bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Opinions of Turkish Learning Foreign Students about the Educational System in Turkey and Their Respective Countries, Turkish Language and the Language Areas
Authors: Dincel Betul Keray
Published: March 2019

Today, it is not enough for individuals to only speak a native language. Individuals feel the need to learn a second or more language. In the developing world, it is seen that by the help of the technology people can reach the world from home and can learn one or more languages and may even grow in a multicultural family and become bilingual. In this research, it is aimed to investigate the views of Turkish learning international students on the education system in their countries, the education system in Turkey, Turkish and the language areas they study. The purposive sampling method was used in this study. In order to collect qualified data, B2 level students who can easily express themselves in Turkish were selected and interviewed. The research survey was applied to 30 students who were volunteers. To obtain in-depth information, the semi-structured interview method was decided to be used. In this study, it is seen that Turkmen students are not satisfied with the education system in their country while Azerbaijanis are satisfied and both groups liked the education system in Turkey. It is determined that the learners have positive and beautiful thoughts about Turkish. In terms of linguistic areas they do not find listening necessary, they do not mind much about reading, and on the contrary, they care a lot about speaking, and they give importance to writing and grammar, though they have difficulties in both.
Do Trampoline Injuries Result in More Hospital Intervention Compared to Other Mechanisms of Injury?
Authors: Ibrahim Yousef , Okoro Tosan
Published: March 2019

Background. A significant proportion of emergency department (ED) presentations are related to trampoline injuries. The aims of this study were to assess whether presentations to the ED as a result of a trampoline injury have an increased incidence of requiring intervention as opposed to other mechanisms of injury in children under 9 years old.
Materials and methods. Retrospective observational assessment of ED presentations of children under
9 years old recorded in the European Injuries Database (EU IDB) in 2014.
Results. Of a total of 28135 ED presentations, 4.4% (n=1257) were as a direct result of trampoline injuries. 38.6% (n=486) of these patients required further intervention (inpatient treatment/outpatient treatment/transfer to another facility) compared to other injury mechanisms such as sport (43.8%; 992/2263), falls from a height (28.3%; 5756/20363), park injuries (42.5%; 641/1507) and road traffic accidents (RTAs) (40.9%; 1124/2745). There was no statistically significant difference between trampoline injuries (38.6%) and road traffic accidents (40.9%), in terms of requiring further intervention (Fisher’s exact test p=0.18).
Conclusion. Injuries from trampolines, although a small proportion of all injuries recorded, have a similar incidence of requiring intervention when compared to other, major, modes of injury such as RTAs in this age group – this information has implications for current public health policy and parental approval of this activity.
The archaeology of “celebrities” in the Greek and Roman worlds.
Authors: Hall Jonathan M.
Published: March 2019

The debate about the identification of the house of Augustus on the Palatine hill or the controversy surrounding the occupant of Tomb 2 at Vergina or the recently excavated funerary complex at Amphipolis offers more than sufficient evidence for a public fascination with important historical personalities. Yet, at the same time, disciplinary trends in archaeology have sought to emancipate the material record from historicizing narratives and to occlude or decanter the knowing subject. The archaeology of the individual has become, at best, a quaint, antiquarian pursuit and, at worst, a celebration of neo-conservative ideology. This article will consider a series of case-studies from the ancient Greek and Roman worlds with the aim of illuminating the viability - and desirability - of practicing an archaeology of famous individuals.
Ibn Shuhayd and his "Risālat al-twābiʿ wa 'l-zawābiʿ"
Authors: Hämeen-Anttila Jaakko
Published: March 2019

Ibn Shuhayd's (d. 1035) Risālat al-tawābiʿ has been preserved in fragments in Ibn Bassām's al-Dhakhīra. The early eleventh century was a period of great experimentation in narrative prose. Just a few decades before Ibn Shuhayd wrote his work, al-Hamadhānī had written his maqāmas on the other side of the Islamic world. The Risālat al-tawābiʿ comes into the margin of maqāma literature. The original structure of the treatise is reconstructable to a certain extent, especially with the help of al-Thaʿālibī's Yatīmat al-dahr, which has been neglected in earlier studies. In his work, Ibn Shuhayd quotes not only from his own poetry but also from his rasā'il. One of these quotations shows how Ibn Shuhayd himself has revised his original Risālat al-ḥalwā' and modified it to fit it into the new context of the Tawābiʿ.
Openness and Closedness: Four Categories of Closurization in Modern Arabic Fiction
Authors: Taha Ibrahim
Published: March 2019

The discussion of the four categories of ending and closure in modern Arabic literature in terms of openness and closedness clearly indicates the interrelations between the ending and the model of the textual reality, and the interrelations between this model and the extra-literary reality. It seems that when the historical, and especially the political and the social reality slaps writers across the face and stands before them in all its might and immediacy, they do not remain indifferent and write a literature with optimistic, promising, and closed endings; and vice versa: a text with a model of reality which does not relate to a well defined piece of history ends with a more open type of ending and becomes a closure in the reader.
Reason and Revelation or a Philosopher's Squib (The Sixth Maqāma of Ibn Nāqiyā)
Authors: Kennedy Philip F.
Published: March 2019

