bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Prudential Supervision of Financial Conglomerates
Authors: Morris Charles H R
Published: August 2024

This chapter studies the third major form of EU/UK prudential group: the financial conglomerate, as identified and supervised under regimes implementing the Financial Conglomerates Directive (FICOD). Financial conglomerates are, in broad terms, groups comprising both material insurance and material banking/investment services businesses. FICOD requires financial conglomerates to maintain sufficient conglomerate capital resources to meet their conglomerate capital resources requirement. In other words, it imposes consolidated capital requirements upon financial conglomerates. FICOD also imposes supervisory requirements relating to the monitoring and reporting of risk concentration levels of, and significant intragroup transactions between, members of financial conglomerates. Moreover, it requires the maintenance of risk management controls and processes at the level of a financial conglomerate, backed up by regulatory reporting obligations, and requirements for stress testing of financial conglomerates by their regulators.
Resolution and Groups
Authors: Morris Charles H R
Published: August 2024

This chapter assesses how the concepts of resolution tools and powers are applied to, and indeed shape and are shaped by, groups. The driving concern of resolution authorities is to ensure the resolvability of banking and other financial services groups. Major financial services groups have had to restructure and refinance themselves with a view to facilitating their resolution authorities’ resolution strategies, and it is unlikely that regulators would knowingly permit the creation of a group that posed serious barriers to resolvability. Moreover, resolution authorities are now required to identify barriers to resolution on a periodic basis, and have been granted powers to require groups to restructure in order to remove such impediments. The chapter then considers the application of resolution-related requirements on a group basis, as well as the group resolution plans and resolution strategies.
Core Distinctions
Authors: O’Sullivan Dominic
Published: August 2024

This chapter introduces the concept of rescission. It starts with the definitions of recissions correlating to ab initio and de futuro. Ab initio refers to the recission of a contract for fraud and other vitiating events from the beginning, while de futuro refers to when a contract had been brought to conclusion for subsequent breach or frustration. The law of recission primarily focuses on voidable contracts instead of void contracts or contracts that are ineffective until ratified. The chapter then discusses the similarities and differences of the law of recission within the US and the UK. It also looks into the rescission and transactions ineffective in equity.
Common Law, Equity, and Fusion
Authors: O’Sullivan Dominic
Published: August 2024

This chapter discusses common law, equity, and fusion. It recognizes how the separate origins of recissions at law and in equity had hampered the development of clear rules that regulated the relationship between doctrines. Thus, questions arose on how far the fusion or synthesis of common law and equity had gone. The structure of rescission at common law was a by-product of the availability of different forms of action in line with the reorganization of the law of contract. The chapter notes fraud, bribery, duress, or contracts of insurance for material non-disclosure and non-fraudulent misrepresentation as grounds of rescission at law.
Electing to Rescind
Authors: O’Sullivan Dominic
Published: August 2024

This chapter studies the process of electing to rescind. It starts with the validity of a voidable transaction until it is rescinded, especially since the party entitled to rescind would not be obliged. An election to disaffirm never results in a rescission, but proprietary rights to restitution are conferred when a transaction is rejected for fraud. As a general rule, rescinding election includes notifying the opposite party in the transaction of one's intent. Retaking possession of goods sold unambiguously asserts rights incompatible with a subsisting contract. The chapter also explains how an election to rescind could be achieved through pleading. When a transaction is voidable in equity, the election to rescind could only be effective under the conditions of fraud.
General Principles of Restitutio in Integrum
Authors: O’Sullivan Dominic
Published: August 2024

This chapter discusses the general principles of restitutio in integrum. It highlights the basic objective of the relief given upon rescission, which is to restore the parties to their original positions or where rescission occurs in equity. Restitutio in integrum often refers to the object of an award of damages. Moreover, rescission can leave uncompensated losses and windfalls that would leave parties in a worse position financially than if the contract had never been made. The chapter then explains how discretion is needed to impose relief in equity. It looks at the retrospective consequences of rescissions that involve property rights and fiscal consequences.
Delay and Estoppel
Authors: O’Sullivan Dominic
Published: August 2024

This chapter discusses the loss of the right to rescind following the failure to exercise it. It outlines the different doctrines that are engaged when delay prevents rescission. The doctrines mainly include three categories: culpable delay that results in undue prejudice; a delay that causes the right to rescind to expire due to the statute of limitations; and delay that results in an inference of waiver. However, a delay is not essential prior to rescission being barred by estoppel. The chapter explains how estoppel is governed by general principles due to the lack of authority. It examines how estoppel might arise following a consistent course of dealings, conducted on the footing that a right to rescind would not be exercised.
Disproportionate Effect: Section 2(2) of the Misrepresentation Act 1967
Authors: O’Sullivan Dominic
Published: August 2024

