bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Research on Fostering Urban Community Organizations
Authors: Lan Ying
Published: June 2019

With continuous expansion of cities, the contradiction between the limited government resources and residents’ diverse needs grows increasingly prominent and the urban government at the primary level faces mounting pressure. It has become an important attempt to address the tough issues of the community and reduce the government pressure to incubate and foster community organizations which help the residents to achieve self-organization, self-management and self-satisfaction. Over recent years, the practice across the country reveals various problems in the fostering of community organizations, like the difficulties in fostering them, the poor sustainability and being more in name than in reality. The article conducts a case study of the success of Community Y in Beijing to illustrate its experiences in fostering community organizations and presents the path for the fostering of such organizations. Proceeding from the residents’ needs, it makes the community organizations into responsible subjects, increases its capacity for resource allocation and thus achieves the objective of democratic governance of the organization.
The Folk Belief, Charitable Undertakings and Belief Economy of Chaoshan Charitable Temples: The Triple-Agent Model of Shantou XY Charitable Temple’s Operation as an Example
Authors: Lai Yulin
Published: June 2019

The article proposes the triple-agent model of Chaoshan charitable temples’ operation, which is characterized by the interactive relationship between charitable undertakings and folk belief and belief economy. First, folk belief including the belief in Master Dafeng and related religious concepts can inspire believers’ charity motives and urge them to participate in charitable undertakings. The charity motives of believers are mostly self-interested or altruistic self-interested. Second, charitable undertakings, in turn, can “euphemize” and “legitimate” folk belief. XY Charitable Temple highlights to the outside world its charitable undertakings and the charitable meaning of its folk belief to euphemize the religious meaning of its folk belief and thus to maintain its political legitimacy. Finally, the development of belief economy provides operating funds for charitable undertakings. Belief economy is composed of charitable temple economy, deity economy and folklore economy, and they all have important folk belief elements. In addition, the income from folklore service features XY Charitable Temple’s revenue, from which the strategy of “religious governance” of charitable temples’ operation can be observed.
How Social Media are Changing Nonprofit Advocacy: Evidence from the Crowdfunding Platform in Taiwan
Authors: Zhou Shulin , Kuo Chienliang
Published: June 2019

How nonprofit organizations (NPO) utilize social media to engage in advocacy work is regarded as one of the most important challenges in the digital economy era. However, although current studies pay their attention to how NPO react to the prevalence of social media, less focus is paid on how social media help to shape NPO’s practices on advocacy work. To help close the gap between theory and practice, this research explores whether the alignment between NPO’s advocacy practices and features of social media determine the NPO’s usage on social media. In particular, how the crowdfunding platform, an emerging and powerful form of social media, is used by NPO is investigated. Those crowdfunding projects initiated by NPO in FlyingV, the most well-known crowdfunding platform in Taiwan, are taken as the data source for analysis in this paper. The findings reveal that crowdfunding platforms are beneficial to NPO in turns of gaining resources and attracting participants, which then fostering the realization of advocacy activities. As well, the efficiency of crowdfunded projects (or advocacy proposals) is mainly determined by the number of participants (or sponsors). However, based on the findings, it is argued that NPO so far have not realized the power of crowdfunding platforms, thus not yet regarding crowdfunding platforms as key social media or strategic weapons in strengthening their impact or contribution on advocacy work relevant to their missions.
Об одном эпизоде придворной борьбы времени царствования Михаила Романова в рассказе В. Н. Татищева
Authors: Pavlov A.P.
Published: June 2019

This article examines unique information provided by the renowned eighteenth-century historian V.N. Tatishchev about a conflict that occurred at the court of Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich and the rapid rise and fall of Prince Boris Aleksandrovich Repnin. Information reported by Tatishchev remains controversial and therefore needs corroboration. A detailed comparison of Tatishchev’s story about Prince Repnin with accounts found in other sources suggests that Tatishchev’s work reflected the reality of court life in Muscovy during the 1630s and 1640s. The author concludes that information reported by Tatishchev deserves much more attention and critical analysis.
What Monastic Records Can Tell Us
Authors: Bohac Rodney , Thyrêt Isolde
Published: June 2019

This article analyzes a collection ledger, a unique monastic record, to examine popular piety in eighteenth-century Russia. In 1744 the archbishop of Tver’ gave permission to the Nilo-Stolobenskaia Hermitage to conduct a collection, a process known as a sbor, for building a new roof on its main church. Over the next four years a Nilov monk traveled widely collecting donations and recording them in a ledger. Statistical analysis of the ledger’s over 700 entries shows that the Nilov monk traveled primarily to western Tver’ province, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and to Smolensk province in search of donations. He found willing contributors from all social classes, especially the nobility, government officials, and urban dwellers. These donors sometimes ignored the official goal of the sbor and personally wrote unsolicited spiritual requests into the collection book. By doing so they transformed the collection into what might be called a reverse pilgrimage.
Cherie Kartchner Woodworth’s Research and Publications
Authors: Halperin Charles J.
Published: June 2019

