bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Gene set proximity analysis: expanding gene set enrichment analysis through learned geometric embeddings, with drug-repurposing applications in COVID-19
Authors: Cousins Henry , Hall Taryn , Guo Yinglong , Tso Luke , Tzeng Kathy T H , Cong Le , Altman Russ B
Published: November 2022

Motivation

Gene set analysis methods rely on knowledge-based representations of genetic interactions in the form of both gene set collections and protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks. However, explicit representations of genetic interactions often fail to capture complex interdependencies among genes, limiting the analytic power of such methods.

Results

We propose an extension of gene set enrichment analysis to a latent embedding space reflecting PPI network topology, called gene set proximity analysis (GSPA). Compared with existing methods, GSPA provides improved ability to identify disease-associated pathways in disease-matched gene expression datasets, while improving reproducibility of enrichment statistics for similar gene sets. GSPA is statistically straightforward, reducing to a version of traditional gene set enrichment analysis through a single user-defined parameter. We apply our method to identify novel drug associations with SARS-CoV-2 viral entry. Finally, we validate our drug association predictions through retrospective clinical analysis of claims data from 8 million patients, supporting a role for gabapentin as a risk factor and metformin as a protective factor for severe COVID-19.

Availability and implementation

GSPA is available for download as a command-line Python package at https://github.com/henrycousins/gspa.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Impact of biomarker type on periprocedural myocardial infarction in patients undergoing elective PCI
Authors: Piccolo Raffaele , Leone Attilio , Avvedimento Marisa , Simonetti Fiorenzo , Ippolito Domenico , Angellotti Domenico , Verde Nicola , Manzi Lina , Cirillo Plinio , Serafino Luigi Di , Fortunato Giuliana , Franzone Anna , Esposito Giovanni
Published: November 2022

Background

Periprocedural myocardial infarction (MI) according to the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) criteria has prognostic relevance among patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, it is unclear whether the type of cardiac biomarker used for the diagnosis of periprocedural MI plays a role in terms of event frequency and outcomes.

Objectives

To compare the characteristics of SCAI periprocedural MI based on creatine kinase-myocardial band fraction (CK-MB) vs. high-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) in patients undergoing elective PCI.

Methods and results

Between 2017 and 2021, periprocedural MI was assessed in a prospective study. The primary clinical outcome of interest was all-cause death at 1-year follow-up. A total of 1010 patients undergoing elective PCI were included. SCAI periprocedural MI based on CK-MB vs. hs-cTnI occurred in 1.8 and 13.5% of patients, respectively. hs-cTnI periprocedural MI in the absence of concomitant CK-MB criteria was associated with lower rates of ancillary criteria, including angiographic, ECG, and cardiac imaging criteria. At 1-year follow-up, periprocedural MI defined by CK-MB (adjusted hazard ratio, HR, 4.27, 95% confidence intervals, CI, 1.23–14.8; P = 0.022) but not hs-cTnI (adjusted HR 2.04, 95% CI 0.94–4.45; P = 0.072) was associated with a higher risk of all-cause death. Hs-cTnI periprocedural MI was not predictive of death unless accompanied by CK-MB criteria (adjusted HR 4.64, 95% CI 1.32–16.31; P = 0.017).

Conclusion

In the setting of elective PCI, using hs-cTn instead of CK-MB resulted in a substantial increase in SCAI periprocedural MI events, which were not prognostically relevant in the absence of concurrent CK-MB elevations.
Neighborhood Environment and Mental Well-Being Among Chinese Older Adults: The Mediating Role of Social Capital
Authors: Lu Shiyu , Guo Yingqi , Chui Cheryl , Liu Yuqi , Chan On Fung , Chan Samuel W , Lum Terry Y S
Published: November 2022

Background and Objectives

Neighborhood environments are increasingly recognized as associated with mental well-being among older adults. However, their underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigated mediating effects of cognitive and structural social capital (SC) in relationships between neighborhood environments and mental well-being among older adults.

Research Design and Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 1,277 community-dwellers aged 60 years and older in Hong Kong in 2021. The Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale assessed mental well-being. Perceived age-friendly environment was assessed. Objective neighborhood environment was measured by the number of neighborhood facilities (e.g., transportation, community centers, leisure facilities) within 200-m and 500-m buffer areas from respondents’ residences. Structural equational modeling was used.

Results

Perceived age-friendly environment regarding community and health support had a protective role on mental well-being. More community centers were directly associated with better affective-emotional well-being, while more passive leisure facilities directly lowered psychological-functioning well-being. Cognitive SC outweighed structural SC in mediating relationships of neighborhood environment on mental well-being.

