bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Book Review: Irfan Habib and Vijay Kumar Thakur, The Vedic Age and the Coming of Iron, Krishna Mohan Shrimali, The Age of Iron and the Religious Revolution, c. 700–350 BC, Irfan Habib and Vivekanand Jha, Mauryan India and Irfan Habib, Post-Mauryan India, c. 200 BC–AD 300: A Political and Economic History
Authors: Roy Kumkum
Published: December 2015

Irfan Habib and Vijay Kumar Thakur, The Vedic Age and the Coming of Iron, c. 1500–700 BC, A People’s History of India, Vol. 3 (New Delhi: Aligarh Historians Society, Tulika Books), 2014 (7th edition, paperback), pp. viii + 100, ₹ 175.

Krishna Mohan Shrimali, The Age of Iron and the Religious Revolution, c. 700–350 BC, A People’s History of India, Vol. 4 (New Delhi: Aligarh Historians Society, Tulika Books), 2013 (5th edition, paperback), pp. xiii + 160, ₹ 230.

Irfan Habib and Vivekanand Jha, Mauryan India, A People’s History of India, Vol. 5 (New Delhi: Aligarh Historian’s Society, Tulika Books), 2011 (5th edition, paperback), pp. x + 189, ₹ 260.

IRFAN HABIB, Post-Mauryan India, c. 200 BC–AD 300: A Political and Economic History, A People’s History of India, Vol. 6 (New Delhi: Aligarh Historians Society, Tulika Books), 2013 (2nd edition, paperback), pp. xii + 148, ₹ 240.
Lin− CD34hi CD117int/hi FcεRI+ cells in human blood constitute a rare population of mast cell progenitors
Authors: Dahlin Joakim S. , Malinovschi Andrei , Öhrvik Helena , Sandelin Martin , Janson Christer , Alving Kjell , Hallgren Jenny
Published: December 2015

Key Points

Human Lin− CD34hi CD117int/hi FcεRI+ cells in blood constitute mast cell progenitors. Asthmatics with reduced lung function have an increased frequency of circulating mast cell progenitors.
Variation in NAT2 acetylation phenotypes is associated with differences in food-producing subsistence modes and ecoregions in Africa
Authors: Podgorná Eliška , Diallo Issa , Vangenot Christelle , Sanchez-Mazas Alicia , Sabbagh Audrey , Černý Viktor , Poloni Estella S.
Published: December 2015

Background

Dietary changes associated to shifts in subsistence strategies during human evolution may have induced new selective pressures on phenotypes, as currently held for lactase persistence. Similar hypotheses exist for arylamine N-acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2) mediated acetylation capacity, a well-known pharmacogenetic trait with wide inter-individual variation explained by polymorphisms in theNAT2gene. The environmental causative factor (if any) driving its evolution is as yet unknown, but significant differences in prevalence of acetylation phenotypes are found between hunter-gatherer and food-producing populations, both in sub-Saharan Africa and worldwide, and between agriculturalists and pastoralists in Central Asia. These two subsistence strategies also prevail among sympatric populations of the African Sahel, but knowledge onNAT2variation among African pastoral nomads was up to now very scarce. Here we addressed the hypothesis of different selective pressures associated to the agriculturalist or pastoralist lifestyles having acted on the evolution ofNAT2by sequencing the gene in 287 individuals from five pastoralist and one agriculturalist Sahelian populations.

Results

We show that the significantNAT2genetic structure of African populations is mainly due to frequency differences of three major haplotypes, two of which are categorized as decreased function alleles (NAT2*5BandNAT2*6A), particularly common in populations living in arid environments, and one fast allele (NAT2*12A), more frequently detected in populations living in tropical humid environments. This genetic structure does associate more strongly with a classification of populations according to ecoregions than to subsistence strategies, mainly because most Sahelian and East African populations display little to no genetic differentiation between them, although both regions hold nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralist and sedentary agriculturalist communities. Furthermore, we found significantly higher predicted proportions of slow acetylators in pastoralists than in agriculturalists, but also among food-producing populations living in the Sahelian and dry savanna zones than in those living in humid environments, irrespective of their mode of subsistence.

Conclusion

Our results suggest a possible independent influence of both the dietary habits associated with subsistence modes and the chemical environment associated with climatic zones and biomes on the evolution ofNAT2diversity in sub-Saharan African populations.
Alteration of the foot center of pressure trajectory by an unstable shoe design
Authors: Khoury Mona , Haim Amir , Herman Amir , Rozen Nimrod , Wolf Alon
Published: December 2015

Background

Unstable sole designs have been used as functional or therapeutic tools for improving body stability during locomotion. It has been suggested that the narrow base of support under the feet generate perturbations that challenge the instability of different joints during motion, thereby forcing the body to modify its movement in order to maintain a stable gait. The purpose of the present study was to explore the correlation between the stability of the footwear‐device and the magnitude of perturbation conveyed during gait.

