bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Intimacy and survivors of cancer with ostomies: findings from the Ostomy Self-management Training trial
Authors: Nehemiah Ariel , Zhang Siqi , Appel Scott , Dizon Don , Sun Virginia , Grant Marcia , Holcomb Michael J , Hornbrook Mark C , Krouse Robert S
Published: September 2023

Background

Many people with abdominal or pelvic cancers require an ostomy during surgical treatment, which can cause significant issues with physical and emotional intimacy in relationships.

Aim

To evaluate the effect of a telehealth-based education program on intimacy over time for survivors of cancer with ostomies.

Methods

We performed a secondary analysis of our multicenter randomized controlled trial to determine intimacy outcomes and to compare the effects of the Ostomy Self-management Training (OSMT) program vs usual care. Partnered patients were included who provided answers to the City of Hope Quality of Life–Ostomy survey for at least 2 time points during the study. We evaluated the effect of baseline information, such as gender on intimacy.

Outcomes

The primary outcome was intimacy, estimated by a composite score created from questions within the City of Hope Quality of Life–Ostomy survey.

Results

Of 216 enrolled volunteers, 131 had a partner: 68 in the OSMT arm and 63 in the usual care arm. Of these, 48 were women and 83 were men. The tumor types represented in this study were colorectal (n = 69), urinary (n = 45), gynecologic (n = 10), and other (n = 7; eg, melanoma, liposarcoma). From the cohort, 87 answered the 5 composite intimacy score questions at 2 time points, including baseline. There was significant improvement over time in composite intimacy scores for participants in the OSMT arm vs the usual care arm.

Clinical Implications

Our OSMT intervention had a positive effect on factors that contribute to intimacy for survivors of cancer with ostomies, suggesting that a survivorship curriculum can improve their experiences after ostomy surgery.

Strengths and Limitations

OSMT allowed for discussion of intimacy and other sensitive topics, which can be challenging. These discussions demonstrate benefit to participants and can serve as frameworks for cancer treatment providers. The focus of this work on partnered participants provides insight into the interpersonal challenges of a life with an ostomy, but it may overlook the important perspectives of nonpartnered participants and the partners themselves. Furthermore, limited power prevented us from conducting subgroup analyses exploring the effects of factors such as gender and tumor type on intimacy.

Conclusion

At 6-month follow-up, the novel intimacy composite score indicated improvement for participants completing the OSMT intervention. Future research studies with higher power will validate this intimacy measurement and identify intimacy differences in similar populations based on tumor type.
‘Transforming our world’? A historical materialist critique of the sustainable development agenda
Authors: Leichtweis Matheus Gobbato
Published: September 2023

Questioning the transformative potential of the Sustainable Development Goals, the article mobilises elements of critical theory in order to demonstrate how contemporary forms of global sustainability governance refrain from tackling the capitalist roots of unsustainable development. For this reason, they remain incapable of delivering on their promises of world transformation.
Return of Harrison–Zeldovich spectrum in light of recent cosmological tensions
Authors: Jiang Jun-Qian , Ye Gen , Piao Yun-Song
Published: September 2023

The spectral index ns of scalar perturbation is the significant initial condition set by inflation theory for our observable Universe. According to Planck results, current constraint is ns = 0.965 ± 0.004, while an exact scale-invariant Harrison–Zeldovich spectrum, i.e. ns = 1, has been ruled out at 8.4σ significance level. However, it is well-known that the standard Lambda cold dark matter model is suffering from the Hubble tension, which is at ∼5σ significance level. This inconsistency likely indicates that the comoving sound horizon at last scattering surface is actually lower than expected, which so seems to be calling for the return of ns = 1. Here, in light of recent observations we find strong evidence for a ns = 1 universe. And we show that if so, it would be confirmed conclusively by CMB-S4 experiment.
Bad Medicine Is What I Need?
Authors: Quaranta Brian P
Published: September 2023

This narrative suggests that a proper recognition of “bad medicine” may need to take into consideration the needs of the patient.
Discordance Between Social Vulnerability and Cancer-Related Mortality in Border Counties - A Letter to the Editor Regarding “Local Social Vulnerability as a Predictor for Cancer-Related Mortality Among US Counties”
Authors: LaPelusa Michael , Diaz Fernando Cristobal , Santos Patricia Mae G , Verduzco-Aguirre Haydeé , Soto-Perez-de-Celis Enrique
Published: September 2023

This letter to the editor remarks on results of a recently published study and highlights the need for multinational and interinstitutional registries so health departments in the US and Latin American countries can accurately capture cancer incidence and mortality data.
Early Onset Colorectal Cancer: A Hypothesis
Authors: Neugut Alfred I , Lebwohl Benjamin
Published: September 2023

