bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Return on sales in the Czech building industry? Does firm size matter?
Authors: Krulický Tomáš , Potužník Dominik
Published: March 2023

The presented paper explores the link between firm size and returns on sales (RoS) in Czech building companies. We examined how different business sizes relate to the return on sales, considering staff numbers and the RoS movement over a period. The CRIBIS database of CRIF Company - Czech Credit Bureau provided relevant data from 2016 to 2020, including profitable and active building enterprises. The industry analysis involves an empirical approach using industry structure analysis, return on sales analysis and observing its movement from 2016 to 2020. The industry predominantly encompasses small firms of fewer than 25 employees, exhibiting dramatic variations of the average return on sales over the period. Large companies exceeding 250 employees show complete conformity, yet their numbers are small in the construction sector. The correlation analysis revealed that the business size, i.e., staff numbers, is independent of the return on sales. The submitted work suggests a new size classification according to total assets and sales.
The pivotal role of translators’ research in literary translation
Authors: Minhui Xu
Published: March 2023

Although much recent work in translation studies has focused on translators, the research conducted by translators
remains understudied. This study explores translators’ research and its impact on their translations and on translational trust.
Taking Jeffrey C. Kinkley – an American translator, historian, and sinologist – as an illustrative case study, this paper
investigates Kinkley’s research work, including interviews with the original author, fieldwork-based efforts to verify objects
described in the text, research on historical documentation and previous academic studies, and more, resembling the research work
of evidential scholarship and ethnographic studies. Kinkley’s research impacts his translations, characterized by inclusive text
selection, thick translation strategies, literary and cultural fidelity, and new knowledge creation. A translator’s research
provides a solid foundation for accurate and adequate translations, increased visibility, and interactive and dynamic networking
among various agents in the translation field, which plays a pivotal role in nurturing translational trust. This investigation
into Kinkley’s research work contributes to an in-depth understanding of and objective comments on both translation and translator.
Barrier-free and interpreter-free
Authors: Heyerick Isabelle
Published: March 2023

Globally, deaf associations and sign language interpreters’ organizations support the idea that interpreting
services are equivalent to access and inclusion for deaf people. Researchers have challenged this assumption by pointing to ‘the
illusion of inclusion’ (Russell 2007; Russell and
Winston 2014; De Meulder and Haualand 2021), the ‘institution of access’
(Brunson 2011), and the fact that interpreters are needed but not wanted (Pöchhacker 2019; Sheneman 2020). This article
explores whether sign language interpreting services are the ideal solution when providing access to communication, information,
and services for deaf signers. It presents the perspectives of three deaf employees of the Flemish deaf association and four
hearing Dutch–VGT (Flemish Sign Language) interpreters on what constitutes their ‘ideal’ world. By addressing this topic,
interviewees considered whether in this ideal world sign language interpreting services would still exist and expressed their
views on topics such as communication, access, (in)equity, and inclusion.
Optical plasma boundary detection and its reconstruction on EAST tokamak
Authors: Yan Hailong , Han Xiaofeng , Yang Jianhua , Yan Rong , Sun Pengjun , Hu Jiahui , Wang Jichao , Ding Rui , Ren Haijun , Xiao Shumei , Zang Qing
Published: March 2023

Plasma boundary detection and reconstruction are important not only for plasma operation but also for plasma facing materials. Traditional methods, for example, EFIT code, which is constrained by electromagnetic measurement, and is very challenging for detecting the plasma boundary in long-pulse burning plasma devices such as ITER. A novel algorithm for the reconstruction of the plasma boundary using one visible camera has been developed on experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) for fusion reactors. A U-Net convolutional neural network was used to identify the plasma boundary and the pixel coordinates of the boundary points were fitted with EFIT via the XGBoost model. This algorithm can transform the boundary from the image plane to the poloidal plane of the Tokamak based on machine learning without traditional spatial calibration, and then the reconstruction of the plasma configuration shall be realized based on a monocular visible light camera. The reconstruction accuracy of this algorithm is relatively high. The average error on the test set was only 7.36 mm (<1 cm) and satisfied the accuracy requirements of control for EAST tokamak. This result can contribute to the development of the plasma boundary reconstruction and operation based on one visible camera.
WIMPy leptogenesis in non-standard cosmologies
Authors: Mahanta Devabrat , Borah Debasish
Published: March 2023