Methods

Various levels of dynamic instability were achieved using a novel foot‐worn platform with two adjustable convex rubber elements attached to its sole. A total of 20 healthy male adults underwent direct in‐shoe pressure measurements while walking with the footwear device. Foot center of pressure (COP) and stride to stride variability measures were extracted to examine the correlation between the magnitude of the instability and the imposed perturbations during gait.

Results

A counterintuitive but significant correlation was found between stride to stride variability and the instability of the biomechanical elements. Moreover, there was significant correlation between the instability of the elements and the perturbations found in the COP trajectory. The linear model describing this correlation was found to be statistically significant.

Conclusion

There was significantly negative correlation between the level of instability induced by the shoe design and the amount of perturbations conveyed during gait. This suggests that the external perturbation must remain within a certain range limit. Exceeding this limit can negatively affect the treatment and probably lead to opposite results.
The LINC complex component Sun4 plays a crucial role in sperm head formation and fertility
Authors: Pasch Elisabeth , Link Jana , Beck Carolin , Scheuerle Stefanie , Alsheimer Manfred
Published: December 2015

LINC complexes are evolutionarily conserved nuclear envelope bridges, physically connecting the nucleus to the peripheral cytoskeleton. They are pivotal for dynamic cellular and developmental processes, like nuclear migration, anchoring and positioning, meiotic chromosome movements and maintenance of cell polarity and nuclear shape. Active nuclear reshaping is a hallmark of mammalian sperm development and, by transducing cytoskeletal forces to the nuclear envelope, LINC complexes could be vital for sperm head formation as well. We here analyzed in detail the behavior and function of Sun4, a bona fide testis-specific LINC component. We demonstrate that Sun4 is solely expressed in spermatids and there localizes to the posterior nuclear envelope, likely interacting with Sun3/Nesprin1 LINC components. Our study revealed that Sun4 deficiency severely impacts the nucleocytoplasmic junction, leads to mislocalization of other LINC components and interferes with the formation of the microtubule manchette, which finally culminates in a globozoospermia-like phenotype. Together, our study provides direct evidence for a critical role of LINC complexes in mammalian sperm head formation and male fertility.
Designable Metal/PMO Nanocomposite and Preparation by a Surface Imprinting Technique Combined with a Sol–Gel Process for Catalytic Click Reaction
Authors: Naeimi Hossein , Nejadshafiee Vajihe , Islami Mohammad Reza
Published: November 2015

Novel metal/periodic mesoporous organosilica nanocomposites were prepared through metal template (Cu, Zn, Ni, and Co) imprinted ligand into periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) and their application as a recyclable catalyst in click synthesis of β-hydroxytriazoles described. The structure of the nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, N2 adsorption–desorption analysis, scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy-dispersive spectrometer (EDS), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results showed that the copper-imprinted periodic mesoporous organosilica nanocomposite (Cu/PMO NC) as a catalyst had good catalytic activity and short reaction times toward the multicomponent reaction for synthesis of β-hydroxytriazoles. Furthermore, the catalyst was regenerated and reused in the reaction for six cycles.
What brand associations are
Authors: Thellefsen Torkild , Sørensen Bent
Published: December 2015

The American polyhistor Charles Sanders Peirce stated that association is the only active force in the mind; and since any meaning of a brand is created through countless associations among the brand users, branding seems to be a cognitive vis-à-vis semeiotic process. In literature on brands the concept of association is by no means new; however, if we take a look at some of the leading and dominant brand researchers, their definitions of associations seem to lack academic depth. We hope to contribute to this hitherto missing depth by applying Peirce’s understanding of associations.
Hidden principles of improvisation
Authors: Coursil Jacques
Published: December 2015

On the basis of the principle of non-premeditation of speech, we argue that the synchronicity of hearing shared by everybody present is incompatible with a division of time between a sender and a receiver of a message. The act of speech brings the participants together in a single moment of perception called a synchronous point. Both the act of speech and music do not appear through time; rather, speech and music create time. The present time of our casual experience always contains a part of radical novelty, probable a posteriori, yet never predicted. Despite our capacity to predict many things and repeat procedures, in the advent of a given moment, the present will always show its uniqueness. Thus, improvisation is based on two principles of uncertainty: the non-premeditated occurrence of speech and the non-predicted part of present time.
Describing the past: Tartu-Moscow School ideas on history, historiography, and the historian's craft
Authors: Boyko Taras
Published: December 2015

The article provides a survey of some milestone works of representatives of the Tartu-Moscow School (Juri Lotman, Boris Uspensky and Vladimir Toporov) focused on the topic of history, approaches to the past, historiographical strategies, the essence of the historian’s craft, etc. Although these topics associated with the problem of history for the most part remained marginal in the research agendas of the Tartu-Moscow School, still a number of scholars affiliated with the School voiced novel and interesting thoughts and proposals regarding history and the historian’s craft, and to some extent even catalyzed new discussions and spotlighted previously disregarded research problems. The current article intends to give a brief overview of the most important and influential ideas on the topics found in the works of the Tartu-Moscow School scholars.
Brand creation of the shopping center as a tool of strategic marketing
Authors: Чеснокова Алина , Chesnokova Alina
Published: December 2015

