bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Satisfaction of Body Image in Adolescents With Different Maturity Stages
Authors: Dantas Renata Poliane Nacer de Carvalho , Simões Thaisys Blanc dos Santos , Santos Petrus Gantois Dias Massa , Dantas Paulo Moreira Silva , Cabral Breno Guilherme De Araújo Tinoco
Published: December 2017

Introduction: Adolescence is a period marked by intense body modifications that occur differently according to the maturational stage and sex, which can generate different body image perceptions.Objective: This study aims to compare and associate body image satisfaction in different maturational stages. Methods: Overall, 207 adolescents of both sexes aged 10-12 years were evaluated. Maturation was estimated through an equation predictive of skeletal age and for the body image evaluation, the scale of silhouettes was used. The statistical tests used were chi-square and logistic regression (odds ratio) with respective confidence intervals (95% CI).Results: There was a prevalence of body image dissatisfaction of 63.8% (p <0.001). In both sexes, subjects with accelerated maturation had greater body image dissatisfaction (girls p = 0.0, boys p = 0.04), and desire to reduce their silhouette scale (p <0.001). Subjects with accelerated maturation were 2.88 more likely (CI 95% 1.03 - 8.05) of having body image dissatisfaction when compared to normal maturation; however, when adjusting for body mass index, the association lost its significance. Conclusion: It could be concluded that body dissatisfaction perceived by young individuals is independent of sex, and there is an association between accelerated maturational stage 2.88 times higher than in the normal maturational stage in relation to body dissatisfaction, in which the body mass index appears to be the main predictor for body dissatisfaction.
Comparison and agreement of criteria for the BMI classification of physically active elderly women living in the Backlands, semi-arid Region
Authors: Nascimento Marcelo De Maio , Pereira Luiz Gabriel Dantas , Cordeiro Phillipe Ramon Nogueira , Araújo Luciana Márcia Gomes de
Published: December 2017

Introduction: The study of the nutritional status of the elderly deserves attention, since there is no consensus on the criteria for the evaluation of the Body Mass Index (BMI) of this population.Objective: To evaluate the nutritional status of elderly women practicing regular physical exercises, as well as to compare the World Health Organization (WHO) and Lipschitz criteria to the identification of health risk and to examine their agreement.Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study with 76 elderly women in physical exercise groups in Petrolina-PE. The nutritional status was obtained by the calculation of BMI according to WHO and Lipschitz criteria. The analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the variables, followed by Tukey post hoc. The Kappa statistic established the agreement between the BMI criteria, the Spearman coefficient determined the correlation between BMI and abdominal circumference (AC).Results: Elderly patients aged 60-79 years were classified as being overweight by WHO and eutrophic by Lipschitz. Octogenarian demonstrated eutrophy, according to the criterion of Lipschitz, WHO diverged for this group between thinness and eutrophy. There was a weak agreement between both criteria, Kappa (0.232, p = 0.002) and a strong correlation between BMI and CA (r = 0.722, p <0.001).Conclusion: There was a divergence between the WHO and Lipschitz criteria. The WHO proved to be more sensitive to identifying overweight and obesity and Lipschitz's normal weight and malnutrition. The CA measure was more competent to detect health risk, especially in elderly eutrophic women.
Health and Safety in Podiatric Medicine
Authors: Hogan Victoria , Coggins Marie A. , Roberts Nigel , Kelly Martina
Published: December 2017

Background:

Much of the research into health and safety in podiatric medicine to date has focused on measuring particular hazards. This study examines legislative awareness and compliance in Irish podiatric medical practices and aspects of health and safety practice.

Methods:

Podiatric physicians practicing in Ireland completed a cross-sectional questionnaire survey that included measures of health and safety knowledge and awareness, compliance with legislative requirements, perceived risks, and health status.

Results:

Of 250 podiatric physicians who were contacted, 101 completed the survey (response rate, 40%). Legislative knowledge and compliance were low among respondents. A Student t test revealed that the use of safety control measures was more frequent among podiatric physicians in practice for less than 20 years (P < .05). Musculoskeletal disorders and back injuries were the most frequently reported health concerns.

Conclusions:

This study demonstrates the need for interventions to increase awareness of legislative requirements among podiatric physicians as a first step to increase levels of regulatory compliance.
Quiescence unveils a novel mutational force in fission yeast
Authors: Gangloff Serge , Achaz Guillaume , Francesconi Stefania , Villain Adrien , Miled Samia , Denis Claire , Arcangioli Benoit
Published: December 2017