We study the possibility of generating baryon asymmetry of the universe from dark matter
(DM) annihilations during non-standard cosmological epochs. Considering the DM to be of weakly
interacting massive particle (WIMP) type, the generation of baryon asymmetry via leptogenesis
route is studied where WIMP DM annihilation produces a non-zero lepton asymmetry. Adopting a
minimal particle physics model to realise this along with non-zero light neutrino masses, we
consider three different types of non-standard cosmic history namely, (i) fast expanding universe,
(ii) early matter domination and (iii) scalar-tensor theory of gravity. By solving the appropriate
Boltzmann equations incorporating such non-standard history, we find that the allowed parameter
space consistent with DM relic and observed baryon asymmetry gets enlarged with the possibility of
lower DM mass in some scenarios. While such lighter DM can face further scrutiny at direct search
experiments, the non-standard epochs offer complementary probes on their own.
WAVE facilitates polarized E-cadherin transport
Authors: Cordova-Burgos Luigy , Rao Deepti , Egwuonwu Joshua , Borinskaya Sofya , Sasidharan Shashikala , Soto Martha
Published: March 2023

The Arp2/3 nucleation-promoting factor WAVE promotes cell protrusions and apicolateral enrichment of cadherin. Does it promote cadherin trafficking? Live imaging shows that endogenous WAVE and cadherin localize to recycling endosomes and Golgi and that WAVE supports polarized sorting of cadherin. RAB-11::GFP recycling endosomes move slower and lose apically directed movement when WAVE is depleted.
Clinicopathologic Features of IDH2 R172–Mutated Myeloid Neoplasms
Authors: Davis Adam R , Canady Briana C , Aggarwal Nidhi , Bailey Nathanael G
Published: March 2023

Objectives

IDH1 and IDH2 are among the most commonly mutated genes in myeloid neoplasms (MNs). It has been proposed that IDH2 R172 mutations (mR172) define a molecular subtype of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but the clinicopathologic features of AML with mR172 have not been fully described.

Methods

We retrospectively identified and characterized all mR172 MNs with increased blasts in our archive for comparison to a similar number of MNs with IDH2 R140 (mR140) and IDH1 R132 (mR132) mutations (n = 39).

Results

mR172 cases had lower leukocyte counts and bone marrow cellularity than did non-mR172 cases. mR172 MNs often displayed blasts with highly invaginated, cleaved nuclei and typically expressed CD34, HLA-DR, CD117, and CD13 but often with diminished CD33. mR172 cases often had co-occurring mutations in myelodysplasia-associated genes and/or an adverse karyotype. Despite frequent adverse-risk genetic changes, in our cohort mR172 cases had significantly improved overall survival vs non-mR172 cases (P = .01), and we validated that mR172 was associated with improved survival in an independent large data set.

Conclusions

We show that MNs with mR172 represent a morphologically and phenotypically distinct subtype, which in our cohort exhibited relatively favorable survival that is not captured in current AML risk assignment.
Expanding Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Research With ChatGPT
Authors: Gupta Rohun , Park John B , Bisht Chirag , Herzog Isabel , Weisberger Joseph , Chao John , Chaiyasate Kongkrit , Lee Edward S
Published: March 2023

Background

In the past 3 months, OpenAI, a San Francisco–based artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory, has released ChatGPT, a conversation large language model. ChatGPT has the ability to answer user questions, admit to mistakes, and learn from users that are accessing the program.

Objectives

Due to the importance of producing evidence-based research in plastic surgery, the authors of this study wanted to determine how accurate ChatGPT could be in creating novel systematic review ideas that encompass the diverse practice of cosmetic surgery.

Methods

ChatGPT was given commands to produce 20 novel systematic review ideas for 12 different topics within cosmetic surgery. For each topic, the system was told to give 10 general and 10 specific ideas that were related to the concept. To determine the accuracy of ChatGPT, a literature review was conducted with PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, and Cochrane.

Results

A total of 240 “novel” systematic review ideas were constructed by ChatGPT. We determined that the system had an overall accuracy of 55%. When topics were stratified by general and specific ideas, we found that ChatGPT was 35% accurate for general ideas and 75% accurate for specific ideas.

Conclusions

ChatGPT is an excellent tool that should be utilized by plastic surgeons. ChatGPT is versatile and has uses beyond research, including patient consultation, patient support, and marketing. As advancements in AI continue to be made, it is important for plastic surgeons to consider the utilization of AI in their clinical practice.
The soothing effect of phlorotannins on cedar pollinosis in Cry j 1-stimulated mice
Authors: Sugiura Yoshimasa , Usui Masakatsu , Miyata Masaaki
Published: March 2023

The antiallergic properties of phlorotannins, algal polyphenols, have been widely reported. This study examined the soothing effect of phlorotannin concentrate (PTC) from Eisenia nipponica on cedar pollinosis in Cry j 1-stimulated mice. PTC reduced the mice's sneezing and nasal rubbing, which was attributed to decreased levels of immunoglobulin E and Th2-type cytokines [interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, and IL-13].
‘It’s Technical’: Textually Mediated Helping Relationships in Public Social Services
Authors: Sinai-Glazer Hagit , Krane Julia
Published: March 2023