The article shows the problems of brand identity of the shopping malls. The competition of commercial enterprises increases in the context of globalization of commodity markets. There is a need to develop marketing strategies for each individual shopping center. The main goal and the key to successful operation of a shopping center is the creation of a positive reputation and promote customer loyalty to the brand of the shopping center. It depends on the ability of companies-the tenants of this shopping center to attract consumers and promote their products to the market. The shopping center acts as an intermediary between the tenants and consumers. Its intermediary function is to establish a common loyalty to the shopping centre, covering the company’s tenants and creating conditions for their development. Unfortunately, in today’s market it becomes more difficult to separate one business from another and shaping the brand identity of the company. This situation, i. e. the transition from mass to individual marketing, is the cause of strengthening the role of strategic marketing, creating a more serious theoretical and practical base for market segmentation.
OPTIMIZATION AND VALIDATION OF A CHEMICAL PROCESS FOR URANIUM, MERCURY AND CESIUM LEACHING FROM CEMENTED RADIOACTIVE WASTES
Authors: Reynier Nicolas , Lastra Rolando , Laviolette Cheryl , Bouzoubaâ Nabil , Chapman Mark
Published: December 2015

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) is developing a treatment and long-term management strategy for a legacy cemented radioactive waste that contains uranium, mercury, and fission products. Extracting the uranium would be advantageous for decreasing the waste classification and reducing the cost of long-term management. The chemical leachability of 3 key elements (U, Hg, and Cs) from a surrogate cemented waste (SCW) was studied with several lixiviants. The results showed that the most promising approach to leach and recover U, Hg, and Cs is the direct leaching of the SCW with H2SO4 in strong saline media. Operating parameters such as particle size, temperature, pulp density, leaching time, acid and salt concentrations, number of leaching/washing steps, etc. were optimized to improve key elements solubilization. Sulfuric leaching in saline media of a SCW (U5) containing 1182 ppm of U, 1598 ppm of Hg, and 7.9 ppm of Cs in the optimized conditions allows key elements solubilisation of 98.5 ± 0.4%, 96.6 ± 0.1%, and 93.8 ± 1.1% of U, Hg, and Cs, respectively. This solubilization process was then applied in triplicate to 7 other SCWs prepared with different cements, liquid ratios, and at different aging times and temperatures. Concentrated sulfuric acid is added to the slurry until the pH is about 2, which causes the complete degradation of cement and the formation of CaSO4. Sulfuric acid is particularly useful because it produces a leachate that is amenable to conventional ion exchange technology for the separation and recovery of uranium.
Developing a visual timetable
Authors: Wild Lisa
Published: December 2015

A visual timetable is a sequence of symbols, pictures or photographs that represent activities to show children the likely routine throughout the day – it is widely used to support additional needs.
Sign Characteristics of Regular Hermitian Matrix Pencils under Generic Rank-1 and Rank-2 Perturbations
Authors: Batzke Leonhard
Published: November 2015

The spectral behavior of regular Hermitian matrix pencils is examined under certain structure-preserving rank-1 and rank-2 perturbations. Since Hermitian pencils have signs attached to real (and infinite) blocks in canonical form, it is not only the Jordan structure but also this so-called sign characteristic that needs to be examined under perturbation. The observed effects are as follows: Under a rank-1 or rank-2 perturbation, generically the largest one or two, respectively, Jordan blocks at each eigenvalue lambda are destroyed, and if lambda is an eigenvalue of the perturbation, also one new block of size one is created at lambda. If lambda is real (or infinite), additionally all signs at lambda but one or two, respectively, that correspond to the destroyed blocks, are preserved under perturbation. Also, if the potential new block of size one is real, its sign is in most cases prescribed to be the sign that is attached to the eigenvalue lambda in the perturbation.
On the Main Eigenvalues of Universal Adjacency Matrices and U-Controllable Graphs
Authors: Farrugia Alexander , Sciriha Irene
Published: November 2015

A universal adjacency matrix U of a graph G is a linear combination of the 0â1 adjacency matrix A, the diagonal matrix of vertex degrees D, the identity matrix I and the matrix J each of whose entries is 1. A main eigenvalue of U is an eigenvalue having an eigenvector that is not orthogonal to the allâones vector. It is shown that the number of distinct main eigenvalues of U associated with a simple graph G is at most the number of orbits of any automorphism of G. The definition of a Uâcontrollable graph is given using controlâtheoretic techniques and several necessary and sufficient conditions for a graph to be Uâcontrollable are determined. It is then demonstrated that Uâcontrollable graphs are asymmetric and that the converse is false, showing that there exist both regular and nonâregular asymmetric graphs that are not Uâcontrollable for any universal adjacency matrix U. To aid in the discovery of these counterexamples, a gammaâLaplacian matrix L(gamma) is used, which is a simplified form of U. It is proved that any U-controllable graph is a L(gamma)âcontrollable graph for some parameter gamma.
Agronomic characters and heritability of the third generation of Kampar mung bean lines (Vigna radiata)
Authors: ROSLIM DEWI INDRIYANI , PRATIWI TRESA NIA , HERMAN HERMAN
Published: November 2015

