bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Η συμβολή του διλήμματος του φυλακισμένου στη μελέτη των νοητικών λειτουργιών και τη διερεύνηση της υπόθεσης ελλειμματικής προγνωστικής δυνατότητας σε ενήλικες με αυτισμό υψηλής λειτουργικότητας
Authors: Μαντάς Βασίλειος
Published: May 2022

Η διαταραχή αυτιστικού φάσματος αποτελεί μία πολυμορφική νευροαναπτυξιακή διαταραχή η οποία χαρακτηρίζεται από ελλείμματα στην κοινωνική επικοινωνία καθώς και περιορισμένες και επαναληπτικές συμπεριφορές και ενδιαφέροντα. Η ετερογένεια των κλινικών φαινοτύπων της, έχει δημιουργήσει την ανάγκη γενικών θεωριών για την ερμηνεία τους.Η Υπόθεση Εγγενούς Διαταραχής Πρόβλεψης στον αυτισμό, αποτελεί πρόσφατη και υπό επιβεβαίωση υπόθεση η οποία πρεσβεύει την αδυναμία των αυτιστικών εγκεφάλων να αξιοποιήσουν την υπάρχουσα πληροφορία ώστε να εξάγουν επιτυχημένες προβλέψεις. Η εφαρμοσιμότητα της δυνητικά εκτείνεται σε όλα τα πεδία, από αυτό της κινητικότητας, της κοινωνικής διαντίδρασης έως του μελλοντικού σχεδιασμού.Κύριος στόχος της παρούσας μελέτης είναι η διερεύνηση της εφαρμογής της υπόθεσης στο επίπεδο της στρατηγικής σκέψης και λήψης απόφασης. Για τον έλεγχο αυτού χρησιμοποιήθηκε η δοκιμασία του διλήμματος του φυλακισμένου.Έγινε βιβλιογραφική ανασκόπηση γύρω από τα τεχνικά χαρακτηριστικά της δοκιμασίας όπως αυτή χορηγείται στην ιατρική και, διαπιστωθείσας της έλλειψης κοινού εργαλείου, ανεπτύχθη ένα δυναμικό, παραμετροποιήσιμο και συμβατό με πλείστα υπολογιστικά περιβάλλοντα και συσκευές λογισμικό το οποίο μπορεί να προσομοιώσει ένα μεγάλο εύρος τέτοιων δοκιμασιών.Στην έρευνα συμμετείχαν άτομα με διαταραχή αυτιστικού φάσματος υψηλής λειτουργικότητας και ομάδα ελέγχου. Κατά τη δοκιμασία, ήταν αντίπαλοι με τεχνητή νοημοσύνη η οποία προσομοίωνε συγκεκριμένες στρατηγικές και καλούντο κάθε φορά να προβλέψουν την επιλογή του εικονικού αντιπάλου τους.Η σύγκριση των δύο ομάδων βάσει των ορθών προβλέψεων ανέδειξε υπεροχή των μαρτύρων. Η διαφορά στην προβλεπτική απόδοση φαίνεται να οφείλεται στο ότι η ομάδα της διαταραχής αυτιστικού φάσματος δεν θεωρεί πως μπορεί να προβλέψει και όχι στο ότι πλανάται αναφορικά με τις εκτιμήσεις της.Τα αποτελέσματα συνάδουν με την προς μελέτη υπόθεση και συμβάλλουν θετικά στην περαιτέρω διερεύνηση της χρήσης της δοκιμασίας του διλήμματος του φυλακισμένου ως διαγνωστικού εργαλείου στον αυτισμό.
Duration of dry and humidified incubation of single-step embryo culture medium and oxygen tension during sham culture do not alter metabolomics signature
Authors: Cheredath Aswathi , Uppangala Shubhashree , Asampille Gitanjali , Lakshmi R. Vani , Joseph David , Raval Keyur , Gowda G. A. Nagana , Kalthur Guruprasad , Adiga Satish Kumar
Published: May 2022

Background: The extended embryo culture using single-step medium gained popularity in clinical in vitro fertilisation (IVF). However, there are concerns about the degradation of unstable medium components and their negative effects on the developing embryos. Further, dry-incubation can increase osmolality, which can in-turn enhance the concentration of constituents of the media and their stability. Hence, this study was conducted to understand the immediate changes in the culture media metabolites in relation to clinically comparable situations such as single-step extended embryo culture and use of dry and humidified-incubation in two-different gaseous conditions.

Methods: Commercially available single-step medium was sham-cultured in droplets under oil in two different conditions viz. dry (37°C; 6%CO2; 5%O2) and humidified (37°C; 6% CO2; atmospheric O2) for 0h, 72h, and 120h intervals. Droplets were subjected to the sensitivity-enhanced nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based profiling using 800 MHz NMR equipped with a cryogenically cooled micro-coil (1.7mm) probe. Metabolomic signatures between the two groups were comprehensively assessed.

