bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Micropipette force probe to quantify single-cell force generation: application to T-cell activation
Authors: Sawicka Anna , Babataheri Avin , Dogniaux Stéphanie , Barakat Abdul I. , Gonzalez-Rodriguez David , Hivroz Claire , Husson Julien
Published: September 2017

In response to engagement of surface molecules, cells generate active forces that regulate many cellular processes. Developing tools that permit gathering mechanical and morphological information on these forces is of the utmost importance. Here we describe a new technique, the micropipette force probe, that uses a micropipette as a flexible cantilever that can aspirate at its tip a bead that is coated with molecules of interest and is brought in contact with the cell. This technique simultaneously allows tracking the resulting changes in cell morphology and mechanics as well as measuring the forces generated by the cell. To illustrate the power of this technique, we applied it to the study of human primary T lymphocytes (T-cells). It allowed the fine monitoring of pushing and pulling forces generated by T-cells in response to various activating antibodies and bending stiffness of the micropipette. We further dissected the sequence of mechanical and morphological events occurring during T-cell activation to model force generation and to reveal heterogeneity in the cell population studied. We also report the first measurement of the changes in Young’s modulus of T-cells during their activation, showing that T-cells stiffen within the first minutes of the activation process.
The Binding of Isaac
Authors: Weiss Shira
Published: September 2017

Albo’s unique conception of choice can be uncovered in his individual exegetical discussions throughout Sefer ha-‘Iqqarim. In his homiletical approach to the enigmatic narrative of the binding of Isaac, Albo illustrates his nuanced philosophical position on free choice. The ambiguous nature of the episode in Genesis 22 gives rise to philosophical problems regarding theological determinism. Interpreters question Abraham’s ability to freely choose to carry out God’s command and whether or not God knew Abraham would pass the test. Albo innovatively interprets the narrative, promoting his own conception of free choice as he extols Abraham for choosing freely to obey without coercion by the divine imperative.
The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart
Authors: Weiss Shira
Published: September 2017

Albo focuses his exegetical interpretation on his conception of free choice in a unique reading of the Exodus narrative. In the biblical description of the plagues that God brought upon the Egyptians, it is written that God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” so that he would not agree to allow the Israelites to leave his land. The literal meaning of the narrative implies that God restrained Pharaoh’s free will. Such an interpretation calls God’s justice into question, since Pharaoh is held morally responsible for his refusal to liberate the Israelites. In an effort to reconcile the seeming conflict, Albo creatively interprets this enigmatic narrative, concluding that God did not deprive Pharaoh of his free choice, but rather preserved his volitional will, thereby maintaining divine justice. By hardening Pharaoh’s heart, God gave Pharaoh the fortitude to withstand the pressures of the plagues and exercise free choice whether or not to liberate the Israelites.
The Choice of Israel
Authors: Weiss Shira
Published: September 2017

Albo’s conception of free choice plays a role in his innovative analysis of God’s choice of Israel, as described in the Bible. The Hebrew Scriptures neglect to articulate what first attracted God to Israel and not to its rivals, nor what in Israel caused God to enter into a covenant with this nation alone. Albo argues that Israel’s chosenness reflects God’s freedom, since God could have chosen differently and was not compelled by any cause other than His own will to make Israel His nation. Albo describes God’s selection as a manifestation of His pure love, expressed by the biblical term ḥesheq, which he defines as love without reason and based on absolute free choice. In light of his understanding of love in terms of freedom, Albo considers God’s love for Israel to be the ultimate form of true love and, therefore, the paradigmatic case of free choice.
Responsa
Authors: Weiss Shira
Published: September 2017

Free choice figures prominently, in fact decisively, in Albo’s only surviving halakhic responsum. His responsum, concerning the permissibility of allowing a qatlanit, a woman whose previous two husbands had died, to remarry, reflects the interplay of philosophy and halakha in the late medieval era. Albo demonstrates innovation in his use of broader theological concepts, such as human free choice, to impact his halakhic ruling. The concept of free choice is not included in responsa regarding the case of the qatlanit of any of Albo’s predecessors. Thus, Albo may be original in his focus on beḥira (choice), thereby highlighting the significance of the concept in his thinking and preaching to his generation, which suffered religious coercion.
Nothing
Authors: Chua Daniel K L
Published: September 2017

This ‘movement’ considers how Beethoven’s music articulates the freedom of the heroic subject and its inherent contradictions, particularly through the logic of the ‘blank’ or ‘zero’ sign and the formal concept of the ‘eternal moment’ (or what Adorno terms the Augenblick in Beethoven’s symphonic processes). It explores these notions through the analyses of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Eroica Symphpony.
Detecting presence of mutational signatures in cancer with confidence
Authors: Huang Xiaoqing , Wojtowicz Damian , Przytycka Teresa M
Published: September 2017

Motivation

Cancers arise as the result of somatically acquired changes in the DNA of cancer cells. However, in addition to the mutations that confer a growth advantage, cancer genomes accumulate a large number of somatic mutations resulting from normal DNA damage and repair processes as well as carcinogenic exposures or cancer related aberrations of DNA maintenance machinery. These mutagenic processes often produce characteristic mutational patterns called mutational signatures. The decomposition of a cancer genome’s mutation catalog into mutations consistent with such signatures can provide valuable information about cancer etiology. However, the results from different decomposition methods are not always consistent. Hence, one needs to be able to not only decompose a patient’s mutational profile into signatures but also establish the accuracy of such decomposition.

