liberalism’s starting point is both the individual, and the interplay between individuals, markets, and states, and the series of rights and obligations driving political actors at both domestic and international levels. Liberalism’s approach helpfully individualizes, even humanizes the international state system by cracking open the ‘black box’ of a generic state unit, allowing a whole range of identities, ideas, interests, and institutions to flow forth. This provides both FPA and foreign policy decision-makers alike with a far more accurate—but complex—appreciation of what defines states (i.e., their essential statehood), as well as what drives and motives states (i.e., their preferred form of statecraft). However, as this chapter explores, there is no single, linear liberal philosophy, but rather ever-contested options about the self, rights, and representation, and interdependence between national and international realms, many of which have been repeatedly challenged at both domestic and international levels.
Resolve, Reputation, and Foreign Policy
Authors: McManus Roseanne W.
Published: February 2024

This chapter summarizes the current state of research on resolve and reputation in foreign policy and how it has evolved. It points to three developments in the study of resolve and reputation that have created opportunities for more input from the foreign policy analysis (FPA) perspective: (1) greater focus on domestic politics, (2) greater focus on leaders, and (3) greater focus on individual psychology. The chapter also considers how an analysis of these aspects of resolve and reputation can open up a dialogue between FPA and other disciplines. The chapter ends by suggesting possible new directions for future research in this area and how FPA can contribute.
Strategic Narratives, Soft Power, and Foreign Policy
Authors: Miskimmon Alister , O’Loughlin Ben , Roselle Laura
Published: February 2024

Communication is central to Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) and International Relations (IR). Soft power has faced criticism on its methodology and whether its core claims contribute to IR explanations. Strategic narrative analysis explains how actors make sense of their past, present, and futures through circuits of communication over time. This allows explanation of core IR concepts like legitimacy, authority, and the likelihood of actors forging projects. Strategic narrative contributes to FPA repositioning itself within IR. This chapter, first, explains soft power and strategic narrative, their theory and methods, and their position within FPA and IR. Second, the chapter demonstrates how strategic narrative is practiced by a wide range of actors. Foreign policy-making is adapting to international communication pressures. Finally, the chapter looks at how strategic narrative analysis can explain how actors respond to policy challenges. Attention to narratives and their circulation can explain the conditions within which policy is made, legitimated, and contested.
Foreign Policy Analysis and Public Policy
Authors: Brummer Klaus
Published: February 2024

This chapter discusses what cross-fertilization between Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) and Public Policy scholarship can look like based on two empirical phenomena that are of interest to both fields: policy change and policy failures. The chapter shows how the incorporation of insights from one field to the other can contribute to getting a firmer conceptual and empirical grasp of these phenomena, thereby advancing our understanding of both policy-making processes and outcomes. More specifically, it argues that, on the one hand, insights from FPA can lend nuance to theories of the policy process with respect to grasping the role of political leaders as agents of change or drivers of failure, and that, on the other hand, insights from Public Policy can contribute to FPA by providing a better conceptualization and operationalization of ‘change’ and ‘failure’ and by helping to systematize the political processes that lead to those outcomes in the first place.
Foreign Policy of Substate Governments
Authors: Cantir Cristian
Published: February 2024

Foreign policy analysis (FPA) and paradiplomacy have natural affinities, including a concern for the diversity of domestic agents and their impact on a country’s foreign policy behaviour. There has been little theoretical and empirical interaction between these two areas of scholarship, however. This chapter seeks to identify pathways to correct this state of affairs. It argues that FPA should use its theoretical toolbox and the extensive empirical evidence uncovered by paradiplomacy scholars to outline the role of substate governments in the national foreign policy-making process and the role of such entities as autonomous diplomatic agents. By doing so, foreign policy scholars can claim a central analytic location in IR by broadening their focus beyond military security issues, overcoming the state-centrism that continues to dominate the field, and building more bridges towards disciplines like political geography and towards policy-makers.
Introduction—Robert Burns
Authors: Carruthers Gerard
Published: February 2024