Discussion and Implications

Our findings advance the ecological model of aging by providing evidence for cognitive and structural SC as mediators to explain the relationship between neighborhood environment and mental well-being. Policy implications for optimizing mental well-being in aging societies are discussed.
Effect of PCM material and vibration on the performance of evacuated tube solar collector
Authors: Eidan Adel A , Ali Sarah H , Al Sahlani Assaad , Alshukri Mohammed J , Ahmed Ali Mahmood , AL-bonsrulah Hussein A Z , Raja Vijayanandh , Al-Bahrani Mohammed
Published: November 2022

It can be considered that the solar collector is an essential thermal device, and it can be used to utilize solar energy via collecting and concentrating solar radiation. This system has many applications, such as water heating, building heating and other industrial applications. In this work, two new systems of heat pipe evacuated tube solar collector (HP-ETSC) were built. The first one was integrated with phase change material (PCM) and the second one without PCM. The first part investigated the effect of integrating PCM on the behavior and performance of HP-ETSC. While in the second part, the influence of applying vibration with different frequencies on the system to enhance the system’s overall performance and efficiency was studied. All executed tests were done in Iraq and during the winter season. It selected four cases, (1) system without integrated PCM, without applying vibration; (2) system without integrated PCM, with applying vibration; (3) system with integrated PCM, without applying vibration; (4) a system with integrated PCM, with applying vibration, to find the optimal system of them. The results proved that the system’s performance was enhanced.
The performance increase of the wind-induced rotation VAWT by application of the passive variable pitching blade
Authors: Sun Xuejing , Hao Tianwei , Zhang Jintao , Dong Lu , Zhu Jianyang
Published: November 2022

The variable pitching of the blade has a great effect on the power extraction of the vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). In the present study, a gear-linkage mechanism is incorporated into the design of the VAWT to achieve the passive variable pitching of the turbine blade, and the effect of the passive pitching amplitude and phase difference, on the power extraction performance, are analyzed by combining numerical analysis and experimental testing. The numerical results show that passive variable pitching can effectively improve the VAWT’s performance. The power extraction efficiencies of the turbine, with the optimized variable passive pitching blade, are 39.01, 25.83 and 15.78 times higher than those of the turbine with fixed blade, at the wind speeds of 3, 6 and 9 m/s, respectively. Further analysis of the vortex structure, around the turbine, reveals that variable passive pitching can suppress the vortex separated from the blade surface and weaken the dynamic interaction between the windward-separated vortex and leeward blade. Furthermore, the experimental test results, of the prototype with passive variable pitching and fixed blade, endorse the numerical conclusion viz. the average power of the prototype with variable pitching blade is 4.6 folds that of the prototype with fixed blade, under identical experimental conditions.
Disparities in patient portal access and the role of providers in encouraging access and use
Authors: Richwine Chelsea , Johnson Christian , Patel Vaishali
Published: November 2022

Objective

The aim of this study was to identify racial and ethnic disparities in patient portal offers, access, and use and to examine the role of providers in facilitating access to electronic health information (EHI) by offering patient portals and encouraging their use.

Materials and Methods

Using nationally representative survey data from 2019 and 2020 (N = 8028), we examined disparities in patients being offered access to a portal by their provider and differences in subsequent access and use. Using multivariable models, we estimated the effect of race and ethnicity on the likelihood of being offered, accessing or using a portal. Among those offered, we examined the relationship between provider encouragement and portal access; and for those who did not access their portal, we explored reasons for nonuse.

Results

Black and Hispanic individuals were offered and accessed patient portals at significantly lower rates than White individuals. Compared to Whites, Black and Hispanic individuals were 5.2 percentage-points less likely to be offered a portal (P < .05) and, among those offered, 7.9 percentage-points less likely to access their portal (P < .05). Black and Hispanic individuals who were offered and accessed a portal were 12 percentage-points more likely than Whites to use it to download or transmit information (P < .01). Individuals who were offered a portal and encouraged to use it were 21 percentage-points more likely to access it.

Discussion

Differences in patient portal access and use are likely driven by disparities in which groups of patients reported being offered a portal.

Conclusions

Providers play an important role in increasing access to EHI by facilitating access to patient portals.
Modular orders on defaults in formal argumentation
Authors: Pardo Pere , Straßer Christian
Published: November 2022

Default logic and formal argumentation are paradigmatic methods in the study of nonmonotonic inference. Defeasible information often comes in different strengths stemming from different degrees of reliability in epistemic applications or from varying strengths of authorities issuing norms in deontic applications. In both paradigms, methods have been developed to deal with prioritized knowledge bases and normative systems. Questions of comparability of these methods therefore naturally arise. Argumentation theory has been developed with a strong emphasis on unification. It is therefore a desideratum to obtain natural representations of various approaches to (prioritized) default logic within frameworks of structured argumentation, such as ASPIC. Important steps in this direction have been presented in Liao et al. (2016, 2018). In this work, we identify and address some problems in earlier translations, we broaden the focus from total to modular orderings of defaults and we consider non-normal defaults.
Nonlinearity-enabled higher-order exceptional singularities with ultra-enhanced signal-to-noise ratio
Authors: Bai Kai , Fang Liang , Liu Tian-Rui , Li Jia-Zheng , Wan Duanduan , Xiao Meng
Published: November 2022