Results: A total of ten amino acids and four energy substrates were identified from the culture medium. Metabolite levels showed a non-significant increase in the dry-incubation group at 72h and then declined at 120h. Humidified incubation had no effects on the level of the metabolite until 120h. No significant differences in the levels of metabolites were observed between the dry and humidified-groups at various time-points tested.

Conclusions: A non-significant variation in the levels of metabolites observed in the dry-incubation of single-step medium most unlikely to influence a clinical outcome. However, the impact of these subtle changes on the (epi)genetic integrity of the embryos in a clinical set-up to be addressed.
Integration of single-cell RNA-Seq and CyTOF data characterises heterogeneity of rare cell subpopulations
Authors: Repapi Emmanouela , Agarwal Devika , Napolitani Giorgio , Sims David , Taylor Stephen
Published: May 2022

Background: The simultaneous measurement of cellular proteins and transcriptomes of single cell data has become an exciting new possibility with the advent of highly multiplexed multi-omics methodologies. However, mass cytometry (CyTOF) is a well-established, affordable technique for the analysis of proteomic data, which is well suited for the discovery and characterisation of very rare subpopulations of cells with a wealth of publicly available datasets.

Methods: We present and evaluate the multimodal integration of single cell RNA-Seq and CyTOF datasets coming from both matched and unmatched samples, using two publicly available datasets.

Results: We demonstrate that the integration of well annotated CyTOF data with single cell RNA sequencing can aid in the identification and annotation of cell populations with high accuracy. Furthermore, we show that the integration can provide imputed measurements of protein markers which are comparable to the current gold standard of antibody derived tags (ADT) from CITE-Seq for both matched and unmatched datasets. Using this methodology, we identify and transcriptionally characterise a rare subpopulation of CD11c positive B cells in high resolution using publicly available data and we unravel its heterogeneity in a single cell setting without the need to sort the cells in advance, in a manner which had not been previously possible.

Conclusions: This approach provides the framework for using available proteomic and transcriptomic datasets in a unified and unbiased fashion to assist ongoing and future studies of cellular characterisation and biomarker identification.
Predicting farmed rainbow trout weight distribution to improve feeding practice: an individual-based model approach.
Authors: Bolzonella Matteo , Royer Edouard , Lima Adriano C. , Pastres Roberto
Published: May 2022

In the near future, the role of aquaculture in human diet is likely to increase due to the rising demand for fish proteins. With a long tradition of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) farming, Italy is one of the main producers of this species in the European Union (EU). The EU is allocating economic resources to foster the sustainable development of the aquaculture sector, aiming to produce more while using less resources. Precision fish farming (PFF) is a promising approach to achieve this goal and its implementation is being facilitated thanks to the reduction of costs of sensors. PFF will likely lead to a new generation of mathematical dynamic models based on sets of control variables and external forcing functions, coping with Big Data and machine learning techniques. In this work, we developed an individual-based dynamic model for the simulation of the fish size distribution and total biomass of a population of rainbow trout within a raceway. At its core, there is a bioenergetic individual model that can simulate weight changes taking into account water temperature and feeding regime. This model was tested against weight observations collected by a non–invasive monitoring system, that was deployed for the first time in a trout farm.

The model allows one to estimate the optimal feeding ration based on fish weight and water temperature.  The results indicate that current methodologies, based on the estimation of the average weight, lead to slightly overestimate the feed ration: therefore, the model proposed here would allow one to save feed, thus reducing operational costs.
Social Responsibility of Russian Companies in non-Financial Reports
Authors: Uskova E. , Sokolova E. , Ermolaeva S.
Published: May 2022

Issues of social responsibility and partnership have long been the daily practice of companies both in Russia and abroad. Russian practice is presented in non-financial reports of companies that are included in the National Register of Corporate Non-Financial Reports of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. This article is the result of a meaningful and quantitative analysis of a number of published non-financial reports of companies. The content of social policy reflected in all reports includes the most significant aspects of the quality of life of personnel: ensuring safety, health, remuneration, development, social security of personnel. The differences between the companies are manifested both in the structure of the directions and in the completeness of the reflection of the requirements of the standards. There is an obvious lack of attention from most companies to such low-budget areas as mentoring, recognition system, moral encouragement, socio-psychological side of the production environment, working conditions, staff research. The reports are characterized by the absence of some of the criteria information from the point of view of the GRI management and the AA1000 standard, which lowers the level of their reliability. Employees of companies are not satisfied with the lack of information about all aspects of social partnership, weak empowerment, but note the presence of positive dynamics in compliance with the terms of collective agreements.
Emotional Burnout of HR Specialists
Authors: Suvalova Tatyana , Suvalov O.
Published: May 2022

Conducted studies and reports by The Hartford, State of People Strategy, Paychex Pulse of HR revealed an acute problem of burnout in the field of HR. The transformation of personnel management functions, maintaining a balance of interests between the organization and employees, management and services are regular sources of stress for HRD. Significant changes in the work environment, in labor legislation, compensation, benefits and forced mass layoffs are reflected in the emotional background of HR professionals. The purpose of the study is to analyze the main stress factors of a modern HR professional and formulate recommendations for preventing stress, professional and emotional burnout syndrome.

