bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Share Allotments
Authors: Ferran Eilís , Howell Elizabeth , Steffek Felix
Published: October 2023

This chapter is concerned with the special rights that shareholders have with respect to the authorization of allotments of new shares and their related pre-emption rights with respect to those shares. The chapter explains how these special rights, which are conferred by the Companies Act 2006, are supplemented by listing requirements applicable to premium listed companies, and how the practical operation of these rights is shaped by standing market guidance provided by the investor community. Seasoned (or secondary) equity offerings in the form of rights issues, open offers, and placings are examined. The chapter highlights the rise of the innovative cashbox financing structure during the Covid-19 pandemic period and notes recent changes to market guidance and reform proposals that are intended to streamline further certain aspects of the equity capital-raising process.
Classes of Shares
Authors: Ferran Eilís , Howell Elizabeth , Steffek Felix
Published: October 2023

The rights attaching to shares and the issues that arise when complexity is introduced into the capital structure by the issue of different classes of shares are the subject matter of this chapter. Companies may issue different classes of shares (ordinary shares, preference shares, redeemable shares etc) to appeal to different investor preferences and thus manage their overall cost of capital. Class rights structures may also be used by entrepreneurs and investors as a shield against rights being changed without their specific consent. The chapter includes consideration of listed company dual class share structures which have surged in popularity in recent years because they enable founders of businesses to list their company’s ordinary shares on a public market whilst still retaining disproportionate control through a second class of ordinary shares that carry enhanced rights.
Share Buy-backs and Redeemable Shares
Authors: Ferran Eilís , Howell Elizabeth , Steffek Felix
Published: October 2023

The Companies Act 2006 prohibits the acquisition by limited companies of their own shares but the impact of this ban is attenuated by other provisions in the Act whereby companies are permitted to purchase own shares and to issue redeemable shares. The law has been progressively relaxed over the years but the statutory powers whereby buy-backs and redeemable shares are permitted remain subject to restrictions that are intended to prevent abuse that would prejudice creditors, discriminate against groups of shareholders, or distort the market. Nevertheless, share buy-backs remain controversial because for some they represent the worst excesses of impatient capital. This chapter considers the arguments for and against allowing companies broad powers to buy back their shares and/or to issue redeemable shares and looks closely at the safeguards to which those powers are subject.
Distributions to Shareholders
Authors: Ferran Eilís , Howell Elizabeth , Steffek Felix
Published: October 2023

This chapter is about dividends and other distributions to shareholders. It reviews aspects of corporate finance theory relating to dividend policy, including the signalling role of dividends and their role in addressing agency problems. The legal requirements and related accounting guidance relating to dividends are examined in depth. Issues considered include: the procedures for the declaration and payment of interim and final dividends; directors’ duties with respect to dividend policy and liabilities for unlawful dividends; unfair prejudice to shareholders; profits available for distribution; and relevant accounts. Government proposals to strengthen financial reporting and dividend regulation, including the establishment of a new statutory regulator, the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA) and the extension of certain reporting requirements to a larger group of companies, including large private companies, are outlined. The chapter notes the policy preference to address weaknesses by adding additional requirements rather than considering more fundamental solvency/liquidity-based reform.
Debt Corporate Finance—General Considerations
Authors: Ferran Eilís , Howell Elizabeth , Steffek Felix
Published: October 2023

Companies can raise debt finance by issuing debt securities (bonds) directly into the capital markets or by borrowing from banks or other lenders. This chapter examines general issues relating to unsecured debt in corporate finance. Topics discussed include unsecured lending, multiple lenders, unitranche loans, overdrafts, and the key elements of term loans covering principal, interest, conditions precedent, representations and warranties, covenants, and events of default. The text also investigates the role of providers of debt finance in corporate governance. The chapter explains the legal principles as well as economic considerations that explain the contractual clauses used in practice and the legal framework for debt finance provided by parliament and the courts.
Public Offers and Listings of Equity Securities
Authors: Ferran Eilís , Howell Elizabeth , Steffek Felix
Published: October 2023

This chapter focuses on the process whereby a company raises finance by offering its equity securities to investors in the market. Topics discussed include reasons for going public, where shares can be listed, EU capital market regulation, the impact of Brexit on UK primary market regulation, standards for admission to trading on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), forms of public offer of shares, determining the issue price, the principle of mandatory prospectus disclosure, the operation of the mandatory prospectus disclosure regime, enforcement of securities laws regulating public issues and admission to trading, civil liability in the UK for defective prospectuses, civil liability for false prospectuses, periodic and episodic disclosure obligations of listed and quoted companies, issuer disclosure obligations derived from the transparency obligations directive, annual corporate governance disclosures by issuers admitted to trading on a regulated market, and civil liability for periodic and episodic disclosures.
Financial Assistance
Authors: Ferran Eilís , Howell Elizabeth , Steffek Felix
Published: October 2023

