bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Realism, Truth, and Error in the Writing of B. S. Johnson
Authors: Jordan Julia
Published: May 2020

Over the last decade or so in particular, B. S. Johnson has come to represent an exemplar of the 1960s and early 1970s experimental tendency for readers and scholars alike. His complex relation to realism is here examined, and the chapter shows the connections between this and his writing’s tonal and affective cast, proposing the centrality of anxiety, and preoccupation with the body. This recurs throughout his work as a corporeal proximity that scrambles the distance between subject and object. The errancy identified as so key to the experimental novel of the period is central: Johnson’s texts worry at themselves, both in what they depict and in their ability to depict it at all. This chapter shows how his novels register an emerging aesthetic of failure, whereby the productive potential of error allows the experimental novel to negotiate and to expand the contested categories of realism and late modernism.
Accidental Subjects, or Ann Quin’s Literature of Possibility
Authors: Jordan Julia
Published: May 2020

Ann Quin is often painted as an isolated and rebarbative voice, more influenced by the nouveau roman than by any of her peers. Her novels display to various degrees a narrative capacity for waiting, lingering, doing nothing, and for silence. This chapter links the notions of latency and unrealized possibility in her fiction to her dissolution of the subject. Her characters are defined by their hazy lack of definition, which this chapter will link to the ways in which she thinks people, and, relatedly, objects, are and are not used. Her texts refuse utility of all kinds; so do her characters, and so do her things. This chapter therefore argues that Quin’s attraction to the microscopic and phenomenological, her formal elevation of uncertainty into a narrative device, and her philosophically informed decentring of the subject, make her one of the most significant avant-garde figures of the period.
Alexander Trocchi, Tom McCarthy, and Late, Late Modernism
Authors: Jordan Julia
Published: May 2020

The accidental and the errant have so far been suggested as formal and philosophical principles in the experimental writing of the British post-war scene. Accordingly, late modernism has here been understood as more than a periodizing hypothesis or a chronological marker; rather, it is distinctively late because it is accidental. This final chapter will read Alexander Trocchi alongside Tom McCarthy, as a novelist who explicitly writes in the tradition of the post-war avant-garde, and read both in the light of the idea of the atomic swerve or clinamen. The chapter argues that the novel form becomes imbricated in questions of whether rupture might supervene its own representation. Both writers’ late modernist tasks become entangled with writing’s more fundamental relation to accident, event, error, and traumatic or chronologically scrambled repetition.
An Unknown Account of Ottoman Albania
Authors: Malcolm Noel
Published: May 2020

Antonio Bruni, who until recently was completely unknown to historical scholarship, was an Albanian from the city of Ulcinj (now in Montenegro); the short treatise he wrote in 1596, which was also unknown, offers the first account of Albania by a named Albanian author. This essay begins with a summary account of Bruni’s life: the son of an Albanian member of the Knights of St John (of Malta), he studied in Rome and Avignon, spent some time working in Moldavia and then became an adviser to an exiled Moldavian ruler in Austria. His treatise was probably written for the benefit of a prominent member of the Papal administration in Rome. The whole text of his treatise is given here in translation, fully annotated. Written to advise on the possibility of an Albanian revolt during the Habsburg–Ottoman war, it discusses the ethnic and religious composition of Albania and other territories in the beylerbeylik (Ottoman province) of Rumeli, the social conditions there, and the security situation, especially the strength of local Ottoman forces. This text was a major influence on one of the most popular West European books about the Ottoman Empire, Lazaro Soranzo’s L’Ottomano (1598); this essay also demonstrates the degree of Soranzo’s indebtedness.
Ernesto Cozzi (1870–1926)
Authors: Malcolm Noel
Published: May 2020

The Italian priest Ernesto Cozzi is an important figure for two reasons: he wrote valuable ethnographic studies of life in the ‘Malësi’ (northern highlands) of Albania in the early years of the twentieth century, and after the First World War he was the ‘Apostolic Delegate’ who revitalized the Catholic Church in that country. Both aspects of his life and work were ignored under Communism, and remain little known today. This essay tells the story of his life, using his published writings, his personal diary for 1912–13, the manuscript notebooks of his friend Edith Durham and the reports he submitted to his superiors in Rome. What emerges is a portrait of a resourceful and principled man, a conscientious parish priest, fluent in Albanian, and devoted both to the Albanian anti-Ottoman cause and to the good of the Church. His ethnographic writings are discussed: what survives is a series of articles, chapters of an intended book, on illnesses, death and funerals, the life of Albanian women (including the ‘sworn virgins’), blood-feuds, superstitions, agriculture, and social organization and customary law. His personal diary is of particular interest, as it describes the dramatic events of the First Balkan War: Cozzi began by supporting the Montenegrin attack on Ottoman Albania, but became rapidly disillusioned by Montenegro’s policies. The last part of the essay discusses Cozzi’s energetic work to improve the state of the Catholic Church in Albania in the six years before his death in 1926.
Cross-Cultural Management Revisited
Authors: d'Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