To maintain life across a fluctuating environment, cells alternate between phases of cell division and quiescence. During cell division, the spontaneous mutation rate is expressed as the probability of mutations per generation (Luria and Delbrück, 1943; Lea and Coulson, 1949), whereas during quiescence it will be expressed per unit of time. In this study, we report that during quiescence, the unicellular haploid fission yeast accumulates mutations as a linear function of time. The novel mutational landscape of quiescence is characterized by insertion/deletion (indels) accumulating as fast as single nucleotide variants (SNVs), and elevated amounts of deletions. When we extended the study to 3 months of quiescence, we confirmed the replication-independent mutational spectrum at the whole-genome level of a clonally aged population and uncovered phenotypic variations that subject the cells to natural selection. Thus, our results support the idea that genomes continuously evolve under two alternating phases that will impact on their size and composition.
The role of microglia and their CX3CR1 signaling in adult neurogenesis in the olfactory bulb
Authors: Reshef Ronen , Kudryavitskaya Elena , Shani-Narkiss Haran , Isaacson Batya , Rimmerman Neta , Mizrahi Adi , Yirmiya Raz
Published: December 2017

Microglia play important roles in perinatal neuro- and synapto-genesis. To test the role of microglia in these processes during adulthood, we examined the effects of microglia depletion, via treatment of mice with the CSF-1 receptor antagonist PLX5622, and abrogated neuronal-microglial communication in CX3C receptor-1 deficient (Cx3cr1−/−) mice. Microglia depletion significantly lowered spine density in young (developing) but not mature adult-born-granule-cells (abGCs) in the olfactory bulb. Two-photon time-lapse imaging indicated that microglia depletion reduced spine formation and elimination. Functionally, odor-evoked responses of mitral cells, which are normally inhibited by abGCs, were increased in microglia-depleted mice. In Cx3cr1−/− mice, abGCs exhibited reduced spine density, dynamics and size, concomitantly with reduced contacts between Cx3cr1-deficient microglia and abGCs' dendritic shafts, along with increased proportion of microglia-contacted spines. Thus, during adult neurogenesis, microglia regulate the elimination (pruning), formation, and maintenance of synapses on newborn neurons, contributing to the functional integrity of the olfactory bulb circuitry.
Translation and Audience: Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Gold-Bug”
Authors: Tyler McKee Clayton
Published: December 2017

This study intends to explore how the intended audience of a translation shapes the techniques used by the translators of the same text in order to convey the same message in a different manner. Focusing on two translations of a work done by Edgar Allen Poe, this work demonstrates how the translator shapes a translation to its audience, whether it is a pedagogical purpose or a literary one. In nineteenth century France, translations of Edgar Allan Poe began appearing in newspapers and journals catching the attention of well-known authors, such as Charles Baudelaire. While many academics, such as Wallaert and Bonnefoy, have compared Baudelaire’s translations and language choice to the original works and other translators working in the intellectual arena, the translation of “The Gold-Bug” in a young women’s magazine has not been included in the conversation. Twenty-two years before Baudelaire translates “The Gold-Bug,” originally published in English in 1843, Le magasin de desmoiselles offered a version of “Le scarabée d’or” which differed greatly in style from the version Baudelaire would provide. Comparing the two versions of the story through Schleiermacher’s theory on moving the text and Nida’s theory of equivalencies demonstrates how methods of translation fit for specific audiences in terms of a text’s foreignization and domestication. Le magasin strove to educate young bourgeoisie women à l’aristocrat while Baudelaire found inspiration in Poe’s work which would influence other movements in France. These purposes led to two translations that educate readers on foreign authors also allowing a view into how audience has influenced the translation of Poe for the French public.
Little Sounds
Authors: M. Bani-Khair Baker
Published: December 2017

The Spider and the Fly You little spider,To death you aspire...Or seeking a web wider,To death all walking,No escape you all fighters…Weak and fragile in shape and might,Whatever you see in the horizon,That is destiny whatever sight.And tomorrow the spring comes,And the flowers bloom,And the grasshopper leaps high,And the frogs happily cry,And the flies smile nearby,To that end,The spider has a plot,To catch the flies by his net,A mosquito has fallen down in his net,Begging him to set her free,Out of that prison,To her freedom she aspires,Begging...Imploring...crying, That is all what she requires,But the spider vows never let her free,His power he admires,Turning blind to light,And with his teeth he shall bite,Leaving her in desperate might,Unable to move from site to site,Tied up with strings in white,Wrapped up like a dead man,Waiting for his grave at night, The mosquito says,Oh little spider,A stronger you are than me in power,But listen to my words before death hour,Today is mine and tomorrow is yours,No escape from death...Whatever the color of your flower…  Little soundsThe AntThe ant is a little creature with a ferocious soul,Looking and looking for more and more,You can simply crush it like dead mold,Or you can simply leave it alone,I wonder how strong and strong they are!Working day and night in a small hole,Their motto is work or whatever you call…A big boon they have and joy in fall,Because they found what they store,A lesson to learn and memorize all in all,Work is something that you should not ignore! The butterfly:I’m the butterflyBeautiful like a blue clear sky,Or sometimes look like snow,Different in colors, shapes and might,But something to know that we always die,So fragile, weak and thin,Lighter than a glimpse and delicate as light,Something to know for sure…Whatever you have in life and all these fields,You are not happier than a butterfly The beetle:The beetle is a legend,Calm and quiet,Never harm or hurt,But live in the dark,A beetle can say something,We are peaceful creatures…Never interfere, sulking alone,We do sometimes eat together,But we are lazy and sleepy…Something we care about most,Is to see all in peace!That is all…. I shall back to sleep …… (Yawning) The Cricket:I’m the gift of the spring,Black, green, white and yellow,My music is beyond imagination,Sharp and loud my message is,Proud to feel this creation,My heart is bigger than a hill,Peaceful and loving to all,So close to joyful hearts,In deep sleep or isolation,The best thing I always do,Is to sing for my determination! The Cat:I’m the cat,No name or identity,No house or food,I’m the lovely cat,So poor but so happy,My motto is joy,Whatever ups and downs,I’m always happy,I run and jump,I speak my language,I cook my food, I eat...Canned food, mice, bread, grass,That is what I like,Whatever joy you shall have,Will it feel like chasing a mouse!!
Material Evidence in the History Curriculum in Eighteenth-Century Göttingen
Authors: Miller Peter N.
Published: December 2017

