bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Relationships Between Quantitative Measures of Evaluation Plan and Program Model Quality and a Qualitative Measure of Participant Perceptions of an Evaluation Capacity Building Approach
Authors: Urban Jennifer Brown , Burgermaster Marissa , Archibald Thomas , Byrne Alyssa
Published: January 2014

Despite a heightened emphasis on building evaluation capacity and evaluation quality, there is a lack of tools available to identify high-quality evaluation. In the context of testing the Systems Evaluation Protocol (SEP), quantitative rubrics were designed and tested to assess the quality of evaluation plans and models. Interview data were also collected and analyzed using a priori codes. A mixed methods approach was used to synthesize quantitative and qualitative data and explore trends. Consistencies between data types were found for attitude and capacity, and disconnects were found for knowledge, cyberinfrastructure, time, and quality. This approach to data integration represents a novel way to tap the generative potential of divergence that arises when different methods produce contradictory results.
Distal radio-ulnar joint instability in children and adolescents after wrist trauma
Authors: Andersson J. K. , Lindau T. , Karlsson J. , Fridén J.
Published: January 2014

This study retrospectively evaluated the medical records and radiographs of patients younger than aged 25 that were referred for a second opinion due to ulnar-sided wrist pain and persistent distal radio-ulnar (DRU) joint instability. We identified 85 patients with a major wrist trauma before the age of 18. Median age at trauma was 14 years. Median time between trauma and diagnosis of DRUJ instability was 3 years. Sixty-seven patients (79%) had sustained a fracture at the initial trauma. The two most common skeletal injuries related to the DRUJ instability were Salter–Harris type II fractures (24%) and distal radius fractures (19%). In 19 patients (22%), the secondary DRUJ instability was caused by malunion or growth arrest. Eighteen patients (21%) had no fracture; in spite of this, they presented with subsequent symptomatic DRUJ instability. Fourteen of these 18 patients had a triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFCC) tear, confirmed by arthroscopy, open surgery, or magnetic resonance imaging. In conclusion, late DRUJ instability due to wrist fractures or isolated TFCC tears was found to be common in children and adolescents.

Level of evidence: IV
Severity grading in radial dysplasia
Authors: Vilkki S. K.
Published: January 2014

A functional scoring method to grade the usefulness and quality of the upper limbs in congenital radial dysplasia is presented. It is based on the author’s examinations of 44 arms with congenital deficiency of the radius. The hand (H), wrist (W) and proximal parts (P) of the extremity are each scored from 0 to 10 points for severity. The scoring is expressed similarly to the TNM (tumour, nodes, metastasis) tumour classification, for example as H5W4P2. The maximum severity index is 30 points. A severity grade of mild is between 1 and 8 points, moderate between 9 and 16 points and severe 17 points and over. In the author’s series, the grades were mild in eight, moderate in 21 and severe in 15 cases. The functional severity grading should allow better comparison of radially deficient limbs and the results of treatment between groups of patients.
A case report of anxiety disorder preceding frontotemporal dementia with asymmetric right temporal lobe atrophy
Authors: Gliebus Gediminas
Published: January 2014

Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia presents with progressive loss of social skills and cognition and is usually associated with asymmetric frontal or temporal lobe involvement. This article reports about a patient with a long history of anxiety disorder who later proceeded to develop behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. Further discussion about selective specific network vulnerability and a possible link between these two conditions is provided.
A noninvasive biomechanical treatment as an additional tool in the rehabilitation of an acute anterior cruciate ligament tear: A case report
Authors: Elbaz Avi , Cohen Marc S , Debbi Eytan M , Rath Udi , Mor Amit , Morag Guy , Beer Yiftah , Segal Ganit , Debi Ronen
Published: January 2014

Objectives:

Conservative treatments for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears may have just as good an outcome as invasive treatments. These include muscle strengthening and neuromuscular proprioceptive exercises to improve joint stability and restore motion to the knee. The Purpose of the current work presents was to examine the feasibility of a novel non-invasive biomechanical treatment to improve the rehabilitation process following an ACL tear. This is a single case report that presents the effect of this therapy in a patient with a complete ACL rupture who chose not to undergo reconstructive surgery.

Methods:

A 29-year old female athlete with an acute indirect injury to the knee who chose not to undergo surgery was monitored. Two days after injury the patient began AposTherapy. A unique biomechanical device was specially calibrated to the patient’s feet. The therapy program was initiated, which included carrying out her daily routine while wearing the device. The subject underwent a gait analysis at baseline and follow-up gait analyses at weeks 1, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 26.

Results:

A severe abnormal gait was seen immediately after injury, including a substantial decrease in gait velocity, step length and single limb support. In addition, limb symmetry was substantially compromised following the injury. After 4 weeks of treatment, patient had returned to normal gait values and limbs asymmetry reached the normal range.