How is the helping relationship between social workers and their clients mediated by institutional practices and forms? This article explores the roles that institutional practices and documents play at the very inception of the helping relationship between social workers and voluntary clients who are mothers. Based on an institutional ethnography in a social services department in Israel, we make visible the ways in which taken-for-granted institutional practices and forms—from the outset—can inhibit the helping relationship between social workers and clients. The insights of fourteen social workers, twenty mother-clients and textual analysis of institutional forms that frame the beginning of the helping relationship are utilised as a starting point from which to explicate how institutional practices and forms shape and govern the helping relationship in social work. We conclude with a call for a more transparent and creative approach to first encounters such that institutional practices and forms are reconsidered as gateways to supportive helping relationships.
Compensatory mutations reducing the fitness cost of plasmid carriage occur in plant rhizosphere communities
Authors: Bird Susannah M , Ford Samuel , Thompson Catriona M A , Little Richard , Hall James P J , Jackson Robert W , Malone Jacob , Harrison Ellie , Brockhurst Michael A
Published: March 2023

Plasmids drive bacterial evolutionary innovation by transferring ecologically important functions between lineages, but acquiring a plasmid often comes at a fitness cost to the host cell. Compensatory mutations, which ameliorate the cost of plasmid carriage, promote plasmid maintenance in simplified laboratory media across diverse plasmid–host associations. Whether such compensatory evolution can occur in more complex communities inhabiting natural environmental niches where evolutionary paths may be more constrained is, however, unclear. Here, we show a substantial fitness cost of carrying the large conjugative plasmid pQBR103 in Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 in the plant rhizosphere. This plasmid fitness cost could be ameliorated by compensatory mutations affecting the chromosomal global regulatory system gacA/gacS, which arose rapidly in plant rhizosphere communities and were exclusive to plasmid carriers. These findings expand our understanding of the importance of compensatory evolution in plasmid dynamics beyond simplified lab media. Compensatory mutations contribute to plasmid survival in bacterial populations living within complex microbial communities in their environmental niche.
‘If Only for a Day’: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Anniversary Commemoration and International Human Rights Law
Authors: McNeilly Kathryn
Published: March 2023

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is familiar to international human rights lawyers worldwide. Celebrations of its adoption have included commemorative sessions held in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly during milestone anniversary years. Scholarship has not yet considered these sessions together, exploring what may be learned about the UDHR in this UN body as a result. This is the work that the present article undertakes. It finds that, when considered collectively, anniversary days in the General Assembly assist in creating a picture of the UDHR as a legal text in time. This reveals how commemorative activity has engaged with the UDHR in fluid ways and also in ways that stress or demonstrate aspects of continuity. From this analysis, it is possible to deepen understanding of engagements with the UDHR throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and anniversary days emerge as an under-utilized resource for international human rights lawyers.
Interpretable sensitivity analysis for balancing weights
Authors: Soriano Dan , Ben-Michael Eli , Bickel Peter J , Feller Avi , Pimentel Samuel D
Published: March 2023

Assessing sensitivity to unmeasured confounding is an important step in observational studies, which typically estimate effects under the assumption that all confounders are measured. In this paper, we develop a sensitivity analysis framework for balancing weights estimators, an increasingly popular approach that solves an optimization problem to obtain weights that directly minimizes covariate imbalance. In particular, we adapt a sensitivity analysis framework using the percentile bootstrap for a broad class of balancing weights estimators. We prove that the percentile bootstrap procedure can, with only minor modifications, yield valid confidence intervals for causal effects under restrictions on the level of unmeasured confounding. We also propose an amplification—a mapping from a one-dimensional sensitivity analysis to a higher dimensional sensitivity analysis—to allow for interpretable sensitivity parameters in the balancing weights framework. We illustrate our method through extensive real data examples.
Computationally efficient Bayesian unit-level random neural network modelling of survey data under informative sampling for small area estimation
Authors: Parker Paul A , Holan Scott H
Published: March 2023

The topic of neural networks has seen a surge of interest in recent years. However, one of the main challenges with these approaches is quantification of uncertainty. The use of random weight models offer a potential solution. In addition to uncertainty quantification, these models are extremely computationally efficient as they do not require optimisation through stochastic gradient descent. We show how this approach can be used to account for informative sampling of survey data through the use of a pseudo-likelihood. We illustrate the effectiveness of this methodology through simulation and data application involving American National Election Studies data.
Differential Retention of Pfam Domains Contributes to Long-term Evolutionary Trends
Authors: James Jennifer E , Nelson Paul G , Masel Joanna
Published: March 2023