The cross-cultural management literature is still dominated by the quantitative approach to cultures which made the research field popular in the early 1980’s. While the hegemony of this approach was being consolidated, a French research group, Gestion & Société, led by Philippe d’Iribarne, was conducting alternative research. Over the past thirty years, the team has carried out investigations in over fifty countries, collecting data from a large sample of companies concerned with making the most of the cultures with which they were dealing. This book provides an overview of the lessons learnt from thirty years of empirical research and of the refinements of a new theoretical approach to national cultures which challenges the mainstream ones. It introduces an interpretative approach to culture considered as a filter through which people understand reality and give it meaning. Throughout the world, employees confer different meanings on the daily situations arising from companies’ operations such as being subject to the authority of a manager, responding to requests from a client, or having one’s work monitored. All interactions within organizational contexts are underpinned by social relations which make sense in different cultural universes of meaning. Drawing upon this interpretative perspective, the book covers the main management issues: leadership, procedures implementation and control, decision-making, industrial relations, customer relations, ethics and corporate social responsibility, interpersonal and corporate communication, multicultural teams, and international transfers of management practices. Finally, the book provides methodological guidelines to enable researchers and practitioners to engage in this alternative approach.
Customer Relations
Authors: D’Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

Everywhere customer satisfaction is crucial to business success. As a result, cross-cultural marketing has extensively studied the specific cultural expectations of customers regarding products and services. It has also investigated the influence of cultures on negotiation processes, especially in business-to-business transactions. However, the literature has overshadowed that what customer relations mean and how they are maintained vary across cultures. Three examples from China, France, and Côte d’Ivoire respectively illustrate different conceptions of customer relations. In each country, relations to customers make sense according to the prevailing forms of social relations. Providing, as well as obtaining, good customer service in each context requires an understanding of that specific cultural background.
Interpersonal Communication
Authors: D’Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

In today’s linguistically-diverse business world, communication using English as a lingua franca (ELF)—the most frequently chosen common corporate language (CCL)—often overlooks intercultural difficulties. ELF words are generally perceived as conveying a unique meaning to all when, in fact, the sense that speakers make out of them draws on what is most easily accessible in their own minds—that is, their specific universe of meaning. This, along with the communicative styles imported from their native languages, slows organisations’ dynamics—a fact often mistakenly attributed to speakers’ poor ELF skills. Such meaning relativity has an impact on the credibility of cross-cultural studies relying on questionnaires. They use ELF formulations that, taken out of their original contexts, undergo back-and-forth translations, before being amalgamated and presented as evidence, although inherently flawed.
Intercultural Team Challenges
Authors: D’Iribarne Philippe , Chevrier Sylvie , Henry Alain , Segal Jean-Pierre , Tréguer-Felten Geneviève
Published: May 2020

Working in multicultural teams can be a challenge since members do not share the same cultural references. How can they reach an agreement when decision-making does not mean the same things to participants? How can expatriates empower local staff when managers and employees do not have the same empowerment prerequisites in mind? A Franco-Swedish and a Franco-Malagasy case illustrate these misunderstandings, which are emblematic of the misperceptions that emerge in bi-national work contexts. Training in intercultural communication and awareness of cultural distances are not sufficient to overcome these misunderstandings. In addition, cultural misunderstandings are sometimes strategically constructed and often not even acknowledged as such. A better intercultural cooperation requires deciphering the participants’ universes of meaning.
From ‘vast extended prospect’ to ‘the spectacle of nature’
Authors: Bainbridge Simon
Published: May 2020

This chapter takes as its starting point William Wordsworth’s ascent of Snowdon in 1791 and Keats’s ‘fag & tug’ up Ben Nevis in 1818 to show how the writers participated in the period’s developing mountaineering culture. It investigates the visual dimension of the two poets’ ascents, locating their climbs within the optically-motivated culture of Romantic-period climbing and showing how ascent made possible new ways of seeing. To trace the developing aesthetics of elevated viewing, the chapter examines a wide range of travel texts by writers including the following: Thomas Pennant, John Brown, William Hutchinson, Charles Moritz, Ann Radcliffe, James Denholm, Adam Walker, John Stoddart, William Green, Jonathan Otley, and Edward Baines. Within the context of this developing literature of mountaineering, it argues that Wordsworth’s and Keats’s mountain-top experiences can be best understood within the evolving framework of ‘the spectacle of Nature’.
‘Fearless I rove, exploring, free’
Authors: Bainbridge Simon
Published: May 2020