Cherie Woodworth’s impressive publications included articles, review articles, and book reviews; her unpublished research consisted of numerous conference papers and oral presentations. Cherie’s dissertation and articles concerned fifteenth-century Muscovite history, especially princely clans. Her book reviews encompassed a wide variety of fields and disciplines. Her final research project addressed the interaction of steppe pastoral nomads with their sedentary neighbors. The maturity of mind, originality, and soundness of judgment demonstrated in her research and publications attest to a quality of mind one would expect to find only in a superior senior scholar.
Some Thoughts on Climate Change, Local Environment, and Grain Production in Byzantine Northern Anatolia
Authors: Haldon John
Published: June 2019

The interrelationships between environment, climate and society are by definition highly complex, and only a close analysis of the specific mechanics of change can reveal any putative causal connections. This paper will take the case of Byzantine Anatolia between the 6th and 8th c., together with the case of the small provincial city of Euchaïta in the Pontus, and examine some of the evidence for such causal links. As part of this discussion, I will suggest some of the reasons for the survival of the eastern Roman empire during the crisis of the later 7th and early 8th c.
Antioch in the Sixth Century: Resilience or Vulnerability?
Authors: Mordechai Lee
Published: June 2019

Sixth century Antioch is perhaps the best example of state-city resilience in Late Antiquity. Over the century, the city suffered multiple natural disasters, civil strife and external conflict. Scholars have generally accepted that the city declined as a result. This study integrates historical, archaeological and scientific data to illuminate the city’s fate. It concludes that Antioch demonstrated remarkable resilience at the city level throughout the 6th c. The most important factor was the continuous support the city received from the central government.
نقوش صخرية في الفترة المتأخرة من العصر الحجري القديم بأسوان - جنوب مصر
Authors: كيلاني عادل
Published: June 2019

A new archaeological survey in Wadi Abu Subeira and el-Aqaba el-Saghira by a team from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities has recently identified numerous new rock art sites. So far, nine sites with Late Palaeolithic rock art have been identified in Wādi Abū Subeira and only one in Aqaba.

The Late Palaeolithic rock art in both Wādi Abū Subeira and Aqaba were implemented in a naturalistic style: Franco–Cantabrian Lascaux-like style, applying both techniques of hammering and incision to create the images. This style is substantially different from the later rock art located nearby.

Rock art style, patina, technique and subject matter identified the date of these rock art assemblage to Late Paleaolithic. This date is supported by recently OSL date of similar rock art assemblage located at Kurta, north of Wadi Gabeira.
نصوص الإنشاء و التجديد بالعمائر الدينية بمدينة طرابلس الشام في العصر العثماني : دراسة في المضمون
Authors: مرسي علي محمد محمد
Published: June 2019

This paper deals with the study of ten foundation inscriptions on the Ottoman monuments in Tripoli, Lebanon. The inscriptions found in eight monuments, such as Awayseya Mosque (940 AH/1534), Madrassa al-Mahmoudiyah (995 AH/1587), Tawbah Mosque (1021 AH/1612) and Mahmoud al-Sangak Minaret (1295 AH/1878).

The foundation inscriptions contains five basic elements, the Basmala or pious invocation to God, a verb indicating what was done, the object of the work, the name of the patron and the date of construction. The paper is a comparative analysis in Ottoman foundation inscriptions in Tripoli, Lebanon.
Making Property in Kyrgyzstan: Bishkek’s Urban Periphery as Redistributive Space
Authors: Hatcher Craig
Published: June 2019

This article explores urban land claims made by residents living in Bishkek’s informal settlements (novostroikas) located on the edge of the city. By examining the growth of the urban periphery alongside shifts in property rights enacted through privatization programs, Bishkek’s novostroikas are a grassroots attempt to correct previous inequitable distributions of private property. The political unrest of the Tulip Revolution in 2005 and the violent events of 2010 are taken as decisive moments to challenge this unequal distribution. The article examines how the residents of novostroikas enact collective and moral claims over land that demonstrate an understanding of private property to be contextual, overlapping, and heterogeneous, rather than singular and predetermined.
Introduction: Regional Platforms
Authors: Steinberg Marc , Li Jinying
Published: June 2019

This introduction provides an overview of this special issue on ‘Regional Platforms’, presenting its background, significance, purpose, and overall structure. To characterize the regional implications in platforms, we first define the concept of ‘platform’ by outlining its basic typology. We define three different types of platforms: product-technology type, content-platforms, and transaction-type. Each of the three designates a different meaning of the term platform and describes a different configuration of platforms in relation to media studies. Challenging the dominant mode of platform studies that presume a global geography for us-based examples, this special issue purposely situates our typology of platforms in regional terms. We argue that digital platforms have given rise to a sense of media regionalism and a renewed regional media geography through both transnational and transmedial processes. The five essays composing this issue are then summarized to demonstrate how the authors approach the question of the regionality of platforms.
Reconfiguring Mobile Media Assemblages: Download Cultures and Translocal Flows of Affective Platforms
Authors: Mukherjee Rahul , Singh Abhigyan
Published: June 2019