This chapter examines Section 2(2) of the Misrepresentation Act 1967. As rescission is claimed for non-fraudulent misrepresentation, Section 2(2) of the Misrepresentation Act 1967 provide judges and arbitrators the discretionary power to declare the contract subsisting and award damages in lieu of rescission. The legislation had been introduced for instances wherein the situation of the defendant of rescission would be disproportionately hard compared to the injury suffered. The chapter then expounds on the conditions and grounds for the exercise of the power to award damages instead of rescission. It also looks into the measurement of damages. Additionally, courts have asserted an undoubted discretion to refuse rescission when it had been deemed disproportionate under the general law and requirements of the fair dealing rule.
Introduction
Authors: Lianos Ioannis , Davis Peter , Nebbia Paolisa
Published: August 2024

This chapter provides an introduction to the book and discusses the political economy of damages actions in the EU enforcement system, issues of litigation funding, and issues relating to the integration of economic experts in the litigation process.
State Aid Litigation before the European Union Courts
Authors: Kapenne Jean Paul , Caviedes Carlos Urraca
Published: August 2024

Abstracts and keywords to be supplied.
Freedom of Choice
Authors: McParland Michael
Published: August 2024

This chapter explains Article 3 of the Rome I Regulation entitled ‘Freedom of Choice’ (Liberté de choix/Freie Rechtswahl). The article is the cornerstone of the Rome Convention, reiterated in the Rome I Regulation, and requires that the choice freely made by the parties as regards the law applicable to their contractual relationship be respected.
Assignment and Subrogation
Authors: McParland Michael
Published: August 2024

This chapter explains Articles 14 and 15 of the Rome I Regulation. Article 14 provides conflict rules relating to voluntary assignments and contractual subrogation. Article 15 applies to subrogation by operation of law, where a third person has a ‘duty’ to satisfy the creditor and/or has in fact satisfied the creditor in discharge of that duty. In contrast to Article 14, which requires a voluntary, contractual subrogation of such a claim, Article 15 is engaged where the law imposes a duty on the third person to pay.
Introduction
Authors: Marboe Irmgard
Published: August 2024

The calculation of compensation and damages plays an important role in international investment arbitration. Claimants are usually interested above all with the question of how much they can expect to receive after a possibly long-lasting legal procedure. In addition, general preventive reasons should also be kept in mind. It follows that the financial assessment of the legal claims should as closely as possible reflect economic realities. This means that generally accepted valuation standards and approaches should be applied which so far has not been self-evident in international legal disputes.
Administrative Proceedings
Authors: Nazzini Renato
Published: August 2024

This chapter sets out the taxonomy of administrative proceedings in competition law matters. Competition law may be enforced by administrative bodies in the public interest, as provided by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Administrative proceedings may be started by any of the national competition authorities in the EU, and are subject to national procedures. In addition, its decisions may be challenged before national courts and tribunals under national laws. Administrative investigations may be commenced in the US by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice or by the Federal Trade Commission. Although such investigations then lead to judicial proceedings being issued or criminal prosecutions being brought, cooperation with EU authorities may occur in the context of the administrative investigation. Such cooperation is relevant to international concurrency and is dealt with at the end of this chapter.
Case Management and Stays
Authors: Nazzini Renato
Published: August 2024

This chapter addresses the question as to whether one set of proceedings should be stayed because of another set of pending proceedings concerning the same or even different parties. The issue occurs when civil, administrative, and criminal proceedings concerning the same facts are conducted in parallel. Such a decision is always a complex and highly fact-sensitive one. The time factor weighs heavily against putting cases on hold potentially for years, but there are countervailing considerations that point in the opposite direction. This chapter deals with cases in which the need to stay proceedings does not arise because the jurisdictions of the courts and competition authorities are not concurrent but either clashing or separate. It then goes on to discuss the coordination between civil and administrative proceedings, criminal and civil proceedings, and criminal and administrative proceedings.
Passengers’ Rights in the European Union
Authors: Rodríguez Elvira Aliende
Published: August 2024

Between 2004 and 2011 the European Union introduced rules to protect passengers in air transport, in rail transport, by sea and inland waterway transport, and finally by bus and coach services. This chapter sketches the main elements of each of the relevant regimes, provides information about case law applying these rules, and identifies commonalities and differences between the different sets of rules. In particular, the Commission has made efforts to raise awareness of passenger rights amongst EU residents; however, it is essential to ensure the exercise of these rights in a simple and efficient manner. Therefore, non-judicial mechanisms have been created to deal with complaints. This means that passengers have the right to rely on a proper application by carriers and on the enforcement of EU rules from the so-called national enforcement body.
Delayed global standardization and prefectural disparities in systemic lupus erythematosus treatment in Japan: A nationwide study using the National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of Japan
Authors: Yokogawa Naoto , Sakai Ryoko , Matsushita Masakazu , Shimizu Masaki , Inoue Yuzaburo , Inoue Eisuke , Yamaji Ken , Mori Masaaki , Miyamae Takako
Published: August 2024

Objectives

The aim of this study was to evaluate the status of the global standardization of, and prefectural differences in, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) treatments in Japan.