This chapter investigates why the figure of the mountaineer became so important in Romantic-period literature, beginning with an examination of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s influential account of the benefits of being in the mountains. It explores the politics of the mountaineering identity, examining the relationships between different types of climbers, especially between those who worked in the mountains and those whose economic and social positions made it possible to climb for pleasure. Through analysis of a number of travel texts and literary works, the chapter reveals the extent to which the summit was a place of negotiation between individuals, groups, and classes, rather than simply a scene of self-assertion or self-discovery for the solitary climber. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Wordsworth’s The Excursion, which includes the instruction to ‘Climb every day’, and presents the mountaineer as the ideal post-war identity and the embodiment of the nation’s imperial future.
Roman History and the Status of Women
Authors: Philo John-Mark
Published: May 2020

Chapter 3 locates William Thomas’s (d.1554) translation of a succinct but significant moment of the AUC concerning the repeal of the Lex Oppia, a sumptuary law targeting women in particular. The episode shows the women of Rome taking to the streets to demand the law’s repeal, forcing senators and tribunes alike to acknowledge their protest. Thomas thus chose to adapt one of the most arresting examples of women’s engagement in Roman politics. By choosing Livy as a champion of female autonomy, he went firmly against the contemporary grain, vying against more frequent appeals to the AUC as a means of censuring women’s dress and behaviour. Thomas was most probably alerted to this way of reading Livy during his extensive travel in Italy. During the Quattrocento, there had emerged a series of speeches and tracts concerning the status of women, which had similarly harnessed Livy in the defence of womankind. This chapter explores how Thomas was able combine these arguments with his own reading of classical history, producing a bold intervention in the Renaissance querelle des femmes.
Livy’s Lucretia in English Poetry and Prose
Authors: Philo John-Mark
Published: May 2020

Chapter 4 compares Painter’s re-politicizing of the Lucretia legend with Shakespeare’s adaptation of the same narrative in Lucrece. By returning to Livy, this chapter argues, Painter placed a renewed emphasis on the republican hero, Lucius Junius Brutus, whose presence in the narrative had been all but forgotten by the vernacular tradition. While Lucretia’s father and husband are dumbstruck by Lucretia’s suicide, it is Brutus who seizes the opportunity for action and takes their oath to avenge her death. Alerted to the dramatic force of Brutus’s intervention by Painter’s translation, Shakespeare harnessed Livy’s eloquent revolutionary not only in Lucrece, but also in Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Titus Andronicus. The significance of Brutus and his republican revolution to Shakespeare is thus traced across his plays and poetry, revealing Shakespeare’s consistent interest in this very specific politically charged moment in Roman history.
Philemon Holland’s Livy and Sir Francis Nethersole’s Problemes
Authors: Philo John-Mark
Published: May 2020

Chapter 6 turns to Philemon Holland’s (1552–1637) enormous Romane Historie (1600), the first full-scale translation of Livy into English, completed in the final years of the sixteenth century. This chapter examines the use to which Francis Nethersole (bap. 1587, d. 1659) put Holland’s Tudor translation at the height of the English Civil War. Nethersole’s appeal to Livy in 1648 formed part of an ever-intensifying engagement with the AUC in the mid-seventeenth century. Nethersole harnessed sections from Books 8 and 9 of the AUC to a contemporary debate among the Parliamentarians concerning the punishment of Delinquents. These selections from Holland’s Livy are located in the wider context of the intense engagement with Livy’s history in the mid-seventeenth century, from Leveller pamphlets celebrating the expulsion of kings to royalist defences of absolute monarchy. With his account of Rome’s transition from monarchy to a consular republic, Livy was readily exploited in debates concerning the government and constitution of England, serving as one of the most prominent authorities of political thought during the English Civil War.
Maritime Strategic Thought and International Law
Authors: Frei Gabriela A.
Published: May 2020

Chapter 6 examines the development of maritime strategic thought in Great Britain from 1872 to 1914, analysing the debates at the Royal United Service Institution, which provided one of the most important forums to discuss strategic matters. The early naval strategic thinkers John and Philip Colomb set the agenda, discussing maritime strategy in the context of home and imperial defence. Later strategists, such as Alfred T. Mahan and Julian S. Corbett, focused on command and control of the sea. The chapter examines not only how maritime strategic thought developed but also how the practice and codification of international maritime law shaped ideas about a future maritime conflict.
The Government’s Bank
Authors: Lie Einar
Published: May 2020