Surveying the contents of the handbook volume overall, this introduction points to the long and varied regional, national, and international receptions of Burns. It sets out the different modes and genres of Burns’s writing, including how he fashioned his own artistic image, and it foregrounds the various and crucial cultural, intellectual, and sociable contexts that surround Burns in his lifetime and beyond. The essay sketches the ‘Burns industry’, also dealt with in more detail in the chapters that follow it, including commemoration, heritage iterations of the poet, and his associations with food and drink. Burns’s complicated Scottish reception is joined by a set of British and international readings of his life and work that see him as an iconic writer in regional, national, and world terms. Enduring biographical interest in Burns, as well as many rich resources beyond the texts themselves in the twenty-first century, ensures that the writer is as vitally interesting today as ever.
The Imprint of His Origin
Authors: Scott Patrick
Published: February 2024

After briefly discussing Burns’s comments about books and scholarship on his reading, this essay examines the changing book culture of Burns’s Ayrshire through the books printed in the 1780s by Burns’s own printer, John Wilson of Kilmarnock. This approach confirms the importance for book history of Burns’s Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1786), though modifying romanticized accounts of its publication; stresses the variety and continuities in regional readership, rather than simply a local time lag in the impact of the Enlightenment; summarizes the list of books Burns owned at his death; and suggests that late eighteenth-century Scottish provincial book culture was less hub-and-spoke, the dissemination of books published in Edinburgh (and London), than it was nodes-and-network, printing and reprinting books on local presses for booksellers in other towns and even in the two capitals.
Iconic Burns
Authors: Dougal Josephine
Published: February 2024

In the twenty-first century, Robert Burns has been granted a notable afterlife as a visual icon—evolving and mutating into new forms and in new guises. This essay examines how early portraits of Burns have become the visual source material and pattern for a reproducible cultural sign that says Robert Burns. Approaching Burns from a cultural studies perspective, it reveals how this long-established cultural icon is undergoing a twenty-first-century makeover in spheres such as graphic design, fashion and art, events and tourism, commodities and advertising, museum display, and social media. These new visual interpretations inform the analysis of Burns’s complex symbolic role in which a dynamic adaptive process of both continuity and change contribute to his endurance and relevance. A detailed examination of a number of key examples traces the reworkings and uses of his image in a range of contexts in order to consider how the processes of visual adaptation and appropriation may serve to reinforce, renew, or subvert his cultural status and meanings.
‘For the honour of Caledonia’
Authors: McCue Kirsteen
Published: February 2024

This chapter makes close reference to the recently published Oxford edition of Robert Burns’s Songs for George Thomson. In September 1792 Burns enthusiastically accepted Thomson’s invitation to contribute lyrics for a new national song project, namely Thomson’s Select Collection of Scottish, Irish, and Welsh airs. Delivering songs to Thomson was to occupy much of the final four years of the poet’s life and resulted in the publication of upwards of 170 of Burns’s songs across the next four decades. This chapter explores the nature of the close and detailed correspondence between Burns and Thomson, establishing the editorial process and Burns’s interest in and in-depth knowledge of contemporary song culture, and reflecting on his ideas about national song. The reception of Thomson’s role as editor of Burns’s songs has received mostly harsh criticism across the last two centuries. This aggressive stance towards Thomson has rather overshadowed the reality of this creative collaboration and has downplayed Burns’s role as the ultimate national songster.
Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Ireland, 1800–1922
Authors: Hill Myrtle
Published: February 2024

This chapter explores how transformations within religious institutions impacted on public and popular perceptions of gender and sexuality. In assessing the ways in which traditional views were simultaneously reinforced and challenged, this analysis considers both formal and popular expressions of religiosity, the gap between rhetoric and reality and the diversity of individual experiences, always with the caveat that much in this area of intimacy remains unrecorded. The historiography of the period mainly highlights the extent to which religious pressure restricted and controlled female behaviour, and there is much evidence to bolster the familiar picture of Irish sexual repression. However, a more rounded and complex picture emerges from this study, which reflects the multifaceted nature of personal and social behaviours and responses to the changing religious context.
Science and Religion Before and After Darwin
Authors: Adelman Juliana , Mathieson Stuart
Published: February 2024

