bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Mortality trends during the 20th century
Authors: Pitacco Ermanno , Denuit Michel , Haberman Steven , Olivieri Annamaria 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Life expectancy at birth among early humans was likely to be between 20 and 30 years as testified by evidence that has been glaned from tombstones inscriptions, genealogical records, and skeletal remains. Around 1750, the first national population data began being collected in the Nordic countries. At that time, life expectancy at birth was around 35–40 years in the more developed countries. It then rose to about 40–45 by the mid-1800s. Rapid improvements began at the end of the 19th century, so that, by the middle of the 20th century it was approximately 60–65 years. By the beginning of the 21st century, life expectancy at birth has reached about 70 years. The average life span has thus, roughly tripled over the course of human history. Much of this increase has happened in the past 150 years: the 20th century has been characterized by a huge increase in average longevity compared to all of the previous centuries. Broadly speaking, the average life span increased by 25 years in the 10,000 years before 1850. Another 25-year increase took place between 1850 and 2000. And there is no evidence that improvements in longevity are tending to slow down.
Forecasting mortality: An introduction
Authors: Pitacco Ermanno , Denuit Michel , Haberman Steven , Olivieri Annamaria 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
This chapter aims at describing various methods proposed by actuaries and demographers for projecting mortality. Many of these have been actually used in the actuarial context, in particular for pricing and reserving in relation to life annuity products and pensions, and in the demographic field, mainly for population projections.
The Level of Decision Making: The Preferences of the Citizens after Enlargement
Authors: Winter Lieven De , Swyngedouw Marc , Goeminne Bart 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
In the current system of multilevel governance in the EU, different policy issues and areas are dealt with at various levels (ranging from the local to the EU), sometimes exclusively at one level, but often by joint decision making between two or more levels. The question of whether or not the level(s) at which decisions are currently taken in different policy fields is truly the most appropriate level is one of the aspects that is supposed to affect the legitimacy and effectiveness of any democratic polity (Thomassen and Schmitt 1999a; Peterson 1995).
chapter 2
Authors: Wu Duncan 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
London was endlessly stimulating. Young William fell in love with its restlessness, often wandering out of the front door and rambling about on his own. His parents were terrified he would get lost but he seemed always to find his way home. Hazlitt Sr occasionally walked him to the Montpelier Tea Gardens in Walworth, planted with trees, shrubs, and exotic flowers. These were the first green things the boy had seen after the long sea voyage back to England and he was fascinated by them—their names, colours, and odours.
political theory and the realistic spirit
Authors: Emmerich Ze’ev 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
I open books on right and on ethics, I listen to the scholars and jurisconsults and, moved by their ingratiating discourses, I deplore the miseries of nature, I admire the peace and justice established by civil order, I bless the wisdom of public institutions, and console myself for being a man by seeing that I am a citizen. Fully instructed about my duties and happiness, I close the book, leave the class-room, and look around me; I see unfortunate peoples groaning under an iron yoke, mankind crushed by a handful of oppressors, starving masses overwhelmed by pain and hunger, whose blood and tears the rich drink in peace, and everywhere the strong armed against the weak with the frightful power of the laws.
Introduction
Authors: Saggar Shamit 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Reputations matter. At present, and for some while past, the reputation of Muslims in Western societies, regrettably, is all but in shreds. Though this statement may strike some as harsh, it is no exaggeration to suggest that all-around hardly anyone has anything remotely good to say about Western Muslim communities. Meanwhile, the reputation of Western liberal societies in the eyes of even moderate Muslim opinion is little better than in the gutter. The essential elements of a siege mentality have set in, and are founded on the widespread pariah reputation attached to Western Muslims.
Concluding Thoughts and Future Prospects
Authors: Saggar Shamit 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Considerable space and attention has previously been devoted in this book to diagnosing aspects of the problem or problems at hand. Indeed, it is striking that the shelves of volumes that have been published on this and similar topics have become heavily congested with detailed and authoritative diagnoses of one kind of another. In the case of Western Muslims and issues of integration and security, there is no mistaking the fact that publisher, reader, and even artistic interest, has swollen massively. A mighty avalanche has been seen in the past half-dozen years, mainly involving either snappy commentaries on particular controversies or noble accounts of specific pieces of evidence and their meaning. In both cases, the emphasis on analysing and dissecting the problem itself has been very sharp and has been at the expense, generally speaking, of equal attention being paid to the thorny question of plausible solutions and responses, to say nothing of the effectiveness of current interventions.
