bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Disdainful Hookups: a Powerful Social Determinant of Health
Authors: Puigvert Lidia , Racionero-Plaza Sandra , Lopez de Aguileta Garazi , Tellado Itxaso , Molina Silvia , Pulido-Rodríguez Miguel Ángel , Ugalde Leire , Flecha Ramon
Published: August 2023

The health consequences of gender violence, a global health and social problem, are increasingly studied. Among its roots, research has identified a coercive dominant discourse imposing the idea that masculinities and relationships marked by abuse and domination are more attractive than egalitarian ones. To prevent the health consequences of gender violence, it is necessary to understand the factors that lead many adolescents to fall into it. This study aims to identify the specific mechanisms by which the coercive dominant discourse manifests in the peer group and its consequences for adolescents. Forty-one 15- and 16-year-old female adolescents from three high schools in Barcelona participated in the study. Eight communicative discussion groups were conducted to deepen on participants’ perceptions regarding how peer interactions promote the learning of attraction to violence in sexual-affective relationships. The results show that the participants perceived and experienced different types of coercion to have violent relationships in their peer group interactions. Those interactions fostered the reproduction of the association between sexual-affective attraction and males with aggressive attitudes and behaviors. Many peers coerce others to have disdainful hookups which have very negative health consequences for the victims, including suicidal ideation and committing suicide. Some peer groups become a risk developmental context for female adolescents as far as they foster the coercive dominant discourse, push some young women to engage in violent sporadic relationships, and even harass some others afterwards. This clarifies the importance of peer group-level interventions when addressing the health consequences of gender violence in adolescence.
Alpträume, Alptraumthemen & luzides Träumen bei einer Gruppe männlicher JVA-Inhaftierter
Authors: Klofat Beate , Steingen Ulrich
Published: August 2023

Hintergrund

Die raren Studien zum Schlaf Inhaftierter fokussieren auf Schlafqualität und Insomnie. Aufgrund von Traumatisierung wie belastenden Haftbedingungen ist ein hohes Risiko für Parasomnien, v. a. Alpträume, bei dieser schwer erreichbaren Population anzunehmen. Dennoch gibt es hierzu bislang keine Studien. Ziel war es, Parasomnie- und Alptraumprävalenzen in Justizvollzugsanstalten (JVA) zu erheben sowie Korrelationen zu Schlafqualität und anderen Faktoren explorativ zu untersuchen und Alptraumthemen zu beleuchten.

Methodik

Von 29 im COVID-Lockdown kontaktierten JVAs beteiligte sich lediglich die JVA Hannover. 33 Inhaftierte wurden mittels standardisierter Fragebögen zu Schlafqualität, diversen Parasomnien, luzidem Träumen und Alptraumthemen befragt.

Ergebnisse

Über allgemein schlechte Schlafqualität hinaus zeigten sich bei den Inhaftierten annähernd alle Parasomnie-Prävalenzen erhöht, insbesondere REM-Schlaf-Verhaltensstörung (RBD)/Dream Enactment und Alpträume. 33 % litten mehrfach wöchentlich unter Alpträumen, 21 % jede/fast jede Nacht, 61 % unter wiederkehrenden Alpträumen. Inhalte reflektieren u. a. Verlust von Angehörigen und Hafterleben. Erstaunlich häufig zeigte sich luzides Träumen (36 % ≥ 2 ×/Mon). Die Alptraumbelastung korreliert mit Schlafqualität, RBD und Rate an luziden Träumen.

Diskussion

Übereinstimmend mit der Literatur bestätigen unsere Daten die schlechte Schlafqualität Inhaftierter und ergänzen diese um vorläufige Ergebnisse zu Parasomnien. Interkorrelationen weisen auf Trauma-assoziierte Schlafstörungen (TASD) als mögliches Bindeglied. Aufgrund des starken Leidensdrucks wie auch in Hinblick auf potenziell weitergreifende Effekte sollte in JVAs systematisch nach Alpträumen gescreent werden und spezifische Behandlungsangebote sollten evaluiert und implementiert werden.
Voluntary Assisted Dying/Euthanasia: Will This Have an Impact on Cancer Care in Future Years?
Authors: Philip Jennifer , Le Brian , La Brooy Camille , Olver Ian , Kerridge Ian , Komesaroff Paul
Published: August 2023