Higher-order exceptional points (HOEPs) with extraordinary responsivity are expected to exhibit a vastly improved performance in detection-related applications. However, over the past few years, such an approach has been questioned due to several potential drawbacks, including the stringent parameter requirements, fundamental resolution limits and noise. Here, exploring the consequence of nonlinear gain saturation in exceptional singularities of non-Hermitian systems, we offer a feasible scheme to overcome all the above difficulties. We provide a simple and intuitive example by demonstrating with both theory and circuit experiments an ‘exceptional nexus’ (‘EX’), a HOEP with an ultra-enhanced signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), in only two coupled resonators with the aid of nonlinear gain. The tedious parameter tuning in a six-dimensional hyper-dimensional space is reduced to two dimensions. The feedback mechanism of nonlinear saturable gain can give a solution to the ongoing debate on the SNR of EPs in other linear systems. Our findings advance the fundamental understanding of the peculiar topology of nonlinear non-Hermitian systems, significantly reduce the practical difficulty in EP sensing and possibly open new avenues for applications.
Pity
Authors: Nolan Cathal J.
Published: November 2022

This chapter discusses European cultural views prior to World War I, where elites believed that their civilization was superior to all others and that science and trade and enlightened rationalism would be victorious over barbarism, including bringing an end to war. Europeans did not yet know that by mid-century the “heart of darkness” would beat all along the Rhine, Danube, Volga, and Thames, more than it ever did down the Congo. It explores romanticized first encounters of British and German troops in 1914, and of Austrian and Russian troops, noting how early chivalry and even humor devolved into murder and indifference as the war dragged on. It presents stories of small, personalized moral encounters that led to spared lives and moments of mercy. It explains how even the most successful killers on both sides would sometimes abstain from violence because of a flash of recognition that cut through rage and combat exhaustion to terrified, trembling humanity.
Conclusions
Authors: Nolan Cathal J.
Published: November 2022

Merciful sensibility, alongside cruelty and criminality, is found in war at the start and end more than in the middle. The shift back to restraint is rooted in recall of prewar perceptions of shared humanity that stir natural feelings of mercy. The concluding chapter focuses on virtue and honor that may be alternately inspired or discouraged by military codes and cultures as they reveal themselves under fire, in trauma-inducing dilemmas where choices made shock the chooser. It considers wars not as faceless forces or tectonic plates that move history below a surface unengaged by flesh-and-blood people. It stresses the individual character of soldiers and a psychology of personal standards that more often trumps reliance on military law, social mores, and any abstract moral philosophy.
Public Relations and Neoliberalism
Authors: Demetrious Kristin
Published: November 2022

This book is about public relations. But it is also about how an entire generation has learned to think, speak, and live within a market-driven neoliberal logic, using the distinctive language practices and vocabularies of “PR.” To chart this cultural shift, a detailed historical analysis of the little-known Mont Pèlerin Society and its followers in the twentieth century shows how the relationships that joined money, power, and an ideological agenda impelled a partnership with public relations that led to its wider propagation and proliferation in society. Today, these conditions not only determine what or whose voices are heard, but they form an iron grip on the public imagination, deafening the public to the cries of those marginalized individuals and groups entrapped by circumstance and subject to fear, vulnerability, and hardship, or to the science that is critical to the planet’s survival. The book focuses on two of the most pressing global issues of the present: climate change denial and the elision of the human rights of people seeking to become members of a nation-state through refugee status, political asylum, and immigration. Public debate determines politics, but all too often politics lags, or stumbles and falls, as the many voices jostling for attention in the contest of ideas become caught up in conflict and language games and fail to make any real mark at all. The distinctive language practices of public relations, organized around an all-encompassing, free-market-based view of the world, make this new reality happen in ways that are sometimes counterintuitive.
The Poets of Tin Pan Alley
Authors: Furia Philip , Patterson Laurie J.
Published: November 2022

This book explores the impact of Great American Songbook lyricists on the music of the early 1900s and the connections between what was happening in the country (depression, racism, war) and the music. Included in the exploration is an examination of how the music was used in Broadway shows and Hollywood musical movies. Each chapter is dedicated to either a specific lyricist and the people they collaborated with or to a group of lyricists of an era (swing or jazz) or to how the music was implemented (Tin Pan Alley or Hollywood). Within the book are snippets of how the lyrics were applied to the music.
The Tinpantithesis of Poetry
Authors: Furia Philip , Patterson Laurie J.
Published: November 2022