Methods

The National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of Japan (NDB Japan) was used. A patient with SLE was defined as having a disease with ICD-10 code M321 or M329 between April 2019 and March 2020, for which oral corticosteroids, immunosuppressive agents, or biologic agents were prescribed at least once during a given month. SLE treatments were evaluated by treatment centre type and prefecture.

Results

In total, 74,277 patients met the definition of SLE. The SLE prevalence was 60 per 100,000 (range: 47–102 per 100,000 by prefecture). Nationwide, 79.4% of the patients (range: 52.1–93.3% by prefecture) visited a specialized treatment centre (STC); 37.4% (range: 26.4–51.3% by prefecture) received only oral corticosteroids, with fewer of these patients visiting an STC than a non-STC (34.8% and 49.7%, P < .001); and 21.4% (range: 10.7–35.0%) received hydroxychloroquine, with more of these patients visiting an STC than a non-STC (23.0% and 13.5%; P < .001).

Conclusions

The NDB Japan demonstrated the delayed global standardization of, and prefectural disparity in, SLE treatments in Japan.
Unexpected nuclear hormone receptor and chromatin dynamics regulate estrous cycle dependent gene expression
Authors: Jefferson Wendy N , Wang Tianyuan , Padilla-Banks Elizabeth , Williams Carmen J
Published: August 2024

Chromatin changes in response to estrogen and progesterone are well established in cultured cells, but how they control gene expression under physiological conditions is largely unknown. To address this question, we examined in vivo estrous cycle dynamics of mouse uterus hormone receptor occupancy, chromatin accessibility and chromatin structure by combining RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, HiC-seq and ChIP-seq. Two estrous cycle stages were chosen for these analyses, diestrus (highest estrogen) and estrus (highest progesterone). Unexpectedly, rather than alternating with each other, estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and progesterone receptor (PGR) were co-bound during diestrus and lost during estrus. Motif analysis of open chromatin followed by hypoxia inducible factor 2A (HIF2A) ChIP-seq and conditional uterine deletion of this transcription factor revealed a novel role for HIF2A in regulating diestrus gene expression patterns that were independent of either ERα or PGR binding. Proteins in complex with ERα included PGR and cohesin, only during diestrus. Combined with HiC-seq analyses, we demonstrate that complex chromatin architecture changes including enhancer switching are coordinated with ERα and PGR co-binding during diestrus and non-hormone receptor transcription factors such as HIF2A during estrus to regulate most differential gene expression across the estrous cycle.
The distribution of savings behaviours and macro dynamics
Authors: Gomes Orlando
Published: August 2024

This article formulates a Keynesian macro model and explores its underlying dynamics. The distinctive features of the model relative to other Keynesian frameworks are: (1) the assumption that households are spread over a behavioural distribution that reflects their idiosyncratic attitudes towards savings; (2) the consideration of a macro–micro feedback mechanism according to which the state of the economy (measured by aggregate output or the unemployment rate) influences households’ savings behaviours. The devised analytical setup generates intuitive and appealing dynamic results, namely the formation of two alternative stable steady states, which are representative of two possible macroeconomic outcomes (with and without full employment). The stability of the steady state might be broken when the reaction of savings behaviours to perturbations in the unemployment rate is strong. The framework is flexible enough to allow for a compelling analysis of the implications of fiscal and monetary policies.
Combination of a Rapid Diagnostic Assay and Antimicrobial Stewardship Intervention for Gram-Negative Bacteremia
Authors: Ventres Julian J , Ting Michelle H , Parente Diane M , Rogers Ralph , Norris Ashlyn M , Benitez Gregorio , Shehadeh Fadi , Bobenchik April M , Mylonakis Eleftherios , Chapin Kimberle C , Cunha Cheston B
Published: August 2024

Background

Traditional blood cultures for gram-negative bacteremia can take up to 72 hours or more to return results, prolonging the duration of empiric broad-spectrum intravenous antibiotics. The Accelerate Pheno system provides rapid identification and susceptibilities for blood cultures in gram-negative bacteremia. Current data on its clinical utility are mixed overall, so the system requires further research.

Methods

A multicenter, retrospective quasi-experimental study was conducted comparing the Accelerate Pheno rapid diagnostic system with antimicrobial stewardship intervention and traditional blood cultures alone.

Results

A total of 264 patients with blood cultures with gram-negative bacteria growth were included in the final analysis (102 pre-intervention, 162 post-intervention). The antimicrobial stewardship team made 364 recommendations in 152/162 (93.8%) patients in the post group. Duration of intravenous therapy was shorter (P < .001) for the post-intervention group (median, 4.0 days) compared with the pre-intervention group (median, 7.5 days). Hospital length of stay was also shorter (P < .001) for the post-intervention group (median, 5.1 days) compared with the pre-intervention group (median, 7.0 days). Readmission rates within 30 days were reduced (P = .042) post-intervention (13.0%) compared with pre-intervention (22.6%). In the post-intervention group, a larger proportion of patients were transitioned to oral therapy at any point (126/162, 77.8%) compared with pre-intervention (62/102, 60.8%; P < .001).