This chapter is concerned with actions whereby a public company financially supports the acquisition of its shares, or that assistance is provided by a public or private company subsidiary of the public company. The giving of financial assistance by public companies or their subsidiaries is generally prohibited. The retention of the ban on giving of financial assistance by public companies reflected the UK’s obligations as an EU Member State and, as such, it could now be revisited. This chapter delves into the complexities of financial assistance law to test the strength of the case for reform. The chapter highlights recent cases in the UK and Ireland that illustrate the challenges involved in seeking to hold corporate managers accountable for the giving of unlawful financial assistance. The chapter also notes how failed financial assistance prosecutions have helped to drive more general reform of corporate criminal liability in the UK
Time, Hope, and Desire
Authors: Garrison John S.
Published: October 2023

This chapter considers how the presence of erotic desire can affect the speaker’s memory as well as his experience of temporality. It integrates a conventional reading of time in the Sonnets as a force that threatens to devour all that the speaker holds dear—his beauty and reputation, as well as those of his beloveds. First taking its cues from Einstein and Faulkner, the discussion traces how the command of rhetoric and narrative shows the promise to manipulate one’s experience of time in Sonnet 12 and Sonnet 60. It then pivots to consider Sonnet 30 and Sonnet 5 through the lenses of cognitive science and Freudian psychoanalysis, asking questions about the intersection of sexuality and mourning. The analysis also explores how the poet attempts to deploy the power of retrospective and anticipatory memory to summon the past—and even the future—into the present.
Contagious Memory
Authors: Garrison John S.
Published: October 2023

This chapter pursues a presentist analysis of Sonnet 147 in light of recent research in cognitive science regarding how memory replicates in the same way as a virus and how the future is imagined in terms of the past. A contemporary adaptation of Sonnet 147 by Maureen Owen sheds light on Shakespeare’s version, especially in terms of a psychoanalytic reading of the poem. The chapter then offers broader thinking about the relationship between race and sexuality as well as between viral infection and erotic desire. This discussion forms the foundation for final thoughts on the unique purchase of early modern literature on our understanding of the pandemics of our time, especially the AIDS epidemic. The final argument centers on depictions of Elizabethan sexuality in Timothy Findley’s 2000 play Elizabeth Rex and Derek Jarman’s 1991 film Edward II.
The Shape of the Archive
Authors: Ahnert Ruth , Ahnert Sebastian E.
Published: October 2023

Chapter 2 provides the most ‘distant’ view of the archive and its constituent documents by employing a series of foundational network metrics: degree centrality, in-degree, out-degree, in-strength, out-strength, and total strength. These metrics show that epistolary hubs (typified by very high degree centrality) are vanishingly rare amongst the 20,560 correspondents, totalling less than 0.3%. Rather, the majority of people found in this dataset (~68%) represent a giant fringe, connected to just one other person, often via a petition to the Principal Secretary. However, while hubs make up the minority of nodes in our epistolary network, they dominate its structure. Other influential nodes, such as diplomats, agents, and military figures, appear in the archive as a complementary category of nodes within an intelligence economy focused on these hubs: they are the providers of intelligence that form the material connections and information that enable the Principal Secretary’s engagement in foreign policy. The interdependence of their network attributes emphasises how we must reverse-engineer the making of the archive and determine who is responsible for the presence of each document and each person in the archive; and to understand from whose idiosyncratic point of view we are grasping the significance of these individuals and the worlds of information they have helped to create.
Afterword
Authors: Ahnert Ruth , Ahnert Sebastian E.
Published: October 2023

This afterword looks beyond the work undertaken in the preceding chapters to propose directions in which the new dataset and accumulated tools and methods could be taken next. It outlines a range of specific opportunities for historians of Tudor politics, diplomacy, news, and epistolary culture, as well as suggesting how the experiments in the chapters provide methodological openings for those interested more broadly in data-driven approaches to cultural heritage data. It notes how one of the biggest challenges facing research in this latter area is the siloing of collections data, and outlines the opportunities that emerge once users can link, aggregate, and analyse material across multiple archives and collections—not just letters, but across the breadth of material collected and catalogued by heritage institutions.
Urban Places Create Unique Health Spaces for Wildlife, People, and the Environment
Authors: Byers Kaylee A. , Murray Maureen H. , Nelson Joanne E.
Published: October 2023