This chapter considers the “material turn” in the latter half of the eighteenth century, particularly when the first academic curriculum for material culture studies was created. It happened at the University of Göttingen, a new foundation (from 1734, formal opening in 1737) that was envisioned as the model of an enlightened university, and was, during the last decades of the eighteenth century, an extraordinary hothouse for humanities research. With a professionalized training regimen for historians came the idea of required courses, and the auxiliary sciences of history were born. This curriculum lingered at Göttingen for a long time, though little effort has been made to study its development.
Material Culture in the Amateur Historical Associations of Early Nineteenth-Century Germany
Authors: Miller Peter N.
Published: December 2017

This chapter explores the ways amateur historical associations act as incubators of new thinking about how objects could tell stories. It draws from publications of German historical associations produced during the nineteenth century. Beginning in the first decade of the nineteenth century as a patriotic gesture and continuing for another fifty years, a new genre of German history flourished. It was often conducted at the scale of the region or territory, not the state, under the auspices of local historical associations and published in their newly created journals. In these regional associations, what had previously been a means to an end—material sources—became an end in itself: the subject matter of German history.
Toward a Future Theory of the Historical Document
Authors: Miller Peter N.
Published: December 2017

This concluding chapter emphasizes the importance of material culture studies, bringing up the differences between the laboratory and the library as sites of questioning. Where books or disciplines cut up knowledge in self-affirming and internally consistent ways, the world is indifferent to classroom categories. The gap between the two has been bridged by what we call “applied learning.” The chapter argues that our knowledge of the world will always remain incomplete, and maybe our sense of what constitutes knowledge itself will remain a little distorted, if we do not work from the world back to the books as often as we do from the books to the world. Thus teaching from objects, or landscapes, is a way of forcing an epistemological revolution.
The Retirement Puzzle
Authors: McCarthy Michael A.
Published: December 2017

This chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book analyzes the three paths followed by the development of old-age income security over the half century since the New Deal: occupational plans were adopted as a supplement to Social Security; their assets were invested by employers into the stock market; and, most recently, they were turned into 401(k) plans. In particular, it addresses three historical questions: Why was the collectively-bargained occupational pension system established after World War II in the place of real increases in Social Security benefits? Once these private systems were established, what explains the subsequent employer consolidation of pension fund control and the shift of their investment into the stock market, mimicking the investment trends in corporate finance? Why, within the system of employer-provided pensions, was there a subsequent shift toward much riskier defined-contribution plans, such as 401(k)s, away from the traditional defined-benefit plan in the late 1970s and 1980s. The book offer answers to each of these questions and provides a more general explanation of pension marketization through the use of comparative historical analysis.
Reconversion and the Origin of Bargained Plans
Authors: McCarthy Michael A.
Published: December 2017

