bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Dealing with an uncertain future: a survey study on what patients with chronic kidney disease actually want to know
Authors: Milders Jet , Ramspek Chava L , Meuleman Yvette , Bos Willem Jan W , Michels Wieneke M , Konijn Wanda S , Dekker Friedo W , van Diepen Merel
Published: July 2024

Background

Prognostic uncertainty is a recurring theme among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We developed a survey to explore whether CKD patients want to know more about their future, and if so, which topics they prioritize. In addition, we explored differences between several subgroups.

Methods

A survey was constructed and tested in collaboration with the Dutch Kidney Patients Association. The survey consisted of three parts: (i) demographics, (ii) considerations about the future, and (iii) prognostic information. The survey was distributed among CKD patients (all stages) through patient associations and via healthcare professionals in two Dutch hospitals. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the results. All results were stratified by population, sex, and age.

Results

A total of 163 patients (45 CKD, 26 dialysis, and 92 kidney transplantation) participated in the survey. The mean age was 63.9 (SD 12.0) and 48.5% was male. Most patients think about their future with CKD occasionally (56.4%) or often (35.0%). Nearly half of the patients (49.7%) discuss the future with their nephrologist, some (19.6%) do not but would like to, and 20 (15.3%) prefer not to. Most patients (73.6%) want more prognostic information, regardless of it being positive or negative. Key topics to receive prognostic information about were laboratory values, symptoms, and physical well-being. Dialysis patients prioritized mental over physical well-being. CKD patients without kidney replacement therapy (KRT) indicated thinking about, and discussing their future more regularly than KRT patients.

Conclusions

Patients with CKD contemplate their future regularly and express interest in receiving prognostic information on a variety of topics. One in five patients currently do not discuss their future with CKD with their nephrologist, despite wanting to do so. These findings underline the need to tailor prognostic information provision to patients’ preferences, advocating more attention to this subject both in research and clinical practice.
Improving the controllability robustness of complex temporal networks against intelligent attacks
Authors: Zhang Qian , Arebi Peyman
Published: July 2024

The main goal of controllability network methods on complex temporal networks is to control all nodes with the minimum number of control nodes. Real-world complex temporal networks are faced with many errors and attacks that cause the network structure to be changed in some way so that the controllability processes are disturbed and after that, the controllability robustness of the network decreases. One of the most important attacks on complex temporal networks is intelligent attacks. In this paper, the types of intelligent attacks and their destructive effects on the controllability of complex temporal networks have been investigated. In order to increase the controllability robustness of the network against intelligent attacks, a novel graph model and strategies have been proposed on complex dynamic graph by adding new control nodes or adding new links to the network so that the network is protected against intelligent attacks. The results of simulation and comparing them with conventional methods demonstrate that the proposed node addition strategy has performed better than other methods and the improvement rate in terms of execution time is 60%. On the other hand, the proposed immunization strategy by adding links has kept the network controllable with a smaller number of links (38%) and less execution time (52%) compared to other methods.
Extra domain A-containing fibronectin in pulmonary hypertension and treatment effects of a function-blocking antibody
Authors: Singerer Isabell , Tempel Laura , Gruen Katja , Heiß Judith , Gutte Clara , Matasci Mattia , Schrepper Andrea , Bauer Reinhard , Berndt Alexander , Jung Christian , Schulze P Christian , Neri Dario , Franz Marcus
Published: July 2024

Aims

Pulmonary vascular and right ventricular (RV) remodelling processes are important for development and progression of pulmonary hypertension (PH). The current study analysed the functional role of the extra domain A-containing fibronectin (ED-A+ Fn) for the development of PH by comparing ED-A+ Fn knockout (KO) and wild-type (WT) mice as well as the effects of an antibody-based therapeutic approach in a model of monocrotaline (MCT)-induced PH, which will be validated in a model of Sugen 5416/hypoxia-induced PH.

Methods and results

PH was induced using MCT (PH mice). Sixty-nine mice were divided into the following groups: sham-treated controls (WT: n = 7; KO: n = 7), PH mice without specific treatment (WT: n = 12; KO: n = 10), PH mice treated with a dual endothelin receptor antagonist (macitentan; WT: n = 6; KO: n = 11), WT PH mice treated with the F8 antibody, specifically recognizing ED-A+ Fn, (n = 8), and WT PH mice treated with an antibody of irrelevant antigen specificity (KSF, n = 8). Compared to controls, WT_PH mice showed a significant elevation of the RV systolic pressure (P = 0.04) and RV functional impairment including increased basal RV (P = 0.016) diameter or tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (P = 0.008). In contrast, KO PH did not show such effects compared to controls (P = n.s.). In WT_PH mice treated with F8, haemodynamic and echocardiographic parameters were significantly improved compared to untreated WT_PH mice or those treated with the KSF antibody (P < 0.05). On the microscopic level, KO_PH mice showed significantly less tissue damage compared to the WT_PH mice (P = 0.008). Furthermore, lung tissue damage could significantly be reduced after F8 treatment (P = 0.04). Additionally, these findings could be verified in the Sugen 5416/hypoxia mouse model, in which F8 significantly improved echocardiographic, haemodynamic, and histologic parameters.

