bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Caspar Langenhert’s Parisian ‘School of Egoists’ and the Reception of Geulincx’s Physics, from Occasionalism to Solipsism
Authors: Jaworzyn Michael
Published: December 2020

This contribution focuses on an apparently obscure and seemingly abortive tradition that originated with Caspar Langenhert (1661–1730?) and the Parisian ‘sect’ he attempted to found, which the author sees as developing in Langenhert’s engagement with the work of Arnold Geulincx (1624-1669). Geulincx was professor of philosophy in Leiden and combined his sympathy for Cartesian metaphysics and natural philosophy with a thoroughly Calvinist agenda in theology and ethics. Owing to his premature death in the plague of 1669, Geulincx’s legacy remains difficult to assess. This contribution explores the ‘egoism’ supposedly advocated by Langenhert in the Novus Philosophus (1701-2) and at a controversial school opened by him in Paris in 1701. The unusual doctrines of Novus Philosophus most likely developed in response to ambiguities Langenhert saw in Geulincx’s physics, for which he provided a commentary in the 1688 Compendium Physicae. Langenhert claimed that neither Descartes nor ‘occasionalists’ could prove that the external world exists, that the existence of bodies outside of us is merely a hypothesis—and ultimately dismissed accounts of causation in metaphysics. On this basis, Langenhert developed an occasionalism ‘without occasions in the external world’. This view is somehow a product of philosophical debates that animated the academic discussions at Leiden.
Horizontal Realizations
Authors: Shelleg Assaf
Published: December 2020

If the actualization of biblical sovereignty in the Zionist present rendered eighteen centuries of exile a nocturnal existence, art music of the 1950s and 1960s interfered with such linearity using the linear properties of non-Western Jewish musical traditions and serial compositional devices. Such a convergence rendered the objectification of non-Western Jewish musical traditions obsolete and consequently severed the exotic and territorial functions they served. By utilizing the linear properties of Arab Jewish musical traditions to animate inner semiotic occurrences, composers suspended extrovert exotic signifiers and invalidated their objectification. With no visible exoteric earmarks to transmit peripherality and Otherness, the binaries by which non-European Jewish immigrants had been perceived (primitivism/modernism, religion/secularism) were deemed progressively inoperative. Through a study on the agency of non-European Jewish musical traditions, chapter 2 uncovers the network that connects the theological grammar of Zionism with the Zionist pecking order, whose lower rungs were allocated to North African and Near Eastern Jews.
Ennian Historiography in Lucretius
Authors: Nethercut Jason S.
Published: December 2020

This chapter meets the Annales on its own narrative terms, arguing that Lucretius responds to the Annales’ conceptualization of history and time in a comprehensively revisionist way. Lucretius alludes repeatedly to historical episodes and personalities from Ennius’ Annales that would appear to valorize Roman hegemony and exemplarity, only to remove whatever value they may have had in their Ennian context. This procedure is, of course, tendentious, because Lucretius both suggests what value these elements had in the Annales and then strips them of it. Lucretius implies that the Annales presents universal history as diachronic and teleological and that individual historical episodes like the wars with Pyrrhus of Epirus and the Carthaginians all build cumulatively to Rome’s imperium sine fine over the cosmos itself. The Epicurean explanations of natural history in the DRN regularly reject this implied Ennian perspective.
Introduction
Authors: Hogan Patrick Colm
Published: December 2020

The introduction to Style in Narrative sets out some of the main principles for the description and explanation of style, principles that will be developed and specified in the following chapters. In keeping with Hogan’s earlier work, the introduction stresses the importance of emotion to the function of style and of affective science for the understanding of style. Hogan goes on to explain the meaning of “cognitive-affective stylistics” and its difference from Stanley Fish’s influential notion of “affective stylistics.” The introduction also briefly outlines the overall structure of the book, the content of the following chapters, and the reasons for the topics treated in those chapters.
Anxiety, Freedom, and Evil
Authors: Bergo Bettina
Published: December 2020

Overcoming his early admiration of Fichte’s Doctrine of Science and his philosophy of the “absolute I,” Schelling crowned his own philosophy of nature with an account of the emergence of the absolute out of itself. The only way in which God or the absolute might thus emerge and evolve was if it encompassed within itself what was both itself and not itself. Two years after Hegel’s Phenomenology, Schelling published his Freedom essay, arguably setting Hegel’s 1807 dialectic on its head. Starting with God (or what-is) as a self-organizing being, Schelling introduced vitality and self-origin into an absolute that was no longer a historic terminus ad quem. By reviving Spinoza’s holism, Schelling proposed a new logic of identity: A=A and their indiscernible difference, or B. The possibility of the living absolute giving rise to itself thus resulted from two principles existing in “indifference to each other” yet inseparable, and there was no third term by which to distinguish them. Eschewing Hegelian dialectic in favor of contrariety in a genre, Schelling characterized the coexistence as Sehnsucht, an objectless “affect” out of which emerged an incipient order. All living beings contained this bi-une principle. However, in humans the two could become unbalanced, thereby accounting for the possibility of evil, of “a merely particular will” striving for ascendency. While this characterized evil in humans, the tension between the two principles, which had begun as Sehnsucht, would soon be called angst in the Ages of the World, underscoring the importance of the affect.
Theorizing the Taboo
Authors: Price Max D.
Published: December 2020