Cities pose a multitude of health challenges to people and wildlife. This work reviews these challenges and discusses the merits of a One Health approach, including that it encompasses a diversity of health harms, such as the risks of infectious disease spread between animals and people, the mental health benefits of engaging with wildlife and natural spaces, and the shared exposure of people and animals to environmental pollutants and toxins. However, it also discusses that, although this approach has only recently been recognized in western science, this concept is not new and has been rooted in Indigenous views of health since time immemorial. This necessarily means that, to effectively move One Health forward in urban areas, we must work to meaningfully integrate diverse perspectives and knowledges into this process. This chapter explains how a Two-Eyed Seeing approach integrating Indigenous and western knowledges can be used to create impactful and actionable solutions to intersecting health challenges. It concludes this understanding of the interrelationships between human and wildlife health in cities by centering the need to be intentional of social justice in addressing One Health issues, specifically by applying a harm-reduction lens to the process of promoting wildlife health in cities and acknowledging the needs to consider whose knowledge and perspectives are integrated into this process.
Industry and Policy in Independent Ireland, 1922-1972
Authors: Barry Frank
Published: October 2023

This book revisits the history of industry and the evolution of development policy in independent Ireland from the birth of the state to the eve of European Economic Community (EEC) accession. The Irish Free State was predominantly agricultural at its establishment in 1922. Industrial development was high on the nationalist agenda of all of the newly established European states of the inter-war period, as would later be the case across the entire developing world. Despite decades of protection, Ireland remained under-industrialized when it joined the EEC in 1973. Over the previous decade-and-a-half however the foundations of later convergence had been laid. Ireland was an early adopter of what would come to be known as dual-track reform. The policy of attracting outward-oriented foreign direct investment (FDI) was initiated before substantial trade liberalization began. By 1972 there had been a significant diversification in exports and export destinations and in the nationality of ownership of the leading companies. In these and other respects, the foundations of the economic progress that would be made over the course of EEC membership were already discernible, notwithstanding the post-accession collapse of most protectionist-era businesses. The analysis is supplemented by a unique firm-level database that allows for the identification of the leading manufacturing employers throughout the decades and extends by some fifty years the period for which estimates of the significance of foreign-owned industry can be provided.
Tax Sovereignty, EU Tax Law, and Harmful Tax Competition
Authors: Kyriazis Dimitrios
Published: October 2023

This chapter is divided into four sections and addresses three important issues. Section A introduces the structure and content of the chapter. In Section B, the concept of State sovereignty and tax sovereignty is explored in the context of the European legal order. In Section C, the status quo of EU tax law is briefly set out, through an analysis of the key parts of primary and secondary EU tax law. In Section D, the concept of harmful tax competition is examined from a political and economic perspective. EU tax law sets strict legal limits to state sovereignty, and especially tax sovereignty, while harmful tax competition applies fiscal pressure on States, forcing them to minimize the tax burden of internationally mobile businesses.
The Second Fiscal State Aid Wave
Authors: Kyriazis Dimitrios
Published: October 2023

In this chapter, the ongoing (second) wave of fiscal State aid investigations is examined by analysing its common threads and commenting on the Commission’s attempt to promote an EU Arm’s Length Principle. More specifically, in Section A, the decisions’ common threads are identified and assessed. Particular emphasis is placed on the Commission’s creative way of linking Article 107 TFEU to THE Arm’s Length Principle. In Section B, the General Court’s judgments in the Fiat and Starbucks cases are examined. Finally, in Section C, the Fiat ruling of the Grand Chamber of the ECJ in November 2022 is dissected, illustrating how the Court rightly rejected the Commission’s approach, thus quashing the General Court’s rulings and annulling the Commission’s Decision.
The Nexus between the Two Fiscal State Aid Waves and Harmful Tax Competition
Authors: Kyriazis Dimitrios
Published: October 2023

In this chapter, the most important thread binding the two fiscal State aid waves are analysed in depth, namely their common link (and contribution) to the EU’s fight against harmful tax competition. By referring to the work of the Code of Conduct group, Commission press releases, official statements by Competition Commissioners, and various academic sources, it is shown that many of the cases pursued by the Commission in both fiscal aid waves concerned tax measures that presented actual or potential harmful tax competition elements. It is, moreover, reiterated that the Commission’s expansive interpretation of the ‘selectivity’ and ‘advantage’ conditions in the first and second waves, respectively, was instrumental in targeting such tax measures, which might have otherwise escaped State aid scrutiny. On the basis of the above, it is concluded that the Commission has at times employed its powerful hard law apparatus under Article 107 TFEU in order to further the soft law goals of the Code of Conduct for Business Taxation.
Conclusion
Authors: Kyriazis Dimitrios
Published: October 2023