Abstract. Roslim DI, Pratiwi TN, Herman. 2015. Agronomic characters and heritability of the third generation of Kampar mung bean lines (Vigna radiata). Nusantara Bioscience 7: 166-170. Kampar district is one of the mung bean producing areas in Riau Province, Indonesia. The low productivity of Kampar mung beans can be enhanced by doing plant selection in each generation to yield an expected superior line. The research aims to determine the agronomic character and heritability of third generation of Kampar mung bean lines. This research was conducted from October to December 2014 in the experimental garden of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia. It used nine lines of mung beans and five replicates with the Completely Randomized Design as design of experiments. Agronomic characters observed included plant height, number of productive branches, flowering time, 90% of harvesting time, number of pods per plant, weight of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, seed weight per plant, weight of 100 seeds, pod color, and seed luster, Analysis of data uses analysis of variance (ANOVA) and if further significant differences are found, Duncan's Multiple Range Test (DMRT) will be carried out. The results showed significant difference for all the characters studied. All agronomic characters observed showed high heritability values, ranging from 0.92 to 0.98. G3 lines produce the highest number of pods per plant and highest number of seeds per pod and have small-sized seeds. G5 line has heaviest weight of pods per plant and heaviest weight of seeds per plant and they are in the criteria for medium-sized seeds. G1 lines’ seeds are classified as large seeds which are more superior to seeds of other lines. Therefore, lines of G1, G3, and G5 have the potential to be continued in the next generation because it is likely to contain potential sources of genes to get the superior Kampar lines mung bean.
The diversity of fish species and the disturbances in the Cikawung river, Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia
Authors: PARTASASMITA RUHYAT , NUARI TONI , ERAWAN TATANG SUHARMAN , ISKANDAR JOHAN
Published: November 2015

Abstract. Partasasmita R, Nuari T, Erawan TS, Iskandar J. 2015.The diversity of fish species and the disturbances in the Cikawung river, Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia. Nusantara Bioscience 7: 171-176.The diversity of fish species in the Cikawung river, the south coast of West Java, Indonesia plays a very important role for the villagers around the river. This river is an important source of animal protein for villagers of Karangwangi, Cidaun, Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia. The river flow is partially included in the Bojonglarang Jayanti Natural Reserve area. Based on the information given by the local residents, the Cikawung river used to have many species of fish 15 years ago, but now the population find it very difficult to get the fish in the river. People suspect that it is related to the frequency of fishing in various ways such as nets, fishing rods and even toxic chemicals. The object of this study is to determine the diversity of fish species in the Cikawung river and its disturbances as well as preservation and traditional conservation efforts by local residents. The study was conducted at inside and outside the natural reserve. The method used is a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative data gathering was performed by using structured interviews with 86 respondents that were chosen randomly among residents in the vicinity of the Cikawung river, using questionnaires. The results show that there are 32 species of fish, consisting of 22 species in the natural reserve, and 20 species outside the conservation areas. There are only 10 species of fish that found inside the natural reserve, while there are only 9 species of fish species found outside. It is found that there is 76% of the species of fish that is extremely rare, while the fish that are commonly found is Aplocheilus panchax and Puntius binotatus. The existence of fish tends to be very rare due to the fishing activities that continue to occur and the intensive use of pesticides. The decline in species diversity and abundance of fish species in the Cikawung river initiate local government and community leaders to make the arrangement of the use of Cikawung river as traditional conservation areas with the issuance Karangwangi Village Regulation (Perdes).
Short Communication: The growth response of indigenous microalga Synechococcus sp. to different concentrations of a heavy metal Cd
Authors: GUNAWAN GUNAWAN , MUHAMAT MUHAMAT
Published: November 2015

Abstract. Gunawan, Muhamat. 2015. The growth response of indigenous microalga Synechococcus sp. to different concentrations of a heavy metal Cd. Nusantara Bioscience 7:  177-179. Microalgae are aquatic organisms having the capability of absorbing heavy metals. The objective of this study was to analyze the response of microalga species Synechococcus sp. to different concentrations of a heavy metal Cd and its ability to absorb Cd. The microalga used in this study was isolated from a pond in coal mined land. This experiment was conducted using a completely randomized design with five treatments and three replications. The microalga was grown in one liter of BG 11 medium, with Cd concentrations of 0.56 mg/L, 1 mg/L, 1.8 mg/L, 3.2 mg/L, and 5.6 mg/L. The microalga was grown for 14 days and the growth pattern was analyzed. The heavy metal analysis was done using Inductively Coupled Plasma. The numbers of microalga cells after 14 days of culture were 1.015 cell/mL, 866 cell/mL, 800 cell/mL,768.50 cell/mL, and (440 cell/mL) at Cd concentrations of 0.56 mg/L, 1 mg/L, 1.8 mg/L, 3.2 mg/L, and 5.6 mg/L respectively. The concentrations of heavy metal in the medium at the end of experiment were 0.350 mg/L, 0.615 mg/L, 0.471 mg/L, 0.828 mg/L, and 1.456 mg/L, respectively declining from the initial concentrations of 0.56 mg/L, 1 mg/L, 1.8 mg/L, 3.2 mg/L, and 5.6 mg/L. The decline of Cd concentration in the medium at the end of experiment showed that Synechococcus sp. had the capability of absorbing heavy metals from its environment.
Fixity Amid Flux: Aesthetics and Environmentalism in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide
Authors: Jaising Shakti
Published: November 2015