Results

We proposed two complementary ways of measuring confidence and stability of decomposition results and applied them to analyze mutational signatures in breast cancer genomes. We identified both very stable and highly unstable signatures, as well as signatures that previously have not been associated with breast cancer. We also provided additional support for the novel signatures. Our results emphasize the importance of assessing the confidence and stability of inferred signature contributions.

Availability and implementation

All tools developed in this paper have been implemented in an R package, called SignatureEstimation, which is available from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CBBresearch/Przytycka/index.cgi\#signatureestimation.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
When Public Recognition for Charitable Giving Backfires: The Role of Independent Self-Construal
Authors: Simpson Bonnie , White Katherine , Laran Juliano
Published: September 2017

This research examines the effectiveness of public recognition in encouraging charitable giving, demonstrating that public recognition can sometimes decrease donations. While previous work has largely shown that making donations visible to others can motivate donors, the present research shows that the effectiveness of public recognition depends on whether potential donors are under an independent (i.e., separate from others) or interdependent (i.e., connected with others) self-construal. Across seven experimental studies, an independent self-construal decreases donation intentions and amounts when the donor will receive public recognition compared to when the donation will remain private. This effect is driven by the activation of an agentic motive, wherein independents are motivated to make decisions that are guided by their own goals and self-interests, rather than being influenced by the opinions and expectations of others. This research contributes to the understanding of the nuanced roles of both public recognition and self-construal in predicting donation behavior.
The Political History of American Food Aid
Authors: Riley Barry
Published: September 2017

This book discusses the 220-year history of the political and humanitarian uses of American food as a tool of both foreign and domestic policy. During these years, food aid has been used as a weapon against the expansion of bolshevism after World War I and communism after World War II, a cudgel to force policy changes by recalcitrant recipient governments, a method for balancing disputes between Israel and Egypt, a backdoor means of increasing military aid to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, a signal of support to friendly governments, and a resource to help achieve economic development in food-insecure countries. At home, international food aid has, at times, been used to dump troublesome food surpluses abroad and has served politicians as a tool to secure the votes of farming constituents and the political support of agriculture-sector lobbyists, commodity traders, transporters, and shippers. Most important in the minds of many, it has been the most visible—and most popular—means of providing humanitarian aid to tens of millions of hungry men, women, and children confronted, on distant shores, by war, terrorism, and natural cataclysms and the resulting threat—if not the reality—of famine and death. The book investigates the little-known, not well-understood, and often highly contentious political processes that have converted fields of grains, crops of pulses, and herds of livestock into the tools of U.S. government policy.
“But Now Came Famine and Pestilence”
Authors: Riley Barry
Published: September 2017

The end of the war brought Hoover no relief. Now hunger stalked not only the Allied states and occupied countries but the defeated enemy states as well, plus a number of new countries hatched amid the aftermath of war. Adding to his headaches, the Allied governments quarreled with Hoover and with each other over how—or whether—Germany and its allies should receive any food at all until the issue of war reparations was resolved. Tens of millions—perhaps hundreds of millions—of people needed food aid to prevent starvation until their own agricultural production and marketing could resume and populations were at work again, earning the money needed to buy that food as it became available. Hoover would have to convince a suspicious public and a reluctant Congress of the need to feed those who only weeks earlier had been the enemy.
Interlude
Authors: Riley Barry
Published: September 2017

Modern American food aid cannot be understood without understanding the plight of the rural farmer between the two world wars. At the end of World War I, these farmers, responding to Hoover’s call to “plow to the fences,” were suddenly producing far too much for a world rapidly returning to peacetime. Farmers had bought additional land on credit. Now they lacked sufficient income to make payment of the loans. Defaults mounted; rural banks padlocked their doors by the thousands. Presidents Coolidge and Hoover sought private rather than public remedies, but without success. Bills sent to the White House to provide relief to farmers were vetoed. When Roosevelt arrived in the White House, millions of tons of grain were rotting in storage across the country because consumers were too poor to pay enough for basic foodstuffs to enable farmers to earn enough to survive.
The Birth, Short Life, and Early Death of the UNRRA
Authors: Riley Barry
Published: September 2017