How to Do Science in Papua New Guinea
Authors: Novotny Vojtech 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Scientific progress in New Guinea was hampered by the fact that the people traditionally lived in tiny populations, isolated by language, and so by lack of access to information; and they were also illiterate, which meant that all knowledge was passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. It is unsurprising that their technical advancement was slow and that they possessed only a small body of scientific knowledge. Science as understood in the West— the obsessive accumulation of all manner of facts, including the totally useless—is a novelty in Papua New Guinea and is still looking for a wider circle of acolytes. But the natural and cultural riches of the island have always been an irresistible lure to Western biologists and anthropologists. Huge numbers of these continue to criss-cross the country, spreading their scientistic faith and adding greatly to the local colour.
In Conclusion: Travel Report
Authors: Novotny Vojtech 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
When my colleague William Boen and I set off on a routine inspection of our outlying workplace, the entomological laboratory in the village of Mu, Simbu province, in the Highlands of New Guinea, we used public transport as usual. The generally smooth journey through the jagged Finisterre Range was enlivened only by our having to get out and push the twelve-seater minibus up some of the particularly steep hills. We also had to ford one river to get round a bridge that was hopelessly blocked by a lorry. The lorry had sunk through the planking of the single-lane bridge; the next day it was hanging by its chassis on the steel frame of the bridge.
Voice for the Weak: ECOSOC Ad Hoc Advisory Groups on African Countries Emerging from Conflict
Authors: Prantl Jochen 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
In 2002, the United Nations created networked groups to strengthen the coherence of the organization’s relations with countries emerging from conflict. The ‘ad hoc advisory groups’ were created by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations—the principal organ for coordinating the economic, social, and related work of the 14 UN specialized agencies, functional commissions, and five regional commissions. This chapter gives an assessment of the role and performance of the ECOSOC ad hoc advisory groups for African countries emerging from conflict. It examines the potential and limits of these groups in providing conflict countries and other stakeholders with a greater voice in the transition process from war to peace. In this context, ‘voice’ includes the attainment of status and the mobilization of international (financial) support, as well as influencing decision-making at the UN Headquarters and the international financial institutions. ECOSOC ad hoc advisory groups are set up at the request of any African country emerging from conflict and seek to facilitate the integration of relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction, and development into a comprehensive approach to peace and stability.
The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries’ Finance Ministers’ Network
Authors: Martin Matthew 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries’ (HIPCs’) Finance Ministers’ Network was established in 1999 as a response by Finance Ministers of the HIPCs to the creation of the HIPC Debt Relief Initiative in 1996. It stemmed from the actions of a wider technical capacity-building programme (the HIPC Debt Strategy and Analysis Capacity Building Programme) in which they had come to have a considerable degree of trust since its establishment in 1997. Their growing dissatisfaction with the construction and progress of the original HIPC Initiative led them to request the creation of a forum where they could have frank discussions among themselves (and sometimes with representatives of like-minded donors and the Bretton Woods Institutions, or BWIs) about prospects for debt relief. Over time, the network also became a forum for discussing poverty reduction strategies, new development financing prospects, and their capacity-building needs, and its membership has grown from 16 to 34 countries. The network has fostered learning among HIPC Finance Ministers and their officials, by allowing them to exchange information and views on the progress of their debt relief, poverty reduction, and new financing. It has also served as a mechanism for HIPC Finance Ministers better to exercise voice in the international system, to access enhanced debt relief and better quality new financing, and to decide autonomously their collective positions on international debt and development financing issues.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Authors:   ADB
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Oil and gas resource endowments are a source of wealth and can be expected to support growth and development if well managed. This involves converting the wealth into physical and human capital, increasing and sustaining economic growth, and alleviating poverty. This report has clearly outlined that the successful pathway to fully harnessing the benefits of oil and gas resource wealth in Africa is nested in good institutions and governance, trade links, sound economic policies, and heavy investments in exploration technology, legislative framework, and human capital development. Historically, oil and gas resource endowments in Africa have not yielded positive economic and development results for many countries. The experience has been more positive recently, and there are encouraging signs of better management and governance.