Conclusions

These results suggest that the Accelerate Pheno system, with active review and intervention by a multidisciplinary antimicrobial stewardship team, is a useful tool in improving both patient-centric and antimicrobial stewardship outcomes.
The Science of Free Will
Authors: Baumeister Roy F.
Published: August 2024

This groundbreaking book sheds new scientific light on the age-old question of free will. Humankind evolved to flourish by creating a new kind of society, which required an advanced mind capable of recognizing possibilities and making good choices. No other animal operates amid economic marketplaces, shared moral principles, legal systems, religious and political institutions, and the like. Rather than getting bogged down in philosophical debates, this book surges ahead to explain how this marvelous, newly evolved mental system works. Some actions are freer than others (everyone has experienced the difference), so how does one recognize and take advantage of this freedom? Key features involve grounding actions in time and pondering multiple possible futures—indeed understanding one’s life as a story, in which one’s actions link past, present, and future. Conscious thoughts (including logical reasoning, planning, and overriding one’s first impulse) shape behavior advantageously. Free will helps you get what you want while following society’s rules. Willpower is limited, so free will can only be used sometimes. People use ideas (laws, ideals, plans, values) to guide actions. Freedom is not for random action, nor does the mind create freedom—rather, it recognizes possibilities in the situation and adjusts its actions to take advantage. Understanding free will in this fashion reveals both the powers and the limits of the human mind.
Names and Titles
Authors: Barton Jill
Published: August 2024

Names have the power to characterize and to humanize. In a 2007 murder trial, the prosecutor used the defendant’s nickname 29 times—and that choice led an appeals court to vacate the conviction. The reason? Defendant Laval Farmer, a member of the Bloods street gang, went by the nickname “Murder.” For good reason, Murder’s defense counsel urged that his client be called “Mr. Farmer,” using what’s known as a courtesy title or honorific. Even “the Defendant” or his first or last name would be preferable to his prejudicial nickname. In the same way, the justices choose names over generic references to tell individuals’ stories. And by doing so, they show compassion and signal respect for the parties and to readers.
Numbers
Authors: Barton Jill
Published: August 2024

Writing numbers can perplex the legal writer, and not just because few of us tend to be math whizzes. Previously, legal writing guides called for spelling out numbers below 50 or 100, and for using unnecessary parentheticals for a doublet, like Plaintiff seeks $5 (five) million. Not anymore, say the nine justices, who unanimously simplify the way they write numbers. They use simple numerals for measurements, money, time periods, dates, and numbers 10 and above. They spell out numbers zero to nine, generic references like tens of billions, and those starting sentences. The only split among the justices on the question of numbers is whether to use the word percent or its corresponding symbol. A few of the justices are inconsistent on this point, but most use the symbol most of the time.
The Romantic Era
Authors: Shrock Dennis
Published: August 2024

La damnation de Faust Apothéose de Marguerite
The Concept of ‘Employee’
Authors: Davidov Guy
Published: August 2024

The concept of ‘employee’ is used to decide the scope of labour laws and is therefore crucial for employers and employees. Courts have developed tests and lists of factors to decide who is an ‘employee’. The chapter critically reviews these tests, first the preliminary tests used to separate employees from volunteers, interns, prisoners, and other such groups, and then the tests used to distinguish between employees and independent contractors. The chapter argues that the tests have to be connected to the purpose of labour laws, and shows that some of them are connected but others are not. It then discusses judgments from different countries where the courts have employed a purposive approach, showing the usefulness of this approach but also how it can be taken a step further. Finally, the chapter discusses some legal techniques which have been adopted by some legislatures and have a significant potential to minimize misclassifications.
Parental and Sick Leave
Authors: López López Julia , Colàs-Neila Eusebi
Published: August 2024

The foundations of policies on the conciliation of family and work have been linked to the goals of equality and non-discrimination by gender. This well-established approach can be updated and adapted to recent developments by linking it to the pursuit of solidarity as a fundamental right as stipulated by the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Agenda of Decent Work as emphasized by the ILO. The approach in this chapter is to underscore how the construction of decent work and of ‘inscriptions’ of the solidarity principle in the regulatory systems reinforce policies on gender equality. The reconciliation of work and family life is the normative goal adopted for analysing both parental leave and sick leave in this chapter. The chapter proposes a link with solidarity as the foundation of these polices with the right to legal equality and non-discrimination.
Discrimination Concerning Hiring and Firing
Authors: Robin-Olivier Sophie
Published: August 2024