The rising rates of early onset colorectal cancer are perplexing. This commentary discusses what may be causing the increase.
Decolonizing bird knowledge: More-than-Western bird–human relations
Authors: Thomsen Bastian , Copeland Kellen , Harte Michael , Muurlink Olav , Villar Daniel A , Mirin Benjamin H , Fennell Samuel R , Deshwal Anant , Campbell Payton , Pekrul Ami , Murtough Katie L , Kulkarni Apoorva , Kumar Nishant , Thomsen Jennifer , Coose Sarah , Maxwell Jon , Zhang Zhenhuan , Nickerson Dane , Gosler Andrew
Published: September 2023

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) or local ecological knowledge (LEK) has only recently gained traction as “legitimate” science in Western academic discourse. Such approaches to inclusivity continue to face institutional, sociocultural, and equity barriers to being fully accepted in academic discourse in comparison to Western-based frameworks. Postcolonial studies have attempted to rectify this Western-domination in characterizing diverse forms of bird–human relationships. However, the integration of multiple cosmologies (worldviews) and ontologies (realities) in research or management creates challenges that we discuss. We elucidate commonalities and antithetical positions between Western-derived bird knowledge and management with that of TEK or LEK in both local and global contexts. We combine ecological/ornithological studies with key terms, theories, and methods from the social sciences to integrate the approaches and facilitate understanding. For example, we follow a “theory synthesis” approach in this conceptual paper to question epistemological and ontological assumptions of bird knowledge and how we acquire it to question, “how do we move from a decolonial approach (discussions and acknowledgement) to decolonization (action)?” This paper is a product of ongoing discourse among global researchers of an academic ethno-ornithology research lab based in the United Kingdom, who partner with global collaborators. The 3 case studies draw from ongoing research in Southeast Asia, South America, and decolonializing policy efforts in New Zealand. We analyzed these case studies using a postcolonial theoretical lens to provide insights into how Western scientists can embrace TEK and LEK and actively work to decolonize ethno-ornithology and ornithology in theory and practice. Further, we discuss perceived core tenets to equity and inclusion in community-based TEK and LEK conservation projects from the Global South. Diversity, equity, inclusivity, and justice in bird–human relations and knowledge were identified as targets for systemic change within the academic institutions of Western scientists. By recognizing, discussing, and embracing non-Western cosmologies and ontologies, non-Indigenous scientists can help influence the decolonization of ethno-ornithology, ornithology, and bird–human relations through respectful, participatory, equitable, culturally considerate, and “non-extractive” community-based initiatives in partnership with local groups.
The Troubled Transition
Authors: Roach Steven C.
Published: September 2023

This chapter analyzes the transition from autonomy to statehood and the tensions that emerged between Garang’s New Sudan and secessionists. It then moves on to examine how the SPLM forcibly consolidated its power in the 2010 elections to advance the referendum process. By discussing its intimidation tactics, I show how the SPLM resorted to militarism or used violence to garner popular support. Not only did it end up excluding civil society actors from the drafting process of the Transitional Constitution but it also demonstrated the extent to which its leaders lacked civic training. The troubled transition in this sense exposed the effects of the lack of civic preparedness and the unfettered corruption of the ruling elite which recklessly extracted rents from the sudden influx of oil revenue. The problem, I conclude, was further compounded by the failure of international actors and donors to monitor the situation.
The Icon and the Idol
Authors: Wales Jordan Joseph
Published: September 2023

Both Western societies and Christian communities are notoriously reticent to accept robots into the human social circle. More than a mere tribalism, this attitude may have deep religious roots. Christian theology identifies the person as a self-giving subject, a concept derived from early theological reflection on the triune God, who exists by interior self-gift. This sort of utter self-gift is understood as impossible to that which is merely material. Consulting several patristic and medieval theologians, this chapter applies their insights to two medieval legends of robots and one real Renaissance-era robot to illustrate the Christian tradition’s subtle understanding of how robots can glorify God by manifesting human self-gift—so long as this self-gift is not mistakenly attributed to the robot itself. The non-subjective robot is at its best when it stands for rather than stands in for human relationality. When treated as a subject in its own right, the robot as a product made-to-order becomes an idol, an instrument for the covert transformation of relational self-gift into a mere solipsistic mirroring of one’s own desires.
Becoming Human in a Technological World
Authors: Behr John
Published: September 2023

In this chapter, John Behr examines what challenges the erasure of death from the horizon of sight in the modern Western world raises for our understanding of ourselves as embodied human beings. As Hervé Juvin notes in the last lines of his study, The Coming of the Body (2010), which examines the various ways in which our experience of embodiment has changed over the last century: ‘Alone, the body remembers that it is finite; alone it roots us in the limits, our last frontier (for how long?); and even if—especially if—it forgets, the body alone still prevents us from being God to ourselves and others.’ Bringing together insights from Hervé Juvin, Martha Nussbaum (‘Transcending Humanity’), and his own recent work on the Gospel of John and the theology of Irenaeus, Behr argues that the technological advances of the past century provide a unique, precious opportunity for us to recognize the important connection between mortality, being human, and the incarnation of God.
Remaining Focused
Authors: Waters Brent
Published: September 2023