Taboos are types of avoidance behavior surrounded by a high degree of social energy and sewn into the cultural fabric through their appeal to a cosmological moral order. Taboos exist on the cultural level, but often, as in the case of the pig taboo, are reproduced through the emotion of disgust. Many have sought to explain the origins of the pig taboo. While their theories hold some kernel of wisdom about the pig taboo in Judaism and Islam, they are ultimately unsatisfactory because they fail to account for its evolution. A theory of the taboo must account for the conditions that prepare the ground for it to develop, its early history, and its evolution over the long term.
For the Joy of the Working
Authors: Coffman Elesha J.
Published: December 2020

Mead stayed extraordinarily busy to the end of life, engaged with such issues as nuclear safety, Earth Day, and the women’s movement. When a cancer diagnosis threatened her forward momentum, she denied it, preferring the ministrations of a faith healer over the recommendations of medical science. This choice dismayed her closest friends, but it was not entirely a departure from a life marked by curiosity about the full range of human experiences, even those that could not be explained by science. After her death, she was widely mourned and celebrated. She was, at her request, buried at the same church where she had been baptized and married for the first time. She is recognized by some fellow Episcopalians as a saint.
How to Prevent Regulatory Disasters
Authors: Baldwin Robert , Cave Martin
Published: December 2020

This chapter suggests that regulators suffer from systematic failures through a lack of awareness, intelligence, and dynamism, as well as an inability to deliver on the key tasks of regulation. A central way for a positive regulator to reduce failures is to examine its organizational culture in the face of changing circumstances, to avoid capture, and to address cognitive failures by engaging in counter-measures that are designed to improve the intelligence system that underpins action, and to ensure that regulatory decisions are made on the basis of the soundest available evidence. When regulators develop their awareness and intelligence systems, this increases their self-reflection and consciousness of their own fallibility, which can reduce the likelihood that mistakes will be made or repeated. Similarly, an emphasis on dynamism fosters the more agile regulatory systems that are especially needed in sectors marked by rapid technological and other changes.
Contract Terms in Hong Kong
Authors: Hall Stephen
Published: December 2020

This chapter examines three closely connected issues in defining the contents of contracts in Hong Kong: first, the approaches adopted in interpreting the meaning of agreed contractual terms and, second, to what extent additional terms are implied to supplement the express terms. It discusses the underlying philosophy of interpretation with regard to the dichotomy of ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ approaches; it details the various interpretative aids, such as customs, usages, the commercial background, and the negotiations of the parties; and it shows how Hong Kong law resolves the tension between literalist and contextualist approaches to interpretation. A number of hypothetical scenarios illustrate how Hong Kong courts deal with issues of contractual interpretation and gap-filling in practice. Third, this chapter examines how Hong Kong law deals with extremely one-sided, onerous, or otherwise unfair terms, such as exclusions or limitations of liability, penalty clauses, or restraint of trade clauses. It discusses the overt judicial control of such terms under specific legislation, sometimes targeted exclusively at standard terms or consumer contracts. It also analyses how the courts have exercised a more indirect control by employing traditional general contract law doctrines, such as contract formation and interpretation or the rules on procedural fairness, in order to protect parties against unfair terms. Hypothetical cases are discussed to illustrate how unfair contract terms are regulated in practice.
Contract Terms and their Interpretation: The Indian Perspective
Authors: Bhadbhade Nilima
Published: December 2020

This chapter examines two closely connected issues in defining the contents of contracts in India: first, the approaches adopted in interpreting the meaning of agreed contractual terms and, second, the extent to which additional terms are implied to supplement the express terms. It discusses the underlying philosophy of interpretation with regard to the dichotomy of ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ approaches; it details the various interpretative aids, such as customs, usages, the commercial background, the negotiations of the parties, and the Evidence Act; and it shows how Indian law resolves the tension between literalist and contextualist approaches to interpretation. A number of hypothetical scenarios illustrate how Indian courts deal with issues of contractual interpretation and gap-filling in practice.
The Interpretation of Contracts under Japanese Law
Authors: Okino Masami
Published: December 2020