The article focuses on the classification of burnout as a professional phenomenon as defined by the World Health Organization. The analyzed reports showed that almost 60% of HR professionals consider emotional exhaustion to be their main problem. The French government is noted for passing a law requiring employers not to contact employees after hours and not punishing employees for not answering calls or emails after leaving work. The British government has passed a law called "Prosperity at Work", which aims to eliminate cases of mental health problems and other manifestations of stress and burnout in organizations.
Digitalization of the Educational Process in the Higher Educational Process: Analysis of the Dynamics of Students' Attitude to Different Forms of Learning
Authors: Kazaeva E. , Glukhenkaya N. , Kalenova A.
Published: May 2022

The article is devoted to topical issues of digitalization of the educational process at the university. The development of digital technologies in the field of education is, on the one hand, a necessity, on the other hand, a rapid transformation of the education system and is supported by the state and society. In the course of the study, the authors analyzed and presented the theoretical aspects of the digitalization of the educational process, identified by domestic scientists and practitioners. The subject of research in this article is the digitalization of the educational process at the university. Purpose: to analyze the change in the attitude of students studying in the direction of training "Personnel Management" to various forms of conducting training sessions, namely, offline and online, to identify the existing opportunities and threats for the educational process at the university. The following research methods were used in the work: written survey, participant observation, comparative analysis, analysis of scientific works. The findings of the study and the conclusion are presented.
Revalorization of the Management of the Personnel Reserve of the Organization of the Production Profile
Authors: Plutova M. , Lagutina E. , Koneva D.
Published: May 2022

The article reveals the aspect of improving the effectiveness of personnel reserve management in modern organizations. Personnel reserve management is one of the key priorities in the personnel management strategy for successful organizations, since it allows ensuring continuity in management, involvement and loyalty of valuable employees of the organization and its values, contributes to the prolongation of professional longevity of talented employees and the most rational use of personnel labor at all levels of the management hierarchy. However, despite the importance of personnel reserve management activities, it is extremely difficult to achieve consistently positive results in this area. The analysis of the practice of managing the personnel reserve of a large Russian manufacturing enterprise from the standpoint of strategic personnel management is carried out. Recommendations aimed at improving the effectiveness of the business process under study are proposed, and an assessment of their socio-economic efficiency is presented. The results of the study and recommendations for their application will be useful in the practice of other organizations of the production profile.
HR Partnership as a Condition for Business and Education Development
Authors: Ponomareva O. , Sabitova E.
Published: May 2022

This article studies the essence of HR partnership in new intra-organizational and interdepartmental interaction models to develop human potential and effective search, timely training, and development of enterprise personnel. The article presents an overview of the approaches of foreign and domestic authors to innovative forms and technologies of partnerships in business and education. Particular attention is paid to HR partnership, which is considered not only as a technology but also as a condition for the development of business and education in current socio-economic conditions, including the digital challenge. The article shows the importance of HR partnership in various areas of intra-organizational and interdepartmental interaction, including the development of an enterprise's business in the field of consulting services and innovative practices of project education based on an informal partnership of enterprises and students of the educational program "Personnel Management" of the leading Federal University of the Urals. Studying a set of factors contributing to the development of HR partnerships and revealing the essence of the role of an HR specialist as a partner and using the example of a vocational education institution and a company in the field of consulting services, the authors substantiate the allocation of HR partnerships as a condition for the development of business and education. Combining theory and practice, the authors propose a number of practical recommendations to use HR partnerships as a resource for business development and education, maintaining and developing employees' potential. The main problems in this regard are: the underestimation of the advantages of HR partnership for business development and education by the company's management, the usual vision of a functional rather than role-based approach to HR, focus on its limitations rather than advantages, the asynchrony of the stages of modernization of the education and HR spheres, and short-term implementation of joint projects.
Current Trends in Business Process Automation in Domestic Companies
Authors: Svistunov V. , Lobachyev V.
Published: May 2022

The article analyzes the current and promising trends in the automation of business processes on the example of domestic companies. The assessment of the state of the world and Russian markets of BPM and ERP solutions is given. Ratings of the most successful companies developing BPM and ERP solutions in the domestic IT products market are built. The analysis of the results of this study became the basis for the formulation of a key modern trend in the field of business process automation – the expansion of the practice of using both local BPM solutions and global (multifunctional) corporate ERP systems with subsequent integration of the developed solutions.
Capabilities of the Semantic Differential Method for Personnel Evaluation (Using the Example of HR Branding of an Organization)
Authors: Gluhanyuk N. , Yurtaeva M. , Berseneva E.
Published: May 2022

