bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Shortcut barcoding and early pooling for scalable multiplex single-cell reduced-representation CpG methylation sequencing at single nucleotide resolution
Authors: Mai Liyao , Wen Zebin , Zhang Yulong , Gao Yu , Lin Guanchuan , Lian Zhiwei , Yang Xiang , Zhou Jingjing , Lin Xianwei , Luo Chaochao , Peng Wanwan , Chen Caiming , Peng Jiajia , Liu Duolian , Marjani Sadie L , Tao Qian , Cui Yongping , Zhang Junxiao , Wu Xuedong , Weissman Sherman M , Pan Xinghua
Published: October 2023

DNA methylation is essential for a wide variety of biological processes, yet the development of a highly efficient and robust technology remains a challenge for routine single-cell analysis. We developed a multiplex scalable single-cell reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (msRRBS) technology. It allows cell-specific barcoded DNA fragments of individual cells to be pooled before bisulfite conversion, free of enzymatic modification or physical capture of the DNA ends, and achieves read mapping rates of 62.5 ± 3.9%, covering 60.0 ± 1.4% of CpG islands and 71.6 ± 1.6% of promoters in K562 cells. Its reproducibility is shown in duplicates of bulk cells with close to perfect correlation (R = 0.97–0.99). At a low 1 Mb of clean reads, msRRBS provides highly consistent coverage of CpG islands and promoters, outperforming the conventional methods with orders of magnitude reduction in cost. Here, we use this method to characterize the distinct methylation patterns and cellular heterogeneity of six cell lines, plus leukemia and hepatocellular carcinoma models. Taking 4 h of hands-on time, msRRBS offers a unique, highly efficient approach for dissecting methylation heterogeneity in a variety of multicellular systems.
IMP: bridging the gap for medicinal plant genomics
Authors: Chen Tong , Yang Mei , Cui Guanghong , Tang Jinfu , Shen Ye , Liu Juan , Yuan Yuan , Guo Juan , Huang Luqi
Published: October 2023

Medicinal plants have garnered significant attention in ethnomedicine and traditional medicine due to their potential antitumor, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Recent advancements in genome sequencing and synthetic biology have revitalized interest in natural products. Despite the availability of sequenced genomes and transcriptomes of these plants, the absence of publicly accessible gene annotations and tabular formatted gene expression data has hindered their effective utilization. To address this pressing issue, we have developed IMP (Integrated Medicinal Plantomics), a freely accessible platform at https://www.bic.ac.cn/IMP. IMP curated a total of 8 565 672 genes for 84 high-quality genome assemblies, and 2156 transcriptome sequencing samples encompassing various organs, tissues, developmental stages and stimulations. With the integrated 10 analysis modules, users could simply examine gene annotations, sequences, functions, distributions and expressions in IMP in a one-stop mode. We firmly believe that IMP will play a vital role in enhancing the understanding of molecular metabolic pathways in medicinal plants or plants with medicinal benefits, thereby driving advancements in synthetic biology, and facilitating the exploration of natural sources for valuable chemical constituents like drug discovery and drug production.
Long non-coding RNA generated fromCDKN1Agene by alternative polyadenylation regulates p21 expression during DNA damage response
Authors: Murphy Michael R , Ramadei Anthony , Doymaz Ahmet , Varriano Sophia , Natelson Devorah M , Yu Amy , Aktas Sera , Mazzeo Marie , Mazzeo Michael , Zakusilo George , Kleiman Frida E
Published: October 2023

Alternative Polyadenylation (APA) is an emerging mechanism for dynamic changes in gene expression. Previously, we described widespread APA occurrence in introns during the DNA damage response (DDR). Here, we show that a DDR-activated APA event occurs in the first intron of CDKN1A, inducing an alternate last exon-containing lncRNA. We named this lncRNA SPUD (Selective Polyadenylation Upon DNA Damage). SPUD localizes to polysomes in the cytoplasm and is detectable as multiple isoforms in available high-throughput studies. SPUD has low abundance compared to the CDKN1A full-length isoform under non-stress conditions, and SPUD is induced in cancer and normal cells under a variety of DNA damaging conditions in part through p53. The RNA binding protein HuR binds to and promotes the stability of SPUD precursor RNA. SPUD induction increases p21 protein, but not mRNA levels, affecting p21 functions in cell-cycle, CDK2 expression and cell growth. Like CDKN1A full-length isoform, SPUD can bind two competitive p21 translational regulators, the inhibitor calreticulin and the activator CUGBP1; SPUD alters their association with CDKN1A full-length in a DDR-dependent manner, promoting CDKN1A translation. Together, these results show a new regulatory mechanism by which a lncRNA controls p21 expression post-transcriptionally, highlighting lncRNA relevance in DDR progression and cell-cycle.
Selective targeting of parallel G-quadruplex structure using L-RNA aptamer
Authors: Ji Danyang , Yuan Jia-Hao , Chen Shuo-Bin , Tan Jia-Heng , Kwok Chun Kit
Published: October 2023