This chapter offers a explanation of the proliferation of occupational pension plans after World War II. Principally, it shows that private pension development was neither the result of policy interventions before the end of the war nor the simple result of union strength in postwar collective bargaining disputes. Instead, the turn to occupational pensions was caused by policymakers intervening in labor-management disputes—not principally to compel businesses to adopt occupational pension plans, but rather to establish labor peace in order to capture capitalist growth opportunities abroad. The chapter begins by considering why the Congress of Industrial Organizations was unable to expand the pension benefits offered by the Social Security program after the New Deal, roughly between 1939 and 1968, before turning to the expansion of private pensions.
Silencing Labor’s Voice
Authors: Lafer Gordon
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines antiunionism in the context of the broader corporate agenda, asking why corporate lobbies seek to erase public employee unions as a political force. It begins with a discussion of the role of unions in politics as well as the origins of the so-called paycheck protection laws and their impact on workers' rights. It then considers the stand of business lobbies with respect to paycheck protection legislation, along with state legislation that created added reporting requirements and expanded the scope of prohibited activities aimed at curbing unions' involvement in political activity. The chapter argues that the most important advocates of paycheck protection, including the American Legislative Exchange Council, Americans for Prosperity, and allied corporate lobbies, are seeking to enact a sweeping economic agenda.
Pleasures and Dangers of Conversion
Authors: Nisse Ruth
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines Joseph and Aseneth, a Greek Jewish text that was translated into Latin in late twelfth-century England, and how it reemerges as significant within a crisis over Jewish conversion. Joseph and Aseneth, an account of the marriage of Joseph, then second in command to Pharaoh, to the Egyptian beauty Aseneth, was probably composed in the mid-first century in Egypt. The Jewish story is a text of the Diaspora in Egypt that imagines the circumstances of the marriage. Two of its major themes, conversion and female agency, offer a glimpse into the relations between Christians and Jews. The chapter shows how, in the Middle Ages, Joseph and Aseneth becomes a narrative of its heroine's conversion to Christianity and considers Jewish conversion as a deadly topic in the era following the Crusades.
Flip-Flopper With the Final Say
Authors: Barnes Dayna L.
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines Franklin Delano Roosevelt's postwar foreign policy intentions. President Roosevelt showed little interest in the work of official experts working on postwar issues, preferring to find analysis from outside official channels. As a result, planners sometimes worked in a vacuum, without a voice in wartime agreements and uncertain of their president's plans. Indeed, lack of communication between the president and bureaucratic planning groups led to divergence between the president's aims and policy drafts. However, Roosevelt supported the planner's work to provide him with a diverse set of options, and in so doing he allowed for the development of a policy-creating network during the war.
Elbow Patches and Orientalists
Authors: Barnes Dayna L.
Published: December 2017

This chapter discusses postwar planning on Japan, which was dominated by the State Department. Key figures in that process disagreed about the causes of Japanese militarism and the potential of peaceful cooperation. Asia specialists and the senior officials who approved policy drew different conclusions based on their own experiences with Asia, a sense of connection to either Japan or China, and the information they had access to. Eventually, policy planner's recommendations evolved during the war and finally formed the document entitled United States Initial Post-Surrender Policy for Japan (SWNCC150/4), which became official policy in September 1945. This document, authorized by President Harry Truman, offered a broad vision for the treatment of Japan, which occupiers could use to frame responses to problems as they emerged.
Information and Ignorance
Authors: Barnes Dayna L.
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines the role of media in postwar planning on Japan. Public relations and popular opinion are only a part of the story of how the media influenced American policy toward Japan. During World War II, the journalists, editors, politicians, and bureaucrats who published on this question were influential not just because of their connection to the reading public but also as a result of their ties to policymaking circles. As such, wartime publications—popular newspaper opinion columns, specialist book series, and journal articles—provided a source of information and analysis to policymakers. However, published material was not the only, or even the most important, connection between opinion leaders and policymakers on the Japan question. Media elites, bureaucrats, and politicians also shared ideas informally through telephone conversations, over dinners, and at social events.
The Nature and Nurture of Ethnic Violence
Authors: Lange Matthew
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines the nature and nurture of ethnic violence. It begins with a discussion of the behavioral problems of border collies and how they are related to ethnic violence, noting that both are promoted by the combination of group-wide genetic traits and changing social environments. It then considers the biology of ethnic violence by focusing on the propensity to divide people into ingroups and outgroups and how that propensity is linked to human emotions. It also offers a biological explanation for gender differences in ethnic violence and explores the social determinants of ethnic violence such as ethnicity, emotional prejudice, ethnic obligations, mobilizational resources, and political opportunities. Finally, it advances the notion that ethnic violence is caused by modernity.
Teaching Peace or Violence?
Authors: Lange Matthew
Published: December 2017

This chapter argues that education contributes to ethnic violence, in contrast to popular beliefs and the literature suggesting that it promotes peace and tolerance rather than hatred and violence. The chapter first considers a variety of grounds to debunk universal claims that education promotes peaceful social relations before discussing the educational backgrounds of intolerant, hateful, and violent people by focusing on two notorious hate groups of all time: the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). It also shows that terrorists have relatively high levels of education and cites mounting evidence that education commonly contributes to violence against Others. Again using the Nazis and their doctors as examples, the chapter shows that education might strengthen ethnic consciousness, intensify emotional prejudice, create ethnic obligations, and provide mobilizational resources.
The Origins of Ethnic Consciousness
Authors: Lange Matthew
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines the origins of ethnic consciousness, with particular emphasis on the rise of powerful ethnic consciousnesses shared by large numbers of strangers. It first considers the propensity to categorize people into ingroups and outgroups as well as factors that contributed to the rise of new and abstract conceptualizations of community, including citizenship. It then explores the role of the states, education, and religion in creating imagined communities of strangers and in molding and popularizing ethnic consciousness. It also discusses the micro-dynamics and context of ethnic frameworks and concludes with the argument that ethnic consciousness is a necessary condition for ethnic violence because it divides the world into ethnic categories and fosters strong attachment to ethnicity.
The Future of Ethnic Violence
Authors: Lange Matthew
Published: December 2017