This chapter examines the ‘conflict thesis’, the assumption that science and religion are incommensurable, in its Irish context. As evolution, especially Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, is so pivotal in these debates, the chapter is organized around the publication of Origin of Species (1859). It first surveys science and religion in early nineteenth-century Ireland, particularly the role of education, before exploring the variety of responses to Darwin and how these were not as acrimonious as commonly supposed. It demonstrates that ‘scientific’ denoted an epistemological and methodological approach rather than a discipline, and how this led to controversy over scientific approaches to the Bible. Next, it demonstrates how scientific naturalists such as John Tyndall appropriated Darwinism as a secular ideology as part of a contest for cultural authority. Finally, it considers how science, religion, and national identity became inextricably linked during the campaign for Home Rule and eventual partition of Ireland.
The Religion and Politics of Paisleyism
Authors: Mitchel Patrick
Published: February 2024

Contrary to some analyses, this chapter takes religion seriously as the motivating force behind Ian Paisley’s life and political career. To do so requires understanding the character of Paisley’s self-claimed fundamentalism and its relationship with broader evangelical Protestantism. Five distinct traits of Paisleyite fundamentalism are examined in turn. It is argued that, while fundamentalism differs from evangelicalism in specific ways, the differences tend to be those of emotion, intensity, or attitude rather than theology. Paisley’s political success lay in how he created new ideological space within Protestant unionist identity that appealed to the wider Protestant population well beyond the limited appeal of Free Presbyterian fundamentalism. This ‘space’ took the form of a religiously legitimated nationalist salvation drama. Paisley’s unexpected ascent to power as First Minister, sharing power with Sinn Féin, created irresolvable tensions that would lead to a rather bitter ending to his political and religious career
Beyond Teleology
Authors: Connolly S. J.
Published: February 2024

By the beginning of the twentieth century Irish political life was divided along clear confessional lines. A mainly Catholic nationalism confronted a mainly Protestant unionism. Yet it would be a mistake to project this straightforward dichotomy onto an earlier period. Ireland’s unusual religious demography ensured that sectarian hostility was an inescapable part of political life. But there were other divisions within Irish society, and expedient alliances repeatedly took shape across confessional lines. It was not until the 1880s that wary interaction gave way to polarization. The triumph of confessional politics was in part due to the changing character of public life. But the emergence of new religious cultures, Catholic and Protestant, also played a part in shaping political relationships and responses
Religion and Law in Ireland and Northern Ireland Since 1968
Authors: McCrudden Christopher , Doyle Oran , Kenny David
Published: February 2024

This chapter focuses on three roles that ‘religion’ has played on the island of Ireland since 1968: as a set of transcendental beliefs; as a marker of political and cultural identity; and as the setting for the exercise of ecclesiastical power in secular political contexts. The changing relationship of religion and law in Ireland and Northern Ireland in these contexts is examined. In 1968, religion strongly manifested in law across the island of Ireland. Christianity was a dominant legal ideology. At the end of the period, religion’s role in the legal system was much reduced. Patterns of convergence and divergence between north and south are identified and explained. Legal change is considered in two dimensions: as the outcome of—and reflecting—political, economic, and social forces; and as a quasi-autonomous factor in the production of social change.
Changing Protestant Identity in Southern Ireland, 1922–1970s
Authors: d'Alton Ian
Published: February 2024

This chapter examines how the Protestant minority, beached in an overwhelmingly Catholic state after independence, had to adapt its identity and values to the new order. The principal features of Protestant demography, social economy, and denominational makeup form the background against which ‘dual loyalty’ became a method of coping. Britishness was mediated principally through cultural royalism and connectivity with Empire and the wider Protestant world. Irishness was emphasized by claiming the Church of Ireland’s descent from St Patrick. Protestants withdrew into ghettos to protect their privileges and avoid mixed marriages. Politically powerless, they reinvented their place in Irish life as preceptors of moral and civic values. Despite an inherent anti-Catholicism, conservative Protestantism was more in tune with many of the values of Catholic Ireland than often thought. All this, together with the ecumenical movement from the 1960s, allowed a common citizenship to emerge, largely resolving the identity issue.
Religion, Gender, and Sexuality, 1922–1968
Authors: Earner-Byrne Lindsey
Published: February 2024