G-quadruplexes (G4) are special nucleic acid structures with diverse conformational polymorphisms. Selective targeting of G-quadruplex conformations and regulating their biological functions provide promising therapeutic intervention. Despite the large repertoire of G4-binding tools, only a limited number of them can specifically target a particular G4 conformation. Here, we introduce a novel method, G4-SELEX-Seq and report the development of the first L-RNA aptamer, L-Apt12-6, with high binding selectivity to parallel G4 over other nucleic acid structures. Using parallel dG4 c-kit 1 as an example, we demonstrate the strong binding affinity between L-Apt12-6 and c-kit 1 dG4 in vitro and in cells, and notably report the applications of L-Apt12-6 in controlling DNA replication and gene expression. Our results suggest that L-Apt12-6 is a valuable tool for targeting parallel G-quadruplex conformation and regulating G4-mediated biological processes. Furthermore, G4-SELEX-Seq can be used as a general platform for G4-targeting L-RNA aptamers selection and should be applicable to other nucleic acid structures.
TargetGene: a comprehensive database of cell-type-specific target genes for genetic variants
Authors: Lin Shiqi , Wu Song , Zhao Wei , Fang Zhanjie , Kang Hongen , Liu Xinxuan , Pan Siyu , Yu Fudong , Bao Yiming , Jia Peilin
Published: October 2023

Annotating genetic variants to their target genes is of great importance in unraveling the causal variants and genetic mechanisms that underlie complex diseases. However, disease-associated genetic variants are often located in non-coding regions and manifest context-specific effects, making it challenging to accurately identify the target genes and regulatory mechanisms. Here, we present TargetGene (https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/targetgene/), a comprehensive database reporting target genes for human genetic variants from various aspects. Specifically, we collected a comprehensive catalog of multi-omics data at the single-cell and bulk levels and from various human tissues, cell types and developmental stages. To facilitate the identification of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP)-to-gene connections, we have implemented multiple analytical tools based on chromatin co-accessibility, 3D interaction, enhancer activities and quantitative trait loci, among others. We applied the pipeline to evaluate variants from nearly 1300 Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and assembled a comprehensive atlas of multiscale regulation of genetic variants. TargetGene is equipped with user-friendly web interfaces that enable intuitive searching, navigation and browsing through the results. Overall, TargetGene provides a unique resource to empower researchers to study the regulatory mechanisms of genetic variants in complex human traits.
HervD Atlas: a curated knowledgebase of associations between human endogenous retroviruses and diseases
Authors: Li Cuidan , Qian Qiheng , Yan Chenghao , Lu Mingming , Li Lin , Li Pan , Fan Zhuojing , Lei Wenyan , Shang Kang , Wang Peihan , Wang Jie , Lu Tianyi , Huang Yuting , Yang Hongwei , Wei Haobin , Han Jingwan , Xiao Jingfa , Chen Fei
Published: October 2023

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), as remnants of ancient exogenous retrovirus infected and integrated into germ cells, comprise ∼8% of the human genome. These HERVs have been implicated in numerous diseases, and extensive research has been conducted to uncover their specific roles. Despite these efforts, a comprehensive source of HERV-disease association still needs to be added. To address this gap, we introduce the HervD Atlas (https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/hervd/), an integrated knowledgebase of HERV-disease associations manually curated from all related published literature. In the current version, HervD Atlas collects 60 726 HERV-disease associations from 254 publications (out of 4692 screened literature), covering 21 790 HERVs (21 049 HERV-Terms and 741 HERV-Elements) belonging to six types, 149 diseases and 610 related/affected genes. Notably, an interactive knowledge graph that systematically integrates all the HERV-disease associations and corresponding affected genes into a comprehensive network provides a powerful tool to uncover and deduce the complex interplay between HERVs and diseases. The HervD Atlas also features a user-friendly web interface that allows efficient browsing, searching, and downloading of all association information, research metadata, and annotation information. Overall, the HervD Atlas is an essential resource for comprehensive, up-to-date knowledge on HERV-disease research, potentially facilitating the development of novel HERV-associated diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
BRD9-mediated control of the TGF-β/Activin/Nodal pathway regulates self-renewal and differentiation of human embryonic stem cells and progression of cancer cells
Authors: Wang Xuepeng , Song Chengcheng , Ye Ying , Gu Yashi , Li Xuemei , Chen Peixin , Leng Dongliang , Xiao Jing , Wu Hao , Xie Sisi , Liu Weiwei , Zhao Qi , Chen Di , Chen Xi , Wu Qiang , Chen Guokai , Zhang Wensheng
Published: October 2023

