bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Is Scientific Rigor Declining?
Authors: Kampourakis Kostas , McCain Kevin
Published: October 2019

The findings of scientific research should be considered with caution both because there are uncertainties inherent in the respective procedures and because scientists can be subjective in their conclusions—and sometimes they can even be biased. Indeed, fraud and misconduct can be found in science, and this is a cause for concern. Nevertheless, this does not affect the overall value of scientific research. Science has strong foundations exactly because scientists are aware of these kinds of problems and do a lot to address them. One important criterion of the value of scientific research is its reproducibility; that is, the ability to use the same methods that other researchers have previously used and arrive at the same results. However, the rates of reproducibility (when they are available) indicate that it is relatively low. At the same time, scientists seem to face a “publish-or-perish” situation, even while retractions of published papers have increased. These are all reasons for concern. However, it is precisely the fact that scientist are aware of these issues that makes science trustworthy. The issue is not if science has flaws, but that its self-correcting nature can provide the means to deal with them.
Uncertainties in Climate Science
Authors: Kampourakis Kostas , McCain Kevin
Published: October 2019

Whereas there is broad agreement among most climate scientists that climate change is occurring and that it is mostly due to human activities, many people doubt this. There are several reasons for this. One is that, despite the solid evidence for climate change, uncertainties remain about its exact pace and mechanisms. Scientists may debate these issues among themselves, and this debate might be perceived as a lack of consensus among them even though this is not at all the case. Furthermore, the public representation of this topic often fails to show that the vast majority of climate scientists agree that climate change is happening because of what we humans do. At the same time, uncertainties remain, and so the predictions of scientists have limitations. What is necessary is for scientists to clearly communicate the evidence and explain that uncertainties may blur the details but not the big picture.
Uncertainties in Vaccination
Authors: Kampourakis Kostas , McCain Kevin
Published: October 2019

Whereas vaccines have helped save millions of lives over the past several decades, today there is a significant anti-vaccination (anti-vaxx) movement, especially in the United States, that questions their safety. The problem is that these anti-vaxx arguments focus on rare cases of side effects or—even worse—on unfounded connections between the administration of vaccines and particular conditions such as autism. Such reactions make people overlook the fact that several diseases that in the past killed millions of people have been completely or almost completely eradicated thanks to vaccines. Even though vaccine side effects are a real possibility, one has to weigh the risk of facing those (which is very low and arise in relatively rare cases) against the hundreds or thousands of children who, thanks to the vaccine, will avoid hospitalization or even death. Uncertainties always exist, and we cannot be absolutely certain about the efficacy and safety of any vaccine. But for many of them, there is solid evidence that the problems are rare, and certainly the affected individuals are a lot fewer than those who might suffer and even die from the disease.
Uncertainties in Human Evolution
Authors: Kampourakis Kostas , McCain Kevin
Published: October 2019

Human evolution is a hotly debated topic despite the vast amount of evidence (anatomical, biochemical, DNA, fossil) about our ape origins. Worse than that, the uncertainties about the details of human evolution are often used to question the fact of human evolution. Therefore, it is important to explain why these uncertainties are not enough to blur the big picture. And even if we never come to know all the details of human evolution, this does not entail that we should not accept it as fact. The problems with this acceptance do not stem from a lack of scientific evidence in support of evolution, but rather from the perceived threat to some people’s worldviews.
Uncertainties in Genetic Testing
Authors: Kampourakis Kostas , McCain Kevin
Published: October 2019

Genetic tests are becoming increasingly affordable; however, the way they are marketed might make people think that they can provide more answers than they actually can. There are many uncertainties involved. Even if we are sure that a person carries a particular DNA variant and that this variant is implicated in a particular disease—which for many variants is not entirely clear—there is not much that we can do with this information until the underlying biological mechanism is understood. It is only after understanding what problem is caused by the particular variant that specific recommendations can be made. However, the way genetic tests are usually marketed is not explicit about these uncertainties. On the contrary, it is often promised that such tests reveal information that is actually impossible to obtain.
Understanding Versus Being Certain
Authors: Kampourakis Kostas , McCain Kevin
Published: October 2019

Understanding, rather than certainty, is the true aim of science. This is something that scientists and philosophers agree upon for good reasons. There are two main reasons for this. The first reason is that understanding is particularly valuable. It is widely acknowledged that understanding is a cognitive achievement that is even more valuable than knowledge. So, when aiming at understanding, science aims at an intellectual good that is very valuable. The second reason is that, as the aim of science, focusing on understanding instead of certainty provides a solid account of the success of science. If certainty were the aim of science, then science has not been very successful since it never achieves certainty. However, science has continually achieved deeper understanding of natural phenomena, so if understanding is the aim, science has been tremendously successful.
For Rome or for Augustus?
Authors: Lange Carsten Hjort
Published: October 2019