Using examples from US and EU law (and the laws of EU Member States), this chapter explores various facets of anti-discrimination law in the areas of hiring and firing. After a brief analysis of the limits to employers’ fundamental freedoms that anti-discrimination law creates (a constitutional law perspective), this contribution sheds light on the impact of anti-discrimination law in hiring and firing as employment procedures, and on the transformations that anti-discrimination law entails in these procedures (an employment law angle). Lastly, turning to ideas on the future of labour law, the chapter contends that the prohibition of discrimination tends to (and needs to) extend beyond the acts of employers and employment contracts, to cover forms of work and organization of business activities that have long remained out of reach of classical employment law.
The Development of the Law of Work in Latin America
Authors: Goldin Adrián
Published: August 2024

The chapter author proposes an elementary idea of labour law, which revolves around the contract that simultaneously contains clauses of freedom along with others of subjection. It maintains that this equation is subject to the intervention of labour law, which imposes certain legal limits on submission. Next, the chapter distinguishes this basic idea from each ‘particular idea of labour law’ and proposes that labour laws in Latin America be considered as a manifestation of this last category, whose most notable features are presented in the chapter. Among them, the fact that it is an influenced but not a transplanted system, the widespread presence of codification, the very extended condition of informality and consequent distance between law and reality, and the manifestations, according to each national experience, of centralization or decentralization in the field of collective relations, one or the other imposed by law.
Global Disability Studies and Realist Representation
Authors: Thompson Hannah
Published: August 2024

This chapter is in two parts. The first part provides a brief theoretical overview of the field of critical disability studies and its engagement with literary realism. Since the publication of David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder’s seminal Narrative Prosthesis: Disability and the Dependencies of Discourse in 2000, literary realism’s representation of disability has come under considerable scrutiny from scholars and activists. With reference to four nineteenth-century realist works from France, England, and the United States, the chapter investigates how the move from the medical and charity models of disability to the social model, the development of the concepts of “disability pride” and “blindness gain,” and the importance of embodiment are foreshadowed, illustrated, and interrogated in realist fiction. The second part offers an example of a critical disability studies reading of texts by Honoré de Balzac and Wilkie Collins. These case studies reveal that disability (and specifically blindness) often functions in the realist text as a challenge to the realist writer’s desire to see and say everything. By challenging the usual interpretation of blind characters in nineteenth-century realist texts as the passive recipients of narrative and readerly pity, this part illustrates what happens when blind characters are reclaimed as both intriguing indicators of the fallibility of realism and a self-reflexive commentary on the art of the realist writer.
Mary Magdalene in Italian-Language Dramatic Works after Trent
Authors: Harness Kelley
Published: August 2024

Saint Mary Magdalene appeared as a principal character in over fifty Italian dramatic works written or published between 1550 and 1750—plays, oratorios, and even an opera. Many of these works appeared in numerous editions, and in the case of oratorios, the same libretto, sometimes revised, might be set musically by two or more composers, resulting in well over 100 documented performances. Much of the scholarship to date on these dramas has focused on single works, sometimes analyzed within the contexts of contemporary social and theatrical practices or theological debates. While some scholars have alluded to the long history of Mary Magdalene dramas, fewer have explored this tradition by comparing two or more works. Fewer still have approached the topic across genre boundaries, that is, by studying relationships between plays and oratorios. Yet these genres shared themes and, to some extent, performance contexts, although the production of spoken Magdalene plays had largely ceased by the end of the seventeenth century, replaced by the newer genre of the oratorio. This essay focuses on three themes that appear throughout the 200-year-tradition under discussion: (1) Mary Magdalene as a mirror of penitence, whose repentance causes the conversion of one or more of a drama’s other characters; (2) the youthful Magdalene and the concept of carpe diem; and (3) Mary Magdalene’s struggles and eventual conversion as the dramatization of contested theological concepts such as Grace and Free Will.
Mary Magdalene through the Lens of Mental Health, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Authors: Mroz Kate
Published: August 2024

In Luke’s Gospel, Mary of Magdala is introduced as the one from whom Jesus drew out seven demons. There are many interpretations of this episode in Luke 8:1–3 (also mentioned in the extended ending of Mark). Even if we cannot diagnose her with any particular malady without being anachronistic, we can infer that she, not only now, but during her lifetime, was a person who deeply felt the experience of being misunderstood and unheard. Therefore, Mary is a relatable figure for modern sufferers of mental illness. This article argues that just as she was countercultural for her time, Mary Magdalene’s witness can still be considered countercultural today.
Mary Magdalene in Patristic Literature
Authors: Schrader Polczer Elizabeth
Published: August 2024