Blindsight
Authors: Weiskrantz Lawrence 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Blindsight is an unusual condition where the sufferer can respond to visual stimuli, while lacking any conscious feeling of having seen the stimuli. It occurs after a particular form of brain injury. The first edition of 'Blindsight', by one of the pioneers in the field - Lawrence Weiskrantz, reported studies of a patient with this condition. It was an important, much cited publication. In the past twenty years, further work has been done in this area, and this new edition brings the book up to date. Retaining the original text, but adding substantial new chapters and colour illustrations, the first section of the book summarizes findings on DB since the last published account in 1986. The second part includes information on other new research that has occurred since the last edition. As well as giving an account of research over a number of years into a particular case of blindsight, it provides a discussion of the historical and neurological background, a review of cases reported by other investigators, and a number of theoretical and practical issues and implications. The book will be valuable for cognitive psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists, as well as philosophers of mind.
Background
Authors: Weiskrantz Lawrence 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
There is a paradox concerning the visual pathways and their functions. In man and other primates most of the fibres from the optic nerve leaving the eye project more or less directly to a region of the cerebral cortex situated at the most posterior region of the brain (Figs. 4.1 and 4.2), in a region known as the occipital lobe. The specific cortex within the occipital lobe which receives this visual input is called the ‘striate cortex’ because of its distinctive appearance under the microscope (also known as area 17, area OC, or V–1). Actually, the projection from eye to cortex is not absolutely direct: the optic nerve fibres themselves terminate in a nucleus of the thalamus in the ‘tweenbrain’ (the diencephalon), in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus, and from that nucleus new fibres originate that terminate in the striate cortex.
Visual acuity
Authors: Weiskrantz Lawrence 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
In our original report (Weiskrantz et al., 1974), we used an Ives apparatus that generates a sine-wave grating when light is passed through a pair of diffraction gratings (Moiré fringes; the apparatus is the same as that described more fully in Weiskrantz and Cowey 1963). Only one position in the scotoma was tested originally. The grating was visible in a circular aperture, 6° 39’ diameter, which was placed so that its centre was either 8° 48’ to the left or right of the fixation point (53 cm from the subject), depending on which visual half-field was being tested. Stimuli were presented singly, and D.B. was asked to report ‘lines’ or ‘no lines’, and the spatial frequency varied randomly from trial to trial so that a threshold determination could be made. Even though D.B. reported not only seeing no lines at all, but not even the brightly lit aperture, his performance varied systematically with the spatial frequency, and an acuity threshold could be determined. The results are summarized in Fig. 5.10 in Part III, where it can be seen that his minimal separable acuity in the impaired field at this position was a creditable 15.8 cycles/degree, as compared with 20 cycles/degree in the mirror symmetric region of the intact right half-field.
‘Waves’
Authors: Weiskrantz Lawrence 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
In testing in 1982 (cf., for example, the Chapter 13 tests on the optic disc within the scotoma), but especially in 1983, D.B. reported an impression of ‘waves’ in parts of his field defect, especially in a region between the fovea and about 30° eccentric in the lower quadrant. The region had been plotted in Fig. 13.1 in Chapter 13. In 1983 we recorded our impression that his ‘live’ field was livelier and slightly larger than before. The experience is of a kind unlike anything in normal visual experience, and for which precise words seem to be lacking. The ‘waves’ can have some sort of form. They can be straight or curved, or can even have ‘squareness’. They can also be ‘quick’, which is how he described one of the Aimark targets in a reaching experiment. ‘A quick movement; not a light’. The square was described as producing ‘a sharp movement’. He also described the square on another occasion as producing ‘a corner-shaped wave’. The waves could also be thinner or thicker, e.g., in the uncurved triangle vs. curved triangle discrimination, he said, ‘There is a movement. I said “straight” when the waves are thinner, and “curved” when they are thicker and quicker’. But D.B. insisted that he was not ‘seeing’. Interestingly, he mentioned in 1983 that he experiences these waves in everyday life. If, for example, there is a moving cat in his field defect, this sets up waves of the same sort that he experiences when having a migraine attack. He said that he cannot be sure, in such a situation, whether or not he is having a migraine attack until the cat emerges into his good visual field! The sensitivity would also seem to be quite high, and can be induced by his own movement. For example, he said that when he is walking at dusk, he is unable to see on his right side because of the darkness, but his left side of the field is intrusive because it contains waves.
Matching between Impaired and Intact Fields
Authors: Weiskrantz Lawrence 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
If, as the results of the double dissociation between form and detection suggest, the impaired field is qualitatively different from the normal field, the interesting question arises whether communication between the two fields is possible and, if so, is efficient. The way we have approached this question is to present stimuli to the two fields simultaneously and ask D.B. to make a ‘same-different’ judgement. Two groups of such tests have been carried out, in September 1975, and in April 1982.