How do you say I love you? Lyricists from the “golden age” of American popular song did it in thirty-two bars of vers de société. Their work was poetry, although they would have denied it. There is no real distinction between poems and lyrics. In fact, many of the lyricists had some of their poems published. So what came first, the music or the words? For many of the songs of that era, the music came first, and lyricists did their magic through matching of words and slang to the rhythm of the era. The language of Americans was full of slang, catchphrases, and contractions, allowing for a unique match to the rhythms flowing from composers of the era such as George Gershwin.
Ragged Meter Man: Irving Berlin
Authors: Furia Philip , Patterson Laurie J.
Published: November 2022

Irving Berlin was one of the few songwriters who could write both words and music, even though he could not read music. In some fashion, he was involved with American popular music for more than fifty years. This chapter focuses on Berlin’s life from his arrival from Siberia to his success as a songwriter. It was a time of dance crazes when couples scandalized their parents through dances that involved embracing or hugging their partners: turkey trot, chicken scratch, and monkey glide. These dances emanated from black dives and red-light districts where couples could find ragtime and syncopated music. Berlin’s music in both World War I and World War II struck a chord with the public. The song, “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning,” reflected his personal experiences to “This Is the Army, Mr. Jones” for World War II.
‘S Wonderful: Ira Gershwin
Authors: Furia Philip , Patterson Laurie J.
Published: November 2022

Ira Gershwin: “the Jeweller,” known for his meticulous artistry for choosing “the precise verbal shard to fit into each jagged musical space.” Brother George was described by friend S. N. Behrman as “streamlined and propulsive. . . . George gave you everything at once.” His music was much the same. George’s sensuous, driving energy is tempered (but never blunted) by Ira’s “urbanely casual wit.” Ira knew traditional English lyric poetry, but he was also in touch with the way Americans used slang, clichés, catchphrases. This chapter covers Ira’s (and sometimes George’s) writing for musicals such as Porgy and Bess; Lady, Be Good!; and Strike Up the Band and films such as A Star is Born; An American in Paris; and The Barkleys of Broadway.
The Swing Era
Authors: Furia Philip , Patterson Laurie J.
Published: November 2022

This chapter focuses not only on the development of songs during the “swing era” but also on the singers (such as Ethel Waters) and where the blues and jazz of the era arose from: Harlem nightclubs. The music was “rhythmically complex and melodically rangy,” with songwriting teams such as Koehler and Arlen, Gorrell and Carmichael, and Kahal and Fain. These teams and others (such as Ellington) produced such songs as “Get Happy,” “Star Dust,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing.” Throughout the chapter, examples of lyrics matched to the blues and jazz rhythm are showcased.
Coercive control
Authors: Katz Emma
Published: November 2022

This chapter explores how perpetrators’ coercive control was experienced by the children and mothers in the study, and ramifications for research, policy, and practice suggested by the data. The interviews with the mothers and children revealed how perpetrators were using a wide range of coercive control tactics that impacted on their day-to-day lives, and how those tactics were directly harming the children as well as the mothers. Setting out the implications, this chapter suggests that—rather than viewing domestic violence and child maltreatment as two separate problems—coercive control should be understood as a multistranded form of abuse that harms both children and adults. This chapter also highlights the need to reform the “pro-contact culture” of family courts, and to rethink the notion of “failure to protect,” in order to better take account of the harmfulness and dangerousness of coercive control perpetrators.
International Law Obligations on Climate Change Mitigation
Authors: Mayer Benoit
Published: November 2022

Recent years have witnessed exciting developments in international negotiations, litigation, and scholarship about climate change, but doctrinal research in the field remains in its infancy. In particular, little is known about how fast states are required to limit and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. This book presents a first comprehensive doctrinal study of states’ obligations on climate change mitigation. It shows that such obligations arise not only from climate treaties but also from customary international law, unilateral declarations, and, possibly, human rights treaties. It also explores the interactions between these multiple obligations. The first part of the book identifies the relevant obligations through an analysis of treaties, custom, and other sources of international law. Beyond express quantified commitments contained, for instance, in nationally determined contributions, the book sheds light on the existence of general obligations of due diligence. While these general obligations are difficult to interpret, they are often more demanding.
Customary Obligations
Authors: Mayer Benoit
Published: November 2022

This chapter identifies the obligations on climate change mitigation that arise from customary international law. Whilst acknowledging important methodological difficulties, it shows that customary law includes general obligations relevant to climate change mitigation (e.g. an obligation of prevention and an obligation of cooperation) as well as a discrete obligation on climate change mitigation. This chapter then demonstrates the existence of a relationship of interpretation, rather than a relationship of conflict, between customary obligations and commitments, highlighting what this implies for the interpretation of both customary law and climate treaties. It suggests that similar interpretations should be given to the customary obligation to mitigate climate change and to the general commitments under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change—which, throughout the book, are collectively referred to as general mitigation obligations.
The Cosmic Puzzle
Authors: Mee Nicholas
Published: November 2022