Memory cards are flash memory devices that enable storage and circulation of music in audio and video formats. In some regions in Asia, the bandwidth to stream musical content is unavailable, and people go to ‘download vendors’, who add content to their memory cards. We investigate regional standards/formats that allow Chinese dvd players to be sold in India and North Korea that can play not only vcds/dvds but also memory cards. Contemporary platform discourse disproportionately studies algorithm and-interface-based online platforms that support streaming cultures. We explore offline digital platforms that enable download cultures by considering memory cards as medial objects that are attached to various platform ecosystems. Such ecosystems based on informal business models and network logic act as both intermediaries and foundations that provide users with opportunities to share and participate. Going beyond instrumental uses of platforms, we discern their affectivity: their ability to provide pleasurable entertainment and aesthetic experiences.
The Theological Potentials of Local Ecumenical Efforts in Ordinary and Everyday Life: An Ethnographic Study of South Indian Context
Authors: Swamy Muthuraj
Published: June 2019

The concept and practice of ecumenism has played a crucial role in the theological construction of ecclesiology for the last few decades. In spite of the various steps taken for promoting local ecumenism in different parts of the world, the continuing challenge for ecclesiology (and also for theology in general) is to place grassroots efforts for ecumenism in the centre of theological discussions. While local ecumenism is defined and practiced in a number of ways, this essay discusses the ordinary and everyday efforts for church unity among Christians in South India, and the theological potentials of such efforts. A study of local ecumenism can contribute to the discussions in ecclesiology and ethnography, and such discussions in turn can help further to encourage local ecumenism by bringing to the centre the everyday experiences of Christians that have not often been focused or highlighted in mainline academic ecclesiology or theology.
Ethnography, Ecclesiology, and the Ethics of Everyday Life: A Conversation with the Work of Michael Banner
Authors: Tranter Samuel , Torrance David Bartram
Published: June 2019

This article begins by introducing recent work by Michael Banner, who advocates the use of social anthropology generally (not just the anthropology of Christianity) for the Christian ethics of everyday life. His use of ethnography in Christian theological ethics is then situated in relation to recent discussions in ecclesiology and ethnography. Situated thus, Banner’s work forms the springboard for a brief discussion of what is at stake for theological ethics in turning to ethnographic research. While some dangers are highlighted, a way forward is offered for the fruitful use of ethnographic research in this field.
Redeemed on the Inside: Radical Accounts of Ecclesia Incarcerate
Authors: Sexton Jason S.
Published: June 2019

Among various carceral governance structures meant to punish, educate, and rehabilitate is the carceral governance structure of the church with its dynamic structure operative in the reconstitution of prisoners’ humanity. Presenting an interdisciplinary theological vision of this phenomenon found in the material content of personal faith, this paper presents preliminary results of twenty-four interviews of former prisoners who participated in the incarcerated church, interpreting the ethnographic data in dialogue with the ecumenical creed. Thus, it reinterprets in-depth interview data so as to begin presenting a coherent theological vision of what the members of the prison church both are and could increasingly become within the carceral context.
‘Knowing Their People and Being Known By Them’: A Changing Episcopal Role within Accompanied Ministry Development in the Diocese of Truro
Authors: Village Andrew , Muskett Judith A.
Published: June 2019

Using a range of qualitative data, this article presents a case study of changing episcopal roles in the Diocese of Truro, necessitated by its bishops’ involvement in the innovative Accompanied Ministry Development Programme (amd). This style of engagement foregrounds the activity specified in the ordinal of ‘getting to know the people and being known by them’. Findings raise questions such as whether roles currently undertaken by the bishops could be shared among senior staff and, if not, how the role of bishops could be adjusted to cope with an ongoing commitment to engage with incumbents and parishes across the Diocese on a regular basis. These are questions upon which any diocese may wish to reflect when initiating change that requires direct episcopal support.
Executing Calyphas: Gender, Discipline, and Sovereignty in 2 Tamburlaine
Authors: Turner Timothy A.
Published: June 2019

This essay situates the execution of Calyphas in 2 Tamburlaine in the context of the gendered disciplinary regimes imposed by Tamburlaine in his quest for global empire. The execution bears a double significance: a father disciplines his son and, simultaneously, a sovereign military commander exercises martial law. In this doubling, the episode fuses a number of related issues in the history of sovereignty, especially key concepts addressed in Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality and later taken up by Giorgio Agamben in works such as Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. By putting these historical models into dialogue with a revised account of the play’s source materials, this essay argues that Marlowe stages the violence embedded in both absolutist and republican models of governance when they are premised on the rigid enforcement of hierarchical disciplinary regimes.
Glances and Loopholes: Bakhtin’s view of Dostoevsky’s Linguistic Microcosm
Authors: Cook John
Published: June 2019