In this chapter Brent Waters argues that human flourishing entails participation in communicative associations (e.g., church, family, and friendships). ‘Communication’ is derived from the Greek koinonia that can be variously translated as ‘communion,’ ‘community,’ or ‘communicate.’ Communicative associations promote the sharing, rather than the exchange, of material and immaterial goods that promote the wellbeing of their members. Over time, such sharing requires practicing a series of acts and relationships that are repetitive and mundane. Since human flourishing thereby comprises more ordinary than extraordinary behavior, the challenge is to prevent or to resist the various social forces driving the emerging technoculture from becoming distractions that effectively diminish human wellbeing. This, in turn, requires a critical engagement with technology rather than its rejection.
The Evolution of Wisdom in a Technological World
Authors: Deane-Drummond Celia
Published: September 2023

Deane-Drummond suggests in this chapter that a Thomistic analysis of practical wisdom and wisdom per se illustrates a dialectic between—and even a blurring of—the boundaries between nature and grace. The concept of infused virtues is also important, as it gives an account of the action of God’s work of grace in the human person. Such grace-filled action is mediated through faith in Christ, who is more than simply a model of virtue, but is also the basis for human flourishing as such. The chapter illustrates, drawing on Aristotle and Aquinas, how technological inventions which include design are not morally neutral, reinforced through reflection on the socially embedded semiotic practices characteristic of hominins’ creation of tools. Further, a theological understanding of wisdom can help adjudicate uses of technology through reference to specific examples of new technologies that have become popular, such as those associated with the de-extinction of species. The author finally argues that rather than becoming redundant, paying attention to virtues both of practical wisdom and of wisdom per se provides the needed means toward human flourishing in a technological age.
Personhood and Human Flourishing in a Technological World
Authors: Lanier Jaron
Published: September 2023

In response to the question posed by the scholars of the Human Flourishing in a Technological World project, ‘What is a person such that a person could flourish?,’ computer scientist and philosopher of technology Jaron Lanier argues that a person is a mystery or, as Lanier himself puts it, a ‘leap of faith.’ That is, the person is defined primarily by the capability for future-oriented creativity and invention. Lanier notes that the especially historically uncommon notion that human beings are replaceable is being propagated powerfully by tech-based media. This idea is based on the tacit assumption that human beings are merely machines—machines ultimately inferior to and therefore replaceable by presently implemented and ascendant Artificial Intelligence. In order to generate profit, the tech industry uses AI-driven social media to harvest consumer data for manipulating user habits through postings and advertising that appeal to our most primitive human instincts like greed and anger. Moreover, AI also threatens to replace human labor. But Lanier offers a different path forward, suggesting that technology like robots, sophisticated algorithms, and what we call Artificial Intelligence can be harnessed to assist human creativity and to improve labor conditions to help workers flourish rather than displacing them from work altogether.
Personhood, Consciousness, and Technology
Authors: Lanier Jaron
Published: September 2023

In this interdisciplinary dialogue, many of the scholars of the Human Flourishing in a Technological World project—Jens Zimmermann, Fr John Behr, Robert Doede, Thomas Fuchs, David Lewin, Eleanor McLaughlin, and Brent Waters—interview computer scientist and philosopher of technology Jaron Lanier, bringing together the disciplines of phenomenology, psychology, hermeneutics, historical theology, and more to interact with this prominent thinker. The conversation ranges over many topics and poses many questions. For example, what are the social and anthropological futures portended by technology? How should we conceive of the phenomenon of human consciousness vis-à-vis non-human animals and Artificial Intelligence? What are the understandings of personhood in Jewish, Christian, Tibetan, and other traditions, and how do they interact with technological development? What are the tactics employed by major technology companies (Google, Facebook, YouTube) to micromanage user interest for financial gain, and what notion of personhood enables such practices?
The Economy and Executive Approval in a Semi-Presidential Regime
Authors: Aguiar-Conraria Luís , Fernandes Bruno , Magalhães Pedro C.
Published: September 2023

In semi-presidential systems, the public approval of both prime ministers and elected presidents can be, like elsewhere, affected by economic performance. However, the Portuguese case illustrates the persistence of a few blind spots in the study of popularity functions under semi-presidentialism. These concern how changing economic and institutional contexts produce an unstable relationship between economic performance and approval. Using simultaneous equation models of the popularity of both prime ministers and presidents, the authors examine two yet unexplored routes of inquiry in the Portuguese case. The first is the possibility that economic effects may be asymmetric, with bad times exerting stronger effects on approval than good times. The second concerns the way such effects are suppressed in periods of cohabitation between prime ministers and presidents from a different party serving their second (and last) term. The combination between cohabitation and lack of re-election incentives for presidents contributes to obscure accountability for economic performance, making it a less relevant driver of public approval of both entities.
Fog-of-War Machines
Authors: Geist Edward
Published: September 2023