Bromodomain-containing protein 9 (BRD9) is a specific subunit of the non-canonical SWI/SNF (ncBAF) chromatin-remodeling complex, whose function in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that impaired BRD9 function reduces the self-renewal capacity of hESCs and alters their differentiation potential. Specifically, BRD9 depletion inhibits meso-endoderm differentiation while promoting neural ectoderm differentiation. Notably, supplementation of NODAL, TGF-β, Activin A or WNT3A rescues the differentiation defects caused by BRD9 loss. Mechanistically, BRD9 forms a complex with BRD4, SMAD2/3, β-CATENIN and P300, which regulates the expression of pluripotency genes and the activity of TGF-β/Nodal/Activin and Wnt signaling pathways. This is achieved by regulating the deposition of H3K27ac on associated genes, thus maintaining and directing hESC differentiation. BRD9-mediated regulation of the TGF-β/Activin/Nodal pathway is also demonstrated in the development of pancreatic and breast cancer cells. In summary, our study highlights the crucial role of BRD9 in the regulation of hESC self-renewal and differentiation, as well as its participation in the progression of pancreatic and breast cancers.
FusionNeoAntigen: a resource of fusion gene-specific neoantigens
Authors: Kumar Himansu , Luo Ruihan , Wen Jianguo , Yang Chengyuan , Zhou Xiaobo , Kim Pora
Published: October 2023

Among the diverse sources of neoantigens (i.e. single-nucleotide variants (SNVs), insertions or deletions (Indels) and fusion genes), fusion gene-derived neoantigens are generally more immunogenic, have multiple targets per mutation and are more widely distributed across various cancer types. Therefore, fusion gene-derived neoantigens are a potential source of highly immunogenic neoantigens and hold great promise for cancer immunotherapy. However, the lack of fusion protein sequence resources and knowledge prevents this application. We introduce ‘FusionNeoAntigen’, a dedicated resource for fusion-specific neoantigens, accessible at https://compbio.uth.edu/FusionNeoAntigen. In this resource, we provide fusion gene breakpoint crossing neoantigens focused on ∼43K fusion proteins of ∼16K in-frame fusion genes from FusionGDB2.0. FusionNeoAntigen provides fusion gene information, corresponding fusion protein sequences, fusion breakpoint peptide sequences, fusion gene-derived neoantigen prediction, virtual screening between fusion breakpoint peptides having potential fusion neoantigens and human leucocyte antigens (HLAs), fusion breakpoint RNA/protein sequences for developing vaccines, information on samples with fusion-specific neoantigen, potential CAR-T targetable cell-surface fusion proteins and literature curation. FusionNeoAntigen will help to develop fusion gene-based immunotherapies. We will report all potential fusion-specific neoantigens from all possible open reading frames of ∼120K human fusion genes in future versions.
ICEberg 3.0: functional categorization and analysis of the integrative and conjugative elements in bacteria
Authors: Wang Meng , Liu Guitian , Liu Meng , Tai Cui , Deng Zixin , Song Jiangning , Ou Hong-Yu
Published: October 2023

ICEberg 3.0 (https://tool2-mml.sjtu.edu.cn/ICEberg3/) is an upgraded database that provides comprehensive insights into bacterial integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs). In comparison to the previous version, three key enhancements were introduced: First, through text mining and manual curation, it now encompasses details of 2065 ICEs, 607 IMEs and 275 CIMEs, including 430 with experimental support. Secondly, ICEberg 3.0 systematically categorizes cargo gene functions of ICEs into six groups based on literature curation and predictive analysis, providing a profound understanding of ICEs’diverse biological traits. The cargo gene prediction pipeline is integrated into the online tool ICEfinder 2.0. Finally, ICEberg 3.0 aids the analysis and exploration of ICEs from the human microbiome. Extracted and manually curated from 2405 distinct human microbiome samples, the database comprises 1386 putative ICEs, offering insights into the complex dynamics of Bacteria-ICE-Cargo networks within the human microbiome. With the recent updates, ICEberg 3.0 enhances its capability to unravel the intricacies of ICE biology, particularly in the characterization and understanding of cargo gene functions and ICE interactions within the microbiome. This enhancement may facilitate the investigation of the dynamic landscape of ICE biology and its implications for microbial communities.
Heme Metabolism Mediates the Effects of Smoking on Gut Microbiome
Authors: Li Jingjing , Yang Zhongli , Yuan Wenji , Bao Zhiwei , Li Ming D
Published: October 2023

Introduction

The number of smokers worldwide increased greatly during the past decades and reached 1.14 billion in 2019, becoming a leading risk factor for human health. Tobacco smoking has wide effects on human genetics, epigenetics, transcriptome, and gut microbiome. Although many studies have revealed effects of smoking on host transcriptome, research on the relationship between smoking, host gene expression, and the gut microbiome is limited.

Aims and Methods

We first explored transcriptome and metagenome profile differences between smokers and nonsmokers. To evaluate the relationship between host gene expression and gut microbiome, we then applied bidirectional mediation analysis to infer causal relationships between smoking, gene expression, and gut microbes.