The period between 1922 and 1968 represented the zenith of the symbiotic relationship between religion, sexual behaviour, and gender conformity on the island of Ireland and the beginning of its gradual sundering. Until at least the 1950s, there appears to have been a significant degree of buy-in and excitement on behalf of ‘the people’ for the moral agenda. By the 1960s evidence of a gradual change in mentalities was apparent in a significant proportion of the island’s population. However, this more questioning climate also reinvigorated those who continued to believe that religion and sexual politics were pivotal to social and political stability. This chapter explores the role religion played in shaping the socio-moral ethos of both states on the island during this period and the ways it informed the performance and practice of gender and sexuality in everyday life.
Literature and Religion, 1798–1923
Authors: Vance Norman
Published: February 2024

This chapter argues that, despite ecclesiastical hostility to plays and even to the novel, imaginative literature, from the poetry and prose of Thomas Moore to James Joyce, absorbed and sometimes challenged or transformed religious and pastoral concerns with history, society, and the inner life. The best writing successfully negotiated the economic problems of Irish publishing and often short-lived Irish journals and could range beyond the divisive limitations as well as literary opportunities of denominational, sometimes sectarian, issues such as anti-Catholicism and ‘prophecies’ of Catholic or Protestant triumph. Poems, and hymns, original or translated from Latin or Irish, could be of broader religious and general interest, made available in generously inclusive collections. Across a wide range of texts and contexts common themes emerge: historical memory, particularly of the United Irishmen, the problems of priestly or ministerial vocations, mixed marriage, sectarian antagonisms, and rebellion against religious discipline and authority.
Urbanization and the Urban Model in Pre-Roman Italy
Authors: Bourdin Stéphane
Published: February 2024

Cities appeared in pre-Roman Italy at different rates between the eighth and sixth centuries BCE. Latium, Etruria, and Campania, which benefited from the influx of wealth from the east, configured themselves early as city states; the inland areas of the Apennines and the Alps developed urban forms later through alternative formulae focused on settlements of lesser importance or lesser monumentality that nevertheless performed the same political, religious, economic, and social functions as the coastal cities. From the second half of the fourth century, Rome began to influence urban development in Italy. This chapter examines the literary sources and, more importantly, the archaeological evidence to trace the evolution of urbanization on the peninsula.
The Umbrians
Authors: Amann Petra
Published: February 2024

The core area of the Umbrian peoples in inner central Italy was enlarged by expansion into the southern Po Plain and the nearby Adriatic region from the sixth century BCE. The existence of easily traversed passes over the Apennines was of particular significance for the cultural and historical development of the Umbrian peoples. Central settlements emerged, and the influence of the nearby Etruscans often played an important role. In the late fourth century, the defense against Rome began, which saw several military coalitions between Umbrians and Etruscans, and even with Celts and Samnites. The following phase of increasing Roman influence culminated in the legal integration of the Umbrian populi into the Roman citizenry as a result of the Social War.
Magistrates and Political Institutions
Authors: Maggiani Adriano
Published: February 2024

The central southern region of Italy was made up of a multiplicity of populations who spoke different languages and dialects. Apart from a few common features, they did not show the same level of development in synchrony, either with regard to the forms of the settlements or the institutions. It has been argued that there were original magistracy systems among the Italic peoples, autonomous from the Roman magistracy, but many of the titles are considered definite borrowings from Latin. This chapter examines the institutional systems and the magistracies of the Etruscan and Italic populations living in this area in pre-Roman times.
Family Structures
Authors: Benelli Enrico
Published: February 2024

