bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Survival of Salmonella Typhimurium in the hemolymph of the German cockroach vector is limited by both humoral immune factors and hemocytes but not by trehalose metabolism
Authors: Turner Matthew , Van Hulzen Landen , Peta Vincent , Pietri Jose E
Published: June 2023

The German cockroach (Blattella germanica) has been linked to transmission of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium), but infection dynamics within this vector are poorly characterized. Our recent work has focused on S. Typhimurium infection in the cockroach gut. However, microbial dissemination to the hemolymph is an essential aspect of many vector-borne pathogen transmission cycles and could potentially contribute to S. Typhimurium colonization of cockroaches. Therefore, the goal of this study was to examine the ability of S. Typhimurium to disseminate, survive, and proliferate in the hemolymph of cockroaches after oral infection. We detected only low numbers of bacteria in the hemolymph of a minority of insects (~26%) after oral infection. Further, S. Typhimurium was unable to survive overnight in cell-free hemolymph. Several hypotheses to explain the inability of S. Typhimurium to colonize hemolymph were tested. First, we investigated the ability of S. Typhimurium to metabolize trehalose, the primary sugar in hemolymph. S. Typhimurium grew efficiently in vitro using trehalose as a sole carbon source and mutant strains lacking trehalose metabolism genes exhibited no growth deficiencies in media mimicking the composition of hemolymph, suggesting that trehalose metabolism ability is not a factor involved in restricting survival in hemolymph. On the other hand, heat-inactivated cell-free hemolymph was permissive of S. Typhimurium growth, demonstrating that survival in hemolymph is limited specifically by heat-labile humoral factors. The involvement of cellular immune responses was also investigated and cockroach hemocytes in culture were observed to internalize S. Typhimurium within 1 h of exposure. Most hemocytes harbored few to no bacteria after 24 h, indicating that hemocyte responses are additionally involved in clearing infection from the hemolymph. However, dense intracellular clusters of S. Typhimurium were observed sporadically, suggesting a small subset of hemocytes may serve as reservoirs for bacterial replication. Together, our results reveal that a minute proportion of ingested S. Typhimurium is able to escape the cockroach gut and enter the hemolymph, but this systemic population is limited by both humoral effectors and hemocytes. Thus, we conclude that invasion of the hemolymph appears minimally important for colonization of the cockroach vector and that colonization of the gut is the main driver of vector-borne transmission. Our insight into the antimicrobial mechanisms of cockroach hemolymph also highlights the strong ability of these prevalent pests/vectors to cope with frequent infectious challenges in septic habitats.
On Drugs
Authors: Baron Sam , Linton Sara , O’Malley Maureen A
Published: June 2023

Despite their centrality to medicine, drugs are not easily defined. We introduce two desiderata for a basic definition of medical drugs. It should: (a) capture everything considered to be a drug in medical contexts and (b) rule out anything that is not considered to be a drug. After canvassing a range of options, we find that no single definition of drugs can satisfy both desiderata. We conclude with three responses to our exploration of the drug concept: maintain a monistic concept, or choose one of two pluralistic outcomes. Notably, the distinction between drugs and other substances is placed under pressure by the most plausible of the options available.
Neuropathology and morphometry of dentate nucleus neurons in DYT1 brains: Cerebellar abnormalities in isolated dystonia
Authors: Iacono Diego , Peng Hui , Rabin Marcie L , Kurlan Roger
Published: June 2023

Brain lesions exclusive to dystonia, or specific forms of it, such as isolated dystonia, have been rarely described. While the identification of distinctive intra- or extraneuronal abnormalities in childhood-onset generalized dystonia (DYT1) brains remains lacking, recent stereology-based findings demonstrated hypertrophy of neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) of DYT1-carriers manifesting dystonia (DYT1-manif) versus DYT1-carriers nonmanifesting dystonia (DYT1-nonmanif), and age-matched control subjects (C). Because other brain regions including the cerebellum (CRB) have been implicated in the pathomechanisms of dystonia, we investigated neurons of the dentate nucleus (DN), the “door-out” nucleus of the CRB. We performed systematic neuropathologic assessments and stereology-based measurements of 7 DN from DYT1-carriers (DYT1-DN; 4 DYT1-manif and 3 DYT1-nonmanif), and 5 age-matched control (C-DN) subjects. Data demonstrated larger cell body (+14.1%), nuclear (+10.6%), and nucleolar (+48.3%) volumes of DYT1-DN versus C-DN neurons. No differences in intra- and extracellular pathological indicators (β-amyloid, pTau, α-synuclein, Torsin1A, Negri, Bunina, Hirano, Marinesco, Nissl bodies, Buscaino bodies, granulovacuolar degeneration, or cerebrovascular lesions) were detected in DYT1-DN versus C-DN. Astroglial reactivity (GFAP) and microglial activation (IBA1) were observed in some DYT1-DNs. These novel findings confirm involvement of the DN and CRB in the pathogenesis of DYT1 and perhaps of other forms of isolated dystonia.
A virtual, group-based mindfulness intervention for midlife and older women with low libido lowers sexual distress in a randomized controlled pilot study
Authors: Thomas Holly N , Brotto Lori A , de Abril Cameron Flor , Yabes Jonathan , Thurston Rebecca C
Published: June 2023

Background

Distressing low libido is common among women and has significant negative impacts; mindfulness has shown promise to increase sexual desire in women with low libido, but existing interventions are not tailored to midlife and older women.

