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This article tracks the emergence, evolution, and decline of the Rhodesian-American religious lobby, a transnational network of churches, magazines, lobbying groups, and other non-state actors that operated during the Rhodesian Bush War from 1965 to 1980. Voicing its concerns in religious, racial, and anticommunist terms, the lobby recruited US combatants into the Rhodesian Security Forces and mobilised US evangelicals to press political leaders to recognise Rhodesian sovereignty. By threading together the post-Vietnam mercenary diaspora with waning segregationist groups and the emerging Christian Right in the United States, the lobby significantly shaped US-Rhodesia relations and global far-right politics in the late Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients with autoimmune encephalitis (AE) often developed psychiatric features during the disease course. Many studies focused on the psychiatric characteristic in anti-NMDAR encephalitis (NMDAR-E), but anti-LGI1 encephalitis (LGI1-E) had received less attention regarding the analysis of psychiatric features, and no study compared psychiatric characteristic between these two groups. The clinical data of AE patients (62 NMDAR-E and 20 LGI1-E) who developed psychiatric symptoms were analyzed in this study. In NMDAR-E, the most common higher-level feature was "behavior changes" (60/62, 96.8%) and the lower-level feature "incoherent speech" was observed in 33 patients (33/62, 53.2%), followed by "agitation" (29/62, 46.8%) and "incongruent laughter/crying" (20/62, 32.3%). Similar to NMDAR-E, "behavior changes" was most common in LGI1-E (17/20, 85.0%), but the features of suicidality, eating, and obsessive–compulsive were not reported. The top three lower-level features were visual hallucinations (9/20, 45.0%), incoherent speech (8/20, 40.0%), and mood instability (7/20, 35.0%). The comparative study found that "incongruent laughter/crying", in lower-level features, was more frequently observed in NMDAR-E (32.3% vs. 0%, p = 0.002). Moreover, the Bush Francis Catatonia Rating Scale (BFCRS) assessing the catatonic symptoms in NMDAR-E were higher than LGI1-E, but the 18 item-Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS-18) showed no difference in the two groups. In summary, both NMDAR-E and LGI1-E often developed psychiatric symptoms. In contrast with LGI1-E, the psychiatric feature "incongruent laughter/crying" was more frequently associated with NMDAR-E, and catatonic symptoms were more severe in NMDAR-E. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Securitization and desecuritization demonstrate how threat (de)constructions can lead to conflictual or cooperative foreign policies. However, due to its focus on collectivities, securitization theory cannot tell us why leaders choose either securitization or desecuritization. Understanding this choice is crucial because (de)securitization processes can prescribe possible foreign policy options and thus affect the likelihood of conflict and cooperation. To account for leaders' choices, I draw on political psychology and demonstrate the utility of my approach through an explanation of two US presidents' preferences for (de)securitizing North Korea. Using leadership trait and operational code analysis, I show that psychological variables shaped Bill Clinton's and George W. Bush's preferences because they affected their threat perception and inclination toward conflictual or cooperative actions. These preferences had substantial consequences: While Clinton's desecuritization attempt led to improvements in US–North Korean relations, Bush's effort to resecuritize North Korea effectively reversed this progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump have all used the language of "victory" and "defeat" in the War on Terror despite its ambiguous outcomes. This paper develops the concept of a "victory trap" to explain this phenomenon and its political consequences. On the one hand, the electoral consequences of "losing" wars lead presidents to make claims about "winning" and eventual "victory." On the other hand, strategic realities and public reluctance to bear the costs of total victory result in policymakers facing criticism for being unable to produce results proportionate to their rhetoric. As such, whilst scholarship is clear on the effects of both "losing" and "winning" wars, this paper provides the first exploration of how these dual dynamics play out in practice. In arguing that policymakers are oftentimes politically "trapped," this paper suggests the limits of a range of scholarship on effective (foreign) policy-related messaging that points toward ambiguity or accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The White House Chief of Staff (COS) has become the modern presidency's organizational lynchpin, the position tasked with helping presidents "faithfully execute the Office of President." Extending a rich literature about how chiefs manage White House staffers, we consider the other side of the coin: can a COS manage the president? We begin theoretically, sketching three mechanisms—offloading, streamlining, and steering—by which a COS could shape presidents' basic workways. We test resulting hypotheses against original data on presidents' daily work behaviors from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush—a total spanning 48 years, nine presidencies, and 21 Chiefs of Staff (plus one sustained vacancy). Surprisingly, we find little evidence that Chiefs of Staff affected the duration, density, or composition of their president's workday. When it comes to the basic contours of presidential workways, it appears Chiefs of Staff do less "managing up" and more "managing around." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the context of eliciting partner country cooperation and interests alignment, U.S. presidents and their administrations have a wide array of policy tools at their disposal to mitigate terrorist threats emanating from other countries. Yet, the factors that account for variation in American presidents' and their administrations' specific counterterrorism policy choices to influence target states' behavior remain underexplored. To understand the underlying factors that influence the adoption of different U.S. counterterrorism tools within a given country, and their variation across administrations in the post‐9/11 era, we examine the case of Pakistan—a challenging yet enduring partner in the U.S.