This chapter contains the conclusions of the author’s research. More specifically, it reiterates how the Commission used fiscal State aid law to further its fight against harmful tax competition in the EU and why its approach in the second fiscal State aid wave was illegitimate. Moreover, it places the Fiat ruling of the ECJ’s Grand Chamber (November 2022) in its broader context and ponders it wider significance as regards the next ‘day’ in EU State aid law. It illuminates its ramifications in relation to harmful tax competition and its impact on the effectiveness of State aid law as a policy weapon in this regard.
Sonar to Quartz Clock
Authors: Katzir Shaul
Published: October 2023

The book examines how the hitherto unapplied phenomenon of piezoelectricity became applied for technologies such as sonar, frequency control and the quartz clock and how its research has consequently changed during WWI and the interwar period. It has two main aims. First it aims at reconstructing, for the first time, the fascinating history of the inventions and the development of these highly important technologies, which are still in extensive use, and which were crucial for the electronic revolution, arguably the most important technological developments of the twentieth century. On this basis, the book suggests better and more nuanced understanding of the relationships between modern science and technology and the process of development and innovation in science-based technologies. It examines in particular the mutual transfer and transformation of knowledge between them including the way physics becomes practically applicable, the way applications and societal interests shape technology and science, and the differences and similarities between scientific and technological research. To these ends the book closely analyses the scientific and technological research and development in the field and their evolution on their experimental, theoretical and technical aspects within their social military and commercial contexts, offering an integrative history of science and technology, needed to better comprehend their interactions and evolution but rare in current historiography.
Introduction
Authors: Knapper Daniel
Published: October 2023

The Introduction describes the centrality of Paul’s life and letters to Renaissance thought, society, and culture, then outlines the reception of Paul’s style among Renaissance humanists and artists. It shows that humanists developed their definitions and interpretations of Paul’s style according to four distinctive theoretical premises, including grammar, rhetoric, the recuperative hermeneutic (a concept discussed further in Chapter 1), and the classical genera dicendi. It also shows that literary artists, informed by humanist criticism, imitated Paul’s style according to prominent speech acts in the epistles, offering imitations of two speech acts as examples: the exhortation and the imprecation (or curse).
Arguing with Paul
Authors: Knapper Daniel
Published: October 2023

This chapter explores how John Donne imitates Paul’s style in the Holy Sonnets. In the sonnets, Donne’s poetic speakers frequently shift from acts of reason—reflecting, inquiring, disputing—to acts of rhetoric—exclaiming, persuading, petitioning—typically once they reach a logical paradox or argumentative impasse in their theological meditations and debates. The chapter shows that Donne draws on Pauline style to coordinate these shifts between reason and rhetoric in the sonnets, often transitioning from theological reflection to rhetorical exclamation between the octave and the sestet; more specifically, it shows that Donne imitates passages from Paul’s epistles in which Paul discusses in logical-discursive terms a theological doctrine—predestination, justification, sanctification, the resurrection—only to leave his explanation of the doctrine unresolved and break into highly dramatic, emotionally driven exclamations. Donne uses this stylistic dynamic to to dramatize the devotional implications of Paul’s refusal or failure to fully rationalize a fundamental set of theological concepts.
Conclusion
Authors: Ettenhuber Katrin
Published: October 2023

The Conclusion summarizes the key findings of the book and reiterates the importance of logical concepts and processes to literary thinking and writing. It sketches some of the outlines that defined academic and philosophical discussions of logic in the mid- and late seventeenth century, and offers some preliminary suggestions on how we might negotiate the relationships between literature and logic in an intellectual environment increasingly dominated by the parameters of proto-scientific inquiry. The Conclusion ends with a return to the beginnings of logical theory and uses the Aristotelian predicaments, and their reinterpretations in Medieval philosophy, to illustrate the continuing relevance of logical categories to questions of individual selfhood and social identity.
The Consolidation of Matrix Mechanics: Born–Jordan, Dirac and the Three-Man-Paper
Authors: Duncan Anthony , Janssen Michel
Published: October 2023

This chapter covers the process of the consolidation of the ideas in Heisenberg’s Umdeutung paper into the Two-Man-Paper by Born and Jordan, the Three-Man-Paper (Dreimännerarbeit) by Born, Heisenberg, and Jordan, and a paper by Dirac. Both Born and Jordan recognized that Heisenberg’s peculiar non-commutative multiplication rule is recognized to be nothing but the standard multiplication rule for matrices. They also replaced Heisenberg’s quantization condition, the Thomas–Reiche–Kuhn sum rule, by the now-familiar commutation relations of position and momentum. The chapter then discusses how Dirac independently derived these commutation relations, relying on a profound analogy with the Poisson brackets of classical mechanics
De Broglie’s Matter Waves and Einstein’s Quantum Theory of the Ideal Gas
Authors: Duncan Anthony , Janssen Michel
Published: October 2023