Aim

We adapted a mindfulness intervention to meet the needs of this population and conducted a pilot randomized controlled trial to assess feasibility and acceptability.

Methods

Women aged ≥45 years with low libido were randomized to the mindfulness intervention or an education group that met over videoconferencing. The intervention included mindfulness instruction and practice, group discussion, and education on sexuality and aging. The education group included general information on menopause and health.

Outcomes

We defined feasibility by the number of screened women who enrolled and completed their group. We defined acceptability as satisfaction with the group and likelihood of recommending it to another woman with low libido. We assessed sexual function (Female Sexual Function Index) and sexual distress (Female Sexual Distress Scale–Revised) at 6 weeks postconclusion.

Results

Of 81 women screened, 31 were randomized to mindfulness and 30 to education. Eighteen women in the intervention group and 23 in the control group attended at least 1 session. Time conflict was the main reason for nonattendance. Of the 41 women who started attending groups, 37 (90%) attended at least 5 sessions. In the mindfulness group, 73% of women were very or extremely satisfied. Women in the mindfulness group were more likely to recommend it to another person with low libido as compared with those in the education group (P = .031); 67% said that they would probably or definitely recommend it. There were no significant changes in sexual function in either group (mean Female Sexual Function Index score, 22.6 to 18.6 [P = .101] with mindfulness and 21.2 to 19.7 [P = .537] with education). Women in the mindfulness group had significant improvements in sexual distress (mean Female Sexual Distress Scale–Revised score, 27.1 to 19.7; P = .021) while women in the education group did not (19.0 to 15.8; P = .062).

Clinical Implications

Mindfulness may reduce sexual distress in older women with low libido.

Strengths and Limitations

This is the first trial testing mindfulness for midlife and older women with low libido.

Conclusion

A virtual mindfulness intervention for midlife and older women with low libido is feasible and acceptable and appears to improve sexual distress as compared with an education control; these findings provide data that can be used to design a larger clinical trial.
4DL: a four-valued dynamic logic and its proof theory
Authors: Costa Diana
Published: June 2023

Transition systems are often used to describe the behaviour of software systems. If viewed as a graph then, at their most basic level, vertices correspond to the states of a program and each edge represents a transition between states via the (atomic) action labelled. In this setting, systems are thought to be consistent and at each state formulas are evaluated as either true or false. On the other hand, when a structure of this sort—e.g. a map where states represent locations, some local properties are known and labelled transitions represent information available about different routes—is built resorting to multiple sources of information, it is common to find inconsistent or incomplete information regarding what holds at each state, both at the level of propositional variables and transitions. This paper aims at bringing together Belnap’s four values, Dynamic Logic and hybrid machinery such as nominals and the satisfaction operator, so that reasoning is still possible in face of contradicting evidence. Proof-theory for this new logic is explored by means of a terminating, sound and complete tableau system.
Creative (en)counterspaces: Engineering valuable contact for young refugees via solidarity arts workshops in Thessaloniki, Greece
Authors: Hunt Lucy
Published: June 2023

This article explores the role of non-formal arts education in Thessaloniki, Greece for fostering contact considered valuable by the young refugee community. Drawing on accounts of their daily life, gathered over eight months of ethnographic fieldwork for a project on their post-15 educational participation, the article details how around the city, young refugees (aged 15–25 years) experience conflicted encounters involving both hostility and solidarity. While this hostility impacts their aspirations, self-image, and feelings of inclusion, a large solidarity movement attempts to counteract these challenges by offering educational activities for ‘inclusion’ such as arts workshops in temporary spaces. These offers were popular among youth in the study, as they constituted a welcoming opportunity for building social connections, language skills, and self-confidence—outcomes that extended beyond the physical space of the workshops. As such, they functioned as valuable, creative ‘(en)counterspaces’. Based on observations from one case study site, this article unpacks the key processes that promoted these valued outcomes—including collaboration, mediation, and informal contact—as well as the role played by arts materials and arts-making practices in these processes. This article also offers key considerations for designing similar activities, such as being sensitive to inclusivity and power relations. It aims to build on the literature on both ‘counterspaces’ and ‘encounters’ by documenting the outcomes young refugees value from contact in these sites of solidarity, and how and why they proactively seek them out; as well as analysing the other actors and specific activities involved in them.
Early Outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in a Multisite Prospective Cohort of Inpatient Veterans
Authors: Ross Jennifer M , Sugimoto Jonathan D , Timmons Andrew , Adams Jonathan , Deardoff Katrina , Korpak Anna , Liu Cindy , Moore Kathryn , Wilson Deanna , Bedimo Roger , Chang Kyong-Mi , Cho Kelly , Crothers Kristina , Garshick Eric , Gaziano J Michael , Holodniy Mark , Hunt Christine M , Isaacs Stuart N , Le Elizabeth , Jones Barbara E , Shah Javeed A , Smith Nicholas L , Lee Jennifer S ,   for the EPIC Investigators, Roghmann Mary-Claire , Coffey Karen , Katzel Les , Wan Emily , Perez Federico , Jump Robin , Manaktala Rohit , Nicholson Lindsay , McClain Micah , Woods Christopher , Wang Gary , Vittor Amy , Theus John , Arkansas North , Mahatme Sheran , Gundacker Milwaukee Nathan , Haque Milwaukee Javeria , Paintal Milwaukee Harman , Stevenson Matthew , Baker Joshua , Pfeiffer Chris , Powers Patrick , Lewis Julia , Danaher Patrick , Anzueto Antonio , Eastment McKenna
Published: June 2023