This chapter explores the emergence of ‘credit policy’, which more or less completely replaced ‘monetary policy’ as a key concept among experts and politicians. The term implied a shift in focus from aggregates that had previously been at the core of central bank activity—money, liquidity, and interest rates, as a means to control inflation and output—to loans facilitating specific types of economic activities. Credit policy mainly became a process for regulating aggregate lending and allocating the credit to various sectors of the economy. When starting to conduct credit policies, the authorities needed both a formal and informal system for regulating and allocation of loans, and some principles for prioritizing between potential credit customers. Both challenges came to engage government ministries, while Norges Bank sought to find a role in the implementation and management of the emerging system. In practice, Norges Bank became the government’s bank, as part of its key policy apparatus. The central bank governor, Gunnar Jahn, wanted another policy and a freer role but adapted to the new reality that was forced upon Norges Bank. When he stepped down in 1954, Norges Bank was among the least influential of the central banks in western Europe.
Downfall of the Regulatory System and Triumph of the Market
Authors: Lie Einar
Published: May 2020

This chapter discusses how, in the 1970s and 1980s, Norges Bank began to develop instruments with a view to steering economic policy under freer market conditions. However, governments of changing political hues were unwilling to let go of the low interest rate. The oil price fall in 1986 brought an abrupt change in interest rate and credit policy. The government’s tightening actions included the introduction of a more binding fixed exchange rate policy. The frequent recourse to corrective devaluations was to be a thing of the past. Hence, there was a justification for using the interest rate as an ongoing instrument to stabilize the exchange rate. This task fell to Norges Bank. The transition to an independent, active interest rate policy on the part of the central bank was abrupt and came as a surprise. Barely a year before the collapse of the oil price, the Storting had passed a law that made Norges Bank one of the least autonomous central banks in all of western Europe. Ultimately, it was the external situation, and in no sense an increase in government’s and the public’s recognition of the bank and its institutional legitimacy, that restored greater operative autonomy to Norges Bank.
Buddhists Awake!
Authors: Amunugama Sarath
Published: May 2020

This chapter provides a synopsis of Dharmapala’s early career. He perceived his mission to be the restoration of Buddhism in its place of birth, India, and the refashioning of its practice in Sri Lanka. His predominant aim was to reclaim for the Buddhists the custody of Buddhagaya. He also had an interest in propagating a modern philosophy and practice of Buddhism and forging links among Buddhists world-wide. Dharmapala was also an early enthusiast of the American theosophists led by Col Olcott who took a keen interest in the Buddhist revival in Sri Lanka. However, Dharmapala soon became disillusioned with them and parted company, forming his own organization, the Mahabodhi Society, to spearhead the Buddhagaya campaign. The chapter concludes with a description of the economic and social transformations that took place under the aegis of colonialism around the turn of the twentieth century and the beginning of the Buddhist revival as a reaction to it.
The Printing Press, a Sinhala Novel, and New Buddhist Ideology
Authors: Amunugama Sarath
Published: May 2020

This chapter outlines the early use of the printing press in Sri Lanka by the missionaries for religious propagation. It examines the response of the Buddhists to this technological innovation and discusses the impact of the Theosophical Society on it. It also discusses the contours of a new, transformed Buddhism, which was diffused through vernacular newspapers such as Sarasavi Sandaresa and new literary forms, particularly the Sinhala novel. The author also thematically analyses in detail one of the most influential of these novels by the prominent writer and journalist Piyadasa Sirisena, Jayatissa saha Rosalin (Jayatissa and Roslin).
Historiography
Authors: Prakash Brahma
Published: May 2020

The historiography of ‘folk performance’ discusses the existing studies on the subject from the colonial period to the present and points out the discrepancies leading to methodological problems. Scholars have discussed the politics of cultural practice in the context of the colonial and nationalist politics, neo-colonial state’s cultural policies, and in the context of bourgeois morality and sexual politics. These criticisms have exposed the inherent class and gender biases of the colonialists, the nationalist and the middle class that lead to the disavowal of such performances. Nevertheless, these criticisms have remained primarily confined to the level of theatre historiography and counter-discourses. The work is an attempt to go beyond theatre the historiography and counter-discourse modes. It aims to take account of the mode of articulation coming from the alternative sources. Broadly, it discusses the legacies of marginalization that have become part of this performance tradition.
Confessions and Aftermath
Authors: Metelits Michael D.
Published: May 2020

In Chapter 9, Indians speak out. First, we hear from the mamlatdars who overcame pre-trial intimidation and bravely promised to testify against Crawford. They did this less from loyalty to the British rule and more from a sense of duty. Then come the protests of the mamlatdar victims against the drive to fire Indian staff who confessed to paying bribe, irrespective of the pressures that forced them to stop resisting and to pay. Their writings demonstrate the strong sense of wrong they felt and the social inadequacy of the payments that the government offered them for breaking its promise of immunity. The final Indian voices come from voluntary associations in the Bombay Presidency, including ad hoc public meetings in rural towns where the populace requested the government to honour its promise of immunity.
The Birth of Capitalism in Global Perspective
Authors: Heller Henry
Published: May 2020

