bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Kinetics of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Antibody Response and Serological Estimation of Time Since Infection
Authors: Pelleau Stéphane , Woudenberg Tom , Rosado Jason , Donnadieu Françoise , Garcia Laura , Obadia Thomas , Gardais Soazic , Elgharbawy Yasmine , Velay Aurelie , Gonzalez Maria , Nizou Jacques Yves , Khelil Nizar , Zannis Konstantinos , Cockram Charlotte , Merkling Sarah Hélène , Meola Annalisa , Kerneis Solen , Terrier Benjamin , de Seze Jerome , Planas Delphine , Schwartz Olivier , Dejardin François , Petres Stéphane , von Platen Cassandre , Pellerin Sandrine Fernandes , Arowas Laurence , de Facci Louise Perrin , Duffy Darragh , Cheallaigh Clíona Ní , Dunne Jean , Conlon Niall , Townsend Liam , Duong Veasna , Auerswald Heidi , Pinaud Laurie , Tondeur Laura , Backovic Marija , Hoen Bruno , Fontanet Arnaud , Mueller Ivo , Fafi-Kremer Samira , Bruel Timothée , White Michael
Published: July 2021

Background

Infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) induces a complex antibody response that varies by orders of magnitude between individuals and over time.

Methods

We developed a multiplex serological test for measuring antibodies to 5 SARS-CoV-2 antigens and the spike proteins of seasonal coronaviruses. We measured antibody responses in cohorts of hospitalized patients and healthcare workers followed for up to 11 months after symptoms. A mathematical model of antibody kinetics was used to quantify the duration of antibody responses. Antibody response data were used to train algorithms for estimating time since infection.

Results

One year after symptoms, we estimate that 36% (95% range, 11%–94%) of anti-Spike immunoglobulin G (IgG) remains, 31% (95% range, 9%–89%) anti-RBD IgG remains, and 7% (1%–31%) of anti-nucleocapsid IgG remains. The multiplex assay classified previous infections into time intervals of 0–3 months, 3–6 months, and 6–12 months. This method was validated using data from a seroprevalence survey in France, demonstrating that historical SARS-CoV-2 transmission can be reconstructed using samples from a single survey.

Conclusions

In addition to diagnosing previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, multiplex serological assays can estimate the time since infection, which can be used to reconstruct past epidemics.
Value-based drug price schemes: a welfare analysis
Authors: Levaggi Laura , Levaggi Rosella
Published: July 2021

Objectives

The market for innovative drugs is characterized by high levels of regulation, whose impact on the market is not neutral. On the one hand, strict regulation may in fact adversely affect incentives to develop new and better products; on the other hand, high prices may drive an unsustainable increase in healthcare costs. This trade-off is particularly important in Europe, where about 75% of drugs costs are financed by the public sector.

Methods

We develop a simple model that allows to compare the impact of different listing and pricing strategies on the social value of innovative drugs, the consumer surplus and the expected profit of the industry.

Key findings

Uncertainty in the expected price, as well as other forms of access regulation, may lead to a fairer division of the social value between patients and the industry, at the cost of leaving some of the potential value of the drug unexploited.

Conclusions

The regulator may improve value for money if it is prepared either to restrict access to the drug or to reduce the expected price. In both cases, the number of groups of patients treated may be different from the social optimum.
Clues from 4U 0142+61 on supernova fallback disc formation and precession
Authors: Grimani Catia
Published: July 2021

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) experiment detected a hard X-ray emission (10–70 keV) with a period of 8.68917 s and a pulse-phase modulation at 55 ks, or half this value, from the anomalous X-ray pulsar (AXP) 4U 0142+61. It is shown here that this evidence is naturally explained by the precession of a Keplerian supernova fallback disc surrounding this AXP. It is also found that the precession of discs formed around young neutron stars at distances larger than those considered in the past, may constitute almost neglected sources of gravitational waves with frequencies belonging to the sensitivity bands of the future space interferometers: Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), Advanced Laser Interferometer Antenna (ALIA), DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO), and Big Bang Observer (BBO). In this work, the gravitational wave emission from precessing fallback discs possibly formed around young pulsars such as Crab in a region extending beyond 8 × 107 m from the pulsar surface is estimated. It is also evaluated the role that infrared radiation emission from circumpulsar discs may play in contributing to inverse Compton scattering of TeV energy positrons and electrons. Extensive observational campaigns of disc formation around young and middle-aged pulsars may also contribute to solve the long-standing problem of a pulsar origin for the excess of positrons in cosmic rays observed near the Earth above 7 GeV. In the near future the James Webb Space Telescope, with unprecedented near- and mid-infrared observation capabilities, may provide direct evidence of a large sample of supernova fallback discs.
Clustering of low-mass stars around Herbig Be star IL Cep – evidence of ‘Rocket Effect’ using Gaia EDR3 ?
Authors: Arun R , Mathew Blesson , Maheswar G , Baug Tapas , Kartha Sreeja S , Selvakumar G , Manoj P , Shridharan B , Anusha R , Narang Mayank
Published: July 2021