Protein domains that emerged more recently in evolution have a higher structural disorder and greater clustering of hydrophobic residues along the primary sequence. It is hard to explain how selection acting via descent with modification could act so slowly as not to saturate over the extraordinarily long timescales over which these trends persist. Here, we hypothesize that the trends were created by a higher level of selection that differentially affects the retention probabilities of protein domains with different properties. This hypothesis predicts that loss rates should depend on disorder and clustering trait values. To test this, we inferred loss rates via maximum likelihood for animal Pfam domains, after first performing a set of stringent quality control methods to reduce annotation errors. Intermediate trait values, matching those of ancient domains, are associated with the lowest loss rates, making our results difficult to explain with reference to previously described homology detection biases. Simulations confirm that effect sizes are of the right magnitude to produce the observed long-term trends. Our results support the hypothesis that differential domain loss slowly weeds out those protein domains that have nonoptimal levels of disorder and clustering. The same preferences also shape the differential diversification of Pfam domains, thereby further impacting proteome composition.
The 1940s
Authors: Mordden Ethan
Published: March 2023

This chapter explores the portrayal of gay people in theatre in the 1940s and the influence of the enactment of the Wales Law. It explains how Lee Shubert reacted strongly against Dorothy and Howard Baker’s Trio playing in his playhouse. Playwright Elmer Rice offered the Belasco Theatre stage to Trio instead, but it had to close since the City Commissioner refused to grant Rice an extension for lease renewal. The chapter then introduces the works of John Van Druten, who has been writing for gay idols, and Tennessee Williams, who raised the stakes with brutally honest tales that are usually premised around Big Characters whose lives turn on sex and violence. It also highlights the prominence and influence of Eva Le Gallienne and Katharine Cornell in Williams’ works.
From the Christian Right to the Corporate Right
Authors: Lynn Andrew
Published: March 2023

Interpretations of work and economic activity can easily entail particular political agendas related to the broader functioning and efficiency of markets and capitalism. This chapter looks at the political agenda of a subset of actors in the faith and work space that seek to promote free market thinking through faith and work resources. These actors attempt to promote their ideas on three different fronts: promoting the inherent dignity of all work regardless of ethical conditions, promoting market vocations as an off-ramp to social justice initiatives, and promoting a God-ordained vision of laissez-faire capitalism. The author analyzes the successes and failures of these efforts on all three fronts.
Make Them Rare or Make Them Care
Authors: Hereth Blake , Evans Nicholas G.
Published: March 2023

This chapter addresses a notorious ethical issue concerning the military use of artificial intelligence (AI), which may represent the most disruptive and ethically problematic emerging technology on the horizon. The chapter argues that while civilians are never spared in war, part of the process of war is the moral cost-sharing of this burden for killing. AI would subvert this burden in unjust ways if applied for lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS). Because LAWS lack moral agency, in particular the capacity for moral emotions, moral costs are only borne by the dead and their loved ones. The chapter argues that it is unjust insofar as those responsible for unjust harm to others ought to share those costs by outlining and applying the Moral Affect Principle. This presents a dilemma: either autonomous weaponry are designed to be capable of moral emotions, which may be a step too far even for proponents of LAWS, or the use of such weaponry needs to be limited, which may risk worsening combatant casualties and achieving strategic aims.
Silo Mentalities, Dominant Logics, and Their Ethical Challenges in the Defense Industry
Authors: Werhane Patricia
Published: March 2023

This chapter identifies how the tragic loss of life in the space shuttle accidents in 1987 and 2003 as well as the two deadly crashes of 737 MAXes in 2018 could occur despite very high levels of expertise and professionalism both in NASA and Boeing. The chapter argues that corporate cultures may lead to disastrous moral consequences when people—who do not desire to do harm—work as a group. The chapter identifies two phenomena that are particularly to blame: silo mentalities and dominant logics. The former concerns the tendency to overspecialization within large organizations, sometimes resulting in an almost deliberate ignorance of problems for which detection requires a broader awareness. The latter concerns an overriding cultural lens that can obscure what should be obvious. The chapter proposes remedies. First is the adoption of Adam Smith’s perspective of an “impartial spectator.” Awareness of cognitive framing and bounded awareness are vital steps toward attaining that perspective. Second, the chapter recommends communication, cross-disciplinary training, and improved risk and system analyses to counter any divide between engineers and the business side of an organization as well as any tendency for engineers to remain silent based on respect for superiors.
Ikpana interrogatives from a GTM perspective
Authors: Kandybowicz Jason , Baron Bertille , Duncan Philip T. , Katsuda Hironori
Published: March 2023

This chapter concludes the book by summarizing key findings, making connections to the interrogative systems of other Ghana-Togo Mountain languages, and highlighting the important insights, contributions, and lessons learned from the investigation of the Ikpana interrogative system. Some suggestions for future research directions exploring the grammar of question formation across the Ghana-Togo Mountain language subfamily are offered. The chapter reprises the book’s recurring argument that theoretically informed field-based documentation leads to richer grammatical descriptions and discoveries that would not have been possible if not for the scaffolding provided by linguistic theory in shaping the questions asked and the analytical directions pursued.
Brains for language (and everything else)
Authors: Tolchinsky Liliana , Berman Ruth A.
Published: March 2023