Background

Over 870 000 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections have occurred among Veterans Health Administration users, and 24 000 have resulted in death. We examined early outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection in hospitalized veterans.

Methods

In an ongoing, prospective cohort study, we enrolled veterans age ≥18 tested for SARS-CoV-2 and hospitalized at 15 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers between February 2021 and June 2022. We estimated adjusted odds ratios (aORs), adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRRs), and adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) for maximum illness severity within 30 days of study entry (defined using the 4-category VA Severity Index for coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]), as well as length of hospitalization and rehospitalization within 60 days, in relationship with demographic characteristics, Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), COVID-19 vaccination, and calendar period of enrollment.

Results

The 542 participants included 329 (61%) who completed a primary vaccine series (with or without booster; “vaccinated”), 292 (54%) enrolled as SARS-CoV-2-positive, and 503 (93%) men, with a mean age of 64.4 years. High CCI scores (≥5) occurred in 61 (44%) vaccinated and 29 (19%) unvaccinated SARS-CoV-2-positive participants. Severe illness or death occurred in 29 (21%; 6% died) vaccinated and 31 (20%; 2% died) unvaccinated SARS-CoV-2-positive participants. SARS-CoV-2-positive inpatients per unit increase in CCI had greater multivariable-adjusted odds of severe illness (aOR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.01–1.45), more hospitalization days (aIRR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.03–1.10), and rehospitalization (aHR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.01–1.12).

Conclusions

In a cohort of hospitalized US veterans with SARS-CoV-2 infection, those with a higher CCI had more severe COVID-19 illness, more hospital days, and rehospitalization, after adjusting for vaccination status, age, sex, and calendar period.
Healthcare Professional Communication on Sexual Health: A Report from the Italian Working Group on Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer
Authors: Quarello Paola , Toss Angela , Berchialla Paola , Mascarin Maurizio , Lambertini Matteo , Canesi Marta , Maria Milano Giuseppe , Incorvaia Lorena , Luigi Banna Giuseppe , Peccatori Fedro , Ferrari Andrea
Published: June 2023

Background

Sexual function is an important concern for adolescent and young adult (AYA) with cancer. The aim of this study was to explore the attitude of Italian health care professionals who deal with AYA patients with cancer toward sexual health communication.

Materials and Methods

A 11-question survey was developed by the AIOM (Associazione Italiana di Oncologia Medica) and AIEOP (Associazione Italiana Ematologia Oncologia Pediatrica) AYA workgroup and sent to AIOM and AIEOP members.

Results

The sample comprised 360 respondents, 54.2% AIEOP and 45.8% AIOM members. Eighty percent were physicians, 14.5% nurses, 4.7% psychologists, and 0.8% other professionals. Medical oncologists are more used to investigate about AYA sexual health than pediatric oncologists (58.2% vs. 46.2%), even if pediatrics more frequently refer patients to specific and shared protocol (40% vs. 26.1%). Both AIOM and AIEOP participants mostly talk about sexual health only on request or occasionally (78.8% and 79%, respectively). Clinician-reported barriers to communication identified in this study are lack of preparation and embarrassment for both the categories, plus the presence/interference of parents for pediatrics and lack of time for medical oncologists. Overall, less than 5% of clinicians in our survey received specific training on potential sexual health issues in AYA patients with cancer and only 2% felt adequately prepared to speak about it.