Ibn Nāqiyā (d. 1092) is far less well-known than Badiʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī (d. 1008), creator of the maqāma genre and luminary of the Arabic literary canon. After al-Hamadhānī our attention turns normally to al-Ḥarīrī (d. 1122), who refined certain (mainly linguistic) features of the genre and who has subsequently eclipsed the fame of other authors. Ibn Nāqiyā comes chronologically midway between al-Hamadhānī and al-Ḥarīrī; he amplifies more the irreverent tone than the linguistic register of al-Hamadhānī. The sixth maqāma of Ibn Nāqiyā (one of ten surviving pieces) shows in the author a quite detailed knowledge of falsafa, and from it we sense the growing tension between falsafa and orthodox Sunni theology in the eleventh century C.E. This constitutes more than just the social and discursive backdrop to the text: the dichotomy structures the text whose statement of fatalism is as erudite (in an Aristotelian scheme) as it is facetious - and therefore ultimately incoherent. This article lays bare in a close reading the nature and tone of the parody in this burlesque piece.
"Musulmani in Italia: La Condizione Giuridica delle Comunità Islamiche" A Cura di Silvio Ferrari: Articolo Recensione
Authors: Cilardo Agostino
Published: March 2019

The Muslim presence in Italy, and in Europe generally, is steadily increasing. This encounter of two so different cultures is a source of mutual enrichment, but it also creates a new situation, making it necessary for Europe to discuss the position of such a presence in its borders. The legislation of Spain, Germany, Belgium, and France, in addition to that of Italy, is examined in the book edited by Ferrari. The system followed in Italy with regard to religious denominations is based on a legal agreement between the State and the religious group concerned, the agreement always safeguarding the supreme principle of a non-denominational State. However, a series of questions must first be resolved in the case of Islam. Since three proposals have been presented up to now, the first question is to determine the association that truly represents Muslims. Once this has been done, many of the requests made by Muslims will find an answer in existing legislation. Only a few will need to be the subject of special agreements.
Editors' Introduction
Authors: Metcalfe Alex , Bell Joseph Norment , Edzard Lutz
Published: March 2019

It is with great pleasure that the editors of the Journal of Arabic andIslamic Studies dedicate articles from volume 8 to Michael G. Carter onthe occasion of his 70th birthday on 7 January 2009.
Sedentary and Bedouin Dialects in Contact: Remarks on Karaki and Salṭi (Jordan)
Authors: Palva Heikki
Published: March 2019

El-Karak and es-Salṭ are two Jordanian towns which have traditionally been in close contact with Bedouin neighbours. Part of their population also claims Bedouin origin. The dialects spoken in the towns can be classified as rural dialects of mixed type. They display a number of Bedouin-type features, e.g. the voiced g variant of *q. The Bedouin traits of Karaki are typical of the dialects spoken in Arabia Petraea, in Salṭi they belong to the dialects of the Syro-Mesopotamian group. Diachronically, some of the features shared with Bedouin dialects may be regarded as conservative sedentary traits, e.g. the retention of interdentals as well as gender distinction in plural of finite verbs and personal pronouns. Both Karaki and Salṭi use the b-imperfect, whereas they differ from each other in the use of negations. Salṭi makes use of the compound negation, in Karaki it is not used.
Ajami Scripts in the Senegalese Speech Community
Authors: Ngom Fallou
Published: March 2019

Wolofal (from Wolof: Wolof language or ethnic group and ‘-al’: causative morpheme) is an Ajami writing (a generic term commonly used to refer to non-Arabic languages written with Arabic scripts) used to transliterate Wolof in Senegal. It results from the early Islamization of the major Muslim ethnic groups in the country, especially the Pulaar, the Wolof and the Mandinka. Although Senegal is considered to be a French-speaking country, ironically over 50% of the Senegalese people are thought to be illiterate in French. French literacy is restricted to the minority educated group mostly found in urban areas. Because the literacy rate in French is very small in the country, especially among older people, Wolofal remains a major means of written communication among people who are illiterate in French and who have attended Qurʾānic schools. It is used by these people to write letters, run their informal businesses and read religious poems and writings. This paper is based upon fieldwork conducted in Senegal in the summer of 2004. It discusses the orthographic system of Wolofal (compared to Arabic) and provides a sociolinguistic profile of communities in which it serves as major means of written communication.
"Like the Wick of the Lamp, Like the Silkworm They Are": Stupid Schoolteachers in Classical Arabic Literary Sources
Authors: Ghersetti Antonella
Published: March 2019

The alleged stupidity of schoolteachers was a common topos in adab literature of the Abbasid period as well as in later sources. Indeed, ‘the stupid schoolteacher’ was a stereotype much like ‘the dull person’, ‘the smart sponger’ and ‘the ridiculous bedouin’. Frequent references to such images indicate that the intended audience revelled in this kind of literary device. This article examines diverse ways of reading and interpreting the adab sources which deal as much in fantasy as reality. Indeed, while the standard stereotypes of schoolteachers are varied, amusing and predominantly negative, they are not always as they at first appear.
The Notion "Weapon" in Arabic Idioms: Characterization of Persons and Objects
Authors: Torlakova Ludmila
Published: March 2019