This chapter is a brief survey of early cosmologies. It describes how cosmological ideas were represented in the Antikythera mechanism, the medieval Cosmati Pavement in Westminster Abbey, and Dante’s Divine Comedy. The text describes Aristotle’s ideas about physics and cosmology and introduces the idea of epicycles. It considers the question of why ancient astronomers believed the Earth lay motionless at the centre of the planetary system and looks at how the distances to the stars can be measured through their parallax. This leads into a discussion of the Copernican revolution and the trial and execution of Giordano Bruno for expressing his views on the implications of Copernicus’ heliocentric model.
The Secret of the Universe
Authors: Mee Nicholas
Published: November 2022

Astronomy was transformed through the work of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler and this set the stage for the development of modern science. Tycho built enormous instruments to aid his observations and developed techniques for measuring the positions of stars and planets more accurately than ever before. Kepler studied theology and was driven to seek the geometrical architecture of the universe. His early ideas appear strange and mystical today, but following Tycho’s death in 1601, Kepler analysed his data and over the course of several years devised the laws of planetary motion. Kepler overthrew the idea of epicycles and showed that the planets follow elliptical orbits around the Sun. Both Tycho and Kepler lived colourful lives. Recent investigations suggest that Tycho’s sudden death might have been due to foul play.
Across the Universe
Authors: Mee Nicholas
Published: November 2022

The final chapter is about modern cosmology. It discusses the work of Henrietta Swan Leavitt and Edwin Hubble in revealing the true scale of the universe. In the 1960s quasars were shown to be incredibly distant sources of radiation. They are now known to be the highly energetic regions around supermassive black holes at the centres of distant galaxies. The closest supermassive black hole is at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, as revealed by Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez who have plotted the paths of stars orbiting this black hole. Recent work on supermassive black holes is presented, including the M87 supermassive black hole image published by the Event Horizon Telescope team, and a discussion of the binary system at the heart of the quasar OJ 287. This chapter also considers the Big Bang, dark matter, the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, and inflation in the very early universe.
Workers Whose Employment Is Not Confined to England and Wales
Authors: Lewis Jeremy , Bowers John , Fodder Martin , Mitchell Jack
Published: November 2022

This chapter considers whistleblowing claims with an extraterritorial element. It first addresses the forum (the jurisdiction of the tribunal in terms of international rules of jurisdiction), including the provision introduced in section 15C Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 (as amended to take account of Brexit). It then considers the applicable law, before turning to the territorial scope of the relevant legislation in sections 47B and 103A ERA. There is distinct consideration of the position as against the employer, and the principles applicable to claims against a co-worker or agent in the light of the leading guidance in FCO v Bamieh [2019] EWCA Civ 803, [2020] ICR 465.
Vicarious and Individual Liability
Authors: Lewis Jeremy , Bowers John , Fodder Martin , Mitchell Jack
Published: November 2022

Before the reforms in 2013 an employer was not vicariously liable for detriment inflicted on a whistleblower by the whistleblower’s co-workers or agents of the employer. The introduction in 2013 of vicarious liability by the incorporation of a model similar to that used in the Equality Act 2010 is described, along with the nature and extent of the liability now imposed on co-workers and agents themselves. The reasonable steps defence which is potentially available to an employer is considered, as is the agent or co-worker’s defence of reliance on a statement by their employer. There is consideration of the law relating to remedies against co-workers and agents and the possibility of contribution as between those persons as respondents. There is coverage of the scope for seeking a contribution as between the employer and co-worker and the issues arising from settlement of claims involving more than one party. The distinct issues arising from attribution of acts to an employer in cases of constructive dismissal are also addressed.
Employment Tribunal Procedure and Alternative Dispute Resolution
Authors: Lewis Jeremy , Bowers John , Fodder Martin , Mitchell Jack
Published: November 2022

This chapter considers the procedural aspects of most relevance in whistleblowing cases, following a claim from beginning to end, including the content of the claim and response forms, amendment, case management (preliminary hearings and applying for an order), disclosure, and gaining further information. The power to restrict publicity is discussed alongside the issue of privacy of names and details, which has come up a great deal in recent times. Also examined in this chapter are issues relating to deposit orders, striking out, costs, and penalties. The chapter concludes with consideration of alternative dispute resolution, in particular conciliation, arbitration, and mediation.
Privilege and Immunity
Authors: Lewis Jeremy , Bowers John , Fodder Martin , Mitchell Jack
Published: November 2022