Results

Metagenome and transcriptome analyses revealed 71 differential species and 324 differential expressed genes between smokers and nonsmokers. With smoking as an exposure variable, we identified 272 significant causal relationships between gene expression and gut microbes, among which there were 247 genes that mediate the effect of smoking on gut microbes. Pathway-based enrichment analysis showed that these genes were significantly enriched in heme metabolic pathway, which mainly mediated the changes of Bacteroides finegoldii and Lachnospiraceae bacterium 9_1_43BFAA. Additionally, by performing metabolome data analysis in the Integrated Human Microbiome Project (iHMP) database, we verified the correlation between the intermediate products of the heme metabolism pathway (porphobilinogen, bilirubin, and biliverdin) and gut microbiome.

Conclusions

By investigating the bidirectional interaction between smoking-related host gene expression and gut microbes, this study provided evidence for the mediation of smoking on gut microbes through co-involvement or interaction of heme metabolism.

Implications

By comparing the metagenome and transcriptome sequencing profiles between 34 smokers and 33 age- and gender-matched nonsmokers, we are the first to reveal causal relationships among tobacco smoking, host gene expression, and gut microbes. These findings offer insight into how smoking affects gut microbes through host gene expression and metabolism, which highlights the importance of heme metabolism in modulating the effects of smoking on gut microbiome.
Hybridity in the Modern Chinese Orchestral Music (Guoyue) of Taiwan
Authors: Chen Ching-Yi
Published: October 2023

Guoyue, the modern Chinese orchestral music of Taiwan, was introduced to Taiwan in 1949 after the Kuomintang (KMT) fled China and established its rule in Taiwan. Since then, Taiwan’s social, political, and economic situation changed through cross-cultural exchanges and the incorporation of local and aboriginal Taiwanese culture. Guoyue has evolved into a uniquely hybridized musical style.

Hybridity is commonly explained as a result of multiculturalism, and provides a so-called “third space” where cultures can interact, often leading to new cultural forms. In the case of Taiwan, a new dominant national identity was born out of a necessity to revive and preserve distinction in the face of the ever-increasing influence of Western, Japanese, and traditional Chinese cultures. The development of guoyue in Taiwan proceeded dynamically and flexibly in this environment rather than according to a fixed path. As a result, the cross-culturally hybridized character of guoyue in Taiwan stands out from that of other national Chinese orchestral music in China and other pan-Asian Chinese communities.
Humanism in Red
Authors: Qian Lijuan
Published: October 2023

The rise of humanism in 1980s China brought forth a set of new narratives in pop-song composition that is under-recognized in Western scholarship. Songwriters collaborated with a rising music industry to develop in mainstream popular culture a home-nation ideology, like that formerly found in the Chinese literati tradition. Meanwhile, the music, lyrics, topics, instrumentation, and vocal deliveries of these songs express individual pain, sadness, worry, and loss in response to Chinese people’s spiritual suffering during the Cultural Revolution, in ways that echo the newly imported existential humanism of Jean-Paul Sartre. Extending their reach significantly beyond the minority musical spaces occupied by rock music in the same period, these musicians projected emergent articulations of individualism and self-direction in finding and building a new future for the nation and for themselves.
Why and How Do Chinese Sing Shijing Songs?
Authors: Lam Joseph S. C.
Published: October 2023

This chapter presents an overview of the Chinese tradition of chanting and singing Shijing songs, songs that Confucius (551–479 BCE) anthologized and used to teach his humanist ideals. Since then, Chinese people have been chanting and singing the songs to investigate, comprehend, and debate their aesthetic values, memories, histories, and contemporary realities, revealing through such activities their musical and social-political agendas and identities. To illustrate these processes of personal and social expression, this essay describes Shijing songs as text, music, and performance, traces their historical development and notated sources, and sketches practical and theoretical challenges for creating and restoring the songs as historical or contemporary music.
Preamble
Authors: Gordon Robert , Jubin Olaf
Published: October 2023

The musical has become the predominant form of theatre all over the world. The genre continues to accrue increasing revenues in the United States and United Kingdom, and other countries have established their own musical theatre industries, partly by importing hit shows from Broadway or the West End and partly by initiating or reviving local traditions of writing and staging. In their introductory chapter, Robert Gordon and Olaf Jubin set out the general outline of the volume, which aims to map this phenomenon from multiple perspectives. They begin by problematising the various terms which have dominated the discussion of the international stage musical for the last four decades, in particular, ‘globalisation’, ‘McTheatre’, ‘deterritorialisation’, and the ‘megamusical’. The text then provides a brief overview of the thirty-three individual essays which comprise the handbook before ending with a list of subjects addressed and issues highlighted by several of the contributors which warrant subsequent in-depth investigation. These subjects are subdivided into four main research areas: (1) the Anglophone musical and its reception, (2) the non-Anglophone musical, (3) production circumstances and other relevant factors, and (4) the reach and transferability of musical theatre.
The Most Beloved American Musical
Authors: Snelson John
Published: October 2023