This essay explores the formal means by which Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide (2004), a novel set in the Sundarbans islands, articulates an environmental politics that reconciles social justice and ecological concerns. However, the novel’s internal contradictions surface in its treatment of South Asian fisherman Fokir as an idealized peasant whose fixity is in marked contrast with the fluid subjectivities of the metropolitan characters. I argue that Fokir’s idealization is a problematic way in which the novel mourns the loss of peasant culture in the context of neoliberalism’s destruction of rural ecologies.
“Nothing ever ends”: Archives of Written and Graphic Testimony in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Authors: Gantz Lauren Jean
Published: November 2015

This article reads The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) as a critique of metatestimonial fiction and of the tendency to overstate literature’s power to heal cultural traumas. Metatestimonio bears figurative witness to historical atrocities and interrogates who is or is not allowed to speak of such events. Although Junot Díaz’s narrator Yunior gathers testimony from multiple survivors of the Trujillo regime, he mediates their experiences through his own authorial voice. The novel suggests that in refusing to allow testimony to speak for itself, Yunior (and by extension metatestimonio as a genre) replicates the discursive practices of the regime it denounces. Furthermore, by referencing specific comic book series, the artwork accompanying the 2007 Riverhead edition of the novel generates a counter-narrative critiquing Yunior’s project. This graphic counter-narrative illustrates that ending the Trujillato’s hold on Dominicans is impossible—that certain traumas cannot be healed once and for all. Oscar Wao thus suggests that in claiming literature’s power to heal the past, we (like Yunior) privilege our own desire for resolution over the lived realities of survivors, for whom the working through of trauma is an ongoing and incomplete process.
The Performance of Madness as Resistance in Nuruddin Farah’s Close Sesame
Authors: Colson Robert L.
Published: November 2015

This article explores the representation of madness in Nuruddin Farah’s Close Sesame (1983) as a performance of resistance against the Somali dictatorship of Mohammed Siyad Barre. I argue that Farah presents madness as a performance rather than a manifestation of mental illness in order to protect those who speak and act out against tyranny as well as their associates and families. The novel’s presentation of these counter-hegemonic performances has implications for the study of narrative representations of dictatorship in Africa as well as for understanding the linkage between the colonial and neocolonial disciplinary attitudes toward resistance fighters in East Africa. In particular, I consider the “Mad Mullah” and J. C. Carothers in light of their contributions to colonial discourse about madness and resistance. Farah’s novel explicitly makes connections between colonial history and Barre’s dictatorial regime, yet the place of madness within that history and the function of madness in Close Sesame have not been adequately explored. In focusing on resistance in Farah’s text, this article also provides a broader reading of resistance and repression in colonial states and neocolonial dictatorships.
“I Know … I Live Here”: Laowai Writing in “the people’s republic of”
Authors: Stenberg Josh
Published: November 2015

This essay examines laowai writing in Mainland China as an area of literary production. Laowai is the usual designation and frequent self-designation of China-resident Western foreigners and constitutes an identifiable migrant community in urban China. These laowai texts are written by and intended for a particular ethnically identifiable audience and constitute a body of work that is linguistically, culturally, and thematically distinct from other Anglophone writing on China. These works reflect the dialogic production of a new ethnic or pseudo-ethnic subject developing out of the gap between China-resident Western foreigners and the Chinese society to which they cannot be assimilated. Since Chinese society affords little room for hybrid identities among Western resident groups, the result is insider-outsider writing, which is deeply engaged with the fraught race and gender relations between Chinese and Western subjects in the cities of China. This group, socioeconomically privileged but culturally marginal, challenges both Chinese and foreign narratives about China.
The Image of China in Red Scarf Girl : Promoting International Understanding or Reinforcing Western Hegemony?
Authors: Xu Xu
Published: November 2015

The promotion of intercultural understanding is an important aim of international children’s literature. Often recommended by scholars and teachers as a positive international children’s book about Chinese culture, Ji-li Jiang’s Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution focuses on the author’s childhood experiences during the first two years of China’s Cultural Revolution. This article argues that the book’s prologue and epilogue frame the central narrative of the author’s experiences as a young girl during the Cultural Revolution in a way that reinforces an orientalist discourse wherein China features as a despotic and backward country in opposition to a free and democratic America. Thus, the article presents the framing sections as setting up this dichotomy fundamental to the West’s hegemony over “other” countries. However, the function of the child narrator is also highlighted. That is, the historically grounded perspective of the child narrator is cast as resisting the frames’ problematic construction of the central narrative simply as an instance of China’s violence and cruelty.
The Image of Faithful Frogs and Titillated Toads: The Human and Animal Hierarchy in Victorian Fairy Tale Adaptations
Authors: Tedeschi Victoria
Published: November 2015