This chapter examines two closely connected issues in defining the contents of contracts in Japan: first, the approaches adopted in interpreting the meaning of agreed contractual terms and, secondly, the extent to which additional terms are implied to supplement the express terms. It discusses the underlying philosophy of interpretation with regard to the dichotomy of ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ approaches; it details the various interpretative aids, such as customs, usages, the commercial background, the negotiations of the parties and good faith; and it shows how Japanese law resolves the tension between literalist and contextualist approaches to interpretation. A number of hypothetical scenarios illustrate how Japanese courts deal with issues of contractual interpretation and gap-filling in practice.
Conclusion
Authors: Ogden Daniel
Published: December 2020

The Conclusion lists, on the basis of the foregoing chapters, the werewolf stories that are or may be recoverable from the ancient world before going on to discuss the sorts of context in which such stories may have been told: at dinners or symposia, on the road, in inns, in sanctuaries?
Building Power to Change the World
Authors: Muldoon James
Published: December 2020

The German council movements arose through mass strikes and soldier mutinies towards the end of the First World War. They brought down the German monarchy, founded several short-lived council republics, and dramatically transformed European politics. This book reconstructs how participants in the German council movements struggled for a democratic socialist society. It examines their attempts to democratize politics, the economy, and society through building powerful worker-led organizations and cultivating workers’ political agency. Drawing from the practices of the council movements and the writings of theorists such as Rosa Luxemburg, Anton Pannekoek, and Karl Kautsky, this book returns to their radical vision of a self-determining society and their political programme of democratization and socialization. It presents a powerful argument for renewed attention to the political theories of this historical period and for their ongoing relevance today.
Freedom as Collective Self-Determination
Authors: Muldoon James
Published: December 2020

This chapter proposes that Anton Pannekoek espoused a particular conception of freedom that is distinct from both the dominant liberal and republican views of liberty. Pannekoek understood political freedom as a political community’s ongoing struggle against forces of domination and the experimentation with new practices and structures of governance. I call this view of liberty ‘freedom as collective self-determination’. Pannekoek shared the concerns of republican political theorists for combatting structures of domination and the influence of foreign powers. Yet in contrast to most neo-Roman republicans, he identified the bureaucratic state and free market economic relations as two of the principal sources of domination in modern society. He also believed that democratic participation was essential rather than auxiliary to a proper understanding of freedom. To be free, for Pannekoek, meant to actively participate in a political community, to play some direct role in shaping its laws and character; and to influence the direction of its ongoing transformation. This was a conception in which freedom must be exercised rather than enjoyed as a state or condition. This view of freedom contributes an important perspective to our understanding of freedom understood as a practice and constant struggle, which is obscured by purely negative accounts.
Building Workers’ Power
Authors: Muldoon James
Published: December 2020

This chapter argues that council theorists considered it important to shift the balance of power between social classes in order to achieve political transformation. It theorizes differences between those who advocated ‘organization’ (Kautsky) versus those who advocated ‘mobilization’ (Luxemburg, Pannekoek) as the most effective method of developing the independent power of the working class. It claims Karl Kautsky advocated a strategy of developing power through building worker-led organizations such as the party, unions, and the press. His strategy involved the gradual growth of power through organization-building, parliamentary activity, and developing workers’ consciousness within existing organizations. Underlying this strategy of organization lay a conception of power as something that could be incrementally developed and stored through sound organizing, discipline, and patience. In contrast, Rosa Luxemburg and Anton Pannekoek considered that power could only be developed through political struggle and direct clashes with the ruling class. They argued that previously unorganized workers could be mobilized through the escalating dynamics of political struggle and that consciousness-raising was best conducted in militant action rather than administrative party activities. These two fundamentally different analyses of how workers should develop their power shed light on different aspects of the council movements’ political struggle.
Socialist Republicanism
Authors: Muldoon James
Published: December 2020

This chapter reconstructs a theory of socialist republicanism from the writings of Karl Kautsky. Comparing it with the theories of the Revolutionary Shop Stewards and the SPD leadership, I argue that during the revolution Kautsky proposed an innovative socialist programme that called for the radical transformation of the state and society. The dominance of the ‘National Assembly versus Council Republic’ ideological framework of the revolution has obscured Kautsky’s ‘centrist’ third option. Kautsky argued for the presence of workers’ councils alongside a parliamentary system and understood democracy and socialism as the twin goals of a socialist revolution. He sought to combine the benefits of political democracy and civil rights for minorities with the gradual socialization of the economy. Drawing from overlooked and untranslated (or newly translated) texts written during the early days of the German Revolution, this interpretation challenges the dominant view of Kautsky as a bourgeois reformist who advocated political quietism during the revolution. It theorizes an important socialist action programme that has been neglected within the scholarly literature.
Into the Archipelago
Authors: Allen Nicholas
Published: December 2020