This chapter builds upon the theoretical considerations described in the preceding one to outline how states could use artificial intelligence to thicken the fog of war for their rivals. By inverting the approaches that AI researchers have developed to reason about uncertainty, it appears to be possible to design algorithms to optimize obfuscation and deception, and theory suggests that deceivers enjoy a durable advantage against their opponents. States can probably leverage such algorithms to prevent adversaries from being able to target their nuclear deterrent forces—but the catch is that they cannot be confident that their rivals cannot see through their deceit. The chapter provides an illustrative example of how such a “fog-of-war machine” might be employed in practice to enhance the survivability of mobile missile launchers.
Diverse Ecologies for Sound and Music Studies
Authors: Allen Aaron S. , Titon Jeff Todd
Published: September 2023

This introductory chapter provides the context, guiding questions, and key issues of the volume Sounds, Ecologies, Musics, in which nineteen contributors consider sound and music from ecological perspectives as well as ecologies from sonic standpoints. Ecomusicological work is no longer new in music and sound studies, yet such thinking has developed in sophistication and disciplinary reach during the deepening of the environmental crisis in the twenty-first century. Volume contributions are organized into three parts (all of which are frequently cross-referenced): music and sound in natural and built environments; music and sound in relation to traditional, Indigenous, and Western scientific ecological knowledges; and music and sound in various interdisciplinary ecological and environmental frameworks. In reviewing the existing literature as well as the new contributions in this volume, the authors propose the idea of “diverse ecologies” for sound and music studies to understand the many distinct, overlapping, conflicting, and mutually useful concepts. The goal of the volume is to provide opportunities for non-unitary meditations on approaches to diverse ecologies in sound and music studies. Relating the varied meanings and applications of ecologies to music and sound can improve understanding, allow for targeted interventions, and inspire and enact cultural change.
Biologists, Musicians, and the Ecology of Variation
Authors: Labaree Robert
Published: September 2023

By way of current work in the life sciences, we can now update the links between music and nature claimed by nineteenth-century organicism. From this new perspective, a musical event is a complex systemic phenomenon that exhibits the same characteristics of emergence and self-organization as are found in nature. This chapter’s shorthand for this bio-musical approach is music in vivo. Through musical and biological examples, and recent writings by biologists and musicologists, the chapter considers how the musical commons might be continuous with the commons of all living things. The principal link between the two fields is in their shared processes, beginning with the continuity of musical variation with biological variation. Modeled on the study of natural processes as they are happening in vivo, this approach requires a conscious choice by musicians, listeners, and scholars to focus on changes occurring in real time—on music as performed and heard.
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”
Authors: Schippers Huib , Howell Gillian
Published: September 2023

This chapter examines the depth of damage to music practices in places where armed conflict has torn apart the social and cultural fabric of a society. It demonstrates how such conditions can be understood and analyzed through the perspective of “cultural ecosystems,” which recognizes music practices as evolving and flourishing in a multidimensional and dynamic space that is here termed a “musisphere.” Much as a biosphere can be disturbed by ecological disbalances, human conflict can have profound and disastrous impact on a musisphere, the space that contains the sum of biotic and abiotic forces and factors that impact on the vitality of any music practice. The analysis considers the impact on music practices of conflict and post-conflict conditions across five key domains, focusing primarily on human agency. It augments this with consideration of a model of six critical junctures for (re)building music practices post-conflict in close collaboration with communities, in order to revitalize or develop new musical practices.
Self-Censorship, Self-Restraint, and the Ethics of Conversation
Authors: Messina J.P.
Published: September 2023

“Self-Censorship, Self-Restraint, and the Ethics of Conversation” distinguishes between self-censorship and the kind of self-restraint that responsible speakers exercise. It then lays out several categories of bad speech—speech from which responsible speakers refrain and argues that failures in self-restraint give others defeasible reasons to engage in social censorship. If people do not exercise their liberties responsibly, sanctions aimed at motivating people to do better (attempts to censor bad speech) are one fitting response. But since censorship is goal-directed activity, its rationality is subject to an effectiveness constraint. The chapter concludes with an analysis of peer-to-peer censorship dynamics, arguing that though bad speech generates pro tanto grounds for social interference with speakers, we are often not well positioned to intervene effectively.
Search and Monopoly
Authors: Messina J.P.
Published: September 2023