The article shows the possibilities of the semantic differential method for studying the HR-brand, in particular, the deep motivational attitudes of perceiving the image of the organization. The organization on the basis of which the study was conducted was an international bank. The study sample consisted of employees of the Ural branch of the bank: specialists of the personnel management department, specialists of direct sales departments for individuals and legal entities, heads of departments for servicing individuals and legal entities. The comparison sample was made by the students of the Ural Federal University in the areas of study "International Management" and "Personnel Management". Empirical data collection methods: a special semantic differential, S. Badner's uncertainty tolerance/intolerance questionnaire. The technique of a special semantic differential made it possible to assess the psychological side of branding, which is associated with the processes of perception of an economic object and the processes of identification. The discriminant ability of the technique as a psychodiagnostic tool has been confirmed. A contradiction has been established between the dispositions of personnel and the values broadcast by the banking technology of HR-branding. Differences in the motivation of current and potential staff in the perception of the HR brand were revealed. The main risks of internal HR branding are associated with the passivity and lack of initiative of the staff, which is consistent with the low tolerance for uncertainty, the willingness of the staff to perform activities at the executive level. High anxiety in the student sample, due to the perception of uncertainty, forms overestimated requirements for the structuredness and predictability of the organizational environment, the obligations of the organization, which are contrary to the values of proactivity and self-development. Differences in the affective-motivational complexes of perception of the employer's brand justify the need for nuanced internal and external HR branding.
Extramammary Paget’s disease involving the bilateral axillae followed by adhesive capsulitis of the shoulder: a case report
Authors: Bae Seong Hwan , Hong Jung Hyun , Kim Ryuck Seong , Kwon Soon Wook , Kim Sang Hun , Park Hee seung , Kim Kyoung-Eun , Kang Taewoo
Published: May 2022

Few cases of bilateral axillary extramammary Paget’s disease (EMPD) have been reported. We performed surgical excision and reconstruction in a patient with bilateral axillary EMPD after consultation with dermatology. A dermatologist determined the boundaries of the lesion through Mohs micrographic surgery, and a plastic surgeon excised the lesion and reconstructed the resulting defect. Skin grafts were simultaneously performed to reconstruct the bilateral axillae. After the operation, the reconstructed site healed well, but the range of motion of both shoulders was reduced. After referral to a doctor specializing in rehabilitation, the patient was diagnosed with adhesive capsulitis and received additional treatment. Since no previous reports have presented a case of adhesive capsulitis after the reconstruction of bilateral axillary EMPD using skin graft, this case is noteworthy.
Unsupervised Learning-Driven Matheuristic for Production-Distribution Problems
Authors: Wu Tao , Zhang Canrong , Chen Weiwei , Liang Zhe , Zhang Xiaoning
Published: May 2022

In this paper, we study a capacitated production-distribution problem where facility location, production, and distribution decisions are tightly coupled and simultaneously considered in the optimal decision making. Such an integrated production-distribution problem is complicated, and the current commercial mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) solvers cannot obtain favorable solutions for the medium- and large-sized problem instances. Therefore, we propose an unsupervised learning-driven matheuristic that uses easily obtainable solution values (e.g., solutions associated with the linear programming relaxation) to build clustering models and integrates the clustering information with a genetic algorithm to progressively improve feasible solutions. Then we verify the performance of the proposed matheuristic by comparing its computational results with those of the rolling horizon algorithm, a non-cluster-driven matheuristic, and a commercial MILP solver. The computational results show that, under the same computing resources, the proposed matheuristic can deliver better production-distribution decisions. Specifically, it reduces the total system costs by 15% for the tested instances when compared with the ones found by the commercial MILP solver. Additionally, we apply the proposed matheuristic to a related production-distribution problem in the literature and obtain 152 equivalent or new best-known solutions out of 200 benchmark test instances.
The Overseas Trade of British America
Authors: Truxes Thomas M.
Published: May 2022

The Overseas Trade of British America: A Narrative History is a comprehensive account of the emergence of the United States from the perspective of trade. The author traces the roots of the American commercial economy from mid-sixteenth-century Tudor England through the early years of the American republic at the dawn of the nineteenth century. The trade of colonial America is notable for the access it offered a wide range of participants. Open access (real or illusory) remains a dominant theme of the American economy to the present day. Colonial trade is notable as well for its readiness to exploit opportunity wherever it lay, and many of those opportunities lay across international borders in violation of the British Navigation Acts. The most significant feature of colonial trade is its intimate links to chattel slavery and the Atlantic slave trade. Virtually every aspect of colonial commerce bore some connection—direct or indirect. Most obvious is the slave trade itself, which carried roughly 3.5 million African captives to British America between 1619 and 1807. It was enslaved Africans who produced colonial America’s leading exports — tobacco, sugar, and rice. And enslaved Africans were a conspicuous presence on the docks and in the warehouses of northern colonial ports. This book is an account of opportunity-seeking, risk-taking producers, merchants, and mariners converting the potential of the New World into individual livelihoods and national wealth. The history of colonial trade is part of something much larger: the creation of the modern global economy.
Living with Deficits
Authors: Larres Klaus
Published: May 2022