The role of the individual in pre-Roman society was defined primarily by the family, not only in Etruria but in most—if not all—of the cultures of the Italian peninsula. This family-based social structure is entirely consistent with the use of the nomen gentilicium, the family name transmitted through patrilineal descent—a convention that was shared by all peoples of Italy (at least, those south of the Po River), regardless of their differences in language and culture; this practice was completely unknown elsewhere. This chapter examines Etruscan epigraphy, which was conceived to serve the self-representation needs of prominent families.
Spectacles and Games Prior to the Emergence of “Roman Drama”
Authors: Manuwald Gesine
Published: February 2024

In the period roughly between the fifth and third centuries BCE, Italy saw a diverse range of public performance types and traditions, all of which were in different ways precursors of the main forms of dramatic performance known for Rome. This chapter covers performances of Greek characters in Italy and Sicily, as well as the traditions among the Etruscans, Oscans, and other peoples in Italy (notably the fabulae Atellanae and Rhinthonica). Such a perspective makes it possible to identify further possible links (beyond the Greek model) to the later situation in republican Rome, after dramatic performances with a coherent plot were introduced.
Italy and Its Islands
Authors: De Vido Stefania
Published: February 2024

Most commonly in the ancient world, an Italy was imagined that had the islands as an active and probably necessary—though very distinct—counterpart. Italy and its islands were actors in the long-term processes that we have learned to interpret according to the model of Mediterranean connectivity, but they were rooted quite early in the fabric of the local reality—modeled from the inside—that articulated the political body and generated new social and economic realities that found expression in the tyrannies, as witnessed by Thucydides in Book I (1.13.2). This chapter seeks to convey the unique psychology behind the relationship between Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica.
The Many Facets of Black-Gloss Pottery
Authors: Roth Roman
Published: February 2024

The beginnings of Italian black-gloss pottery production date back to the late archaic period, when an increasing amount of Atticizing pottery began to be made, especially in Etruria and the cities of Magna Graecia. Even though black-gloss pottery did not originate in Rome itself, from the mid-fourth century BCE onward the trade flows responsible for its spread are associated with the emergence of Rome as a significant power. This chapter provides an overview of the main types of black-gloss wares and their chronologies, as well as a synopsis of the most important approaches to the material as evidence for historical processes.
The Italic Herakles/Hercle/Hercules
Authors: Schwarz Shirley J.
Published: February 2024

In Italic myth and imagery, the beginnings of Hercules can be traced to the Greek Heracles; in Italy, he developed a complexity far beyond that of his origins. This perhaps can be explained by the combination of migratory waves of Greek merchants and colonists of Achaean and Euboean descent with Italy’s rich agriculture, extensive mineral wealth, and vibrant international trade. Largely formulaic, the early legends (no doubt Greek colonial propaganda) depict his exploits in eliminating monsters, wild beasts, and vicious and uncivilized adversaries of all kinds, while at the same time undertaking creative purification and reclamation work, and reorganizing landscapes and culture, all while benefiting mankind. This chapter provides a focused exploration of his importance to rulers, his relationship to Hera/Uni/Juno, and the Italic spread of his worship.
Effectively financing private sector innovation? Toward a conceptual policy framework
Authors: Jansen Alix , Breznitz Dan
Published: February 2024

Our understanding of innovation policies has been enhanced. However, there is still a gap in conceptualizing the effectiveness of one of innovation policy’s most important tools: financial incentives (FIs). Scholars developed an understanding of the effectiveness of direct versus indirect FIs, but there is no clear theoretical framework that delineates what kind of financial instruments impact what kind of innovation under what conditions. This paper analyzes the different working and operational logic of the wide array of employed FI worldwide to develop what is, to the best of our knowledge, the first conceptual framework discerning what financial tools fit what aims and contexts. This framework allows the development of testable hypotheses as well as the development of incentives tailored differently for different national innovation missions and market structures, suggesting that the growing reliance among OECD countries on indirect FIs in the form of tax incentives is less then optimal.
Heuristics on Call: The Impact of Mobile-Phone-Based Business-Management Advice
Authors: Cole Shawn , Joshi Mukta , Schoar Antoinette
Published: February 2024