Opinion statement

In considering the impact of medically hastened death (MHD) on cancer care, a wide range of variables needs to be considered including demographic factors, diagnoses, local cultural factors, and the legislative frameworks in place. Here, we present a synthesis of recently available published literature and empirical data collected following legislative change to enable MHD in Victoria, Australia to explore in detail the potential impact of MHD on cancer care with a focus on patients/families and professional groups. Our findings reveal that for patients and families, both physical and existential distress frequently underlie MHD requests, with the latter less readily recognised by health professionals. The responses of those around the patient making the request may have a very significant impact on relationships within families and upon the nature of the subsequent bereavement. For palliative care, while differing views may remain, it appears that there has been some accommodation of MHD into or alongside practice over time. The recognition of a shared commitment to relief of suffering of palliative care and MHD appears a helpful means of establishing how these practices may co-exist. In cancer practice more broadly, as individual professionals reflect upon their own roles, new relationships and pathways of patient movement (or referral) must be established in response to patients’ requests. Our findings also highlight many unanswered questions in understanding the impact of MHD, including that upon those dying who choose not to access MHD, First Nations peoples, the participating health professionals’ longer term, and the relief of suffering itself. A systematic approach to the evaluation of MHD legislation must be adopted in order to understand its full impact. Only then could it be determined if the aspirations for such legislative change were being met.
Laparoscopic Reduction of Sigmoidorectal Intussusception by a Modified Hutchinson’s Maneuver
Authors: Onoyama Haruna , Nakamura Takashi , Ahiko Yuka , Sakuyama Naoki , Aikou Susumu , Shida Dai
Published: August 2023

Traditionally, adult intestinal intussusception is treated using Hutchinson’s maneuver, i.e., manual proximal bowel compression and reduction of intussusception. However, the lack of manual contact in laparoscopic surgery limits the application of Hutchinson’s maneuver. Moreover, when the lead point is located distal to the peritoneal refection, and the intussusception cannot be reduced prior to bowel resection, stoma construction (e.g., Hartmann surgery or abdominoperineal resection) becomes necessary. Here, we report a case of sigmoidorectal intussusception treated laparoscopically using a modified Hutchinson’s maneuver. A 74-year-old man was diagnosed with sigmoidorectal intussusception caused by sigmoid colon cancer. Colonoscopy revealed a malignant-appearing obstructing mass telescoping into the rectum, with the lead point at 3 cm from the anal verge. During the endoscopic examination, the lead point did not move. A biopsy of the mass showed adenocarcinoma, leading to a diagnosis of sigmoid cancer with sigmoidorectal intussusception. Since the patient had no symptoms of intestinal ischemia, and defecations were observed, elective laparoscopic surgery was planned. Intraoperatively, an attempt was made to pull out the intussuscepted segment proximally, but the presence of fibrous adhesions made the intussusception irreducible. Therefore, the rectum and mesorectum were mobilized completely up to the level of the levator ani so that the lower rectum could be wrapped with gauze on the anal side of the lead point of the intussusception. The gauze was then pulled up to the oral side and simultaneously, a surgeon pushed the distal end of the intussuscepted segment up using a laparoscopic bowel grasper, with another surgeon pushing the lead point through the anus with fingers. Thereby, the intussusception was reduced to some extent, allowing for low anterior resection. The resected specimen contained an ulcerated moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma of the sigmoid colon measuring 3.5 cm × 3.0 cm, combined with circumferential ischemia with mucosal loss and necrosis over an 8 cm length on the distal side of the tumor. The tumor was stage III (T3 N1). We provide a laparoscopic approach for treating intussusception using a modified Hutchinson’s maneuver. This method will be useful in reducing the intussuscepted segment while avoiding stoma construction.
Retrieving PM10 Surface Concentration from AERONET Aerosol Optical Depth: The Cairo and Delhi Megacities Case Studies
Authors: Said Sara , Salah Zeinab , Wahab Mohamed Magdy Abdel , Alfaro Stephane C.
Published: August 2023

Large concentrations of air-suspended particulate matter (PM) in megacities represent an important health risk for their populations, but PM time series are often missing or too short to quantify the associated burden of diseases. In this study, we propose a model for retrieving the surface PM in Cairo (Egypt) and Delhi (India) from the automated measurements of aerosol optical depth (AOD), precipitable water (PW), and Angström exponent (AE) performed by the sunphotometers of the Aerosol Robotics Network (AERONET). For this we exploit the (1) synchronous measurements performed from 2010 to 2015 at the headquarters of the Egyptian Meteorological Authority and in 2009 at the Gual Pahari station (25 km south of Delhi) and (2) the ERA5 estimate of the planetary boundary layer height (H). The correlation between the surface PM10 and the AOD is primarily controlled by the variations of PW and secondarily by those of H: for similar surface PM10 concentrations, the AOD tends to be the largest in summer because of the hygroscopic enhancement of the mass extinction efficiency (σ) of the particles and their dilution in the more developed mixing layer. The variations of composition also play a significant role in Cairo. This effect, particularly marked in spring (coinciding with the dust season), can be parameterized as a linear function of AE. Finally, we show that the variations of the surface PM10 concentration at the two sites can be retrieved simply from those of the AOD, PW, AE and H. At the weekly temporal resolution, the agreement between the model and the observations is very good at the two locations (correlation coefficient > 0.81, relative mean absolute error < 15%). This validates indirectly the assumption made in the development of the model, namely that the aerosols are mostly confined to the mixing layer of the two megacities and not transported in the free atmosphere. Provided a few years of surface PM measurements are available, the methodology proposed in this study could be easily applied to any other AERONET station.
The shark and ray teeth of the Lower Miocene (Upper Marine Molasse) from Ballendorf, Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany
Authors: Höltke Olaf , Maxwell Erin E. , Bracher Helmut , Rasser Michael W.
Published: August 2023