This chapter discusses how John Connally summarized the Nixon administration's economic strategy to a number of Treasury consultants when he pointed out that his philosophical conviction was that the foreigners are out to do bad things. It describes the unorthodox approach to international economic policy and cooperation with allies. A sort of gunboat diplomacy had characterized Connally's eleven months as President John F. Kennedy's secretary of the Navy in 1961 when at the height of the Cold War he sent the Sixth Fleet to the Mediterranean to demonstrate a US presence there. The chapter recounts how Richard Nixon considered Connally as a potential vice presidential running mate in place of Spiro Agnew. However, Henry Kissinger managed to prevail despite Nixon's prolonged reluctance to offer him the post that Kissinger so desperately wanted.
Conversion in the Empire
Authors: Parker Charles H.
Published: May 2022

This chapter analyzes Calvinist understandings of conversion and the strategies clergy put in place to bring non-Christian and nominally Catholic peoples to a Reformed Protestant faith. It focuses on the perspectives of indigenous peoples in their encounters with ministers and company representatives. The missionary goals of propagating the Reformed faith and building religious communities of converted pagans and Moors animated Dutch Calvinists in the age of merchant empire. The chapter highlights a thousand predikanten and many more lay ziekentroosteren that went into East India Company (VOC) and West India Company (WIC) settlements, expecting to establish a worldwide community of Calvinist believers. Utilizing and collaborating with native linguists and teachers, ministers organized and oversaw hundreds of schools across Dutch outposts in the Indian and Atlantic Ocean basins.
Identity and Otherness in the Republic and the Missions
Authors: Parker Charles H.
Published: May 2022

This chapter investigates metahistorical religious narratives composed to understand Calvinism and its place in a newly expanded world. As predikanten and ziekentroosteren embarked on ships headed to distant outposts in the Indian and Atlantic oceans, Dutch Reformed Protestants sought to make sense of the world the evangelists were encountering and their place in it. The chapter refers to Protestants who had been writing histories ever since the Magdeburg Centuries was first published between 1559 and 1572 to demonstrate that they were the true descendants of apostolic Christianity and to point out where the Roman church had diverged from it. The chapter discusses how humans resorted to historical study to recapture the classical past and to trace the evolution of law, language, and custom. Writings by Dutch authors describing many new lands and peoples proliferated through the Golden Age.
Conclusion: The Early Modern Legacy of Global Calvinism
Authors: Parker Charles H.
Published: May 2022

This chapter recounts the last gasps of the East India Company (VOC) and West India Company (WIC) that became quickly overwhelmed by convulsions from the Batavian Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, which brought an end to the Dutch Republic and forever changed its commercial empire. It discusses how the Netherlands fell to French forces in 1795, and in the ensuing eighteen years Britain eventually came into possession of all Dutch overseas territories except several posts on the West African coast. After the defeat of Napoleon and the restoration of European monarchies in 1815, the new Kingdom of the Netherlands regained control over Surinam, Curaçao, and the East Indies. The chapter highlights how the Dutch waged a series of bloody wars in Borneo, Sumatra, and Java to oust local rulers and put down rebellions. All Dutch colonies came under direct administration by the Dutch government.
The Doctor's Garden
Authors: Hickman Clare
Published: May 2022

As Britain grew into an ever-expanding empire during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, new and exotic botanical specimens began to arrive within the nation's public and private spaces. Gardens became sites not just of leisure, sport, and aesthetic enjoyment, but also of scientific inquiry and knowledge dissemination. Medical practitioners used their botanical training to capitalize on the growing fashion for botanical collecting and agricultural experimentation in institutional, semipublic, and private gardens across Britain. This book highlights the role of these medical practitioners in the changing use of gardens in the late Georgian period, marked by a fluidity among the ideas of farm, laboratory, museum, and garden. Placing these activities within a wider framework of fashionable, scientific, and economic interests of the time, the book argues that gardens shifted from predominately static places of enjoyment to key gathering places for improvement, knowledge sharing, and scientific exploration.
Principles and Agents
Authors: Richardson David
Published: May 2022