Conclusions:

The results of this case report suggest that this conservative biomechanical therapy may have helped this patient in her rehabilitation process. Further research is needed in order to determine the effect of this therapy for patients post ACL injuries.
Influenza vaccination in children at high risk of respiratory disease
Authors: Patria Maria Francesca , Tagliabue Claudia , Longhi Benedetta , Esposito Susanna
Published: January 2014

Chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) are a heterogeneous group of diseases that can affect the pediatric population and health authorities throughout the world recommend influenza vaccination because of the significant risk of influenza-related complications. However, despite this recommendation, vaccine coverage is generally unsatisfactory. The aim of this review is to analyze the impact of influenza on children at high risk of respiratory disease, and the immunogenicity, safety and efficacy of influenza vaccination in such children. The results show that there is a significant risk of influenza-related complications in preterm neonates and infants, in whom influenza vaccines are immunogenic and safe (although their efficacy has not been specifically studied). There are conflicting data concerning the effect of influenza infection on asthma morbidity in children, and whether or not influenza vaccination helps to prevent asthma exacerbations. Recent data provide no evidence that influenza is more frequent in patients with cystic fibrosis than in healthy subjects, or that it is responsible for increased lower respiratory tract morbidity. The lack of any clear correlate of protection suggests that future studies should also consider the efficacy of the different influenza vaccines and not only evaluate them in terms of immunogenicity. Furthermore, there is a need for clinical studies to assess the effectiveness of the available vaccines in patients with other rare CRDs and other chronic underlying diseases with possibly severe respiratory involvement. It is also important to determine whether children with recurrent respiratory tract infections should be included in the list of those for whom influenza vaccination is recommended. In the meantime, given the increasing evidence of the burden of influenza on the population as a whole and the benefits associated with vaccination, annual influenza vaccinations should be recommended for all children at high risk of respiratory disease and the members of their households.
Individual Differences in Selective Attention to Information Graphics in Televised Sports
Authors: Cummins R. Glenn , Gong Zijian , Kim Hark-Shin
Published: January 2014

Despite the ubiquitous presence of information graphics in sport telecasts, little research has explored how at-home spectators allocate attention to them or individual differences in selective attention. This study demonstrates two viewer characteristics that impact attention to information graphics in two excerpts from the 2012 World Series. Eye-tracking data reveal that although viewers universally attend to these graphics upon onset, those with greater interest in sports and sports statistics exhibited greater cognitive processing of these elements as indexed by gaze duration. Differences in selective attention provide a framework for studying attention in new sport media high in visual complexity.
The Bainite Controversy
Authors: Fielding L C D
Published: January 2014

There has long existed a controversy regarding the formation of the bainite phase in steels. Nonetheless, following the clear identification of bainite in 1930, several characteristic features associated with the bainite transformation became well established. These features include: the classification into upper and lower bainite; the existence of a bainite start temperature; and the incomplete reaction phenomenon. Accordingly, two competing theories have been developed to explain the bainite transformation. However, no overriding consensus has been reached as to which is correct. The first theory invokes a diffusion controlled transformation, describing the growth of bainite via the propagation of ledges – a series of steps on the transformation interface. The second interpretation favours a displacive, diffusionless transformation. Bainite growth occurs via the autocatalytic nucleation and growth of successive subunits or platelets. Over time, a wealth of techniques has been implemented in order to increase the understanding of the mechanism by which bainite forms. From the early approaches that involved thermodynamic and kinetic considerations; through detailed work on the crystallography of the transformation; to studies involving advanced characterisation techniques that focused on the distribution of atoms, etc. Some of the theories have been progressively adapted to new evidence and new concepts as they emerge. For example, the concepts of the T0 curve and of paraequilibrium transformation. This work presents a chronological summary of the two theories of the bainite transformation, charting their progression and noting the variety of evidence both in support of and in contradiction to each viewpoint. The bainite controversy is still debated by steel metallurgists today, although it has mostly been reduced to the question of whether or not bainitic ferrite initially forms with a supersaturation of carbon. This review gathers and evaluates some of the accumulated work in the hope that this question may finally be answered.
Compression deformation behaviours of ultrafine and coarse grained commercially pure titanium
Authors: Liu X Y , Zhao X C , Yang X R , Xie C , Wang G J
Published: January 2014

Hot compression deformation behaviours of ultrafine grained (UFG) and coarse grained (CG) commercially pure (CP)-Ti were investigated and compared by isothermal simulation tests. Strains over 50 were achieved in these tests over a temperature range of 298–823 K and strain rate of 10−4–10−2 s−1. The results show that the peak stresses of UFG and CG CP-Ti fall with increasing deformation temperature and decreasing strain rate. Within the plastic deformation regime, the compressive stress–strain responses of UFG and CG CP-Ti exhibit quite different features, which strongly depend on the temperature and strain rate. The flow stress of CG CP-Ti monotonically increases with strain, while that of UFG CP-Ti increases first and then tends to be constant after a peak value below recrystallisation temperature. The stress–strain curves of UFG CP-Ti show similar characteristic with those of CG CP-Ti as the temperature is above recrystallisation temperature. Strain rate sensitivity values m of the UFG CP-Ti increase with the rise in temperature and are higher than those of CG CP-Ti. It can be concluded that deformation of UFG CP-Ti is controlled by grain boundary and dislocation activity.
Mechanism of corrosion due to unalloyed copper inclusion in ancient bronzes
Authors: Emami M A , Bigham M
Published: January 2014