The present study is a sequel to an investigation published in volume 8 (2008) of this Journal that discussed a group of Arabic idioms that have as at least one of their components a word denoting a weapon and that describe situations or behavior. Here weaponry idioms denoting characteristics and features of people and objects are examined in order to understand their semantic structure and motivation. Since the majority of the idioms studied have been collected from dictionaries, an attempt is made to present an assessment of their current use in Modern Standard Arabic based on Internet sources.
Public Execution in the Umayyad Period: Early Islamic Punitive Practice and its Late Antique Context
Authors: Marsham Andrew
Published: March 2019

Executions can be understood as symbolic events and part of wider political culture. Recent commentators on early Islamic execution have observed that Umayyad punishment of apostates, rebels and brigands was ‘pre-classical’. There is less agreement about the extent to which ‘Islam’ affected Umayyad practice. Epistles and poetry provide a more secure basis for understanding Umayyad public capital punishment than the problematic anecdotal evidence of other sources. Umayyad punitive practice was indeed not ‘classical’, and its justification does not seem to have explicitly invoked Prophetic precedent. However, it was sometimes justified with reference to the Qurʾān, and in particular with reference to ideas about violation of God’s covenant (nakth) and public violence (khurūj and fasād fī l-arḍ). Furthermore, when the supposed forms of punishment are considered in their late antique context, features of Umayyad-era penal culture that appear to have been shaped by the wider, monotheist context can be identified.
Libri e Artigiani del Libro: Le Raccomandazioni dei Giuristi Musulmani (XIV Secolo)
Authors: Canova Giovanni
Published: March 2019

The paper deals with the comments 14th-century jurists, Ibn Jamāʿa, Ibn al-Ḥājj and al-Subkī made about books and bookmaking, which highlight their ambivalent attitude towards the craftsmanship of those involved in the production of books. While extolling the merits of papermakers, scribes and bookbinders in connection with the production of religious books, the jurists urged these craftsmen to proceed in strict compliance with the Islamic code. Copying and binding certain kinds of books, such as folk romances, was severely censured or even prohibited. Some suggestions aiming at the prevention of fraud and illicit behaviour were also included in sections of legal treatises dealing with the crafts of book-production.
Do Jordanians really speak like Palestinians?
Authors: Herin Bruno
Published: March 2019

A common belief is that Jordanian Arabic is mostly similar to Palestinian Arabic. It will be shown that although the dialects of the eastern and western bank of the Jordan river are rightly classified as Southern Levantine, there is compelling linguistic evidence that the sedentary varieties spoken in Jordan did not originate from Palestine, but rather from the North, more precisely from Horān, an ancient settlement area of the Levant located between what is now Jordan and Syria.
Competing Pressures in Diglossia: Avoiding Colloquial Elements in Writing Modern Standard Arabic
Authors: Magidow Alexander
Published: March 2019

This article investigates speaker choice of variant lexemes and structures when writing in formal Modern Standard Arabic, using a multiple-choice survey that was distributed to 28 native speakers of Damascene Arabic. The study finds that speakers tend to avoid elements that are common in their local colloquial dia-lect, even if they are attested and permissible in Modern Standard Arabic, what might be called “negative interference.” However, in some cases interference from the colloquial form is so strong that speakers appear to be confused as to which form is correct (“positive interference”), and when given the choice, prefer to avoid problematic forms altogether. These results suggest that there are a number of competing pressures in diglossia, supplementing previous studies which have primarily found evidence of positive interference from the local dialects on Modern Standard Arabic. This study concludes that this avoidance behavior may explain the historical robustness of diglossia, as well as some of the regional variation that occurs in Modern Standard Arabic.
Engaging the Authoritarian State: Voices of Protest in Syria
Authors: Athamneh Waed , Sayej Caroleen Marji
Published: March 2019

This paper captures the discursive interaction between the Syrian regime and the protesters during the revolt that began in March 2011. The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, we trace the use of symbolic rhetoric as a method of control long used by the Syrian regime to shape permissible discourses in society. The Assad family has long relied on the powerful symbols of Baathism, Pan Arabism, and resistance to colonialism to justify its rule with an iron fist. Second, we demonstrate that the protesters are using the same tactics to challenge the regime, as a form of reverse indoctrination, to undermine and counter its dominant narratives. They have engaged the authoritarian state through the use of poetry, music and slogans. The power of their words represents a symbolic collapse of the regime as the protesters negate and reinvent their political identity.Key Words: Arab Spring – Authoritarianism – Collective Resistance – Iltizām (commitment) poetry – Semiotics – Syria
The Geography of Identity: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf’s Sīrat madīna: ʿAmmān fī ’l-arbaʿīnāt
Authors: Sheetrit Ariel M.
Published: March 2019