In an abandoned sand pit near Ballendorf (Alb-Donau District, Baden-Württemberg), sediments of the Upper Marine Molasse (Lower Miocene) are present. In these sediments, 39 shark and ray species belonging to 29 genera were identified (Aetobatus, Alopias, Araloselachus, Carcharhinus, Carcharias, Centrophorus, Chaenogaleus, Dasyatis, Galeocerdo, Hemipristis, Iago, Isistius, Keasius, Notorynchus, Pachyscyllium, Paragaleus, Physogaleus, Pristiophorus, Raja, Rhinobatos, Rhinoptera, Rhizoprionodon, Rhynchobatus, Scyliorhinus, Sphyrna, Squalus, Squatina, Taeniurops, Triakis). However, in this paper we only illustrate and describe the 23 taxa not already discussed in previous publications on the Upper Marine Molasse deposits of Äpfingen, Rengetsweiler and Ursendorf, apart from two exceptions: teeth from jaw positions not previously illustrated, and specimens that are better preserved than those in previous publications. Specimens only determined as “sp.” were illustrated because it cannot be ruled out that they represent different species to the ones published earlier. Nearly all of the taxa found have Recent relatives; only Araloselachus, Keasius and Physogaleus are extinct. Most of the recovered taxa lived on or near the bottom in the shelf region. Alopias and possibly also Keasius lived higher in the water column. With Isistius, a taxon living in the oceanic realm was present, and the Recent representatives of Centrophorus live in deeper waters. Nearly all taxa fed on invertebrates and/or fishes; Isistius also fed as an ectoparasite. Additionally, two generalist feeders (Galeocerdo, Notorynchus) and one filter feeder (Keasius) were identified. The species Carcharias crassidens, which is not common in the Upper Marine Molasse, was also verified. Other fossils found in this deposit include remnants of odontocete cetaceans, molluscs, balanid barnacles, algae, and teeth of terrestrial mammals. The palaeoenvironment was a warm, shallow-water habitat. Based on greater proximity to the palaeo-coastline, the water depth was probably less than in other Upper Marine Molasse deposits.
Effect of forest management choices on carbon sequestration and biodiversity at national scale
Authors: Mäkelä Annikki , Minunno Francesco , Kujala Heini , Kosenius Anna-Kaisa , Heikkinen Risto K. , Junttila Virpi , Peltoniemi Mikko , Forsius Martin
Published: August 2023

Forest management methods and harvest intensities influence wood production, carbon sequestration and biodiversity. We devised different management scenarios by means of stakeholder analysis and incorporated them in the forest growth simulator PREBAS. To analyse impacts of harvest intensity, we used constraints on total harvest: business as usual, low harvest, intensive harvest and no harvest. We carried out simulations on a wall-to-wall grid in Finland until 2050. Our objectives were to (1) test how the management scenarios differed in their projections, (2) analyse the potential wood production, carbon sequestration and biodiversity under the different harvest levels, and (3) compare different options of allocating the scenarios and protected areas. Harvest level was key to carbon stocks and fluxes regardless of management actions and moderate changes in proportion of strictly protected forest. In contrast, biodiversity was more dependent on other management variables than harvesting levels, and relatively independent of carbon stocks and fluxes.
Ca 125 is an independent prognostic marker in resected pancreatic cancer of the head of the pancreas
Authors: Napoli Niccolò , Kauffmann Emanuele F. , Ginesini Michael , Lami Lucrezia , Lombardo Carlo , Vistoli Fabio , Campani Daniela , Boggi Ugo
Published: August 2023

The prognostic value of carbohydrate antigen 125 (Ca 125) is emerging also in pancreatic cancer (PDAC). In this study, we aim to define the prognostic value of Ca 125 in resected PDAC of the head of the pancreas. This is a single-center, retrospective study. Data from patients with a pre-operative assay of Ca 125 who underwent a pancreatic resection for PDAC between 2010 and 2018 were analyzed. As per National Comprehensive Cancer Guidelines, tumors were classified in resectable (R-PDAC), borderline resectable (BR-PDAC), and locally advanced (LA-PDAC). The Kaplan–Meier method was used to evaluate the overall survival. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to evaluate the role of pre-operative Ca 125 in predicting survival (while adjusting for confounders). The maximally selected log-rank statistic was used to identify a Ca 125 cut-off defining two groups with different survival probability. Inclusion criteria were met by 207 patients (R-PDAC: 80, BR-PDAC: 91, and LA-PDAC: 36). Ca 125 predicted overall survival before and after adjusting for confounding factors in all categories of anatomic resectability (R-PDAC: HR = 4.3; p = 0.0249) (BR-PDAC: HR = 7.82; p = 0.0024) (LA-PDAC: HR = 11.4; p = 0.0043). In BR-PDAC and LA-PDAC (n = 127), the division in two groups (high vs. low Ca 125) correlated with T stage (p = 0.0317), N stage (p = 0.0083), mean LN ratio (p = 0.0292), and tumor grading (p = 0.0143). This study confirmed the prognostic value of Ca125 in resected pancreatic cancer and, therefore, the importance of biologic over anatomic resectability. Ca 125 should be routinely assayed in surgical candidates with PDAC.
Urban socio-ecosystem renewal: an ecosystem services assessment approach
Authors: LopezDeAsiain M. , Castro Bonaño J. M. , Borrallo-Jiménez M. , Mora Esteban R.
Published: August 2023