‐led Global War on Terror. Categorizing the counterterrorism policies and tools adopted by Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump as punitive or nonpunitive policy decisions, we explore the extent to which each president's policy choices during the Global War on Terror were largely a continuation of predecessors or responded to specific shifting patterns of terrorism within Pakistan. Our study yields important insights regarding the extent to which path dependency or evolving security environments shape choices of counterterrorism tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Translocation of the threatened species Singelton Mint Bush (Prostanthera cineolifera R.T.Baker & H.G.Sm.) was carried out for a highway project on the New South Wales North Coast to mitigate development impact on this species. The translocation aimed to augment an existing population with propagated plants to compensate for cleared plants and conduct field research to better understand the effects of soil properties, horticultural practices and a wildfire on translocation results. A novel soil seedbank and fire method applied ex‐situ was used to propagate plants for introduction. After an initial attempt at site‐wide introduction resulted in widespread mortality of seedlings from a wilt disease, three plot‐based experiments were carried out to examine how disease incidence was related to spatial variation in soil properties and horticultural practices. The experiments showed that relatively subtle changes in the clay and sand content of soil strongly affected susceptibility of Singelton Mint Bush seedlings to wilt disease; 12 month old seedlings performed much better than 6 month old seedlings; plants propagated from seed performed better than cuttings, and most of the recipient site represented unsuitable habitat for Singelton Mint Bush. Sufficient Singelton Mint Bush seedlings were established after 3 years, but after a bushfire, the translocated cohort recruited poorly from seed, so that after 6 years, <10% of the total Singelton Mint Bush population in the recipient site was of translocated origin and >90% of in‐situ (pre‐translocation) origin. Lessons learnt from the translocation project were that: (i) microhabitat is as important as macrohabitat in selecting a translocation recipient site; (ii) short‐term survival may not be a reliable indicator of a self‐sustaining population; (iii) translocation incorporating designed experiments can greatly improve understanding of how certain factors influence species performance and (iv) horticultural practices can be as important as ecology in determining the translocation outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is part of a case study of U.S. federal leadership in special education from the perspective of those who served in the roles of Assistant Secretaries of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services and Directors of the Office of Special Education Programs or their equivalents in the former U.S. Office of Education and later U.S. Department of Education. This case study covers the time period from the George W. Bush administration and lasting through the first 4 years of President Barack Obama's administration (2000–2012). During this time, government intervention in education reached its zenith with the passage of No Child Left Behind in 2001 and the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004. The participants detailed their (a) career and appointment, (b) vision for educating students with disabilities, (c) theory of change, (d) politics and financial constraints, (e) advocacy, and (f) views of the past, present, and future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long bean (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis, asparagus bean, Asian yardlong bean), the vegetable type of cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp], is a climate‐resilient and nutritious food legume grown by Southeast Asian farmers in the Central Valley of California and marketed to Asian immigrant communities across the United States. Insect pests are major threats, reducing yield and quality of all current lines. Modern plant breeding protocols and extension activities were implemented to develop resistant lines using sources of natural resistance found in African cowpea germplasm. Three aphid‐resistant long bean lines, Dark Green 1994 (Reg no. GP‐320, PI 702995), Light Green 2055 (Reg. no. GP‐321, PI 702996), and Purple 2056 (Reg. no. GP‐322, PI 702997), were developed by introgression of two known quantitative trait loci (QTL) for aphid resistance into three local elite lines through marker‐assisted backcrossing (MABC). One bush‐type long bean line, Bush 2074 (Reg. no. GP‐319, PI 702994), carrying two known QTL for root‐knot nematode resistance, was also developed to enable scaling up production and to improve nematode management in large‐scale commercial farming. These improved lines were evaluated in controlled experiments which also served in outreach activities to enable adoption. Each of these advanced lines, when forming a near‐isogenic pair with its recurrent parent, can provide useful genetic materials for resistance gene discovery. Core Ideas: The aphid‐resistant long bean lines can be substituted for current local lines to minimize insecticide use.The nematode‐resistant long bean line can serve as climate‐smart green beans used in mechanical harvest systems.The long bean near‐isogenic lines and founder parents could be useful materials for resistance gene discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review engages with Melvyn Leffler's new book on the origins of the (second) Iraq war. It focusses particularly upon his argument that the Bush administration, and