Ancient bronze objects buried in the soil for a long time corrode because of various environmental conditions. This can also cause different corrosion morphologies. One of the features of ancient bronzes is the presence of unalloyed copper with copper inclusions (UCI); when in the alloying process, the copper–tin alloy did not form properly. Because of the phenomenon of preferential corrosion, the tin content decreases in an environment with low oxygen and high chloride and sulphide content. The results are various corrosion products. A decorative plaque belonging to the National Museum of Iran has been investigated by X-ray diffraction, SEM-EDX and reflected polarised light optical microscopy. The investigations showed that the UCI effect appeared as type B, i.e. with copper sulphide in the metallic core. The presence of UCI (type B) in ancient bronzes proves that the objects corroded after deposition in the soil.
Effect of heat treatment on wear behaviour of WC–(W,Cr)2C–Ni coating
Authors: Hou G L , An Y L , Zhao X Q , Chen J , Chen J M , Zhou H D , Liu G
Published: January 2014

Tungsten carbide (WC)–(W,Cr)2C–Ni coatings have been deposited by high velocity oxyfuel spraying. The influence of post-vacuum heat treatment on the microstructure, phase composition, microhardness and wear resistance of the coatings has been investigated, which is conducted based on analyses of the microstructure and phase composition evolution of the coatings by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction, as well as measurement of their microhardness with a microhardness tester and evaluation of their friction and wear behaviour with an oscillating friction and wear tester. Results show that after heat treatment above 600°C, crystallisation of amorphous phases occurs, and some new phases rich of Fe and C are generated in the coatings. Moreover, the microhardness and wear resistance of WC–(W,Cr)2C–Ni coatings increase with increasing heat treatment temperature up to 600 and 700°C, but they tend to decrease with further elevating heat treatment temperature.
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies: a partial view
Authors: Bryer Anthony
Published: January 2014

Donald Nicol, Founding Editor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, retires from his distinguished tenure of the Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature at King’s College London this year. May his successor, Roddy Beaton, have many years. The change of Koraës professors and widespread concern for the future of the Bywater and Sotheby Chair of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature at Oxford, from which Cyril Mango retires in 1995, have aroused discussion of what Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies are, which touch the identity of this journal.
The inauguration anthem of Hagia Sophia in Edessa: a new edition and translation with historical and architectural notes and a comparison with a contemporary Constantinopolitan kontakion
Authors: Palmer Andrew , Rodley Lyn
Published: January 2014

Of the two great sixth-century inauguration anthems on churches dedicated to “Holy Wisdom” it is, oddly enough, that from the Mesopotamian city of Edessa, not its Constantinopolitan equivalent on the Great Church of the metropolis, which has been translated and retranslated, re-edited and revisited by historians of architecture and of theological symbolism and by students of its wider context in the epoch of Justinian. This is partly because excellence shines more brightly in the relative isolation of the province, partly because of the architectural and symbolic detail which distinguishes the Syriac poem. The last article devoted to it, The Domed Church as Microcosm by Kathleen McVey, is an outstanding treatment of the symbolic thought of the poet in its historical context. Her edition, however, is poorly presented and imperfectly collated, and both her historical introduction and her literary analysis miss some cardinal points. Again, in order to improve on Schneider’s and Grabar’s attempts to reconstruct the architecture of the church, which was destroyed before the later twelfth century, a more accurate translation is needed. McVey’s translation does justice neither to the beauty, nor to the coherence of the original. Her commentary contains much that is useful, but does not discover the key to the poem’s unity, which lies in the dedication of the church. This interpretation can be substantiated by comparing the Syriac anthem with a kontakion written for the second inauguration of Justinian’s Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, after the dome had been rebuilt, in A.D. 562. The comparison also provides an opportunity to rescue the latter masterpiece from an undeserved neglect.
When Greek meets Greek: Alexius Comnenus and Bohemond in 1097-98
Authors: Shepard Jonathan
Published: January 2014

To his father, Robert Guiscard, Bohemond appeared larger than life even in boyhood. Partly from real feats of war and conquest and partly from adroit self-advertisement, he became a legend in his own lifetime, and even in death he continues to draw the attention of art historians to his mausoleum, which is juxtaposed to the south transept of the cathedral at Canosa, Apulia. The mausoleum’s ‘Oriental’ or ‘Byzantine’ features mark it out from other buildings in the region, while the date and design of the cathedral itself evoke controversy. My aim here is neither to attempt a general assessment of Bohemond’s career nor to offer a survey of Alexius I Comnenus’ handling of the First Crusade. I shall merely focus on Alexius’ dealings with Bohemond during the earlier stages of the Crusade, and argue that Anna Comnena offers a rather misleading picture of their relationship. Far from Alexius being wise to Bohemond’s every trick, with Bohemond ‘playing the Cretan with the Cretan’, Alexius was in my opinion led to suppose that he had bought Bohemond, at least for the duration of the Franks’ expedition to the East, a supposition that was ill-founded.
The Description of Agamemnon in Digenis Akrites
Authors: Baldwin Barry
Published: January 2014