The greatest honor and the grandest spectacle Rome could bestow on a military commander was the glory of celebrating a triumph. In the period 29–19 bce eight people who were not related to Augustus triumphed. L. Balbus proved to be the very last commander to do so. Accordingly, the Fasti Triumphales concludes with the name of a man whose uncle, L. Balbus (maior), was a native of Spain who became the first foreigner to be made consul. This chapter reflects on who these eight victors were and how they chose to celebrate their own victories, a task hampered by the fact that much of our evidence centers on Augustus himself, chiefly Cassius Dio, our main historical narrative source. Was it possible for these men to create their own triumphal history, to personalize their celebration and triumphal afterlife, or did their success end up becoming part of the Augustan ideology?
Egyptian Victories
Authors: Havener Wolfgang
Published: October 2019

The first princeps placed the newly conquered province of Egypt not under a senatorial governor but an equestrian prefect. This constituted a precedent in various respects. Being a new form of provincial administration, the prefecture offered its holders ample opportunity to distinguish themselves, not least in the field of military glory. This chapter addresses the questions of how the first praefecti, C. Cornelius Gallus, L. Aelius Gallus, and P. Petronius, exploited these opportunities and how their efforts were perceived by the princeps and the members of the senatorial elite. The praefectura provides an excellent case study to analyze the mechanisms underlying the development of a new elite in the Augustan era, as well as the ambitions and limitations of its individual members.
The Absent Dialogue
Authors: Mukherjee Anit
Published: October 2019

Civilian control over the military is widely hailed as among the biggest successes of India’s democracy. This is a rarity, especially among postcolonial states, and is rightfully celebrated. But has this come at a cost? The Absent Dialogue argues that the pattern of civil–military relations in India has hampered its military effectiveness. Indian politicians and bureaucrats have long been content with the formal and ritualistic exercise of civilian control, while the military continues to operate in institutional silos, with little substantive engagement between the two. In making this claim, the book closely examines the variables most associated with military effectiveness—weapons procurement, jointness (the ability of separate military services to operate together), officer education, promotion policies, and defense planning. India’s pattern of civil–military relations—best characterized as an absent dialogue—adversely affects each of these processes. Theoretically, the book adopts the “unequal dialogue” framework proposed by Eliot Cohen but also argues that, under some conditions, patterns of civil–military relations may more closely resemble an “absent dialogue.” Informed by more than a hundred and fifty interviews and recently available archival material, the book represents a deep dive into understanding the power and the limitations of the Indian military. It sheds new light on India’s military history and is essential reading for understanding contemporary civil–military relations and recurring problems therein. While the book focuses on India, it also highlights the importance of civilian expertise and institutional design in enhancing civilian control and military effectiveness in other democracies.
Forging the Sword
Authors: Mukherjee Anit
Published: October 2019

This chapter explains the book’s theoretical underpinnings. It begins by discussing the contrasting views of Samuel Huntington and Eliot Cohen on the preferred role and “balance” of civil–military relations. Next, it examines patterns of democratic civil–military relations to argue that they are shaped largely by three factors—the struggle over military autonomy, the issue of civilian expertise, and institutional design, specifically the manner in which the Ministry of Defence interacts with the services. The next section discusses the concept of military effectiveness as adopted in this book. Drawing inspiration from previous works, it examines five processes associated with effective militaries. These variables, analyzed subsequently in separate chapters, are weapons procurement, jointness, professional military education, officer promotion policies, and defense planning. The chapter then discusses the study of the Indian military and its effectiveness and concludes by describing the analytical framework adopted in the rest of the book.
Simply the Best?
Authors: Mukherjee Anit
Published: October 2019

This chapter examines officer promotion and selection policies in India. It begins with a conceptual discussion of the role of civilians in this process, examining its practice in other democracies. Thereafter it describes the historical evolution in the Indian military’s officer promotion and selection policies. In doing so it makes three broad arguments. First, promotion policies are an almost exclusive military affair, and civilians have little to do with the processes. As in other established democracies, senior officer promotions are subject to the approval of political authorities; but, exceptions apart, there is little evidence that civilians have actively shaped these policies. Second, a lack of civilian guidance exacerbates parochial divisions within the military. Third, military promotion policies would be better served with greater (but informed) civilian oversight. There is a need therefore to create conditions for a dialogue on promotion, selection, and placement policies. Such a measure, however, also needs to create safeguards to prevent politicization of the military.
Bossa Mundo
Authors: Goldschmitt K.E.
Published: October 2019