The patristic record depicted Mary Magdalene in manifold ways in the first centuries of Christianity, both positively and negatively. For some early Christian interpreters, she represented the Bride of Christ, embodying the Shulamite woman in the Song of Songs who searched for her beloved in the garden. Sometimes she was understood to personify the Church or the “New Eve.” For other Christian commentators, she was driven by her womanly love and passions, and in need of correction (or rebuke) by Jesus because of her limited understanding. And for others, Mary Magdalene was a model of faith, an apostle, and a disciple of Jesus. In sum, the many ancient portraits of Mary Magdalene tend to reveal more about each individual interpreter than about the character of Mary herself.
Understanding Collective Violence in Assemblies and Crowds
Authors: Adang Otto
Published: August 2024

Over the course of the past 150 years, social scientists have elaborated different hypotheses and theoretical models to explain crowd dynamics and collective violence in crowds. These include (outmoded) theories that emphasized the inherent pathological characteristics of crowds without reference to social context (arguing that a process of ‘de-individuation’ frees participants from social constraints), models of crowd behaviour that emphasize the coming together of antisocial elements (‘convergence theory’), and contemporary understandings that emphasize the role of social identities. Many of these accounts—and their underlying rationales—are based on conjecture rather than empirical observation. Nonetheless, they powerfully inscribe certain assumptions about the nature of ‘assemblies’ and, indeed, what aspects of assembling are deserving of protection. In so doing, they have long shaped the nature of law enforcement interventions—from rationalizing a generalized suspicion of collectives and policing them as if they present a homogeneous threat, to the promotion of liaison-based protest policing.
Affect Theory and Global Racial Violence
Authors: Barder Alexander
Published: August 2024

This chapter examines the nexus between racial hierarchy and affect. In particular, the chapter focuses on how the contestation of racial hierarchies results in negative and positive affective dispositions. Racial violence emerges out of the affect generated by the instability of such racial hierarchies. One can certainly understand this in terms of the fear that such hierarchies come to be contested or as a general anxiety when the perceived threats may be less concrete. But, while fear and anxiety have been salient features of the global racial order since its inception in early modernity, this chapter also explores the positive dimensions to this racial order. To what extent does pleasure act as way of maintaining or regenerating racial hierarchy? The chapter ends by pointing to the necessary work in drawing connections with fascism studies and intersectional approaches.
Entangled Emotions and Quantum Social Theory
Authors: Fierke K. M.
Published: August 2024

This chapter explores what a quantum onto-epistemology is bringing and might further bring to the study of emotions and affect in international politics. The first section examines existing scholarship in international relations (IR) at the intersection between the study of emotions and quantum social theory. As quantum theory will not be familiar to many IR readers, the subsections provide a broad brushstroke of concepts, their meaning, and place within quantum theory, as they relate to the emotions literature. This sets the stage for looking, in section two, at empirical examples relating to forced displacement and war to illustrate the relevance to a concept of entangled emotions. The third section examines some of the potentials and limitations of a quantum approach to emotions.
Social Stereotypes
Authors: Bai Xuechunzi , Nicolas Gandalf , Fiske Susan T.
Published: August 2024

Psychological theories continue to expand our understanding of stereotype content and processes. Stereotype content refers to what people think about social groups’ characteristics. Stereotype processes reflect how people integrate information to navigate social interactions. Advances in artificial intelligence introduce innovative analytical tools to revolutionize how psychologists understand stereotypes. Content research builds on theory-driven surveys (e.g. warmth and competence), to data-driven multidimensional scaling (e.g. belief), to large-scale linguistic analysis (e.g. emotion, appearance) to describe a myriad of dimensions people use for social evaluations. Process research starts from an information-processor metaphor (e.g. decoding, encoding), to the predictive brain (e.g. statistical learning, probabilistic modeling), and now to a feedback loop framework (e.g. reinforcement learning, algorithmic bias), paving the way to understand how and why people evaluate others. Understanding stereotypes is a collective enterprise, as evidenced by the scholarly debate that has helped move the field forward.
Olivine Time-Capsules Constrain the Pre-Eruptive History of Holocene Basalts, Mount Meager Volcanic Complex, British Columbia, Canada
Authors: Aufrère S M , Williams-Jones G , Moune S , Morgan D J , Vigouroux N , Russell J K
Published: August 2024