Conclusion

ED-A+ Fn is of crucial importance for PH pathogenesis representing a promising therapeutic target in PH. We here show a novel therapeutic approach using antibody-mediated functional blockade of ED-A+ Fn capable of attenuating and partially reversing PH-associated tissue remodelling.
CircARCN1 aggravates atherosclerosis by regulating HuR-mediated USP31 mRNA in macrophages
Authors: Pan Zhicheng , Lv Jialan , Zhao Liding , Xing Kaidi , Ye Runze , Zhang Yuesheng , Chen Siyuan , Yang Peng , Yu Hailong , Lin Yangkai , Li Ruobing , Wang Dongfei , Fang Juan , Dong Yang , Sheng Jianpeng , Wang Xiaolin , Shan Ge , Zhang Shan , Cheng Hongqiang , Xu Qingbo , Guo Xiaogang
Published: July 2024

Aims

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are considered important regulators of biological processes, but their impact on atherosclerosis development, a key factor in coronary artery disease (CAD), has not been fully elucidated. We aimed to investigate their potential use in patients with CAD and the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.

Methods and results

Patients with stable angina (SA) or acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and controls were selected for transcriptomic screening and quantification of circRNAs in blood cells. We stained carotid plaque samples for circRNAs and performed gain- and loss-of-function studies in vitro. Western blots, protein interaction analysis, and molecular approaches were used to perform the mechanistic study. ApoE−/− mouse models were employed in functional studies with adeno-associated virus-mediated genetic intervention. We demonstrated elevated circARCN1 expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with SA or ACS, especially in those with ACS. Furthermore, higher circARCN1 levels were associated with a higher risk of developing SA and ACS. We also observed elevated expression of circARCN1 in carotid artery plaques. Further analysis indicated that circARCN1 was mainly expressed in monocytes and macrophages, which was also confirmed in atherosclerotic plaques. Our in vitro studies provided evidence that circARCN1 affected the interaction between HuR and ubiquitin-specific peptidase 31 (USP31) mRNA, resulting in attenuated USP31-mediated NF-κB activation. Interestingly, macrophage accumulation and inflammation in atherosclerotic plaques were markedly decreased when circARCN1 was knocked down with adeno-associated virus in macrophages of ApoE−/− mice, while circARCN1 overexpression in the model exacerbated atherosclerotic lesions.

Conclusions

Our findings provide solid evidence macrophagic-expressed circARCN1 plays a role in atherosclerosis development by regulating HuR-mediated USP31 mRNA stability and NF-κB activation, suggesting that circARCN1 may serve as a factor for atherosclerotic lesion formation.
Diastolic function and dysfunction in athletes
Authors: Dalen Havard , Letnes Jon Magne , Hoydal Morten A , Wisløff Ulrik
Published: July 2024

Cardiac remodelling is often most profound in male athletes and in athletes with the greatest volumes of endurance training and is characterized by chamber enlargement and a mild-to-modest hypertrophy. The diastolic filling of the left ventricle (LV) is a complex process including the early recoil of the contracted LV, the active relaxation of the myocardium, the compliance of the myocardium, the filling pressures, and heart rate. Echocardiography is the cornerstone for the clinical assessment of LV diastolic function. LV diastolic function is usually enhanced in elite endurance athletes characterized by improved early filling of the ventricle, while it is preserved or enhanced in other athletes associated with the type of training being performed. This allows for the high performance of any endurance athlete. Typical findings when using resting echocardiography for the assessment of LV diastolic function in endurance athletes include a dilated LV with normal or mildly reduced LV ejection fraction (EF), significantly enlarged left atrium (LA) beyond the commonly used cut-off of 34 mL/m2, and a significantly elevated E/A ratio. The early-diastolic mitral annular velocity and the E-wave peak velocity are usually normal. Importantly, interpretation of the echocardiographic indices of LV diastolic function should always consider the clinical context and other parameters of systolic and diastolic functions. In the absence of an underlying pathology, single measurements outside the expected range for similar athletes will often not represent the pathology.
Generative artificial intelligence and ELT
Authors: Moorhouse Benjamin Luke
Published: July 2024

In this series, we explore technology-related themes and topics. The series aims to discuss and demystify what may be new areas for some readers and to consider their relevance for English language teachers.
Generative AI-assisted, evidence-informed use of L1 in L2 classrooms
Authors: Moorhouse Benjamin Luke , Wan Yuwei , Ho Tsz Ying , Lin Angel M Y
Published: July 2024

Purposeful and strategic use of L1 can help with L2 learning. However, in many contexts, monolingual immersion approaches dominate, leading language teachers to refrain from using L1. It can also mean that teachers are not professionally prepared to implement evidence-informed uses of L1. In this article, we share the findings of an intervention study that aimed to raise preservice English language teachers’ awareness of purposeful L1 use while co-exploring ways generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools (e.g. ChatGPT) can aid teachers’ knowledge development and strategic utilization of L1 in L2 classrooms. Data were collected from fifty-six preservice language teachers in Hong Kong through a pre- and post-intervention mixed-method survey and follow-up group interviews. The findings show that explicit instruction on the use of L1 in L2 classrooms can increase preservice teachers’ intention to use L1 as well as their knowledge about the evidence-informed use of L1 and the ways in which generative AI tools can assist their implementation of L1.
Unmeasured preludes for the French Baroque guitar
Authors: Bane Michael
Published: July 2024