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was an international organization created during the war by the governments of the United States, Britain and Canada to provide emergency food relief for citizens and freed prisoners-of-war of several European countries being liberated from Nazi and Fascist military control by advancing Allied armed forces. It proved to be a good idea gone terribly wrong amid the confusion of rapid liberation and the deep hostility and criticism from Congress, the press and even disgruntled employees of UNRRA itself. The image of incompetence and corruption created by its critics was later found to be vastly overblown, but, nonetheless, led to its being terminated long before the job was done. Millions were left hungry and unaided. America would have to take up the task, alone.
The Marshall Plan Era
Authors: Riley Barry
Published: September 2017

In 1947, urban European populations were having difficulty finding enough to eat in local markets. Farmers were not selling their food to the cities because there were too few manufactured goods available to entice farmers to grow more than their families required. Manufacturing needed to be expanded and jobs created throughout the continent to revive urban demand for rural production. The American Marshall Plan was designed to provide the financing, raw materials, and food needed to kick-start Europe’s economic recovery and revive agriculture. This chapter describes that program and the role of food aid in the ensuing European recovery. It traces the shifting emphasis, in the later years of the Marshall Plan, to supporting governments in Asia facing increased threat of communist subversion. The chapter also charts the failure of the Truman administration to deal successfully with domestic agriculture, particularly the buildup in government-owned food stocks.
Public Law 480
Authors: Riley Barry
Published: September 2017

By 1954, U.S. government-owned food stocks were expanding rapidly, the result of a broad failure in domestic agricultural policy. Not only had it been extremely costly for taxpayers to pay farmers for these unneeded commodities, but the surpluses threatened to destabilize agricultural markets. Congress determined that the subsidized sales of these commodities to overseas customers was a good way to reduce the size of domestic surpluses and passed legislation to sell them for local currencies, which would be reinvested in the recipient countries to spur growth, or to barter them for raw materials the United States needed. At the last minute, a grant program was added to the legislation providing food relief to undernourished people in the world’s poorer countries. President Eisenhower signed the bill in July 1954. This was the beginning of America’s modern international food aid programs.
The Politics of Food Surpluses
Authors: Riley Barry
Published: September 2017

Postwar agricultural policies had resulted, among other things, in the government’s taking title to enormous surpluses of agricultural commodities. The taxpayer cost of storing these commodities and the cost of payments to farmers for these products were soaring higher with each passing year. Domestic demand plus commercial exports were inadequate to reduce those surpluses. More needed to be disposed of through P.L 480, Title I, and MSA surplus disposal programs. These practices were alarming other food-exporting countries. Canada and Australia were angry about U.S. government-supported wheat exports. Egypt and Turkey led countries protesting subsidized sales of cotton; New Zealand was unhappy about butter, and Thailand and Burma were furious about subsidized rice sales. Meanwhile, in the Senate, Hubert Humphrey was calling for directing these surpluses toward countries in the world where hunger was endemic. His call would not be heeded until John Kennedy arrived in the White House.
Lyndon Johnson’s Food Aid Battles
Authors: Riley Barry
Published: September 2017

Johnson made food aid a major element of his foreign relations with several countries. He saw it as a tool, an inducement, a reward or a cudgel. As a product of Senate leadership, he knew how important the role of Congress was in approving and funding his many initiatives, and he sought to ensure that he was not viewed as a “dewy-eyed, give-away boy.” He had to be seen as a tough guy even though he was, at heart, quite a benevolent person. Critics of food aid were suggesting that it could do more harm than good when used outside narrowly defined situations requiring emergency relief. Johnson paid them little heed. He fought with Congress over control of food aid, losing several battle and winning others. His liberal stance on domestic human rights issues lost him votes among conservatives in Congress on his desired food aid reforms.
Food Aid Under Carter and Reagan
Authors: Riley Barry
Published: September 2017

By the time Jimmy Carter entered the White House in 1977, American food aid had declined from 40 percent of U.S. agricultural exports in 1963 to less than 5 percent. Noted Harvard economic historian Emma Rothschild was arguing in the New York Times that the time had come to end it, as it no longer promoted any significant American interests. Carter had different views and sought, with the aid of Senator Humphrey, to make it a tool for enhancing human rights in recipient countries and improving its effectiveness in combatting hunger. Title III was reformulated to reward governments willing to engage seriously in improving the economic prospects of their poorest citizens. The attempt would eventually fail. Ronald Reagan was more interested in utilizing the private sector in developing countries to promote economic development, and introduced a new Food for Progress program managed by USDA to promote private-sector-focused agricultural growth.
Madeleine's Children
Authors: Peabody Sue
Published: September 2017