This chapter covers De Broglie’s extension to matter of wave–particle duality, which Einstein had introduced for radiation. It fills in the background in the tradition of extremal principles in classical physics that De Broglie drew on to formulate his theory. It then covers Bose’s introduction of a new statistics for light quanta and Einstein’s application of those statistics to matter in his quantum theory of the ideal gas. Providing support for De Broglie’s ideas, Einstein derived a formula for energy fluctuations in such a gas that has the exact same form as the formula for energy fluctuations in black-body radiations: it is the sum of two terms, one suggesting waves, the other one suggesting particles.
Statistical Interpretation of Matrix and Wave Mechanics
Authors: Duncan Anthony , Janssen Michel
Published: October 2023

This chapter covers the emergence of the statistical interpretation of the new quantum mechanics. After covering the earliest suggestions in this direction by Born and Pauli, it covers the statistical transformation theory of Dirac and Jordan, focusing on Jordan’s version. This version was an important part of the inspiration of Heisenberg’s uncertainty paper, which is covered next. The chapter concludes with the Como and Solvay conferences of late 1927 where Bohr revealed his complementarity principle and where the Copenhagen-Göttingen matrix-mechanics camp of Bohr, Born, Heisenberg, and Pauli squared off with Schrödinger, Einstein, De Broglie, and others in the wave-mechanics camp over the interpretation of the new quantum formalism.
Cities of the Mind
Authors: Nandy Ashis
Published: October 2023

A city acquires its individuality not only from its geographical location, cultural riches, or political salience but also from the psychological space it occupies in the lives of its inhabitants, visitors, and distant admirers. Like countries, a city too can have its diaspora. In that diaspora, nostalgia and a sense of loss may set up a city of the mind that challenges the reality of the living city and reviews its cosmopolitan credentials. The city of the mind may then become more real than the living city for millions.
Interpreting Catastrophes
Authors: Ramaswami Shankar
Published: October 2023

Catastrophes provoke theological questions and awaken the awareness of human wrongdoing. This essay explores three interpretations of catastrophes. It begins with a discussion of M. K. Gandhi’s statements on the Bihar earthquake of 1934, which he described as divine punishment for the sin of untouchability. It then describes the perspectives of Ramchandra Gandhi on the Bihar earthquake and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which are viewed as reactions to the distorted karma of dualistic consciousness in relation to human beings and nature. Finally, it discusses the narrative of Naresh, a migrant worker in Delhi, which depicts the Indian Ocean tsunami and other ecological catastrophes as the martyrdom of the earth goddess within the advancing epoch of the Kalyug. The essay concludes with a consideration of possible atonements for catastrophes.
From Here to Denmark
Authors: Nag Rajat M. , Kohli Harinder S.
Published: October 2023

‘Here’ is a hypothetical place where governance is poor, and justice often denied. The situation in ‘Denmark’, another hypothetical place, is the opposite. The journey from Here to Denmark is a quest seeking good governance for all. That in turn needs robust, inclusive institutions which are both the formal and informal rules governing a society. Formal rules are essentially aspirational and by now, most countries have put formal institutions in place though many still do not perform effectively. Informal rules evolve from shared beliefs, social norms, mental models, and local cultural context. Such informal rules greatly influence how well institutions function in a society and take time to change and evolve. In addition to efforts at trying to make the formal institutions work better, the key challenges for any society are to build greater public trust, change peoples’ behaviors and influence informal institutions so crucial for better governance. Enhanced human capital through improved education and health will also be crucial to empower citizens and enable them to participate more effectively in the affairs of their society. There is no easy road map for this journey. Each society will have to find its own way to Denmark. But, history indicates that the arc of the journey does bend towards Denmark. The book has outlined ten global megatrends which give hope that many countries will indeed be able to reach Denmark, sooner rather than later, where, to quote Tagore, ‘the mind is without fear and the head is held high’.
Good Governance is Good Development
Authors: Mohan Rajat
Published: October 2023

Good governance is good development. It is not only conducive to economic growth and higher incomes (its instrumental value) but even more importantly leads to greater freedoms from violence and injustice (its intrinsic value). Governance is about the process of governing a society to provide its citizens such freedoms. Good governance essentially comprises four basic elements: predictability, transparency, participation, and accountability. Measuring governance and its impact is a complex process. Given the wide range of interpretations of what governance means, it is helpful to consider measures of governance in two broad categories: de jure or rules-based and de facto or outcomes-based. While the de jure indicators are a useful starting point, at the end of the day, de facto realities are what matters. Do higher incomes lead to better governance? Studies show quite convincingly that the causality works the other way around, that better governance leads to higher per capita incomes and better social outcomes as well. This has an important policy implication: countries cannot attempt to get rich first and then focus on improving governance. There is evidence around the world of countries doing well economically even when they do not score well on governance measures. However, evidence also points to such growth not being sustainable in the long run.
I Think—Therefore, I Am
Authors: Mohan Rajat
Published: October 2023