This chapter reads the twelve issues of the journal Archipelago, which was first published in 2007. Launched from the unlikely port of the Bodleian Library, it carried a complement of writers and artists whose coastal work was not thought previously to be part of a collective enterprise. Under Andrew McNeillie, the writer, editor, and provocateur, the twelve issues of Archipelago created a tilted framework through which to interpret the cultural history of the formerly, and temporarily, British Isles. This much is evident from the journal’s cover, which features an illustration of Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, and the very tip of France from the far north-west perspective of a gannet’s plunge. This is a composite vision, geographic, ecological, and prophetic, a manifesto sketched in the unfamiliar outlines of an archipelago whose borders the journal navigates in a journey that proceeds in sequences of association.
Conclusion
Authors: Ghosh William
Published: December 2020

Starting from a reading of his late travel book A Turn in the South, this chapter describes how, late in life, Naipaul came to understand his own specific historical vantage point, as a writer with a colonial upbringing, who had lived to see independence. Meditating on the legacy of Booker T. Washington, Naipaul reflects on ‘the prisons of the spirit men create for themselves and for others – so overpowering, so much part of the way things appear to have to be, and then, abruptly, with a little shift, so insubstantial’. My reading of A Turn in the South leads to a discussion of Naipaul’s position within Caribbean history, and literary history. I outline the ways in which Naipaul’s work, on the one hand, now seems outdated, and how, on the other hand and in other ways, his work may still be important today.
Architecture Under Nationalism
Authors: Walker Nathaniel Robert
Published: December 2020

The international smash Looking Backward 2000–1887, by Edward Bellamy, represents the peak of nineteenth-century utopian literature. As the troubles of American industrial cities reached a boiling point, this novel offered a seductive vision of universal prosperity under industrial socialism. Its urban design content was somewhat vague, but Bellamy quickly published an essay clarifying his commitment to the principles of urban decentralization, and a number of his fans wrote sequels driving this point home. As a major political movement called “Nationalism” rose to carry out Bellamy’s vision, William Morris roused his pen in London to rebut Looking Backward with an anti-industrial counter-utopia of pastoral peace: News from Nowhere. The suburban Morris had more in common with Bellamy, however, than he realized. At the same time, the architect John Pickering Putnam called for garden apartments to define the coming Nationalist utopia, testing his ideas with several prominent projects in Boston’s Back Bay.
Transgression and Redemption in American Fiction
Authors: Ferraro Thomas J.
Published: December 2020

This book considers modern American fiction in its own Italianate coloration: the interplay of sex (the red of passion), violence (the black of violence), and sanctity (the gold of redemption). Its purpose is to involve readers in the mythopoetics of American narrative, long-lived and well overdue, in which Marian Catholicism is seen as integral to apprehending the nexus among eros, grace, and sacrifice in U.S. self-making—especially for Protestants! It starts with Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the primary instigator, as well as with Frederic’s ingenious retelling, The Damnation of Theron Ware, a second persisting prism. Sustained revisionist accounts of five major novels and several stories follow, including Chopin’s The Awakening, James’ The Wings of the Dove, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Cather’s The Professor’s House, and Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. Each novel is recalled as a melodrama of beset sexuality and revealed as a martyr tale of forbidden love—successive, self-aware courtings of devotional Catholicism that the critical and teaching establishment has found too mysterious and dangerous to recognize, never mind sanction. In counterpoint, the book illuminates each tale in its own terms, which are often surprising yet almost always common-sensical; it identifies the special senses—beauty, courage, and wisdom—that emerge, often in the face of social terror and moral darkness, under Marian-Catholic pedagogy; and it yields an overview of the mainline of the modern American novel in which sexual transgression (including betrayal) and graced redemption (the sanctification of passion, mediated confession, martyring sacrifice) go hand in hand, syncretically.
Introduction
Authors: Ferraro Thomas J.
Published: December 2020