In contrast to the Anglo-centric view of Robert Brenner and the political Marxists, this chapter argues that rather than simply economic relations determining the development of early capitalism, the ongoing class struggle and political and ideological struggle shaped capitalist development. Moreover, it rejects the political Marxist view that the non-European world played no real role in the development of capitalism. Scholars like Eric Hobsbawm, Immanuel Wallerstein, David Harvey, Giovanni Arrighi, and lately Alex Anievas and Kerem Nisancioglu have taken a more global approach. In each case, Marx’s ideas of uneven or combined and uneven development have played a key role. But the emergence of world money, it is shown, is what particularly made capitalism a global rather than a merely European phenomenon.
The Thin Line between Economic Dynamism and Social Stability
Authors: Nakabayashi Masaki
Published: May 2020

Free competition in product markets is a common characteristic in capitalist economies. Meanwhile, regulations on the land, labour, and financial markets have changed over time in each capitalist economy and are distinct. We address this issue in the Japanese context. Medieval Japan under the second shogunate of Muromachi in the fourteenth century instituted a free competition regime for land, labour, and financial markets. An outcome was wealth inequality and social destabilization. The third shogunate of Edo vested peasants with property rights and regulated the land, labour, and financial market to maintain them as owner-farmers. The regime created an institutional arrangement where the stem farming family functioned as the centre of resource allocation. Deregulation after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 weakened the family-focused arrangement but did not entirely remove it. Traits of the family-focused arrangement form the specific characteristic of modern Japanese capitalism.
Last Stands
Authors: Horn Gerd-Rainer
Published: May 2020

The moment of liberation in Western Europe spans several years before and after Victory in Europe Day. The roughly two years before 8 May 1945 witnessed the greatest extension of antifascist resistance activism, imparting an aura of radicalization to this period. It is possible to pinpoint specifically when the pressures of radical antifascist resistance activism broke out one last time in post-liberation Western Europe. In Belgium, tensions rose in conjunction with the attitudes of the new post-liberation government headed by the conservative Catholic Hubert Pierlot. In November 1947, first in Marseille but then also in Saint-Étienne, resistance activists defied the old political elite in militant actions which were the last of their kind in post-liberation France. In Italy, the assassination attempt on Palmiro Togliatti in 1948 marked the last stand of the radical resistance spirit, witnessing instances of quasi-urban insurrections in some of the traditional hotspots of antifascism in Italy.
The Anxieties of the Marketplace
Authors: Farrall Stephen , Karstedt Susanne
Published: May 2020

The fear of crime is a core topic of criminology. This chapter explores the characteristics of fear of crimes in the marketplace. It is the wealthier members of society who are worried about crime in the marketplace, unlike other crime fears (such as burglary), which are held by poorer people. The chapter then models fear of crime in the marketplace using structural equation modelling. It then analyses the fear of crime as a driver of attitudes and behaviour, thus modelling the consequences of fear rather than fear as an outcome. The findings suggest that people with higher levels of fear become more cynical about rules (legal cynicism) and intend offend again.
Internal motivations and formal approaches
Authors: Breitbarth Anne , Lucas Christopher , Willis David
Published: May 2020

This chapter focuses on the language-internal motivations for the processes observed in chapter 2, in particular, the change from negative polarity adverb to negator. The chapter discusses what motivates the actuation of a new postverbal marker or negative quantifier, what obstacles need to be overcome in order to complete this process, and what processes lie behind the loss or exaptation of the original negation markers after such a development. It is argued that both functional and formal factors play a role in explaining the diachronic development of markers of negation in Jespersen’s cycle. In particular, a negation phrase (NegP)-free account making use of economy principles (Minimize Structure and Feature Economy) is proposed to capture the typological and diachronic variation of negative markers.
Empirical generalizations
Authors: Breitbarth Anne , Lucas Christopher , Willis David
Published: May 2020

This chapter shows that, across languages, indefinites show a tendency to become increasingly restricted to ever-stronger negative polarity contexts, eventually becoming restricted to the scope of negation and beginning to enter negative-concord relations. It is shown that developments affecting indefinites can be grouped into two types of development: a quantifier cycle and a free-choice cycle. In the former, indefinites gradually change from (more) positive to (more) negative, in the latter, original free-choice indefinites become NPI-indefinites. It is also shown that negative quantifiers do not typically arise through either development, but through univerbation with a former negative particle. Apparently countercyclic developments can be observed as well. The chapter concludes with an overview of the typology of negative concord, and the diachronic connections between the types of negative concord.
Conclusion
Authors: Breitbarth Anne , Lucas Christopher , Willis David
Published: May 2020

This chapter summarizes the volume. It provides a bird's-eye view on the diachronic changes and the accounts developed in the volume. The different strands of research, empirical observations, internal and external motivations for them, and the theoretical accounts are drawn together in a single overview. Furthermore, the chapter offers an outlook beyond the scope of the volume and sketches further lines of research.
Choreography Invisible
Authors: Pakes Anna
Published: May 2020