especially the president himself, genuinely regarded Iraq as a serious threat and initiated the war in 2003 for understandable reasons of national security. The review acknowledges that Leffler makes a strong case that Bush himself was motivated by such concerns, but goes on to argue that Leffler underplays the role of White House officials and beltway journalists and lobbyists who seemed clearly to have other motivations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Human aspects of birds are becoming increasingly popular because birds fulfil an important function for human well-being. Recent studies used ecological indicators, like species richness or diversity, but specific species traits are usually not studied. Here, we studied two new variables, visibility duration and obstruction, which are relevant to human–bird encounters. Visibility measures, if and for how long a bird is visible. Obstruction measures to what extent the bird is concealed by vegetation. We collected behavioral data using focal animal sampling. This was combined with an assessment where experts scored the visibility of the different species on a scale from 1 to 5. We present data for 68 bird species, how visible and obstructed they are, and we assume that this may have an influence on the perception of the species by humans. The most important factor of visibility duration was species identity. Concerning obstruction, 34% of the variance was explained by species identity. A cluster analysis on the species level led to a three-cluster solution. The mean expert assessment significantly correlated positively with visibility duration (r = 0.803) and negatively with obstruction (r = −0.422). The behavioral trait of visibility may be an important aspect in the analysis of human–bird encounters but also for ecological bird studies. Human dimensions of birds are becoming increasingly popular. One aspect is charismatic species and their impact on nature conservation, and the other is the positive impact of birds on human well-being. Studies exploring these relationships are mostly based on species richness, but specific species traits are usually not studied. Here, we propose two new variables, visibility duration, and obstruction, being relevant to human–bird encounters. Visibility measures if and for how long a bird is visible. Obstruction measures to what extent the bird is concealed by vegetation. We collected behavioral data using focal animal sampling (3 min with blocks of 15 s, one-zero sampling). Additionally, species identity, sex, flocking (yes/no) and observation distance were collected. This was combined with an assessment where three experts scored the visibility of the different species on a scale from 1 to 5. The most significant predictor of visibility duration was species identity with an explained variance of 44%. Concerning obstruction, 34% of the variance was explained by species identity. Sex and flocking were not significant. A cluster analysis on the species level led to a three-cluster solution. The mean expert assessment correlated positively with visibility duration (r = 0.803) and negatively with obstruction (r = −0.422). The behavioral trait of visibility may be an important aspect in the analysis of human–bird encounters but also ecological bird studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discursive struggles for legitimation are a constitutive feature of the politically guided deployment of force. This dynamic of political communication frequently entails engaging with multiple audiences, such as international, local, and intra-group. As it compels actors to diversify their narrative strategies, it often results in conflicting statements. We argue that a particular discursive strategy, which we call the collectivization of the self, provides actors with an instrument to address different audiences with a singular narrative. We present this strategy through a content and qualitative analysis of Bin Laden's statements on terrorist actions and Bush's speeches on the intervention in Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What kind of moral rhetoric do national leaders use after their homelands are attacked by foreign forces? Informed by crisis leadership literature, this study uses Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) to examine the rhetoric of three leaders of nations before and after attacks by foreign forces: Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and the 2022 Russian invasion, U.S. President Bush and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and British Prime Minister Churchill and the 1940–41 German bombing campaign. The word-based automated content analysis shows that following the attacks the leaders substantially shifted their moral rhetoric. They also employed similar moral rhetoric, mainly by using Harm rhetoric, presumably to condemn the destruction and loss of life suffered by their nations. All three also emphasized Loyalty rhetoric, presumably as a call to nationalism, and Authority rhetoric, presumably to rally followership. Otherwise, they gave little attention to Degradation rhetoric, which presumably would demonize the enemy. This study is one of very few to evaluate political elite rhetoric during crises. It is also one of a small number to assess political elite rhetoric through the lens of MFT. It demonstrates that MFT can be a useful tool for understanding political elite rhetoric and crisis management across heterogeneous contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authoritarian regimes around the world have increasingly implemented policies and reforms to strengthen women's rights, ranging from adopting gender quotas to penalizing gender-based violence. Recent literature highlights that authoritarian leaders are at the forefront of these initiatives, often aiming to strengthen their rule rather than advance women's rights (e.g., Bjarnegård and Zetterberg 2016; Bush and Zetterberg 2021; Donno, Fox, and Kaasik 2021). While we cannot ignore the contributions of grassroots activism in advancing gender equality (e.g., Kang and Tripp 2018; Krook 2009), authoritarian