This article examines the préludes non mesurés composed for the guitar in the second half of the 17th century. From François Martin’s collection of suites in 1663 to Robert de Visée’s second book of guitar music in 1686, guitarists published nearly 50 preludes, several of which are rhythmically free or entirely unmeasured. Indebted to the lute and harpsichord repertories, the guitar prelude was nevertheless shaped by the notational and performance practices of the instrument. A review of the printed sources reveals four types of guitar prelude current in the second half of the century: the fully measured prelude; the precisely notated but rhythmically free prelude; the unmeasured prelude; and the strummed, unmeasured prelude with variable rhythm. This last type, which instructs the performer to strum each chord an indeterminate number of times, has no exact analogue in the other instrumental repertories of the era. Comparisons are also made to unmeasured or rhythmically free preludes in manuscript sources including the ‘Gallot’ manuscript. Together, these pieces attest to a brief but avid interest in unmeasured music on the Baroque guitar.
Intestinal Ultrasound, Fecal Calprotectin, and Their Combination to Predict Endoscopic Mucosal Healing in Ulcerative Colitis: A Real-Life Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Yzet Clara , Meudjo Erica , Brazier Franck , Hautefeuille Vincent , Moreau Capucine , Robert Camille , Decrombecque Catherine , Sarba Ruxandra , Pichois Raphael , Richard Nicolas , Meynier Jonathan , Fumery Mathurin
Published: July 2024

Background

The development of noninvasive markers to assess mucosal healing in ulcerative colitis (UC) is essential in the treat-to-target era. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of intestinal ultrasound (IUS), fecal calprotectin (FC), and their combination to assess mucosal healing in UC patients.

Methods

All consecutive patients between January 2021 and September 2022 with UC who underwent a complete colonoscopy and IUS and/or an FC test within 4 weeks were included in a prospective cohort. Bowel wall thickness (BWT) and the color Doppler signal (CDS) were assessed for each segment. Endoscopic mucosal healing was defined by a Mayo score of 0 to 1.

Results

A total of 61 patients were included, of whom 79% showed endoscopic healing (26 Mayo 0 and 11 Mayo 1). Among the patients, 16 (27.6%) of 58 had a BWT <3 mm, and 41 (70.7%) of 58 had no CDS. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of a BWT <3 mm to predict endoscopic mucosal healing were 37%, 77%, 72%, and 44%, respectively. The association of FC <150 µg/g, a BWT <3 mm, and a CDS = 0 increased the specificity and positive predictive value (sensitivity 33%, specificity 94%, positive predictive value 89%, negative predictive value 48%). The combination of a normal IUS, no rectal bleeding, and an FC <172 µg/g identified all patients with mucosal healing.

Conclusion

The combination of IUS and FC is effective in identifying mucosal healing in UC. Noninvasive evaluation of mucosal healing is possible for most UC patients.
Beyond trading: knowledge spillovers and learning-by-exporting in global value chains
Authors: Graf Holger , Mohamed Hoda
Published: July 2024

Does exporting intermediate goods induce learning from importers? In this paper, we examine to what extent learning from German industries can be explained by knowledge spillovers, channeled through the export of intermediate goods. Our study is based on a sample of 27 German trade partners in 14 manufacturing industries for the period 2004–2016. Using data on patent citations and trading in intermediate goods, we find support for the widely known “learning-by-exporting” hypothesis. Our analyses reveal that citations to German patents are positively related to exported intermediate goods weighted by German R&D expenditure. The relationship between these spillovers and learning seems to be particularly strong in certain industries. We also show that the level of absorptive capacity of the exporting industry-country plays a positive role in mediating these spillovers.
USP25 Promotes the Antimycobacterial Response of Macrophages Through Stabilizing B-Raf and C-Raf
Authors: Fu Yuling , Yang Xiaodan , Ling Qiao , Huang Yulan , You Xiaolong , Nie Dingnai , Sheng Junli , Chen Yitian , Wen Qian , Zhou Xinying , Zhou Chaoying , Hu Shengfeng , Ma Li
Published: July 2024

Ubiquitin-specific peptidase 25 (USP25) is one of the best-characterized deubiquitinating enzymes and plays a vital regulatory role in various biological processes, especially in cancer development and immune regulation. However, the exact role of USP25 and its underlying mechanisms in macrophage activation and immunogenicity during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection remain unclear. In this study, we found that M tuberculosis infection induced USP25 expression in human and mouse macrophages. In particular, USP25 expression is elevated in multiple cell types, especially monocytes, in patients with tuberculosis. Additionally, USP25 deficiency in macrophages and mice resulted in compromised immunity against M tuberculosis infection, accompanied by reduced expressions of various proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Mechanistically, USP25 in macrophages promoted the activation of the ERK signaling pathway through deubiquitination and stabilization of B-Raf and C-Raf. These findings collectively suggest the critical roles of USP25 in M tuberculosis infection and its potential as a therapeutic target.
Microparasite screening across four species of decapod crustaceans (Decapoda: Brachyura, Astacidea) in Ireland
Authors: Martin Signe , Cheslett Deborah , Georgieva Simona , O’Connor Ian , Swords Fiona , O’Dwyer Katie
Published: July 2024