Humans display bounded rationality, bounded willpower, and bounded self-interest. Since all human actions and behaviour are influenced by the process of thinking, it is important to model this process based on the reality of boundedness. Psychologists have long recognized that human thinking is a function of two simultaneous processes: one, automatic and fast; and the other reflective but slow. The automatic system intuitively draws on an evolutionary pool of data hardwired into our minds and using default options and mental shortcuts produces adequately well-adapted decisions with minimal efforts. The reflective system, on the other hand, is more deliberative: weighs the nuances of various options consciously before deciding on one. Evidence shows that people under cognitive strain often find it difficult to think reflectively, this leading them to make less-than-optimal life choices and decisions. Under such stress, people frame their choices too narrowly, not consciously considering other, better options. Humans often act irrationally. Incorporating this reality in public policy decisions, some seemingly minor and low-cost policy changes can have large impacts on achieving better development outcomes. Most humans find the realities of their thinking and subsequent actions (or the lack of it) as fairly serious impediments in making the right choices. While the automatic system serves humans well, they could also veer towards less-than-optimal choices. In such situations, a nudge may help. Simple but suitable public policy and institutional changes, many of which can be seemingly minor and low-cost, can help a society do better.
How Denmark Got to Denmark and Great Britain’s Journey
Authors: Mohan Rajat
Published: October 2023

A major institutional breakthrough in Denmark happened with the Lutheran Reformation of 1536, when the monarch was anointed as the head of the church as well. Fortuitously, he and his successors used it well to expand and strengthen the institutions of state administration as well as the judiciary. Under a new constitution adopted in 1665, property rights were recognized and adherence to a rule of law enforced by a stronger and meritocratic bureaucracy and an impartial judiciary. All these developments gradually led to the emergence of inclusive economic institutions in the country. However, inclusive political institutions began to emerge only after the transition to constitutional monarchy in 1849. In Great Britain, politically inclusive institutions began to emerge as early as 1265 with the signing of the Magna Carta. However, the transition took over 650 years to take root, with frequent and sometimes even formidable setbacks along the way. Tensions between the monarch and Parliament only began to be resolved with the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Its major achievement was the enshrinement of some basic tenets of liberty in the country’s first Bill of Rights. It limited the sovereign’s power, reaffirmed the judiciary’s independence and Parliament’s control over taxation and legislation. Note that in Denmark, economic institutions first turned inclusive, followed by political institutions about two centuries later. The sequence in Great Britain was the opposite. Note too that institutions had to be both politically and economically inclusive to get to ‘Denmark’, and the process took centuries.
The State, the Markets, and the COMMUNITY
Authors: Mohan Rajat
Published: October 2023

Getting a community to take charge of its own development is not easy. For the State, the challenge is to overcome its tendency to consider people as only passive recipients of State actions, rather than as active participants in the process as well. One major impediment to achieving this is the asymmetry of power in most societies. Strengthening communities requires devolving political power to them through a process of decentralization. But, over time, in the evolution of the nation state, and more lately as markets have globalized, power has devolved up the chain from the community to the top. Decentralization would seek to reverse this trend, adopting the principle of subsidiarity: powers and corresponding accountability should be vested at the lowest level, where it is best put to effective use, in a process aptly described as inclusive localism. Often a community is weakened by the State’s simply ignoring it. This can be corrected by transparently sharing as much information as possible with the community. Inclusive localism demands more than just exchange of information. It would involve active participation by the community in the design and implementation of public services, and ultimately have control over planning decisions and investment resources. But decentralization of responsibilities would require the simultaneous devolution of financial resources to the community too. Inclusive localism also calls for the State to hold the community accountable for the tasks and resources devolved to it. However, this needs to be done with a soft touch, not a heavy hand.
Oxford and the Crown
Authors: Aston Nigel
Published: October 2023

Chapter 7 examines the uneven relationship of the University with the monarchy after the Glorious Revolution. Oxford was the loyal city, Charles I’s headquarters during the first Civil War (1642–6) but the breaks in the hereditary succession in 1688 and 1714 proved hard to accommodate. Relief at William III’s rescue from James II’s Catholicising policies soon palled and Anne’s reign was a Tory interlude that never delivered on expectations. The chapter insists on the importance of an influential Whig minority within the University under George I and George II that ensured a limited degree of state largesse, but Oxford’s reputation for Jacobite Toryism was a barrier to a harmonious relationship. It was only after George III succeeded in 1760 that divisions gave way to solidarity of opinion in his favour across the University. That loyalist reservoir could thereafter function as a foundational strength of the dynasty and the kingdom.
Beyond the University
Authors: Aston Nigel
Published: October 2023