regimes, by nature, have less incentive to pay attention to popular demands. Thus, women's rights reforms in autocracies tend to be top-down: initiated by the leadership, with a lack of citizen involvement in the design process. This essay considers how top-down gender reforms may be viewed by the public, and as a consequence, how the public's perceptions of them may affect women's status in the broader society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing evidence of the international and domestic political benefits for autocrats to advance women's rights (Bjarnegård and Zetterberg 2016; Bush and Zetterberg 2021; Donno and Kreft 2019; Tripp 2019). Research on the adoption of gender reforms in autocracies—including contributions in this Critical Perspectives section by Audrey L. Comstock and Andrea Vilán (2022) and Aili Mari Tripp (2022)—emphasizes the dual role of international pressure (Donno, Fox, and Kaasik 2021; Edgell 2017; Okundaye and Breuning 2021) and women's movements (Giersdorf and Croissant 2011; Htun and Weldon 2012; Tripp 2015). Reforms can be "top-down" if the autocrat advances rights even while suppressing the women's movement, or "bottom-up" if the regime allies with—and seeks to co-opt—civil society groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2020 presidential race was hard fought-before Election Day, and after. The loser, Donald Trump, spent weeks pressuring state legislatures to overturn his defeats. His arguments hinged on Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which, his lawyers insisted, permitted legislatures to intervene. While no legislature did so in 2020, the specter of postelection legislative interference still threatens our elections and risks a constitutional crisis. This Article explains why Article II permits no such thing. Specifically, it argues that Article II's grant of power-whatever its content must be read as directed only toward pre-election legislatures, not postelection ones. This claim fills major gaps in the literature. First, previous scholarship assumes that Article II is silent, or ambiguous, on postelection interference. Blocking interventions would then depend on other authorities-like the Due Process Clause or state- constitutional provisions-ill-suited for the job. This Article shows, however, that Article II itself unambiguously bars postelection interference. Second, this Article sidesteps the debate about "independent state legislature" (ISL) theory-the focus of most scholarship on the 2020 election. Its argument holds, that is, regardless of what one believes about ISL doctrine. At the same time, this argument remains vital even after the Supreme Court snubbed ISL logic in Moore v. Harper. That decision leaves ample room, this Article argues, for Bush v. Gore-style debacles that foil state courts in constraining rogue legislatures. To support its position, this Article advances four separate contentions, each sufficient to compel the above conclusion. The first contention analyzes Article II's text according to intratextualist principles. The second unpacks the Framers' original understanding of Article II. The third examines the original understanding behind Congress's election-timing statute, which gives effect to Article II, Section 1, Clause 4. The fourth analyzes constitutional purpose. Finally, this Article also explains why the original understanding of Congress's election-day statute-which let legislatures handpick presidential electors if their state "failled]" to choose on Election Day-did not permit such handpicking after the 2020 election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's economy is growing rapidly and is predicted to become the world's second-largest economy by 2075. The country's strength lies in its large middle class and domestic demand-driven economy. Efforts are being made to promote manufacturing through initiatives like "Make in India." India faces challenges such as poverty, inequality, and environmental issues, but the government is taking steps to address them. India's foreign policy is non-aligned, maintaining relationships with major powers while facing border disputes with China and conflicts with Pakistan. India is also emerging as a leader of the Global South, assuming the G20 presidency in 2023. Relations between India and Japan are strong, with increasing direct investment from Japan. However, there have been challenges for Japanese companies in India, such as intense competition and a lack of success stories from small and medium enterprises. Trade between Japan and India has been stagnant, but there has been an increase in the number of Indians living in Japan and Japanese interest in Indian culture. Japan has provided significant Official Development Assistance (ODA) to India, primarily in the form of yen loans. The Japan-India relationship has become more strategic, with regular bilateral talks. [Extracted from the article]

President Gerald Ford delivered speeches at various colleges and universities between 1974 and 1976, aiming to rebuild the relationship between academia and the presidency. His visits were seen as positive steps towards better relations, although he faced criticism for his handling of race relations and failed to fully address the issues faced by African American students. Ford's speeches covered a range of topics, including education, job opportunities, the two-party system, support for developing nations, the end of American involvement in the Vietnam War, and the celebration of the American Revolution. Despite his efforts, Ford lost his reelection campaign in 1976. [Extracted from the article]