In nineteenth-century England, Charles Darwin threatened humankind’s preconceived superiority by declaring that humans shared genetic information with animals. Cultural anxieties about evolution were made manifest in a variety of print culture, including the burgeoning field of children’s literature. H.B Paull’s English editions of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimms’ “The Frog Prince” (1868) and Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Marsh King’s Daughter” (1895) present animal-human hybrids that are encouraged to perform a fixed human transformation. By reinforcing a schism between humans and animals, these widely read adaptations adhere to dominant contemporaneous values that deemed humanity as a unique and privileged entity.
To Carry Across an Elephant: Translating a Children’s Poem
Authors: Withrow Steven , Larios Julie , Ada Alma Flor , Schechter Robert , Panaou Petros , de Vos Philip , Tardivat Gaelle , Papetti Vittorio , Zubizarreta Rosalma
Published: November 2015

While the subject of translating poems for adults between modern languages is a common field of study worldwide, critical study of the artistic methods and challenges of translating poems for children remains rare across popular and academic literatures. This essay examines multiple approaches to translating “Circus Elephant,” a short imagist poem in English written by Steven Withrow. Versions of the poem in Spanish, Greek, Afrikaans, French, and Italian are included, along with the translators’ notes about choices of diction, sound, structure, and denotative and connotative meaning. The author also explores the idea that composing a translation that moves beyond a hastily constructed, wordfor-word trot is a creative act, an artistic form in itself. Honoring the spirit of the poem requires a patient, painstaking, sensitive, imaginative translator who thinks and acts as a poet. A good translation balances craft and inspiration.
Fixing John Damascene’s Biography: Historical Notes on His Family Background
Authors: Anthony Sean W.
Published: November 2015

The biography of the eighth-century theologian John Damascene has long posed seemingly intractable problems of historical interpretation for modern scholars, but recent research into his writings and the composition of the hagiographical traditions about his life have made new insights into his biography possible. This essay aims to expand upon these recent contributions by reviewing the evidence for the outlines of John Damascene’s biography that can be gleaned from an examination of the history of his family, the Manṣūrs, and their place in Umayyad Syria during the seventh to eighth centuries c.e .
Simeon and Other Women in Theodoret’s Religious History : Gender in the Representation of Late Ancient Christian Asceticism
Authors: Muehlberger Ellen
Published: November 2015

This article explores the use of gender in the Religious History , demonstrating the multiple ways that Theodoret of Cyrrhus marked ostensibly male characters with traits associated in ancient medical literature with female bodies. Beyond simply depicting ascetics as extraordinary human beings, these complexly gendered portraits more importantly served as expressions of an argument Theodoret advanced elsewhere: that men and women shared a common human nature. Based on these observations, the article then offers an interpretation of the two bodily examinations performed upon Theodoret’s most influential character, Simeon the Stylite, namely that these scenes were carefully narrated to suggest that they were examinations of a female body. In conclusion, I argue scholars should consider the peculiar uses of gender in each ancient representation of early Christian asceticism, rather than assume early Christian texts only associated masculinity with excellence in ascetic practice.
Spiritual Exegesis as an Ascetic Performance in Gregory of Nyssa
Authors: Solovieva Olga
Published: November 2015

This essay is an exploration of the ascetic functions and possibilities of “spiritual exegesis.” By applying interdisciplinary performance theory to the writings of a key late ancient ascetic theorist, Gregory of Nyssa, it develops an understanding of spiritual exegesis as a textual performance enacting the ascetical agenda of transformation of the self. I argue that an act of interpretive engagement with Scripture in Gregory’s writings does more than offer a conceptual context for and a mythopoetic authentication of the ascetic praxis. It also encourages a reorientation of the reader’s habitual perceptions, of the text that one encounters and of oneself. By staging a process of an imaginative layering and stripping of identities and pulling the audience into the construction of a shared symbolic reality, this exegetical performance induces an experience of alternative realities and selves.
Travel in Greek Cinema of the 1990s
Authors: Lykidis Alex
Published: November 2015

Travel narratives in Greek cinema of the 1990s chronicled the shifting perceptions of Greece’s role in Europe and the Balkans. Their figuration of internal exile expressed the disenfranchisements wrought by European convergence, while their depiction of travel to other Balkan countries signaled a renewed engagement with Greece’s regional responsibilities and multicultural heritage. Viewing these films through the lens of Greek cultural theory, this essay addresses how their representation of cinematic space negotiates competing European and Balkan paradigms of Greek national identity.
Joseph Eliyia and the Jewish Question in Greece: Zionism, Hellenism, and the Struggle for Modernity
Authors: Goldwyn Adam J.
Published: November 2015