Focusing on Western theatre dance, Choreography Invisible explores the metaphysics of dances and choreographic works. It draws on a range of resources from analytic philosophy of art to develop the argument that dances are repeatable structures of action. The book also analyses the idea of the dance work in long-term historical perspective. Tracing different ways in which dances have been conceptualised across time, the book considers changing notions of authorship, fixity, persistence, and autonomy from the fifteenth century to the present day. The modern work-concept is interrogated, its relativity and contested status (particularly within contemporary dance practice) acknowledged. As the dance work disappears from contemporary discourse, what can be said about the kind of thing it is? Choreography Invisible considers the materials of dance making and the nature (and limits) of choreographic authorship. It explores issues of identity and persistence, including why distinct (and sometimes quite various) performances are still treated as performances of the same work. The book examines how dances survive through time and what it means for a dance work to be lost, considering the extent to which practices of dance reconstruction and reenactment can recuperate or reconstitute lost choreography. The focus here is dance, but the book addresses issues with wider implications for the metaphysics of art, including how the historical relativity of art practices should inflect analytic arguments about the nature of art works, and what place such works have within a broader ontology of human and natural worlds.
Action-Ballet and Ballet-Pantomime
Authors: Pakes Anna
Published: May 2020

Chapter 2 considers developments in dance practice in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, traditionally considered the period in which dance achieves autonomy as an art form. The plausibility of this standard dance historical narrative is critically discussed and questioned. The chapter examines how dance is theorised in relation to the fine arts, and how dance representation develops with ballet d’action and ballet-pantomime. Changing conceptualisations of choreography are explored, along with their implications for practices of notation and identification via narrative or dramaturgical (rather than movement) content. The chapter argues that, if dance becomes an independent art in this period, this is not equivalent to medium specificity or autonomy as later understood. Despite the contribution of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century dance practice and theory to an emerging notion of the dance work, it is not clear that ballets d’action, and their successor ballets-pantomimes, are appropriately subsumed under that concept.
Dance Identity
Authors: Pakes Anna
Published: May 2020

Chapter 7 examines dance works’ repeatability, that is, their capacity to appear in/through multiple (and potentially quite diverse) performance events. The philosophical problem of identity is introduced as the challenge of explaining when and why two or more performances are of the same work. The chapter explores situations where repeatability seems compromised because the dancer’s own body or personality is deeply implicated in her dance: distinctions are made between various kinds of cases, and an argument is made for repeatability being circumscribed when a dancer’s identity is built into the action-structure of a work. The chapter examines how far notation and scoring practices enable independent articulation of works, considering how notation and ontological views which centre on it (such as those of Nelson Goodman and Graham McFee) struggle to anchor performance identity. The chapter ends with a brief consideration of choreographic copyright practices and disputes and their relationship to ontological concerns.
Conclusion
Authors: Pakes Anna
Published: May 2020

The Conclusion summarises and qualifies the book’s historical thesis about the late development of the work-concept in Western theatre dance. It draws attention to stronger and weaker conceptualisations of works which have, respectively, narrower and broader historical applications. These are in turn related to the equivocation in ontology of art between two distinct baseline conceptions of works in art forms that produce multiples: work as repeatable structure, and work as the focus of appreciation within the art form in question. These conceptualisations pull apart in dance practices not governed by the classical paradigm. The range of ontological positions considered by the book is also summarised and directions for future research identified. The residual pull of structuralist ontology is acknowledged, given initial convictions about work invisibility and disappearance in dance practice.
To good purpose: non-charitable purpose trusts for the specific purpose of holding shares in perpetuity in Singapore
Authors: Yeo Terence , Liu Xin Er Victoria
Published: May 2020

This article considers the issue of whether Singapore should amend its trust laws to allow for non-charitable purpose trusts (NCPTs) for the specific purpose of holding company shares in perpetuity. The authors argue that such trusts should be allowed for two reasons. First, NCPTs in general should not be regarded as repugnant to the trust concept. Secondly, the practical advantages of allowing non-charitable trusts in a limited fashion outweigh the disadvantages. The article concludes by proposing possible reforms to the Singapore trust legislation.
Development of a Sensitive TaqMan qPCR Assay for Detection and Quantification of Venturia inaequalis in Apple Leaves and Fruit and in Air Samples
Authors: Prencipe Simona , Sillo Fabiano , Garibaldi Angelo , Gullino Maria Lodovica , Spadaro Davide
Published: May 2020

