bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Fuzzy Set Theory and Concepts: A Proposal for Concept Formation and Operationalization
Authors: Quaranta Mario 
Published: February 2014

AbstractThe quantity-quality debate in social sciences also concerns concept formation and operationalization. The first approach has strong naturalist assumptions, while the second one focuses on the historical specificity of concepts. The solution to overcome this divide would be finding a path which balances the two perspectives. In this article we argue that fuzzy set theory can be a helpful tool for concept formation and operationalization. The application of fuzzy set theory to concept formation and operationalization provides, first, the opportunity of looking at concepts as complex constructs made up of attributes logically interconnected one with the other and, second, of measuring them accordingly. Thus, after presenting our general argument, we show a theoretical and an empirical application of how to use fuzzy sets in concept formation and operationalization.
The Ruling Israeli Elite and the Unilateral Withdrawal Plan from Gaza
Authors: Jabali Saqer 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
This study analyzes, using the elite approach, the relationship between the Israeli ministerial elite and their adoption of a unilateral withdrawal plan from the Palestinian territories because the socio-economic constituents of this elite are so strong and influential that it affects the political conduct of its members.
The study shows, through an analysis of the relationship between party affiliation and members’ adoption of the withdrawal plan, that all members of the Shinui Party and 85.7% of Kadima members supported the plan and that all the ministers from the National Religious Party, Yisrael Baaliah and Yisrael Beiteinu opposed it.
The study also finds that the socio-economic status of the ministerial elite affects the members’ stand on the unilateral withdrawal plan: those who were seventy, sixty or fifty years old supported the plan while those who were forty opposed it. The study also shows that 56.3% of the ministers who were born in Israel supported the withdrawal plan and 80% of the members of the Israeli elite who lived in major cities ( Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa) approved the plan, while all members of the elite who lived in settlements rejected the plan completely.
Furthermore the study shows that all those who practiced or worked in journalism and 75% of lawyers and managers had supported the Israeli unilateral withdrawal plan. With regard to the level of education, the study also shows that the highest percentage of supporters of the unilateral withdrawal plan among the members of the ministerial elite amounted to 75% among master’s degree holders, 66.7% among doctorate degree holders and 56.3% with a bachelor’s degree. On the other hand, the highest percentage of opponents amounted to 33% among doctoral degree holders, followed by bachelor’s degree 31.2% and then master’s degree by 25%. The percentage of the members of the educated ministerial elite who studied in Israel and voted for the plan was 56% while all members who studied in the United States backed the unilateral disengagement plan, while 66.7% of those who studied in foreign universities outside Israel agreed on that plan. This indicates that American universities promote the principles of coexistence in the region.
With respect to the recruitment in the army or the political administrative system, about 95% of the ministerial elite had done military service and that about 68.4% of them supported the unilateral withdrawal plan.
Students’ Mathematics Academic Performance: An Interaction of Inputs from the Students, Schools, and Voters
Authors: Koshal Rajindar K. , Koshal Manjulika , Gupta Ashok K. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractThis study proposes and tests a model affecting students’ mathematical academic performance in public schools. We postulate that students’ mathematical academic performance depends on the interaction of key factors associated with students, the schools, and the voters. The model incorporates variables such as the attendance rate, social and economic background of parents of the students, marital status of parents, expenditure per pupil that voters are willing to invest, proportion of school expenditure from local sources, and quality of teachers. Academic performance of students is measured by the percentage of the total number of students passing the mathematics part of the proficiency test. The three simultaneous-equations model is estimated by using data for 576 Ohio school districts. Our analysis suggests that an increased expenditure on education would improve the mathematics skills of the students. However, money alone is not sufficient. Our study implies that, along with the increased investment in education, a number of other socioeconomic variables need attention. For example, an increase in the attendance rate of students can bring a substantial improvement in the academic performance of students. An improvement in attendance rate requires reduction in poverty and an increase in the percentage of two-parent families.
Social Impacts of Resource Extraction: A Comparative Examination of Andean Latin America and Implications for Rising Colombia
Authors: Graham Felicia Christine 
Published: February 2014

AbstractResource extractive conflicts are typically attributed to environmental or economic concerns. In this article I argue, however, that conflicts in Andean Latin America are also shown to incorporate social concerns born from structural shifts inherent in resource extraction that alter land use, labor, and community relations. I also seek to bring to the fore the actual social impacts of resource extraction to argue that these factors play a larger role in shaping individual, community, and even political consciousness. An examination of this sort allows for a more comprehensive understanding of extractive conflicts and can further efforts to foster inclusive collaboration between governments, companies, and communities by exposing the linkages between resource extraction and the community.
Jonah and God: Plants, Beasts, and Humans in the Book of Jonah (An Essay in Interpretation)
Authors: Abusch Tzvi 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
The book of Jonah concludes with a puzzling rhetorical question by God, connecting plants, animals, and the people of Nineveh (4:10–11). This essay attempts to explain the logic of this rhetoric and to lay out its precise force, thereby clarifying the literary message of the book.
VOS in Greek
Authors: Sifaki Evi 
Published: February 2014