The two figures of speech, «cлoвo c oглядкoй» [a word with a backward glance] and «cлoвo c лaзeйкoй» [a word with a loophole], can arguably be considered the apogee of Bakhtin’s creative analysis of language. This paper provides a detailed analysis of these tropes, commencing with a brief introduction to Bakhtin’s view of the utterance and parody. These short summaries are based on a close reading of Пpoблeмa peчeвыx жaнpoв [ПPЖ] and Из пpeдыcтopии poмaннoгo cлoвa [ИПpc] respectively. This introduction provides a platform for a detailed textual review of Bakhtin’s analysis of the two figures of speech in Пpoблeмы пoэтики Дocтoeвcкoгo [ППД]. The paper then explores the two figures of speech as exemplars of interdiscursivity by examining the way in which Bakhtin builds up his descriptive analysis of both «oглядкa» and «лaзeйкa», using examples from Poor Folk, The Double, Notes from Underground, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. The paper concludes that these tropes synecdochically represent Bakhtin’s constructs in a number of important domains: his philosophy of language, his philosophy of identity, as well as his literary theory.
Think Tank Diplomacy
Authors: Conley Tyler Melissa , Matthews Rhea , Brockhurst Emma
Published: June 2019

Think tanks demonstrably play a role in diplomacy. Not long ago, the idea of think tank diplomacy would have provoked scepticism, but the nature of diplomacy has changed from a state-centric club to a polylateral network characterised by a diversity of actors and communication methods. As organisations producing independent intellectual outputs to influence public policy, think tanks engage in at least four diplomatic functions: negotiation, communication, information-gathering and promoting friendly relations in international affairs. Case studies show that think tanks both directly perform diplomatic functions and act indirectly as facilitators of diplomacy: as metaphorical hired guns, charm offensive, witnesses and safe space; as a school for diplomats, personal trainers, chief knowledge officer and wise council. Think tanks need to overcome obstacles including resource constraints and relationships with policy-makers to reach their full potential in contributing to diplomacy.
Feminicides of Girl Children in the Family Context: An International Human Rights Law Approach
Authors: Chapdelaine-Feliciati Clara
Published: June 2019

This monograph examines the issue of feminicide, more specifically female infanticide, in the family context, and the extent to which it is addressed under international law. For this purpose, it explores the phenomenon of feminicide, the origins of son preference and ‘daughter devaluation’ and the myriad factors that underpin female infanticide. Legal semiotics is employed to assess whether the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR 1966), the main international treaty enshrining the right to life, sufficiently tackle female infanticide. Throughout its analysis, this monograph examines several factors that constitute obstacles to the protection of girl children in the family context, as well as relevant legislation and case law. Amendments to the ICCPR are proposed to clarify States parties’ duty of due diligence and ensure that the crime of female infanticide is effectively prohibited, investigated, and prosecuted.
The Concept of Famous Painting in the Tang Dynasty: The Case of Zhang Yanyuan’s Lidai minghua ji
Authors: Ning Xiaomeng
Published: June 2019

This essay offers a critical reflection on the central concept of “famous painting” as expounded in Zhang Yanyuan’s Lidai minghua ji (历代名画记, A Record of Famous Paintings of All Dynasties). Building upon the past scholarship, this essay will proceed in the following three steps. I propose to distinguish the concept of “famous painting” from the common understanding of painting. I argue that it is the former that plays a central role in the entire text of the Lidai minghua ji. As a result of this new approach, I will outline an intentional and discernable structure formed by the fifteen essays in the first three books. I proceed with discussing the relationship between famous paintings and famous painters so as to demonstrate Zhang Yanyuan’s implicit intention and considerations in selecting and evaluating painters and their works. Finally, I examine the basic formats of famous painting and further elucidate the historical dimension embedded within the concept of famous painting that constituted and changed the very idea under consideration.
A Philosophy Guide to Street Art and the Law
Authors: Baldini Andrea
Published: June 2019

What is the relationship between street art and the law? It is argued that street art has a constitutive relationship with the law. A crucial aspect of the identity of this urban art kind depends on its capacity to turn upside down dominant uses of public spaces. Street artists subvert those laws and social norms that regulate the city. It is shown that street art has not only transformed public spaces and their functions into artistic material, but has also turned its rebellious attitude toward the law into a creative resource. This essay aims at elucidating and arguing for this claim, while drawing important implications at the level of street art’s metaphysics, value, and relationship with rights of intellectual property, in particular copyright and moral rights. At the other end of the spectrum of contractual art, street art is outlaw art.
The Aral Region and Geopolitical Agenda of the Early Qongrats
Authors: Abdurasulov Ulfatbek
Published: June 2019