Decapod crustaceans and their associated fisheries are an important resource globally, and demand for seafood continues to grow alongside a growing human population. With a combined 2023 value of €36 million in Ireland, three species of brachyuran crabs, the velvet crab (Necora puberLinnaeus, 1767), edible crab (Cancer pagurusLinnaeus, 1758), spider crab (Maja squinado Herbst, 1788)), and the European lobster (Homarus gammarusLinnaeus, 1758) are decapods of commercial importance. These species are also important components of their respective ecosystems. Parasite infection can affect the health of crustaceans and may affect population productivity. Microparasites, including paramyxids (Hematodinium spp.) and microsporidians can infect decapod crustaceans and have a range of effects on their hosts. We assessed three microparasites in four crustacean species. Paramarteilia canceri was found in all three crab species, and we provide the first genetic confirmation in spider crabs. A microsporidian associated with cotton crab disease, Ameson sp., was identified in N. puber, along with a second species of microsporidian which will require further classification. None of the three parasite groups were identified in Homarus gammarus. Species of Hematodinium were not identified in any of the species studies. Our work highlights the need for parasite surveys to uncover parasite diversity and prevalence in crustaceans to help elucidate host-parasite interactions, and the potential impacts of parasites.
Maternal obesogenic diet operates at the tumor cell of origin to increase incidence and decrease latency of neurofibromatosis type 1 optic pathway glioma
Authors: Chan Ambrose , Zhang Kailong , Martin Gemma , Bano Sabiha , Chatterjee Jit , Mahto Sarvika , Wang Avery , Gutmann David H , Brossier Nicole M
Published: July 2024

Background

Pediatric low-grade glioma incidence has been rising in the United States, mirroring the rising rates of pediatric and maternal obesity. Recently, children of obese mothers were demonstrated to develop brain tumors at higher rates. Importantly, obesity in the United States is largely driven by diet, given the prevalence of high-fat and high-sugar (HFHS) food choices. Since high-fat diet exposure can increase embryonic neuroglial progenitor cell (NPC) proliferation, the potential cells of origin for a low-grade glioma, we hypothesized that in utero exposure to an obesogenic diet would modify pediatric brain penetrance and latency by affecting the tumor cell of origin.

Methods

We employed several murine models of the neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) pediatric brain tumor predisposition syndrome, in which optic pathway gliomas (Nf1-OPGs) arise from neuroglial progenitor cells in the embryonic third ventricular zone (TVZ). We exposed dams and offspring to an obesogenic HFHS diet or control chow and analyzed fetal neurodevelopment at E19.5 and tumor formation at 6 weeks–3 months.

Results

Progeny from HFHS diet-exposed dams demonstrated increased TVZ NPC proliferation and glial differentiation. Dietary switch cohorts confirmed that these effects were dependent upon maternal diet, rather than maternal weight. Obesogenic diet (Ob) similarly accelerated glioma formation in a high-penetrance Nf1-OPG strain and increased glioma penetrance in 2 low-penetrance Nf1-OPG strains. In contrast, Ob exposure in the postnatal period alone did not recapitulate these effects.

Conclusions

These findings establish maternal obesogenic diet as a risk factor for murine Nf1-OPG formation, acting in part through in utero effects on the tumor cell of origin.
Effect of Antibiotic Therapy Before Arthrocentesis on Synovial Fluid Cell Count and Differential for Diagnosis of Native Joint Septic Arthritis
Authors: Khodadadi Ryan B , Damronglerd Pansachee , McHugh Jack W , El Zein Said , Lahr Brian D , Yuan Brandon J , Abu Saleh Omar M , Suh Gina A , Tande Aaron J
Published: July 2024

We examined the effect of preoperative antibiotic exposure and duration on synovial fluid samples from patients with native joint septic arthritis of the hip/knee. While exposure before diagnostic arthrocentesis did not affect fluid parameters, increased duration was associated with a decreased total nucleated cell count, underscoring the complex antibiotic effects on synovial fluid parameters.
An Undeclared War
Authors: Ostovar Afshon
Published: July 2024

This chapter examines the Iranian-Israeli conflict and its dangerous escalations. Across 2020 and 2021, Iran experienced numerous industrial accidents and sabotage attacks. The most destructive incidents hit strategic facilities linked to Iran’s military and its nuclear program and were attributed to Israel. Israel’s covert campaign included the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the IRGC’s top nuclear official, and an explosive attack inside the Natanz enrichment plant. Israel’s campaign aimed at imposing costs on Iran and slowing down its nuclear program. Iran was unswayed, broke from the JCPOA, proceeded with nuclear advancements, and retaliated by targeting Israeli-linked ships and tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Iran could not respond to Israel in kind, but the threat of its weapons proliferation to Gaza was showcased in the 11-day war, which included the launching of over 4,300 rockets into Israel by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in May 2021.
Epilogue
Authors: Ostovar Afshon
Published: July 2024