This book explores the hidden history of a family in slavery and freedom in the Indian Ocean empires of France and Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A tale of legal intrigue, this biography uncovers the family lives of slaves and free people in two islands, Réunion (Isle Bourbon) and Mauritius (Isle de France). Madeleine, a girl from Bengal, entered the service of a French mistress in Chandernagor in the 1750s and accompanied her to France, where she became the slave of a planter couple who brought her to Isle Bourbon. Madeleine’s three children — Maurice, Constance, and Furcy — survived monsoons, famine, and the French Revolution. At the heart of the story is Furcy’s legal struggle to free himself from his putative master, Joseph Lory, a case that was ultimately decided by the Royale Court (Cour royale) of Paris in 1843. A meticulous work of archival detective work, Madeleine’s Children investigates the cunning, clandestine, and brutal strategies that masters devised to keep slaves under their control while painting a vivid picture of the unique and evolving meanings of slavery and freedom in the Indian Ocean world.
The Limits of Law
Authors: Peabody Sue
Published: September 2017

The Napoleonic Code, as interpreted in the Mascarene Islands, hampered manumission and severely restricted the rights of free people of color. The slave trade was abolished precisely as the islands invested in sugar production, creating more onerous conditions for slaves. Mauritius fell under British rule. When her mistress died in 1808, Madeleine learned that the estate owed her nineteen years’ wages, a sum that should have allowed her to purchase Furcy’s freedom. Instead, the widow’s son-in-law, Joseph Lory, claimed Furcy as his slave and tricked Madeleine into signing a receipt for the amount owed to her by the Routier family.
Incendiary Arguments, Justice Suspended
Authors: Peabody Sue
Published: September 2017

Furcy’s lawsuit became the focal point of a constitutional crisis in Isle Bourbon between Boucher’s judiciary and Desbassayns’s civil authority. The colonial administrated, led by Desbassayns, deemed Furcy’s claim to freedom as the son of an Indian mother, crafted by the young, liberal, creole, Jacques Sully Brunet, dangerous, the potential catalyst to a slave revolt. Desbassayns ordered Furcy and Constance arrested and Sully Brunet and other allies suspended from their functions, and ultimately withheld Boucher’s salary. The crisis ended with Furcy in the Saint-Denis prison and Boucher returning to France with his wife, baby, and an enslaved wet nurse to seek royal intercession.
English Liberties
Authors: Peabody Sue
Published: September 2017

After a year, Lory ordered Furcy removed from the Isle Bourbon prison and sent him to his sister-in-law’s plantation in British Mauritius. Joseph Lory helped to finance the illegal Indian Ocean slave trade; the captain and supercargo of the Succès, a ship Lory and his business partner financed, were prosecuted twice for smuggling African slaves, but Lory escaped prosecution. Furcy passed the years trying to get out from Lory’s control by sending letters to Boucher in France. The British Commission on Inquiry provided the opportunity for Furcy to challenge his enslavement to Lory in Mauritius in 1826, effecting his freedom in fact, if not in law.
Aristotle on the Distinctness of Practical Reason
Authors: Olfert C. M. M.
Published: September 2017

Aristotle famously holds that practical reason is different from other kinds of reason, including theoretical and technical reason. But in virtue of what is it different? On a standard interpretation, which I call the “Objects View,” Aristotle holds that practical reason is distinct because it thinks about a distinct kind of object or subject matter: it thinks about things that can be brought about or affected by our actions. But this view is unsatisfying. Why, we might wonder, should we need an entirely different kind of reason in order to think about a specific kind of object? As my account of practical truth shows, there is an easy answer to this objection. Aristotle does not distinguish practical reason from other kinds of reason by the object it thinks about. I explain the many difficulties with the Objects View as an interpretation of Aristotle in this chapter.
Practical Truth and Learning from Pleasure
Authors: Olfert C. M. M.
Published: September 2017

In Chapter 5, I argue that my account of practical truth illuminates the way practical reason learns about what is good for us. I begin with a constraint on rational learning based on my account of practical truth: because the proper function of practical reason is to be concerned with practical truth, practical reason will only learn from what it takes to be possible sources of practical truth. What, then, might be an appropriate starting point for practical reason’s learning? I argue that experiences of pleasure fit the bill. For Aristotle, experiences of pleasure have a special sort of content—roughly the content “X is good” (without qualifications). This means that the contents of our experiences of pleasure can be practically true or practically false. So, precisely because experiences of pleasure are possible sources of practical truth, they can be suitable, informative foundations for our rational learning about the practical good.
Henry Darger and the Unruly Paper Dollhouse Scrapbook
Authors: Trent Mary s.
Published: September 2017