Using a novel approach based on the urban ecosystem services approach, this research explores the relation between socio-economic, architectonic and ecological factors in urban renewal processes. This deductive conceptual approach is based on the definition of an urban diagnosis and intervention model based on the concept of urban socio-ecosystemic services. This conceptual approach is applied to three research cases in Andalusia (Spain) neighbourhoods linked to participatory urban renewal processes. A model is inductively defined from these analysed case studies: the socio-ecosystemic services model, based on the conceptual frame, the development of particular instruments and the definition of a participatory methodological strategy. The results obtained in these urban workshops show that the socio-ecosystem model better integrates the relationships between the architectural, socio-economic and ecological dimensions in addressing the need for urban services and infrastructure and the quality of life in neighbourhoods. Citizens can formulate their needs and perceptions of the neighbourhood beyond traditional quantitative variables (i.e. number of car parks, average size of dwellings, population density, etc.), incorporating aspects such as urban landscape, air quality, urban noise, shaded rest areas and children’s spaces. All these perceptions are collected and transformed into proposals for neighbourhood improvement, which are assessed and prioritized by the citizens. Together with participatory processes, this approach can be considered as the key to success in urban renewal strategies in neighbourhoods. However, it is necessary to develop indicators and metrics of the relationships between the socio-economic and ecological dimensions that allow a more integrated study of the model at different urban scales.
Health research, development and innovation capacity building, enhancement and sustainability
Authors: Cerf Marlon E.
Published: August 2023

Research, development and innovation (RDI) encompasses undertaking research to contribute to new knowledge, developing policies, and generating products and services. Building health RDI capacity should be informed by the developmental gap, required resources and the impact. Low- and middle-income countries often face barriers to reaching their RDI potential. To address some of the RDI challenges, a framework is presented for building, enhancing and sustaining health RDI capacity at the researcher, department and faculty, institution and government dimensions, which is unpacked at the construct, expand, team, gear and leverage phases. Existing and new health RDI capacity requires building, enhancing and sustaining (constructing) before improving, refining and growing RDI expertise and portfolios (expanding). Collaborative RDI networks and robust partnerships should then be established (teaming) and researchers nurtured, with resources optimized to secure investments for embarking on new activities (gearing). Harnessing the collective RDI collaborations and partnerships leads to greater global competitiveness and sustainability (leveraging). Capacity building, enhancement and sustainability in health RDI addresses health challenges that contributes to improving health, economy and societal outcomes.
Changes in Influenza Activities Impacted by NPI Based on 4-Year Surveillance in China: Epidemic Patterns and Trends
Authors: Tan Jing , Liang Lijun , Huang Ping , Ibrahim Abrar A. , Huang Zhongzhou , Zhao Wei , Zou Lirong
Published: August 2023

Background

Since the Non-pharmaceutical Intervention (NPI) by COVID-19 emerged, influenza activity has been somewhat altered.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to explore changes in influenza activities in the context of COVID-19 based on the sentinel hospitals/units in Guangdong, southern China.

Methods

The surveillance data in influenza-like illness (ILI) were collected from 21 cities in Guangdong between September 2017 and August 2021, while 43 hospitals/units were selected to analyze the predominant types of influenza, population characteristics, and seasonal features by three methods (the concentration ratio, the seasonal index, and the circulation distribution), based on a descriptive epidemiological approach.

Results

During the four consecutive influenza seasons, a total of 157345 ILIs were tested, of which 9.05% were positive for influenza virus (n = 14238), with the highest positive rates for both IAV (13.20%) and IBV (5.41%) in the 2018–2019 season. After the emergence of COVID-19, influenza cases decreased near to zero from March 2020 till March 2021, and the dominant type of influenza virus changed from IAV to IBV. The highest positive rate of influenza existed in the age-group of 5 ~  < 15 years in each season for IAV (P < 0.001), which was consistent with that for IBV (P < 0.001). The highest annual positive rates for IBV emerged in eastern Guangdong, while the highest annual positive rates of IAV in different seasons existed in different regions. Furthermore, compared with the epidemic period (ranged from December to June) during 2017–2019, the period ended three months early (March 2020) in 2019–2020, and started by five months behind (April 2021) during 2020–2021.