Bossa Mundo chronicles how Brazilian music has been central to Brazil’s national brand in the United States and the United Kingdom since the late 1950s. Scholarly texts on Brazilian popular music generally focus on questions of music and national identity, and when they discuss the music’s international popularity, they keep the artists, recordings, and live performances as the focus, ignoring the process of transnational mediation. This book fills a major gap in Brazilian music studies by analyzing the consequences of moments when Brazilian music was popular in Anglophone markets, with a focus on the media industries. With subject matter as varied as jazz, film music, dance fads, DJ/remix culture, and new models of musical distribution, the book demonstrates how the mediation of Brazilian music in an increasingly crowded transnational marketplace has had lasting consequences for the creative output celebrated by Brazil as part of its national brand. Through a discussion of the political meaning of mass-mediated music in chronologically organized chapters, the book shifts the scholarly focus on the music’s transnational popularity from the scholarly framework of representing Otherness to broader considerations of a media environment where listeners and intermediaries often have differing priorities. The book provides a new model for studying music from culturally rich countries in the Global South where local governments often leverage stereotypes in their national branding project.
Sherrington's Loom
Authors: McComas Alan J.
Published: October 2019

‘Sherrington’s Loom’ provides a historical account of the research that has led to recognition of key mechanisms underlying consciousness. Evidence is assembled from a rich variety of sources–neurological patients, animal behavior, laboratory studies and, especially, brain stimulation and recording in humans and animals. Among the remarkable advances in the field has been the ability to identify nerve cells in the human brain that store memories of specific people, places and objects. In addition to dealing with the issue of ‘free will,’ the book assembles the information into possible working schemes for sensations, intentions and actions. The book concludes by considering the possibility of consciousness in artificially intelligent systems.
Finance-Led Capitalism in the US
Authors: Kalinowski Thomas
Published: October 2019

This chapter on US finance-led capitalism is the first of the three chapters to investigate the domestic origins of international economic cooperation and conflicts. First it builds on the trilemma triangle introduced in Chapter 2 and explains the US position. The chapter then investigates the historical origin of the US finance-led model of capitalism. It then turns to investigating the economic foundation of this model, before turning to the political economy of the US-specific neoliberal class compromise. As we shall see, the UK is also mentioned frequently as another finance-led country that has similar preferences to the US, and, with the British exit from the EU, the UK will probably align even more closely with the US.
Basic Ideas
Authors: Woodard Christopher
Published: October 2019

The version of utilitarianism developed in the book seeks to explain the rightness of actions in terms of the normative reasons for and against actions. This chapter explains some background assumptions about reasons, rightness, their relationship to each other, and their relationship to good deliberation and praiseworthiness and blameworthiness. It canvasses several possible views of these relationships, but argues that reasons and rightness are to be understood in a non-perspectival way, while deliberation, praiseworthiness, and blameworthiness are perspectival matters and not closely connected to reasons or rightness. The chapter ends by noting the variety of possible utilitarian theories of reasons and some issues facing such theories.
Justice and Equality
Authors: Woodard Christopher
Published: October 2019

Utilitarianism is often thought to be insufficiently egalitarian, and to lack a plausible theory of distributive justice. This chapter discusses these objections. It begins by discussing the inadequacy of some simple utilitarian theories of justice, before arguing that utilitarians should treat justice as exhausted by respect for moral rights. This view captures the importance of some kinds of equality, but not all. The chapter then discusses the importance of substantive equality, focusing on cases of known expensive needs. It notes that our intuitions about these cases reflect a distinction between causes of the expense, and argues that utilitarianism can provide a better account of this than is provided by egalitarian views. The result is a theory according to which substantive equality is a matter of good social policy rather than a requirement of distributive justice.
Human Rights, Ownership, and the Individual
Authors: Cruft Rowan
Published: October 2019

What do we mean by rights, and can our use of the concept be justified? This book offers a partial vindication of the concept of a right, defending its use in relation to human rights while questioning it in relation to property. It starts with a new ‘Addressive’ account of the nature of rights as bringing together duty-bearer and right-holder first-personally—a theory which moves beyond and complements traditional Interest and Will Theories. This Addressive account implies that a right exists pre-institutionally (as a ‘natural’ or ‘moral’ right) only when a duty owes its existence predominantly to the right-holder’s good. On this basis, the book defends human rights law and practice as justifiably institutionalizing certain pre-legal moral rights held against other individuals and the state, including socio-economic rights. This defence proceeds independently of whichever conception of ‘the important human features’ (e.g. agency, capabilities, freedoms, interests, needs) one takes to underpin human rights—though it does depend on a distinction between individual and other goods. The book ends by arguing that for much property, conceiving the relevant duties in rights terms can mislead us into overlooking their foundation in the collective good. An alternative non-rights property system—broadly resembling modern markets but not conceived in terms of rights—is outlined. The result is a defence of the rights concept that is more supportive of human rights than many of their critics (from left or right) might expect, while pressing new doubts about much property as an individual right.
Rights and Interests Revisited
Authors: Cruft Rowan
Published: October 2019