Britain’s abolition of its slave trade in 1807 was a defining moment in modern history, yet it continues to excite controversy, in part because the nation dominated European trafficking of Africans to America in 1783–1807. Through an analysis of market conditions at the British, African, and West Indian points of the infamous triangular trade, as well as of issues of credit and of agency dilemma involved in their integration, this book seeks to explain that dominance. Though legally sanctioned and justified by contemporary mercantilist and racist ideologies, enslaving Africans was nonetheless challenged by some on grounds of humanity and national identity under the later Stuarts and the Hanoverians. Theologians and philosophers intellectually rationalized those challenges within a larger humanitarian revolution, but rather than identifying it with particular individuals, the book argues that abolition of British slaving ultimately relied on the power of ordinary people to change the world. It shows that British slaving and opposition to it, the latter manifest in imaginative literature, journals, newspapers, and pamphlets as well as in learned tracts, grew in parallel through the 1760s but then came increasingly into conflict in both public imagination and political discourse. Highlighting ideological tensions between Britons’ sense of themselves as free people and their willingness to enslave Africans abroad, the book reveals how from the 1770s such tensions became politicized, even as British slaving activities reached unprecedented levels, ultimately mobilizing public opinion to compel Parliament to confront and begin to resolve them in 1788–1807.
Managing the “Train of Uncertainty”
Authors: Richardson David
Published: May 2022

The chapter analyses the structure of Liverpool’s trade in Atlantic Africa to assess its impact on the city’s performance as a slave port. An an online slave voyage website reveals a heavy concentration of Liverpool activity in the Bight of Biafra in the Gulf of Guinea, with Bonny in the Niger Delta and Calabar on the Cross River being the two leading suppliers of slaves to Liverpool ships before 1807. Such a concentration of trade at specific ports in Atlantic Africa was not unique to Liverpool, but the Bight of Biafra attracted few non-British eighteenth-century traders, being widely considered high risk in terms of the poor quality of slaves supplied and their shipboard mortality. The chapter reveals, however, that speed of loading slaves and institutionally based forms of protection of credit used to animate supplies of slaves from interior trade diasporas helped to mitigate such risks to the benefit of Liverpool merchants. The chapter thus reveals the value of studying the balance of risks and opportunities of trade at specific African localities when evaluating the performance of slave carriers.
“Vulgar Error”
Authors: Richardson David
Published: May 2022

Though formal moves to end British slaving only began in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, questions about the ethical and legal premises on which it rested had begun to emerge a century earlier. Largely based on religion but shaped by ongoing debates about the Stuart crown and English liberties, issues relating to the pursuit of slaving became entangled in debates about African humanity, natural rights, royal prerogative, and the nature of the emerging English Atlantic empire. Interventions by religious leaders such as Richard Baxter and Morgan Godwyn and by lawyer and philosopher John Locke figured prominently in such arguments at the time, as well as, in Locke’s case, in modern historical debates about them. The chapter reviews such arguments, while noting how contemporary musings infiltrated other imaginative and scientific writings, prompting one writer to describe the so-called curse of Ham deployed to justify enslaving Africans as a vulgar error. The arguments over British slaving continued to evolve in ethical, legal, and philosophical discourses and in various literary forms after Locke’s death in 1704, paralleling continuing growth of British slaving during the eighteenth century.
Contrary to “the Laws of God, and the Rights of Man”
Authors: Richardson David
Published: May 2022

The chapter examines how under the early Hanoverians questions about ideas justifying British slaving transmuted into a wide-ranging intellectual challenge to prevailing moral, political, and economic justifications of slavery and the slave trade by the time of the American Revolution. By 1776, indeed, Britain was home to the most energetic, open, and disciplinarily diverse intellectual critique of the two institutions in the Western world. It incorporated mutually supporting ideas drawn from nonconformist, especially Quaker, writings as well as from philosophical works, including European continental and especially Scottish enlightenment ones, the last highlighting not only slavery’s inhumanity and challenge to notions of benevolence and sociability but also its economic costs. The chapter traces these different and increasingly interwoven strands of thinking about slavery and British values and interests, concluding with suggestions about how the existing intellectual religious-philosophical discourse informed the nation’s political debates around abolitionism from the 1780s.
Finishing the Job, 1944–45
Authors: Boughton James M.
Published: May 2022

This chapter recounts how Harry White finally got a title that was commensurate with the responsibilities of chief economist that he had fulfilled for the preceding three years. It points out that the U.S. Treasury organization chart had room for only two assistant secretaries, and both posts had been occupied by men who were not economists. In November 1944 one of those men, John L. Sullivan, resigned to become assistant secretary of the navy, creating the opening that both Henry Morgenthau and Harry had been waiting for throughout the war. The chapter reviews how Harry's promotion did not substantially alter Harry's responsibilities and he remained in charge of the division that was now called Monetary Research and Foreign Funds Control. As World War II drew to a close in the months following the Bretton Woods conference, Harry faced several challenges, both ongoing and new.
Dangerous Diversions, 1944–46
Authors: Boughton James M.
Published: May 2022