This study treats the masterpiece Sīrat madīna: ʿAmmān fī ’l-arbaʿīnāt (1994; translated into English as Story of a City: A Childhood in Amman, 1996) by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf. I read it through its unconventional and original formal and aesthetic choices in which the story of the city and the protagonist are narrated relationally in terms of each other. The goal of the present study is to deconstruct its multifaceted relational strategies, pinpointing the formal choices and thematic proclivities which situate the autobiographical subject in a particular social, cultural, temporal and historic sphere, and in constant tension with these same elements. It also pinpoints the text’s paradoxically obverse tendency to dissociate and distance the autobiographical subject by way of formal narrative techniques and content, ostensibly favoring the city as the focus of the text over the “self” of the protagonist. Under the surface, the autobiographical subject is constantly present, and is discursively constituted through the historical, cultural and communal accounts of the city. Finally, this study reveals that in Sīrat madīna, both the porousness of geographical boundaries as well as the traversing of personal boundaries are expressed through metaphors and accounts of death.Key words: Abd al-Rahman Munif, relational autobiography, modern Arabic literature, Arabic autobiography, diaspora autobiography, exile literature.
Evaluative Language in Academic Discourse: Euphemisms vs. Dysphemisms in Adrews' & Kalpakli's "The Age of Beloveds" (2005) as a case in point
Authors: Alvestad Silje Susanne
Published: March 2019

In this article, I am concerned with certain aspects of the language use in ANDREWS and KALPAKLI’s The Age of Beloveds: Love and the Beloved in Early-Modern Ottoman and European Culture and Society (2005). More specifically, I show how the authors tend to use distinct sets of words to describe a particular kind of practice depending on whether it occurs in the Ottoman Empire or in some western European city, even though they claim that the practices are equivalent. Typically, the practice in question involves an adult male, a young dependent boy, a sexual act between the two, and some kind of payment for the boy. This kind of practice is more often than not referred to in terms of activities of love when it occurs in the Ottoman Empire, but in terms of sexual debauchery involving boy prostitutes when it takes place in some western European city. Thus, in the article, in which I draw on certain insights from Critical Discourse Analysis (see, e.g., REISIGL and WODAK 2001), I show, by means of several quotations, that the vocabulary used to describe the practices is quite frequently euphemistic when the Ottoman Empire is concerned and correspondingly dysphemistic when cities in Western Europe are concerned. The subtitle of the work represents an exception to this pattern.I conclude the article by pointing out two issues that might shed some light on the authors’ choice of words.Keywords: evaluative language in academic discourse, euphemism, dysphemism, Ottoman lyric poetry, Ottoman Turkish language, early-modern cultural studies
Sainthood and the law: The influence of mysticism in eighteenth century pedagogy of the "fuqahāʾ"
Authors: Nims Sara
Published: March 2019

Using certificates of scholarly achievement (ijāzāt), it is argued that ideas and practices usually associated with Islamic mysticism (taṣawwuf) were widespread among the religious elite in eighteenth century Egypt. Writings about Sufism were a common part of the curriculum of scholars of the law and individuals revered as saints feature prominently in chains of transmission of authority in subjects such as ḥadīth and fiqh. Most importantly, pedagogical practices common to religious scholars of this period reflect epistemological elements that cut across philosophical works and ritual traditions that come out of Islam’s mystical tradition.Key Words: Sufism – Education – ijāza – ḥadīth – Egypt
When Writers Activate Readers: How the autofictional blog transforms Arabic literature
Authors: Pepe Teresa
Published: March 2019

The adoption of Internet technology in Egypt has led to the emergence a new literary genre, the ‘autofic-tional blog’. This paper explores how this genre relates to the Arabic understanding of literature, using as examples a number of Egyptian autofictional blogs written between 2005 and 2011. The article shows that the autofictional blog transforms ʾadab into an interactive game to be played among authors and readers, away from the gatekeepers of the literary institutions, such as literary critics and publishers. In this game the author adopts a hybrid genre and mixed styles of Arabic and challenges the readers to take an active role in discovering the identity hidden behind the screen and making their way into the text. The readers, in return, feel entitled to change and contribute to the text in a variety of ways.Keywords: autofictional blog; ʾadab; modern Arabic literature; Egypt
g - #Sisi_vs_Youth: Who Has a Voice in Egypt?
Authors: Hofheinz Albrecht
Published: March 2019

This article presents voices from Egypt reflecting on the question of who has the right to have a voice in the country in the first half of 2016. In the spirit of the research project “In 2016,” it aims to offer a snapshot of how it “felt to live” in Egypt in 2016 as a member of the young generation (al-shabāb) who actively use social media and who position themselves critically towards the state’s official discourse. While the state propagated a strategy focusing on educating and guiding young people towards becoming productive members of a nation united under one leader, popular youth voices on the internet used music and satire to claim their right to resist a retrograde patrimonial system that threatens every opposing voice with extinc-tion. On both sides, a strongly antagonistic ‘you vs. us’ rhetoric is evident.
(i) Ritual Ablution and Cultic Purity in an Ismaili Context: The Siǧistānian View
Authors: Straface Antonella
Published: March 2019

The paper, which is a continuation of my previous research on the Siǧistānian view of the pillars of Islam, aims at analysing the interpretation of ritual ablution (wuḍūʾ) and cultic purity (ṭahāra) according to the tenth-century Ismaili dāʿī Abū Yaʿqūb al-Siǧistānī. In the last of his works, the Kitāb al-iftiḫār (The Book of the Boast), this outstanding Ismaili missionary also devoted attention to the Islamic ritual prescriptions. These obligatory duties, whose performance al-Siǧistānī fully recognised, conceal an inner meaning that can be unveiled through the tradition of the taʾwīl, the esoteric interpretation that, according to the Ismaili doctrine, allows the muʾmin to achieve his salvation.Key words: Ismailism, pillars of Islam, ritual ablution and cultic purity, taʾwīl
(e) Éclats de roche : Une étude d’étymologie sur les noms de la pierre en latin, grec et arabe
Authors: Rolland Jean-Claude
Published: March 2019