Chapter 5 takes up four questions about the relation between rights, interests, and desires raised by Chapter 2. It explains why—given Chapter 4’s ‘Addressive’ analysis—we can create rights wherever we want through law or convention, independently of the right-holder’s interests or desires. It also sketches the idea (taken up at greater length in Chapter 7) that pre-conventional ‘natural’ rights must be grounded in the right-holder’s own good. The chapter goes on to explain why all rights create a status desire or interest in their own fulfilment, and it ends by explaining why the vast majority of morally justified rights, including legally and conventionally created rights, necessarily serve their holders’ independent interests or desires—that is, why Kramer’s and Wenar’s accounts are very nearly correct.
Human Rights as Everyone’s Business
Authors: Cruft Rowan
Published: October 2019

The first half of Chapter 10 addresses criticisms of the conception of human rights developed in Chapter 9: that it overlooks how human rights law protects collective goods rather than the individual, and that it overlooks the centrality of the state as duty-bearer in human rights law. The author’s response includes noting that state-focused human rights law is only one way in which ‘natural’ human rights are institutionalized: criminal law and non-law policy also play human rights roles. The chapter’s second half argues that human rights not only exist ‘for the right-holder’s sake’ (as in Chapters 7–9) but are also rights whose protection is distinctively ‘everyone’s business’: rights with which any human anywhere can show solidarity by demanding their fulfilment. This does not imply that human rights violations in one state are equally every state’s business. The chapter ends by summarizing Part II (Chapters 7–10) as vindicating the idea of human rights.
Rights Protecting Performance of Duties
Authors: Cruft Rowan
Published: October 2019

Chapter 14 turns from property to a further class of rights groundable only by how they serve parties beyond the right-holder. Unlike property, the rights of Chapter 14 protect the right-holder’s performance of role-defining duties to serve others: e.g. a bus driver’s or politician’s rights to be unimpeded in performing her duties of office, or a doctor’s to her assistant’s help. The chapter argues that unlike with property, there is little risk of people erroneously conceiving such rights as grounded fundamentally by the right-holder’s good. Nonetheless, such rights distinctively protect the right-holder’s important interest in carrying out her morally justified duties. On this basis, the chapter defends our use of the concept of a ‘right’ in such cases—even though because the right-holder’s interest cannot be the main ground of the duties to assist or to avoid impeding, conceiving such duties as correlating with rights is not conceptually compulsory.
Knowledge and Measurement
Authors: Moss Jessica
Published: October 2019

The Philebus ranks different kinds of knowledge in order of purity, with dialectic at the top. It is clear that at the lower levels the criterion of rank involves measurement: the more and purer measurement used, the higher a species of knowledge is on the epistemic hierarchy. Chapter 13 argues that Plato continues to use this criterion when he comes to the highest level. Dialectic is pure measurement: it is the art of grasping the measures—or, equivalently, limits—within all things. Moreover, this conception of knowledge is a specification and elaboration of the much more famous epistemology of the Republic, and can help illuminate some of its mysteries.
Ongoing Consent in Situations of Cognitive Vulnerability
Authors: Sankary Lauren R. , Ford Paul J.
Published: October 2019

This chapter explores ethical issues in obtaining ongoing consent for clinical research involving cognitively vulnerable patient populations. Stakeholders in these challenges include researchers, sponsors, study participants, caregivers and other legally authorized representatives, and research oversight boards. First, this chapter examines existing conceptual frameworks and proposed safeguards for the protection of cognitively vulnerable research participants, including double consent, proxy consent with participant assent, advance consent, and process consent. This chapter then proposes an inclusionary approach to obtaining ongoing consent to research participation when cognition could fluctuate over the course of research participation. Proposed safeguards and modifications to the consent process should address duration of research participation, the nature and timing of research-related risks, expected and unexpected fluctuations in decision-making capacity, and the process of exiting a clinical trial. The proposed framework is then applied to the specific context of implanted neural device trials, with special attention to considerations for device explant.
Challenges of Participating in Research About Living with Mild Cognitive Impairment Among Disabled Veterans
Authors: Schneider Christine , Kahana Eva
Published: October 2019

This chapter provides insights from an ongoing study of elderly veterans’ experiences of living with newly diagnosed mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Recruitment for this qualitative study was difficult. There were multiple reasons for low participation rates. Caregivers discouraged participation. Physicians often did not inform patients of the research opportunity. Patients at Veterans Affairs Medical Center hospitals often have appointment fatigue, being scheduled for numerous clinics in one afternoon. And, owing to concerns about protecting a vulnerable group, the institutional review board protections for recruitment are very limiting. It is imperative to find a way to increase recruitment for this doubly vulnerable population. Providing opportunities for reflection, self-disclosure, and validation to those at early stages of MCI through research participation can serve therapeutic functions in their journey of living with forgetting. Learning from individuals with recent onset of MCI provides a unique window into the lived experience of MCI.
Shifting Identities
Authors: Trammell Jack
Published: October 2019