The Canadian segment of the Cascade Volcanic Arc (i.e. the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt) comprises more than 100 eruptive centres, spanning the entire Quaternary period (Pleistocene to Holocene in age), and with deposits ranging in composition from alkaline basalt to rhyolite. At least one of the volcanoes is currently active; Mount Meager / Q̓welq̓welústen erupted explosively 2360 years BP and has ongoing fumarolic activity. Long-term forecasting of eruption frequency and style depends on reconstruction of the history and timescales of magmatic processes preceding previous volcanic eruptions. Utilising diffusion chronometry, we investigate the Mount Meager Volcanic Complex focusing on Holocene olivine-phyric basalts (Lillooet Glacier basalts) exposed by the retreat of the Lillooet Glacier. We identify two distinct olivine populations in samples of quenched, glassy basalt lavas that record different magmatic processes and histories. Glomerocrysts of Fo83 olivine phenocrysts, entrained and transported by a hot mafic input, form Population 1. These exhibit resorption and normally zoned outermost rim compositions of Fo76–78; a third of them also show interior reverse compositional zoning. A second population of skeletal microphenocrysts have the same composition as the phenocryst rims (i.e. Fo76–78) and are in equilibrium with the adjacent matrix glass. We estimate the pre-eruptive temperature-fO2 conditions in a shallow reservoir (100 MPa; ~3 km) for a melt with H2O content of 0.5 to 1 wt % as ~1097°C to 1106°C (± 30°C), and NNO + 0.5 (±1.1), respectively. Using these input parameters, we report Fe-Mg diffusion chronometry results for 234 normally zoned profiles from 81 olivine phenocrysts. Diffusion modelling of compositional profiles in oriented crystals indicates pre-eruptive magmatic residence times of 1 to 3 months. These remarkably short residence times in shallow reservoirs prior to eruption suggest very short periods of unrest may precede future eruptions.
Bulky glycocalyx drives cancer invasiveness by modulating substrate-specific adhesion
Authors: Barai Amlan , Piplani Niyati , Saha Sumon Kumar , Dutta Sarbajeet , Gomathi V , Ghogale Mayank M , Kumar Sushil , Kulkarni Madhura , Sen Shamik
Published: August 2024

The majority of the eukaryotic cell surface is decorated with a layer of membrane-attached polysaccharides and glycoproteins collectively referred to as the glycocalyx. While the formation of a bulky glycocalyx has been associated with the cancer progression, the mechanisms by which the glycocalyx regulates cancer invasiveness are incompletely understood. We address this question by first documenting subtype-specific expression of the major glycocalyx glycoprotein Mucin-1 (MUC1) in breast cancer patient samples and breast cancer cell lines. Strikingly, glycocalyx disruption led to inhibition of 2D motility, loss of 3D invasion, and reduction of clonal scattering in breast cancer cells at the population level. Tracking of 2D cell motility and 3D invasiveness of MUC1-based sorted subpopulations revealed the fastest motility and invasiveness in intermediate MUC1-expressing cells, with glycocalyx disruption abolishing these effects. While differential sensitivity in 2D motility is attributed to a nonmonotonic dependence of focal adhesion size on MUC1 levels, higher MUC1 levels enhance 3D invasiveness via increased traction generation. In contrast to inducing cell rounding on collagen-coated substrates, high MUC1 level promotes cell adhesion and confers resistance to shear flow on substrates coated with the endothelial surface protein E-selectin. Collectively, our findings illustrate how MUC1 drives cancer invasiveness by differentially regulating cell–substrate adhesion in a substrate-dependent manner.
Ubiquitin-driven protein condensation stabilizes clathrin-mediated endocytosis
Authors: Yuan Feng , Gollapudi Sadhana , Day Kasey J , Ashby Grant , Sangani Arjun , Malady Brandon T , Wang Liping , Lafer Eileen M , Huibregtse Jon M , Stachowiak Jeanne C
Published: August 2024

Clathrin-mediated endocytosis is an essential cellular pathway that enables signaling and recycling of transmembrane proteins and lipids. During endocytosis, dozens of cytosolic proteins come together at the plasma membrane, assembling into a highly interconnected network that drives endocytic vesicle biogenesis. Recently, multiple groups have reported that early endocytic proteins form flexible condensates, which provide a platform for efficient assembly of endocytic vesicles. Given the importance of this network in the dynamics of endocytosis, how might cells regulate its stability? Many receptors and endocytic proteins are ubiquitylated, while early endocytic proteins such as Eps15 contain ubiquitin-interacting motifs. Therefore, we examined the influence of ubiquitin on the stability of the early endocytic protein network. In vitro, we found that recruitment of small amounts of polyubiquitin dramatically increased the stability of Eps15 condensates, suggesting that ubiquitylation could nucleate endocytic assemblies. In live-cell imaging experiments, a version of Eps15 that lacked the ubiquitin-interacting motif failed to rescue defects in endocytic initiation created by Eps15 knockout. Furthermore, fusion of Eps15 to a deubiquitylase enzyme destabilized nascent endocytic sites within minutes. In both in vitro and live-cell settings, dynamic exchange of Eps15 proteins, a measure of protein network stability, was decreased by Eps15–ubiquitin interactions and increased by loss of ubiquitin. These results collectively suggest that ubiquitylation drives assembly of the flexible protein network responsible for catalyzing endocytic events. More broadly, this work illustrates a biophysical mechanism by which ubiquitylated transmembrane proteins at the plasma membrane could regulate the efficiency of endocytic internalization.
Smile variation leaks personality and increases the accuracy of interpersonal judgments
Authors: Witkower Zachary , Tian Laura , Tracy Jessica , Rule Nicholas O
Published: August 2024