The chapter examines forms of immunity claim not actionable. It considers issues as to legal professional privilege and without prejudice privilege which may stand in the way of a worker’s ability to pursue a claim. It also deals with the privilege against self-incrimination. Waiver and loss of confidentiality are considered, as is the specific privilege-related exception to whether there is a qualifying disclosure under section 43B(4) ERA. The chapter concludes with a consideration of judicial proceedings immunity which has been the subject of significant discussion both in relation to protected disclosures and other fields where there may be a potential impact on protected disclosure claims.
Obligations to Maintain Confidentiality, Rights to Privacy, and Whistleblowing
Authors: Lewis Jeremy , Bowers John , Fodder Martin , Mitchell Jack
Published: November 2022

This chapter explains how rights and obligations arising from the law relating to confidentiality and privacy interact with the statutory protection given to whistleblowers. The obligation upon a Court which is considering whether to grant interim relief that would affect the exercise of the Article 10 right to freedom of expression is then considered. The nature and extent of the equitable and contractual obligations to maintain a confidence are described along with the development of the public interest defence to a claim of breach of confidence. There is analysis of the effect of section 43J ERA, which renders void any provision in a contract with a worker that would prevent the making of a protected disclosure. The chapter then considers the right to privacy and how it applies to whistleblowing. This is followed by a detailed analysis of the developing law in relation to non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements. The chapter closes with a review of the key Official Secrets Act offences and the proposals for a reform of the law to include a public interest defence.
Formal Models
Authors: Johnson James
Published: November 2022

Advocates of deliberative democracy generally do not see much for formal models of political interaction. This is a mistake both historically and analytically. It reflects a common misunderstanding of formal models of collective choice and strategic interaction and their uses. Like political scientists more generally, political theorists use formal models for conceptual rather than directly empirical purposes. Indeed, empirical inquiry cannot get off the ground absent conceptual clarity of the sort that models afford. This chapter illustrates the use of formal models in the context of empirical assessment of deliberative democracy, by focusing on what advocates of deliberation might mean by a concept basic to their enterprise: ‘agreement’.
Listening Quality Index
Authors: Scudder Mary F.
Published: November 2022

Listening is a key component of meaningfully democratic deliberation. This chapter focuses on the question of how to assess the quality of listening in small-scale communicative interactions. How can empirical research capture democratic listening in a normatively relevant way? This chapter presents the Listening Quality Index (LQI), a flexible and theoretically informed instrument designed to measure and assess the quality of participant listening in micro-deliberative settings. Combining existing and novel measures of listening into a “lexical scale,” the LQI allows researchers to capture different degrees of democratic listening. The chapter reviews previous efforts to measure listening in deliberation, presents the LQI, and describes how it can be used in empirical deliberative democracy research to better understand both the antecedents and outcomes of quality listening in deliberation.
Scenario Experiments
Authors: Werner Hannah , Muradova Lala
Published: November 2022

Understanding the impacts of deliberation on public opinion formation, democratic legitimacy, political behaviour or other concepts is of core interest to deliberation scholars. This chapter elaborates on how scenario experiments, typically embedded in surveys, can advance these research endeavours. It argues that scenario experiments are most useful when studying the micro mechanism of internal deliberation and the macro effects of deliberative events on the wider public. Scenario experiments have multiple design advantages: the possibility to detect causal relationships, to expand the types of processes and policy issues under study, to reach a diverse respondent sample, and last, to conduct deliberation research in a cost-efficient manner. The chapter presents several studies that use scenario experiments to study deliberation and discuss how methodological innovations in experimental social science research can improve research on deliberation. The chapter concludes by pointing out potential challenges associated with scenario experiments.
Action Research
Authors: Cunningham Kiran , Muyomba-Tamale Lillian
Published: November 2022

Given the shared processes and value systems of action research and deliberative democracy, the former is a well-suited methodology for research connected to the latter. Both action research and deliberative democracy are grounded in principles of inclusion and equity, aimed at the co-generation of knowledge, and oriented towards action. More than a methodology to simply investigate the processes and impacts of deliberation, action research is a method for simultaneously engaging in it, as deliberation is embedded into the action research process itself. This chapter provides an overview of action research, a description of its intersections with deliberation, and a discussion of the potency of action research as a methodology for research both on and for deliberative democracy.
Romania
Authors: Minzarari Dumitru
Published: November 2022

The chapter looks into Romania’s policy vis-à-vis NATO, suggesting that it has been guided by narrowly defined interest rather than value-driven considerations. For this purpose, the chapter examines Romania’s threat perception before it joined the Alliance and today. It argues that NATO remains a central tenet of Romania’s foreign and defence policy, in particular following 2014 Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. It also looks at the country’s perception of NATO and at Romania’s specific relations with certain NATO allies, both in its region and beyond; by doing so, the chapter sheds light on Romania’s contribution towards the Alliance’s relevance and cohesion. It explores the country’s domestic politics, public attitudes towards the Alliance and the values it carries, as well as how these might have affected Romania’s policy choices within NATO. Furthermore, drawing on Alliance theory, the chapter argues that Romania is less concerned by entrapment (in an unwanted war) than by abandonment (from the allies). Finally, the chapter considers the issue of domestic populism. It indicates that, despite major efforts by the Romanian authorities, emerging anti-Western and anti-liberal sentiments within Romania’s population may in the long run affect the country’s relations with NATO and therefore its perceived (or real) relevance and cohesion.
An EnergyFabliaufor the Future?
Authors: Watson Jay
Published: November 2022