Grown men do not play with paper dolls; or, at least, they are not supposed to. Nevertheless, self-taught Chicago artist Henry Darger (1892–1973) worked over many decades to create an elaborate fictional world. This chapter examines a series of collage-paintings that Darger like created at mid-century to consider the significance of paper dolls to his art. It argues that domestic space and girlish crafts offered Darger opportunities for creative expression that were otherwise inaccessible to him in the public sphere due to his designation as a sexually degenerate man. In the privacy of his apartment, away from society’s judgments, Darger offered an alternative to the restrictive sexual norms of his time by celebrating ambiguously gendered children.
Marketing Disabled Manhood
Authors: Kinder John M.
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the efforts of businesses to market masculinity to disabled American veterans. Beginning with the Civil War—a conflict that left nearly a million ex-servicemen with war wounds permanent injuries—it shows how commercial interests from prosthetics makers to car companies, railroads, meat packers, and cigarette manufacturers have sought to capitalize on disabled veterans’ fears of diminished manhood. Thus, in war’s wake, advertisers have either tended to capitalize on disabled veterans’ fears of diminished manhood or to develop a narrative of disabled men’s successful triumphs over their physical and mental impairments. In both cases, fears and triumphs have served to shape images of veterans’ masculinity.
Death on a Silver Platter
Authors: George Ivy , Trent James W.
Published: September 2017

Around six o’clock on the evening of September 22, 1943, John F. Noxon Jr., a prominent attorney in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and a “crippled” polio survivor, telephoned his family’s pediatrician to come at once. His six-month-old son, Lawrence, who had Down syndrome, had apparently entangled himself in wires and had received a terrible electrical shock. When the doctor arrived, he found the dead “mongoloid” baby dressed in a wet diaper, lying on a silver platter. A few days later authorities arrested “crippled” Noxon for the murder of “mongoloid” Lawrence. For the next five years, the citizens of Massachusetts and the nation followed in their newspapers the trials, verdict, death sentence, appeals, pardon, and parole of this “mercy killing.” The Noxon murder trials of 1944 highlighted the interconnections of disabilities, masculinity, and “mercy killing” in World War II North America.
Arab Migrant Teachers in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar
Authors: Ridge Natasha , Shami Soha , Kippels Susan
Published: September 2017

Globally, studies on migrant teachers have tended to focus on Africa and Asia, while the topic of teacher migration in the Middle East in general, and in the Gulf in particular, has not been examined before. This study examines the status of Arab migrant teachers through both an educational and institutional lens. The research employs a mixed-methods comparative approach to investigate contractual agreements, employment experiences, and social integration of Arab teachers in Qatar and the UAE. The results of the study are consistent with literature on the economic motivation behind migration. Arab migrant teachers come to the Gulf largely in order to make money and, in turn, to be able to provide for their families. In addition to examining the motivations for migration, the study also found that the majority of Arab migrant teachers come to the Gulf with the intention of living and working for significant periods of time. Examining issues such as how the uncertain employment conditions for expatriate Arab teachers manifest in their commitment to teaching, the chapter concludes by providing policy recommendations for improving the conditions and output of Arab migrant teachers in the UAE and Qatar.
An Emerging Trend in Arab Migration
Authors: De Bel-Air Françoise
Published: September 2017

The growing share of skilled and highly-skilled, often unmarried, young Arab women immigrating to the GCC is generally un-documented. Shedding some light on this population, therefore, will not only emphasize a new phenomenon, but it also, first, points at a new structural trend within Arab populations: the emergence of educated female professionals in Arab societies characterized by low female activity rates. Second, it challenges the dominant assumption that Arab migration to Gulf countries is a “male-only” phenomenon in which women are married dependents. This contribution aims at laying some ground to bridge the knowledge gap regarding Arab female highly-skilled workers in the Gulf. The study explores the proximate determinants—rise in age at marriage, development of female celibacy in the Arab world, expansion of female education levels—and structural conditions compelling an increasing number of Arab citizens, male and female, to seek better futures abroad. Findings, such as the widespread denial that patriarchal pressures are important factors in determining Arab female migration, question the categories used, including Arab, female, and Gulf migration patterns. The study also concludes that such partial results beg to be completed by a wider-scale survey involving highly-skilled female migrants from several Arab countries and systematically comparing their migratory patterns and experience.
Highly Skilled Lebanese Transnational Migrants
Authors: Maher Garret
Published: September 2017

This chapter provides new information relating to aspects of transnational migration among high-skilled Lebanese migrants from a dual country perspective; that of the sending country, Lebanon, and of the receiving country, Kuwait. By using a dual, home and host country perspective, the chapter shows a more complete picture of some specific aspects of transnational migration, in particular, the motivations and drivers of migration, and why migrants chose Kuwait as a destination, as opposed to other GCC countries. It then explores aspects of integration and socialization to first identify the Lebanese in Kuwait who, according to this research sample, are integrated into Kuwaiti society, and to see if a transnational community was formed among and between other Lebanese in Kuwait. The chapter proceeds to explore temporal aspects of migration to discover how long migrants plan on staying in Kuwait as well as presenting data on returned migrants and the reason for their return to Lebanon. Finally, it explores remittances, which form a key feature of transnationalism.
Attitudes of Students in the GCC Region towards the Arab Spring
Authors: Naufal George , Genc Ismail , Vargas-Silva Carlos
Published: September 2017