There is growing evidence that business training for micro-entrepreneurs can be effective. However, in-person training can be expensive and imposes costs on the target beneficiaries. This paper presents the results of a two-site randomized evaluation of a light-touch, mobile-phone-based business-training service for micro-entrepreneurs in India and the Philippines. The results show that the training had a statistically significant impact on the adoption of improved business practices, with an increase of 0.06 to 0.12 standard deviation points when considering a binary indicator of business practices. The study finds no evidence of impacts on business sales or profits, though the confidence intervals are wide enough to include meaningful effect sizes (positive or negative). These results suggest that mobile-phone-based training can be a cost-effective and scalable way to impart business skills to micro-entrepreneurs.
Regulating Direct-to-Consumer Polygenic Risk Scores
Authors: Sherkow Jacob S. , Park Jin K. , Lu Christine Y.
Published: February 2024

(Abstracted from JAMA 2023;330:691–692)

Polygenic risk scores (PGSs) are genome-wide measurements of an individual's genetic propensities or predispositions, and tests have been recently made more accessible and results more available to consumers. With most genetic tests, a healthcare provider helps consumers to interpret results as they relate to medical conditions, but more and more frequently direct-to-consumer PGSs (DTC-PGS) are unregulated.
Efficacy and Safety of Botulinum Toxin Type A in the Treatment of Trigeminal Neuralgia
Authors: Hu Xinyu , Xia Yun , Li Jingwen , Wang Xinyi , Liu Hanshu , Hu Jichuan , Bi Juan , Wu Jing , Wang Tao , Lin Zhicheng , Xiong Nian
Published: February 2024

Objective:

This review aims to analyze the current data for the use of botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and highlight the evidence for its efficacy and safety. Pain management in patients with TN is challenging, as facial pain often does not respond well to conventional therapies. BTX-A has been suggested as a potential treatment option, but there is limited evidence regarding its long-term efficacy.

Methods:

A comprehensive search was conducted in various databases (PubMed, Scopus, Embase, ClinicalTrials and Cochrane Library) to identify clinical studies evaluating the use of BTX-A in TN until October 2023. Randomized controlled trials, single-arm studies, and stratified studies were included in the analysis. The mean difference (MD), effect size (ES), and 95% confidence interval (CI) were estimated for visual analogue scale (VAS) scores, pain attack frequency and the proportion of responders.

Results:

The analysis included 23 studies, including four randomized controlled trials, fourteen single-arm studies, and five stratified studies. In the randomized controlled trials, BTX-A was found to significantly reduce mean VAS scores compared to baseline (ES: -4.05; 95% CI: -6.13, -1.97; P=0.002). In nineteen non-RCTs, the pooled single-arm analysis revealed that BTX-A decreased VAS scores (ES: -5.19, 95% CI: -6.05, -4.33, P<0.001) and pain attack frequency (ES: -17.85, 95% CI: -23.36, -12.34, P<0.001) from baseline to the end of follow-up. The overall proportion of responders to BTX-A treatment was also significant (95%CI: 0.653, 0.761, P=0.003).

Discussion:

Current evidence indicated BTX-A injection is an effective and safety option for patients with refractory TN or not responding to medical or surgical management. However, more high-quality studies are needed to further confirm its efficacy.
The Narrowband CE-Chirp Stimulus Does Not Necessarily Produce More Robust Cervical Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential
Authors: Zakaria Mohd Normani , Salim Rosdan , Anual Muhammad Shafiq Imran , Patuzzi Robert
Published: February 2024

Objective:

Various studies have been conducted to search for the most optimal stimulus for eliciting cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP). More recently, there is a growing interest to study the usefulness of chirp stimuli in cVEMP recording. Nevertheless, contradictory outcomes have been reported across the studies, and further research with larger samples would be beneficial to provide better insight into this matter. As such, the present study was carried out to compare cVEMP results between narrowband (NB) CE-Chirp (centered at 500 Hz) and 500 Hz tone burst stimuli.