Starting from the Latin cases of semantic parallelism, rūpēs || rumpō and saxum || secō, this study goes through a number of Arabic denominations of the stone to demonstrate that in Arabic too there is a strong relationship between those denominations and many roots that basically express an act of breaking or cutting something. The conclusions are the following: – the Greek equivalents of “stone”, the etymology of which is obscure, might have the same relationship with some Greek or Latin words expressing the act of breaking; – Greek πέτρᾱ [pétrā] might be of Semitic origin.Key words: Arabic, Greek, Latin, lexicology, etymology, stone, fragment, breaking, stroke, Bohas
THEMED SECTION (a-k, complete): Arrays of Egyptian and Tunisian Everyday Worlds: An Update on the project "In 2016—How it felt to live in the Arab World five years after the 'Arab Spring'"
Authors: Guth (ed.) Stephan , Chiti (ed.) Elena , Hofheinz (ed.) Albrecht
Published: March 2019

No abstract available.
(f) Crowdfunding
Authors: Pepe Teresa
Published: March 2019

No abstract available.
Die Grenzen der Grammatiker: der Streit um die kanonischen Lesarten des Koranverses قَالُوٓاْ إِنْ هَٰذَانِ لَسَٰحِرَانِ qālū ʾin hāḏāni la-sāḥirāni, Sure 20 (Ṭāhā), Vers 63
Authors: Fakhry Salah Ata
Published: March 2019

This paper investigates the attitudes of different schools of Arab grammarians towards the passage in sūra 20, ʾin hāḏāni la-sāḥirāni (as such in the Cairene textus receptus). Analyzing the approach to the different qirāʾāt (readings) of this passage, three lines of argument emerge: (i) one group of grammarians dismissed any qirāʾāt that did not conform to their own grammatical opinions; (ii) a second group of grammarians cautiously adduced various qirāʾāt as evidence for their own grammatical opinions; (iii) a third group of grammarians assigns a grammatical key value to a qirāʾa with an authentic ʾisnād and argues that such qirāʾāt do not need further argumentative support.
Ultraviolet disinfection impacts the microbial community composition and function of treated wastewater effluent and the receiving urban river
Authors: Kauser Imrose , Ciesielski Mark , Poretsky Rachel S
Published: March 2019

Background. In the United States, an estimated 14,748 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) provide wastewater collection, treatment, and disposal service to more than 230 million people. The quality of treated wastewater is often assessed by the presence or absence of fecal indicator bacteria. UV disinfection of wastewater is a common final treatment step used by many wastewater treatment plants in order to reduce fecal coliform bacteria and other pathogens; however, its potential impacts on the total effluent bacterial community are seemingly varied. This is especially important given that urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) typically return treated effluent to coastal and riverine environments and thus are a major source of microorganisms, genes, and chemical compounds to these systems. Following rainfall, stormflow conditions can result in substantial increases to effluent flow into these systems.

Methods. Here, we conducted a lab-scale UV disinfection on WWTP effluent using UV dosage of 100 mJ/cm2 and monitored the active microbiome in UV-treated effluent and untreated effluent over the course of 48h post-exposure using 16S rRNA sequencing. In addition, we simulated stormflow conditions with effluent UV-treated and untreated effluent additions to river water and compared the microbial communities to those in baseflow river water. We also tracked the functional profiles of genes involved in tetracycline resistance (tetW) and nitrification (amoA) in these microcosms using qPCR.

Results. We showed that while some organisms, such as members of the Bacteroidetes, are inhibited by UV disinfection and overall diversity of the microbial community decreases following treatment, many organisms not only survive, but remain active. These include common WWTP-derived organisms such as Comamonadaceae and Pseudomonas. When combined with river water to mimic stormflow conditions, these organisms can persist in the environment and potentially enhance microbial functions such as nitrification and antibiotic resistance.
Why structure matters
Authors: Barton Nick , Hermisson Joachim , Nordborg Magnus
Published: March 2019

Great care is needed when interpreting claims about the genetic basis of human variation based on data from genome-wide association studies.
Accelerating cancer without mutations
Authors: Brash Douglas E
Published: March 2019

Mice get melanoma faster when they have common, inherited variants in a few genes that control cell-wide changes but also respond to the environment.
STRATEGIC NOISE MAPPING AND ACTION PLANNING. EXPERIENCE, PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS
Authors: MIHAYLOV BORIS
Published: March 2019

Based on EU Noise Directive (END - Directive 2002/49/EC) since 2005 started an intensive noise mapping process in EU member states. Some of the countries had a significant tradition in creating noise maps in the past. The END set a new path, and aimed a harmonized global strategic approach to reduce the increasing environmental noise from major sources (causing heavy health impact to EU population).The author has a broad experience in last more than 5 years - creating noise maps and strategic noise plans, mainly in Bulgaria. In the recent paper is presented a short overview of obtained experience and related practical conclusions. The final aim is to determine exact dedicated action plans - based on the strategic noise management (restriction and reduction of the environmental noise impact), and applying set of measures and acoustical planning in short, middle and long terms. Key words:strategic noise map(s), action plan(s), environmental noise.
THE FIRE SIMULATION AS A SAFETY ADVANTAGE IN FIRE PREDICTION AND FIRE PROTECTION
Authors: Jevtic Radoje
Published: March 2019