Conclusion

Sexual health is a key component of comprehensive care for AYA with cancer during treatments. This study highlighted the need of Italian providers for specific training and guidelines on sex-related health issues encountered by AYA patients.
Introduction
Authors: Logan Wayne A.
Published: June 2023

After noting the penal populism gripping American social and political life over the past several decades, the Introduction discusses how the Framers of the U.S. Constitution, keenly aware of the tendency of legislatures to enact burdensome retroactive laws, included the Ex Post Facto Clause in the Constitution to guard against such tendencies. Over time, a veritable “who’s who” of disfavored Americans has invoked the Clause as a basis for protection, including Confederate sympathizers and Communist Party members. Although the Supreme Court in the past read the Clause broadly and invalidated many such laws, in recent decades, in keeping with the nation’s shift toward a punitive zeitgeist, the Court has adopted a far more permissive approach. The Introduction outlines how the book’s chapters chronicle this evolution and how later chapters provide the basis for a reinvigorated Ex Post Facto Clause.
Background and Early History
Authors: Logan Wayne A.
Published: June 2023

This chapter surveys the history of the Ex Post Facto Clause. The decision by the framers of the US Constitution to place the prohibition of ex post facto laws—in Latin, literally meaning “law after fact”—in the body of the Constitution, which otherwise mainly outlines the nation’s governing structure, was not happenstance. Indeed, their concern was such that they included two ex post facto prohibitions in Article I, one relating to laws passed by Congress (section 9) and another state legislatures (section 10). Together the prohibitions reflected the framers’ recognition of and disdain for the tendency of legislatures to enact retroactive laws imposing burdens on politically disdained individuals. The chapter surveys the origins of the clause and the integral role the framers saw it as serving as a bulwark against arbitrary and unfair retroactive laws enacted by legislatures.
Formative Nineteenth-Century Developments
Authors: Logan Wayne A.
Published: June 2023

This chapter examines the Supreme Court’s ex post facto decisions of the nineteenth century. The period can be viewed as a halcyon era, highlighting the court’s dedication to invoking the protective cloak of the clause, amid major social, political, and economic developments in the nation. Early on, under the leadership of Chief Justice John Marshall, the court made clear its awareness of the critical role played by the clause in protecting against what Marshall termed the “sudden and strong passions” that can drive legislatures to enact ex post facto laws. Later in the century, in the late 1860s, the court applied the clause to invalidate post-Civil War “loyalty oath” laws barring former Confederate sympathizers from specified professions. In doing so, the court made clear that the ex post facto prohibition “cannot be evaded by the form in which the power of the State is exerted.” In subsequent decisions during the 1870s the court invalidated on ex post facto grounds other retroactive laws, again taking a highly critical perspective of the laws and adopting a broad understanding of what qualifies as punishment.
Setting the Stage: Community Theater and the Translation of Tales
Authors: Lieber Laura S.
Published: June 2023

This chapter examines the everyday presence of world of theater and theatricality in Late Antiquity, including its physical infrastructure, its productions, its entanglement with officialdom, and its material traces. A brief history of theater in Late Antiquity, with particular attention to mime and pantomime, is offered, as well as a discussion of official ambivalence about acting and actors, and the uncomfortable affinities of oratory for theatrical styles of performance. The broad contextual presentation is followed by an exploration of how traces of such practices can be discerned within the specific contexts of the three religious traditions under scrutiny in this study, in the writings of Jews, Samaritans, and Christians. Diverse performative adaptations of the sacred canon in hymnody are discussed, including compression of narrative, expansion of narrative, and invention of narrative.
Method Acting: Ethopoeia and the Creation of Character
Authors: Lieber Laura S.
Published: June 2023

The three modes of performance considered in this study—theater, oratory, and hymnody—share a concern with the compelling presentation of story that appeals both to the senses and to emotions, to body and mind and the entanglements between them. Hymnody, however, occupied a distinctive stage from either theater or oratory. All three modes of performance sought to persuade listeners to imagine episodes from particular perspectives, but this chapter argues that hymnographers sought more enduring conveyances of worldview and lasting understandings of not just the past, but sacred history and existential truths. The chapter further argues that hymns drew on a distinctive body of narratives and characters, which not only afforded them a new body of plots and characters but also empowered them to speak in the voices of cultural heroes, villains, and even the deity. From the perspective of religious leaders, whether Christian, Jewish, or Samaritan, the stakes of effective liturgical performance could not be higher. As the examples indicate, hymns could demonstrate truth, model righteousness, and teach how one should live in the world, using the same persuasive tools that orators deployed in service of individual ambitions and theater employed to disseminate its appealing (in the eyes of authorities) falsehoods.
Adaptation
Authors: Pratt Henry John , Shaffert Kurt F.
Published: June 2023

The prevalence of the verbal and pictorial dimensions of comics has contributed to a number of adaptations where comics, paired with works of literature or film, are either the source (the adaptation proceeds from comic to x) or adaptation (the adaptation proceeds from x to comic). Notable differences among these art forms spring from differences in their respective media. Because of the characteristic narrative devices produced by comics media, a number of theorists have suggested that adaptation into or out of comics is impossible. After giving prominent examples of such arguments, the view is defended that perfect viability of adaptation into or out of comics is unachievable, but that adaptation is not thereby futile or impossible in any strong sense of the term. Moreover, there are notable similarities among the media of comics and film. These are explained and used to support the conclusion that comics are especially apt, in comparison to works of literature and theater, for adaptation into film.
Social and Moral Problems
Authors: Pratt Henry John , Shaffert Kurt F.
Published: June 2023