Overview
Authors: Roff Derek A 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Computer modeling is now an integral part of research into evolutionary biology. The advent of increased processing power in the personal computer, coupled with the availability of languages such as R, S-PLUS, Mathematica, Maple, Mathcad, and MATLAB, has ensured that the development and analysis of computer models of evolution is now within the capabilities of most graduate students. However, there are two hurdles that, in my experience, discourage students from making full use of the power of computer modeling. The first is the general problem of formulating the question in a manner that is amenable to programming and the second is its implementation using one of the aforementioned computer languages. This is because the learning curve of each of these languages is quite steep, unless one already has prior computing experience as an undergraduate.
Genetic Models
Authors: Roff Derek A 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The “Fisherian” optimality approach determines the optimal combination of trait values but not the evolutionary trajectory nor, in general, the variation to be expected about the optimal combination. Invasibility analysis is also primarily concerned with the Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS) values; though assuming clonal inheritance, it can give insight into the temporal evolution of trait values. Whether such analyses can be extended to organisms with other modes of inheritance is not clear, though the analysis presented in Scenario 5 of this chapter suggests that caution is warranted in applying the results of invasibility analysis to sexually reproducing organisms.
Fermentation modelling
Authors: Sinclair C G , Cantero D 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The purpose of fermentation modelling is to bring order to the mass of data which results from a practical fermentation experiment and to express the results in a concise form which is intelligible to colleagues and to those who wish to make use of the results. One of the principle uses of a fermentation model is to design large-scale fermentation processes using data obtained from small-scale fermentations. As an example, let us take a simple aerobic yeast fermentation. Pure yeast culture is first transferred from a slope to a shake flask, grown in an orbital shaker for 12 h; the shake-flask contents are then aseptically added to a 5 litre laboratory fermenter. This is equipped with the usual agitator, air supply control equipment, probes for measuring temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen and, hopefully, off-gas analysis equipment. It will have been charged with a growth medium and be free of organisms prior to inoculation. A sample of the inoculum and of the medium will be taken initially (time t= 0), then, every 30 or 60 min, a sample of the fermenter contents will be taken for analysis.
Methods for the measurement of insulin secretion
Authors: Malaisse Willy J , Leclercq-Meyer, Viviane , Malaisse-Lagae Francine 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Several methods are currently available to assess the secretory activity of the pancreatic B-cell either in vivo or in vitro.In vivo, changes in insulin release are often judged from the level of circulating insulin. This method does not provide information on the absolute secretory rate, and the plasma concentration of insulin may be affected by extrapancreatic factors affecting its clearance from the blood stream. The true secretory rate can be measured by following the progressive neutralization of injected anti-insulin antibodies. Experiments carried out in vivo do not, however, show conclusively whether the effect of a given agent results from a direct or indirect action upon the pancreatic B-cell.
Cell biology of secretion
Authors: Brocklehurst Keith W , Pollard Harvey B 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to describe various techniques that have proved invaluable in attempts to elucidate the cell biology of secretion through the use of the bovine adrenal medullary chromaffin cell as an example of a secretory cell. We will describe procedures for the isolation and culture of chromaffin cells, and then describe the use of such cells as a system in which to investigate the effects of various activators and inhibitors of secretion. The assay of catecholamines and ATP as measures of the extent of secretion will be described. A procedure will then be detailed for rendering cells permeable using the detergent digitonin, and the advantages of using such cells to study secretory mechanisms will be discussed.
Regulation of the biosynthesis and processing of polypeptide hormones
Authors: Hutton John C , Bailyes Elaine M , Rhodes, Christopher J , Guest Paul C 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The majority of polypeptide hormones are stored in intracellular vesicles which are bounded by a phospholipid bilayer and are released into the extracellular medium by a process of regulated exocytosis. The simple morphology of the secretory granule belies its biochemical complexity, for not only is it a store for the peptide hormone but it also contains proteases which may be involved in the conversion of precursor forms of the stored peptide, enzymes such as proton pumps involved in maintenance of the pH and ionic composition of the granule interior, and the granule membrane proteins which are involved in the mechanism and regulation of exocytosis. The protein composition of secretory granules from different endocrine tissues is poorly documented and the process of secretory granule biogenesis through which the granule derives its full complement of functional elements is only just beginning to be unravelled. The following techniques reflect our experience of studies on the biosynthesis and storage of insulin and the accessory proteins of the insulin secretory granule of the pancreatic ,8-cell. The protocols given should, however, be more widely applicable to the study of other endocrine tissues and cell lines transfected with polypeptide hormone mRNAs from heterologous sources.