The essay seeks to consider how the region of the Aral Sea initially functioned as a frontier zone and then, over time, as a newly-incorporated territory within the Khanate of Khiva in Khoresm, and how the dynasty of recently enthroned Qongrat rulers set about integrating the Aral region into their polity. In doing so, I hope to be able to show how Muḥammad Raḥīm Khān i, the Qongrat (r. 1806-25) shaped his geopolitical agenda according to the new spatial organization of his realm, and how the early 19th-century Khanate of Khiva was transformed by this newly configured balance between the settled and the nomadic worlds.
On the Edge
Authors: Noelle-Karimi Christine
Published: June 2019

Persian accounts of travels within Iran and to the neighboring Muslim countries served to shape and enhance official concepts of history and topography. Yet, opinions regarding the function of nineteenth-century travelogues within imperial agendas differ. Was their production driven by ideas of inclusion and reclamation or were they meant to project and cement boundaries? This article explores the ways in which Qajar envoys, military officers and officials portrayed the lands and people north and east of Astarabad and Mashhad. The texts at hand offer parallel formulations of the Iranian space. The projection of an expansive “Ur”-terrain coincides with the reinvention of Iran as a modern, narrowly bounded entity. These two levels of argumentation are analyzed within the framework of three thematic clusters. First, observations on geography and their connotations of inclusion and exclusion. Secondly, exchanges with local elites bring regional relationships into focus and thus document the problem of Iranian statehood, its self-definition and the political claims arising therefrom. The third field concerns the uses of the past.
National Struggle in Foreign Market
Authors: Conte Giampaolo
Published: June 2019

This paper aims at highlighting the twofold role played by the Italian government in the attempt of supporting and motivating the growth of Italian banking activities in the Ottoman Empire, especially in its capital at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century. The activities of Banco di Roma and Società Commerciale d’Oriente will be analysed within a context of disloyal competition, envies and low blows. The paper will also underline the links existing among these institutions and the Italian government, which will remain their reference point in the Ottoman capital and will demonstrate how Italian banking activities in Constantinople, which depended on the bankers’ good relationships with the Italian political circles rather than on their real financial possibilities, were hindered by recurring conflicts and enmities in the national market. The article also aims to fill the historiographical void on the Italian banking activities in the late Ottoman Empire with the results of the research conducted in the historical archives of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Bank of Italy and Banco di Roma.
Matrimonial Alliances and the Transmission of Dynastic Power in Kurdistan: The Case of the Diyādīnids of Bidlīs in the Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries
Authors: Alsancakli Sacha
Published: June 2019

The Diyādīnids of Bidlīs, one of the important Kurdish principalities of the early modern period (fourteenth to seventeenth centuries), have constantly claimed a central role in the political powers of Kurdistan. This article will explore the ways in which the Diyādīnid’s matrimonial alliances helped bolster that claim and otherwise secure and enhance the political standing of the dynasty.
Isfahan during the Turko-Mongol Period (11th-15th Centuries)
Authors: Durand-Guédy David
Published: June 2019

This article deals with the history of Isfahan during the five centuries between the arrival of the Turks and the beginning of the Safavid period. It attempts to identify the continuities and ruptures from three different perspectives: To what extent can we speak of an urban decline? What was the relationship of the Isfahanis with the imperial rulers? How did the general context impact the makeup and the organisation of the society? It appears that Isfahan demonstrated remarkable resilience over the period, and that it is only beginning with the Timurid period that we can speak of a decline. Likewise, there is remarkable continuity in the ways in which the local elites collaborated with or resisted the imperial players. The role of the Ṣāʿid family, which held the cadial function over four centuries, is emblematic in this respect. Conversely, under special circumstances, the imperial players were able to exert great substantial influence on the local communities, and it is this political backing which explains the strengthening of the Hanafis in the sixth/twelfth century, and that of the Shiis in the following. One of the main accomplishments of this synthesis view of Isfahan history is that it assesses the effects of the Mongol domination relative to that of other periods.
“We are Indigenous and We Want to be Literate in Our Own Language”
Authors: Micheli Ilaria
Published: June 2019

The Ogiek of Mariashoni living in the Mau Forest of Kenya are a group of hunters and gatherers, who in the last 30 years have been facing a progressive process of habitat and climate change which obliged them to settle down and leave their semi-nomadic way of life. The major characteristic of the Ogiek has always been a very high degree of adaptability to their social and environmental context, which allowed them to develop what we can now call a fluid identity.