Postsecondary programs for non-traditional students, including many specifically designed for students with intellectual disabilities (ID) and/or developmental disabilities (DD), present new questions. Many of these programs aim for some type of full inclusion, including living on campus, taking classes, generating college transcripts, and socializing with other college students. The successes of such programs have made headlines, although the question of exactly what students’ experiences mean in the wider cultural context of employability, independence, and social capital are unclear. It is also unclear that the voice of the actual participants is well-recognized in the design and assessment of such programs. This chapter will frame postsecondary education programs for ID/DD, with recognition of the importance of the “service user” voice and individual program experiences. It will consider the wider extent to which new ID/DD postsecondary identities are affecting pedagogy and research in the postsecondary educational landscape, and the ethical questions generated.
Using Ethnographic Methods to Determine Capacity to Consent in Individuals Diagnosed with Chronic Mental Illnesses
Authors: Mehmood Saira A.
Published: October 2019

This chapter reports on an ethnographic research project conducted with people diagnosed with chronic mental illnesses and often economic and educational vulnerabilities as well. It focuses particularly on strategies for assessing capacity to consent—both formal assessment instruments and informal assessments over time through the process of participant observation. The chapter discusses the difficulties of using formal assessment instruments such as decision trees and quizzes. It discusses how successful participation of individuals diagnosed with chronic mental illnesses with impaired cognition can be included in non-clinical research through ethnographic methods to ensure the bioethical principle of autonomy, which requires respect for the decision-making capacities of autonomous persons, while also following the bioethical principle of justice to empower the same vulnerable populations within the disability rights movement by including them in the research process through the use of time diaries.
What Stories Tell? In Praise of Anthropology
Authors: Campoy Leonardo Carbonieri
Published: October 2019

When it comes to disability, it is usually understood that anthropology offers the knowledge that disabled people have more potential than others have often imagined. How this different perspective on disability is produced and what exactly are its claims? In this commentary on Chapter 17 by Anne Kohler, “Assuming Competency,” it is suggested that the answers to this question lie not on the theories and methods of anthropology, but in a constant quest led by the studies for a perspective in which the interlocutors are not interpreted through stereotypes or preconceptions socially impinged on them. This quest is an epistemological, ontological, political, and ethical position of anthropology that can result in storytelling populated by everyone that has participated in the realization of the story that is being told.
Spiritualism and the Other World, 1880–1912
Authors: Brown Stewart J.
Published: October 2019

From the 1880s, W. T. Stead became increasingly interested in spiritualism and telepathy, believing paranormal communications provided proof of an afterlife and support for biblical accounts of angels, spirits, and miracles. Convinced that he possessed paranormal powers, he practiced automatic writing as a form of communication with the spirits of the dead. From 1893 to 1897, he edited the journal Borderland, aimed at promoting and popularizing occult studies. His Letters from Julia, first published in 1897 and claiming to be messages from the afterlife, became an international bestseller. For Stead, the Christian revival movement of 1904–5 was infused with elements of spiritualism and telepathy, and he was drawn to psychological views of religious experience. His ‘Julia’s Bureau’, formed in 1909, was meant to help individuals communicate with the spirits of the dead. While many were critical, Stead embraced spiritualism as supporting religious belief in an increasingly sceptical and secular era.
Introducing Powers
Authors: Williams Neil E.
Published: October 2019

This chapter provides the first introduction to the powers ontology, starting with what powers are, and just as importantly, what they are not. After a brief outline of how powers and their operation are here understood, a large portion of the chapter is taken up with negative characterizations, in order to distinguish powers from other members of the dispositions family. In particular, they are distinguished from common-or-garden dispositions like fragility, solubility, and flammability. And though powers are similar to these dispositions in many respects, the powers of the powers metaphysic are more fundamental. In many cases, fragility, flammability, and so on will be reduced to, and analysed in terms of, fundamental powers. Lastly, powers are defined in contrast with causally inert categorical properties and Hume worlds.
Understanding Powers
Authors: Williams Neil E.
Published: October 2019

Chapter 4 offers further development of the nature of powers, starting with the claim that all powers are intrinsic properties, and thus that none are extrinsic. It is argued that powers must be genuinely powerful, and that this demands they be novel and non-derivative. It is then argued that powers are multi-track; that is, capable of producing numerous, distinct types of manifestation. Lastly, the identity of power properties is discussed. An account in which powers contain an internal blueprint of potential interaction states that fixes their natures is developed out of a metaphysical coordination problem for power properties (fit).
Deification in Russian Religious Thought
Authors: Coates Ruth
Published: October 2019