We study the formation and the kinematic evolution of the early-type Herbig Be star IL Cep and its environment. The young star is a member of the Cep OB3 association, at a distance of 798 ± 9 pc, and has a ‘cavity’ associated with it. We found that the B0V star HD 216658, which is astrometrically associated with IL Cep, is at the centre of the cavity. From the evaluation of various pressure components created by HD 216658, it is established that the star is capable of creating the cavity. We identified 79 co-moving stars of IL Cep at 2-pc radius from the analysis of Gaia EDR3 astrometry. The transverse velocity analysis of the co-moving stars shows that they belong to two different populations associated with IL Cep and HD 216658, respectively. Further analysis confirms that all the stars in the IL Cep population are mostly coeval (∼0.1 Myr). Infrared photometry revealed that there are 26 Class II objects among the co-moving stars. The stars without circumstellar disc (Class III) are 65 per cent of all the co-moving stars. There are nine intense H α emission candidates identified among the co-moving stars using IPHAS H α narrow-band photometry. The dendrogram analysis on the Hydrogen column density map identified 11 molecular clump structures on the expanding cavity around IL Cep, making it an active star-forming region. The formation of the IL Cep stellar group due to the ‘rocket effect’ by HD 216658 is discussed.
Balancing Selection for Pathogen Resistance Reveals an Intercontinental Signature of Red Queen Coevolution
Authors: Bourgeois Yann , Fields Peter D , Bento Gilberto , Ebert Dieter
Published: July 2021

The link between long-term host–parasite coevolution and genetic diversity is key to understanding genetic epidemiology and the evolution of resistance. The model of Red Queen host–parasite coevolution posits that high genetic diversity is maintained when rare host resistance variants have a selective advantage, which is believed to be the mechanistic basis for the extraordinarily high levels of diversity at disease-related genes such as the major histocompatibility complex in jawed vertebrates and R-genes in plants. The parasites that drive long-term coevolution are, however, often elusive. Here we present evidence for long-term balancing selection at the phenotypic (variation in resistance) and genomic (resistance locus) level in a particular host–parasite system: the planktonic crustacean Daphnia magna and the bacterium Pasteuria ramosa. The host shows widespread polymorphisms for pathogen resistance regardless of geographic distance, even though there is a clear genome-wide pattern of isolation by distance at other sites. In the genomic region of a previously identified resistance supergene, we observed consistent molecular signals of balancing selection, including higher genetic diversity, older coalescence times, and lower differentiation between populations, which set this region apart from the rest of the genome. We propose that specific long-term coevolution by negative-frequency-dependent selection drives this elevated diversity at the host's resistance loci on an intercontinental scale and provide an example of a direct link between the host’s resistance to a virulent pathogen and the large-scale diversity of its underlying genes.
Two isoforms of the essential C. elegans Argonaute CSR-1 differentially regulate sperm and oocyte fertility
Authors: Charlesworth Amanda G , Seroussi Uri , Lehrbach Nicolas J , Renaud Mathias S , Sundby Adam E , Molnar Ruxandra I , Lao Robert X , Willis Alexandra R , Woock Jenna R , Aber Matthew J , Diao Annette J , Reinke Aaron W , Ruvkun Gary , Claycomb Julie M
Published: July 2021

The Caenorhabditis elegans genome encodes nineteen functional Argonaute proteins that use 22G-RNAs, 26G-RNAs, miRNAs or piRNAs to regulate target transcripts. Only one Argonaute is essential under normal laboratory conditions: CSR-1. While CSR-1 has been studied widely, nearly all studies have overlooked the fact that the csr-1 locus encodes two isoforms. These isoforms differ by an additional 163 amino acids present in the N-terminus of CSR-1a. Using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to introduce GFP::3xFLAG into the long (CSR-1a) and short (CSR-1b) isoforms, we found that CSR-1a is expressed during spermatogenesis and in several somatic tissues, including the intestine. CSR-1b is expressed constitutively in the germline. small RNA sequencing of CSR-1 complexes shows that they interact with partly overlapping sets of 22G-RNAs. Phenotypic analyses reveal that the essential functions of csr-1 described in the literature coincide with CSR-1b, while CSR-1a plays tissue specific functions. During spermatogenesis, CSR-1a integrates into an sRNA regulatory network including ALG-3, ALG-4 and WAGO-10 that is necessary for fertility at 25°C. In the intestine, CSR-1a silences immunity and pathogen-responsive genes, and its loss results in improved survival from the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Our findings functionally distinguish the CSR-1 isoforms and highlight the importance of studying each AGO isoform independently.
The Battle for the Soul of Islam
Authors: Dorsey James M.
Published: July 2021

The battle for the soul of Islam is about much more than countering political violence and suppressing political Islam. It is a long-drawn-out, decades-long battle for religious soft power in which multiple Middle Eastern and Asian states compete for recognition as leader of the Muslim world and to be drivers of a largely undefined “moderate,” tolerant, and pluralistic interpretation of an Islam that at a minimum engages in interfaith dialogue. The rivals employ religion to garner favor, empathy, and goodwill in the corridors of power in the United States and Europe, as well as among influential Jewish and Christian communities. At the same time, the battle for the soul of Islam is also a struggle to redefine what Islam represents in a 21st-century world.
Brigands and Cruel Kings
Authors: Felton Debbie
Published: July 2021