People ubiquitously smile during brief interactions and first encounters, and when posing for photos used for virtual dating, social networking, and professional profiles. Yet not all smiles are the same: subtle individual differences emerge in how people display this nonverbal facial expression. We hypothesized that idiosyncrasies in people's smiles can reveal aspects of their personality and guide the personality judgments made by observers, thus enabling a smiling face to serve as a valuable tool in making more precise inferences about an individual's personality. Study 1 (N = 303) supported the hypothesis that smile variation reveals personality, and identified the facial-muscle activations responsible for this leakage. Study 2 (N = 987) found that observers use the subtle distinctions in smiles to guide their personality judgments, consequently forming slightly more accurate judgments of smiling faces than neutral ones. Smiles thus encode traces of personality traits, which perceivers utilize as valid cues of those traits.
Glucocorticoid sparing effect of Janus kinase inhibitors compared to biologic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs in rheumatoid arthritis, a single-centre retrospective analysis
Authors: Adami Giovanni , Bixio Riccardo , Virelli Giulia , Galvagni Isotta , Mastropaolo Francesca , Morciano Andrea , Ruzzon Francesca , Messina Valeria , Fracassi Elena , Gatti Davide , Viapiana Ombretta , Carletto Antonio , Rossini Maurizio
Published: August 2024

Background

Glucocorticoid sparing in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment is crucial to minimizing adverse effects associated with long-term use. Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKi) could potentially offer a more potent glucocorticoid-sparing effect than biologic DMARDs (bDMARDs)

Material and methods

This is a single-centre retrospective analysis of RA patients treated with JAKi or bDMARDs. Glucocorticoid tapering, rescue therapy and discontinuation were analysed through mixed-effects models, Poisson regression and multivariable logistic regression, respectively, adjusting for baseline disease activity, demographic factors and treatment line.

Results

A total of 716 RA patients treated with JAKi (n = 156) or bDMARDs (n = 560) were evaluated. JAKi treatment was associated with a more rapid reduction in glucocorticoid dose within the first 6 months and 60% higher odds of discontinuation compared with bDMARDs (adjusted odds ratio 1.63; 95% CI: 1.02, 2.60, P = 0.039). Despite a higher baseline glucocorticoid dose, over 50% of JAKi-treated patients discontinued glucocorticoids after 12 months, vs ∼40% for bDMARDs. The need for glucocorticoid rescue therapy was significantly higher in the bDMARD group (rate ratio 2.66; 95% CI: 1.88, 3.74).

Conclusion

Our findings indicate that JAKi facilitate more rapid glucocorticoid tapering compared with bDMARDs in RA patients. These results underscore the potential of JAKi to reduce long-term glucocorticoid exposure, highlighting their value in RA management strategies, including minimizing glucocorticoid-related adverse effects.
Large vessel vasculitis is a risk factor for relapse only in giant cell arteritis patients without polymyalgia rheumatica
Authors: Moreel Lien , Betrains Albrecht , Boeckxstaens Lennert , Molenberghs Geert , Van Laere Koen , De Langhe Ellen , Vanderschueren Steven , Blockmans Daniel
Published: August 2024

Objectives

To evaluate differences in presentation and outcome of GCA patients with and without large vessel vasculitis (LVV) and according to the extent and severity of LVV.

Methods

Consecutive patients diagnosed with GCA between 2003 and 2020 who have had FDG PET imaging at diagnosis ≤3 days after initiation of glucocorticoids (GC) and followed for ≥12 months at the University Hospitals Leuven (Belgium) were included retrospectively. PET scans were visually scored (0–3) in seven vascular areas and a total vascular score (TVS) was calculated. LVV was defined as FDG uptake ≥2 in any large vessel.

Results

We included 238 GCA patients, of which 169 (71%) had LVV. LVV patients were younger (69 vs 74 years, P < 0.001) and more frequently female (72% vs 49%, P = 0.001). In patients without PMR symptoms, the presence of LVV was associated with relapse (aOR 3.05 [95% CI 1.32–7.43], P = 0.011) and with a lower probability of stopping GC (aHR 0.59 [95% CI 0.37–0.94], P = 0.025). However, in those with PMR symptoms, there was no difference in relapse risk (aOR 1.20 [95% CI 0.53–2.66], P = 0.657) and in the probability of stopping GC (aHR 1.25 [95% CI 0.75–2.09], P = 0.394) between patients with and without LVV. A higher TVS was associated with an increased risk of relapse (aOR 1.09 [95% CI 1.04–1.15], P = 0.001) in patients without PMR symptoms, but not in those with PMR symptoms (aOR 1.01 [95% CI 0.96–1.07], P = 0.693).

Conclusion

LVV is a risk factor for relapse in GCA patients without PMR symptoms with a higher relapse risk in those with higher TVS.