To make sense of the presence of Catholic devotionalism in America’s putatively Protestant mainstream fiction, the Introduction recovers the mythopoetic criticism of Leslie A. Fiedler’s Love and Death in the American Novel, long-remembered only in gender and racial terms, to marshal his distinction between Protestant sentimentalism, in which Pauline anti-sexuality yields sexless households and male bonding, and the sanctification of passion in the Catholic Mediterranean, which re-sexualizes Mary and compulsively seeks redemption in transgression. Whereas Fiedler assumed that Roman Catholicism lost the literary battle for the American psyche, Transgression & Redemption argues that “the Protestant temptation to Marian Catholicism” anticipated by Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter really gets going by century’s end and culminates in the great American modern(ist) novels of the 1920s. It begins by identifying the core storytelling that dissents from Emersonian transcendentalism and that has dominated America’s novelistic canon since its inception: what a previous generation identifies as “melodramas of beset sexuality” that must now be seen, in a return to religious accountability, as martyr tales of forbidden love. Then the big reveal: it turns out that where there is sexual transgression in the American canon, there are almost always signs of redemption—and those signs are themselves almost always Catholic. The introduction proceeds from recent critical trends to outline further crucial changes in reading practices—leveraging female devotions against male delusion, thinking both/and instead of either/or, cultivating material immanence over transcendental symbolism—that prepare the way for comprehending the once-and-still-fearful religious Other central to the American literary imagination.
Pessoa’s Novel Invention
Authors: Ganeri Jonardon
Published: December 2020

Fernando Pessoa’s invention of the heteronym represents a singular moment in the history of subjectivity. Heteronymy is, as the name implies, an othering of oneself, an awareness of oneself but as other. The contrast with the pseudonym is deliberate: a pseudonym is a mask, a disguise intended, even if only ironically, to hide the true identity of the author. A heteronym is something else entirely: it is the author writing ‘outside his own person’ and in doing so transforming himself into an other I. A heteronym possesses agency, if only in the capacity to compose verse, and has its own expressive and experiential style. If transforming oneself in simulation into an other I is the core of the idea of heteronymic subjectivity, an equally important theme in Pessoa is that of depersonalization. Living through a heteronym, which from one point of view must certainly constitute an enrichment of experiential life, is paradoxically described in terms of a loss of self. Two distinct kinds of self-awareness are co-present in any act of heteronymic simulation: a heteronymic self-awareness which consists in an awareness of oneself as another I, living through a distinctive set of experiences, emotions, and moods; and what I will call a forumnal self-awareness, an awareness of oneself as hosting the heteronym, which is at the same time a place from which one’s experiential life qua heteronym can be observed and analysed.
The Politics of Regime Complexity in International Derivatives Regulation
Authors: Quaglia Lucia
Published: December 2020

This book examines the post-crisis international derivatives regulation by bringing together the international relations literature on regime complexity and the international political economy literature on financial regulation. Specifically, it addresses three interconnected questions. What factors drove international standard-setting on derivatives post-crisis? Why did international regime complexity emerge? How was it managed and with what outcomes? Theoretically, this research innovatively combines a state-centric, a transgovernmental and a business-led explanations. Empirically, it examines all the main sets of standards (or elemental regimes) concerning derivatives, namely: trading, clearing, and reporting derivatives; resilience, recovery, and resolution of central counterparties; bank capital requirements for bank exposures to central counterparties and derivatives; margins for derivatives non-centrally cleared. Regime complexity in derivatives ensued from the multi-dimensionality and the interlinkages of the problems to tackle, especially because it was a new policy area without a focal international standard-setter. Overall, the international cooperation that took place in order to promote regulatory precision, stringency, and consistency in the regime complex on derivatives was remarkable, especially considering the large number of policy actors involved (states, private actors, regulators). The main jurisdictions played an important role in managing regime complexity, but their effectiveness was constrained by limited domestic coordination. Networks of regulators facilitated international standard-setting and contributed to managing regime complexity through formal and informal tools. The financial industry, at times, lobbied in favour of less precise and stringent rules, engaging in international ‘venue shopping’; other times, it promoted regulatory harmonization and consistency.
State of the Art and Research Design
Authors: Quaglia Lucia
Published: December 2020

This chapter begins by reviewing several bodies of scholarly works that are relevant to this research, notably, the international relations literature on regime complexity and the international political economy literature on financial regulation. It then discusses three mainstream theoretically informed explanations—a state-centric, a transgovernmental, and a business-led accounts—which can be useful to explain how regime complexity in derivatives was dealt with. Finally, it outlines the research design, the analytical framework, the methodology, the sources, the timeframe, and the empirical coverage. Empirically, this book examines all the main aspects concerning the regulation of derivatives markets, namely: trading, clearing and reporting derivatives; resilience, recovery and resolution of central counterparties; capital requirements for bank exposures to central counterparties and derivatives; margins for derivatives non-centrally cleared via central counterparties.
Activation of the Treaties
Authors: Van Harten Gus
Published: December 2020

In this chapter, it is shown how investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) was activated in the 1990s through a series of pro-investor innovations, laying the foundation for hundreds of later claims. Enterprising lawyers saw the potential of the treaties, if interpreted liberally. Some lawyers became the arbitrators who quietly handed a string of victories to claimants, just as hundreds of new ISDS treaties were being signed by governments. Since the rush of treaties began to ebb around 1996, investors have brought nearly 1,000 claims, compared to four claims before that year. Thus, the 1990s were an incubation period for ISDS; one might also call it the product development phase of the ISDS industry.
Authority and Truth
Authors: Rea Michael C.
Published: December 2020