The conclusion discusses one of the strangest pieces of writing Faulkner ever produced as a speculative energy fiction that allegorizes a world after oil while dramatizing the imaginative challenges of representing that alternative energy reality. In the romance between Isaac Snopes and a rural milk cow in The Hamlet, Faulkner created a turn-of-the-century tale that augurs a postsustainable future. This over-the-top love story is at once Faulkner’s most radiant hymn to the sun and a paean to the profligate energies of the human animal, complementary resources we must reaffirm if we are to wean ourselves from our planet-wrecking dependence on fossil carbon. In the tale’s joyous, “unnatural” congress between cognitively disabled man and bovine beast, we witness an affront to, but also an implicit indictment of, an oil-drunk system for organizing nature now running aground on its own ecological contradictions.
Introduction, or
Authors: Siganporia Harmony
Published: November 2022

The Introduction and its sub-sections lay out the scope of what is understood/made possible by the act of walking this book is premised on. They are an exploration of the semiosphere attendant to the f/act of walking: what does it mean to walk alone as opposed to walking with a band of Marchers, for instance? They also explore the many connotative ‘siginifieds’ generated by Gandhi’s most important walks—the Great March in South Africa (1913), or his ‘yatras’ in Orissa (1934), and Noakhali (1946/1947)—and attempt to locate why and how we continue to decode these events and the man who precipitated them the way we continue to do, so long after the fact.
From Salt to Sugarcane (#namaktoganna)—Or,
Authors: Siganporia Harmony
Published: November 2022

This chapter co-relates to the first week the walkers spent on the Dandi Path, traversing the Navsari and Surat districts which are home to large numbers of sugarcane fields and processing factories. This sector employs tens of thousands of internally displaced and circular migrant labourers in systems which can only be described as forms of ‘neo-bonded’ labour. Chapter 4 lays out the scale of this problem, while highlighting the obstacles to its removal by way of political and other modes of intervention. It also examines the links between the dominant crop in a given region—sugarcane in this one—and the social relations which govern the societies predicated upon it. This is followed by a thick ethnographic description of the district/s in question, the field-notes from each day ending with an account of Gandhi’s speeches in the given area on the day he passed through it during the Salt March.
From Sugarcane to Cotton (or Surat to Bharuch)
Authors: Siganporia Harmony
Published: November 2022

India is the world’s largest cotton producer, and Gujarat is one of its largest cotton-growing States. This chapter—corresponding to the second week the walkers spent on the Dandi Path, traversing Bharuch district—investigates the relationship between the district’s dominant crop (cotton), and the social relations it foments in the region. Labourers working the cotton fields in this part of the State are largely locally drawn, which makes it a very different area from the sugarcane heartland to its South. Land ownership in this region is examined for the bearing it has on access to labour, as is the State’s push towards getting farmers to espouse Bt cotton, a strain patented by Monsanto. This is followed by an ethnographic account of the walkers’ time in the district, with field entries for each day being followed with an analysis of Gandhi’s speeches at the locations in question during the Salt March.
Reading Outdoors
Authors: Davies Ben , Lupton Christina , Gormsen Schmidt Johanne
Published: November 2022

Chapter 5 explores the tension between reading indoors during lockdown and readers wanting to get outside. While many works published during the early days of the pandemic showed a nature disturbed and disrupted, our readers, we find, turned to older renditions of nature as a source of comfort. These fictions had a direct impact on what people did, motivating them to walk or visit rural landscapes they had read about, or to spend time in their gardens. The connection between being outside and reading a book about nature suggests just one of the more intricate relationships between language and action that readers have negotiated in the space and time of the pandemic. While some read to travel, others travelled and read at the same time, or followed up their fiction reading with real travel, but in all cases, books appear here as coordinates to our lives as well as our communities.
Verbal structure and the consequence inflection
Authors: Dixon R. M. W.
Published: November 2022

This chapter commences with a summary of verbal structure. There are: derivational suffixes which just have semantic effect; derivational suffixes which affect transitivity; inflectional suffixes; and suffixes which derive a nominal form. Details are then presented on three of the derivational suffixes which just have semantic effect (the fourth has quantitative meaning, and is dealt with in chapter 5, on the number system). There is a short section on nominalisations. The final part of the chapter deals with the ‘consequence’ inflection (previously called ‘purposive’). This can mark, purposeful consequence, or natural consequence. It may also provide a complementation strategy. When the consequence inflection occurs in the first clause of a sentence, it refers to something consequential on a understood necessity.
Marriage and Its Discontents
Authors: Berman Anna A.
Published: November 2022