At 7. 85 in the Grottaferrata version, having described the biblical mosaics in the palace, the poet proceeds to juxtapose pictorial episodes from pagan poetry and history. The first line about Achilles’ campaigns causes no trouble, but the second and third, have provoked much scholarly consternation and conflict.
Between historical myth and ‘mythohistory’: the limits of Ottoman history
Authors: Heywood Colin
Published: January 2014

‘“Myth and reality”’, as Professor Gombrich has reminded us in an historical context apparently far removed from that of Ottoman studies, are, as he has defined the phrase, perhaps only ‘a more genteel formulation for the blunter title of “lies and truth” ’.
Railway construction and labour availability in Macedonia in the late nineteenth century
Authors: Gounaris Basil C.
Published: January 2014

By the early 1870s railway construction in Turkey, both Asiatic and European, was no longer a pioneering project. The Sublime Porte had already granted four concessions to British companies for railway lines in Asia Minor and in the Balkans. For more than one reason railways seemed to be a first class choice for raising the public revenue. They would open large areas to exploitation and would reinforce central government control over remote districts of the Empire. Naturally tax collection was expected to increase and cover a part of the country’s deficit. On the other hand, foreign capitalists and investors appeared to be willing to finance such enterprises, since faster transport in Turkey meant easier access to Ottoman sources of production and expansion of the distribution network. However, regardless of the long term economic benefits, railways were also a revolutionary innovation in the traditional rural economy and society of the Empire, both as a construction project and as a mode of transport.
Honour among Romaioi: the framework of social values in the world of Digenes Akrites and Kekaumenos
Authors: Magdalino Paul
Published: January 2014

Medieval Greek writers of biography and encomium, like their ancient models, conventionally began by extolling their subject’s (birth, kin, ancestry) and (native land or city) as the two basic co-ordinates of a social existence, which both conferred an honourable start in life, and gained glory from a life honourably lived. This was not just a rhetorical convention.
Byzantine art in the ninth century: theory, practice, and culture
Authors: Brubaker Leslie
Published: January 2014

Despite the massive amount of scholarly literature on Iconoclasm and its aftermath, there are really only two major publications that deal specifically and synthetically with ninth-century art. One of these is André Grabar’s magisterial L’iconoclasme byzantin, a chronological analysis of monuments and texts; the other is Robin Cormack’s short but insightful essay in Iconoclasm, the collection of papers originally presented at Birmingham in 1975, which asks ‘whether the discussion of religious images stimulated by Iconoclasm changed the nature of Byzantine Art’. My aim is rather different. Rather than presenting an encyclopedic overview, this article attempts to crawl into the fabric of Byzantine culture: to see and understand Byzantine art of the ninth century as the Byzantines saw and understood it. It follows that the material presented has not been segregated into the familiar (and often useful) categories of style, iconography, and context, for, to the Byzantines, the three were neither exclusive nor separable. For similar reasons, I have deemphasized any linear progression that might imposed with art historical hindsight on the distant past, and have thereby underplayed the flashes of innovation, novelty and erudition that such detachment allows. These sparks are probably more visible (and certainly more appealing) to twentieth-century art historians than they were to the ninth-century Byzantines, for whom, as we shall see, the power of tradition militated against individual creativity, and artists on the whole remained anonymous artisans. In my attempt to look at Byzantine art from the inside rather than from the outside I have, in other words, concentrated on the fluid interface between objects, and the shifting dialogue between objects and context. This is because what interests me here is how Byzantine ideas about art (their theories), Byzantine perception (how the Byzantines saw), and the artifacts themselves (the practice) come together in the ninth century: how art, that preeminent social construct, worked in the years after Iconoclasm.
The epigrams of Leo the Philosopher
Authors: Baldwin Barry
Published: January 2014

These notes are intended as both compliment and complement to the recent and admirable paper of L.G. Westerink. Leo as scientist and scholar has received his due in modern times, whereas his contribution to the Byzantine epigram tends to be belittled or ignored. Thus Hunger leaves him out of his survey of the genre, even whilst acknowledging the epigrammatic attacks upon him by his own pupil Constantine the Sicilian, whilst Trypanis can do no better than ‘He composed a number of epigrams, mainly on the mathematical, astronomical, and philosophical books he had acquired; among them there is also one strange and apparently improper epigram addressed to his mother’.
Literacy as Symbolic Strategy in Greece: Methodological Considerations of Topic and Place
Authors: Herzfeld Michael
Published: January 2014

Against reification: what is a context?