Chapter 3 is divided into three sections. The first attempts to clarify what might be meant in calling a text authoritative. The second draws distinctions between different things that might be meant by saying that a text is truthful. The goal in both of these parts is to arrive at some general conclusions about texts, rather than specific conclusions about the Bible. Consequently, the chapter refrains from making assumptions about (e.g.) biblical interpretation or about the truth of particular biblical texts. Indeed, for much of the discussion, the Bible is not even directly in view. The third section draws out some of the implications of the discussions in the first two sections for the question of how textual authority and textual truth are connected to one another. It also comments on the significance of these conclusions for discussions about the relation between biblical authority and biblical inerrancy.
Material Constitution and the Trinity [with Jeffrey Brower]
Authors: Rea Michael C.
Published: December 2020

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity poses a serious philosophical problem. On the one hand, it seems to imply that there is exactly one divine being. On the other hand, it seems to imply that there are three divine beings. There is another well-known philosophical problem that presents us with a similar sort of tension: the problem of material constitution. This chapter argues that a relatively neglected solution to the problem of material constitution—an appeal to the Aristotelian doctrine of numerical sameness without identity—can be developed into a novel solution to the problem of the Trinity.
The New Landscape for Customer Engagement
Authors: Treadgold Alan , Reynolds Jonathan
Published: December 2020

This chapter focuses on the changed landscape for customer engagement. The challenges for retailers—be they long-established or new to the sector—in these very changed shopper engagement landscapes are considerable. They are especially around the risks of introducing into the enterprise more cost, more complexity, and simultaneously more risk of under-delivery to the shopper. But the opportunities are enormous for those that can create truly shopper-centric enterprises that are genuinely equipped to engage effectively and efficiently with shoppers in the ways in which they now wish to be engaged. Many leaders of retail businesses talk of having seen in the last five to ten years change in consumer landscapes on an unprecedented scale. But, even so, we are today still only in the early stages of a transformation which is rapidly and fundamentally reframing the shopper engagement landscape.
The New Needs of Retail Enterprise Leaders
Authors: Treadgold Alan , Reynolds Jonathan
Published: December 2020

Chapter 10 is complementary to Chapter 9. The chapter focuses on the new needs of retail business leaders themselves. Certainly, some of what can be considered ‘conventional’ retail-specific skills—such as merchandising and product sourcing—continue to be highly relevant in the new retail landscape. Other skill areas have become more important whilst others are, relatively if not absolutely, de-emphasized. More personal attributes that enterprise leaders will need are also discussed. Prominent in this regard is the capacity of enterprise leaders to lead effectively in environments that are defined by uncertainty.
Equities and Exchanges, 2007–20
Authors: Michie Ranald C.
Published: December 2020

Throughout the Global Financial Crisis and its aftermath the world of equities and stock exchanges operated to its own agenda though it was affected by what was happening to banks and financial markets generally. The focus of those involved in equities and exchanges continued to revolve around the disruptive effects of technological change and globalization, and the actions of regulators motivated by a desire to protect investors and stimulate competition. In response stock exchanges increasingly opted for either the horizontal or vertical model or a combination of both. In the horizontal model exchanges merged to create multiproduct platform, which combined trading in equities with that in derivatives and other financial productsn With the vertical model trading in equities was integrated with the processing and clearing of transactions, providing users with a single venue covering the placing of an order through to its completion. Increasingly it was the combination of equities and derivatives on the one hand and trading, clearing, and settlement on the other that proved to be the winning formula, as it also led exchanges into the lucrative field of data provision. This was despite opposition from regulators because the vertical-silo limited competition between individual exchanges.
“The More Difficult War Within”
Authors: Abzug Robert H.
Published: December 2020

Soon May was in transition from the ministry to becoming a psychotherapist. He enrolled in a counseling program at Teachers College, Columbia University, and did coursework at a new psychoanalytic institute. Tillich introduced him to many German émigrés: Kurt Goldstein, Erich Fromm, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann. His mentor also involved him in a private seminar on psychology and religion. May also wrote articles for various popular religious journals to bolster spirits during the war. He himself was disqualified from the draft because of a heart murmur.
Aflasafe SN01 is the First Biocontrol Product Approved for Aflatoxin Mitigation in Two Nations, Senegal and The Gambia
Authors: Senghor A. L. , Ortega-Beltran A. , Atehnkeng J. , Jarju P. , Cotty P. J. , Bandyopadhyay R.
Published: December 2020