Recently they have come into contact with new social (and economic) movements promoted and supported by national and international ngos working in the field of human rights and for the safeguard of indigenous peoples, which gave them the possibility to enter the international circuit of aid for cooperation and development. In a socio-linguistic perspective one of the most interesting aspects of this new situation is the speakers’ changed attitude towards their own language and its promotion. This paper contains an accurate description of a project aimed at the definition of a good orthographic system for the Ogiek language and the production of didactic materials for primary schools. The project, which ended up as a failure due to the lack of participation and funding from the local Kenyan official institutions, was promoted by the University of Trieste in the framework of the ATrA project.
Notes on the Parthian Block f1 from the Sasanian Inscription of Paikuli*
Authors: Terribili Gianfilippo
Published: June 2019

The celebrative monument of Paikuli, located in the present-day province of Sulaimaniyah (Kurdistan, Iraq), was built at the southernmost edge of the Qaradagh range by the Sasanian king Narseh (293-302/3 ad). It marks the place where dignitaries of the Ērānšahr met the Sasanian sovereign to swear an oath of loyalty to him during a dynastic struggle. The bilingual inscription (Middle Persian and Parthian), originally carved on the walls of the monument, constitutes one of the most important primary sources for the early Sasanian history, despite its fragmentary state of preservation. From 2006 onwards an Italian team has been investigating the monument, conducting surveys in the valley of Paikuli and studying the materials now kept in the Slemani Museum (Sulaimaniyah), both activities continuing to the present day. The following paper aims to advance comprehension of the problematic Parthian block f1, one of the 19 recently-discovered inscribed blocks (Cereti, Terribili 2014), providing a new textual reconstruction and a synoptic reading of its content with the corresponding Middle Persian passages. Due to the peculiar epigraphic material and distinctive block shape, the analysis of f1 offers interesting insight into the distribution of the text on the wall and the related technical issues.
BMH2 and the Iron Age Northern Coastal Oman in Light of 2014–2015 Excavation Seasons
Authors: Loreto Romolo
Published: June 2019

After 2014–2015 field season BMH2 is going to assume a more defined profile within the Iron Age of Southeast Arabia. According to the material culture the village was at its best during the Early Iron Age ii, between 1100–600 bce. During this long time span a complex local society took place thanks to coastal exploitation, agricultural activities and trade. Nonetheless, the transitional periods between the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age i as well as the end of the Early Iron Age and the beginning of the Late Iron Age should be the objects of future excavations.
Problemi di filologia etiopica
Authors: Villa Massimo
Published: June 2019

The recently published edition of the long recension of the Vita and the Miracles of abunä Samu’el of Waldǝbba (or Gädamä Wali) is here reviewed in detail. The contribution of an Ethiopian printed edition of the hagiographic dossier is discussed, and a repertory of lexical and narrative issues arising from the text is dealt with and commented.
Portuguese Loans in Some African Languages
Authors: Baldi Sergio
Published: June 2019

The presence of Portuguese in Africa for more than five centuries has left a sensible trace in the languages spoken on the continent. Exploiting a Data Base created to monitor the influence of Portuguese on African languages, this paper tries to show how more than five hundred Portuguese loans are found in some one hundred and fifty African languages. The degree of assimilation and their numbers vary from language to language, but it is astonishing to find some Portuguese loans even in some languages spoken in the interior of the continent, far from the places where Portuguese presence was firmly established for a long time.
Early Islamic Kūfa in Context: A Chronological Reinterpretation of the Palace, with a Note on the Development of the Monumental Language of the Early Muslim Élite
Authors: Santi Aila
Published: June 2019

The origin of the congregational mosque-dār al-imāra combination—despite wide acknowledgement of its symbolic importance and spread in early Islamic urbanism—has until now been considered the mere result of a measure to protect public treasure implemented in Kūfa at a very early date (638) as a consequence of a burglary. A critical analysis of literary sources, combined with a systematic review of the available archaeological evidence, has made it possible to confute this traditional view in favour of a new dating for the emergence of the first Kūfan dār al-imāra and its architectural development, suggesting interesting insights pertaining to the monumental propaganda promoted by the ruling élite in the Umayyad era.
Le statut des couleurs et de la lumière dans les munāẓarāt paysagères au Yémen à l’époque post-classique
Authors: Saitta Gianluca
Published: June 2019

This contribution aims to comment on chromaticism by analysing the principal colours as they are mentioned in the landscape descriptions of the maqāmāt of the type munāẓarāt composed in the Yemen of the post-classical era. The colours are mainly manifested in the depictions of the garden area, but can also be characterising of certain vegetal types that sometimes play the main role in these texts. The analysis of the colours enables us to make certain considerations about the state of light and its depictions within this corpus. Indeed, there appears to be a direct correlation in these descriptions between the light and the luminosity characterised by its type of reflection and brightness. Moreover, we are able to make significant deductions on minerals and gemstones, as it is often in this context that certain chromatic nuances are mentioned in these texts.
Greco antico o coreano moderno? Qualche dubbio su un’iscrizione da Kara Kamar
Authors: Riotto Maurizio
Published: June 2019

This paper proposes a new interpretation of a controversial inscription found in 1988 at Kara Kamar, Uzbekistan. Despite several problems in its reading and interpretation, in fact, the inscription has been generally considered a dedicatory (?) epigraph written in ancient Greek. This paper, however, shows that a significant part of the inscription makes sense when considered written in Korean language and alphabet. Therefore, the paper suggests the possibility that the author of the epigraph might have been a Korean individual lived in modern/contemporary epoch.
Addressing Coastal Wetland Decline in China’s Yellow Sea
Authors: Hamman Evan
Published: June 2019