Most of Heracles’ parerga involve not mythological monsters but murderous humans or demigods famous for torturing and murdering travelers unfortunate enough to pass through their territories. Many of these antagonists, such as Cacus, Antaeus, and Cycnus, displayed their victims’ skulls as trophies. Such stories may echo headhunting rituals evidenced by archaeological finds from the Mesolithic through the early Iron Age. Heracles’ victories over these bloodthirsty characters, like his victories over monstrous beasts, may thus not only represent the abstract triumph of “civilized” values but also possibly reflect specific practices of early Mediterranean societies—including skull-taking in battle and human sacrifice related to crop fertility—replaced by more “humane” customs as Hellenic culture developed. These stories, with their extreme concerns about territory and boundaries, may also reflect the xenophobia evident between Greeks and foreigners as Greece expanded her colonial presence in the Mediterranean and beyond.
Laomedon, Hesione, and the Sea-Monster
Authors: Wickkiser Bronwen
Published: July 2021

A generation before the famous Trojan War, a sea-monster threatened Troy. King Laomedon, father of Priam, exposed his daughter Hesione to the creature in order to avert destruction. Heracles, who happened to be sailing by, made a deal with the king: he’d save the daughter in return for the king’s immortal horses. Heracles valiantly fought the monster and saved Hesione, but Laomedon reneged on the agreement, so Heracles stormed and conquered Troy. This chapter examines the long tradition of the story and several key changes to it across time and media, including the literature of Homer, Ovid, medieval epic, and Shakespeare, vase and wall paintings, sculpture, and opera.
The Gigantomachy
Authors: Salowey Christina A.
Published: July 2021

Heracles was enlisted as the token mortal, necessary for victory, in the Olympian gods’ battle against the Giants. This chapter concentrates on the surviving ancient portrayals of Heracles’ participation in the battle, in which he fights paired with Zeus, his father, or Athena, his mentor, and employing his iconic bow, although some compositions require that he wield his characteristic club as well. It is asked what actions he performed and why he deserved immortality for the task. The manner in which hero’s actions were valorized in particular pieces of literature or art is also explored. The myth seems to be used as political allegory, the gigantic enemies referencing Persians, Galatians, or political adversaries to fit the times.
Oechalia, Delphi, and Omphale
Authors: Heineman Kristin
Published: July 2021

This chapter examines some of Heracles’ praxeis that are all connected to the Panhellenic shrine of Delphi—the sack of Oechalia, the struggle for the Delphic tripod and his enslavement to Omphale. At Oechalia, Heracles sacks the city, kills Eurytus and his son, Iphitus, and takes his daughter Iole. While at Delphi, attempting to be purified, Heracles is denied an oracle by the Pythia and so attempts to steal the Delphic tripod. Heracles and Apollo fight over control of the tripod until Zeus intervenes. Finally, Heracles’ enslavement to Omphale is also an act of expiation that the hero must perform, in accordance with an oracle from Delphi.
The Madness and the Labors
Authors: Hsu Katherine Lu
Published: July 2021

This chapter explores the varying mythological traditions that recount Heracles’ madness and murder of his children and their significance in framing the Labors for Eurystheus. After a brief survey of the mythographers, three close readings are undertaken. (1) The account in Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca reveals the complex dynamics of this episode: while the madness and killing of his children require that he serve Eurystheus as atonement, his trials and victories nevertheless justify his apotheosis. (2) The Iliad’s account of Heracles’ Labors emphasizes the role of Atē and fate and excludes the madness entirely. (3) Diodorus Siculus’ version demonstrates an attempt to bring the preceding two variants together. The remainder of the chapter is devoted to an analysis of Euripides’ Heracles and Seneca’s Hercules Furens, tragedies which depict the madness occurring after the Labors, and the implications of this reversal of the order of events.
The Philosophical Tradition
Authors: Bosman Philip
Published: July 2021

This chapter traces the development of the image and use of the mythological figure of Heracles in philosophical contexts. Heracles’ mythology is notoriously amoral, but the figure gets drawn into moral roles over time, in tandem with the development of virtue from a heroic to a civic value. Pindar employs him as an example of attaining immortality through virtuous actions and Prodicus’ tale implies that his deeds were the result of autonomous moral choice. Antisthenes and Cynic tradition elevate him to the paradigm for the Cynic way in opting for action (above theory), itinerancy, training of body and soul, and toil. Others also claimed Heracles to have philosophized through his deeds, but prefer an allegorical interpretation of the mythology, a tradition of interpretation that ran from Herodorus through the Stoics Cleanthes, Cornutus and Seneca, and into early Christian apologetics.
Heracles as a Quest Hero
Authors: Anderson Graham
Published: July 2021