Design:

In this study that employed a comparative study design, 98 normally hearing adults aged between 19 and 24 years were enrolled. All of them underwent the cVEMP testing based on the recommended test protocol. The stimuli were a 500 Hz tone burst and a NB CE-Chirp (360–720 Hz) presented through insert earphones at an intensity level of 120.5 dB peSPL.

Results:

For each stimulus, cVEMP results did not differ significantly between the ears (p > 0.05). Relative to the 500 Hz tone burst, the NB CE-Chirp stimulus produced statistically shorter P1 and N1 latencies (p < 0.001). On the other hand, P1-N1 amplitude was found to be comparable between the two stimuli (p > 0.05).

Conclusions:

The present study did not find any supporting evidence that the NB CE-Chirp stimulus (centered at 500 Hz) outperformed the conventional 500 Hz tone burst in the cVEMP testing. Both stimuli are considered equally appropriate to record cVEMP responses in clinical settings.
Anlotinib plus Sintilimab achieved in an antitumor effect of complete remission in a patient with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: a case report
Authors: Sun Caiping , Ma Xiaoteng , Jiang Liming , Zhu Xiaoling
Published: February 2024

Systemic therapies-based combination treatments have been developed rapidly in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, there are still a few patients not applicable to any recommended therapies, making it considerable to try new therapeutic options. Among them, anlotinib, a new oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is being widely used for many advanced malignancies. We present the first case of the antitumor effect of complete remission by anlotinib combined with an anti-programmed cell death protein 1 antibody, sintilimab, in a patient with advanced HCC. In April 2020, a 51-year-old male patient was diagnosed with large HCC and underwent hepatectomy with R0 resection. Two months later, he was admitted to our hospital because of a tumor relapse with multiple liver and lung metastases. After the failure of comprehensive treatment containing sorafenib, camrelizumab and transhepatic arterial chemotherapy and embolization, 2 months after tumor relapse, the patient started to receive anlotinib and sintilimab. The multiple tumor nodules were remarkable repressed both in the liver and lung. Six months after anlotinib plus sintilimab treatment, there were no residual tumors, and the alpha-fetoprotein level was decreased from 2310.9 mg/L to normal. Also, the patient continued to receive anlotinib to date. In subsequent follow-up visits until now, there was no sign of recurrence found on imaging. Anlotinib is a promising alternative for patients insensitive to the first-line targeted drugs. More clinical studies should be conducted to further broaden the clinical indications of anlotinib and immunotherapy in patients with HCC.
Diagnostic and prognostic value of serum soluble B7-H3 in nonsmall cell lung cancer
Authors: Li Yinpeng , Xu Leiqian , Li Jing , Wang Qian , Ma Jiao
Published: February 2024

The aim of this study was to investigate the utility of serum soluble B7-H3 (sB7-H3) as a diagnostic marker for early-stage nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and its potential for evaluating the prognosis of patients with advanced-stage NSCLC. In this study, an ELISA was employed to detect the expression levels of sB7-H3 in a cohort of patients diagnosed with NSCLC (n = 122) and a control group (n = 42) during the same observation period. Comparative analyses were conducted to ascertain the variations in sB7-H3 concentrations between the NSCLC cohort and the healthy control group, as well as across pathological types and the presence and absence of lymph node metastasis. (1) The concentration of sB7-H3 in patients diagnosed with NSCLC exhibited a statistically significant increase compared to that observed in the healthy control group (P < 0.05). Elevated expression levels of sB7-H3 demonstrated a significant correlation with pathological type, lymph node metastasis, tumor, node and metastasis stage and programmed cell death ligand (PD-L1) expression (P < 0.05). (2) The diagnostic utility of sB7-H3 for the diagnosis of NSCLC and the heightened expression of PD-L1 demonstrated high levels of sensitivity and specificity. (3) Elevated levels of sB7-H3 emerged as an independent risk factor impacting the overall survival of patients diagnosed with advanced NSCLC. The findings of this study suggest that sB7-H3 holds promise as a diagnostic tool for early-stage NSCLC. The elevated expression of sB7-H3 appears to serve as a reliable indicator for assessing the prognosis of patients diagnosed with advanced NSCLC.
Venetoclax combined with decitabine induced tumor lysis syndrome in a young patient with acute myeloid leukemia: a case report and literature review
Authors: Zhang Hongyong , Liu Jingdi , Wu Qiuling , Xia Linghui
Published: February 2024