Deification in Russian Religious Thought is a study of the reception of the Eastern Christian (Orthodox) doctrine of deification by Russian religious thinkers of the immediate pre-revolutionary period. Deification is the metaphor that the Greek patristic tradition came to privilege in its articulation of the Christian concept of salvation: to be saved is to be deified, that is, to share in the divine attribute of immortality. The central thesis of this book is that between the revolutions of 1905 and 1917 Russian religious thinkers turned to deification in their search for a response to the imminent destruction of the Russian autocracy (and the social and religious order that supported it), that was commensurate with its perceived apocalyptic significance. Contextual chapters set out the parameters of the Greek patristic understanding of deification and the reception of the idea in nineteenth-century Russian religious culture, literature, and thought. Then, four major works by prominent thinkers of the Russian Religious Renaissance are analysed, demonstrating the salience of the deification theme and exploring the variety of forms of its expression. In these works by Merezhkovsky, Berdiaev, Bulgakov, and Florensky, deification is taken out of its original theological context and applied respectively to politics, creativity, economics, and asceticism: this is presented as a modernist endeavour. Nevertheless their common emphasis on deification as a project, a practice that should deliver the ontological transformation and immortalization of human beings, society, culture, and the material universe, whilst likewise modernist, is also what connects them to deification’s theological source.
Apostrophizing the King
Authors: Morgan Oliver
Published: October 2019

This chapter offers an extended close reading of a single passage from Richard II—the ugly altercation between Bolingbroke and Mowbray in 1.1—and, in particular, of the moment at which Bolingbroke turns away from (or ‘apostrophizes’) the king in order to castigate his rival directly. It seeks to establish the social meaning of this action by placing it in the context of early modern expectations about royal etiquette and trial proceedings. The central claim is that Bolingbroke’s apostrophe is his first act of rebellion. By apostrophizing Richard he assumes the right to decide who speaks when—usurping the king’s interactional role in the same way that he will later usurp his throne.
‘To Remind Catholics that Support for the IRA and SF was not Compatible with Membership of the Catholic Church’, 1982–1990
Authors: Scull Margaret M.
Published: October 2019

The Irish Catholic Church hierarchy became divided during this period marked by the installation of Bishop Cahal Daly, a conservative theologian, as the new Bishop of Down and Connor in 1982. Personality clashes between Daly and the staunchly nationalist head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich, created tension within the Church. As Sinn Féin gained an electoral mandate, the Church struggled to condemn violence without isolating those who voted for the party. Analysis focuses on the institutional Church and grassroots clergy who were more united in the long-standing efforts to free the Birmingham Six, Maguire Seven, and Guildford Four. Bishop Edward Daly’s banning of republican paramilitary funerals in Derry constituted another challenge to republicanism from the institutional Church. By the mid-1980s, however, increased communication between Irish and English bishops resulted in greater Church-lead peace initiatives.
The Remarkable Healthcare Performance in Singapore
Authors: Ramesh M. , Bali Azad Singh
Published: October 2019

Singapore’s healthcare system ranks among the best in the world in terms of infant mortality rate, longevity, disability adjusted years, and so on. What is most remarkable, however, is that it achieved these fine outcomes at less than half the costs in comparable countries. The achievement of high healthcare outcomes at low costs is what constitutes ‘success’ in the case of Singapore. While the factors underlying the success are wide-ranging, a lot of the credit must be attributed to the government’s policy. In this chapter, the evolution of the policy measures since Independence will be tracked, along with their impact on improving healthcare services while containing costs. The measures have evolved with epidemiological and technological shifts as well as the rising expectations of a more prosperous and contestable society. The future continuation of the salutary trajectory will depend on the technical merits of the policy measures in the face of changing circumstances as much as their political legitimacy.
Reasons in Action
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: October 2019

The principal aim of this book is to analyse what it is to act for a reason in such a way that we intentionally do what we have a reason for doing and intentionally attain the end for which we perform this action, as specified by the reason. The analysis is mainly developed to suit physical actions, but it is considered how it needs to be modified to cover mental acts. It is also adapted to fit the notion of letting something be the case by refraining from acting. The analysis of intentional action presented is reductionist in the sense that it does not appeal to any concepts that are distinctive of the domain of action theory, such as a unique type of agent-causation, or irreducible mental acts, like acts of will, volitions, decisions, or tryings. Nor does it appeal to any unanalysed attitudes or states essentially related to intentional action, like intentions and desires to act. Instead, the intentionality of actions is construed as springing from desires conceived as physical states of agents which cause facts because of the way these agents think of them. A sense of our having responsibility that is sufficent for our acting for reasons is also sketched.
Ghana’s Economy-wide Transformation
Authors: Diao Xinshen , Hazell Peter
Published: October 2019