One important feature of capital tax reforms is the uncertainty regarding their duration. In a standard heterogeneous firm framework with financial frictions, we model policy uncertainty by assuming that reforms may be either repealed or maintained with some probability every period. We illustrate the effects of policy uncertainty in the context of the 2003 Bush tax cuts (2003 Job Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act), which lowered shareholder taxes. We show that policy uncertainty regarding dividend and capital gains taxes can explain why the Bush tax cuts had no statistically significant effect on investment, in line with the empirical evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law (WFDL) and the differing interpretations of the law by Wisconsin state courts and federal courts. The WFDL is designed to protect small businesses from the power of larger corporations. State courts take a broader approach, considering factors such as the length of the relationship and financial investment, while federal courts focus on revenue percentages. This divide has created uncertainty for litigants and makes it challenging to negotiate fair settlements. Parties should be aware of these differences and carefully consider the choice of forum. [Extracted from the article]

Disintegration is a method whose dialectical potential depends on dividing a single concept into two parts, where they are portrayed as unequal by presenting one as more important than the other. Disintegration consists of speech act, presuppositions, and conversational implication, as well as spatial and temporal characterization and positive and negative politeness strategies, Politicians tend to use persuasive appeals, repetition, metaphor, analogy, exaggeration, and manipulation. Therefore, this study seeks to study the Disintegration in the political discourses of US President "George W. Advocates the use of disintegration in political speeches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The scholarly literature on US–UK relations has been marked by recurrent debate over the health and utility of the special relationship, recently enlivened by the policy tensions and political turbulence of the Trump presidency. The literature has also seen a social and cultural 'turn', with a growing focus on the broader linkages between the two countries' societies and cultures. However, there has been limited analysis of public opinion in Britain in recent scholarly research. This article examines the 'image of America' in British public opinion in the twenty-first century, across recent Republican and Democratic presidencies. It uses data from the annual Pew Global Attitudes survey series and Transatlantic Trends survey series to undertake systematic analysis of these quantitative data sources. It examines the following areas: the performance and policies of presidents from Bush to Biden, the US and its people, the state of bilateral relations, and NATO. It examines aggregate-level opinion and also pays close attention to views across different societal groups, based on demographic characteristics, party support and left–right ideology. The paper makes a significant and distinctive contribution to scholarly research into US–UK relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses the leadership style and impact of David Brailer, the former United States National Health Information Technology Coordinator, renowned for his contributions to health informatics. The study employs several methodologies: an examination of both positive and negative leadership attributes, an analysis of his leadership style, and an exploration of his vision-defining abilities. Central to this investigation is the analysis of organizational leadership, undertaken through an innovative leadership theory and guiding principles, which are designed to uncover strategies for enhancing leadership in a rapidly evolving society. Brailer's extensive background in health informatics, coupled with his tenure at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides a rich foundation for this study. In 2004, President George W. Bush appointed him as the inaugural Health Information Technology Czar, marking a historic moment in advancing electronic health records and the digitization of healthcare information, health informatics and public service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2003, Iraq was invaded, ostensibly to remove a nuclear threat, by a coalition led by George W. Bush. At the same time select allies were invitited to participate in Bush's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership which aimed to limit the spread of nuclear enrichment and reprocessing. This came as climate change gave emphasis to the development of nuclear energy, especially in Asia. With an abundant supply of uranium and strict nuclear safeguards, Australia was well placed to provide a site for the full suite of nuclear services. The recent AUKUS nuclear submarine agreement has underscored its failure to do so. This article makes the case for the adoption of nuclear power as a necessary step in the development of advanced manufacturing; the provision of a domestic capability to fuel nuclear attack submarines and other naval craft; and as a contribution to global nuclear non‐proliferation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing frequency of fires is a major threat to biodiversity around the world, further facilitated by global warming. Fires usually affect insect populations directly, but insect eggs may partly be protected from wildfires when oviposited into the ground. Madeira belongs to the Macaronesian islands which experience wildfires annually. The Madeiran Green Bush-Cricket (Psalmatophanes barretoi) is endemic to the island and listed on the IUCN Red List as Vulnerable with wildfires being named as the major threat to the species. However, it remains unclear whether the eggs of P. barretoi may be partly protected from fires due to the oviposition substrate (soil). It also remains unknown whether increased temperature alone or increased drought are more important drivers of mortality when fires are approaching or surpassing an oviposition site. We hypothesized that drought might have a significant effect on mortality when heat levels remain slightly below or above mortal temperatures. Therefore, we tested the effects of temperature and drought on egg survival in two laboratory experiments by incubating eggs at different temperatures (49 °C, 55 °C) for six hours with and without water replacement. Our results show that the combination of drought