In his brief life, Joseph Eliyia (1901–1931) became the most prominent Jewish writer in Greek and the most prominent Greek writer about Judaism. Eliyia’s poetic and critical works address the fraught situation faced by the Jews of Epirus and Macedonia after the Balkan Wars, when these former Ottoman territories came under Greek control. This new political situation forced the community to answer difficult questions about individual and communal identity—Greek, Jew, or both?—and more practical concerns—assimilate or emigrate? Eliyia himself was divided: a fervent poet of Zionism in his youth, his later work suggests a belief in the possibility of balancing assimilationist pressures with traditional Jewish identity. His ideas are perhaps most clearly visible in his prose biographical sketches of the medieval Jewish poet Judah Halevi and Eliyia’s older contemporary David Frischmann. Eliyia characterizes them as avatars of his own plight, celebrating their commitment to Jewish cultural and political revival in periods of radical change.
Screaming Skin: The Body, Performance, and the Junta’s Legacy of Torture in Elias Maglinis’s The Interrogation
Authors: Barbeito Patricia Felisa
Published: November 2015

Elias Maglinis’s experimental novel, The Interrogation (2008), was published at a time of heated debate about the ethics of representing violence. Given the proliferation of images of torture during the period, scholars called for new forms for the representation of violence in order to elicit meaningful engagement with the body in pain. This essay argues that Maglinis’s novel addresses this challenge by focusing on the legacy of torture under the junta in a way that defies narrative conventions and reader expectations. Maglinis uses imagery of the body and the trope of performance that shapes the text to re-frame the human: he rewrites the models of identity that both justify and perpetuate political violence by using the body as a stage for the examination of the interimplication of the physical, psychic, and social. In its violation of established forms of identity and knowledge, then, the novel strives for an ethical engagement with the body in pain.
Orthodox Theological Currents in Modern Greece after 1974: Ongoing Tensions between Reform and Conservatism
Authors: Kessareas Efstathios
Published: November 2015

The demand for social change and ecclesiastical reform after the restoration of democracy in 1974 was addressed in the field of theology in at least two different ways. On the one hand, an activist, this-worldly, and socially oriented current responded positively to the calls for progressive and democratic reforms within society and Church (social equality, democracy, lay participation, and so on). On the other hand, the inward-oriented, mystical theological current emphasized the inner freedom of the human being and the interpersonal relationships formed within the Eucharistic community at the expense of social change. The different conceptual constellations of each theological current underscored two diametrically opposite positions for the ecclesiastical and social organization, which in the end reflect the perspectives and goals of different contingents of the ecclesiastical system.
The Dekemvriana through the Eyes of the British Soldiers
Authors: Hassiotis Loukianos
Published: November 2015

British soldiers who served in Greece after the country’s liberation in 1944 perceived the political crisis that led to the military confrontation of the Dekemvriana (December 1944-January 1945) in various ways, although their attitude was largely dictated by the official policy of their government. Their personal testimonies (personal and public letters, diaries, and reminiscences) reveal their own role and their experiences in the Battle of Athens. Furthermore, they provide us with interesting information concerning: the soldiers’ views of the two opposing camps (left-wing EAM and the provisional government’s anticommunist forces) and of the Greek people in general; their response to the British policy in Greece and to the reactions on the Home Front; and their own personal concerns about the dangers that they faced, the emotional or moral pressures that they felt, their impressions of foreign places and people, as well as their weariness with their wartime service.
Post-materialism in Greece and the Events of December 2008
Authors: Diakoumakos George
Published: November 2015

The events that occurred in December 2008 in Greece were unprecedented in scope, size, duration, and extent in the use of violence, while also being unexpected not only by the state but also by social movement actors. In spite of the importance of the December events, however, the factors that shaped them remain largely unclear. This paper examines the interpretations suggested so far and argues that the overlooked factor of value change among young Greeks played a crucial role in the making of December 2008. Drawing upon the data of the Eurobarometer and the World Values Survey, I show that values are changing fast in Greece towards post-materialism, meaning more emphasis on the quality of life rather than material well-being, and argue that the December events, especially their most creative side, can be best explained in the context of post-materialism. An analytical framework that places emphasis on the discursive formation of the activist subjects rather than on the abstract political/economic causes of the uprising not only provides a better understanding of the events but also relates them to political developments in their aftermath.
The Cypriot European Elections, May 2014: Dealignment in Process?
Authors: Katsourides Yiannos
Published: November 2015

The present article analyzes the campaign for the 2014 European elections in the Republic of Cyprus (RoC). In the empirical analysis, party choice and voter turnout are explained as a function of both European and non-EU-related factors. Despite the partial politicization of the EU in the campaign as a result of the severe Eurozone crisis, it is clear that national factors are more important than European factors. The second-order character of the European elections is essentially verified along with an ongoing process of voter dealignment, as indicated by low turnout and low levels of trust in political institutions. These signal important challenges for the political and party system of Cyprus, which may have entered a process of transformation.
Hypocoristic Word Formation in Malay: TETU and Anti-faithfulness
Authors: Hashimoto Daiki
Published: November 2015