Conclusion

The highest positive rates in 5 ~  < 15 age-group suggested the susceptible in this age-group mostly had infected with infected B/Victoria. Influenced by the emergence of COVID-19 and NPI responses, the epidemic patterns and trends of influenza activities have changed in Guangdong, 2017–2021.
Imperial Heartland
Authors: Holland David
Published: August 2023

Working-class Britons played a crucial role in the pioneering settlement and integration of South Asians in imperial Britain. Using a host of new and neglected sources, Imperial Heartland revises the history of early South Asian immigration to Britain, focusing on the northern English city of Sheffield. Rather than viewing immigration through the lens of inevitable conflict, this study takes an alternative approach, situating mixed marriages and inter-racial social networks centrally within the South Asian settlement of modern Britain. Whilst acknowledging the episodic racial conflict of the early inter-war period, David Holland challenges assumptions that insurmountable barriers of race, religion and culture existed between the British working classes and non-white newcomers. Imperial Heartland closely examines the reactions of working-class natives to these young South Asian men and overturns our pre-conceptions that hostility to perceived racial or national difference was an overriding pre-occupation of working-class people during this period. Imperial Heartland therefore offers a fresh and inspiring new perspective on the social and cultural history of modern Britain.
The ALMA Telescope
Authors: Vanden Bout Paul A. , Dickman Robert L. , Plunkett Adele L.
Published: August 2023

ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, situated high in the Chilean desert, is the largest ground-based telescope on Earth. This is an insiders' account of how this complex mega-project came to fruition from authors with intimate knowledge of its past and present. The separate roots of ALMA in the United States, Europe, and Japan are traced to their merger into an international partnership involving more than 20 countries. The book relates the search for a suitable telescope site, challenges encountered in organization, funding, and construction, and lessons learned along the way. It closes with a review of the most significant results from ALMA, now one of the most productive telescopes in the world. Written for a broad spectrum of readers, including astronomers, engineers, project managers, science historians, government officials, and the general public, the eBook edition is available to download as an Open Access publication on Cambridge Core.
Families by Agreement
Authors: Bix Brian H.
Published: August 2023

In this highly original work, renowned family and contract law expert Brian H. Bix explores the increasing legal recognition of private ordering in American family law. Today, individuals can alter the terms of a marriage and divorce through agreements, and courts sometimes allow individuals to create, waive, and alter parental rights by way of surrogacy, open adoption, and co-parenting agreements, among other mechanisms. But when is such private ordering beneficial to all, and when should it be regulated or prohibited? Families by Agreement explores these questions in accessible detail to provide an important resource for those who litigate in these areas and for those who want to be thoughtful participants in these moral and policy debates.
Common Pool Resources
Authors: Espinola-Arredondo Ana , Muñoz-Garcia Felix
Published: August 2023

Common Pool Resources include, for instance, fishing grounds, irrigation systems, forests and the atmosphere. Now more than ever, how we responsibly share and use those goods is a vital issue. This textbook introduces students of economics, business and policy studies to the key issues in the field. It uses a game-theory approach to help readers understand the mathematical representation of how to find equilibrium behavior in CPRs, how to identify the socially optimal appropriation, and how to measure the inefficiencies that arise. Algebra and calculus steps are clearly explained, so students can more easily reproduce the analysis and apply it in their own research. Finally, the book also summarizes experimental studies that tested theoretical results in controlled environments, introducing readers to a literature that has expanded over the last decades, and provides references for further reading.
The Constitution of Political Economy
Authors: Pabst Adrian , Scazzieri Roberto
Published: August 2023

The two dominant conceptions of political economy are based on either reducing political decisions to rational-choice reasoning or, conversely, reducing economic structures and phenomena to the realm of politics. In this book, Adrian Pabst and Roberto Scazzieri contend that neither conception is convincing and argue for a fundamental rethinking of political economy. Developing a new approach at the interface of economic theory and political thought, the book shows that political economy covers a plurality of dimensions, which reflect internal hierarchies and multiple relationships within the economic and political sphere. The Constitution of Political Economy presents a new, richer conception of political economy that draws on a range of thinkers from the history of political economy, recognising the complex embedding of the economy and the polity in society. Effective policy-making has to reflect this embedding and rests on the interdependence between local, national, and international actors to address multiple systemic crises.
In-depth assessment of critical access hospital stewardship program adherence to the CDC Core Elements in Iowa and Nebraska
Authors: Ryder Jonathan H. , Preusker Jenna , Watkins Andrew B. , Tigh Jeremy , Schroeder Danny , Ashraf Muhammad Salman , Van Schooneveld Trevor C.
Published: August 2023

In 21 antimicrobial stewardship programs in critical-access hospitals in Nebraska and Iowa that self-reported nonadherence to a CDC Core Element or Elements, in-depth program assessment and feedback revealed that accountability and education most needed improvement. Recommendations included providing physician and pharmacist training, tracking interventions, and providing education. Program barriers included lack of time and/or personnel and antimicrobial stewardship and/or infectious diseases expertise.
Ethnicity and Conflict: The Northern Ireland Troubles
Authors: McBride Ian
Published: August 2023