The purpose of this chapter is to present new empirical research on the Arab Spring and, specifically, to focus on the attitudes of residents of one country in the Middle East towards the Arab Spring. This research was conducted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has been one of the main migrant destinations in the world for the last two decades. This allows for comparisons regarding attitudes towards the Arab Spring across individuals from different regions of origin such as GCC, South Asia, and Western countries. The attitudes of university students are important because the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has experienced a substantial increase in the 17 to 23 years of age population. Existing reports suggest that, by far, those involved in Arab Spring protests were young individuals. The analysis places particular emphasis on the correlation of attitudes towards the Arab Spring with three key aspects: religiousness, attachment to the GCC countries, and attachment to country of origin.
Critical Models: Antigone, Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin
Authors: Kramer Sina
Published: September 2017

Chapter 6 treats the figures of Antigone, Rosa Parks, and Claudette Colvin as models for the contestation of constitutive exclusion. First, Antigone’s constitutive exclusion from Thebes excludes her from the terms of intelligible political agency. When she challenges that exclusion, her contestation is politically unintelligible. While the radical alternative Antigone represents leads to her death in the play, that challenge survives in the multiple performances and adaptations of the play. Second, the choice to organize the Montgomery bus boycott around Parks rather than Colvin reveals the multiplicity of constitutive exclusion, since Parks could play some axes of her identity off others in her contestation in ways Colvin could not. The effect of this choice reinscribes the political unintelligibility of Colvin and reifies Parks as apolitical. While the terms of political agency are defined through the exclusion of Colvin, the radical potential she represents remains buried within those terms.
Multiplicity and Collective Contestation in the 1992 Los Angeles Riots/Rebellion
Authors: Kramer Sina
Published: September 2017

Chapter 7 takes up the political unintelligibility of the 1992 Los Angeles (LA) Riot/Rebellion to understand—if not why the riots remain unintelligible to us as political contestation of political conditions—how this unintelligibility is produced and what significance it bears for us now. While riots (and race riots in particular) might be politically intelligible under certain conditions, the consolidation of anti-Black racism with riots throughout the latter twentieth century rendered “America’s first multiracial riot” particularly unintelligible as a political contestation of constitutive exclusion. I discuss the interrelation of gender, class, and sexuality in the Rodney King beating, the murder of Latasha Harlins, and the multiracial geography of the riots to articulate how the continued unintelligibility of the 1992 Los Angeles Riot/Rebellion, as well as contemporary riots, constitute political agency now.
Understanding Zimbabwe
Authors: Rich Dorman Sara
Published: September 2017

This book seeks to understand the state, nation and political identities that are being forged in modern Zimbabwe, and the nature of control that Robert Mugabe’s ZANU exercises over those political institutions. Focusing on the perspective and experiences of societal groups including NGOs, churches, trade unions, students and academics the book explores how the construction of consent, threat of coercion and material resources are used to integrate social groups into the ruling nationalist coalition, but also how they resist and frame competing discourses and institutions. Taking seriously the discursive and institutional legacies of the nationalist struggle and the liberation war in shaping politics, it explores how independent Zimbabwe’s politics were molded by discursive claims to foster national unity that delegitimize autonomous political action outside the ruling party. Building a new societal coalition entailed the "demobilization" of ZANU(PF)’s original nationalist constituency which had backed it during the liberation war, and the "inclusion" of new groups including donors, white farmers and business interests. It also shows how legal practices and institution-building defused and constrained opportunities for contestation, even while the regime used the security forces to suppress those who challenged its political monopoly or who otherwise resisted incorporation. It thus presents a complex picture of how individuals and groups became bound up in the project of state- and nation-building, despite contesting or even rejecting aspects of it.
Understanding Zimbabwean Politics
Authors: Rich Dorman Sara
Published: September 2017

This chapter introduces the book’s central project – to understand Zimbabwe’s politics as a trajectory, taking seriously material, discursive and historical dynamics. It positions the study of Zimbabwe firmly within the field of African politics, and as a contribution to debates about the methodology of political science, the epistemology of studying political change, and the importance of interpretation and understanding. The chapter critically engages with other contributions to the study of Zimbabwe’s politics, and also acknowledges the debts owed to other disciplinary approaches. The chapter concludes by sketching out the book’s structure, and reflecting upon the scope and limitations of the text.
The Politics of ‘Winner Takes All’ (2008–2014)
Authors: Rich Dorman Sara
Published: September 2017