The final substantive chapter, “Search and Monopoly,” articulates a theory of search censorship. Concerns about concentration in the market for search engines make plausible the fear that powerful gatekeepers with interests not necessarily aligned with the public interest can distort our understanding of important issues and compromise participatory institutions. In response, many have proposed leveraging antitrust statutes to curtail Google’s market power. The chapter investigates this set of recommendations, arguing that it is not as promising as its proponents believe and in fact poses substantial risks. Instead, we should make liberal use of many different search engines, improve information literacy, and remember that however useful search engines might be, there remain myriad ways of accessing information offline.
Underbaked or Unrealized
Authors: Moon Ruth
Published: September 2023

This chapter introduces two important beliefs guiding the Rwandan journalism field within the boundaries set by myth, politics, and economics. First, the close supervision of angles, story topics, and even reporting practices highlights a shared belief that the field is characterized by a lack of professionalism. This leads editors and other leaders to focus on training and other professional development tools as solutions to many problems in the field. It also supports a belief that, if reporters get in trouble or cause trouble, they are likely personally responsible for doing something unprofessional. This belief also reinforces a shared understanding that journalists can best contribute to Rwanda’s well-being by prioritizing development—leading many organizations and journalists within them to adopt a development-oriented role and associated news values of cooperation and positivity.
Bridging Worlds
Authors: Moon Ruth
Published: September 2023

This chapter discusses the field position of journalists at transnational organizations. They have permission and, in some cases, a mandate to play by different news production rules than their counterparts working for local organizations, meaning they play by heterodox rather than orthodox rules. This chapter argues that the differences are best explained by the unique field position these organizations and, thus, their employees hold as bridging agents between local and global journalism fields. In Rwanda, the local and global journalism fields intertwine most clearly in the spaces represented by transnational news organizations. As a result, reporters working in these spaces have unique opportunities and challenges. While they do not bypass local journalism norms entirely, they also face the pressure and responsibility of producing work that meets the expectations of a global journalism field, which are in many ways quite different from those of the local scene.
What Is Weak Journalism Good For?
Authors: Moon Ruth
Published: September 2023

This chapter summarizes the book’s contribution to scholarship, policymaking, and journalism, and speculates on the future of journalism in Rwanda. It argues that the field’s current orientation toward development and limited autonomy is self-reinforcing for a number of reasons. The myths surrounding the role of media during the genocide lead journalists to adopt and embrace a weak social position. The financial constraints around news production prompt reluctance to anger powerful advertisers, and cooperative social values further complicate any journalistic impulses to investigate or report on conflict. Journalists who try to resist these pressures are automatically relegated to peripheral status. As a result, significant changes are unlikely unless Rwanda experiences major changes in governance or funding models while powerful actors fully within the local journalism field concurrently advocate for changes in the field’s doxa and values.
Press Freedom and the (Crooked) Path Toward Democracy
Authors: Sobel Cohen Meghan , McIntyre Hopkinson Karen
Published: September 2023

Press Freedom and the (Crooked) Path Toward Democracy uses the perceptions of journalists in Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya to examine mediascapes at varying stages of development and democracy-building—Rwanda, which experienced a genocide in 1994, is in relatively early (though fast-paced) stages of reconstruction; Uganda, which experienced a civil war in the 1980s and unrest in the 1990s, though arguably not to the extent of Rwanda’s genocide, can be considered in a middle stage of development; and Kenya, which has remained largely peaceful, can be understood as being in a more advanced stage of development. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork and a cross-national survey, this book provides an updated state of press freedom in these three countries and shows how a nation’s political and cultural intricacies complicate traditional media development frameworks and notions of press freedom. Much of the scholarship classifying global media systems has overlooked the world’s most developing nations, and among those that have included developing nations there exists a misguided premise that nations develop in a linear fashion—from non-democracy to democracy, and from a restricted press to a free press. In reality, the ebb and flow of political change, democratization, and backsliding calls for more historically informed views of media systems that do not fit into the confines of existing theories. A detailed set of considerations is put forth for understanding media systems outside the Western world; specifically, that each country’s distance from conflict, political benchmarks, international linkages, and civil society strength are central to understanding its degree of press freedom, development, and democratization.
Rwanda
Authors: Cohen Meghan Sobel , Hopkinson Karen McIntyre
Published: September 2023

Chapter 2 shows that, despite nearly 30 years of widespread progress and development, lingering impacts from the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda permeate the country’s media. Multiple laws limit free expression in the name of genocide prevention, and international rankings indicate that the nation is not free. Yet, many Rwandan journalists believe they have a great deal of freedom and that outsiders don’t consider the country’s history. Journalists believe their role is to act as unifiers and right the wrongs of their predecessors who exacerbated the genocide, and public trust in the media remains high. McQuail’s (1983) theory of media development and Hachten’s (1981, 1996) developmental concept may be working in the short term, but in the long term may reinforce existing authoritarian power structures. While a positive relationship might exist between Rwanda’s distance from civil war and its degree of press freedom, this pattern may not hold in the future.
Another India
Authors: Anil Pratinav
Published: September 2023