English novels present a paradox: they are full of unhappy or dysfunctional marriages, yet despite all the abuses we come away with an impression of marital bliss and domestic felicity. The novels treat failed marriages as an aberration that must be removed, leaving the institution itself—and the ideal of happy marriage—secure. In Russia, where marriage was more generally understood to be a broken institution, there was room for novels to both diagnose the problems with conjugal life and to attempt repair, tolerating imperfection. Marriage also served different ends in the two traditions. For the English, wedlock was necessary for the vertical family axis, as the foundation for producing legal heirs. The Russians were less concerned about legal sanction and focused more on the state of relations between the couple and their lived experience in the present.
Italian Literature in the Nuclear Age
Authors: Mariani Maria Anna
Published: November 2022

Italian Literature in the Nuclear Age: A Poetics of the Bystander explores the overlooked position of the bystander in the nuclear age by focusing on the Italian situation as a paradigmatic case. Host to hundreds of American atomic weapons while lacking a nuclear arsenal of its own, Italy’s status was an ambiguous one: that of an unwilling—and in many ways passive—accomplice. Inspired by Seamus Heaney’s dictum that “there is no such thing as innocent by-standing,” the book frames Italy’s fraught mix of implication and powerlessness not only as a geopolitical question, but as a way to rethink the role of the sidelined intellectual in the face of mass extinction. Italian Literature in the Nuclear Age includes discrete chapters on the major Italian intellectuals of the time: Italo Calvino, Alberto Moravia, Elsa Morante, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Leonardo Sciascia. Conscious of their own political marginalization, these authors address the atomic question through a wide range of experimental forms, approaching the nearly unthinkable theme in allusive and oblique ways. Often dismissed as disengaged, inconsistent, or merely playful, these works demand instead a political reading capable of recognizing their confrontation with the paradoxes of the nuclear age.
Preserve the Capacity to Not Act
Authors: Mariani Maria Anna
Published: November 2022

This chapter delves into the responsibility borne by nuclear physicists, through Sciascia’s The Mystery of Majorana. Standing midway between investigative writing and secular hagiography, The Mystery of Majorana idealizes its protagonist—a brilliant physicist in Enrico Fermi’s research group who disappeared mysteriously, leaving behind him a trail of contradictory clues—to the point of whitewashing him. According to Sciascia, the only possible reason for Majorana’s disappearance is that he foresaw the destruction portended by the atomic bomb. His withdrawal from the world is the radical act of a saint who renounces everything in order to prevent the bomb from being built and ensure humanity’s survival. In telling Majorana’s story, Sciascia fashions a moral allegory that spurs the reader to meditate on the concept of complicity. His objective is also to condemn Italian physics for its responsibility in developing nuclear technology.
Pragmatism as Completing the Enlightenment
Authors: Brandom Robert B.
Published: November 2022

During the last decade of his life, Rorty emphasized the anti-authoritarian credentials of his pragmatism. He came to see pragmatism as the fighting faith of a second phase of the Enlightenment. The first stage, as Rorty construed it, concerned our emancipation from nonhuman authority in practical matters: issues of what we ought to do and how things ought to be. The envisaged second stage addresses rather our emancipation from nonhuman authority in theoretical matters. Pragmatism moves beyond the traditional model of reality as authoritative over our cognitive representations of it in language and thought to a new conception of how discursive practices help us cope with the vicissitudes of life.
Original Sin and the Evolution of Sexual Difference
Authors: Loumagne Ulishney Megan
Published: November 2022

This monograph develops an interdisciplinary conversation between evolutionary biology, feminist philosophy, and theology to illuminate the entanglement of Christian thinking about original sin with theologies of sexual difference. It assesses the opportunities for rethinking original sin and its implications for theologies of sexual difference in light of new developments in evolutionary thought and feminist philosophy and theology. Despite some resistances in the present age to conceptions of both original sin and meaningful sexual differences, this project aims to demonstrate that both can provide important insights that help to make sense of some features of human life in the twenty-first century, especially the stubborn persistence of inequality, poverty, environmental degradation, and the pernicious patterns of sexual violence and abuse that have been uncovered by the #MeToo movement. The project aims to cultivate a sense of wonder at the diversity and unpredictability of human biology, a value for the role of creativity in the human participation that partially shapes our ongoing evolution, and humility about the extent to which we can predict and control the future of the evolution of our species. The project illuminates the interdependencies that define creaturely life, the persistent entanglement of nature and culture, the centrality of desire to human identity and behaviour, and the role played by biology in the transmission of sin. It develops a vision of material life as evolving, generative, and imbued with activity, but also as simultaneously infected with sin and saturated with the divine.