Guys and Dolls opened on Broadway in 1950 to almost unanimous praise. The reception of its opening in London in 1953 was more equivocal. This chapter examines from a London perspective what has been widely viewed as a musical uniquely based on a Broadway iconography created through the writings of Damon Runyon. This reveals where the world of Runyon and Guys and Dolls has parallels in London’s Soho of a similar era and demonstrates common characteristics with British musicals of the decade that also explore metropolitan tropes. Productions in London from 1979 to 2018 illustrate how the show’s context is no longer that of a work with a contemporary metropolitan resonance, but comes from its place as a classic of the canon such that productions have increasingly prioritised nostalgia and theatricality as the show’s core identity.
The Dream Machine
Authors: Coleman Bud
Published: October 2023

After a modest start in 1914 with a troupe of seventeen young Japanese women, the Takarazuka empire has grown into a large entertainment company which performs to 2.5 million fans every year. Now employing over four hundred women (divided into five troupes), the company owns two 2,000-seat theatres, and at least one troupe is touring at any given time. The Takarazuka aesthetic is a Technicolor pastiche of many performing arts genres: Broadway musical, Las Vegas revue, Busby Berkeley extravaganza and show choir. The most famous performers in the troupe are the women who perform the male characters; their performance of masculinity is not conventional drag, where the intent is to pass; nor is it a camp performance, where the performer and audience share a knowing wink at the artifice. The otokoyaku simultaneously presents both traditional male and female visual codes. While they may thicken their eyebrows and add facial hair, they also don fake eyelashes and apply eyeshadow; the goal is not verisimilitude. With eighty to a hundred elaborately costumed performers on stage, the goal of the company is clear: to create dreams.
A Bran Nue Dae? Decolonising the Musical Theatre Curriculum
Authors: Karantonis Pamela
Published: October 2023

Decolonising the musical theatre curriculum in higher education is much more radical and comprehensive than simply exposing students to a greater volume of commercially celebrated work featuring Black, Indigenous, and Asian artists. The process of decolonisation begins by understanding how we could make universities accountable to the circumstances of the real artists who create the work. The challenge for departments and professors in musical theatre is that they are preparing students for an industry that does not see decolonisation as an aim. For the globalised musical, the nexus of Broadway and the West End is the cornerstone of an unyielding power structure that relies upon multiple canons of work enabled by a network of capitalist-colonialist nation-states whose social, economic, and cultural structures depend upon the centrality of these canons. This chapter will consider how a very grounded story about a very particular set of lived circumstances, Jimmy Chi and Kuckles’s Bran Nue Dae, is instructive as to how we begin to decolonise our understanding of commercial musical theatre globally and within the university sector. Entailed in this are matters of who curates and theorises this material, who performs it as part of an educational curriculum, how we decolonise the training of skills in both analysing and performing the genre, and the productions we stage.
Paving the Way: Cameron Mackintosh and the Development and Impact of the Global Musical
Authors: Shannon Richard M.
Published: October 2023

This chapter seeks to establish the significance of Cameron Mackintosh in the development of the global musical; it draws extensively from interviews conducted by the author with key figures. The chapter proposes that Cats was a breakthrough production, setting a template for developing large-scale musicals which could be reproduced globally. It goes on to analyse the elements of this template, including marketing, the importance of the show logo, and developing as well as protecting a brand. Examining in detail the various different types of reproduced shows that Mackintosh oversees and the importance of accurate translation and responding to local conditions, the case is made that Mackintosh has established the importance of an interventionist producer, and that other key global producers such as Disney and Little Star have consciously followed his business methods. The chapter concludes that Mackintosh did set the framework for the proliferation of the global musical; his productions are not simply commodified replications, but rather works designed to ensure that the highest aesthetic standards are maintained, no matter where the show is staged.
Charities in Tax Conventions
Authors: Hemels Sigrid
Published: October 2023

This chapter focuses on tax incentives for charities. The OECD observed in its 2020 tax policy study Taxation and Philanthropy that most countries provide tax incentives for philanthropic giving and philanthropic entities. Charities cross borders in various ways including through international initiatives, investments, and fundraising. This may result in double taxation, both by the resident state of the charity and by the source state of the income. Many countries have concluded bilateral treaties to avoid double taxation (double taxation conventions (DTCs)) to solve or mitigate situations of double-income taxation. Model conventions (MCs) usually serve as the starting point for negotiations. The chapter first analyses the reason why many countries restrict tax incentives to resident charities as this is often the cause of double or single taxation where the purpose of a tax incentive is no taxation. It then assesses whether charities have access to DTCs and, if so, whether they have a special position.
Tax Treaties and Human Rights Law
Authors: Baker Philip
Published: October 2023

This chapter explores the relationship between tax treaties and human rights law. The network of over 3,500 largely bilateral tax treaties has been negotiated and developed almost entirely on the basis of model conventions whose origins predate the main developments in human rights law. It would not be surprising, therefore, if there were a need to update the models to comply with those norms. The starting point is to recognize that tax treaties, like any part of a tax system, may be scrutinized for compatibility with human rights norms. The chapter focuses on the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and, to a lesser extent, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). It begins by looking at the case law under the ECHR where a tax treaty has been considered by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The chapter then considers how those provisions of the ECHR most relevant to taxation may interrelate to tax treaties in respect to a number of specific, identified issues.
Unilateralism, Bilateralism, and Multilateralism in International Tax Law
Authors: Stewart Miranda
Published: October 2023