This chapter discusses the ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements and security of postwar financial support for Great Britain and the Soviet Union, which saw Harry White drawn into major controversies involving Germany and the Soviet Union. One was a scheme devised by Harry's boss, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, to pastoralize Germany after the war. The chapter refers to an interagency decision to share the printing of banknotes for the occupation of Germany with the Soviet Union. It recounts how Morgenthau turned his attention to postwar planning for Germany immediately after the Bretton Woods conference ended in July 1944. The State Department developed a plan—to be issued through the interdepartmental Executive Committee on Economic Foreign Policy (ECEFP)—for the allies to occupy and partition Germany and extract large reparations payments.
The Nature of Political Power
Authors: Lander Brian
Published: May 2022

This chapter illustrates the lives of ordinary people in four different periods in order to illustrate the changes that occurred over this time. It shows how agricultural systems improved over time, eventually becoming productive enough to create substantial and reliable surpluses. Political institutions gradually arose that used these surpluses to feed people doing nonagricultural labor, such as building infrastructure or fighting. The chapter discusses the village of Jiangzhai, near Xi'an, around 4500 BCE, which archaeologists call the Yangshao period and is situated in a grassy savanna with scattered patches of shrubs and woodlands. Human settlements are few and far between, and the landscape is home to dangerous animals like tigers and wild water buffaloes, perhaps one reason the village is surrounded by a deep ditch.
Watching Over the Granaries
Authors: Lander Brian
Published: May 2022

This chapter examines how the Qin Empire reached the zenith of its power during the reign of its First Emperor, who reigned from 246 to 210 BCE, and it collapsed soon afterward. It looks at the ecology of Qin's political system at this time, whose power was based on the taxes paid in grain by farming families. This grain was stored in granaries throughout the empire and used to feed the people, horses, and cattle who labored on the empire's various projects. The chapter describes the megaprojects Qin built like the first Great Wall and the First Emperor's tomb complex, which is now famous for its terracotta army. The empire extended over such a large area that it could take months to travel from the capital to its most distant conquests.
A Hundred Generations
Authors: Lander Brian
Published: May 2022

This chapter reviews how states and empires first formed in China, including the ways in which Qin's successors have transformed their environments. By domesticating plants and animals, people became capable of building their own ecosystems and produced far more food and resources than foraging could, allowing humans to live at higher densities. The chapter discusses how political elites gained more control over how land and labor were used as states grew and administrative methods improved. It reviews how agriculture began in East Asia at least eight thousand years ago with the gradual domestication of millets, rice, dogs, and pigs. A few millennia later, domesticated sheep, cattle, and horses arrived from Central Asia, allowing people to exploit grasslands and arid places.
Epilogue
Authors: Lander Brian
Published: May 2022

This chapter describes Agrarian states that ran on the energy provided by photosynthesis, so they had a fundamental incentive to replace biodiverse natural ecosystems with agricultural ones. Fossil and nuclear power have vastly increased the energy available, but photosynthesis still feeds and provides most of the raw materials. The chapter refers to the lesson of China's Warring States period, and many other times of intense inter-state competition, which is that the government that most successfully mobilizes resources has an advantage over its rivals. The chapter analyzes the current division of the world into armed rival states, which is a major impediment to building sustainable economies. Strengthening global institutions that reduce competition between states is a necessary step toward building political systems that use resources sustainably.
Theorising men’s participation in low-income families
Authors: Tarrant Anna
Published: May 2022

This chapter develops the conceptual framework for the empirical section of the book, outlining how dynamic and temporally orientated constructions of the key themes of fathering, men and masculinities and low-income family life underscore a sociological conceptualisation and explanation of men’s family participation in low-income families. The concept of family participation captures, and widens the scope, of current academic and policy interest in the fatherhood generation and supports understanding of how, why and when men participate in low-income family contexts.
Ageing and the Crisis in Health and Social Care
Authors: Simmonds Bethany
Published: May 2022

Developing a trilayer analysis of global, national and individual perspectives, this book examines ageing and the health and social care crisis. It begins with an examination of how broad structural and discursive trends, such as neoliberalism and globalisation, have influenced the financing and provision of health and social care for older people in Western countries including Germany, Sweden and the UK. It then goes onto discuss the impact that privatisation, ‘choice’ and competition has had on service provision, including how declining social protections have impacted upon employment practices. Three UK case studies (active ageing, pre-emergency, and end of life care) provide insight into individual’s (both older people and health care workers) experiences of navigating the risky, fragmented and complex health and social care system. Then the UK’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic is compared with Sweden and Germany’s, and the UK government’s intended solutions to the health and social care crisis is discussed. Finally, the book ends by showcasing examples of innovative care solutions that have been trialled in the UK, and what broader cultural and political changes are necessary to provide a more sustainable and dignified health and social care system for older people.
Introduction
Authors: Simmonds Bethany
Published: May 2022