Chapter 9 considers the University’s outreach and influence across Britain and Ireland. First, engagement with the City of Oxford, with which the University shared many physical spaces, then with county society across the south Midlands and, finally, the provincial interactions generated through collegiate land ownership across England and Wales. Oxonian values were transmitted through schools, which were as vital as the clergy in forming Anglican identities in the young. The University’s cultural connections via its graduates extended across the British Isles. Wales, Trinity College, Dublin, and the Scottish universities all had strong collegiate connections with Oxford. Considered numerically, Oxford’s effect on the Crown’s non-English subjects may have been small but the University was too great a cultural force-field in terms of its values and its history for it to be ignored anywhere in the two kingdoms.
Beer
Authors: Bamforth Charles W.
Published: October 2023

This book represents a reader-friendly journey through all the key aspects of beer and its brewing. The nature of the global brewing business is addressed, with a detailed analysis of who brews what and how much and who consumes the most of this product. Having covered the 8,000-year history of brewing, the malting and brewing processes are described, and the rich diversity of beer styles, both ales and lagers of many types, is covered. The importance and nature of different malts, hops, adjuncts, and of water are shown, including their importance for the many aspects of beer quality, including foam, color, clarity, flavor, and stability. Reverence for beer is described, including the pairing of beer with food, as well as the nutritional value of beer in relation to various bodily functions and conditions. Analysis of beer, the impact of the process on the environment, and a look forward to the future of the industry are included, as is a detailed glossary.
See, Smell, Savor
Authors: Bamforth Charles W.
Published: October 2023

Brewers strive for consistency in the flavor of their beers: no such thing as vintage in a brewing context! The quality of beer starts to be judged by the consumer from the moment they see a label or inspect a package. It is said that they “drink with their eyes,” so brewers pay great attention to ensuring that there is an excellent foam on the beer and that it has the right color and clarity. Then the flavor must be right: the taste and the aroma, with most of the flavor being detected by the nose. The flavor of beer changes with time, usually for the worse, and brewers strive to prevent this by minimizing oxygen levels and keeping beer cold as much as possible once packaged. The brewer aims for “more-ishness” (“drinkability”) in their products.
Rice, Corn, and Other Touchy Subjects
Authors: Bamforth Charles W.
Published: October 2023

A selection of alternative sources of carbohydrate—the so-called adjuncts—can be used alongside malt to make beer. There are many beer aficionados who feel negatively about these materials, but they are wholesome and valuable products that can be used in the production of diverse types of beer. A good example is rice, which if used to replace perhaps a third of the malt will enable the brewing of a gently colored and flavored beer that has less of the astringency that can be found in an all-malt beer. Adjuncts can also enhance quality characteristics for beers, such as enhanced foam and turbidity in beers intended to be hazy. The most widely used adjuncts are syrups (liquefied sugars) that can be added at the boiling stage to “extend” the amount of wort, leading to cost savings. Alternatively, they facilitate the production of beers of higher alcohol content, for example, Trappist beers.
Godesgood
Authors: Bamforth Charles W.
Published: October 2023

The fermentable sugars in the wort are converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide by yeast in fermenters. The wort, the yeast strain, the size and shape of the fermenter, and the process conditions (amount of oxygen provided to the yeast, temperature, etc.) all influence the type of beer that will be produced. Lager yeast strains are more complex than ale strains. Fermentation is monitored by tracking the decrease in the specific gravity of the wort. During fermentation a range of chemical species are scavenged by the yeast and produced by the yeast, among them a molecule with a generally disagreeable aroma of butterscotch (diacetyl). Most brewers apply various techniques to eliminate this substance from their products. Many beers nowadays are produced in very tall, high-volume so-called cylindro-conical fermenters, but there remains much beer fermented in traditional open shallow vessels. Techniques such as high-gravity brewing and continuous fermentation have their advocates for enhancing fermentation efficiencies.
Measure for Measure
Authors: Bamforth Charles W.
Published: October 2023

Brewers employ a wide range of analytical approaches to ensure that they produce consistently excellent beer. Key instrumental tests include the measurement of alcohol, specific gravity, carbon dioxide, oxygen, flavorsome substances, color, clarity, and foam. Brewers also use a range of sensory tools, including a simple difference test, as well as descriptive approaches in which trained tasters can score the various flavors that they register in the beer. There are also microbiological tests, both traditional ones using agar plates and rapid approaches such as ATP bioluminescence and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Brewers interact through membership in several major organizations, two of which (EBC, ASBC) publish standardized methods that can be used to ensure the reliability of analytical data.
Anthrax lethal toxin and tumor necrosis factor-α synergize on intestinal epithelia to induce mouse death
Authors: Gao Xinhe , Teng Teng , Liu Yifei , Ai Tingting , Zhao Rui , Fu Yilong , Zhang Peipei , Han Jiahuai , Zhang Yingying
Published: October 2023