This chapter explores the diverging trajectories of Iran and its adversaries. The Saudi-Iranian détente, which followed Iran’s rapprochement with the UAE, signaled the desire of Gulf Arab states to move past their conflict with Iran. Without securing change in Iranian policies, such diplomatic gestures were acknowledgments of Iran’s victory in regional competition. China’s brokerage of the Saudi-Iranian détente signaled its role as potential peacemaker, yet China’s need to balance relations also suggested that it could not easily enforce stability. The rise of the far right in Israel’s government enflamed tensions with Palestinians and sparked massive protests by secular Israelis, complicating Israel’s foreign relations, and suiting Iran’s goal of weakening the Jewish state. Hamas’s attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, portended another cycle of regional conflict. As Israel went to war in Gaza, Iran and its regional clients threatened to intervene, launching attacks on Israel and U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq as a collective show of force.
Five Ballets from Paris and St. Petersburg
Authors: Fullington Doug , Smith Marian
Published: July 2024

This book offers something entirely new: detailed scene-by-scene descriptions of the action and dancing of five classic ballets, bringing the reader far closer to what the audience saw when the curtain went up on Giselle, Paquita, Le Corsaire, La Bayadère, and Raymonda than has heretofore been possible. Drawing on archival documents, the authors show that (among other things) the classic story ballets could be more like today’s pop entertainment: funnier, more violent, more spectacular, and with female characters far stronger than one might expect. This rigorously researched book fills huge gaps in dance history and is bound to be of interest to practitioners, scholars, and devotees of ballet and the arts.
La Bayadère
Authors: Fullington Doug , Smith Marian
Published: July 2024

This chapter explores the genesis of Marius Petipa’s 1877 La Bayadère, including the various influences and inspirations that informed the narrative. A discussion of the musical score by Ludwig Minkus focuses on the composer’s use of recurring motifs as well as tropes intended to evoke the exoticism of India and the East. A chronicle of La Bayadère’s St. Petersburg performance history between 1877 and 1902 leads to an examination of source material, including Petipa’s preparatory notes, an unusually detailed mime script, a rich choreographic notation made circa 1900 in the Stepanov method by Nikolai Sergeyev, and an Imperial-era répétiteur and piano reduction. A subsequent description of the ballet’s action, choreography, and mime, based on these materials, reveals how Petipa’s plans were ultimately manifested in the stage production. Finally, the chapter chronicles further St. Petersburg/Petrograd performance history as well Sergeyev’s multiple efforts to stage La Bayadère’s famed Kingdom of the Shades scene in the West.
Palestinian Imprisonment in Israel
Authors: Bernstein Alyssa G.
Published: July 2024

In 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip and dramatically increased the number of Palestinians under its control. The chapter provides background on this imprisonment over time, including an analysis of numbers of those arrested and imprisoned over time, both from 1967 and since the Oslo Accords. It examines how this has affected the ability of the Prisoners Movement to mobilize. The chapter also explains types of prisons, Israeli law on prison, interrogation, and administrative detention, or indefinite detention without known evidence, among other concepts. It explores the restrictive conditions that Palestinian security-classified prisoners are placed under in contrast to Jewish security-classified prisoners.
The ‘Y2K Problem’ and Arbitration
Authors: Wordsworth Sam , Veeder Marie
Published: July 2024

It is regretted that for technical reasons publication of this article was rendered impossible.
Whose Arbitration Is It Anyway—The Parties’ or the Arbitration Tribunal’s?
Authors: Wordsworth Sam , Veeder Marie
Published: July 2024

To many arbitrators, the debate of who owns the arbitration is sterile in a practical sense, as it is the parties’ dispute and they can settle in whatever manner and on whatever terms they wish. Yet, the perennial nature of the debate suggests that this apparently simple question is much more complicated. This chapter considers complications concerning (i) the problem of arbitrators seeking to second-guess the interests of the parties, (ii) the difference between an arbitral tribunal and a court, and (iii) the scope for being diverted by theoretical issues. It is explained that the arbitration is the parties’ arbitration, but the arbitrator is the master of the award. Consideration is also given to the history of awarding interest, both simple and compound.
Who Are the Arbitrators?
Authors: Wordsworth Sam , Veeder Marie
Published: July 2024

International arbitration is complicated, given its global reach among different participants from disparate cultures and jurisdictions. It is surprising that the practice of arbitration does not reflect the broad diversity available to the arbitral community and that the collective attention of many in that community has still not succeeded in removing the unfairness and sheer waste of discrimination based on grounds of gender and race. This chapter highlights this absence of diversity in the appointment of arbitrators and counsel, pointing to unconscious or institutionalized discrimination and the need of course to address this in a system that professes to be based on reason and equality.
Institutional Constraints across Dimensions and Presidential Cabinet Choices
Authors: Lee Don S.
Published: July 2024