This paper provides me with an opportunity to suggest why the study of orality and literacy/literality in modern Greece has some theoretical as well as purely descriptive or local significance. For social anthropology, comparison between societies and cultures is a central task. While the study of modern Greek culture displays a remarkably persistent level of methodological introversion, its singular characteristics are very germane to the comparativist perspective. In part, this is due to the peculiar political circumstances that make the ancient forebears of the Greeks so much a part of current debates about the status of the modern culture.
The Metrical Structure of the Oral Decapentasyllable
Authors: Mackridge Peter
Published: January 2014

What Milman Parry saw as his ‘historical method’ in Homeric criticism has paradoxically relieved students of the Greek folk song from the obligation to approach their subject of study from an exclusively genetic or ‘etymological’ — in a word, historical — viewpoint. Instead of having to search for — or rather to speculate about — the origins of Greek oral poetry in the mists of antiquity or to assess the extent to which a song can provide reliable historical evidence concerning past events, we are free to turn our attention, as scholars such as Roderick Beaton (1980) and Grigoris Sifakis (1988) have done, to a synchronic study of the folk-song tradition, concentrating as much on the rules that generate the songs as on the significance of actual samples collected in the field (or in the scholar’s study or the recording studio).
Musicality in Modern Greek Poetry 1900–1930
Authors: Robinson Christopher
Published: January 2014

In the late nineteenth century in France, a division arose between two concepts of poetry: poetry as a distinct form of expression, and poetry as a distinct form of perception. In the former the musicality of the poem was a primary feature: in the latter the aural value of the text was relatively unimportant.
The Inauguration Anthem of Hagia Sophia Again
Authors: Palmer Andrew
Published: January 2014

On Christmas Day, 1988,1 received from Marc Deprez the draft of an article entitled Noël et Hanoucah, which threw some further light on the imagery used in the kontakion translated by me in BMGS 12. On p. 146 I referred to ‘a verbal reminiscence of the Feast of Booths’, where the poet writes: In celebrating the Word’s divine sojourn in the Body may we, the children of his Church, be thatched with luminous virtues worthy of his grace, and may we prove, by divine illumination, a worthy dwelling-place of knowledge... But I did not know why the Feast of Booths was especially relevant to the occasion of the kontakion, which was Christmas Day.
Peasant Categories in the Tenth and eleventh centuries
Authors: Harvey Alan
Published: January 2014

The need for the state to protect its fiscal revenues is presented in the tenth-century legislation as a significant factor underlying the efforts made by the imperial administration to check the growing power of its provincial magnates and to make it more difficult for them to extend their properties at the expense of weaker peasants. In practice the most effective way for the state to maintain its revenues was to ensure through the regular activities of its fiscal officials that peasants who owed tax-payments to the state were not brought under the control of powerful lay and ecclesiastical landowners.
Some problems in the sources for the reign of the emperor Zeno
Authors: Laniado Avshalom
Published: January 2014

Unlike the historiography of the sixth century, the historiography of the fifth century has been preserved but fragmentarily. One of the results is the fact that the reign of Zeno (474–491), among others, has been given little attention as a whole; various aspects of this reign have been studied more than once, but apart from an Inauguraldissertation written by Wilhelm Barth almost a hundred years ago, no comprehensive monograph has been written about the emperor and his reign.
Byzantine twelfth-century romances: a relative chronology
Authors: Macalister Suzanne
Published: January 2014

Little attention has been paid to the relative dating of the ‘learned’ romances of the twelfth century. It has generally been accepted that Prodromos’ Rhodanthe and Dosikles is the first in the series, while the general consensus is that Makrembolites’ Hysmine and Hysminias was written some time in the second half of the twelfth century or, at any rate, after the works of the genre’s revival.
Anna Comnena’s account of the First Crusade: History and politics in the reigns of the emperors Alexius I and Manuel I Comnenus
Authors: Thomas R. D.
Published: January 2014

Anna Comnena’s history the Alexiad has been accorded a high honorary status by Byzantine historians. Her pioneering efforts in philosophy and the thoroughness of her historical methodology are admired, although there is a distinct reluctance to analyse her historical writing. On a superficial level the Alexiad is a straightforward text: an historical panegyric in its organisation, frequently eulogistic in tone, in the manner of court orations, and rhetorically strongly influenced by conventional Byzantine pastiches of Homer.
Bohemond’s breathing
Authors: Baldwin Barry
Published: January 2014

In the course of her elaborate description (Alex. 13.10) of the physical and moral qualities of Bohemond, Anna Comnena writes of his nasal and pulmonary makeup thus:
Crossing traditional boundaries: grub to glamour in Byzantine silk weaving
Authors: Muthesius Anna
Published: January 2014