An ancient objection to mass-media narrative arts found a prominent twentieth-century voice in Fredric Wertham, whose Seduction of the Innocent motivated the notorious Comics Code Authority. Whether such concerns are grounded in medium-specific or other considerations is investigated through, first, the idea that the authors and audiences of comics are prone to immorality; and, second, the ways in which the formatting of comics has driven the reading process. While it is acknowledged that individual comics can be morally problematic, it is argued that it is much harder to make a case against the category itself. The media of comics are largely content neutral, though the cartoon style of depiction, involving the use of caricature, prompts a worry. Christy Mag Uidhir’s argument that media using caricature are epistemically defective is considered, and it is concluded that while vigilance is warranted, there is no ultimate reason to condemn comics as a category.
Introduction
Authors: Ployd Adam
Published: June 2023

The introduction situates the present study within the rhetorical turn in early Christian martyr studies, highlighting the gap in scholarship that identifies martyr texts as rhetorical but pays only little attention to the techniques of classical rhetoric used by early Christian authors and fails to speculate on the larger theological significance of this rhetoric for early Christians. Further, it surveys the existing scholarship on Augustine’s approach to martyrdom, identifying the need for a monograph-level study of the subject. The introduction concludes by summarizing the arguments of the subsequent chapters and previewing the argument of the book as a whole.
The first firm steps on the path of new research
Authors: Yokoyama Olga T.
Published: June 2023

While still studying the work of the gastric glands, we already had the opportunity to see that appetite not only stimulates the glands generally, but that it also stimulates them to varying degrees depending on what it was aroused by. For the salivary glands the rule is that all the variations observed in their functioning during physiological experiments are reproduced exactly in experiments with psychic stimulation, namely, those experiments in which a given stimulating item does not enter into direct contact with the mucous membrane of the mouth but attracts the animal’s attention from some distance. Here are some examples of this. The sight of dry bread causes a much stronger salivation than the sight of meat, even though the latter, judging by the animal’s body movements, evokes a much livelier interest compared with the former. If you tease the dog with meat or some other edible substance, the mucous salivary glands release concentrated saliva with a heavy content of mucus (lubricating saliva).
Shaping the Emergence and Evolution of the Genocide Master Narrative
Authors: Mwambari David
Published: June 2023

Chapter 3 shows how, immediately after the genocide and civil war ended in 1994, initial commemorations were mostly ad hoc or organized by local and nongovernmental actors. It analyses academic literature on that period, using primary sources to illustrate how the postgenocide government used the Holocaust “model” of remembrance and other international reconciliation ideas to inspire its creation of the master narrative over other local approaches presented at conferences in Rwanda by scholars and postconflict entrepreneurs who studied different contexts. The postgenocide government chose a foreign universalized approach legible to many people around the world—including Westerners—but that alienated Rwandan mourning practices. The chapter posits that language, speeches, themes, and other tools were used to create a master narrative domestically and internationally. The chapter shows how these innovations were the products of fierce debates among Rwandan political elites and how this period saw the rise of critics who resisted “the competitive memory” approach to representing the past both within and outside Rwanda. Analytical categories of Champions, Antagonists, and Fatalists are used as a typological tool to systematically understand diversity and power in relation to genocidal memory politics among Rwandans. By identifying these actors and their relationships with the hegemonic memory narrative and with each other, the literature that centers the Rwandan government as the exclusive and most powerful creator and purveyor of memory is challenged, an approach that ignores the agency of other local and international actors that have equally contributed to Rwanda’s postgenocide official memory construction.
Localizing Commemoration and Individual Responses to the Master Narrative
Authors: Mwambari David
Published: June 2023

Chapter 5 examines how Rwandans have responded to the creation of the hegemonic master narrative. It looks at how Champions, Antagonists, and Fatalists emerged in response to public ceremonies such as the one I attended at the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali, in community commemorative events where survivor testimonies were shared around the country, and among the diaspora. It also examines how politicians and military officials played key roles in transmitting the master narrative of the Genocide Against the Tutsi. In addition, I discuss how attendance at commemorations was enforced among Champions, Antagonists, and Fatalists. I analyze commemorations organized at the family level and observe that while changes occurred at both the micro and macro levels, it is the micro-level commemorations that often produced the dissident narratives of Antagonists. These dissident narratives circulated, and sometimes the dissidents were severely punished. The chapter relies on transcultural literature in memory studies to show how the master narrative gained mobility using carriers, including not only physical symbols of memory, but also through Champions, Antagonists, and Fatalists who develop memory narratives of events that happened within Rwanda and beyond its borders.
Speech Acts in Context
Authors: Sbisà Marina
Published: June 2023