This chapter presents our motives for taking a neurobiological perspective on language to understand the genetic and neurological capacities underlying language use and development, by taking a short journey through the brain that learns language. We consider, first, how researchers have argued for the biological component of language acquisition—such as by proving the existence of a critical period, an age limit for the capacity to acquire language natively—and the fact that much of the brain’s functioning is not accessible to conscious control, as illustrated by the processes of priming and relearning. We introduce the neuro-constructivist approach, as a distinctive framework in neurobiology that supports our view of the relationship between genetic endowment, brain structuring, and experience. The bulk of the chapter concerns major properties of the developing brain: (i) its increasing specialization; (ii) its growing capacity for parallel processing; (iii) its functioning as an anticipatory machine based on sensory-motor experience; (iv) its hierarchical organization enabling cognitive control; and (v) its long-lasting capacity for learning, a characteristic that motivates our interest in later language developments beyond early childhood. The chapter concludes by noting major changes that take place in learning and use of language in four distinct periods of life: from birth to 3 years, when children move into language; age 4 to 5 years, as a psycholinguistic frontier between early and later language acquisition; age 6 to 12, when children ‘go conventional’; and age 13 to 19, when young people become rebellious and (sometimes) creative individuals.
Language for imagery
Authors: Tolchinsky Liliana , Berman Ruth A.
Published: March 2023

The chapter opens by reviewing scholarly attempts to specify the difference between literal and figurative uses of language, based on criteria such as processing time, the role of context, making inferences, or perceiving ambiguities. We then point out why these are inadequate and how the issue could be resolved by avoiding a dichotomous distinction between the two, since many of the same factors are involved in both types of language use. Here, we take into account notions of embodiment and salience, and the impact of familiarity in processing conventional, established versus novel usages, along with the well-known distinction between what people say versus what they mean. Next, we move to varieties of figurative use—how idioms and proverbs differ from metaphors, linguistic humor, and irony—and what is involved in understanding and producing each of these different figures of speech, as language-dependent and culture-bounds linguistic usages. We go on to consider the brain structures that underlie non-literal language, and the networks shared by most figurative usages as well as those activated for specific varieties, showing that, for example, contrary to what is commonly believed, the left hemisphere is strongly involved in metaphor and other types of figurative usages. And we conclude by tracing the protracted developmental pathways involved in gaining command of non-literal uses, where varieties of figurative use show different trajectories from childhood on.
Constitutionalism and Powerlessness
Authors: Kukovec Damjan
Published: March 2023

The chapter explains the limits of empowerment of the existing constitutional discourse and argues for an interpretative turn in constitutional thinking focusing on narrative and understanding of harm. The development of the European Union has been marked by individual empowerment. However, the paradigms of pluralism and constitutionalism, which are based on the same predispositions, may not be able to fully address economic and consequently political powerlessness. All the while appearing to advance constant change, they do not commit to deep structural social transformation which would aid the social periphery. To portray the limits of constitutionalist transformation, the chapter portrays four positions in the European Union discourse—left federalist, left sovereignist, right federalist, and right sovereignist. Constitutionalism’s open-endedness and a priori normative vacuity give an impression that social options are limitless. Real contestation, however, remains obstructed by the existing narrative and understanding of harm.
AN INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO DR BROWNE
Authors: Francis Gavin
Published: March 2023

An introduction to the works of Thomas Browne, with a focus in particular on biographical details of his life, the range of his curiosities, the titles of his principle works, and his legacy. The introduction is in the form of a letter to Dr Browne, explaining the ways in which the author, a twenty-first-century general practitioner, feels indebted to Browne and finds threads of relevance both to modern medical practice, and to contemporary literature. It is explained that Browne’s knighthood was granted only late in life, almost inadvertently, and so he remains ‘Dr Browne’ rather than ‘Sir Browne’ for this consideration of his life and his work.
CURIOSITY
Authors: Francis Gavin
Published: March 2023

The role of curiosity in Browne’s work is examined, through scattered hints about the contents of the rooms he kept in Norwich, his primitive laboratory, and his writings that demonstrate a questioning intellect which sought answers by carrying out simple experiments. Browne was not a ‘scientist’ in the way we now understand the word, but investigated the world in his own way, and a few vivid examples are recounted. His sense of wonder was profound, and its role in inspiring him is considered together with his belief that he was contributing to the understanding of God’s creation. ‘Curiosity’ can also mean something trivial or obscure, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s reading of Browne is considered in this context.
HUMILITY
Authors: Francis Gavin
Published: March 2023