Fire presents the process of uncontrolled combustion that makes material damage and endangers human lives. It is important to know many factors that fire depends on for successful design and realization of fire protection systems. One of the most effective, the most economic and the most reliable ways to determine propagation of potential fire is the use of simulation programmes. In this paper, the usage of the PyroSim 2012 simulator in the potential fire determination was presented. A simulated facility was chosen to be the Electrotechnical school „Nikola Tesla“ in Niš.
Key words: fire, simulation, FDS, evacuation
Effectiveness of knowledge transfer between project team members in digitally disrupted organizations
Authors: Tornjanski Vesna , Petrovic Dejan , Nesic Sandra
Published: March 2019

Research question: The study aims to extend and deepen the understanding of maturity level of knowledge transfer effectiveness between project team members in an organization in which disruptive innovations and external forces foster acceleration of various types of changes within organization. Motivation / Idea: Banks in Serbia are characterized by dominant functional organizational structure in which knowledge is acquired and stored in well-established departments and branches. On the other hand, the banking sector in Serbia is going through transformation mainly due to external forces that accelerate significant changes, at the same time implying meaningful increase in number and types of projects which are becoming increasingly demanding and complex. These factors further imply a shift from functionally-based operations to project-based operations. A radical shift of temporary organization from functionally-oriented to project-oriented foster new challenges when knowledge transformation is in question. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to research predictors for knowledge transfer success between project teams and to reveal major barriers to knowledge transfer effectiveness in the banking sector. Data / Tools: This paper opted for a survey research method and the sampling frame includes 13 banks that operate in Serbia. Findings: Research results show that knowledge transformation between project team members is low. Moreover, very dynamic circumstances, projects complexity and tight deadlines create new challenges when knowledge transfer effectiveness is in question. Accordingly, research results show that organizational understanding, valuing and adequate support for knowledge acquisition and transfer represent significant indicators for knowledge transfer success within project teams in the banking industry of Serbia. Besides, individual readiness, efforts, capabilities and history of successful knowledge transfer play an important role in knowledge transformation success. Finally, regression analysis output disclosed that all observed aspects, i.e., characteristics of knowledge transfer, individual and organizational aspects represent significant simultaneous predictors for knowledge transfer success between project teams in the banking sector of Serbia. Contribution: The paper contributes to enriching the literature on knowledge transfer between project teams in an industry’s, country’s and regional contexts that have been poorly addressed so far. By focusing on this phenomenon, the paper contributes to project managers, strategic managers and policy makers by addressing the gap between importance of knowledge transfer in one hand, and poor project outcomes on the other.
Design of a Polarization-Independent Dual-Band Electromagnetically Induced Transparency-Like Metamaterial
Authors: Demirkap O. , Bagci F. , Yilmaz A. E. , Akaoglu B.
Published: March 2019

In this study, the classical analog of single and dual-band electromagnetically induced transparency is demonstrated with a four-fold symmetric metamaterial consisting of a Minkowski fractal ring resonator surrounded by a square ring resonator. The proposed metamaterials show high transmission ratios at the polarization independent resonances, as confirmed by the applied two different numerical methods. Delay-bandwidth products are found to be 0.34 and 0.61 at the resonances of the dual-band metamaterial. The peak frequencies and transmission ratios maintain also for oblique angle of incidences. These features of the proposed metamaterials are promising for single and multi-band filtering applications as well as for slow light and sensing devices.
Oceanographic moorings as year-round laboratories for investigating growth performance and settlement dynamics in the Antarctic scallopAdamussium colbecki(E. A. Smith, 1902)
Authors: Schiaparelli Stefano , Aliani Stefano
Published: March 2019

Background

Oceanographic moorings (OMs) are standard marine platforms composed of wires, buoys, weights and instruments, and are used as in situ observatories to record water column properties. However, OMs are also comprised of hard substrates on which a variety of invertebrates can settle when they encounter these structures along their dispersal routes. In this contribution, we studied the fouling communities found on two OMs deployed in the Ross Sea (Antarctica). Furthermore, a cage containing the Antarctic scallopAdamussium colbecki(E. A. Smith, 1902) was incorporated in the OM. The growth of the cagedA. colbeckiwere evaluated after 1 year and their shells used as biological proxy for seawater temperature and salinity.

Methods

A variety of settlers were collected from two different OMs deployed in the Ross Sea (Antarctica) and species identified using a combination of morphological and genetic (mainly through DNA barcoding) characteristics. Caged scallops were individually marked with permanent tags and their growth studied in terms of size-increment data (SID). Cages were specifically designed to prevent damage to individuals due to water drag during OM deployment and retrieval. Growth parameters from the caged individuals were applied to theA. colbeckijuveniles that had settled on the mooring, to trace the likely settlement period.