Another India tells the story of the world’s biggest religious minority. Weaving together vivid biographical portraits of a wide range of Indian Muslims—elite and subaltern, secular, and clerical; activist and apolitical—it brings the experience of the country’s Muslims under a single focus; and, by throwing light on the Indian Muslim condition during the first thirty years of independence, reflects on the true character of democratic India. What we have here is a rather different picture from received accounts of the “world’s largest democracy.” Challenging traditional histories of Nehru’s India, Pratinav Anil shows that minority rights were neglected right from independence. Despite its best intentions, the Congress regime that ruled for three decades was often illiberal, intolerant, and undemocratic. Muslims had to contend with discrimination, disadvantage, deindustrialisation, dispossession, and disenfranchisement, as well as an unresponsive leadership. Anil demonstrates how the Muslim elite encouraged depoliticization, taking up seemingly noble but largely inconsequential causes with little bearing on the lives of ordinary members of the community. There was no room for mass protests or collective solidarity in this version of Muslim politics. Another India explores this elite betrayal, whose consequences are still felt by India’s 200 million Muslims today.
The Revival and Re-Embedding of Somali Ports
Authors: Stepputat Finn , Ahmed Warsame M. , Qualonbi Omer , Wallisch Simon , Wasuge Mahad
Published: September 2023

The chapter argues that port infrastructures have been a key asset in the sometimes violent politics of circulation and state formation after Somali state collapse. The control and development of seaports has had a decisive influence on the making and eroding of Somali state entities. It provides an overview of the conflictive history and recent revival of four major seaports on the Somali coast before zooming in on the changes that DP World’s investments brought to Somaliland’s Berbera port. It shows how this port has been dis-embedded from its previous social, political, and economic moorings in Berbera town only to be re-embedded in new relations. The latter afford both DP World and the Somaliland government increased control over the port’s governance and revenue compared to before the upgrading.
Common Architectures, Diverse Processes, and Trajectories
Authors: Rangoni Bernardo
Published: September 2023

This chapter shows that to regulate the integration of European gas markets from the late 1990s to the present date, common experimentalist structures—notably the Madrid Forum—were used to a different extent across different issue areas, namely, less in network access than in tarification. Further, it highlights that in the two issues, experimentalism followed diverse trajectories, gradually declining in the former while persisting in the latter. Distributions of legal power, which were identically multipolar, cannot explain this variation in processes and trajectories. Instead, the chapter emphasizes the explanatory value of functional and political factors, which, moreover, were far from antithetical to one another. In network tarification, re-emerging uncertainty and opposition placed major pressures to use experimentalist structures steadily. In network access, by contrast, by the mid-2000s, the European Commission had become convinced that it knew the best rules already and, thanks to the support of the Austrian and German authorities, could impose such rules on other recalcitrant actors. In the attempt to overcome gridlock, finally, the Commission threatened to impose both specific positive rules—as distinctive of the shadow of hierarchy—and negative prohibitions and fines—as characteristic of penalty defaults—instead.
Similar Structures, Diverse Processes
Authors: Rangoni Bernardo
Published: September 2023

This chapter shows that, despite the presence of comparable experimentalist networks (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, BEREC; European Competition Network, ECN), the regulation of European communication markets over the past decade has witnessed sharply different governance processes. To regulate telecommunications, the European Commission embraced the hierarchical imposition and enforcement of stable rules regardless of, or even thanks to, the BEREC. However, to apply competition policy in digital markets, the Commission favoured experimentalist discretion for tech giants (namely, Google) combined with regular performance reviews and rule revisions. In the latter instance, furthermore, the Commission pursued experimentalist governance despite the extraordinarily centralized powers held in competition law. Rather than distributions of legal power, functional uncertainty and political opposition, both of which have been greater in digital than in telecommunication markets, explain the variation in governance processes between the two sub-cases. When employed, experimentalism travelled across distinct policy cycles, thus exhibiting durability. Finally, in this case, to enhance experimentalist processes’ effectiveness, actors relied exclusively on negative penalty defaults.
Experimentalist Architectures, Processes, Outcomes
Authors: Rangoni Bernardo
Published: September 2023

This chapter analyses how and why, to regulate the European market for financial services over the last decade, actors have used experimentalist structures extensively, notably the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) comprising the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA). It shows that actors pursued experimentalist processes even where they were equipped with strongly centralized powers, as in the regulation of credit rating agencies (CRAs). Rather than distributions of legal power, what explains actors’ reluctance to favour hierarchical governance are functional as well as political pressures (namely, cognitive uncertainty and political opposition), which have been strong in the regulation of both CRAs and packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs). Finally, to aid their effectiveness in overcoming gridlock and delivering policy outcomes, experimentalist processes relied on the threat of negative sanctions as well as positive rules. Far from being antithetical to one another, penalty defaults and the shadow of hierarchy have thus worked in tandem.
Same Structure, Different Processes, and Trajectories
Authors: Rangoni Bernardo
Published: September 2023