The place of generalism and of general practice within medicine’s hierarchy of prestige is examined, in tandem with an acknowledgement that Browne’s choice of a provincial medical practice rather than a lucrative London one demonstrates a measure of humility. Francis Bacon’s conviction that to be understood, nature must be approached in all humility is touched upon, as is Browne’s humility in matters of enquiry—always quick to admit to a lack of knowledge, and open to changing his mind. Insect life fascinated him, and he considered ants and bees as ‘little citizens’ with more to teach than much larger or more broadly considered forms of life. Browne counselled against arrogance, something evident in his correspondence with his son Edward.
MORTALITY
Authors: Francis Gavin
Published: March 2023

For many readers of Browne’s books, his essay Urn Burial is his finest work. It’s an essay that begins with a description of funerary practices around the world and through history, and delves into the consideration of Christian views on immortality, Buddhist views on annihilation, and Hindu views on reincarnation. This chapter examines the theme of mortality in Urn Burial, considering the context of the rest of Browne’s work, with a focus on Browne’s conviction of the futility of expecting earthly renown after death. Browne’s familiarity with death and dead bodies (through both medical practice and human dissection) is touched upon, as is Browne’s writings on offering palliative care to a young man dying of tuberculosis, published posthumously as Letter to a Friend. Finally, Browne’s own death is described, as well as his legacy.
Conclusion
Authors: Turksen U , Kreissl R , Rasmouki F , Vozza D , Abukari A
Published: March 2023

This concluding chapter highlights the efforts put into reducing tax crimes. It starts with the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on budget deficits and optimisation of tax collection and reducing the tax gap. The Anti-Money Laundering (AML) framework and anti-tax fraud framework in the EU laid the foundation for future legislation and policy to counter tax crimes across Europe. Case studies, focus groups, and workshops found that interagency and international cooperation in fighting tax crimes fronted significant constraints, such as data exchange, joint investigations, collaborative asset confiscations, and sanctions. The chapter then discusses the findings from the PROTAX project to expound its point on legal regimes being made across Europe. It suggests that developing a holistic tax enforcement eco-system is needed instead of just tinkering with legal provisions.
Principle 4: The Context
Authors: Calnan Richard
Published: March 2023

The purpose of Chapter 4 is to explain which materials are available to the interpreter in addition to the statute itself. As well as describing what materials are available, it also discusses the purpose to which those materials can be put and the limits on the use of context to establish the meaning of the statutory words. The clearer the statutory words, the more unlikely it is that they can be influenced by the relevant background.
Beat the Market
Authors: Smith Gary
Published: March 2023

The wild fluctuations in stock prices sustain seductive dreams of being able to get rich quick by nimbly jumping in and out of the market at the right time. Buying low and selling high seems a lot easier and more lucrative than working 9-to-5. Alas, changes in stock prices remain frustrating difficult to predict reliably. Nonetheless, greed springs eternal. Scientists have created the hardware, software, and data that allow amateurs and professionals to use data mining to discover stock market models that succeed spectacularly in backtesting but fail miserably in forecasting. When the models fail, the credibility of scientists slips a little lower.
The Habitual Unity of Science
Authors: Dika Tarek R.
Published: March 2023

Chapter 2 places Descartes in the context of scholastic debates about the unity of science. Descartes transforms the scholastic debate by demonstrating that there is one habitus, which (1) extends to all possible objects of science, and (2) unifies the sciences themselves. Descartes terms this habitus “wisdom” (sapientia) in Rules for the Direction of the Mind, and one can acquire wisdom by practice in the method, which is the source of science (scientia) and which coordinates the sciences as needed in solutions to particular problems. Section 2.1 introduces the Cartesian scientific habitus, and argues that Descartes models the unity of science, not on Aristotelian theoretical wisdom, which does not unify the sciences, but rather on Aristotelian practical wisdom, which unifies the virtues in deliberations about what to do in particular cases. Section 2.1 also enumerates the properties that distinguish the Cartesian scientific habitus from scholastic concepts of scientific habitus. Section 2.2 discusses the subject of the Cartesian scientific habitus, the formation of the Cartesian scientific habitus, and the ontology of the Cartesian scientific habitus. Section 2.3 argues that the unity of science in Rules depends on an explicit rejection of Aristotle’s ban on genus-crossing in the sciences, and Section 2.4 shows how Descartes concretely overcomes the ban via his theory of the object of science (the “simple natures”). Sections 2.5–2.6 discuss Descartes’s understanding of the unity of science in Rules and explain salient differences between Rule 1 in the standard edition of Descartes’s Rules and Rule 1 in the Cambridge manuscript.
Descartes’s Theory of the Objects of Knowledge in Rules
Authors: Dika Tarek R.
Published: March 2023