It is worth asking in the first instance what we mean by tasks and quests. When that is done, Heracles can be regarded as an untypical and unusual quest-hero, on a grander scale than any other Greek example; but this is unlikely to do justice to his true function. He is just too complex, and too many details of his legend are still unexplained. Useful comparisons can be drawn with aspects of the Argonautic legend; the Allegory of Prodicus and other philosophical developments point to a different stratum again. Comparisons with the Sumerian Ninurta-legend are a frustrating reminder that we are very far from establishing the early history of this multifaceted hero.
Heracles between Hera and Athena
Authors: Deacy Susan
Published: July 2021

Heracles, the self-sufficient “loner” of ancient Greek myth is shaped through interactions with others, notably Athena and Hera. As this chapter demonstrates, the input of these two deities runs deeper than the standard binary of helper (Athena)/persecutor (Hera) allows. Heracles is marked out as a mythological being through where he stands in relation to Athena and Hera who—separately and in collaboration—mark out his life as hero and his transformation to godhead and to a life as a specific kind of god. His nature, both his heroic nature and his divine nature, is shaped by Athena, but it is in connection with Hera that he is born, killed, immortalized, and, indeed, named.
Labor I
Authors: March Jenny
Published: July 2021

The first of the Twelve Labors that Heracles performed for Eurystheus was to slay the Nemean Lion, an enormous beast who was living in the foothills of Nemea in the northwestern corner of the Argolid, terrorizing the neighborhood and preying on men and animals alike. The Lion’s skin was invulnerable to weapons, so the only way that Heracles could achieve his task was to choke the beast to death with his bare hands. The eleven Labors that followed would have Heracles demonstrating many heroic qualities—prodigious courage, prowess, endurance, even cunning; but none required from him quite such sheer brute strength. So great was his achievement that Zeus set the Lion in the stars as the constellation Leo, to be an everlasting memorial of his favorite son’s first great task. Heracles ever afterward wore the lion-skin as a trophy, with its forepaws knotted around his neck and its scalp serving as a helmet, the invulnerable hide itself protecting him from all weapons. This was not only the most popular of Heracles’ exploits to be depicted in ancient art, with many hundreds of representations surviving in vase-paintings alone, but also the commonest of all mythological scenes in antiquity.
Heracles and the Mastery of Geographical Space
Authors: Molina Marín Antonio Ignacio
Published: July 2021

The myth of Heracles was modified through the ages and rewritten in accordance with the needs of each period. Given that Heracles was a liminal hero, every time the limits of the world were extended, the spaces Heracles was believed to have reached changed too. Heracles is not satisfied with merely knowing and observing the inhabited world, with controlling it through knowledge; rather, he is a transformer and an alterer of spaces. More than an explorer of the world’s geography, he is a creator of it, and a force of nature in this regard. He is a symbol of Hellenism but also a unifier of Greeks with other peoples, and indeed a unifier of the Mediterranean world in particular.
Heracles, Macedon, and Alexander the Great
Authors: Djurslev Christian Thrue
Published: July 2021

This chapter challenges the commonly held view that Alexander the Great’s emulation of Heracles was real, a notion based on a plethora of ancient material purporting to document a special relationship between the Macedonian king and the Greek hero. However, on closer inspection, it becomes clear that the major historiographical texts—by Diodorus, Curtius, Plutarch, and Arrian—develop the Heracles theme inconsistently and to very different degrees. Indeed, the review of relevant episodes and features demonstrates that the theme has an overwhelmingly literary nature, and that it extends beyond the historiographical tradition. The literary texts cannot be used as evidence for reconstructing an emulation of Heracles by the historical Alexander. This conclusion has consequences for how we understand Heracles’ broader role in the self-fashioning of the Argead dynasty to which Alexander belonged.
The Greek Cult of Heracles
Authors: Larson Jennifer
Published: July 2021

Although he is clearly a mortal in the Iliad, both the myth of Heracles’ apotheosis and his earliest divine cults emerged in the seventh century. Geographically, functionally, and in terms of ritual variation, the scope of Heracles’ worship was vast, exceeded only by major Greek deities like Apollo and Artemis. A popular ritual was xenismos, in which hospitality was provided for the god through the spreading of a couch and the offering of food. The cults of Heracles on Thasos and at Sicyon were unusual in that the ritual procedures resembled those for a hero more than a god. War and athletics were key functional domains for Heracles, who was often hailed as Callinicus, “Splendidly Victorious.” His sanctuaries served as convenient mustering or camping places for armies. Like his efficacy in securing military victory, Heracles’ ability to avert all dangers and misfortunes was a staple of popular belief. Heracles was a favorite in both Thebes and Athens, but in one polis he was a native and in the other he was a guest-friend.
The Roman Cult of Hercules
Authors: Siwicki Christopher
Published: July 2021