Aflatoxin contamination is caused by Aspergillus flavus and closely related fungi. In The Gambia, aflatoxin contamination of groundnut and maize, two staple and economically important crops, is common. Groundnut and maize consumers are chronically exposed to aflatoxins, sometimes at alarming levels, and this has severe consequences on their health and productivity. Aflatoxin contamination also impedes commercialization in local and international premium markets. In neighboring Senegal, an aflatoxin biocontrol product containing four atoxigenic isolates of A. flavus, Aflasafe SN01, has been registered and is approved for commercial use in groundnut and maize. We detected that the four genotypes composing Aflasafe SN01 are also native to The Gambia. The biocontrol product was tested during two years in 129 maize and groundnut fields and compared with corresponding untreated fields cropped by smallholder farmers in The Gambia. Treated crops contained up to 100% less aflatoxins than untreated crops. A large portion of the crops could have been commercialized in premium markets due to the low aflatoxin content (in many cases no detectable aflatoxins), both at harvest and after storage. Substantial aflatoxin reductions were also achieved when commercially produced groundnut received treatment. Here we report for the first time the use and effectiveness of an aflatoxin biocontrol product registered for use in two nations. With the current scale-out and -up efforts of Aflasafe SN01, a large number of farmers, consumers, and traders in The Gambia and Senegal will obtain health, income, and trade benefits.

[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY 4.0 International license .
Psychiatric Comorbidity Among Women With Endometriosis: Nationwide Cohort Study in Sweden
Authors: Gao Menghan , Koupil Ilona , Sjöqvist Hugo , Karlsson Håkan , Lalitkumar Sujata , Dalman Christina , Kosidou Kyriaki
Published: December 2020

(Abstracted from Am J Obstet Gynecol 2020;223(3):415.e1–415.e16)

Endometriosis is a major cause of pelvic pain, subfertility, and infertility that affects an estimated 11% of women of reproductive age. It has been reported in literature as a potential risk factor for depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder in clinical populations, although the quality of evidence is lacking.
COVID-19 and autoimmune diseases
Authors: Liu Yu , Sawalha Amr H. , Lu Qianjin
Published: December 2020

Purpose of review

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between infection with SARS-CoV-2 and autoimmunity.

Recent findings

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) associated coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Although most of the infected individuals are asymptomatic, a proportion of patients with COVID-19 develop severe disease with multiple organ injuries. Evidence suggests that some medications used to treat autoimmune rheumatologic diseases might have therapeutic effect in patients with severe COVID-19 infections, drawing attention to the relationship between COVID-19 and autoimmune diseases. COVID-19 shares similarities with autoimmune diseases in clinical manifestations, immune responses and pathogenic mechanisms. Robust immune reactions participate in the pathogenesis of both disease conditions. Autoantibodies as a hallmark of autoimmune diseases can also be detected in COVID-19 patients. Moreover, some patients have been reported to develop autoimmune diseases, such as Guillain--Barré syndrome or systemic lupus erythematosus, after COVID-19 infection. It is speculated that SARS-CoV-2 can disturb self-tolerance and trigger autoimmune responses through cross-reactivity with host cells. The infection risk and prognosis of COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases remains controversial, but patient adherence to medication regimens to prevent autoimmune disease flares is strongly recommended.

We present a review of the association between COVID-19 and autoimmune diseases, focusing on similarities in immune responses, cross-reactivity of SARS-CoV-2, the development of autoimmune diseases in COVID-19 patients and the risk of COVID-19 infection in patients with preexisting autoimmune conditions.
Genome-wide Association Analysis Across 16,956 Patients Identifies a Novel Genetic Association Between BMP6, NIPAL1, CNGA1 and Spondylosis
Authors: Zhang Yanfei , Grant Ryan A. , Shivakumar Manu K. , Zaleski Michael , Sofoluke Nelson , Slotkin Jonathan R. , Williams Marc S. , Lee Ming Ta Michael
Published: December 2020

Study Design....

A case–control genome-wide association study (GWAS) on spondylosis.

Objective....

Leveraging Geisinger's MyCode initiative's multimodal dataset, we aimed to identify genetic associations with degenerative spine disease.

Summary of Background Data....

Degenerative spine conditions are a leading cause of global disability; however, the genetic underpinnings of these conditions remain under-investigated. Previous studies using candidate-gene approach suggest a genetic risk for degenerative spine conditions, but large-scale GWASs are lacking.

Methods....

We identified 4434 patients with a diagnosis of spondylosis using ICD diagnosis codes with genotype data available. We identified a population-based control of 12,522 patients who did not have any diagnosis for osteoarthritis. A linear-mix, additive genetic model was employed to perform the genetic association tests adjusting for age, sex, and genetic principal components to account for the population structure and relatedness. Gene-based association tests were performed and heritability and genetic correlations with other traits were investigated.