Chapter 7 reconstructs Descartes’s theory of simple natures in Rules for the Direction of the Mind and explains its role in his solution to the problem of the limits of knowledge. Section 7.2 discusses the criteria whereby Descartes enumerates the simple natures in Rule 12. Sections 7.3–7.6 show how Descartes draws on his theory of the faculties discussed in Chapter 6 in order to divide the simple natures into separate classes: the intellectual simple natures (Section 7.3); the material simple natures (Section 7.4); and the common simple natures and their corresponding privations and negations (Sections 7.5–7.6). Sections 7.7–7.8 reconstruct Descartes’s theory of conjunction, which canonizes rules that determine how simple natures may be combined with one another in intuition and deduction. Section 7.7 shows how Descartes’s theory of conjunction includes his earliest “theory of distinctions,” which he would later take up more explicitly in First Replies and Principles of Philosophy I. 60–2. Section 7.8 discusses the structure of complex intuitions and the difference between complex intuitions and confusion. Sections 7.9–7.10 discuss the relation between intuition and judgment as well as Descartes’s theory of error in Rules, both of which are grounded in his theory of simple natures. Finally, Sections 7.11–7.12 show how Descartes’s theory of the simple natures solves the problem of the limits of knowledge and reassess the longstanding debate over whether the theory amounts to a species of “idealism” or “realism.”
The Origins of Cartesian Dualism in Rule 12
Authors: Dika Tarek R.
Published: March 2023

Chapter 8 examines Descartes’s mind–body dualism in Rule 12 of Rules for the Direction of the Mind. Section 8.1 discusses the evidence contained in the Cambridge manuscript, where, unlike all other known manuscripts and editions, Descartes does not assert that the mind is “purely spiritual” or “distinct from the whole body.” Section 8.2 provides a detailed interpretation of Descartes’s mind–body dualism in the standard edition of Rules. Descartes’s dualism in the standard edition of Rules is deducible from the following four properties of vis cognoscens: (1) its ontological simplicity or indivisibility; (2) its ability to be both active and passive; (3) its per se existence; and (4) its independence, qua “pure intellect,” from all other (corporeal) cognitive functions. Section 8.3 argues that while the differences between the standard edition and the Cambridge manuscript are important, the Cambridge manuscript precludes interpretation along both materialist and hylomorphic lines. In both the standard edition of Rules and the Cambridge manuscript, Descartes enumerates the same four properties of vis cognoscens. What the Cambridge manuscript contains is Cartesian dualism in its barest form, before even the theory of simple natures, let alone Descartes’s ontology of substance, attribute, and mode.
State power in the age of offshore finance
Authors: Binder Andrea
Published: March 2023

Studying the relationship between state power and offshore finance creates conceptual and empirical issues. First, state power is an essentially contested concept. It can only be interpreted in its historical and geographical context. Offshore finance, on the other hand, is a new concept in international studies. We thus need to spell out what exactly it is and to what extent it is a specific and influential phenomenon in the international political economy. Second, empirically, we must pinpoint state power in the real world, despite its contested nature. Likewise, we must find a way to make offshore financial flows visible despite their obscure legal nature. The chapter addresses these conceptual issues as a foundation for the book’s subsequent empirical analysis. It argues that what is inherent in and important for state power and offshore finance—the glue that holds them together—is money. The chapter therefore develops a ‘money view’ on state power and offshore finance. If Charles Tilly argued that war made states and states made war, the money view contends that money creates states and states create money. It has three core propositions. First, money is a social relation. Second, the modern state’s mutual dependency of ruler and ruled can be specified as the creditor–debtor relationships that constitute money. Third, the power position of the state depends on its ability to successfully mediate the political conflict over the distribution of the costs and benefits of taxation and money creation within a society.
The Genesis of World War
Authors: Clavin Patricia
Published: March 2023

This chapter explores the global origins of World War II by looking at the widespread crisis that followed 1918, both political, economic and ideological in origin. The coming of war was not simply a result of Hitler and German revisionism, but resulted from complex issues in East Asia, the Mediterranean and in Europe. Among these issues the economic crisis of 1928–32 was critical, paving the way for the ambitions of Japan, Italy and Germany to overturn the existing geopolitical order.
The Japanese Empire at War, 1931–1945
Authors: Lee Steven Hugh
Published: March 2023

The chapter examines the background to Japanese aggression in the 1930s and the early stages of Japan’s imperialism in East Asia. The war with Nationalist China from 1937 and the resistance to Japanese aggression are put in the context of China’s recent past. The war led to the wider clash with the European empires and the United States, which ended with complete Japanese defeat in 1945. The dropping of the two atomic bombs it is argued here was a wartime atrocity but it contributed to forcing Japan’s surrender.
The German Wars
Authors: Overy Richard
Published: March 2023

The chapter looks at the role of Hitler in the 1930s in planning a new German empire and gambling on achieving it without intervention from the major powers. Once World War II had begun, German forces won startling victories, but the chapter shows that the Barbarossa campaign against the Soviet Union in 1941 was a gamble that failed to pay off. Germany was difficult to defeat but the last years were wars of desperate defence, not German wars of aggression. Throughout, the chapter argues, the war against the Jews of Europe was carried on alongside the military conflict.
The Allies from Defeat to Victory
Authors: Mawdsley Evan
Published: March 2023