Bacillus anthracis lethal toxin (LT) is a determinant of lethal anthrax. Its function in myeloid cells is required for bacterial dissemination, and LT itself can directly trigger dysfunction of the cardiovascular system. The interplay between LT and the host responses is important in the pathogenesis, but our knowledge on this interplay remains limited. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) is a pleiotropic pro-inflammatory cytokine induced by bacterial infections. Since LT accumulates and cytokines, predominantly TNF, amass during B. anthracis infection, co-treatment of TNF + LT in mice was used to mimic in vivo conditions for LT to function in inflamed hosts. Bone marrow transplantation and genetically engineered mice showed unexpectedly that the death of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) rather than that of hematopoietic cells led to LT + TNF-induced lethality. Inhibition of p38α mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling by LT in IECs promoted TNF-induced apoptosis and necroptosis of IECs, leading to intestinal damage and mouse death. Consistently, p38α inhibition by LT enhanced TNF-mediated cell death in human colon epithelial HT-29 cells. As intestinal damage is one of the leading causes of lethality in anthrax patients, the IEC damage caused by LT + TNF would most likely be a mechanism underneath this clinical manifestation and could be a target for interventions.
Uptake of Technology for Neurorehabilitation in Clinical Practice: A Scoping Review
Authors: Alt Murphy Margit , Pradhan Sujata , Levin Mindy F , Hancock Nicola J
Published: October 2023

Objective

Technology-based interventions offer many opportunities to enhance neurorehabilitation, with associated research activity gathering pace. Despite this fact, translation for use in clinical practice has lagged research innovation. An overview of the current “state of play” regarding the extent of clinical uptake and factors that might influence use of technologies is required. This scoping review explored the uptake of technologies as neurorehabilitation interventions in clinical practice and factors that are reported to influence their uptake.

Methods

This systematic scoping review was conducted with narrative synthesis and evidence mapping. Studies of any design reporting uptake or implementation of technology (wearable devices, virtual reality, robotics, and exergaming) for movement neurorehabilitation after stroke and other neurological conditions were sought via a formal search strategy in MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL, AMED, and Embase. Full-text screening and data extraction were completed independently by 2 reviewers.

Results

Of 609 studies returned, 25 studies were included after title, abstract, and full-text screening. Studies investigated a range of technologies at various stages of development. Only 4 of the included studies explored the sustained use of technology in practice. The following 5 themes representing experiences of technology use emerged: perceived usefulness, technology design, social interaction, integration with services, and suggested improvements to enhance uptake.

Conclusion

Reporting of uptake and use of neurorehabilitation technologies in clinical practice is limited. The synthesis provided comprehensive knowledge of barriers to and facilitators of uptake to be considered in future protocols, including a steep learning curve required to engage with technology, a need for a supportive organizational culture, and a need for user involvement in both design and development.

Impact

This scoping review has provided indicators from current evidence of important factors to consider in the planning of research into and clinical implementation of technologies for neurorehabilitation. It serves to support an evidence-based, user-centered platform for improved research on and translation of technologies in neurorehabilitation clinical practice.
Theory of systems change: An initial, middle-range theory of public health research impact
Authors: Craike Melinda , Klepac Bojana , Mowle Amy , Riley Therese
Published: October 2023

There is increasing attention on evidencing research impact and applying a systems thinking perspective in public health. However, there is limited understanding of the extent to which and how public health research that applies a systems thinking perspective contributes to changes in system behaviour and improved population health outcomes. This paper addresses the theoretical limitations of research impact, theory-based evaluation and systems thinking, by drawing on their respective literature to develop an initial, middle-range Theory of Systems Change, focused on the contribution of public health research that takes a systems perspective on population health outcomes. The Theory of Systems Change was developed through four phases: (1) Preliminary activities, (2) Theory development, (3) Scripting into images, and (4) Examining against Merton’s criteria. The primary propositions are: that well-functioning systems create the conditions for improved population health outcomes; the inter-related properties of, and practices within, well-functioning systems include adaptation, alignment, collaboration and evidence-driven action and learning; and public health research contributes to population health outcomes by embedding capacity in the system. The Theory of Systems Change can guide researchers in developing project-specific theories of change and creates the theoretical architecture for the accumulation of learning. The Theory of Systems Change is necessarily incomplete and an initial attempt to develop a theory to be scrutinized and tested. Ultimately, it seeks to advance theory and provide evidence-based guidance to maximize the contribution of research. We provide examples of how we have applied the Theory of Systems Change to Pathways in Place.