This article provides an analysis of the environmental challenges presented by coastal development on the Chinese coast of the Yellow Sea, and, in particular, its effect on migratory shorebirds. It reflects on the rate of coastal development in China and its impact on intertidal wetlands, including what is being done, from a legal perspective, to address the declines. Existing regulatory measures are examined and it is argued that strategic environmental assessment needs to be given greater attention by the Chinese authorities. In addition, principles of conservation such as participatory management need to be fully embraced to empower local communities to restore degraded sites, monitor birdlife, and, where necessary, challenge inappropriate development activities through the courts. These initiatives, coupled with the eventual enactment of a new national wetland law in China, should strengthen the response to the threats and help arrest some of the declines in shorebird populations.
“Nothing but Sounds, Ink-Marks”—Is Nothing Hidden? Must Everything Be Transparent?
Authors: Standish Paul
Published: June 2019

Is there something that lies beneath the surface of our ordinary ways of speaking? Philosophy sometimes encourages the all-too-human thought that reality lies just outside our ordinary grasp, hidden beneath the surface of our experience and language. The present discussion concentrates initially on a few connected paragraphs of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations (particularly ##431–435). Wittgenstein leads the reader to the view that meaning is there in the surface of the expression. Yet how adequate is Wittgenstein’s treatment of the sounds and ink-marks, the materiality of the sign? With some reference to Emerson, Stanley Cavell, and Jacques Derrida, my discussion explores how far a more adequate account of the sign can coincide with the claim that nothing is hidden. It exposes phony obsessions with transparency, which in a culture of accountability have had a distorting effect on education and the wider social field. It endorses confidence in the reality of ordinary words.
Impact of Stratiform Rainband Heating on the Tropical Cyclone Wind Field in Idealized Simulations
Authors: Yu Chau-Lam , Didlake Anthony C.
Published: June 2019

Using idealized simulations, we examine the storm-scale wind field response of a dry, hurricane-like vortex to prescribed stratiform heating profiles that mimic tropical cyclone (TC) spiral rainbands. These profiles were stationary with respect to the storm center to represent the diabatic forcing imposed by a quasi-stationary rainband complex. The first profile was typical of stratiform precipitation with heating above and cooling below the melting level. The vortex response included a mesoscale descending inflow and a midlevel tangential jet, consistent with previous studies. An additional response was an inward-spiraling low-level updraft radially inside the rainband heating. The second profile was a modified stratiform heating structure derived from observations and consisted of a diagonal dipole of heating and cooling. The same features were found with stronger magnitudes and larger vertical extents. The dynamics and implications of the forced low-level updraft were examined. This updraft was driven by buoyancy advection because of the stratiform-induced low-level cold pool. The stationary nature of the rainband diabatic forcing played an important role in modulating the required temperature and pressure anomalies to sustain this updraft. Simulations with moisture and full microphysics confirmed that this low-level updraft response was robust and capable of triggering sustained deep convection that could further impact the storm evolution, including having a potential role in secondary eyewall formation.
Weather and Climate Variability May Be Poor Proxies for Climate Change in Farmer Risk Perceptions
Authors: Findlater Kieran M. , Kandlikar Milind , Satterfield Terre , Donner Simon D.
Published: June 2019

Despite long-standing assertions that climate change creates new risk management challenges, the climate change adaptation literature persists in assuming, both implicitly and explicitly, that weather and climate variability are suitable proxies for climate change in evaluating farmers’ risk perceptions and predicting their adaptive responses. This assumption persists in part because there is surprisingly little empirical evidence either way, although case studies suggest that there may be important differences. Here, we use a national survey of South Africa’s commercial grain farmers (n = 389)—similar to their peers in higher-income countries (e.g., North America, Europe, Australia), but without subsidies—to show that they treat weather and climate change risks quite differently. We find that their perceptions of climate change risks are distinct from and, in many regards, oppositional to their perceptions of weather risks. While there seems to be a temporal element to this distinction (i.e., differing concern for short-term vs long-term risks), there are other differences that are better understood in terms of normalcy (i.e., normal vs abnormal relative to historical climate) and permanency (i.e., temporary vs permanent changes). We also find an interaction effect of education and political identity on concern for climate change that is at odds with the well-publicized cultural cognition thesis based on surveys of the American public. Overall, studies that use weather and climate variability as unqualified proxies for climate change are likely to mislead researchers and policymakers about how farmers perceive, interpret, and respond to climate change stimuli.
Cultures of Victory and the Political Consequences of Foundational Legitimacy in Croatia and Kosovo
Authors: Boduszyński Mieczysław P. , Pavlaković Vjeran
Published: June 2019