This chapter summarizes the book's major findings regarding ethnic violence before considering the future of ethnic violence and potential policy prescriptions that might help to limit the prevalence of ethnic violence. The book has presented strong and consistent evidence that modernity promoted ethnic violence by strengthening and proliferating ethnic consciousness. It has also identified two motives that commonly trigger ethnic violence: emotional prejudice and ethnic obligations. Furthermore, modernity enhanced diverse resources that facilitated the mobilization of ethnic violence. The chapter concludes the book by discussing the risk of ethnic violence among early and late modernizers, with a focus on Western Europe and North America. It also considers three policy options for limiting ethnic violence: multiculturalism, federalism, and consociationalism. Finally, it predicts that ethnic violence will continue near present levels over the next decade but should decline slightly due to lower levels of violence among late modernizers.
How Shared Economic Beliefs Shape Loan Size, Conditionality, and Enforcement Decisions
Authors: Nelson Stephen C.
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines how the economic beliefs held by the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) decision makers and the beliefs of the officials at the helm of the borrowing governments shape loan size, conditionality, and enforcement decisions. It first considers two theoretically and empirically informed observations about the IMF-borrower relationship. First, key decisions in the conditional lending process are necessarily informed by the subjective judgments of the staff and management. Second, those judgments are often made in the presence of uncertainty. The chapter then introduces a set of mechanisms that link shared economic beliefs to the measurable outputs of the decisions about each element of the conditional lending process (access, conditionality, and enforcement). It also discusses the rise of neoliberal policymakers in developing countries and why such policymakers get less demanding (and more generous) programs from the IMF.
Argentina and the IMF in Turbulent Times, 1976–1984
Authors: Nelson Stephen C.
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines Argentina's relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the period 1976–1984. It tracks Argentina's engagement with the IMF from the arrival of a Fund mission soon after the military junta took power in 1976 through to the economic meltdown in the last months of 2001, which culminated in the withdrawal of IMF support for the country and the largest sovereign default in history to that point. The Argentina-IMF case is used to test the argument linking treatment of borrowers to shared economic beliefs. The chapter first provides an overview of economic policymaking in Argentina in 1976–1981 and in 1991–2001; economic policymaking in the latter period was dominated by neoliberals. It also compares the economic beliefs of neoliberals with those of structuralists and concludes with a discussion of the breakdown in Argentine-IMF relations.
Staying Alive
Authors: Nelson Stephen C.
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines how the design and enforcement of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) lending arrangements affect the political survival of economic policymakers in borrowing governments. It first considers anecdotal evidence on the IMF's impact on the appointment and retention of economic officials in the borrowing country before discussing the variation in the types of officials that occupied the top policymaking posts in developing countries. The evidence suggests that the power of the IMF extends beyond influencing how the borrowing economies are governed. It argues that the IMF, through its conditional lending programs, also influences who governs the economy. It also discusses the association between participation in IMF lending arrangements and the presence of neoliberal policymakers in the borrowing government.
Living on the Edge
Authors: Blobaum Robert
Published: December 2017

This chapter discusses the disastrous state of Warsaw's wartime economy. An almost complete disruption in the supply of coal in the war's first months dealt a crippling blow to industrial production in the city. The impact on employment was equally devastating, and no recovery was possible as long as the war continued. Shortages of basic goods and commodities, particularly food, were prevalent from the very beginning and became ever more acute during the German occupation. Meanwhile, German efforts to strictly control the consumption of food and other basic goods in Warsaw led to widespread smuggling and thriving black markets, which advantaged those who could pay even higher prices in order to access vital resources.
A Minor Apocalypse
Authors: Blobaum Robert
Published: December 2017

This concluding chapter begins with an attempt to capture Warsaw in November 1918 in imagery that is in stark contrast with the standard narrative of the city as the scene of recovered Polish statehood. This imagery will be drawn from scenes set in cold and unlit streets that featured ubiquitous begging, long lines for foul-tasting “bread,” riots and the looting of public stores, everyday theft and banditry, widespread prostitution, and mounting incidents of personal, intercommunal, and political violence. The chapter then evaluates the “minor apocalypse” that occurred in Warsaw during the First World War by looking more precisely at the prevalence of certain kinds of disease, mortality and fertility rates, and the war's larger demographic consequences, and by comparing these data with those obtained for other European cities. Ultimately, this evaluation provides a better understanding of the problems confronting the establishment and consolidation of a functioning parliamentary democracy in Poland's “old-new” capital city.
Curse on This Country
Authors: Orbach Danny
Published: December 2017