Results....

We identified a genome-wide significant locus at rs12190551 (odds ratio = 1.034, 95% confidence interval 1.022–1.046, P = 8.5 × 10–9, minor allele frequency = 36.9%) located in the intron of BMP6. Additionally, NIPAL1 and CNGA1 achieved Bonferroni significance in the gene-based association tests. The estimated heritability was 7.19%. Furthermore, significant genetic correlations with pain, depression, lumbar spine bone mineral density, and osteoarthritis were identified.

Conclusion....

We demonstrated the use of a massive database of genotypes combined with electronic health record data to identify a novel and significant association spondylosis. We also identified significant genetic correlations with pain, depression, bone mineral density, and osteoarthritis, suggesting shared genetic etiology and molecular pathways with these phenotypes.

Level of Evidence: N/A
Successful treatment of acute circulatory failure of unknown cause using critical ultrasound-guided reverse fluid resuscitation
Authors: Zhao Haotian , Long Ling , Wang Zekai , Yan Yaru , Zhao Heling
Published: December 2020

Rationale:

Fluid resuscitation manages shock effectively. However, shock is not always caused by hypovolemia; various types of shock have variable volumetric reactivity. Combined echocardiography and lung ultrasound (LUS) is a new technique for assessing volume status and pulmonary edema in these patients. We report a case of unexplained acute circulatory failure and acute kidney injury (AKI) aggravated by active fluid resuscitation. We used the critical consultation ultrasonic examination (CCUE) protocol for evaluation, and successfully revived the patient with reverse fluid resuscitation.

Patient concerns:

An 82-year-old man with hypertension, atrial fibrillation, and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) was admitted with abdominal distention and lower extremity edema. He developed symptoms of acute circulatory failure, including low blood pressure, anuria, and skin spots. After positive fluid resuscitation, the blood pressure lowered further, and moist rales were audible over both lungs.

Diagnosis:

We performed bedside critical ultrasound for evaluation. The differential diagnoses based on the findings included left atrial and right heart dilatation, low cardiac output owing to reduced left ventricular ejection consequent to excessive circulatory capacity, right heart dilation, and left ventricular compression, and pulmonary edema caused by volume overload.

Interventions:

Infusion was withheld, and tracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation were instituted to assist breathing; reverse fluid resuscitation was initiated, using continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) to maintain a negative fluid balance.

Outcomes:

Within 72 hours of fluid withdrawal, the blood pressure reverted to normal, symptoms of pulmonary edema were alleviated, and the circulation and tissue perfusion were restored. The symptoms of acute renal injury are relieved and allowing urine formation without support.

Lessons:

Not all patients with acute circulatory failure require positive fluid resuscitation. Fluid balance should be closely monitored and managed. Potential intolerance to the rapid increase in volume may lead to biventricular interaction, ultimately leading to acute circulatory failure. The shock caused by volume overload should be treated with reverse fluid resuscitation. Combined echocardiography and LUS is a powerful tool for the differential diagnosis of circulatory and respiratory dysfunction.
Development of the Prostate Cancer Treatment Decision Framework
Authors: Owens Otis L. , Dawson Robin M. , Thomas Tracey
Published: December 2020

Background

Over the past 2 decades, numerous decision-making interventions have been developed to guide the prostate cancer (PrCA) treatment choices of patients and families. These interventions are often supported by economic decision frameworks, which do not account for the role of emotions in treatment decisions. In some instances, emotion-driven decisions can override an individual’s cognitive evaluation of a decision, leading to unfavorable outcomes such as decision regret.

Objectives

To produce a Prostate Cancer Treatment Decision Framework based on the Risk-as-Feelings Hypothesis.

Methods

The authors reviewed seminal research in emotion and decision-making in an effort to create a context-specific decision framework.

Results

Five variables, not germane to the Risk-as-Feelings Hypothesis, play prominent roles in PrCA decision-making including age, spirituality, family support, healthcare provider communication, and perception of treatment outcomes. While family support only affects decision outcomes by influencing emotion and cognitive evaluation of a PrCA decision, age, spirituality, and healthcare provider communication can have direct effects on an individual’s perception of treatment outcomes.

Conclusions

The Prostate Cancer Treatment Decision Framework combines new variables with older models to explain the PrCA treatment decision-making process and elucidate relationships affecting treatment outcomes and survivors’ perceptions of these outcomes. The core premise of this model can be applied to other high-risk health decisions.

Implications for Practice

Healthcare providers have the greatest influence on PrCA treatment decision-making. Using a shared decision-making approach, providers should take into account a patient’s personal characteristics and values, in addition to clinical presentation, to help patients with treatment decisions.