This paper argues for an Austin-inspired conception of speech acts as context-changing social actions. It explores some ways of conceiving of context in order to determine how context should be defined in this framework. It observes that the context against which Austin assesses infelicities consists of aspects of the world, while according to other speech act theorists, starting from John Searle, felicity conditions require that speakers have certain intentions and other appropriate attitudes. It argues that the context of a speech act should be considered as constructed as opposed to merely given, limited as opposed to extendible in any direction, and objective as opposed to cognitive. It explores whether these claims might be incompatible with each other, concluding that they are consistent. Finally, it takes into consideration the context-changing role of speech acts and the difference between its illocutionary dimension and its perlocutionary one.
Introduction
Authors: Fairweather Abrol , Montemayor Carlos
Published: June 2023

Despite the considerable attention the topic of luck has received in ethics and epistemology, very little has been published in the philosophical literature overtly on linguistic luck. The essays collected here provide the first sustained examination of the diverse forms of linguistic luck, the mechanisms available to reduce the impact of linguistic luck, and how to cope with residual luck not eliminated by the causal, inferential, and intentional mechanisms which aim at its eradication. Causation, inference, and agency are amongst the primary vehicles of linguistic luck reduction, each having greater or lesser salience in a given domain of linguistic theory (syntax, semantics, pragmatics) and particular linguistic events. The essays to follow highlight a diverse range of luck reducing mechanisms that are relevant to different areas of linguistic theorizing. In addition to furthering the aims of linguistic theory, our inquiry is important because trust is important. Luck is generally no friend of trust, the two typically trend in opposing directions. While our inquiry into the nature and significance of linguistic luck will proceed autonomously, connections with moral and epistemic luck are always in mind.
Language and Luck
Authors: Ponte María de , Korta Kepa , Perry John
Published: June 2023

We consider three cases of luck. One historically relevant, but not philosophically problematic; one case of lucky necessity, originally presented by Stephen Hales (2016); and a well-known case of linguistic luck presented by Brian Loar (1976). In all three cases, a phrase of the form “It was lucky for A at t that S” is a natural description. This suggests that being lucky is a relation an agent has to a proposition at a time, just as “propositional attitude” reports suggest that believing, hoping, or saying are relations an agent has to a proposition at a time. We have defended an alternative explanation of propositional attitude reports, the “reflexive-referential” account. We apply it here to luck as the natural way of describing it. We use this account to show that, contrary to appearances, lucky necessities do not pose a problem for standard views of luck. Also, we use it to explain Loar’s example and, by doing so, we provide a referentialist view that allows us to appreciate the insights of Frege’s theory of names without accepting his theory of sense and reference.
Laws and Luck in Language
Authors: Rey Georges , Collins John
Published: June 2023

The concern in this chapter will be with the different roles of laws and luck in linguistics, and specifically in what ways various phenomena of spoken language depend upon accidental or “lucky” facts that are not sufficiently stable to feature in laws, and so should not serve as the foci of linguistic theory. This “nomological” conception is what drives the Chomskyan study of an “I-language” as an internal computational system underlying human linguistic “competence,” as opposed to the more widespread, commonsensical view, advocated by, e.g., David Lewis and Michael Devitt, of language as fundamentally concerned with conventional “performance.” The chapter briefly reviews some of the crucial data that support this Chomskyan conception in the cases of syntax, phonology, and at least an internalist semantics. With regard to this last case, numerous examples are discussed that suggest that an externalist, referentialist semantics is indeed too subject to “lucky” contextual effects to be nomologically explanatory. The chapter concludes by pointing how such a denial of an externalist semantics does not have the dire consequences for metaphysical realism that both friend and foe of Chomskyan linguistics sometimes seem to assume.
Linguistic Luck
Authors: Devitt Michael
Published: June 2023

§I concerns two questions: To what extent are linguistic tokens in utterances accidental relative to linguistic rules, and hence “r-lucky”? To what extent are linguistic rules, hence expressions governed by them, accidental relative to human nature and, thus “i-lucky”? Linguistic pragmatists (contextualists) have argued, in effect, that there is a lot more r-luck around than has customarily been thought. This chapter presents a case, drawing on more detailed presentations elsewhere, that the pragmatists are wrong about this. Devitt agrees with Chomsky that there is a lot less i-luck than used to be thought. §II, considers Rey and Collins’ (RC’s) critique (Chapter 5, this volume) of Devitt’s views of language and linguistics, views that underlie its theses about linguistic luck. They are particularly concerned to rebut Devitt’s alternative view to the Chomskians’ of “the explanatory scope of linguistics.” That alternative is the “linguistic conception” of grammars according to which a grammar is about a non-psychological realm of linguistic expressions, physical entities forming a representational system. This contrasts with the received Chomskian psychological conception according to which a grammar is about a speaker’s linguistic competence and hence about mental states. RC’s critique revolves around a mantra charging Devitt with “common-sense conventionalism.” With one half of the mantra, RC conflate the linguistic conception with Devitt’s alleged “conventionalism.” The other half of RC’s mantra charges Devitt with an awful methodology and uses this to discredit his position. Both charges are baseless.
Understanding, Luck, and Communicative Value
Authors: Peet Andrew
Published: June 2023