This chapter explores how the four political institutions examined separately in the four previous empirical chapters, namely the legislature, the ruling party, the party system, and the bureaucracy, interact with each other and affect the president’s cabinet appointments. Given that presidential appointment decisions are made in complicated circumstances, examining the effects of interaction among various institutions has clear implications. Testing the impact of six interaction conditions through statistical analysis, this chapter presents the two main findings. First, the ruling party dimension plays a central role in closely interacting with other institutions and mostly produces the predicted effects on cabinet appointments. Second, the party system dimension does not seem to conform to the main prediction when it interacts with other institutions, particularly the legislature and the bureaucracy.
The Synagogue of the Revolution
Authors: Jortner Adam
Published: July 2024

This chapter discusses Mikveh Israel, the synagogue founded in the American Revolution. Philadelphia was the last place under patriot rule that held any kind of established Jewish presence. Thus, Philadelphia became a magnet for Jewish political refugees moving from Savannah, Charleston, New York, and other British-held areas. Patriot Jews re-founded Mikveh Israel as a national organization, with patriot leadership from across the country. This made the Jews one of the first national religious organizations in the independent United States. Mikveh Israel had numerous internal divides, but it presented a united public face in seeking full civil rights for Jews. Mikveh Israel studied constitutions and laws and submitted its suggestions to the Americans writing new constitutions. American Judaism owes its origin to the revolution, since patriot Jews lived in a single community, founded a synagogue, and remade their own synagogues in the image of Mikhveh Israel when they returned home.
Epilogue
Authors: Craft Elizabeth T.
Published: July 2024

The legacies of George M. Cohan—the mythologization of Broadway, the Americanization of the musical, the songs epitomizing patriotism—live on in powerful ways. The epilogue traces these legacies, which include the Cohan memorial statue in New York, George M! (1968) and other biographical musicals, and the varied uses of his patriotic songs. Cohan’s legacies have been shaped, the epilogue demonstrates, by the discourses explicated in this book—of celebrity, of business and labor, of entertainment, and of American identity and patriotism. Like Cohan himself and the place he occupied in US society, his legacies are also filled with contradictions.
Minimalism and Excess
Authors: Oyallon-Koloski Jenny
Published: July 2024

Jacques Demy’s Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967) repeats choreographed phrases—citations of Hollywood musicals, choreographer Norman Maen’s original creations, and Demy’s simple staging of actors—to withhold the romantic pairings associated with the genre and keep the viewer in suspense about the outcome. Because of the disconnect between French film and dance culture in the mid-1960s, the musical production had an international corps of dancers and a coproduction arrangement with Seven Arts Productions, which stipulated casting a few American actors as well: Grover Dale, George Chakiris, and Gene Kelly. Despite the coproduction’s American funding, the filmmakers were still working with limited resources relative to the norms in Hollywood. Demy’s rigorous staging of minimalist figure and camera movement makes even the simplest gestures during musical numbers part of the film’s intricate patterns, allowing the viewer to discover new details and parallels upon each subsequent viewing of this transnational musical.
Diegetic Flutters
Authors: Oyallon-Koloski Jenny
Published: July 2024

The musical genre, stylistically, is all about the tension between the film’s diegetic conception of realism and the fantastical departures from it. Choreographer Mandy Moore describes this moment of transition from diegesis into a musical number as a “bridge.” Musical numbers usually solidify in their diegetic departures from the narrative, but the numbers from the musicals discussed in this book often resist that permanence, fluttering in and out of the diegetic plurality created by musical sequences. What can we learn by observing those impermanent moments of transition? This chapter videographically explores this specific practice to draw attention to the ambiguity, joy, and utopian resistance of such moments.
I Know What It’s Like to Be Dead
Authors: Rogovoy Seth
Published: July 2024

Chapter 10 of Within You Without You, “I Know What It’s Like to Be Dead,” closely examines George Harrison’s extensive contributions to the John Lennon song, “She Said She Said,” on the album Revolver. Lennon was struggling to complete the song, which was inspired by a real-life memory that Peter Fonda shared with Lennon at a party, and Harrison visited Lennon at the latter’s home to help piece together a complete song out of bits and pieces of other songs Lennon had in various stages of development. Harrison introduced a change in meter in the song’s B-section and supplied metallic, sitar-like guitar phrases that snaked through the song, supplying an element of dreamy menace appropriate to the song’s theme, encapsulated in the phrase “I know what it’s like to be dead.” Working together, Lennon and Harrison created a proto-psychedelic tune of great musical and lyrical depth.
Hare Krishna, Yeah Yeah Yeah
Authors: Rogovoy Seth
Published: July 2024