This chapter relies on a conceptual framework development by Dani Rodrik (2014, 2018) that identifies three sources of growth: accumulation of fundamental capabilities (e.g., better institutions, enabling policies, and healthy, educated workers), catching-up growth through expansion of modern manufacturing, and structural change due to the movement of workers from low- to high-productivity sectors. The chapter argues that Ghana has invested in fundamentals rather than in transformative policies, resulting in slow but persistently stable growth and limited industrialization. This is illustrated through a rigorous analysis of sector-wise relative labor productivity and employment shares from 1984–2011. The chapter concludes by claiming that accelerating, and even just sustaining the country’s average annual GDP/capita growth rate of 2.8 percent, requires modernizing larger shares of the agricultural, manufacturing, and services sectors. Growing national demand offers new market opportunities in these sectors as do opportunities for increased exports into the West African regional market.
Urbanization and its Impact on Ghana’s Rural Transformation
Authors: Diao Xinshen , Magalhaes Eduardo , Silver Jed
Published: October 2019

Urbanization without industrialization is a major feature in Ghana, as elsewhere in much of Africa. This chapter explores how urbanization in Ghana has affected agricultural development in terms of rural employment, the farm size distribution, and use of modern inputs. In examining these relationships, the authors recognize that there have been distinct spatial patterns of urbanization in Ghana, and urbanization has not affected agriculture equally throughout the country. Therefore, the chapter develops a spatial typology of seven types of districts based on their city population size and location in the north or south of the country and examines the share of households employed in agriculture, nonagriculture, or both across these different district types. The findings illustrate that urbanization is increasing the share of rural households in the nonfarm economy, and contributed to a shift towards more medium-sized farms in the agriculturally important areas of the north. The chapter further tests the induced innovation hypothesis, which predicts that urbanization and associated increases in population density and market access should lead to more intensive farming practices. The findings show though that while there has been substantial uptake of fertilizers, herbicides, and mechanization in recent years, there is only limited support that this has been driven by urbanization.
Developing Agricultural Value Chains
Authors: Kolavalli Shashidhara
Published: October 2019

This chapter asks how can agricultural value chains be further developed in Ghana given prevailing market failure problems that constrain the private sector from playing a greater role. Using first the experience of public interventions in the cocoa subsector through the Ghana Cocoa Board, the chapter evaluates how interventions in three other value chains compare: pineapples, rice, and tomatoes. These latter three crops have under-exploited opportunities because of the inability of farmers to produce sufficient amounts of high-quality farm products that meet urban market, agro-processor, and export demands. This is due to a lack of better seed varieties, an absence of quality control through grading and pricing along value chains, inadequate post-harvest handling, and few large-scale agribusinesses willing or able to take the lead in developing new export markets. The findings reveal opportunities and constraints along the value chains of these commodities, identifies the roles that the public sector should ideally play and, in turn, analyzes whether it has the capacity to feasibly do so.
Vicarious Narratives
Authors: Britton Jeanne M.
Published: October 2019

In 1759, Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments defines sympathy as a series of shifts in perspective by which one sees from a different point of view. British and French novels published over the following century redefine sympathy through narrative form—shifting perspectives or “stories within stories” in which one character adopts the voice and perspective of another. Fiction follows Smith’s emphasis on sympathy’s shifting perspectives, but this formal echo coincides with a challenge. For Smith and other Enlightenment philosophers, the experience of sympathy relies on human resemblance. In novels, by contrast, characters who are separated by nationality, race, or species experience a version of sympathy that struggles to accommodate such differences. Encounters between these characters produce shifts in perspective or framed tales as one character sympathizes with another and begins to tell his story, echoing Smith’s definition of sympathy in their form while challenging Enlightenment philosophy’s insistence on human resemblance. Works of sentimental and gothic fiction published between 1750 and 1850 generate a novelistic version of sympathy by manipulating traditional narrative forms (epistolary fiction, embedded tales) and new publication practices (the anthology, the novelistic extract). Second-hand stories transform the vocal mobility, emotional immediacy, and multiple perspectives associated with the declining genre of epistolary fiction into the narrative levels and shifting speakers of nineteenth-century frame tales. Vicarious Narratives argues that fiction redefines sympathy as the struggle to overcome difference through the active engagement with narrative—by listening to, retelling, and transcribing the stories of others.
It is not all about performance: Importance of the funding formula in the allocation of performance-based research funding in England
Authors: Pinar Mehmet
Published: October 2019