Does utterance understanding require reliable (i.e. non-lucky) recovery of the speaker’s intended proposition? There are good reasons to answer in the affirmative: the role of understanding in supporting testimonial knowledge seemingly requires such reliability. Moreover, there seem to be communicative analogues of Gettier cases in which luck precludes the audience’s understanding an utterance despite recovering the intended proposition. Yet, there are some major problems for the view that understanding requires such reliability. First, there are a number of cases in which understanding seems to occur in a lucky way. In light of these cases I argue that we need to narrow down the precise sense in which understanding precludes luck—the anti-luck condition attached to linguistic understanding is importantly different to anti-luck conditions typically applied to knowledge. Secondly, Megan Hyska has recently argued that, assuming understanding precludes luck, we get a communicative analogue of the value problem for knowledge: i.e. why is it better to meet the other conditions for understanding in a reliable way than in a lucky way? It is natural to assume that we can simply port over our favoured responses to the epistemic value problem in response to Hyska’s challenge. I argue that, due to the difference between epistemic and communicative luck (discussed in response to the first problem), this cannot be done. The epistemic and communicative value problems will require different solutions. I close by sketching the beginnings of an alternative answer to the value problem for communication.
From Conflict to Modern Slavery
Authors: Heys Alicia
Published: June 2023

Using first-hand accounts from people with lived experience, this work draws comparisons between those who fled conflict to the UK in relative safety, and those who fled but experienced modern slavery. With a broad definition of conflict as an organising concept to encourage understandings that go beyond war, these insights lead to conclusions about the vulnerabilities caused by conflict that can encourage situations of modern slavery. Consideration is given to the ways in which conflict influences how a person’s agency interacts with overarching structures, finding that conflict limits people’s agency and the legitimate options available to them. It is this restriction of agency in the face of inherently risky options, coupled with a breakdown in support networks, that puts individuals at most risk of modern slavery. Reflecting also on the lives of individuals after they have fled conflict and arrived in the UK, insights are drawn about how restrictive policies in the UK generate the same vulnerabilities as conflict and therefore serve to increase the risk of modern slavery. The strength of this title lies in its empirical focus on a comparison between first-hand accounts. It offers personal insights into the experiences of asylum seekers, refugees, victims of modern slavery, and those who work with them in the UK, situating these within current understandings in order to identify specific aspects of people’s journeys out of conflict that can make them vulnerable to modern slavery.
Defining slavery and conflict
Authors: Heys Alicia
Published: June 2023

This chapter provides and justifies the definitions of key terminological choices used throughout the title. It works through slavery legislation, starting from abolition in the 1800s. Considering historical and contemporary understandings of slavery, it goes on to settle with the definition proposed by the Bellagio-Harvard Guidelines which combines the slavery understood by law with that of lived experience. The chapter then works through understandings of conflict, challenging notions that rest heavily on concepts of violence. It takes a broader approach to the remit of conflict to incorporate both legal and non-legal definitions to ensure that, like the definition of slavery, it incorporates both legal understandings and lived experience. A new definition of conflict is developed which is relied upon throughout the title.
Comparing with others
Authors: Aschari Omid , Berghaus Benjamin
Published: June 2023

Final academic projects are too complex to meaningfully compare progress. Comparing often yields not much more than resentment.
Theory is there to help
Authors: Aschari Omid , Berghaus Benjamin
Published: June 2023

Prior research is the launchpad for your ideas before you can provide your own evidence. It is there to enable your early advancement
Necessity of ownership
Authors: Aschari Omid , Berghaus Benjamin
Published: June 2023

Your thesis is part of your study experience. It results in your grade. Your name will be on the cover. It requires your ownership, your decisions.
Non-Instrumentalism and the Revisionist Morality
Authors: Rudolphy Marcela Prieto
Published: June 2023

Part 2 of the book focuses on attenuating the fragility of the instrumentalist justification proposed in Chapter III. It argues that the most promising way in which to do so is to propose an alternative conception of the morality of war that denies that what unjust combatants do is just like killing the innocent. Part 2 thus focuses on the content of the revisionist morality. It provides an overview of revisionism, argues that its most plausible version fails to explain most killing in war, suggests an alternative morality of war, and discusses the reasons that unjust combatants might have for killing and participating in an unjust war.
The Non-liability of Unjust Combatants
Authors: Rudolphy Marcela Prieto
Published: June 2023

This chapter argues that a plausible forfeiture-based view of self-defence cannot make many unjust combatants liable to significant or lethal harm and that a lesser-evil justification fails to justify harm to which unjust combatants are not liable. The chapter begins by arguing that a forfeiture theory cannot make many unjust combatants liable: once forfeiture views start to move away from the central case of the villainous aggressor, they lose their appeal. Further, the nature of many unjust combatants’ participation in war makes it very difficult to argue that they have lost rights against significant or lethal harm. As a result, many unjust combatants are not liable to death or significant harm; they are wronged when killed. Second, the chapter discusses the role of lesser-evil justifications in accounting for killing in war, focusing particularly on the ‘combined view’, and argues that the latter fails as a justification for killing in war. Ultimately, we must embrace pacifism or adopt an alternative moral account of killing in war.
Norm(ative) Change in International Relations
Authors: Wiener Antje
Published: June 2023