This chapter focuses on the Allied war effort, looking at the early failures with the defeat of France and the expulsion of Britain from Europe, then at the effort to blunt further Axis advance in 1942 until the tide was turned in 1943. Much emphasis is put on the German-Soviet war, for it was here that the German armed forces were fatally weakened. Western bombing did not significantly affect the German war effort before 1944, and not until then did a Western front open in France. The argument here is that the Soviet forces learned the hard way to become much more effective at operational warfare after Stalingrad.
Front Line II
Authors: Overy Richard
Published: March 2023

This chapter explores the impact of war on civilians in World War II. It focuses first on civil defence against bombing raids, one of the most dangerous activities civilians could take part in. Over one million civilians were killed by bombing during the war. It also explores the conditions faced by civilians with food shortages and evacuation, reaching an extreme situation in Japan by 1945. The final sections look at ‘civilian wars’, insurgencies against occupation in Europe and Asia, and the civil wars in China, Greece, Ukraine and Italy that found civilians fighting each other to decide on the post-war future of the state.
The Birth of Israel
Authors: Faust Avraham
Published: March 2023

The biblical story about the origins of Israel begins with patriarchs (Abraham and his family) and then the Exodus and the conquest of the land under Joshua. Many aspects of these narratives raise problems in that they are not always internally coherent, while other components are not verifiable and some seem to clash with the results of archaeological research. Several very different historical theories have been advanced to account for all this, and these are evaluated in the light of recent discoveries. The maximum that can be stated with some confidence about the origins of Israel in the thirteenth century bce and onward is then cautiously presented, focusing on the emergence of Israel as a distinct group in Canaan and its self-identification vis-à-vis other groups.
Italy
Authors: Vampa Davide
Published: March 2023

This chapter provides an overview of how populism has evolved in Italy since the 1990s, focusing in particular on the political changes occurred after the crisis of 2008. It shows that the collapse of mainstream parties has been accompanied by the rise of the League and the 5 Star Movement (M5S), two populist parties which have challenged EU control over budgets and austerity policies. The League provides an interesting case of populist party characterized by high levels of ideological ‘adaptability’—confirming the ‘chameleonic’ nature of populist parties—and oscillating between support for neo-liberal economic policies and pro-welfare positions (filtered through the lens of its nativist ideology). This is then linked to a discussion of how business associations have responded to the new wave of populist politics started during the Great Recession. It is argued that the ambiguous position of Italian populists on economic issues is mirrored by ambiguous responses from business elites, which also reflect the divide existing between small-/medium-sized enterprises and large industrial and financial companies. Overall, a ‘soft voice’ business response to populism seems to have prevailed—it became louder only when confronted with clearly redistributive policies proposed by the M5S. The last part of the chapter also considers more recent developments following the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, which marks a new critical juncture in Italian (and world) politics and economy.
India
Authors: Wyatt Andrew
Published: March 2023

India has a history of populist politics, with its strongest manifestations at the state level of India’s federal system. Recent national governments have displayed populist tendencies. The current Hindu nationalist government, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has personalistic characteristics which echo populist projects elsewhere. Personalist rule creates uncertainty for capital, and it has reduced the political influence of business. Populism in regional politics is a matter of concern for business in India, but it has created less uncertainty. Populist regimes at the state level might encroach on economic freedom but they also manage the social disruption that follows from rapid economic growth and can create conditions conducive for private sector investment.
Populists in Power—the Impact on Interest Representation and Firm-level Nonmarket Strategies
Authors: Sallai Dorottya
Published: March 2023

This thematic chapter explores how collective interest representation structures and firm-level corporate nonmarket strategies are affected by exclusionary populists in power. Through the case study of Hungary, the chapter showcases how businesses adapt to the rise and consolidation of populism by shifting strategies from a conflictual style of bargaining when the populist leader takes office, to a quiet but engaged strategy as the regime consolidates its governing power. While collective interest groups adapt and keep the dialogue with the state open by narrowing their negotiating strategies to lower salience issues within the era of formal quiet politics, individual firms increasingly engage in informal quiet politics. The study explores how firms manage their nonmarket strategies through activities that either help them buffer the impact of the threatening external environment or engage in bridging strategies that support their aims to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the government and help them build partnership with the governing elite. The chapter’s findings suggest that in a populist political context firms must negotiate and maintain a legitimate position in their nonmarket environment in order to survive and prosper, and explores how firms in different sectors adapt to populism differently, depending on their legitimacy. The chapter’s empirical evidence illustrates how firms engage with public policy through a variety of bridging and buffering corporate political strategies in the space of formal and informal quiet politics.