This chapter shows that, to regulate European pharmaceutical markets from the mid-1990s to the present date, the same experimentalist structure (the European Medicines Authority, EMA) has been used less for conventional medicines (namely, hydroxyethyl starch (HES) infusion solutions) than for innovative ones, including the COVID-19 vaccine most used in the European Union. The chapter further highlights that once employed, experimentalist processes can take both self-limiting and self-reinforcing trajectories. This variation in processes as well as trajectories is inconsistent with distributions of legal power, which were identical and firmly multipolar. Instead, it is in line with both uncertainty and opposition, which varied. For innovative medicines such as COVID-19 vaccines, the European Commission recognized its uncertainty and sought consensus with the EMA and the national authorities composing it. For conventional infusion solutions containing HES, by contrast, by the late 2010s, the Commission could rely both on an earlier blueprint—which reduced uncertainty—and a strong coalition led by Germany—which ensured comitology approval despite deviation from the scientific opinion of the EMA and most of the regulators sitting therein. To avoid breakdown, finally, in this case, experimentalist processes depended exclusively on the penalty-default mechanism.
Conclusion
Authors: Rangoni Bernardo
Published: September 2023

The final chapter summarizes the findings of the book and relates them to broader debates about non-hierarchical institutions, processes, and outcomes. It presents an analytical approach that builds on, but develops, contemporary debates in regulatory governance, itself a field drawing from law, public administration, and political science. The framework put forward differs from current literatures by adopting a broader definition of non-hierarchical governance, one that includes agency and actual policy processes. It suggests that scope conditions for non-hierarchical governance are not multipolar distributions of legal power, and not just functional demands, but also political opposition. It suggests that non-hierarchical governance is likely to be self-reinforcing and thus sustainable, thanks to both functional and political drivers, which bolster one another. It argues that non-hierarchical governance affects policy outcomes through a range of mechanisms rather than any single one and highlights that positive and negative mechanisms can be compatible rather than mutually exclusive. Finally, it discusses promising avenues for testing the conclusions from the book’s case studies more widely, expanding their scope both within and beyond the European Union.
Icelandic Nominalizations and Allosemy
Authors: Wood Jim
Published: September 2023

The work aims to bring a basic, but detailed description of Icelandic nominalizations to bear on the general theoretical and architectural issues that nominalizations have raised since the earliest work in generative syntax. While nominalization has long been central to theories of argument structure, and Icelandic has been an important language for the study of argument structure and syntax, Icelandic has not been brought into the general body of theoretical work on nominalization. This book shows that Icelandic-specific issues in the analysis of Derived Nominals have broad implications that go beyond the study of that one language. In particular, Icelandic provides special evidence that Complex Event Nominals (CENs), which seem to inherit their argument structure from the underlying verbs, can be formed without nominalizing a full verb phrase. This conclusion is at odds with prominent theories of nominalization which claim that CENs have the properties that they have precisely because they involve the nominalization of full verb phrases. The proposal in this book develops a theory of allosemy within the framework of Distributed Morphology, showing how one single syntactic structure can get distinct semantic interpretations corresponding to the range of readings that are available to Derived Nominals. The resulting proposal demonstrates how the study of Icelandic nominalizations can both further our understanding of argument structure and shed new light on the syntax-semantics interface.
Style
Authors: Windeatt Barry
Published: September 2023

This chapter analyses the crucial role of stylistic variety in the exploration of love by such a stylistically self-conscious poem as Troilus and Criseyde. The chapter’s opening section focusses on a play of style in the poem’s alertness to distinctions of style and register. Then comes a section on the poem’s use of: romance vocabulary; terms linked with pagan belief; learned and scientific terminology; Troilus diction that overlaps with Chaucer’s Boethian translation, Boece; nonce words prefixed with un- and other uses of prefixes and suffixes. Next is a section on Chaucer’s use of hyperbole and superlative—and of oaths, acclamations, and endearments—concluding with the poem’s references to the heart. There follows analysis of the poem’s imagery: heat and cold; light and darkness; sight and blindness; navigation; binding and constraint; hunting and bird imagery. Two concluding sections address proverbial language and stylistic aspects of versification in Troilus.
Loss of Diel Circadian Clock Gene Cycling Is a Part of Grape Berry Ripening
Authors: Davies Christopher , Burbidge Crista A , Böttcher Christine , Dodd Antony N
Published: September 2023