This chapter explores how ZANU used the creation of a government of national unity (GNU) between 2008 to 2013 to regain control of the political landscape. It tracks the economic and social crises that led to power-sharing, and explores the political dynamics first from the perspective of political parties and then from civil society. We see how church leaders and chiefs were (re-)incorporated into the ZANU discursive project, and how NGOs were marginalized from political discourse. The GNU limited and contained the extremes of political violence and economic crisis. This allowed ZANU to capitalize on its successes, build a new coalition of supporters and regain control of the state through the 2014 general election. Despite an institutional facade of unity, political factionalization deepened, and politics became increasingly driven by a dynamic of "winner takes all."
Writing Zimbabwe’s Politics
Authors: Rich Dorman Sara
Published: September 2017

This concluding chapter draws out the interconnections that link together the main themes of nationalism, demobilization, post-liberation politics and the struggle to capture the state and represent the nation across these turbulent years of a young polity. It argues that the continuing salience of nationalism becomes easier to understand when we think of it as a way of doing politics. We also see how nationalism is intertwined with the post-colonial gate-keeper state to create exceptionally powerful dynamics with remarkable staying power. Thinking of nationalism as an organizing principle harnessing unity helps explain how and why Zimbabwe was so easily demobilized in the years after independence, but also why authoritarian rule proved so durable, even as "spoils" politics came to predominate in an increasingly factionalized political system three decades later.
Temples
Authors: Heine Steven
Published: September 2017

Chapter 7 examines how temples were constructed and maintained to enable trainees to attain a transcendent spiritual state through monastic discipline and studies of various kinds of sacred writings paired with carefully structured activities of everyday practice. It stresses the significance of Zen temples by examining the role of monks as those who depart from their home to retreat from ordinary society, replacing ordinary family relationships with a new sense of lineal identity and hierarchy in the monastery. This chapter also discusses regional transfers brought about by evangelical teachers to various centers of secular power, such as the capital cities of Hangzhou in China and Kyoto in Japan, or hubs of transit, such as the ports of Ningbo in China and Hakata in Japan, where all wayfarers embarked or disembarked from their journeys.
On the Possibility of Democracy in the Present-Past
Authors: Laski Gregory
Published: September 2017

This chapter constructs a conceptual grammar for untimely democracy by pairing Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia and W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk. Jefferson’s vision of an ever-progressing polity rests on his principle of generational autonomy: the notion that each cohort of citizens is free from the burdens of its ancestors. Slavery stands as the limit for such a model. For Jefferson, blackness signifies a future haunted by bondage; thus Africans can have no place in American democracy. Jefferson’s future is what Du Bois terms the “present-past.” With this phrase, Du Bois reorders linear time—positioning the past after, not before, the present—and posits intergenerational responsibility as a democratic value alongside equality and liberty. And yet, even as he advocates a temporal double consciousness that blurs past and present, Du Bois worries that emphasizing slavery’s seemingly eternal return might paralyze political action.
Making Reparation; or, How to Count the Wrongs of Slavery
Authors: Laski Gregory
Published: September 2017

This chapter focuses on the conflicting temporal frames deployed by postbellum authors and activists seeking redress. While there was brief national attention given to reparations in the years following the Civil War, the project lost much of its official sanction after the collapse of Reconstruction. By 1896, the majority opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson would argue that servitude did not count in defining race-based discrimination. The Plessy decision thus made it more crucial to clarify what was wrong with slavery and how to account for its effects. Narratives appearing in this moment took up this task: from Samuel Hall’s 47 Years a Slave, to Callie House’s articulations of the aims of the ex-slave pension movement, to Stephen Crane’s The Monster. The chapter argues that Crane’s novella conceives the wrong of slavery in a way that can help resolve the problem of causality confronting philosophical debates about making amends even today.
Religious People Are All Young-Earth Creationists
Authors: Ecklund Elaine Howard , Scheitle Christopher P.
Published: September 2017

Typically the origin of the earth is thought of as a two-sided issue: you either believe in evolution or creationism. However, this chapter illuminates the nuance and variety in people’s beliefs regarding the earth’s origin. For example, the authors introduce the idea of evolution with a divine first cause, which some religious people ascribe to. In addition some religious people see God as having an ongoing involvement in evolution. There is further variety in belief with regard to macroevolution vs. microevolution. It is a myth to think that all religious people believe or think in the same way about these issues.
Religious People Are Climate Change Deniers
Authors: Ecklund Elaine Howard , Scheitle Christopher P.
Published: September 2017