Chapter 20 of Within You Without You, “Hare Krishna, Yeah Yeah Yeah,” closely examines the George Harrison song “My Sweet Lord,” which appeared on his debut solo album, All Things Must Pass. A huge global number-one hit, the song was a pop-music prayer sung in significant part in Sanskrit and Hebrew and, for nearly a third of its playing time, consisting of chanting the names of Hindu gods. As an expression of mystical desire, it reaped commercial success that speaks to its universal power and allure. The song also featured the recorded debut of Harrison playing guitar with a slide, introducing the entirely new guitar sound that would become his post-Beatles trademark. The song also entangled Harrison in a near-decade-long lawsuit for copyright infringement brought against him by the publisher of the Chiffons’ 1963 girl-group hit “He’s So Fine.”
Introducing Impunitycraft
Authors: Ruíz Elena
Published: July 2024

The introduction offers an overview of the book’s arguments and provides chapter summaries. It details core ideas in systems thinking and anticolonial literatures that deeply underscore the structural features of colonial violence. It lays the foundations for the conceptualization of settler colonial social systems as adaptive, self-healing systems that have a design architecture built to reproduce colonial relations of domination. It shows how these relations uphold settler colonial white supremacy’s long-term ability to reinvent itself in new guises and to enact structural violences across a broadening range of intersecting domains and identities, and it highlights the integral relationship between gender-based violence and settler colonial relations of domination that is central to the book’s arguments. It includes a metaphilosophical account of why the book was written and what the author’s personal and political stakes are in writing it.
Structural Violence Is Profit-Driven
Authors: Ruíz Elena
Published: July 2024

Chapter 3 illustrates that structural violence is profit-driven and that there is a formidable epistemic dimension to settler colonialism. Along with facilitating the taking of land, its function is the creation and maintenance of an intergenerational system of interpretive wealth that ties power to social meaning. The framework of “epistemic capitalism” emphasizes that settler colonial social systems are goal-oriented and brings into focus the shared analytic of functional settlement that incorporates dynastic structures of white supremacy and dispossessive technologies of violence through the goal of extracting profit. Drawing on work in progressive economics—specifically, Social Structure of Accumulation (SSA) theory—and theories of racial capitalism in the global south, this chapter develops the notion of “epistemic wealth” to explain the controlled transmissibility of profit in settler colonial societies and argue that a primary driver of social inequality is the intergenerational hoarding of epistemic goods that have been acquired and maintained through violence.
Structural Violence Is Not Fate
Authors: Ruíz Elena
Published: July 2024

Chapter 5 illustrates and also moves beyond the idea of structural harm as culturally produced trauma that serves the goals of settler colonial white supremacy. Indigenous peoples living in what is now referred to as southern Mexico have long organized against colonial invasion and settlement in creative ways that interrupt the adaptability features of structural violence. Because Indigenous Zapatistas have developed dynamic cultural techniques for disrupting the structural invariance of social systems, it has become a main target of state and international agencies’ violent interventions. Zapatismo is thus not only an illustration of the indomitable refusal that is possible in the face of white dynastic formations, but a beacon for peoples everywhere cultivating cultural resistance in the fight for structural justice. Zapatista politics is a steady reminder of the varied self-defense strategies marginalized groups develop in response to the regional adaptive features of settler colonial social structures throughout the world.
Pessoa in India
Authors: Ganeri Jonardon
Published: July 2024

India occupies a curious place in Fernando Pessoa’s imagination. Though he declared he wanted to visit the country, India seems rather to have functioned as a symbol of the exotic and faraway, a destination to travel to in one’s imagination rather than in actuality, an emblem of the outer reaches of inner vision. An imaginary India makes an appearance, too, in Pessoa’s reflections on the internal logic of imperialism. The philosophical idea Pessoa most strongly associates with India is that the entire world is an illusion. His “Indian ideal” is one of transcendence, the transcendence of the illusion that is living a human life. Pessoa quotes directly from the Upaniṣads, which he perhaps knew of from having translated the theosophical work of Besant and others. It is ironic that Pessoa’s Indian peers, such as Anukulchandra Mukerji and Surendranath Dasgupta, were developing ideas with surprising affinities to his own.
Plazas and Squares
Authors: Talen Emily
Published: July 2024

This chapter explores the importance of plazas and squares, which are the main types of civic space. Technical distinctions between plazas and squares tend to be more about design and use rather than meaning and interpretation. Plazas and squares have been assigned a wide array of social interpretation, such as being the heart of a community or empire-building. The chapter highlights the significance of civic spaces to be places of spontaneous and face-to-face social interaction. It also mentions that plazas and squares are usually great examples of enclosure and the public outdoor room that is formally disposed and defined by building frontages.
Making the Presidency
Authors: Chervinsky Lindsay M.
Published: July 2024

After George Washington retired, many Americans genuinely wondered if the presidency would work and the nation would survive. John Adams stepped into the role, knowing it would be nearly impossible. The task required all his diplomatic experience, independence, fierce stubbornness, intelligence, and the unflagging support of his brilliant wife, Abigail. In four years, he secured valuable peace in the face of opposition from his closest advisors and allies in the Federalist Party. He defended the presidency against threats both foreign and domestic. He established critical precedents for executive power. When he left office, the nation was stronger than it had been four years earlier. George Washington created the presidency; John Adams defined it. John Adams’s presidency was bookended by the first two peaceful transfers of power at a time when coups, dictatorships, violence, monarchies, and anarchy were expected. Adams understood that the norms and customs that served as the scaffolding for democratic institutions required repetition over decades to build permanence. The American people had to be taught to cherish democratic elections and the peaceful transfer of power. Yet, he is rarely credited with these monumental achievements. The time is ripe for reconsideration of Adams’s contributions. Before January 6, 2021, many Americans and scholars took the peaceful transfer of power for granted, John Adams did not.
An Address to the People of the United States
Authors: Chervinsky Lindsay M.
Published: July 2024