Diel cycles of gene expression are thought to adapt plants to 24-h changes in environmental conditions. The circadian clock contributes to this process, but less is known about circadian programs in developing reproductive organs. While model plants and controlled conditions have contributed greatly to our knowledge of circadian clock function, there is a need to better understand its role in crop plants under field conditions with fluctuating light and temperature. In this study, we investigated changes in the circadian clock during the development of grape berries of Vitis vinifera L. We found that the transcripts of circadian clock homologs had high-amplitude oscillations prior to, but not during, ripening. As ripening progressed, the amplitude and rhythmicity of the diel oscillations decreased until most transcripts tested had no significant fluctuation over the 24-h cycle. Despite this loss of rhythmicity, the majority of circadian clock genes investigated were expressed at or near their abundance at the nadir of their pre-ripening oscillation although the berries remained transcriptionally active. From this, it can be concluded that cycling of the canonical circadian clock appears unnecessary for berry ripening. Our data suggest that changes in circadian clock dynamics during reproductive organ development may have important functional consequences.
PHT1;5Repressed by ANT Mediates Pi Acquisition and Distribution under Low Pi and Salinity in Salt Cress
Authors: Wang Duoliya , Lv Sulian , Guo Zijing , Lin Kangqi , Zhang Xuan , Jiang Ping , Lou Tengxue , Yi Ze , Zhang Bo , Xie Wenzhu , Li Yinxin
Published: September 2023

Salinity and phosphate (Pi) starvation are the most common abiotic stresses that threaten crop productivity. Salt cress (Eutrema salsugineum) displays good tolerance to both salinity and Pi limitation. Previously, we found several Phosphate Transporter (PHT) genes in salt cress upregulated under salinity. Here, EsPHT1;5 induced by both low Pi (LP) and salinity was further characterized. Overexpression of EsPHT1;5 in salt cress enhanced plant tolerance to LP and salinity, while the knock-down lines exhibited growth retardation. The analysis of phosphorus (P) content and shoot/root ratio of total P in EsPHT1;5-overexpressing salt cress seedlings and the knock-down lines as well as arsenate uptake assays suggested the role of EsPHT1;5 in Pi acquisition and root-shoot translocation under Pi limitation. In addition, overexpression of EsPHT1;5 driven by the native promoter in salt cress enhanced Pi mobilization from rosettes to siliques upon a long-term salt treatment. Particularly, the promoter of EsPHT1;5 outperformed that of AtPHT1;5 in driving gene expression under salinity. We further identified a transcription factor EsANT, which negatively regulated EsPHT1;5 expression and plant tolerance to LP and salinity. Taken together, EsPHT1;5 plays an integral role in Pi acquisition and distribution in plant response to LP and salt stress. Further, EsANT may be involved in the cross-talk between Pi starvation and salinity signaling pathways. This work provides further insight into the mechanism underlying high P use efficiency in salt cress in its natural habitat, and evidence for a link between Pi and salt signaling.
Aggregate level research governance effects on particle physics: A comparative analysis
Authors: Tirado Mayra M , Nedeva Maria , Thomas Duncan A
Published: September 2023

This paper contributes to understanding the effects of research governance on global scientific fields. Using a highly selective comparative analysis of four national governance contexts, we explore how governance arrangements influence the dynamics of global research fields. Our study provides insights into second-level governance effects, moving beyond previous studies focusing primarily on effects on research organizations rooted in national contexts. Rather than study over 100 countries across which our selected CERN-based particle physics global research field operates, we explore conditions for changing the dynamics of global research fields and examine mechanisms through which change may occur. We predict then minimal effects on the epistemic choices and research practices of members of the four local knowledge networks despite variations in governance arrangements, and hence no second-level effects. We assert a research field’s independence from governance depends on its characteristics and the relative importance to researchers of research quality notions. This paper contributes methodologically and has practical implications for policymakers. It suggests governance arrangements affect the epistemic choices and research practices of the local knowledge networks only when certain conditions are met. Policymakers should consider the context and characteristics of a field when designing governance arrangements and policy.
Research impact seen from the user side
Authors: Woolley Richard , Molas-Gallart Jordi
Published: September 2023

Impact assessment research has developed theory-based approaches to trace the societal impact of scientific research. Impact assessment typically starts from the perspective of a research investment, organization, or project. Research users, non-academic actors involved in knowledge production, translation, and application, are well represented in many of these approaches. Researcher users are usually positioned as contributors to research, recipients of research outputs, or beneficiaries of research-driven outcomes. This paper argues that impact assessment would benefit from a more comprehensive understanding and analysis of research valorization processes from the user perspective. The first half of the paper reviews key impact assessment literature to identify how research users are positioned and portrayed in relation to valorization processes. In the second half of the paper, we use the results of this review to propose a set of principles to guide a systematic approach to constructing user perspectives on research impact. We suggest four concepts for operationalization of this approach. The paper concludes that the addition of a more comprehensive research user perspective on research valorization would complement and enhance existing impact assessment approaches.