In Chapter 2 Antje Wiener addresses the overall theme of value change from an IR perspective by detailing a bi-focal approach to norms. She reflects on the complex interrelation between fact-based and value-based conceptions of norms and sketches a conceptual framework for practice-based norm(ative) change. In addition, she offers typologies, models, and tools to locate and evaluate contestations and to analyse norm change. Typologies include a distinction between practices of reactive contestation (ie objecting to a norm at face value) and proactive contestation (ie critically engaging with a norm’s values through iterative interaction), respectively. Illustrative case scenarios also indicate how to apply these tools.
The International Criminal Court
Authors: Bower Adam
Published: June 2023

Chapter 10 by Adam Bower assesses the effect of various contestations on the norms of legal accountability and anti-impunity. Bower studies the contestation of the ICC’s authority. He finds the ICC to be driven by normative tensions inherent in the international justice regime. He argues that the anti-impunity norm was never fully consolidated but has remained aspirational. Still, the observable attacks on the Court, notably the campaign by African states against the ICC, have not resulted in a substantial value change or a legal validity decline but rather a narrowing of the scope of its application. This may be seen as minor change in the legal status of the norm which does not destroy the legally protected value of accountability.
The Flattened Greek Vase
Authors: Gaifman Milette
Published: June 2023

The chapter explores two key publications of Greek vases from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: the Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon. W. Hamilton by Pierre-François Hugues (known as the Baron d’Hancarville) and the Auserlesene griechische Vasenbilder by Eduard Gerhard. In both, illustrations of vases comprise colour plates, mostly in a quadrangular format, and separate line drawings of the vases’ shapes. In both, images on vases are presented as drawings, separable from their original surfaces, while the vessels themselves have become secondary. The discussion argues that these modes of reproduction and choices of format are not the product of technological limitations and that they facilitated the conceptual flattening of the Greek painted vase epitomized in the separate treatment in scholarship of its two primary elements of form and imagery.
Drawing as an Instrument of Connoisseurship
Authors: Tsingarida Athena
Published: June 2023

It is generally acknowledged that John Davidson Beazley legitimized the practice of connoisseurship in the study of ancient Greek pottery. Based on meticulous description and clinical observation of the rendering of human figures, his method of attribution placed great emphasis on the accurate reproduction of vase paintings as an essential instrument for the understanding of the vase painters’ personal style. This chapter sheds new light on Beazley’s distinctive use of drawings and its dependence on several nineteenth-century forerunners, such as Paul Hartwig and Friedrich Hauser. It places Beazley’s method of reproduction in the context of archaeology’s coming of age as a scientific discipline that relied on accurate reproductions to record and interpret archaeological objects. Furthermore, the chapter explores Beazley’s freehand sketches and tracings, foregrounding his interest in drawing anatomical details from vases and pottery fragments as a means to train his connoisseurial faculties.
Energy Storage Systems
Authors: Schmiegel Armin U.
Published: June 2023

This book introduces different storage technologies. It starts with mechanical storage, then continues with electrical, electrochemical, and chemical storage. Furthermore, demand side management is discussed as a special form of storage technology. Furthermore, the book describes how storage systems are designed. For this purpose, the book gives an introduction to requirement management and systems engineering—both important tools for the design of storage systems. Since knowledge of power electronics and drive technology is usually required, the book also introduces the reader to the topic. Various application examples of different storage systems allow the reader to become familiar with the introduced toolbox and to use it themselves. Examples include opportunity chargers, solar power storage systems, vehicles with hybrid drive trains, and the supply of an island with wind, storage, and power to gas.
The purpose of energy storage systems
Authors: Schmiegel Armin U.
Published: June 2023

This chapter describes the different applications of storage systems: mobile applications, such as mobile, laptops, and electric tools; mobility applications, such as cars, bicycles, and electric scooters, but also mobile commercial vehicles and mobile machines. The chapter’s final section is made up of stationary applications that temporarily store energy surpluses from renewable energy sources or are used for energy trading or auxiliary services. The applications are characterized in terms of their energy content and the observed charging rates. The relationship between energy content and charging rate, the E-Rate, is also described.
The general description of energy storage systems
Authors: Schmiegel Armin U.
Published: June 2023

In this chapter, the method with which energy storage systems can be designed independently of technology is presented to the reader. The core element is the power flow diagram, and this is used to help describe the storage system. The method is in turn explained using the example of an opportunity charger. In addition to the technical design, the financial evaluation of a storage system is also detailed in this chapter. Here, the relationship between Bill of Materials, manufacturing, and production costs is also presented. The concept of the null hypothesis is described at length; this is essential for the financial validation. Financial expressions such as net present value and Levelized Cost of Energy are introduced and determined by example.