Imperial Japanese soldiers were notorious for blindly following orders, and their enemies in the Pacific War derided them as “cattle to the slaughter.” But, in fact, the Imperial Japanese Army had a long history as one of the most disobedient armies in the world. Officers repeatedly staged coups d'états, violent insurrections, and political assassinations; their associates defied orders given by both the government and the general staff, launched independent military operations against other countries, and in two notorious cases conspired to assassinate foreign leaders despite direct orders to the contrary. This book explains the culture of rebellion in the Japanese armed forces. The consequences were dire, as the armed forces dragged the government into more and more of China across the 1930s—a culture of rebellion that made the Pacific War possible. This book argues that brazen defiance, rather than blind obedience, was the motive force of modern Japanese history. The book follows a series of dramatic events: assassinations in the dark corners of Tokyo, the famous rebellion of Saigō Takamori, the “accidental” invasion of Taiwan, the Japanese ambassador's plot to murder the queen of Korea, and the military–political crisis in which the Japanese prime minister “changed colors.” Finally, through the sinister plots of the clandestine Cherry Blossom Society, we follow the deterioration of Japan into chaos, fascism, and world war.
Warriors of High Aspirations
Authors: Orbach Danny
Published: December 2017

This chapter traces the origins of military insubordination in Japan during the period 1858–1868. It first provides a background on the samurai during the Tokugawa period before discussing the ideology of the shishi, a term associated with fugitive samurai who used violence against foreigners, Shogunate officials, and pro-Bakufu elements in the various domains. It then considers the organizational structures of the shishi, with particular emphasis on the mixed gangs and their rise and fall. It also examines the heyday of the militarized gangs, focusing on Takasugi Shinsaku, a middle-ranking samurai, and the Chōshū Wars. Finally, it describes the birth of the final pattern of shishi organization, the interdomainal alliance and how the shishi became cultural heroes and role models for intellectuals, patriotic organizations, nationalistic societies, and military groups in Japan over the years.
Jewel in The Palace
Authors: Orbach Danny
Published: December 2017

This chapter discusses the rise of a new political order in Japan during the period 1868–1873. In order to legitimize their rule, the leaders of the interdomainal alliance chose to “hide” their power behind the prestigious institution of the emperor, without giving him real power. When the interdomainal alliance collapsed in autumn 1873, it left in its wake formidable waves of military insurgency. The chapter first describes the reign of the Japanese emperor, who was compared to a “jewel” held by the leaders of the government—well respected, but devoid of real power. It then considers the Meiji regime, which was established through a series of decisive reforms, as well as the rifts and rivalries of the interdomainal alliance, particularly between the Chōshū and Satsuma domains. Finally, it examines Japan's conflict with Korea and the collapse of the interdomainal alliance.
Fatal Optimism
Authors: Orbach Danny
Published: December 2017

This chapter focuses on one episode in the history of Japanese military insubordination: the emergence of rebels and assassins in Meiji Japan. In October 1876, almost nine years after the Meiji Restoration, there were signs that people were unhappy and imminent rebellion seemed evident. As the Meiji reforms endangered and at times even destroyed the livelihood of many, they often encountered resistance from peasants, shizoku, and former shishi. The chapter examines early Meiji rebellions and conspiracies led by figures such as Takechi Kumakichi and Saigō Takamori in order to understand the patterns of escape to the front, reliance on the hazy center, and the optimism that gave rise to active rebellions. It also considers the failure of Shizoku rebellions and why this enabled the government to enjoy more than half of a century without further military uprisings.
Gold-Eating Monsters
Authors: Orbach Danny
Published: December 2017