Byzantine silk research evokes images of glamour but it is prudent to consider grass roots as well as exotic aspects of this enticing subject: without the grub there would be no glamour. In its fullest sense a study of Byzantine silk weaving entails research on many and varied levels, across a broad range of disciplines. An immense variety of topics require consideration: the production of the silk yarn; the various workshop practices involved in weaving the yarn into silk cloth; the relationship between technique and design; the marketing and the numerous uses of the silks both at home and abroad, and the implications of the distribution of Byzantine silks purely through diplomatic channels.
A woman’s prayer to St Sergios in Latin Syria: interpreting a thirteenth-century icon at Mount Sinai
Authors: Hunt Lucy-Anne
Published: January 2014

Amongst the collection of icons at St Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai, is a small panel depicting a woman wearing a black veil kneeling before the equestrian saint Sergios (fig. 1). The icon is one of a group of thirteenth-century Sinai icons, many of equestrian saints, whose date and provenance has been a matter of debate. But lacking from this debate has been interpretation of the icon as an indicator of a particular social, religious and political field. The intrusion of the material world of the viewer in this icon, through the gesture of the kneeling woman, enables it to be interpreted as a personal prayer, an act of supplication for protection at the critical period before the final loss of Latin Syria to the Mamluks. It was arguably commissioned from one of the Syrian Orthodox artists whose work can be seen displayed in the churches to the east and south of Tripoli. This identifies an intense period of activity in wallpainting and icon production in Syria during the middle to second quarter of the thirteenth century of which work at the end of the century in Cyprus was the continuation. Looked at from the perspective of the woman herself, the icon raises issues of the role of women in the patronage and veneration of icons in the Latin East.
Byzantinism in Contemporary Icon Production
Authors: Spanaki Marianna
Published: January 2014

In this note I propose to discuss very briefly some matters emerging from different stages of Byzantinism in 20th century Greek culture with reference to icon production. By Byzantinism I mean the adoption and subsequently the employment of notions, styles as well as techniques historically connected to Byzantine painting by convention.
The Kommerkiarios, the Apotheke, the Dromos, the Vardarios, and The West
Authors: Dunn Archibald
Published: January 2014

Among the many problems besetting the study of Middle Byzantine economic history are those concerning adjustments to the partial demonetisation of transactions indicated by the fall-off in the numismatic record (of excavations, hoards, and stray finds) for the seventh to ninth centuries, and the origins of a subsequent remonetisation. The administrative systems through which the Middle Byzantine state met its various needs during this period, and the evolution of such systems in response to economic changes (often assumed to be of the state’s own making), have recently attracted attention, a development stimulated by the enrichment and re-ordering of the sigillographic record.
Michael Psellos on the rhetoric of hagiography and the Life of St Auxentius
Authors: Fisher Elizabeth A.
Published: January 2014

Hagiography and rhetoric appear incompatible according to modern conceptions of how each functioned in Byzantine society. Rhetoric, a vehicle of upward mobility, depended upon an elaborate theoretical literature and promised to skilled practitioners enviable professional reputations in remunerative public pursuits among influential people. Hagiography, in contrast, appealed to a socially diverse Christian audience and recorded the deeds of those who chose to seek spiritual rather than worldly rewards. Rhetoric and hagiography, however, intertwined inevitably in the Byzantine world, as did rhetoric and most literary genres. The basic intention of the hagiographer was, after all, to persuade, impress, and edify his audience, and the tenets of rhetoric assisted him in that goal. Since education in Byzantium included at all levels both the theory and practice of rhetoric, the educated portion of a hagiographer’s audience would expect him to use the familiar devices of rhetoric and would scorn poorly composed and incorrectly expressed hagiographic essays, no matter how spiritually beneficial.
The erotic symbolism of the apple in late Byzantine and meta-Byzantine demotic literature
Authors: Littlewood A.R.
Published: January 2014

The erotic symbolism of the apple in the writers of pagan Greece afforded the Byzantines an oft-chosen field for demonstrating both their learning and their ingenuity. This exercise in antiquarianism, however, tends to conceal among at least some segments of the population a continuing daily use of such symbolism and indeed a persistent belief in the efficacy of fruits of the apple-kind in promoting fertility. Even in the Hochsprache we hear of supposedly historical tales of the ninth-century emperor Theophilos signifying his choice of bride by means of an apple and of two apples sent as lovers’ gifts, one by the fifth-century empress Eudokia (consort of Theodosios II) and the second by a twelfth-century commoner (Seth Skleros), the former leading to a divorce, the latter to a successful prosecution for sorcery; while the tenth-century author Ioannes Geometres gives an otherwise unattested erotic aition for the tree’s creation — a beautiful and bashful young girl is so saddened and embarrassed when her drunken would-be lovers quarrel over her, with results fatal to some of them, that in response to her prayer she is metamorphosed into an apple-tree.
Synônê: re-considering a problematic term of middle Byzantine fiscal administration
Authors: Haldon John
Published: January 2014