In this article, I defend the view that the Northern Ireland Troubles can usefully be described as an ethnic conflict. I critically examine two manifestos on this subject, those by Richard Bourke and Simon Prince respectively, which rest on misrepresentations of the scholarship on Northern Ireland. The issues raised by these historians are relevant to the historiography of nationalism and the study of civil war. I focus on the coincidence of religious affiliation and political allegiance in Ulster and the mechanisms by which patterns of conflict have been reproduced over time, suggesting several reasons why historians and political scientists have turned to the notion of ethnicity to describe the persistence of antagonism in the North of Ireland. In the final section, focusing on the loyalist agitator John McKeague, I argue that the literature on ethnicity helps historians to understand the outbreak of the Northern Ireland conflict better than does the singular concentration on democratic ideas recommended by Bourke and Prince.
Political Competition and Judicial Independence: How Courts Fill the Void When Legislatures Are Ineffective
Authors: Boston Joshua , Carlson David , Duck-Mayr JBrandon , Sasso Greg
Published: August 2023

What effect does political competition have in generating de facto judicial independence? We argue that competition in a legislature can drive increases in de facto judicial independence. Our game-theoretic model reveals that increased competition for seats impedes legislators’ ability to enact their platforms, regardless of government turnover probability, and increased legislative fractionalization also makes court intervention more likely. Utilizing a sample of democratic states, empirical evidence suggests when a country’s legislature is increasingly fractionalized among parties or has increasing seat turnover, we observe increases in de facto independence. This research provides new perspectives on the link between independence and competition.
A comparison of contemporaneous airborne altimetry and ice-thickness measurements of Antarctic ice shelves
Authors: Chartrand Allison M. , Howat Ian M.
Published: August 2023

Estimates of ice shelf mass loss are typically based on surface height measurements, assuming hydrostatic equilibrium and estimated firn thickness. Recent investigations, however, challenge the assumption that ice shelves are freely floating, particularly in proximity to narrow structures such as basal channels and shear margins. We compare contemporaneous measurements of Antarctic ice shelf thickness, from ice-penetrating radar, to freeboard height, from laser altimetry, acquired during multiple airborne surveys. On average, the hydrostatic thickness differs from observed thickness by at least ~17 ± 98 m, but this difference varies well beyond the propagated error within and among ice shelves, and depends on the corrections applied. We find that uncertainty in firn thickness can account for most, but not all, of the imbalance. Overall, errors in hydrostatic thickness do not significantly impact estimated basal melt rates. Our results indicate that localized approaches to estimating ice shelf thickness and rates of change are not applicable at large scales, and vice versa, and point to the need for more abundant and accurate firn and ice thickness measurements to improve estimates and predictions of ice shelf mass loss.
National Chauvinism, Group Identity Affirmation, and Trust in International Relations: Experimental Results from Ukraine
Authors: Chung Eunbin , Pechenkina Anna O.
Published: August 2023

Research has found that affirming national identity can encourage the public’s trust toward a foreign adversary. On the other hand, aggressor states have attempted to recategorize identity by promoting a superordinate identity that includes both aggressor and defender states. In comparison with national identity affirmation, we test how effective emphasis of a common identity might be in the context of Russia-Ukraine and evaluate the scope conditions under which such a strategy may backfire. We propose that the effectiveness of the two identity affirmation approaches should differ across people with varying levels of national chauvinism. We expect that high-in-chauvinism individuals will experience more worldview-conflict when exposed to promotion of superordinate identity. Experimental findings on Ukrainians’ trust toward Russia in 2020 suggest a policy that emphasizes a common identity can backfire among highly chauvinistic Ukrainians in the Western region. This indicates that recategorizing one’s nation as a member of a larger group may fuel resistance among individuals with a sense of nationalistic superiority. By contrast, highlighting Ukrainian national identity boosted trust toward Russia even among the more chauvinistic respondents in the Southeastern region. This study helps identify the scope conditions of identity affirmation as a way to increase trust in international relations.
LECTURE HELD AT THE ACADEMIA EUROPAEA BUILDING BRIDGES CONFERENCE 2022
Authors: Baeza-Yates Ricardo
Published: August 2023

Artificial intelligence (AI) has finally reached most people on our planet thanks to generative AI tools for text and other media. This has started a controversy about the possible benefits and risks, where responsible AI is key. Hence, we introduce the concept of responsible AI, its relation to AI ethics, and why the terms ethical or trustworthy AI should not be used. We then cover the three main relevant aspects of this new field: principles governance and regulation.
Education among Indian Muslims. Jamia Millia Islamia's journal Payām-e taʿlīm
Authors: Pernau Margrit
Published: August 2023

The rapid changes caused by high imperialism and modernisation induced an orientation towards the future among the Indian Muslims: where was the community and the nation heading? What did the young generation need, in terms of both character and knowledge, to master the future and to shape it in such a way as to bring justice and civilisation, honour and prosperity to the country?