This chapter explores the cult of Hercules through an examination of the construction of temples to the god in the city of Rome, from the sixth the century BC to the third century AD. Beginning with the earliest evidence for cult sites to Hercules, the chapter discusses the Great Altar in the Forum Boarium, before going on to consider the importance of the deity to Rome’s triumphators in the second and first centuries BC. The popularity of Hercules among leading Republican politicians is reflected in the erection of a number of significant and architecturally innovative shrines, notably that of Marcus Fulvius Nobilior in the Circus Flamininus, the round temple in the Forum Boarium, and the enormous sanctuary to Hercules Victor at neighboring Tibur. The discussion brings out both Hercules’ relevance as a militaristic figure and the enduring association between his cult in Rome and his cult in the Greek world. There was an apparent dearth of new temples to Hercules built in Rome during the imperial period and the chapter concludes by considering the last of these, the dual temple of Bacchus and Hercules.
The Reception of Heracles
Authors: Stafford Emma
Published: July 2021

This chapter briefly outlines the reception of Heracles in Western culture from the end of antiquity until the present day, giving examples of the hero’s many appearances in a wide variety of literary genres, all kinds of visual media, and the performing arts, from the theater to the silver screen. It traces the ways in which particular elements of Heracles’ story and aspects of his character—from the monster-slayer to the comic hero to the incarnation of virtue—have been foregrounded at different periods and in different contexts for ethical, educational, or political ends, or simply for the entertainment of a wide range of audiences, both elite and popular, young and old.
Labor II
Authors: Salowey Christina A.
Published: July 2021

Heracles’ second Labor consisted of conquering a serpentine monster living in the marshlands near Lerna in the Argolid. The usually nine-headed Lernean Hydra had multiple appendages ending in snake heads, which, when cut or destroyed, regenerated themselves and multiplied. Heracles was assisted by Iolaus on this venture because Hera also sent a crab to attack and distract the hero from the task. This chapter explores the notable textual and visual representations of the myth, together with the topography and hydrology of Lerna, and suggests that the Hydra is emblematic of wilder environmental dangers against which Heracles is very often a champion.
Labor VIII
Authors: Ogden Daniel
Published: July 2021

The tradition of Heracles’ Labor of the fire-breathing Mares of Diomede is reviewed, with attention to literary and iconographic sources, and the richest of the former supplied in quotation. The Labor’s complex literary tradition may be analyzed into three major variants: (1) Heracles (acting alone) throws one of Diomede’s grooms to the horses to distract them so that he can bridle them; Diomede rushes to retaliate (and is presumably killed). (2) Heracles and his men overpower Diomede’s grooms to make off with the horses; when Diomede and his Bistones pursue them, Heracles leaves the horses in the care of his beloved, Abderus, so as to join battle; he kills Diomede and repels the rest, but in the meantime Abderus loses control of horses and they drag him to death; Heracles founds Abdera beside his tomb. (3) More simply, Heracles (acting alone) throws Diomede himself to the horses to distract them while he bridles them. The horse-taming episode in Heracles’ cycle and in other quest-myths (those of Perseus and Bellerophon, and even the mythologized childhood of Alexander the Great) may refract a rite of passage. This Labor serves as the insertion point in his cycle for Heracles’ rescue of Alcestis from Death.
Labor IX
Authors: Mayor Adrienne
Published: July 2021

Heracles’ ninth Labor, set by King Eurystheus and Princess Admete of Tiryns, was to obtain the war belt of Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons dwelling in Pontus on the Black Sea. Artistic and literary evidence suggests that his mission began peacefully but turned violent thanks to Heracles’ nemesis, the goddess Hera. The encounter between Heracles and his companions against the Amazons was one of the most popular subjects in ancient Greek vase painting and sculpture, second only to the Nemean Lion, with the earliest depiction on a terracotta shield of about 700 BC, found at Tiryns. The artistic and literary depictions reveal that Hippolyte and the Amazons were considered the equals of Greek males in courage and combat skills, although they were ultimately defeated and the Amazon queen’s precious war belt was won by Heracles.
Labor X
Authors: Finglass P. J.
Published: July 2021

This chapter examines the sources for Heracles’ tenth Labor, the killing of the three-headed Geryon and the stealing of his cattle. Beginning with Hesiod, it analyzes Stesichorus’ take on the myth with its surprisingly sympathetic portrayal of Geryon, whose home Stesichorus placed in southern Spain; the striking depictions of the clash in archaic Greek art; the accounts offered by the mythographers; and the assertions of settlements such as Saguntum, Alesia, Pompeii, and Rome itself that Heracles visited them on his way back to Greece. The myth proves to be endlessly flexible, appearing in a wide variety of contexts and genres.
Islamist Parties and Women’s Representation in Morocco
Authors: Benstead Lindsay J.
Published: July 2021

Does electing Islamists help or hurt women? Due to the Party of Justice and Development (PJD) obtaining 13% of seats in the 2002–2007 legislature and the implementation of an electoral gender quota that resulted in thirty-five women winning seats in 2002, Morocco offers a rare opportunity to explore the intersectional impact of parliamentarians’ gender and party affiliation on women’s symbolic and service representation. Using visits to parliamentary offices in Tangiers, a city in northern Morocco, and an original survey of 112 Moroccan Members of Parliament (MPs) conducted in 2008, this chapter finds that responsiveness for female citizens depends on parliamentarians’ party and gender. Female legislators and Islamist deputies (including male Islamists) are also more likely to interact with female citizens than male parliamentarians from non-Islamist parties. It argues that the PJD’s stronger party institutionalization enhances legislators’ incentives to work in mixed-gender teams, leading to more frequent legislator interactions with female citizens. By offering novel evidence that developing a strong party system—in addition to electing women—is crucial for improving women’s representation in clientelistic settings, the results extend the literature on Islam, gender, and governance and offer insights into Islamist electoral success in clientelistic settings.
Luxury and Corruption
Authors: Kuldova Tereza Østbø
Published: July 2021