This introductory chapter starts with a discussion of a feminist theorisation of ‘care’. Then the impact of neoliberalist policies on declining social protections of health and social care workers are discussed. Older people navigating the complex systems are highlighted as important within the book. I then go onto discuss my motivations for writing the book, what the aims of the book are and an overview of how I gathered the empirical data/ideas presented. I discuss the key takeaways, who the book is intended to be for, and an outline of the chapters.
Globalisation, neoliberalism and welfare state models: a comparative analysis
Authors: Simmonds Bethany
Published: May 2022

Chapter Three examines the broad socio-economic structural changes that have occurred in Western societies, particularly in respect to neoliberalism and globalisation, and the effect these have had on health and social care models in Western countries. The chapter provides case study analyses of Germany and Sweden’s health and social care policies, in order to provide comparisons with those of the UK. In this chapter, the UK, Germany and Sweden are used as exemplifying countries to demonstrate how three archetypal welfare state systems have been affected by neoliberalism, and the resulting privatisation of health and social care services. Prior to a discussion of these two case studies, I examine the impact of globalisation and neoliberalism on privatisation and financing of health and social care in the UK.
Making and maintaining neighbourhood connections when living alone with dementia
Authors: Odzakovic Elzana , Kullberg Agneta , Hellström Ingrid , Clark Andrew , Campbell Sarah , Manji Kainde , Rummery Kirstein , Keady John , Ward Richard
Published: May 2022

This chapter tackles the report findings of Neighbourhoods: Our People, Our Places (N: OPOP) based on the experiences of people living alone with dementia from Greater Manchester, Scotland and Sweden. It also examines a subset of data from the N: OPOP project of people living alone with dementia establishing social networks and relationships in a neighbourhood context. Multiple data-collection methods were used such as semi-structured interviews, walking interviews, guided home tours and social network mapping, which were conducted with fourteen community-dwelling people living alone with dementia situated across the three international study sites. Thematic analysis revealed four main themes: making the effort to stay connected, befriending by organisations and facilitated friendships, the quiet neighbourhood atmosphere, and changing social connections. Moreover, the analysis suggests that people living alone with dementia were active agents that took control of finding and maintaining relationships and social networks in a lived neighbourhood. The findings indicate the need to raise awareness on policy, practice and creative ways to connect.
A conceptual framework of the person–environment interaction in the neighbourhood among persons living with dementia: a focus on out-of-home mobility
Authors: Seetharaman Kishore , Chaudhury Habib , Mahmood Atiya
Published: May 2022

This chapter presents a new conceptual framework that integrates various components of person–environment interaction in the context of out-of-home mobility of persons living with dementia. The framework links the processes of agency and belonging to the outcomes of autonomy and identity and illustrates the dynamic nature of these linkages over the course of progression in dementia. It extends beyond functional implications and captures the wide-ranging influences of out-of-home mobility on developmental processes and outcomes for people living with dementia. Two vignettes are presented to contextualize the framework in the everyday lives of people with dementia. Using this framework in understanding the lived experience of out-of-home mobility for people with dementia will help enrich dementia-friendly communities initiatives aimed at augmenting people's mobility and participation in the community.
The good, the challenging and the supportive: mapping life with dementia in the community
Authors: Brennan-Horley Chris , Phillipson Lyn , Smith Louisa , Frost Dennis
Published: May 2022

There is a critical need for new ways to illuminate the geospatial context of the lived experience of people with dementia in their local neighbourhoods. This chapter reports on research that used qualitative geographic information systems (GIS) to understand experiences of place for people with dementia when they are ‘out and about’ in their local community. Conducted in Kiama, an Australian seaside town popular with retirees, the research aimed to understand the geospatial elements of these movements using two qualitative mapping methods: semi-structured, sketch mapping interviews and a crowdsourced online map for wider publics. Results provided grounded understandings of the everyday usage of a range of important places, including physical and social settings that variously supported or hindered civic participation and social engagement. Crowdsourced online maps, while less rich in detail, supported access to map-making. The resulting data was useful to inform advocacy and local targets for environmental action. Research using qualitative GIS provided a much-needed geospatial element and was a valuable complementary method to interviewing and walk-arounds, foregrounding how the everyday lives of people living with dementia are constituted relationally through social and material interactions in place.
Growing back into community: changes through life with dementia
Authors: Frost Dennis
Published: May 2022

This chapter discusses the changes in the life of Dennis Frost while living with dementia. Frost fronted stigmas due to his dementia diagnosis due to misconceived stereotypes about the condition. The chapter also includes Frost's participation in the Dementia Friendly Kiama Advisory Group and Dementia Alliance International, and his advocacy work extending overseas, such as Singapore and Japan. Frost became a National Advisory Group member by the time Alzheimer's Australia redesigned its Dementia Friendly Community programme. Then, Frost's work extended beyond being a participant in research projects to being part of the scope and objectives of projects and informing human ethics committees about the experience of living with dementia. During Frost's journey, he has learned that dementia could offer insights that could be missed despite being a debilitating condition.