This chapter discusses unilateralism, bilateralism, and multilateralism in international tax law. International tax rules are mostly established by states in national tax law—that is, tax jurisdiction is primarily established unilaterally. However, bilateral tax treaties also play an important role in setting the scope of tax jurisdiction. Bilateral treaties are negotiated and interpreted in the context of model treaties and commentary developed by the OECD or the UN. Some bilateral tax treaties are modified by multilateral treaties. The combination of unilateral and bilateral international tax rules are administered through an increasingly integrated multilateral network of executive agreements, institutions, and data-sharing processes. Today, very few rules addressing the taxation of international flows of people, goods, services, and capital are solely unilateral, bilateral, or multilateral. Despite increased multilateral engagement, the success of multilateralism in international tax depends ultimately on unilateral action of states. Unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral international tax rules do not always combine in a coherent, integrated system. They may generate diverse and fragmented outcomes that create complexity, double taxation, or opportunities for tax arbitrage.
Corresponding Adjustments
Authors: Hofacker Matthias
Published: October 2023

This chapter examines the purpose of corresponding adjustments to avoid economic double taxation as per indicated in Article 9 of OECD-MA. It defines corresponding adjustments as reports due to a previous initial correction of a company’s tax base. In international tax law, the corresponding adjustment is located in the area of transfer pricing. The application of the corresponding adjustment is based on the OECD’s idea that a correction (initial adjustment) is made to the tax base in a state because the company concerned did not observe the arm’s length principle when agreeing on the transfer price. Additionally, Article 9 paragraph 2 OECD-MA expressly indicates that competent authorities shall consult each other, which ensures the appropriate corresponding adjustment with the state implementing the initial correction.
Alternative Dispute Resolution in the European Union
Authors: Richelle Isabelle
Published: October 2023

This chapter reviews alternative dispute resolution in the EU. The term ‘alternative dispute resolution’ could refer to means of resolving disputes other than the usual administrative or judicial remedies under domestic law or, considering cross-border tax disputes, other than mutual agreements between national tax administrations. Mutual agreement between competent authorities is a classic way of resolving disputes from a diplomatic point of view, while taking place directly between national tax authorities without the intervention of the diplomatic authorities themselves. More recently, a process of resolving tax disputes through arbitration has emerged, culminating in the adoption by the EU in 2017 of a directive on tax dispute resolution, the main features of which are probably that it imposes arbitration on member states and that the process must lead to the resolution of the dispute. However, the EU does not have a monopoly on thinking and initiatives on ‘tax arbitration’. Alternative dispute resolution may also refer to a way of preventing disputes from arising, through advanced agreements with the tax authorities; this practice has also largely developed in recent last years. The chapter considers how these alternative dispute-resolutions mechanisms have developed, before looking at the technical measures implemented in this area by the EU.
A Comparison Between EU VAT Law and the OECD International VAT/GST Guidelines
Authors: Kristoffersson Eleonor
Published: October 2023

This chapter offers a comparison between EU VAT law and the OECD International VAT/GST Guidelines. It focuses mainly on business-to-business (B2B) transactions. The chapter begins by describing and comparing the aim and legal status of the EU VAT Directives and OECD International VAT/GST Guidelines. The OECD International VAT/GST Guidelines aim at reducing the uncertainty and risks of double taxation and unintended non-taxation that result from inconsistencies in the application of VAT in a cross-border context. The chapter then discusses the core features of VAT including neutrality, before comparing the place of taxation on services and intangibles under EU law and the International VAT/GST Guidelines. According to the preamble to the VAT Directive, a VAT system achieves the highest degree of simplicity and neutrality when the tax is levied in as general a manner as possible and when its scope covers all the stages of production and distribution, as well as the supply of services.
The Japanese Perspective on International Tax Law
Authors: Yoshimura Masao
Published: October 2023

The end of the Second World War ushered in rapid economic growth in Japan; it grew to become a mature capital-exporting country in the 1980s. The change in Japan’s economic environment resulted in the evolution of its international tax law policy. This chapter describes the development of Japan’s international tax rules and identifies Japan’s policy changes in this regard. It analyses how, in response to corporate offshoring and globalized value chains, Japan moved to a territorial system in 2009 and changed its treaty policy to tighten restrictions on withholding tax in source countries. The Japanese experience provides a meaningful case study of how the development of a country’s multinational corporations has affected its policy on international taxation.
Global Tax Governance
Authors: Mosquera Valderrama Irma
Published: October 2023