This chapter focuses on the supreme prerogative system (tōsui-ken) and how it secured the independence of the Japanese armed forces from any civilian institution apart from the imperial throne. In the postwar years, the “prerogative of supreme command” became a bogeyman to be blamed for all disasters from early Meiji to the end of the Pacific War. The novelist Shiba Ryōtarō claimed that the Imperial Japanese Army, entrenched within their own “supreme prerogative country,” became as wild and murderous as the Pixiu, a gold-eating monster from Chinese mythology. The chapter first considers the Japanese military reforms of 1878 and the motives behind them before discussing the flaws of the supreme prerogative system, arguing that it created a rich background for the future development of military insubordination.
Coup D’état in Three Acts
Authors: Orbach Danny
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines the Taishō political crisis of 1912–1913. It first considers Home Minister Hara Kei's “positive policy” and the military budget dispute of autumn 1912 involving the army and navy before discussing the imperial ordinance known as the “rule of active duty ministry.” It then turns to Prime Minister Saionji Kinmochi's conflict with the army and his successor Katsura Tarō's dispute with the navy. It also explains how the “active duty rule” and the political tools it had generated turned the budgetary dispute of autumn 1912 into a government crisis, and finally, into a military coup d'état. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the ramifications of the Taishō political crisis for the future.
The King of Manchuria
Authors: Orbach Danny
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines the assassination of Zhang Zuolin, the powerful warlord of Manchuria, in 1928 by a group of young Japanese officers led by Kōmoto Daisaku. It begins with a discussion of the two military ideas on which Kōmoto's plot was based: a reinvigorated version of the supreme prerogative system and the concept known as “operational discretion” (dokudan senkō). It then considers Japan's dilemma regarding Manmō, the Japanese abbreviation for “Manchuria and Inner Mongolia.” It also analyzes Kōmoto's personality and his tendency for insubordination, along with the conspiracy to kill Zhang Zuolin. It shows that Kōmoto plotted the assassination of Zhang Zuolin in complete defiance of both government and military high command.
Cherry Blossom
Authors: Orbach Danny
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines the Cherry Blossom Society's rebellion of 1931. The Cherry Blossom Society, or Sakura-kai, was a clandestine organization whose activities precipitated a wave of military violence in the early 1930s. Before discussing how the Sakura-kai escalated the familiar patterns of military resistance into an outright rebellion, the chapter provides a background on its leader, Lieutenant Colonel Hashimoto Kingorō. It then considers the Sakura-kai's alliance with civilian nationalistic societies before turning to the March Incident, which was plotted by Ōkawa Shūmei. It also describes the Manchurian Incident and the October Incident and concludes with a commentary on how the March and October incidents opened a new phase in the history of Japanese military insubordination.
Despair
Authors: Krug Rebecca
Published: December 2017

This chapter locates the Book's origins in the emotional/spiritual experience of intense isolation and speechlessness, conditions associated with despair and, if despair was left unchecked, with suicidal inclinations. It suggests that this “temptation” toward suicide was Kempe's “secret sin” and that her decision to write the Book is an attempt to replace the silencing of confessional discourse, which had led her to a moment of near-suicidal crisis, with self-expression. In struggling to “say what she felt,” Kempe responds to the advice found in books of consolation: these warned against the damaging effects of despair but did little to explain how to escape its destructive power. She thus represents her discovery of the difference between “telling”—the process of saying how the condition felt—and enumerative confession that silenced and defined without allowing such expression as a solution to the problem.
Fear
Authors: Krug Rebecca
Published: December 2017

This chapter traces Kempe's efforts to focus on the present moment, as the Book represents fear as alive and lived in an ever-returning present. According to devotional writers, fear was, on the one hand, spiritually hygienic and, on the other, an obstacle to genuine love of God. Fear's importance, for these writers, was in its meaning (not in the experience of fear itself). Kempe wrestles with both the positive and negative definitions but focuses primarily on the experience, rather than the meaning, of fear. The Book is filled with “believer-in-crisis” episodes, and the excitement and pleasure of dramatized fear encourage readers to identify with the Book's author/reader, reinforcing the exemplary function that the author and her scribes claim for its composition.
Reporting for Duty
Authors: de Rond Mark
Published: December 2017

The author recounts the day he reported for duty in the field hospital. Upon his arrival at Camp Bastion, the largest British overseas base since World War II, the author saw a wounded Gurkha being treated by orthopedic surgeons and scrub nurses. Orthopedic surgeons are plentiful in Bastion, presumably because of too many amputations. The attending anesthetist let the surgeons know periodically how hard he had to work to keep up with the fading Gurkha. The next morning, the patients had all been Afghans. The author describes the mayhem that morning, which he says soon became typical fare. Despite its predictability, he admits he never got used to this prebreakfast ritual, which speaks of the brutality of humanity at war with itself.
A Reason to Live
Authors: de Rond Mark
Published: December 2017

The author, having been in Camp Bastion for more than a week, talks about the casualties of war that doctors and nurses at the field hospital had to attend to on a daily basis. Two of the casualties had been dropped off by helicopter, the elder of whom was badly inebriated. Another casualty was a thirteen-year-old who had sustained shrapnel wounds from an improvised explosive. The author also reflects on the key principles that medical professionals expect to enact, such as “making the care of your patients your first concern” and “providing a good standard of practice and care.” Pre-deployment training for surgeons and anesthetists was predominantly technical in nature. This general technical focus is designed in part to desensitize doctors to emotions that may interfere with their ability to provide the best possible patient care.
Epilogue
Authors: de Rond Mark
Published: December 2017