and heat affected egg mortality significantly stronger than heat alone. As a result, we conclude that egg mortality is strongly mediated by soil desiccation and that eggs might be buffered from fire effects in moist habitats or after increased rainfall. Implications for insect conservation: Our results suggest that soil moisture is a key variable to mitigate egg mortality from wildfires. This can be reached by protecting habitats with high soil moisture (e.g. laurel forests and many native bushes) or by prescribed burning during the winter months when soil moisture is higher than in summer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In communicating, people may express themselves in a particular communication channel, spoken or written. For instance, people may use direct and indirect communication as their message's perceived meaning varies depending on the tone of the messages. As a result, they may apply different levels of politeness. This research investigated politeness strategies used by George W. Bush in his presidential acceptance speeches. The researcher collected the data used in this research from the transcripts of Bush's two victory speeches (2000 and 2004). The analysis based on Brown and Levinson's (1987) classification of politeness strategies. The research findings showed that George W. Bush applied the positive strategy as his most dominant politeness strategies, such as Pay more attention, give recognition or sympathy to the hearer and Offer helps or promises sub-strategies. This research also revealed the factors affecting Bush's politeness in speaking, among others; social status, interest, and solidarity. However, Bush did not show any unambiguous and disguised manner as he attempted to build the citizens' trust in him. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States has invested billions of dollars in promoting democracy in the Maghreb. In the decade following the Arab Spring, some of that investment appeared to be bearing fruit, particularly in the case of Tunisia. Today, however, the Maghreb has joined the global trend of authoritarian backsliding. This article will examine US democracy promotion efforts in the Maghreb over the past 20 years to assess what role US support has had in helping as well as hindering democratisation in the region. The article will look critically at the tools and policy approaches employed by the United States beginning with President George W. Bush's Freedom Agenda and establishment of the Middle East Partnership Initiative, examining the Obama administration's approach towards the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings, and ending with President Biden's renewed focus on democracy. The piece will attempt to answer the question of why, despite significant and high-level attention on democracy promotion, US efforts have failed to produce their desired results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political leaders construct meanings for current events in support of their existing policy goals, but the constructed meanings do not change when policy goals change. Consequently, the established narrative of the past becomes part of the policymaking terrain, justifying existing policies and creating criteria for policy success. It must be navigated by leaders seeking to reach their policy objectives. References made by U.S. and Israeli political leaders to the event known as "9/11" from 2002 through 2019 reveal how they renegotiated its meaning as their policy goals evolved. Policy goals at the time of the event shaped the meanings made of the event. As policy goals changed, existing meanings could not be discarded or reshaped at will, nor could 9/11 simply be forgotten. Instead, leaders navigated and amended the inescapable public memory of 9/11 to support varying policy goals over a 20-year time span. For Israel, 9/11 made a chronic problem an international cause célèbre, offering potential to generate international response to a commonly marginalized threat, a narrative prime ministers sought to adapt as their policy goals changed. In the U.S. the George W. Bush Administration's narrative of 9/11 promoted and sustained the administration's policies and goals, making it difficult for Barack Obama's administration to change course unless it could tell a different story. Both cases demonstrate that arguments made for or against policies are contingent upon how the past is narrated. Collective remembrance can affect the contours of public policy, for the remembered past constitutes the terrain of policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moth Flame Optimization is a nature-inspired meta-heuristic algorithm for constantly solving real-world problems. In this study, a modified version of MFO called binary Enhanced MFO Desert Bush (binEMFO-DB) algorithm is proposed to solve uncapacitated facility location problems. The proposed algorithm includes three modifications: i) chaotic mapbased population initialization, ii) random flame selection, and iii) desert bush strategy. The performance of the proposed binEMFO-DB algorithm was tested on 15 different UFL problems from the OR-Library and Taguchi orthogonal array design was used for parameter analysis. The average, gap and hit values of the results obtained by the algorithms were used as performance metrics. The performance of binEMFO-DB is compared with the performance of state-of-the-art algorithms. The results show that the proposed binEMFO-DB has a successful and competitive performance in the test environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the dialectical relationship between continuity and change in the foreign policy of the United States, a hegemonic power. The article begins by exploring the agent–structure problem and the factors that affect changes in foreign policy and the legitimacy of hegemony. It compares the hegemonic leadership styles of three former United States Presidents: George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. The article aims to contrast the foreign policy approaches of the three presidents and present two main arguments. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of foreign policy, it is imperative to analyse dynamic components such as contextual factors and leadership. This includes the leaders' worldviews and their ability to adapt to unanticipated crises. The gradual decline of the United States' hegemony in the international order can be attributed to structural transformations within the international order and the erosion of its social capital and its role as hegemon. Yet, the leadership styles adopted by American presidents have a significant impact on the erosion of the nation's hegemonic leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thoughtful commentaries in this volume of Drs. Bush, Jewsbury, and Faust add to the impact of the two reviews in this volume of statistical and methodological issues in the forensic neuropsychological determination of malingering based on performance and symptom validity tests (PVTs and SVTs). In his commentary, Dr. Bush raises, among others, the important question of whether such malingering determinations can still be considered as meeting the legal Daubert standard which is the basis for neuropsychological expert testimony. Dr. Jewsbury focuses mostly on statistical issues and agrees with two key points of the statistical review: Positive likelihood chaining is not a mathematically tenable method to combine findings of multiple PVTs and SVTs, and the Simple Bayes method is not applicable to malingering determinations. Dr. Faust adds important narrative texture to the implications for forensic neuropsychological practice and points to a need for research into factors other than malingering that may explain PVT and SVT failures. These commentaries put into even sharper focus the serious questions raised in the reviews about the scientific basis of present practices in the forensic neuropsychological determination of malingering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The causes of all the problems with the American invasion of Iraq have been often misidentified: the war did not begin with lies and deception, but overconfidence about American abilities, inadequately understood intelligence, and a failure to plan for the challenges America would face in post-Saddam Iraq. Lack of co-operation and co-ordination among the principal policymakers only aggravated these shortcomings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that Bush's Columbia address lacked the necessary rhetorical touchstones established by Reagan's Challenger address, the exemplar for presidential eulogistic rhetoric following a tragedy in space flight. First, a central theme found in presidential rhetoric concerning space exploration, that of characterizing astronauts as pioneers and space as the new frontier, will be traced. Next, Reagan's eulogy to the Challenger crew, noting the speech's points of rhetorical excellence, several of which previous scholars have articulated (Goldzwig & Dionisopoulos, 1986; Jamieson, 1988; Mister, 1986), will be outlined. The goal is to establish rhetorical touchstones by which to judge the Bush address. Then the literature on eulogies generally to complete the survey of what a successful eulogy should be and do will be reviewed. Finally, Bush's Columbia address will be turned to using Reagan's eulogy and the general literature on eulogies as touchstones to critique the Bush speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on long-standing work on a "gender gap" in war support, this article documents a recurring "race gap" in which Black Americans display less enthusiasm for war than their White counterparts. We compile time-series data on public opinion during the Iraq War collected from over fifty national polls and successive waves of the Cooperative Congressional Election Study to assess potential explanations for the gap. We show that concerns about casualties best explain lower levels of support for war among Black Americans. Feelings of political alienation and preferences for domestic spending serve as more salient contributors to Black disapproval of war during the George W. Bush years. Meanwhile, having a family member in the military does not explain lower Black support for war. Black antiwar rhetoric suggests that our casualty sensitivity and alienation findings stem from linked fate attitudes and concerns about fairness and "justness" of the war effort among Black Americans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital markets are regularly equated with digital capitalism. However, markets are also central features of longstanding other economic systems, such as the bush markets of Malaita, Solomon Islands, where saltwater and bush people have traded with each other for at least seven hundred years, if not longer. This article interrogates the digitization of this bush market system based on classically-conceived long-term ethnographic fieldwork that aims to develop a better empirical understanding of possibilities for diverse economic systems and markets in the digital age. We identify continuities between Solomon Islands-centric Facebook 'buy and sell' groups and bush markets and demonstrate how these continuities strengthen other economic systems and values in the country. Despite their avid use of Facebook, Solomon Islanders are able to resist the industrial-capitalism embedded in platform design and to reaffirm social networks and a broader reciprocal moral economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian rainforest is a rich source of medicinal plants that have evolved in the face of dramatic environmental challenges over a million years due to its prolonged geographical isolation from other continents. The rainforest consists of an inherent richness of plant secondary metabolites that are the most intense in the rainforest. The search for more potent and more bioavailable compounds from other plant sources is ongoing, and our short review will outline the pathways from the discovery of bioactive plants to the structural identification of active compounds, testing for potency, and then neuroprotection in a triculture system, and finally, the validation in an appropriate neuro-inflammatory mouse model, using some examples from our current research. We will focus on neuroinflammation as a potential treatment target for neurodegenerative diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's (PD), and Alzheimer's disease (AD) for these plant-derived, anti-inflammatory molecules and highlight cytokine suppressive anti-inflammatory drugs (CSAIDs) as a better alternative to conventional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to treat neuroinflammatory disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 31 May 2003, President Bush announced the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) in Krakow, Poland, which aims to counter the threat from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). At present, there are 106 States endorsing the Statement of Interdiction Principles and are participants of the U.S.