Venetoclax, in combination with hypomethylation agents (HMAs), is a novel treatment for leukemia patients with low chemotherapy tolerance. However, it has been reported to be a risk of causing tumor lysis syndrome (TLS) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and elderly acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. Here we report a rare case of a young adult AML patient who induced TLS after receiving a combination therapy of venetoclax with decitabine (DEC). A 36-year-old male patient presented with an unexplained fever and was diagnosed with AML-M5a. The patient was first treated with a combination of antibiotics, including voriconazole 300 mg Q12h. After the infection was relieved, he was treated with 100 mg venetoclax in combination with 75 mg/m2 DEC. However, 12 h after the first treatment, he developed diarrhea, fatigue and other symptoms, and the laboratory results were consistent with the laboratory TLS. The patient stopped chemotherapy immediately, and TLS gradually improved after receiving rehydration, diuresis, dialysis and other treatments. Finally, the patient achieved complete remission. Based on the experience of this case and related studies, we recommend the prevention of TLS should not be limited to elderly patients taking venetoclax, and it is equally important in young patients. And reduce the dosage of venetoclax when using azole antifungal drugs.
A Natural Flat Volumized Lips Filler Technique: Retrospective Analysis of 920 Patients
Authors: Ozturk Melike Kibar , Kibar Guzin Ayse Kubra
Published: February 2024

BACKGROUND

Traditionally, hyaluronidase (HYAL) is used after hyaluronic acid (HA) injection to dissolve the undesired migration of product.

OBJECTIVE

To describe a novel lip augmentation technique that uses HA and HYAL simultaneously in patients who previously had HA migration.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

Nine hundred twenty female patients were included. In the first group (n = 793), HA injections were performed in subcutaneous plane of the lips. In the second group who had previous product migration (n = 127), 7.5 units of HYAL is injected in 4 points in ergotrid area before proceeding with HA injection.

RESULTS

The medicis lip fullness scale scores after 2 weeks improved in all patients, while 92% of patients perceived the results as “very much improved” with Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale (p ˂ .001). There was no difference between 2 groups regarding the patient satisfaction rates (p ˃.05), while filler migration was seen in 0.2% (n: 15) of patients in the first group during the follow-up period.

CONCLUSION

The new vertical injection approach provided an increased vertical height, optimal eversion, and an incisor display on the lips. The simultaneous use of HYAL before HA injection seems to be a safe and effective practice in 1-stage treatment of the previously injected lips with filler migration into ergotrid area.
The role of genetic testing in Marfan syndrome
Authors: Monda Emanuele , Caiazza Martina , Limongelli Giuseppe
Published: February 2024

Purpose of review

This review aims to delineate the genetic basis of Marfan syndrome (MFS) and underscore the pivotal role of genetic testing in the diagnosis, differential diagnosis, genotype–phenotype correlations, and overall disease management.

Recent findings

The identification of pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in the FBN1 gene, associated with specific clinical features such as aortic root dilatation or ectopia lentis, is a major diagnostic criterion for MFS. Understanding genotype–phenotype correlations is useful for determining the timing of follow-up, guiding prophylactic aortic root surgery, and providing more precise information to patients and their family members during genetic counseling. Genetic testing is also relevant in distinguishing MFS from other conditions that present with heritable thoracic aortic diseases, allowing for tailored and individualized management.

Genetic testing is essential in different steps of the MFS patients’ clinical pathway, starting from the phase of diagnosis to management and specific treatment.