Luxury, luxury business, and corruption are intertwined in multiple ways. Luxury goods, art, and real estate are used to launder proceeds from corruption and organised crime; luxury goods are used as bribes; the desire for luxury motivates corruption; images of illicit luxuries are used in corruption exposés and fuel populist politics; anticorruption measures impact luxury markets. Despite this, the relationship between luxury and corruption has not been an object of systematic research. This chapter is therefore exploratory in its nature, an invitation to think luxury and corruption together, and beyond the business of luxury. It argues that much can be gained from thinking luxury and corruption together and in new and critical ways. An analysis of the logic of luxury and of luxury business is not only key to understanding the driving forces behind corruption, but it also offers a powerful entry point to making sense of moral cultures, reigning political and economic views, and the making of global ethics.
The Digital Production Gap in the Algorithmic Era
Authors: Schradie Jen , Bekirsky Liam
Published: July 2021

As the volume of digital content continues to grow exponentially, whose voices dominate online becomes more salient. Democracy is at stake in the competition for an audience in the online commons. Digital technology was supposed to overcome the media dominance of the elite with a broader array of voices, but social class is one of the most reliable predictors of digital content production, interacting with both racialized and gendered inequalities. Yet analyzing this form of digital inequality requires a theoretical framework of who controls the digital means of production, not simply a linear model of bridging the gap with more access or skills. This chapter examines digital power relations by tracing the history of online content production inequalities over time, showing how the increasing grip by the ruling class, corporations, and governments – in the wake of algorithms and artificial intelligence – makes it increasingly difficult for everyday people to be heard online. While most marginalized communities never got a fair shot because of constraints over resources in the early and more open web, in the algorithmic era this is even more of an uphill battle. The grip that platforms and their owners have over content creation—and especially distribution—makes it vital to theorize this broader concept of the digital means of production.
Fans and Fan Activism
Authors: Maher Thomas V.
Published: July 2021

Fan communities have been actively celebrating popular culture like the Harry Potter books and films, the music and fashion of Beyoncé, Korean pop sensation BTS, and the Star Wars media empire, as well as nearly every professional sports team for decades; and research on fans and fan communities has grown alongside them. The proliferation of internet and social media access has made fandom even more prominent. This chapter summarizes and synthesizes existing fandom research while highlighting how digital media have influenced fandom. First, it argues that fandom is best conceptualized as an ideal type organized around consumption, knowledge, engagement, community, identity, and emotional connection and that the internet has made each element more accessible. It then describes how fandom research has demonstrated that—as subcultures—fan communities can replicate and enact many of the same class, gender, and race inequities seen in broader society, although not identically. These inequities are evident in how society responds to different fandoms as well as fans’ experiences within their communities. Finally, it summarizes the growing literature on how fan communities have been mobilized for pro-social and activist behavior. These fan activists are adept at such behavior because they have tapped into the skills and knowledge they developed through their fandom, their proximity to mass cultural events like book and movie releases, and their communities’ potential as a source of bloc recruitment. In sum, fan communities are an important site of community and identity and an important subject of analysis in an increasingly digitized world.
Detect, Document, and Debunk
Authors: Lim Gabrielle , Donovan Joan
Published: July 2021

The study of disinformation and media manipulation has expanded greatly since 2016, leading to thousands of news stories and academic studies. As an interdisciplinary field, it has attracted a wide variety of scholars using multiple methods and theories to understand how communication technologies shape politics and society, including how hoaxes, lies, scams, and strategic misinformation reach millions in an instant. However, because of the diversity of approaches and lines of inquiry, it is not an easy area of study to grasp at first glance. What’s more, the concerns, be they medical misinformation or foreign influence operations, are sociotechnical in nature—meaning they are the product of both sociocultural and technological conditions that cannot be separated from one another. The stakes could not be higher, as the world witnessed how disinformation was a core mobilizing factor in the genocide in Myanmar and the siege on the US Capitol. Yet strategies to counter the harms of media manipulation and disinformation require rigorous and nuanced research drawing from ethnography to data science. This chapter therefore aims to make sense of misinformation research as an expanding subdomain of critical internet studies, offering an overview of the methods and theories of inquiry, current research and findings, and paths forward for future research.
Implementing Environmental Rights
Authors: Gellers Joshua C. , Jeffords Chris
Published: July 2021