Results

The growth performance of cagedA. colbeckiwas similar to that from previous growth studies of this species. The remarkable survival rate of caged specimens (96.6%) supports the feasibility of caging experiments, even for a species with a fragile shell such as the Antarctic scallop. Some of the new recruits found on the mooring wereA. colbecki, the same species we put into special cages fixed to it. The settlement of theA. colbeckijuveniles started during the Austral spring with a peak in summer months and, remarkably, coincided with seasonal changes in water temperature and flow direction, which were recorded by the mooring’s instruments. Genetic data from other settlers provided new information about their larval ecology and connectivity.

Discussion

Oceanographic moorings are expensive and complex experimental platforms that, at present, are strictly used for the acquisition of physical and biogeochemical data. Their use for in situ ecological experiments on model organisms suitable for caging and to study fouling species has yet to be fully explored. We present the outcomes of a study, which represents a baseline for the characterization of Antarctic fouling biodiversity. We hope that in the near future an internationally coordinated systematic study of settlers could be initiated around the Antarctic continent. This could utilize “new generation OMs” equipped with standardized settlement structures and agreed sampling protocols for the study of fouling communities.
PEMBUATAN SOFTWARE SEBAGAI APLIKASI LINEAR SCHEDULING METHOD PADA PERENCANAAN PENJADWALAN PROYEK JALAN
Authors: Suryadharma Arthur
Published: March 2019

Proyek konstruksi jalan adalah contoh dari proyek linear, dimana terdiri aktivitas – aktivitas yang berulang dari unit yang satu ke unit berikut. Oleh karena itu tipe proyek ini butuh perencanaan penjadwalan yang tepat. Linear Scheduling Method (LSM) adalah teknik penjadwalan yang tepat untuk menjadwalkan unit – unit aktivitas proyek linear secara berkesinambungan sehingga terhindar dari idle time. Pada penelitian ini dilakukan pembuatan software LSM yang dapat menjaga kesinambungan kelompok kerja, disamping itu dapat menjadwalkan aktivitas – aktivitas agar terjadwal berdasarkan urutan yang ditentukan. Studi kasus proyek jalan digunakan pada penelitian ini untuk menguji software yang dibuat. Pembuatan software LSM menggunakan bantuan Visual Basic Software pada Microsoft Excel. Software yang diimplementasi pada proyek jalan menunjukkan kemampuan software yang dibuat untuk menghasilkan durasi proyek tanpa adanya idle time pada perpindahan kelompok kerja dan menjaga hubungan ketergantungan antar aktivitas.
ANALISA PENGARUH BUDAYA DAN SOSIAL TERHADAP NIAT KONSUMEN DALAM PEMBELIAN RUMAH PADA PERUMAHAN MEWAH DI MAKASSAR
Authors: Phengkarsa Arnold
Published: March 2019

Penelitian ini dilakukan di kota Makassar, untuk mengetahui faktor-faktor internal yang dipertimbangkan oleh konsumen dalam membeli rumah. Penelitian sebelumnya lebih banyak meneliti tentang faktor eksternal (harga, lokasi, desain, dll) dibanding faktor internal. Faktor-faktor internal yang diteliti terhadap niat konsumen membeli rumah di kawasan perumahan mewah adalah faktor budaya dan sosial. Faktor budaya terbagi atas faktor power distance dan faktor individualism-collectivism. Faktor sosial terbagi atas pengaruh pasangan, pengaruh anak, pengaruh orang tua, dan pengaruh teman. Analisa hasil penelitian dari 204 sampel ini menyebutkan faktor power distance, individualism-collectivism, dan pengaruh anak adalah faktor-faktor yang signifikan terhadap niat pembelian rumah di kawasan perumahan mewah Makassar. Di sisi lainnya pengaruh pasangan hidup, orang tua, dan teman tidak mempunyai korelasi.
Plant Salinity Tolerance
Authors: Al‐shareef Nouf Owdah , Tester Mark
Published: March 2019

Soil salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses limiting plant growth and resulting in crop yield reductions. The adverse effects of salinity stress on plant growth happens in two phases: the osmotic phase, which occurs immediately after salt stress and results in a rapid inhibition in plant growth; and the ionic phase, which occurs after several days or weeks of salt stress, when ions accumulate to high toxic concentrations in the shoot and affects shoot function. Plants have evolved several mechanisms to deal with salt stress, which can be divided into three mechanisms: osmotic tolerance, ion exclusion and tissue tolerance.

Key Concepts

Osmotic stress causes a rapid and immediate inhibition of plant growth as a result of high salt concentration around the roots.

Ionic stress occurs after several days or weeks of salt exposure, when Na+accumulates in the shoot to toxic concentrations.

Osmotic tolerance is the ability of plants to maintain growth immediately after salt stress; it appears as an ability to better maintain growth and stomatal opening.

Ion exclusion is the ability to exclude Na+from the shoots by the roots, to prevent accumulation of Na+in the shoot; it depends on the up‐ and downregulation of specific ion transporters to control the amount of Na+being transported to the shoot.

Tissue tolerance is the ability of plants to tolerate elevated levels of Na+in the shoot; it requires Na+compartmentalisation into the vacuole and accumulation of compatible solutes in the cytoplasm.

Halophytes are plants native to saline environments and that have high salinity tolerance.

Glycophytes are salt‐sensitive plants, being a large majority of plants.