This chapter examines global tax governance. By assuming that the term global tax governance is used to impose outcomes on people, the questions that should be asked are whether this is true and if countries still follow these outcomes by the OECD, and under what conditions the model of global tax governance can be feasible and legitimate for both developed and developing countries. The chapter begins by looking at the recent international tax standards, mainly exchange of information and base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) as developed by the OECD with the political mandate of the G20. It then addresses the use of soft law vs hard law to introduce international tax standards before considering the role of developing countries in the BEPS Inclusive Framework and the peer review of the BEPS minimum standards. Finally, the chapter studies the validity of the outcome of these international tax standards and discusses the role of the actors in global tax governance.
International Tax Law
Authors: Avi-Yonah Reuven S.
Published: October 2023

This chapter addresses the status quo, trends, and perspectives in international tax law. The international tax regime (ITR) is based on two principles: the benefits principle and the single-tax principle (STP). The benefits principle gives the primary right to tax passive (investment) income to residence jurisdictions, and the primary right to tax active (business) income to source jurisdictions. Meanwhile, the STP states that all cross-border income should be subject to the rate of tax determined by the benefits principle. The chapter then argues that developments in the past decade have significantly bolstered the ITR, so that it does a much better job of protecting personal income tax (PIT) and corporate income tax (CIT) from erosion due to cross-border tax evasion and avoidance than it did prior to 2010. Specifically, the adoption of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and the consequent development of Automatic Exchange of Information and the Common Reporting Standard have significantly protected PIT, while the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project has significantly improved CIT.
Prelude
Authors: Lee Colin Andrew , slaughter kei , Thomas Natasha
Published: October 2023

As an emerging approach in the 21st century, queer and trans music therapy (QTMT) challenges perspectives and narratives from ethnocentric and cisheteronormative traditions, which have dominated the field of music therapy. Raising the essential question of what it means to create queer and trans spaces in music therapy, this chapter presents an open discourse on the need for change and new beginnings. How can music therapists, allied professionals, and artists become more aware of and sensitive to music as a queer and trans inventive force? This chapter provides context for the handbook as a whole. It includes a brief literature review on QTMT, perspectives on Black queer and trans music therapy, and an introduction to the value of queer musicking. Considering QTMT as a creative process, this chapter also presents a foundational definition of practice that would be purposefully mindful of queer and trans concerns and issues. Just as music inspires and touches us in profound ways, so can queer musicking perform as a therapeutic force to instigate positive human change in QTMT practice.
The Ethics of Mary Whiton Calkins
Authors: McDaniel Kris
Published: October 2023

This chapter presents and critically evaluates the main aspects of the ethical system of Mary Whiton Calkins. Some of these aspects include the claims that to be a good person is to will what is conceived by that person to be the good and that what each of us is morally obligated to do is to will the Good. According to Calkins, there are no objective, mind-independent criteria for being the Good, but nonetheless some conceptions of the Good are better than others; this chapter assesses whether Calkins has an adequate account of how one conception of the Good can be superior to another. Finally, this chapter explores Calkins’s theory of virtues and vices. Among those discussed are the vice of cruelty, and the virtues of thoughtfulness and justice, with a focus on distributive justice. With respect to the latter, Calkins argues for a minimal safety net to ensure an adequate standard of living for all people.
The Formation and Development of a Norwegian Accountability System
Authors: Tolo Astrid
Published: October 2023

The idea that education should lead to economic growth took on a new meaning from the 1980s. To ensure that the education systems could deliver what the knowledge society required, reforms were needed. Trust in schools was questioned by policymakers, followed by an emergence of accountability systems focusing on transparency, based on standards and metrics as central tools. Since the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s Program for International Student Assessment test was introduced in 2000, this development has escalated globally. New accountability systems have led to change in how teachers, head teachers, and administrators are expected to work. This chapter illuminates the formation and development of the Norwegian National Quality Assessment System. However, the analysis shows that the efforts to streamline the accountability system in line with the OECD’s advice have not shown to be successful in the Norwegian context due to culturally embedded factors that influence teachers and schools’ work.
The Globalization of Science
Authors: Kwiek Marek
Published: October 2023

National science systems have become embedded in global science, and countries do everything they can to harness global knowledge to national economic needs. However, accessing and using the riches of global knowledge can occur only through scientists. Consequently, the research power of nations relies on the research power of individual scientists. Their capacity to collaborate internationally and to tap into the global networked science is key. The constantly evolving, bottom-up, autonomous, self-regulating, and self-focused nature of global science requires deeper understanding; and the best way to understand its dynamics is to understand what drives academic scientists in their work. In empirical terms, this chapter describes the globalization of science using selected publication, collaboration, and citation data from 2000 to 2020.
Playing God
Authors: Grek Sotiria
Published: October 2023