-led initiative. The PSI participating States are asked to inspect ships suspected of carrying WMD-related cargoes that sail to or from the States or non-State actors of proliferation concern. While all ASEAN members have participated in the PSI activities and most of them are PSI partners, they have doubts about the legality for PSI interdiction under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This article examines the development of the PSI, legality for PSI interdiction, and explore possible ways to reduce ASEAN Members' concerns about legal authorities for interdiction actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relevance of this study is due to the insufficient knowledge of the biological characteristics of hydrangeas. The aim of this research was to identify the anatomical and diagnostic features, as well as the chemical composition, of the arborescent hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens L.) from the collection of the Southern Ural Botanical Garden-Institute, Ural Federal Research Center, Russian Academy of Sciences. As a result of this research, it was found that the diagnostically significant features of the leaf of this type of hydrangea are the structure of the cells of the epidermis of the upper and lower sides of the leaf, the presence of an anomocytic stomatal apparatus on the lower side of the leaf, crystalline inclusions of calcium oxalate in the form of raphides on the upper and lower sides of the leaf, and simple hairs with a coarse warty surface, multicellular base, and simple sinuous hairs on the underside of the leaf. Phytochemical analysis of the leaves, stems, and roots confirmed the presence of coumarins, ascorbic acid, and tannins in them, as well as of flavonoids in leaves. It has been established that the highest content of ascorbic acid (0.28 ± 0.014%) and tannins (7.13 ± 0.639%) is observed in the leaves of Hydrangea arborescens; coumarins in terms of umbelliferone are in the roots (0.41 ± 0.007%); and the content of flavonoids in the leaves was 1.14 ± 0.048%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The close bonds of cooperation between the US and UK are highly institutionalised and are exemplified across a range of closely aligned areas of mutual interests. These are namely intelligence, nuclear and military collaboration. The Anglo-American Special Relationship, however, has been severely strained by events over the last seventy years. This article will examine the validity of any special relationship that may exist between the US and UK. In doing so it will reveal how State Department-led intervention in Northern Ireland between 2003 and 2007 strained the workings of this alliance even as it enjoyed a resurgence under George W. Bush and Tony Blair during the Global War on Terror. It will also establish how the unusual organisational framework and decision-making process at the State Department, vis-à-vis Northern Ireland, exacerbated transatlantic relations. The autonomous freedom to direct US foreign policy in the region brought the George W. Bush administration's Northern Ireland special envoys into direct diplomatic conflict with the most senior actors inside the British government. This article will expand on the extent of this fall-out and provide original first-hand accounts on how diplomatic relations between these old allies became so fraught. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the sketch comedy TV series "Chappelle's Show" starring Dave Chappelle and the adult-oriented animated series "The Boondocks" by cartoonist Aaron McGruder. Topics discussed include African-American satire about the administration of former U.S. president George W. Bush and the war on terrorism, African Americans' dissatisfaction of the Bush administration as illustrated in the comedy shows, and the history of social discontent in African-American popular culture.

We describe a key moment during the world's attempt to come to terms with enormously expanding populations. China was an extreme case, both in the magnitude of its population explosion and in its government's control of reproduction through the One-Child Policy (OCP). The U.S. had been a founder and the main financial supporter of The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Starting in 1998, UNFPA's program in China attempted to move the OCP away from two decades of coercive family planning and toward acceptance of the women's rights–centered global consensus that emerged from the 1994 Cairo Conference on Population and Development. In 2001, a conservative U.S. organization, the Population Research Institute, claimed to have gathered evidence of UNFPA's involvement in Chinese coercion. Although several investigations, including one sent by President George W. Bush himself, refuted this evidence, and UNFPA had used no U.S. funds in China, conservative political power was sufficient to cause President George W. Bush to eliminate all U.S. funding for UNFPA's activities everywhere in the world. Ironically, this period was exactly when the UNFPA project had shown that coercion was unnecessary. China eventually followed the UNFPA's lead, liberalizing and eventually ending the OCP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]