The aim of this study is to clarify the two properties of Malay hypocoristic word formation: length determination and segmental alternations. We collected 211 Malay hypocoristic words from one female Malay speaker, and descriptively generalized and theoretically analyzed these two properties. As for the length determination, it turns out that Malay hypocoristics are either monosyllabic or disyllabic. For example, Azrin is truncated to a monosyllabic form Rin , whereas Marniyati is shortened to a disyllabic form Yati . Default length is disyllabic, but monosyllabicity occurs in restricted environments. As for the segmental alternation, some segments in base names are altered to other segments in their hypocoristic forms. For example, [f] is changed to [p], such that Saiful is truncated to Pul and Suffian is truncated to Pian . Segmental structure usually becomes less marked in hypocoristic forms, but it becomes more marked in restricted environments. From the perspective of Optimality Theory, it will be claimed that both the length determination and the segmental alternation can be captured as The Emergence of The Unmarked (TETU) phenomenon, basically as in other languages, but that they involve anti-faithfulness effects in restricted environments.
On the Classification of Kenyah and Kayanic Languages
Authors: Smith Alexander D.
Published: November 2015

Borneo has been described by Blust as a “hot spot” for linguistic change. The densely forested highlands and river systems are home to numerous communities, and a long history of human occupation has created a complex network of languages and dialects. Recently, Borneo has been the focus of numerous comparative works, many dealing with the Kenyah, Kayanic, Penan, and Sebop language groups of Sarawak and East Kalimantan. This paper addresses the Kayan-Kenyah hypothesis of Antonia Soriente. By carefully considering the linguistic evidence, it is shown that Soriente’s hypothesis does not provide a convincing argument for a Kayan-Kenyah subgroup. Rather, there is a significant body of evidence for assuming that Kenyah, Penan, and Sebop form a single subgroup that does not include Kayanic. Furthermore, Soriente’s Kayan-Kenyah hypothesis includes an internal subgrouping that places many demonstrably Kenyah languages within the Kayanic subgroup. This paper also addresses these issues, and proposes an updated internal subgrouping based largely on the regular and highly distinctive split in Proto-Austronesian voiced stops shared by all Kenyah, Penan, and Sebop languages.
Banyaduq Prestopped Nasals: Synchrony and Diachrony
Authors: Jardine Adam , Athanasopoulou Angeliki , Kristian Kristian , Cole Peter
Published: November 2015

This paper provides an introduction to the phonology of Banyaduq, a Land Dayak language spoken in western Borneo, which, previous to this study, has never been described in the literature. We focus on the prestopped nasals of Banyaduq, which are of particular interest because, in some but not all dialects, the distribution of prestopped nasals is not predictable. Thus, in those dialects, prestopped nasals are phonemic. This situation contrasts with the description of prestopped nasals in other languages in the region, in which they are described as predictable variants of simple nasal stops. We argue that there is a direct connection between the phonemic status of these prestopped nasals and a diachronic process, noted by previous researchers in a variety of Austronesian languages, in which prestopped nasals become oral stops. We propose that phonemic prestopped nasals are an essential intermediate step on the diachronic path from allophonic prestopping to oral stops. We argue that the change to oral stops is natural for phonemic prestopped nasals, but not for prestopped nasals that are simply allophones of clear nasals. Our data are taken from three varieties of Banyaduq, with most of our data coming from Sangke Banyaduq, the native language of one of the authors.
New Arguments for a Central Solomons Family Based on Evidence from Pronominal Morphemes
Authors: Pedrós Toni
Published: November 2015

In the Solomon Islands, four Papuan languages are spoken: Savosavo, Touo, Lavukaleve, and Bilua. Some scholars, namely Todd and Ross, have tried to prove that these languages are genetically related through the comparison of pronouns and other morphemes, such as object and subject affixes. Although a similarity in the pronominal forms has been identified, the low number of lexical similarities has not allowed a definitive conclusion on the existence of the family. In this paper, the pronouns and all other morphemes that carry information on gender, person, or number in each language are compared in order to identify recurrent forms carrying identical gender, person, or number information. These recurring forms are used to perform internal reconstructions in each language, which in turn are used to propose a reconstruction of some pronouns of the putative protolanguage and a family tree. The comparison among the four languages leads to the identification of an identical syncretism in clusivity between first person inclusive and second person nonsingular morphemes, which is expressed with the same form in the four languages. This syncretism, together with the very similar first and second person pronominal paradigms, are adduced as new arguments in favor of the existence of a Central Solomons family.
East is Not a ‘Big Bird’: The Etymology of the Star Altair in the Carolinian Sidereal Compass
Authors: Holton Gary , Hachibmai Calistus , Haleyalur Ali , Lipka Jerry , Rubinstein Donald
Published: November 2015

We argue that the Micronesian constellation centered on Altair, known in Lamotrek as Mailap, has been mistakenly identified in previous literature with another constellation centered on Sirius, known as Mannap. The latter is literally the ‘Big Bird’ and is well known in parts of Polynesia as well. Confusing this Big Bird with Altair has led to much confusion in the literature on Carolinian navigational arts. We trace the history of how this error arose and why it has persisted over time, and we also suggest an alternate etymology for Mailap.