The author explains why and how he decided to write this book. He says the idea of writing something that would bring the lived experience of doctors at war closer to the general public was originally broached by a high-ranking medical officer, who had been instrumental in helping to secure permission for the author's deployment to Afghanistan. The officer had read one of the author's previous books, The Last Amateurs, and wanted him to come up with a similar work about rear-located medical personnel. There was quite clearly a sense that a candid account of the everyday experience of combat surgical teams would be a welcome addition to the war literature. The result is a candid narrative that chronicles the commitment and fearlessness of the doctors and nurses at the field hospital “who have strong enough stomachs to mop up what we destroy.”
Introduction
Authors: Sharman J. C.
Published: December 2017

This introductory chapter discusses the concept of grand corruption or kleptocracy (“rule by thieves”). It particularly focuses on instances of corruption committed by senior public officials involving large sums of money that are held in a foreign country. There is an international moral and legal responsibility for states to prevent the proceeds of foreign corruption offenses from entering their financial systems and, to the extent that such illicit wealth does filter through, to trace, freeze, and return it to the source or “victim” country. Ultimately, the campaign against grand corruption by states, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs is centered on an extremely delicate issue. This campaign is in tension with fundamental laws and norms of sovereign immunity, and focuses on the powerful countries that are most resistant to outside political pressure.
The Rise of the Anti-Kleptocracy Regime
Authors: Sharman J. C.
Published: December 2017

This chapter elaborates on the concept of kleptocracy by providing a portrait of one of the most publicized and influential early examples of grand corruption: that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the Congo. Sketching out the corruption of Mobutu and his clique shows how the global anti-kleptocracy norm and the resulting regime came into being. For different reasons, a wide variety of intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, and governments from Africa, Asia, and Latin America argue that corruption implicates rich countries as well as poor, because funds looted from poor countries tended to end up in rich ones. The story of intertwined normative and policy change at the global level in this chapter provides context for the following analysis of how well these rules work at a national level.
Friends of the Gods
Authors: Sigurðsson Jón Viðar
Published: December 2017

This chapter focuses on Christian thoughts on friendship. Friendship was the most important social tie in the Old Norse society; however, only a fraction of the population, mainly householders and members of the social elite, could establish such a tie. By making it possible for everyone to become God's friend, the Icelandic church broke down the traditional societal framework and made friendship an important theological concept. This openness of God's friendship was not the only area where new Christian notions differed from pre-Christian ones: another novelty was the idea that one should forgive one's enemies and treat them as well as one's friends. However, even though Christian ideas about friendship were different in some respects, the Church could not radically change the old ideas, as they were heavily intertwined with political structures.
Fear and Fortune
Authors: High Mette M.
Published: December 2017

Mongolia over the last decade has seen a substantial and ongoing gold rush. The wide-spread mining of gold looks at first glance to be a blessing for a desperately poor and largely pastoralist country. Volatility and uncertainty as well as political and economic turmoil led many people to join the hopeful search for gold. This activity poses an intense moral problem; in the “land of dust,” disturbing the ground and extracting the precious metal is widely believed to have calamitous consequences. With gold retaining strong ties to the landscape and its many spirit beings, the fortune of the precious metal is inseparable from the fears that surround mining. This book considers the results of several years of fieldwork in Mongolia, time spent with the “ninjas,” as the miners are known locally, as well as the people who disapprove of their illegal activities and warn of the retribution that the land and its inhabitants may suffer as a result. As such, the book is a well-structured read on the Mongolian gold rush and the spirit forces that underpin it. It provides a uniquely up-close and personal view onto gold mining and its international circuitry, based on a sensitive study of Mongolian sociality, miners, religious knowledge and practice, and ways of envisioning and experiencing what counts as “value” in the Mongolian gold rush today.
It’s All about the Numbers
Authors: Posecznick Alex
Published: December 2017

This chapter explores the daily activity of the admissions team at Ravenwood College with emphasis on the bureaucratic process through which inquiries become applicants and then students. Particularly notable is the semiotic place of numbers and how they are understood and deployed at Ravenwood. Massive bureaucracies are in place that require applicants to package themselves as a series of documents and institutionally acknowledged bits of information. This infrastructure is fundamentally (and intentionally) dehumanizing, as it turns applicants into numbers that are theoretically commensurable with one another. Moving through the infrastructure is clearly consequential, however, as it allows students access to greater resources, opportunities, and social capital concerning higher education. The chapter points out that despite the dehumanizing exigencies of the infrastructure, it remains one that is built and navigated by human actors.
Introduction
Authors: Norris Pippa
Published: December 2017

This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the pervasive problems in the American electoral process. It then describes the Electoral Integrity Project (EIP). Established in 2012, the EIP is an independent project with a research team based at Harvard and Sydney universities that provides independent evidence from a rolling expert survey to document these problems and monitor how elections vary worldwide. According to expert estimates developed by EIP, the 2012 and 2014 elections in the United States were the worst among all Western democracies. Without reform, these problems risk damaging the legitimacy of American elections—further weakening public confidence in the major political parties, Congress, and the US government, depressing voter turnout, and exacerbating the risks of contentious outcomes fought through court appeals and public protests. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.