A TaqMan quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay based on the translation elongation factor 1-α gene was developed for the quantification of Venturia inaequalis in leaves and fruits of Malus × domestica and in spore trap samples. The designed primers and hydrolysis probe amplified a specific 86-bp fragment for V. inaequalis. The specificity of the assay was tested using 35 strains of V. inaequalis and 20 different fungal species, including common pathogens of apple and other species of Venturia. The limit of detection was 20 fg, which is lower than a single genome of V. inaequalis. The selectivity of the assay was tested using DNA from three cultivars of Malus × domestica, and no influence on pathogen amplification was found. The assay was also validated for repeatability and reproducibility. With this assay, it was possible to detect and quantify V. inaequalis in four cultivars (Ambrosia, Florina, Golden Delicious, and Mondial Gala) in both symptomatic and asymptomatic leaves and in symptomatic Golden Delicious apple fruit stored for 2 months. Furthermore, the assay was successfully tested on spore trap samples originating from apple orchards. The quantification of the molecular assay when compared with the estimated number of V. inaequalis cells, using an optical microscope, showed a correlation coefficient of 0.8186. The developed technique could be used to detect V. inaequalis in asymptomatic samples without any cross-reaction with other fungal species. Furthermore, to improve the efficacy of disease management with a timely application of fungicides, this assay could be used for the analysis of spore trap samples by using an implemented extraction method.
Preterm infants harbour diverse Klebsiella populations, including atypical species that encode and produce an array of antimicrobial resistance- and virulence-associated factors
Authors: Chen Yuhao , Brook Thomas C. , Soe Cho Zin , O'Neill Ian , Alcon-Giner Cristina , Leelastwattanagul Onnicha , Phillips Sarah , Caim Shabhonam , Clarke Paul , Hall Lindsay J. , Hoyles Lesley
Published: May 2020

Klebsiella

spp. are frequently enriched in the gut microbiota of preterm neonates, and overgrowth is associated with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), nosocomial infections and late-onset sepsis. Little is known about the genomic and phenotypic characteristics of preterm-associated

Klebsiella

, as previous studies have focused on the recovery of antimicrobial-resistant isolates or culture-independent molecular analyses. The aim of this study was to better characterize preterm-associated

Klebsiella

populations using phenotypic and genotypic approaches. Faecal samples from a UK cohort of healthy and sick preterm neonates (n=109) were screened on MacConkey agar to isolate lactose-positive

Enterobacteriaceae

. Whole-genome sequences were generated for

Klebsiella

spp., and virulence and antimicrobial resistance genes identified. Antibiotic susceptibility profiling and in vitro macrophage and iron assays were undertaken for the

Klebsiella

strains. Metapangenome analyses with a manually curated genome dataset were undertaken to examine the diversity of

Klebsiella oxytoca

and related bacteria in a publicly available shotgun metagenome dataset. Approximately one-tenth of faecal samples harboured

Klebsiella

spp. (

Klebsiella pneumoniae

, 7.3 %;

Klebsiella quasipneumoniae

, 0.9 %;

Klebsiella grimontii

, 2.8 %;

Klebsiella michiganensis

, 1.8 %). Isolates recovered from NEC- and sepsis-affected infants and those showing no signs of clinical infection (i.e. ‘healthy’) encoded multiple β-lactamases. No difference was observed between isolates recovered from healthy and sick infants with respect to in vitro siderophore production (all encoded enterobactin in their genomes). All

K. pneumoniae

,

K. quasipneumoniae

,

K. grimontii

and

K. michiganensis

faecal isolates tested were able to reside and persist in macrophages, indicating their immune evasion abilities. Metapangenome analyses of published metagenomic data confirmed our findings regarding the presence of

K. michiganensis

in the preterm gut. There is little difference in the phenotypic and genomic characteristics of

Klebsiella

isolates recovered from healthy and sick infants. Identification of β-lactamases in all isolates may prove problematic when defining treatment regimens for NEC or sepsis, and suggests that healthy preterm infants contribute to the resistome. Refined analyses with curated sequence databases are required when studying closely related species present in metagenomic data.
Tannic cell walls form a continuous apoplastic barrier sustaining Arabidopsis seed coat biophysical properties
Authors: Demonsais Lara , Utz-Pugin Anne , Loubéry Sylvain , Lopez-Molina Luis
Published: May 2020

Seeds are a late land plant evolution innovation that promoted the striking spread and diversity of angiosperms. The seed coat is a specialized dead tissue protecting the plant embryo from mechanical damage. In many species, includingArabidopsis thaliana, the seed coat also achieves a remarkable balancing act: it limits oxygen uptake, avoiding premature embryo oxidative damage, but not entirely so as to enable seed dormancy release. The seed coat biophysical features implementing the striking physiological properties of the seed remain poorly understood. Tannins, a type of flavonoids, are antioxidants known to accumulate in the Arabidopsis seed coat andtransparent testa(tt) mutant seeds, deficient in flavonoid synthesis, exhibit low dormancy and viability. However, their precise contribution to seed coat architecture and biophysics remains evasive. A seed coat cuticle, covering the endosperm outer surface was, intriguingly, previously shown to be more permeable inttmutants deficient not in cuticular component synthesis, but rather in flavonoid synthesis. Investigating the role of flavonoids in cuticle permeability led us to identify cell walls, originating from the seed coat inner integument 1 cells, impregnated with tannins. We found that tannic cell walls are tightly associated with the cuticle, forming two fused layers that regulate endosperm permeability. In addition, we show that tannic cell walls are prominent building blocks of the seed coat, constituting a continuous barrier around the seed living tissues. Altogether our findings reveal the existence of tannic cell walls as a previously unrecognized biological barrier sustaining the seed’s key physiological properties.