For more than four decades, the world has witnessed a dramatic rise in the number of legal instruments advancing a rights-based approach to environmental protection. These “environmental rights” seek to overcome the impotence of environmental law and regulatory schemes by invoking the authority of fundamental rights, human dignity, and Indigenous cosmologies. But do environmental rights make a difference? If so, under what circumstances? The field of comparative environmental politics is fundamentally concerned with analyzing the sources of national variation in environmental performance. Despite having been around for nearly half a century, scholars and practitioners are just beginning to understand the conditions under which environmental rights produce meaningful outcomes. This chapter represents the first effort to take stock of extant knowledge about the implementation of human and non-human rights pertaining to the natural environment. In particular, the authors review existing literature on the effects of environmental rights and highlight the conceptual and practical issues associated with evaluating their efficacy. The chapter closes by outlining environmental, legal, political, and social outcomes worthy of further study.
A Taxing Feminism
Authors: Infanti Anthony C. , Crawford Bridget J.
Published: July 2021

Feminist perspectives are not new to tax law. Even though feminist tax jurisprudence has a rich history, mainstream tax academics, legislators, and the public have not been persuaded until recently to treat tax law as something more than a type of applied economics with no relation to feminist (or any other “noneconomic”) concerns. Since Grace Blumberg published “Sexism in the Code: A Comparative Study of Income Taxation of Working Wives and Mothers” in the early 1970s, numerous other contributions to the tax literature have identified ways that feminist perspectives might influence tax debates. After exploring why feminist perspectives historically have had little purchase in the tax arena, the chapter shines a light on recent attention to the relation between gender and tax law, providing some evidence that feminist tax perspectives may finally be taking hold in, and may eventually exert some influence over, the general tax policy discourse in the United States.
Environmental Law and Feminism
Authors: Carlarne Cinnamon P.
Published: July 2021

This article explores the important but poorly understood relationship between environmental law and legal feminism. The modern legal movements to curb environmental degradation and gender-based discrimination are still young. For environmentalism, the focus is on constraining unbridled ecosystem destruction. For feminism, the focus is on discovering and unraveling the systems that subordinate women. Little has been done, however, to cultivate or respond to these movements’ linkages. The onset of climate change and the maturing of climate law, however, are bringing renewed attention to this underexplored relationship. The article explores how the evolution of ecofeminism, the environmental justice movement, and the climate justice movement are advancing thinking at the intersection of environmental law and feminism and the law. In particular, it suggests that as both fields increasingly seek to situate ongoing challenges within larger structures of power and inequality, they draw closer together, creating opportunities for intellectual exchange and coalition building.
Tort Law and Feminism
Authors: Swan Sarah L.
Published: July 2021

The article imagines what tort law might look like if it more fully embraced feminist reforms. Despite decades of compelling feminist advocacy and scholarship, tort law has largely resisted attempts to orient it toward pursuing goals of social justice or equality. Nevertheless, some feminist redirection has laid the groundwork for further development. Focusing on four foundational concepts in tort law—duty, third-party liability, harm, and damages—this article uses the tools, insights, and arguments of modern feminist tort scholarship to envision the doctrinal landscape of a tort law rooted in gender justice and social equality. It explores how reconceptualizing the duty of care, expanding third-party liability, recognizing a broader range of intimate and harassment-based harms, and eliminating gender and racial bias from damage awards could transform tort from an instrument that perpetuates social inequalities into a mechanism of social justice offering recompense and remedy to all who are wrongfully injured.
Sex-Positive Feminism’s Values in Search of the Law of Pleasure
Authors: Appleton Susan Frelich
Published: July 2021

In challenging traditional stereotypes of female sexualities centered on passivity, subordination, harm, and repronormativity, proponents of sex-positive feminism criticize legal feminism generally for undervaluing women’s pleasure, which they celebrate. Yet these proponents often struggle with charting a supportive and affirmative course for law and legal institutions, which have long fostered sex negativity. Part I of this article identifies sex positivity as a thread that runs through multiple feminisms and that offers a potential answer to criticisms and problems. Along the way, this part demonstrates the importance of power and power disparities in sex-positive feminism and of the role of gender. Part II turns to the place of law and legal institutions in sex-positive feminism, juxtaposing prevailing critiques of law’s sex negativity with promising opportunities for change. Part III continues on this note of optimism, consulting popular culture for possibilities to support a more fully developed sex-positive and feminist legal regime.
Calvin, Shakespeare, and Suspense
Authors: McEachern Claire
Published: July 2021

Calvin and Shakespeare both share an interest in the work of suspense; in the former case, as a feature of anticipating salvation (or not); in the latter, as a narrative function of a play’s conclusion. The mediation of Calvinist soteriology in England through the experimentalist thought of William Perkins links Shakespeare to Calvin, in a shared project of anticipating the future, an anticipation informed both by older providentialist models of probability (in which an ending simply confirms a prior pattern) and emergent models of statistical probability (in which the possibility of reversal of prior patterns exists). After an exploration of the logic of ending in Puritan deathbed accounts of Katherine Stubbes, the chapter concludes with a survey of the interplay of urgency and assurance in some of Shakespeare’s endings, those of King Lear and The Tempest in particular.
Cultures of Calvinism in Early Modern Scotland
Authors: Reid Steven J.
Published: July 2021