The history of Byzantine fiscal administration, as is well-known, is still an area in which many problems remain to be resolved. In 1880 the Russian Byzantinist V.G. Vassilievsky, one of the first historians to address them seriously, described Byzantine fiscal structures as labyrinthine; other scholars have not disagreed. But as a result of the work of successive generations, we are in a much better position today to understand the fundamental lines of development of late Roman and Byzantine fiscal arrangements, and in particular to follow the evolution of middle and later Byzantine fiscal administrative structures out of the situation that prevailed in the later Roman period, especially from the fifth and sixth centuries.
The Cretan drama of the Sacrifice of Abraham in the dialect of the Mariupol Greeks
Authors: Karpozilos Apostolos
Published: January 2014

In 1932 Kassandra Kostan (Aleksandra Konstantinovna Gargala, 1897-1939), published a book on the literature of the Greeks living in the Donetsk region of Southern Ukraine. It was a worthy undertaking because in her short anthology Kostan, a pioneer researcher in the history and folk traditions of the so-called ‘Roumaioi’, collected several poems and songs composed in the Greek dialects spoken in the various villages and communities around Mariupol. In her anthology she included old folk songs and poems, some of them dating from as early as 1778 or even earlier. One of the oldest songs composed before 1778 is about the city of Kaffa and another about the exodus of the Greeks from Crimea and their subsequent settlement around Mariupol under Catherine II in 1778-1779. It is only unfortunate that Kostan did not publish this interesting selection of songs and poems in their original Greek form, but instead translated them into Ukrainian. Now the loss is probably permanent, since most of these songs have been forgotten and, to make matters worse, nothing has survived to this day from the papers of Kostan, who died in St. Petersburg in 1939.
‘Till dreadful death do ease my doleful state’: Structures of desire in the Cypriot sonnets
Authors: Ekdawi Sarah , Philokyprou Elli
Published: January 2014

‘Desire is death’, wrote Shakespeare, exploiting a commonplace of the sixteenth century love-lyric, which lies also at the crux of the anonymous sixteenth century Cypriot sonnets, published with an extensive scholarly introduction, French translation and notes, in 1952, by Thémis Siapkaras-Pitsillidès. The collection comprises one hundred and fifty-six poems, in a variety of metrical forms, some of which translate or adapt Italian originals. Thémis Siapkaras-Pitsillidès addresses the following questions: manuscript condition and origins; dating; authorship; influences, and versification. The poems are placed in categories according to metrical form, and a description of metre and rhyme-schemes is provided. More recently, Lucia Marcheselli-Loukas has made a detailed formal study arguing that the Cypriot sonnets show considerable originality of versification and made a significant contribution to the formation of the Modern Greek literary Koine. In this paper, we shall examine the themes and structures of one of the best-represented metrical forms in the collection: the sonnet.
From Villain to Saint and Martyr The Life and After-life of Flavius Artemius, Dux Aegypti
Authors: Lieu Samuel N.C.
Published: January 2014

The church of St. John the Forerunner in the district known as Oxeia in Constantinople was the centre of a major healing-cult in the sixth and seventh centuries. Beneath the high altar (MA 24, p. 33, 27), protected from the aisles by railings (27, p. 39, 14) and enclosed in a sarcophagus made of lead placed within a crypt, were laid the relics of St. Artemius (33, p. 50, 20, 36, 30-37, 1). On the right of the altar was the chapel of St. Febronia (22, p. 29, 11, 24, p. 33, 26-7 etc.). This martyr also featured prominently in the cult as she appears to have been a kind of assistant or stand-in for Artemius 24, p. 34, 27). Her assisting role was a very necessary one as it was to her that the saint entrusted the women who came begging to be cured. This is because Artemius was only invoked in Byzantium by those who were suffering from a particular category of afflictions, viz. hernias, varioceles and especially tumours affecting the genitalia. Our knowledge of this extraordinary healing-cult is based mainly on a collection of forty-five short accounts of miraculous cures Apart from about two exceptions, all the accounts of the miraculous cures of Artemius relate to this type of illness which the author describes very simply and unblushingly in a matter-of-fact manner which makes the Miracula an interesting and valuable source to historians of Byzantine medicine.
Victorian Cyprus: society and institutions in the aftermath of the Anglo-T\irkish convention, 1878–1891
Authors: Demetriou Kyriacos
Published: January 2014

In April 1889 a deputation of Cypriots, headed by the Archbishop Sophronios and consisting of eminent citizens of the island, was received in London by the Colonial Office. Their purpose had been to recount the general state of affairs in the island after almost twelve years of British rule. The picture was gloomy: despite the hopes which the Cypriots naturally indulged in and which many Englishmen cherished of improving the material prosperity and moral constitution of the people, the island was going ‘to certain ruin’. In the words of the Colonial Secretary, Lord Knutsford, ‘[t]he principal demands of the Memorial and of the Deputation are based upon a deterioration in the economical condition of Cyprus which is supposed to have taken place since the British occupation. In the opinion of the Deputation that condition is appreciably worse than under the Turkish administration, and is likely to end in the final ruin of the community’.The deputation informed the Secretary that the ‘loyal and peaceful inhabitants of the Island gratefully hope to be able to follow the steps of progress and civilisation of the other inhabitants of the vast British Empire’.The population of the island, financially drained and in a state of great misery, trusted that Britain would have promoted decisively political reforms consistent with European civilisation and liberty, and that prompt efforts would be accordingly made to develop the resources of the island. Given the prospects then opened their hopes did not appear irrational. Britain aspired to put into action essential reforms in Asiatic Turkey, and Cyprus could have been held up as a practical example of the kind of justice and administration which all the Turkish provinces required.
Imagination and angelic epiphany
Authors: Peers Glenn
Published: January 2014