Despite misconceptions espoused by media and political figures, a belief in God does not equate to a lack of concern for the environment. This chapter shows that, although belief in God and interest in the environment do not always lead to behaviors that support the environment, many religious people are concerned about the environment and its future. For many, this concern is borne from their faith. Muslims expressed a sense of accountability to God, and Jews invoked the concept of tikkun olam. Christians referenced the concept of stewardship and care for God’s creation. This chapter also examines these larger themes in the context of the specific public conversations about climate change.
Refuge in the National Security State
Authors: García María Cristina
Published: September 2017

In response to the terrorist attacks of 1993 and 2001, the Clinton and Bush administrations restructured the immigration bureaucracy, placed it within the new Department of Homeland Security, and tried to convey to Americans a greater sense of safety. Refugees, especially those from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, suffered the consequences of the new national security state policies, and found it increasingly difficult to find refuge in the United States. In the post-9/11 era, refugee advocates became even more important to the admission of refugees, reminding Americans of their humanitarian obligations, especially to those refugees who came from areas of the world where US foreign policy had played a role in displacing populations.
Conclusion
Authors: García María Cristina
Published: September 2017

The United States has been the top resettlement nation for refugees accepting, on average, 59,000 refugees per year since 2004. The US immigration courts have also granted asylum to an average of 24,500 individuals per year since 2004. The United States’ role in the world is changing, however, and there is no guarantee that the country will continue to honor its international obligation to provide refuge to even a small share of the world’s displaced populations. The Conclusion offers reflections on the ideological and structural challenges that lie ahead for US policymakers and advocates in the crafting of refugee and asylum policy.
Satanic Feminism
Authors: Faxneld Per
Published: September 2017

According to the Bible, Eve was the first to heed Satan’s advice to eat of the forbidden fruit. The notion of woman as the Devil’s accomplice is prominent throughout the history of Christianity and has been used to legitimate the subordination of wives and daughters. During the nineteenth century, rebellious females performed counter-readings of this misogynist tradition. Hereby, Lucifer was reconceptualized as a feminist liberator of womankind, and Eve became a heroine. In these reimaginings, Satan is an ally in the struggle against a patriarchy supported by God the Father and his male priests. The book delineates how such Satanic feminism is expressed in a number of nineteenth-century esoteric works, literary texts, autobiographies, pamphlets and journals, newspaper articles, paintings, sculptures, and even artefacts of consumer culture such as jewellery. The analysis focuses on interfaces between esotericism, literature, art, and the political realm. New light is thus shed on neglected aspects of the intellectual history of feminism, Satanism, and revisionary mythmaking. The scope of the study makes it valuable not only for historians of religion but also for those with a general interest in cultural history (or specific aspects of it like gender history, romanticism, or decadent-symbolist art and literature).
Woman and the Devil
Authors: Faxneld Per
Published: September 2017

Chapter2 provides a background for the main motifs of the study. It commences with a survey of the development of the figure of Satan and Satanism, and then discusses Genesis 3, the narrative that lies at the root of most of the later ideas about Satan’s intimate ties to woman. The interpretations of this text by Gnostics, Church Fathers, and reformers are delineated. This is followed by an examination of the notion of the Devil as a woman, whereafter the enigmatic entity Baphomet—an example of how Satan has been given female or hermaphroditic traits in esoteric writings—is considered. Thereupon, some background is provided on the Jewish demoness Lilith, who was seen as the first feminist in several nineteenth-century interpretations. Next, some motifs in folklore and witchcraft trials are treated, followed by a brief exploration of ideas concerning erotic relations between women and Satan.
Does Dreaming Have Any Adaptive Function(s)?
Authors: Domhoff G. William
Published: September 2017

Chapter 8 critiques three separate theories that claim that dreaming has a forward-looking adaptive function, such as problem-solving, threat simulation that prepares people to deal with waking threats, or memory consolidation. It shows that all three theories rest on questionable assumptions and are contradicted by a wide range of systematic empirical studies. The chapter concludes with the hypothesis that dreaming is a nonadaptation, a byproduct of cognitive skills that were selected for other reasons. The chapter further suggests that dreaming is in some ways a useful nonadaptation because in the course of human history virtually all cultures have invented uses for dreams, such as in healing and religious ceremonies. The final section reminds readers that there is psychological meaning in dreams, and claims that both cultural uses and psychological meaning have to be considered separately from the issue of evolutionary adaptations to develop a viable theory of dreams.
A Promising Agenda
Authors: Domhoff G. William
Published: September 2017

The ninth and final chapter returns to the forward-looking orientation of the first five chapters by presenting an agenda for future dream research, which makes use of recent developments in both communications (such as smartphones) and neuroimaging. It suggests how new and better studies can be done of dream recall, dream content, and the development of dreaming in children. It presents a novel way in which the neural substrate that very likely supports dreaming could be studied in greater detail by detecting the brief episodes of dreaming that are now known to occur during extended periods of drifting waking thought (e.g., during mind-wandering and daydreaming).