Stomatal closure is closing of the stomatal pores to prevent water loss during salt and drought stress; it is stimulated by ABA, among other triggers

Vacuolar Na+sequestration is an important tissue tolerance mechanism; It involves Na+transport from cytosol into vacuole to help maintain low cytosolic Na+.

Salt bladders arise from epidermal cells; they are modified trichomes and provide an important mechanism of salt exclusion from the main part of leaves in halophytes.
Molecular Genetics of Uterine Sarcomas
Authors: Micci Francesca , Davidson Ben
Published: March 2019

Uterine sarcomas are a heterogeneous group of rare mesenchymal cancers, which includes tumours originating in both the smooth muscle of the myometrium and the endometrial stroma. They have variable course, although they are clinically aggressive as a group. Differentiating between various uterine sarcoma entities based on morphology and immunohistochemistry is feasible in many cases, but some specimens are challenging. Considerable knowledge has been gained in recent years regarding the molecular characteristics of these cancers, which may improve their diagnosis and impact on prediction, prognostication and treatment. This body of research has highlighted the genetic differences between leiomyosarcomas and their benign counterparts, leiomyomas, and allowed for classification of endometrial stromal sarcomas as low‐ or high‐grade. The relevance of these molecular changes in the therapeutic setting awaits future studies.

Key Concepts

Uterine sarcomas are a heterogeneous group of rare malignant mesenchymal tumours.

The diagnosis of uterine sarcomas based on morphology and immunohistochemistry may be challenging.

Analysis of fusion genes aids in the differential diagnosis between low‐ and high‐grade endometrial stromal sarcoma.

Undifferentiated uterine sarcoma is currently regarded as an aggressive variant of endometrial stromal sarcoma.

Uterine leiomyosarcomas have mutations in key cancer‐associated genes.

Leiomyomatosis tumours of uncertain malignant potential may harbour the molecular changes which characterise leiomyosarcomas.
Learning to calibrate: Providing standards to improve calibration accuracy for different performance levels
Authors: Nederhand Marloes L. , Tabbers Huib K. , Rikers Remy M.J.P.
Published: March 2019

This experimental study explores whether feedback in the form of standards helps students in giving more accurate performance estimates not only on current tasks but also on new, similar tasks and whether performance level influences the effect of standards. We provided 122 first‐year psychology students with seven texts that contained key terms. After reading each text, participants recalled the correct definitions of the key terms and estimated the quality of their recall. Half of the participants subsequently received standards and again estimated their own performance. Results showed that providing standards led to better calibration accuracy, both on current tasks and on new, similar tasks, when standards were not available yet. Furthermore, with or without standards, high performers calibrated better than low performers. However, results showed that especially low performers' calibration accuracy benefitted from receiving standards.
Open Air Plasma Deposition of Superhydrophilic Titania Coatings
Authors: Hovish Michael Q. , Hilt Florian , Rolston Nicholas , Xiao Qiran , Dauskardt Reinhold H.
Published: March 2019

A method for the deposition and functionalization of a nanostructured organotitanate thin film, which imparts superhydrophilicity to a surface with a one‐step, open‐air process, is described. Extreme wetting (Θ < 5°) is achieved through synergistic contributions from both nanoscale roughness, visible light absorption caused by nonmetal dopants, and oxygen vacancies and surface activation by reactive plasma species. To test the efficacy of this material as an antifog coating, glass is coated and subjected to aggressive changes in humidity. Under both fogging and defrosting conditions, the superhydrophilic coating achieves a high degree of transparency, showing nearly two orders of magnitude improvement over the bare glass. The measured adhesion of the superhydrophilic coating is 5.9 J m−2, nearly double that of the solution‐processed control. The reliability of the coating is further validated by demonstrating scratch‐resistance. Additionally, the incorporation of organic matter into the molecular structure of the coating disrupts long‐range crystallinity from developing. This structural and subsequent chemical analysis of the coating reveals that inorganic and organic species are intimately connected at the nanoscale via alkyl and alkoxy bridges. The amorphous organotitanate material is distinct from conventional TiO2, which requires high temperature crystallization and extensive UV irradiation to display similar superhydrophilic qualities.
Empowered Layer Effects and Prominent Properties in Few‐Layer Metasurfaces
Authors: Chen Shuqi , Zhang Yuebian , Li Zhi , Cheng Hua , Tian Jianguo
Published: March 2019

Metamaterials are 3D artificial structures proposed to surpass conventional natural materials and realize novel functions beyond traditional optical elements. Nevertheless, they are usually bulky and difficult to be fabricated. As 2D equivalents of metamaterials, metasurfaces have been proposed to overcome the drawbacks of metamaterials and fully control the polarization, amplitude, phase, and dispersion of electromagnetic waves. Relative to single‐layer metasurfaces that have limited controllability and functionality, few‐layer metasurfaces have more degrees of freedom and abundant layer effects to design novel devices and achieve high‐efficiency applications. This review is focused on the empowered layer effects and prominent properties in few‐layer metasurfaces, and some distinctive applications proposed in recent years are discussed. It is expected that few‐layer metasurfaces will provide a promising road toward the novel intelligent photonic devices, multifunctional devices, and integrated photonic devices.