Angelic epiphany was understood from the earliest period to be a dissimulating manifestation; it was tailored to the person receiving and in no way corresponded to the real nature or form of the angelic being. The difficulty of apprehension and identification of such epiphanies is attested in scripture and re-asserted with each appearance thereafter. In the face of these difficulties, questions arose early over the appropriate means to understand and commemorate angelic epiphany. Both sides during the Iconoclastic controversy (720s-787, 815–843) manifested a suspicion of artistic imagination in describing angelic revelation. The insuperable difficulties of perceiving angels only increased the blind distance in which artistic imagination must work; therefore, both sides repudiated artistic imagination in the process of describing angels.
Two notes on the early history of the thema of Cherson
Authors: Zuckerman Constantine
Published: January 2014

According to the closely related accounts in De administrando imperio and in Theophanes Continuatus, the creation of a thema in Cherson was instigated by a report submitted to the emperor Theophilos by the spatharokandidatos Petronas Kamateros upon his return from a mission to Sarkel. Thus the dates of Petronas’ mission determine the chronology of the creation of the thema.
On Martinus Crusius’s collection of Greek vernacular and religious books
Authors: Moennig Ulrich
Published: January 2014

The importance of Martinus Crusius’s collection of Greek chapbooks for our knowledge of 16th century vernacular Greek literature can hardly be over-emphasised. Most copies of his collection are either extremely rare or even unique. Valuable and often unique is also the information about the texts and their authors, which Crusius collected and published in his Turcograecia (Basel 1584) or elsewhere.
The Representations of Constantinople in Hartmann Schedel’s World Chronicle, and Related Pictures
Authors: Berger Albrecht , Bardill Jonathan
Published: January 2014

The Liber chronicarum that was written by the humanist Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514) from Nuremberg, and which appeared in 1493, is one of the most sumptuous printed works of the fifteenth century, largely because of its wood-cut illustrations by Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. Among these wood-cuts there is a panorama of Constantinople on fol. 129v and 130r(fig. 1) that is repeated later in the chronicle three times in a slightly simplified form with small variants. The panorama appears where the chronicle describes the foundation of Constantinople by Constantine the Great, although the text also gives some information about the history of the city until the conquest by the Ottomans in 1453. Since the account is of little interest and contains a number of incorrect details, we will confine ourselves to an analysis of the illustration.
Greece: the imperatives of geopolitics
Authors: Goldstein Erik
Published: January 2014

Lying astride the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, Greece is geographically simultaneously European, Balkan, Near Eastern, and Mediterranean, while politically it has projected itself as a western European and even as a north Atlantic state. Its position has inevitably involved it with all the Great Powers, and all have interfered in Greek politics well within living memory. Greece‘s foreign policy during the years of the Hellenic Republic has occasionally flirted with a variety of options, though in the end it has remained constant to its relationship with the western alliance. This reluctant adherence is due in large measure to the constraints placed upon Greece by its location on the world‘s geopolitical map. Its geographical position has proven to be one of the prime determinants of Greece‘s foreign policy since the Second World War, and at no time has this been more evident than in the years of the Hellenic Republic.
Modern Greek in the European Union: Language, Economy and Culture
Authors: Spanaki Marianna
Published: January 2014

For those teaching and researching in Modern Greek Studies outside Greece, discussion of the eighties and nineties is characterised by reference to changes in Greek political life, as well as in the Greek educational system and policy making directly connected with Greece’s entry into the European Union. Greece became a member of the EU as recently as 1981. PASOK, viewed membership as temporary but these claims were dropped after 1985. In the same period changes introduced into the linguistic system of the Greek language led to discussions of educational and cultural interest.
Some western images of Athos in early modern times, c. 1554–1678
Authors: Martin Michael E.
Published: January 2014

In 1554 a Franciscan friar of Angoulême, André Thevet, published at Lyons his Cosmographie de Levant. The author had recently returned from a three year journey to Constantinople and the Holy Land, and the Cosmographie was the first of a number of geographical works. Although he did not visit Athos, he saw it from near the Hellespont and included a few lines in his book:

The Greeks call [it] Agion Oros, others the Holy Mountain, I believe on account of the many beautiful and ancient monasteries of both men and women, each living in their own abode in great chastity, poverty and obedience, so the monks and religious are called Caloeres and the religious women Calogrees, which means ‘aged women’ living upright lives.