The chapter explores visualizations as instruments of the expansion of metrics in the transnational governance of education. It investigates the strategies that visualization experts adopt in the measurement of education, focusing on interactive visual rankings produced by major international organizations. Building on visual and discourse analysis, the study details how the politically sensitive nature of the global governance space, and the increasing pressures for “decolonizing” education, influence how data are visualized. The study makes two contributions to the study of education data visuals. First, it details the move away from league table formats toward multivocal interactive layouts that seek to mitigate the competitive and potentially dysfunctional pressures of the display of “winners and losers.” Second, it theorizes data visuals in global governance as governing tools that entice country buy-in in performance measurement exercises and seek (by avoiding antagonizing lower performers) to align actors around common global education agendas.
Education in a Postliberal World Society
Authors: Furuta Jared , Meyer John W. , Bromley Patricia
Published: October 2023

In recent years, the overreach and failures of the international liberal order have led to a panoply of political movements and oppositional models that attack its legitimacy. We draw on neoinstitutional theories of educational change to suggest that the overall decline in liberal hegemony has weakened the centrality of education in models of society, and further that the rise of alternative models of society has redirected education toward less liberal-individualist forms. In a period we see as fragmented and “postliberal,” some of these alternative models deemphasize the liberal tenet of individual actorhood to reassert collective identities (e.g., nationalism, religion, or race/ethnicity), while others assert uncontrolled individual expression. We discuss the implications of these processes for issues such as school enrollments, educational stratification, curricular content, pedagogy, and educational organization. Going forward, it is difficult to imagine that education in its liberal form will be as central as it was in the earlier postwar period.
Field Theory Beyond the Nation State
Authors: Hamann Julian
Published: October 2023

At first glance, Bourdieu’s field theory might be considered an unlikely case for research on transnational and global phenomena. However, scholarship in the last two decades shows that field analysis can indeed be useful to study cases beyond the national realm. Reviewing this research, this chapter is organized in three sections: It starts with a discussion of the (post-)national orientation of the field-theoretical research program and outlines the ontology of transnational and global processes according to this program. Second, it reviews the main strands of postnational field analysis and distills from this literature the empirical foci and analytical priorities. The third section takes stock of the theoretical efforts that have recently been made to denationalize the field-theoretical research program and identifies the theoretical and conceptual contributions made in the process. The chapter concludes with an empirical, a methodological, and a theoretical question that should be addressed by future research.
China’s Responses to Globalization and Higher Education Reforms
Authors: Mok Ka Ho , Ke Guo Guo , Tian Zhen
Published: October 2023

With a strong conviction to transform the country and prepare its people to cope with the growing challenges of the globalizing market, the Chinese government has actively increased more opportunities for higher education. The higher education system in China has experienced the processes of massification and transnationalization, especially when the Chinese government has tried to diversify its higher education provision through non-state sector providers, including overseas partners setting up branch campuses. This study sets out against the broad political economic context to examine critically how the Chinese government has responded to the growing influences of globalization by internationalizing and trasnationalizing its higher education. More specifically, this study examines the challenges and policy implications when higher education experiences internationalization and transnationalization in China.
Genericity, Quantification, and Modality in Malayalam
Authors: M.T. Hany Babu
Published: October 2023

The imperfective aspect marker -unnu in Malayalam licenses a situation argument, which is the characteristic property of an episodic predicate. An imperfective reading is derived when the situation argument is bound by an existential operator, signalled by the existential copula uɳʈə. A generic reading of the -unnu construction is derived when the situation argument is bound by an extensional quantifying operator. Generic sentences with -unnu contrast with the generic sentences with the future tense-marking modal particle -um. The modal marker -um is argued to signal the presence of a modalized generic operator that quantifies over the set of accessible possible worlds. This gives the sentence an intensional (characterizing) property. The modal -um is thus claimed to be closely related to the universal quantifying particle -um.
Assessing NSSI in Clinical and Community Settings
Authors: Cliffe Charlotte , Sedgwick Rosemary , Epstein Sophie , Polling Catherine , Ougrin Dennis
Published: October 2023

This chapter explores the assessment of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in clinical and community settings. It mentions how NSSI is still subject to stigma and misunderstanding that could impair assessment if not adequately considered. Since NSSI is prevalent amongst all ages, professionals in community settings such as schools, universities, primary care or mental health settings will come into contact with NSSI. Assessment can take various forms, could include structured tools, and may be conducted by a range of professionals. Community detection and assessment of NSSI play a vital role in the identification of NSSI, which subsequently provides valuable opportunities to intervene. The chapter looks into the factors of engagement, confidentiality, suicidal intent and suicide risk.
Buprenorphine
Authors: Strain Eric C. , Gaddis Andrew
Published: October 2023

Buprenorphine is an opioid that acts primarily as a partial agonist at mu-opioid receptors, although it also has significant activity at kappa- and delta-, as well as ORL-1, opioid receptors. Early in its development it was noted to have an unusual profile of effects, including a bell-shaped dose response curve, and over 40 years ago it was identified as a potential treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). While initially marketed as an analgesic, its major impact has been as a treatment for OUD. The extensive uptake for OUD reflects both the circumstances of its availability as a relatively easily prescribed agent available in office-based settings, as well as its safety and efficacy. Initially used in a sublingual form, recent years have seen new formulations (e.g., a long-acting injectable) also become available.