One sentence summary

The seed coat is largely composed of plant cell walls impregnated with tannins, forming a thick and continuous protective barrier surrounding the embryo promoting seed viability and dormancy.
Impact of Superspreaders on dissemination and mitigation of COVID-19
Authors: Sneppen Kim , Taylor Robert J. , Simonsen Lone
Published: May 2020

Background

The draconian measures used to control COVID-19 dissemination have been highly effective but only at enormous socioeconomic cost. Evidence suggests that “superspreaders” who transmit the virus to a large number of people, play a substantial role in transmission; recent estimates suggest that about 1-20% of people with the virus are the source for about 80% of infections. We used an agent-based model to explore the interplay between social structure, mitigation and superspreading.

Methods

We developed an agent-based model with a subset of “superspreader” agents that transmit disease far more efficiently. These agents act in a social network that allows transmission during contacts in three sectors: “home,” “work/school” and “other”. We simulated the effect of various mitigation strategies that limit contacts in each of these sectors, and used the model to fit COVID-19 mortality data from Sweden.

Findings

Reducing contacts in the “other” sector had a far greater impact on epidemic trajectory than did reducing “home” or “work/school” contacts; this effect was substantially enhanced when the infectivity of children was reduced relative to that of adults. The model fit Swedish hospitalization data with reasonable assumptions about the effect of Sweden’s mitigation policies on contacts in the different sectors.

Interpretation

Our results suggest COVID-19 could be controlled by limiting large gatherings and other opportunities for contacts between people in restaurants, sporting events, concerts and worship services) while still allowing regular contacts in the home or at work and school.

Research in context

Evidence before this study

Superspreading events have long been known to be important in the epidemiology of many infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, measles, Ebola and SARS. Since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, epidemiologic analyses have inferred substantial individual-level variation in transmissibility, with an estimated 1% to 20% of infected persons causing about 80% of all COVID-19 cases.

Added value of this study

We developed an agent-based socially structured model to simulate the effect of superspreaders in COVID-19 transmission in the context of country-wide “lockdown” policies. These simulations indicate that COVID-19 can be effectively mitigated by limiting contacts between people who otherwise rarely meet, while allowing home and most work/school contacts to continue.

Implications of all available evidence

It is crucial to include heterogeneity in individual infectiousness when modeling the impact of mitigation strategies on observed COVID-19 epidemic patterns. Reducing opportunities for superspreading by limiting random contacts outside home and work could be the most effective way to control COVID-19. Our findings suggest why the epidemic has continued to decline following re-opening of work and school in European countries. The superspreader phenomenon may also explain the variability in COVID-19 incidence in rural and urban areas within a country.
Prostaglandin in the ventromedial hypothalamus regulates peripheral glucose metabolism
Authors: Lee Ming-Liang , Matsunaga Hirokazu , Sugiura Yuki , Hayasaka Takahiro , Yamamoto Izumi , Imoto Daigo , Suematsu Makoto , Iijima Norifumi , Kimura Kazuhiro , Diano Sabrina , Toda Chitoku
Published: May 2020

The hypothalamus plays a central role in monitoring and regulating systemic glucose metabolism. The brain is enriched with phospholipids containing poly-unsaturated fatty acids, which are biologically active in physiological regulation. Here, we show that intraperitoneal glucose injection induced changes in hypothalamic distribution and amount of phospholipids, especially arachidonic-acid-containing phospholipids, that were then metabolized to produce prostaglandins. Knockdown of cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2), a key enzyme for generating arachidonic acid from phospholipids, in the hypothalamic ventromedial nucleus (VMH), lowered insulin sensitivity in muscles during regular chow diet (RCD) feeding. Conversely, the down-regulation of glucose metabolism by high fat diet (HFD) feeding was improved by knockdown of cPLA2 in the VMH through changing hepatic insulin sensitivity and hypothalamic inflammation. Our data suggest that cPLA2-mediated hypothalamic phospholipid metabolism is critical for controlling systemic glucose metabolism during RCD, while continuous activation of the same pathway to produce prostaglandins during HFD deteriorates glucose metabolism.