This article aims to investigate how such important, lofty questions on education were translated into everyday pedagogical practices by looking at Payām-e taʿlīm, a journal for children that was brought out by the Jamia Millia Islamia, the nationalist Muslim university and school in Delhi, from 1926 onwards. Payām provided stories, knowledge, and ideas to students of Jamia's own primary and secondary schools, but which was also successfully aimed at a wider geographical spread.
Religion and the rise of magic in Urdu print culture: the case of Chīn aur Bangāl kā Jādū
Authors: Daechsel Markus
Published: August 2023

This article offers a first survey of a novel genre of grimoires published in Urdu-reading India in the early twentieth century. It contained a wide selection of magic material from Islamicate and Tantric sources as well as Western parapsychology and spiritualism. Its applications ranged from remedies of last resort in illness, relationship troubles, and other life problems to common household cures and magical tricks performed for pleasure alone. Produced and read by members of all religious groups in North India, this material indicates important changes in popular attitudes towards magic. Magic by no means declined at the beginning of the twentieth century, but flourished as a viable commercial print genre that became increasingly detached from religion.
Rationalising ritual: worship in South Asian Islam between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries
Authors: Zaman Muhammad Qasim
Published: August 2023

This article examines the discussion of core Islamic rituals in the writings of the influential eighteenth-century Sufi, hadith scholar, and jurist Shah Wali Allah of Delhi (d. 1762). It brings out the implications of Wali Allah's sustained concern with demonstrating how divinely mandated rituals serve human interests, not just at the individual but also at the societal and political levels. This aspect of Wali Allah's thought has parallels with how many modernists and Islamists in colonial and post-colonial South Asia have sought to explain Islamic rituals in terms of their social ramifications. But there are some significant differences between them, too, and these help shed further light on Wali Allah's distinctive theory of ritual.
The limits of generality for constitutional design
Authors: Young Andrew T.
Published: August 2023

James Buchanan was a fervent advocate of a non-discriminatory politics. However, he translated his views on constitutional political economy into (de jure) constitutional design in an insufficiently thoughtful way. Simply writing non-discriminatory politics into a Constitution is unlikely to have the desired effect. All Constitutional language is open to interpretation and political entrepreneurs will be ready to push interpretation in their favoured directions. The history of US Constitutional law bears this out. This does not necessarily discount Buchanan's quest for constitutionalized non-discriminatory politics. However, it does mean that it must be tempered by realistic concerns regarding constitutional design. With this in mind, I suggest that focusing on procedural, rather than substantive, Constitutional provisions may be more fruitful.
Institutions and industry-level employment creation: an empirical analysis of the US metro-level data
Authors: Arif Imran
Published: August 2023

A growing strand of literature relates pro-market institutions to business and overall employment creation. However, the effects of pro-market institutions on industry-specific employment creation still need to be better understood. Employment creation in some industries may be more sensitive to pro-market institutions. Moreover, if these industries employ a large proportion of the population, the role of local-level institutions becomes more critical for boosting employment creation across industries. Therefore, we disentangle the effects of local-level pro-market institutions on employment creation across nine major industries by using 5-year balanced panel data of 374 US metropolitan areas from 1972 to 2017. Our fixed-effects results indicate that pro-market institutions boost employment creation only in the manufacturing, retail, and construction sectors. Furthermore, our findings reveal that local public policies can benefit or harm local employment creation, depending on the concentration of industries in the area.
Plant growth stages and weather index insurance design
Authors: Zou Jing , Odening Martin , Okhrin Ostap
Published: August 2023

Given the assumption that weather risks affect crop yields, we designed a weather index insurance product for soybean producers in the US state of Illinois. By separating the entire vegetation cycle into four growth stages, we investigate whether the phase-division procedure contributes to weather–yield loss relation estimation and, hence, to basis risk mitigation. Concretely, supposing stage-variant interaction patterns between temperature-based weather index growing degree days and rainfall-based weather index cumulative rainfall, a nonparametric weather–yield loss relation is estimated by a generalized additive model. The model includes penalized B-spline (P-spline) approach based on nonlinear optimal indemnity solutions under the expected utility framework. The P-spline analysis of variance (PS-ANOVA) method is used for efficient estimation through mixed model re-parameterization. The results indicate that the phase-division models significantly outperform the benchmark whole-cycle ones either under quadratic utility or exponential utility, given different levels of risk aversions. Finally, regarding hedging effectiveness, the expected utility ratio between the phase-division contract and the whole-cycle contract, and the percentage changes of mean root square loss and variance of revenues support the proposed phase-division contract.
Paramilitarism, Social Transformation, and the Nation in Greece during the Civil War and Its Aftermath (1940s–50s)
Authors: Tsoutsoumpis Spyros
Published: August 2023

This article explores the association between paramilitarism and nation-building in civil war Greece. Existing studies saw paramilitaries from a purely military perspective and focused on their combat activities. The article shifts the attention to their social and political activities and discusses the transformation of social actors, structures, norms, and practices at the local level as spurred on by political mobilization and paramilitary violence. More specifically, the author focuses on three processes: political mobilization, the militarization of local authority, and the fragmentation of local political economies. He explores the legacies of these changes on the dynamics of state and institution building between the years of occupation during World War II, the Civil War, and the reconstruction years. This approach problematizes divisions between legal (state-sanctioned) and illegal (private) violence in the making of the postwar state and sheds new light onto continuities across the divide of World War II and the Cold War.
Pozharskii's Grave and the Search for the Russian Nation in the Nineteenth Century
Authors: Smith-Peter Susan
Published: August 2023