In 1792, George Washington drafted a retirement announcement. He was ultimately persuaded by his closest advisors to serve a second term but would not be deterred in 1796. Washington worked with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay to draft a Farewell Address, announcing his retirement and offering guidance for future generations of Americans. Although Washington had hinted at his retirement in a conversation with John Adams a few months prior, the Farewell Address was a surprise. Washington’s failure to communicate his decision to Adams was only the first of many intentional silences that would affect the presidency in the coming years.
The Tocsin of Insurrection
Authors: Chervinsky Lindsay M.
Published: July 2024

Vice President Thomas Jefferson spent the fall drafting a series of resolutions condemning the Alien and Sedition Acts as unconstitutional. His resolutions were adopted and published in the Kentucky legislature, while a similar version drafted by James Madison were passed in the Virginia legislature. At Jefferson’s request, the Virginia legislature inserted language suggesting that states had the right to “nullify” federal laws. The final bill omitted this rhetoric, but the earlier version was leaked to the newspapers. The resolutions, therefore, introduced the concept of nullification into the political lexicon, which was used to justify secession by the South sixty years later.
Establishing Missionary Schools for Girls in East China
Authors: Bond Jennifer
Published: July 2024

Chapter 1 traces the development of missionary schools for girls in East China in the context of the changes that were taking place in private and government education for girls. Missionary schools retained some unique selling points throughout the Republican era. They remained the main providers of higher level middle schoolgirls’ education, outside the teacher training system, well into the 1920s. This meant that for the tiny minority of elite women who aspired to go to university in the first few decades of the twentieth century, missionary middle schools often offered the best academic training that could prepare them for higher education. They maintained their Sino-foreign campus cultures and strengths in English, Music, Dance, and Drama. Rather than civics classes, missionary schools utilized different religious aspects of school life, from daily prayer and chapel services to songs, hymns, and literature, as the main means by which they attempted to mold moral citizens.
Coda
Authors: Grundy David
Published: July 2024

Moving into the twenty-first century, the book’s coda reflects on the generational splits resulting from the AIDS era, suggesting that looking back to the radical communities of earlier eras can provide new directions for queer writers and for a queer left today. The coda contains brief readings of work written in the context of homonationalism and the War on Terror by Rob Halpern, along with work by Eileen Myles, whose work experiments with modes queer being that are not tied to any one bodily identity, seeking to establish what Erica Kaufman, in a review of Myles’ work, calls “the end of gender.” The chapter concludes with a brief consideration of the scholarship of Kevin Killian and a rollcall of names for future investigation, reflecting on conjuncture from which the book as a whole is written and the future into which it seeks to emerge.
Between Borders
Authors: Brinkmann Tobias
Published: July 2024

The journeys of Jewish migrants and refugees from Eastern Europe around the globe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are the focus of this provocative and inspiring book. After 1860 expanding railroad networks and steamships connected Eastern Europe almost literally to the world. Before 1914 almost 2 million Jews from this vast region moved to the United States. Small groups went to other destinations around the globe. The First World War was a watershed event: across Eastern Europe hundreds of thousands of Jews lost their homes, and migration restrictions that were imposed soon after the war, especially in the United States, targeted Jews from Eastern Europe. A substantial number of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe were stranded on the social margins across Europe after 1918. Unable to move to countries of their choice, they were exposed as unwanted refugees and disproportionally perished in the Holocaust. Even after 1945 Jewish refugees and Holocaust survivors were stuck in displaced persons camps for years. The experience of Jewish migrants and refugees from Eastern Europe was closely tied to the emergence of the scholarship about migration and flight. Jewish scholars, aid workers, and journalists, most themselves migrants and refugees from Eastern Europe, coined terms such as “displaced person” and reimagined the United States as a pluralist society of immigrants.
Natural Inequality and Natural Slavery in Seventeenth-Century Europe
Authors: Jorati Julia
Published: July 2024

The principle that all human beings are naturally equal was enormously popular in seventeenth-century Europe, but it was not accepted universally. This chapter explores texts that reject this popular doctrine and are sympathetic to natural slavery, or the theory that some people are naturally destined for slavery. After examining a dialogue by Francis Bacon, in which a character defends natural slavery, the chapter briefly discusses Yves de Paris and Pierre Gassendi, whose versions of natural slavery are inspired by Platonism and Epicureanism. The majority of the chapter explores two German authors: Johannes von Felden and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Felden defends an Aristotelian version of natural slavery, and Leibniz appears to agree with Felden to some extent. However, Leibniz also puts forward powerful arguments against chattel slavery and argues that for theological reasons the theory of natural slavery should not be applied to anyone in the actual world.