What are the consequences of a culture of victory in countries undergoing new state formation and democratic transition? In this article, we examine ‘foundational legitimacy,’ or a hegemonic narrative about the way in which a new state was created, and the role particular groups played in its creation. We argue that the way in which victory is institutionalized can pose a grave threat to the democratic project. If reconciliation and democratization depend of integrating losers into the new order and recognizing plural narratives of state formation, then exclusivist narratives based on foundational legitimacy pose a direct challenge to both. We focus on two Yugoslav successor states, Kosovo and Croatia. For both cases, we trace how appeals to ‘foundational legitimacy’ by groups that claim a leading role in the struggle for independence fostered a politics of exclusion, which ran counter to both the spirit of democracy. In Croatia, foundational legitimacy was partly challenged after 2000 by reformist political forces, though more recently it has re-appeared in political life. In Kosovo, foundational legitimacy was never successfully challenged and continues to shape political dynamics to the present day.
Culture and Mobility Determine the Importance of Similarity in Friendship
Authors: Bahns Angela J. , Lee Juwon , Crandall Christian S.
Published: June 2019

We test whether the ability to start friendships—and end them—determines what we look for in friends. We hypothesized that individual differences in beliefs about relationship choice would translate into differences in similarity of relationship partners. To test the constructs across their spectrum, we sampled both American and Korean relationships ( N = 1,603). Study 1 field-sampled naturally occurring relationship pairs in the United States and Korea; independent self-construal was positively correlated with relational mobility and similarity within relationship pairs. Using the entire data set, relational mobility was positively correlated with similarity, but the two were negatively correlated within nations. Study 2 identified two components of relational mobility, entry and exit. Easy entry to relationships correlated with high importance of similarity; easy exit from relationships correlated with low importance of similarity. An experiment (Study 3) manipulating both ease of entry to and exit from friendship found the belief that people are relatively free to end an unsatisfying friendship reduced the importance of similarity for friendship selection.
Sales Force Compensation Design for Two-Sided Market Platforms
Authors: Bhargava Hemant K. , Rubel Olivier
Published: June 2019

The authors study the use of sales agents for network mobilization in a two-sided market platform that connects buyers and sellers, and they examine how the presence of direct and indirect network effects influences the design of the sales compensation plan. They employ a principal–agent model in which the firm tasks sales agents to mobilize the side of the platform that it monetizes (i.e., sellers). Specifically, the presence of network effects alters the agency relationship between the firm and the sales agent, requiring the platform firm to alter the compensation design, and the nature of the alteration depends on whether the network effects are direct or indirect and positive or negative. The authors first show how the agent’s compensation plan should account for different types of network effects. They then establish that when the platform firm compensates the agent solely on the basis of network mobilization on the side cultivated by the agent (sellers), as intuition would suggest, it will not fully capitalize on the advantage of positive network effects; that is, profit can be lower under stronger network effects. To overcome this limitation, the platform should link the agent’s pay to a second metric, specifically, network mobilization on the buyer side, even though the agent is not assigned to that side. This design induces a positive relation between the strength of network effects and profit. This research underlines the complexity and richness of network effects and provides managers with new insights regarding the design of sales agents’ compensation plans for platforms.
Cannabis-induced altered states of consciousness are associated with specific dynamic brain connectivity states
Authors: Zaytseva Yuliya , Horáček Jiří , Hlinka Jaroslav , Fajnerová Iveta , Androvičová Renata , Tintěra Jaroslav , Salvi Virginio , Balíková Marie , Hložek Tomáš , Španiel Filip , Páleníček Tomáš
Published: June 2019

Background:

Cannabis, and specifically one of its active compounds delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in recreational doses, has a variety of effects on cognitive processes. Most studies employ resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques to assess the stationary effects of cannabis and to-date one report addressed the impact of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol on the dynamics of whole-brain functional connectivity.

Methods:

Using a repeated-measures, within-subjects design, 19 healthy occasional cannabis users (smoking cannabis ⩽2 per week) underwent resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. Each subject underwent two scans: in the intoxicated condition, shortly after smoking a cannabis cigarette, and in the non-intoxicated condition, with the subject being free from cannabinoids for at least one week before. All sessions were randomized and performed in a four-week interval. Data were analysed employing a standard independent component analysis approach with subsequent tracking of the functional connectivity dynamics, which allowed six connectivity clusters (states) to be individuated.

Results:

Using standard independent component analysis in resting state functional connectivity, a group effect was found in the precuneus connectivity. With a dynamic independent component analysis approach, we identified one transient connectivity state, characterized by high connectivity within and between auditory and somato-motor cortices and anti-correlation with subcortical structures and the cerebellum that was only found during the intoxicated condition. Behavioural measures of the subjective experiences of changed perceptions and tetrahydrocannabinol plasma levels during intoxication were associated with this state.

Conclusions:

With the help of the dynamic connectivity approach we could elucidate neural correlates of the transitory perceptual changes induced by delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in cannabis users, and possibly identify a biomarker of cannabis intoxication.