Performance-based research funding systems have become popular over the last decades. One of the main reasons for these funding systems is to allow funding bodies to allocate public research funds more effectively based on the assessed quality. However, the performance-based research funding received by higher education institutes (HEIs) not only depends on the quality of research activity carried out but also on the funding formula used by funding bodies. This article examines the funding formula used by Research England (RE) and assesses the effect of this formula on quality-related research (QR) funding allocation using data of mainstream QR funding allocation for the 2017–18 period. RE’s funding formula includes some value judgements by policymakers such as allocation of fourfold QR funding to ‘world-leading’ research compared to ‘internationally-excellent’ research, and the use of different subject cost weights. These value judgements play an important role in the allocation of QR funding beyond the assessed quality of research. This article finds that changes in some of these value judgments such as allocation of threefold (rather than fourfold) QR funding to world-leading research compared to internationally excellent research, or the use of alternative subject cost weights lead to major changes in the allocation of QR funding to different subject areas and HEIs. Results suggest that these value judgments are also important beyond the assessed quality of research, and that consultation of different subject areas and HEIs about these decisions and re-evaluation of some of these value judgements are needed for a more accountable distribution of QR funding.
G9a promotes cell proliferation and suppresses autophagy in gastric cancer by directly activating mTOR
Authors: Yin Chao , Ke Xiaoxue , Zhang Rui , Hou Jianbing , Dong Zhen , Wang Feng , Zhang Kui , Zhong Xi , Yang Liqun , Cui Hongjuan
Published: October 2019

As an important methyltransferase, G9a has been reported to be abnormally expressed in various human cancers and plays essential roles in tumorigenesis. However, the biologic functions and molecular mechanisms of G9a in gastric cancer (GC) remain unclear. GC is the fifth most frequent cancer around the world and seriously threatens human health, especially in developing countries. Here, our results showed that high expression of G9a was intensively correlated with poor prognosis and more advanced stages of GCs. Knockdown of G9a or treatment with its inhibitor, BIX01294, significantly reduced cell growth by cell cycle arrest and autophagy. In addition, the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) was evidently decreased after G9a silencing or inhibition, and mTOR activation partially rescued the effects of cell proliferation inhibition and autophagy induced by G9a knockdown or inhibition. Down‐regulation of G9a effectively inhibited mTOR expression and tumor growth in the xenograft tumor model of GC cells. We also showed that G9a regulates mTOR and cell proliferation and autophagy depending on its histone methylase activity. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis, we found that mTOR expression was associated with promoter methylation and an enrichment for mono‐ and dimethylated histone 3 lys 9 (H3K9). G9a knockdown revealed an apparent decrease in H3K9 monomethylation levels, but no apparent change in H3K9 dimethylation levels at the mTOR promoter. These results indicate that G9a is a novel and promising therapeutic target for GC treatment.—Yin, C., Ke, X., Zhang R., Hou, J., Dong Z., Wang, F., Zhang K., Zhong, X., Yang L., Cui, H. G9a promotes cell proliferation and suppresses autophagy in gastric cancer by directly activating mTOR. FASEB J. 33, 14036‐14050 (2019). www.fasebj.org
Sirt3‐dependent deacetylation of COX‐1 counteracts oxidative stress‐induced cell apoptosis
Authors: Tu Long‐Fang , Cao Ling‐Fang , Zhang Yue‐Hong , Guo Yu‐Lin , Zhou Yang‐Fan , Lu Wei‐Qi , Zhang Tian‐Ze , Zhang Tao , Zhang Gao‐Xiao , Kurihara Hiroshi , Li Yi‐Fang , He Rong‐Rong
Published: October 2019

The mitochondrial complexes are prone to sirtuin (Sirt)3‐mediated deacetylation modification, which may determine cellular response to stimuli, such as oxidative stress. In this study, we show that the cytochrome c oxidase (COX)‐1, a core catalytic subunit of mitochondrial complex IV, was acetylated and deactivated both in 2, 2'‐azobis(2‐amidinopropane) dihydrochloride‐treated NIH/3T3 cells and hydrogen peroxide‐treated primary neuronal cells, correlating with apoptotic cell death induction by oxidative stress. Inhibition of Sirt3 by small interfering RNA or the inhibitor nicotinamide induced accumulation of acetylation of COX‐1, reduced mitochondrial membrane potential, and increased cell apoptosis. In contrast, overexpression of Sirt3 enhanced deacetylation of COX‐1 and inhibited oxidative stress‐induced apoptotic cell death. Significantly, rats treated with ischemia/reperfusion injury, a typical oxidative stress‐related disease, presented an inhibition of Sirt3‐induced hyperacetylation of COX‐1 in the brain tissues. Furthermore, K13, K264, K319, and K481 were identified as the acetylation sits of COX‐1 in response to oxidative stress. In conclusion, COX‐1 was discovered as a new deacetylation target of Sirt3, indicating that the Sirt3/COX‐1 axis is a promising therapy target of stress‐related diseases.—Tu, L.‐F., Cao, L.‐F., Zhang Y.‐H., Guo, Y.‐L., Zhou, Y.‐F., Lu, W.‐Q., Zhang, T.‐Z., Zhang, T., Zhang, G.‐X., Kurihara, H., Li, Y.‐F., He, R.‐R. Sirt3‐dependent deacetylation of COX‐1 counteracts oxidative stress‐induced cell apoptosis. FASEB J. 33, 14118‐14128 (2019). www.fasebj.org