This chapter highlights recent work on the history of Calvinist culture in Scotland between the Reformation of 1560 and the end of the reign of James VI and I (1567–1625). It looks at both disciplinary culture and the ways in which Calvinism manifested in familial, social, noble, and intellectual life. While cumulative research on the system of church courts and the ‘culture of penitence’ has led to a much better understanding of everyday religious life, this chapter suggests a variety of directions in which future research could be taken. These include examining the pace at which Reformed culture embedded itself in Scottish society post-Reformation; the role of the nobility in religion; the experience of religious life in relation to gender and sexuality; the legacy of Renaissance humanism; and the roles of Reformed scholasticism and neo-Latin in intellectual life.
Classical Calvinism and the Problem of Development
Authors: Trueman Carl R.
Published: July 2021

John Henry Newman’s An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine posed a serious challenge to Protestants with regard to how they understood the doctrinal history of the church. One robust response came from the Scottish Presbyterian theologian, William Cunningham, who subjected Newman to vigorous critique on the basis of classical Reformation notions of scriptural authority. Nevertheless, Cunningham failed to understand the seriousness of the challenge of history and others, notable the Mercersburg theologians, offered approaches that point towards a more satisfactory approach.
Writing the Nineteenth-Century Scottish Calvinist Self
Authors: Gordon Bruce
Published: July 2021

Nineteenth-century Scotland witnessed the proliferation of spiritual biographies and diaries that recounted the lives of Scottish Calvinist ministers as examples of piety and Christian living. These relatively inexpensive and popular works appeared in a culture of decreasing church attendance and growing secularism. One of the most notable authors of these texts was Andrew Bonar (1810–1892), minister, missionary, and leading figure of the Free Church. Bonar’s biographies and diary reflected both the depth of his Calvinist piety as well as the anxieties arising from rigorous self-examination and the attendant risk of spiritual depression. Bonar’s work reveals the centrality of commemoration and memory in constructing a life of faithful living in the wake of the seemingly irreversible decline of churches in the life of the nation.
The New Calvinism
Authors: Cratty Flynn
Published: July 2021

This chapter looks at the origins and distinguishing features of the stream of American evangelicalism that has come to be known as New Calvinism. New Calvinism emerged at the end of the twentieth century among evangelical Christians frustrated by the perceived pragmatism and doctrinal shallowness of many evangelical churches. It is classically evangelical in its theology and preaching, eager to build coalitions across denominational lines (in particular, among Baptists and Presbyterians), founded on a selective appropriation of Reformed doctrine (especially the Reformed doctrines of God and soteriology) and committed to a complementarian view of gender roles. However, the New Calvinism’s most distinctive features are its energetic expansion into new geographical and denominational spaces and its cultivation of a unique form of revivalism and affective spirituality drawn from the writings of Puritans like John Owen and Jonathan Edwards.
Friedrich Schleiermacher and the Reformed Tradition in the Modern Era
Authors: Zachman Randall C.
Published: July 2021

Friedrich Schleiermacher reformulated the doctrines he inherited from the Reformed and Lutheran dogmatic traditions, in order to demonstrate that the certainty of faith in God, as well as faith in the redeeming power of Christ, could be maintained in an age of scientific and historical criticism of the Christian faith. He located faith in God in the immediate consciousness of being absolutely dependent, which he claimed emerged in the development of every human consciousness. And he located faith in Christ in the way the influence of the sinless perfection of Christ, mediated through the testimony of the Christian community and supported by the picture of Christ, strengthened the consciousness of God so that the inhibition of the God-consciousness by sin could be overcome. His hope was that such a reformulation of doctrine would not only clarify the meaning of faith in the modern world, but would also reunify the Christian traditions that had been divided since the Reformation.
Calvinism as a Chinese Contextual Theology
Authors: Chow Alexander
Published: July 2021

The history of Protestant missions to China has included every major Presbyterian, Congregational, and Reformed denomination entering Chinese lands as early as the seventeenth century. However, the lasting forms of Chinese Protestantism that existed after the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) were much more informed by the evangelical faith mission tradition than any denominational tradition. Yet observers of Protestantism in mainland China have noted the rapid embrace of Calvinist Christianity since the 1990s. Tracing these developments across two major strata of Chinese society, this chapter shows how socio-political factors since 1989 have resulted in the growth of Calvinism as a Chinese contextual theology.
Enchanted Calvinism
Authors: Mohr Adam
Published: July 2021

The goal of this chapter is to explain how healing and deliverance practices were instituted in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG). The first half of this chapter examines the PCG’s initial transformation, which was driven by three factors: the decision by the leadership to introduce healing practices into the church, the creation of the Bible Study and Prayer Group to manage the afflicted within congregations, and the influence of two parachurch organizations. The second half of this chapter focuses on Catechist Ebenezer Abboah-Offei, who since 1996 has been leading Grace Presbyterian Church in Akropong, the primary site of healing and deliverance practices within the PCG. With regards to Abboah-Offei, this chapter describes how he came to teach and practise deliverance and the process by which Grace Presbyterian was established. Finally, this chapter describes the various healing and deliverance activities that occur at Grace Presbyterian Church.