Prince D.M. Pozharskii, who together with Kuz΄ma Minin helped to end the Time of Troubles in 1612-13, has been the focus of commemoration for centuries and has come to symbolize the defense of the Russian nation. This article focuses on three moments of his commemoration in the nineteenth century: the classical Pozharskii, as seen in the monument on Red Square, the nationalist Pozharskii, which reimagined him almost as a saint of the nation, and the regionalist Pozharskii, which presented him as a heroic forerunner of the zemstvo and the self-directed action of the Russian people. Using a wide variety of sources, the article shows how Pozharskii's grave and its commemoration were the focus of contention over what the Russian nation was and ought to be: composed of loyal and unquestioning subjects of the tsars, saint-like warriors, or a people that was self-governing at the local level. It also argues for the importance of including local narratives and sources in the historical narrative, as this was where the demand for self-government was most clearly made. Dead bodies can spark lively discussions, and when the body is Pozharskii's, the stakes can be as high as the meaning of the Russian nation itself.
Probabilistic Landslide Tsunami Estimation in the Makassar Strait, Indonesia, Using Statistical Emulation
Authors: Dignan Jack , Hayward Matthew W. , Salmanidou Dimitra , Heidarzadeh Mohammad , Guillas Serge
Published: August 2023

This paper presents a significant advancement in the understanding of tsunamigenic landslide hazard across the length of the Makassar Strait in Indonesia. We use statistical emulation across the length of the continental slope to conduct a probabilistic assessment of tsunami hazard on a regional scale, across 14 virtual coastal gauges. Focusing on the potential maximum wave amplitudes (distance between the wave crest and the still‐water level) from possible tsunamigenic landslide events, we generate predictions from Gaussian Process emulators fitted to input‐outputs from 50 training scenarios. We show that the most probable maximum wave amplitudes in the majority of gauges are between 1 and 5 m, with the maximum predicted amplitudes reaching values of up to 10 m on the eastern coast, and up to 50 m on the western coast. We also explore the potential use of Gaussian multivariate copulas to sample emulator prediction input values to create a more realistic distribution of volumes along the continental slope. The novel use of statistical emulation across a whole slope enables the probabilistic assessment of tsunami hazard due to landslides on a regional scale. This area is of key interest to Indonesia since the new capital will be established in the East Kalimantan region on the western side of the Makassar Strait.
Whitewater Sound Dependence on Discharge and Wave Configuration at an Adjustable Wave Feature
Authors: Tatum Taylor A. , Anderson Jacob F. , Ronan Timothy J.
Published: August 2023

Stream acoustics has been proposed as a means of monitoring discharge and wave hazards from outside the stream channel. To better understand the dependence of sound on discharge and wave characteristics, this study analyzes discharge and infrasound data from an artificial wave feature which is adjusted to accommodate daily changes in recreational use and seasonal changes in irrigation demand. Monitorable sound is only observed when discharge exceeds ∼35 m3/s, and even above that threshold the sound‐discharge relationship is non‐linear and inconsistent. When sound is observed, it shows consistent dependence on wave type within a given year, but the direction of this dependence varies among the 3 years studied (2016, 2021, and 2022). These findings support previous research that establishes discharge and stream morphology as relevant controls on stream acoustics and highlights the complex, combined effects of these variables.
Impact of the circadian nuclear receptor REV-ERBα in dorsal raphe 5-HT neurons on social interaction behavior, especially social preference
Authors: Jang Sangwon , Park Inah , Choi Mijung , Kim Jihoon , Yeo Seungeun , Huh Sung-Oh , Choi Ji-Woong , Moon Cheil , Choe Han Kyoung , Choe Youngshik , Kim Kyungjin
Published: August 2023

Social interaction among conspecifics is essential for maintaining adaptive, cooperative, and social behaviors, along with survival among mammals. The 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) neuronal system is an important neurotransmitter system for regulating social behaviors; however, the circadian role of 5-HT in social interaction behaviors is unclear. To investigate whether the circadian nuclear receptor REV-ERBα, a transcriptional repressor of the rate-limiting enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (Tph2) gene in 5-HT biosynthesis, may affect social interaction behaviors, we generated a conditional knockout (cKO) mouse by targeting Rev-Erbα in dorsal raphe (DR) 5-HT neurons (5-HTDR-specific REV-ERBα cKO) using the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system and assayed social behaviors, including social preference and social recognition, with a three-chamber social interaction test at two circadian time (CT) points, i.e., at dawn (CT00) and dusk (CT12). The genetic ablation of Rev-Erbα in DR 5-HTergic neurons caused impaired social interaction behaviors, particularly social preference but not social recognition, with no difference between the two CT points. This deficit of social preference induced by Rev-Erbα in 5-HTDR-specific mice is functionally associated with real-time elevated neuron activity and 5-HT levels at dusk, as determined by fiber-photometry imaging sensors. Moreover, optogenetic inhibition of DR to nucleus accumbens (NAc) 5-HTergic circuit restored the impairment of social preference in 5-HTDR-specific REV-ERBα cKO mice. These results suggest the significance of the circadian regulation of 5-HT levels by REV-ERBα in regulating social interaction behaviors.