This paper looks into the VOS order in Greek and its focusing patterns. Evidence from main and embedded VOS reveals that embedded VOS is more restricted in its focusing possibilities. If the focus effects of main and embedded VOS differ, then we cannot advocate fixed Focus Projections in the syntactic architecture like the cartographic approaches do. Chomsky (2007; 2008) divides features in two types; the probe-agreement ones which trigger obligatory movement and the E(dge) F(eature) which facilitates movement and yields information structure effects at the Interface. In effect, Greek VOS is viewed as the result of a single derivation in which movement is induced for the satisfaction of an EF. The focus effects that are present in VOS are not assigned in Syntax, but at the Interface. The claim here is that Syntax is ‘blind’ to information structure properties. Yet, in order to explain how one single derivation maps out to two distinct focusing possibilities, we employ the notions of accessibility and saliency, as these are discussed in Slioussar (2007) and developed in Kechagias (2010). Roughly, accessibility corresponds to topics and saliency to foci. In Greek VOS, saliency tends to mark constituents to the right of the verb (i.e. object, or manner adverb).
Thamudic Inscriptions from Wādī Samarmada
Authors: Maani Sultan , Alzoubi Mahdi 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
This research is an analytical study of eleven thamudic inscriptions found in Samarmada valley at the al-Jafr region in south Jordan. These inscriptions have been presented here in transcription, and facsimile together with a discussion of a number of points which have been arisen from their study. The study aims at analyzing the inscriptions, meanings and structure of the words and the proper nouns contained therein
(En)gendering Muslim Self-Assertiveness: Muslim Schooling and Female Elite Formation in Uganda
Authors: Schulz Dorothea E. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractThe article takes the role of school education in the historical marginalization of Muslims in Uganda to argue that recent transformations in the educational field have created new opportunities for Muslims to become professionally successful and to articulate a self-assertive identity as minority Muslims. In a second step the articles points to the particular significance that the recent shift in Muslims’ educational opportunities bears for Muslim girls and women. It argues that the structural transformations in the field of education since the late 1980s had paradoxical implications for female Muslims and for the situation of Muslims in Uganda more generally. The diversification of the field of primary, secondary, and higher education since the mid-1990s facilitated career options that had been unavailable to the majority of Muslims.Access to an education-based status is now possible for a wider segment of the Muslim population of Uganda. Yet in spite of long-standing efforts by representational bodies such as UMEA, educational reforms have not put an end to significant socioeconomic and regional differences among Muslims. There are still notable inequalities in access to high-quality education that have existed historically between Muslims from different regions of Uganda. These unequal schooling opportunities delimit the pool of those Muslims who may access institutions of higher education and hence articulate a new, education-based middle-class identity.
Rethinking the Festival: Power and Politics
Authors: Testa Alessandro 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
This article discusses several recent approaches to the study of festivals and points out in which ways certain theories of power can be fruitfully applied to better interpret both historical and contemporary festivals. The structure of the text is tripartite: in the first part, I present a brief, critical history of the studies in order to construct a genealogy of the category of festival (and of its criticism); in the second part, I discuss certain major speculations on power and reflect upon their applicability to the study of festivals; in the third part, I present some case-studies and investigate the political dimensions of festivals by applying and problematizing, to selected examples, the theories discussed in the second part. Concepts as “power,” “hegemony,” “function,” “playground” and others are explored in their implications and (re)discussed in the attempt of both delineating different ranges of theoretical issues and developing new methodological attitudes.
The Identity of NAASR and the Character of the Critical Study of Religion: Introduction
Authors: Arnal William E. 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
Introduction to the following set of papers: Aaron W. Hughes, Sleeping with Elephants; Julie Ingersoll, Establishing a Beachhead or Kicking up Sand?; Nicole Kelley, Making Myths and Policing Borders: NAASR and the Critical Study of Religion; Russell T. McCutcheon, A Modest Proposal on Method; and Donald Wiebe, Change the Name! On the Importance of Reclaiming NAASR’s Original Objectives for the Twenty-First Century.
“Pseudo-Speciation of the Human Race:Religions as Hazard-Precaution Systems”
Authors: Wiebe Donald 
Published: February 2014

AbstractHuman individuals and groups have faced not only immediate and obvious threats to their welfare that trigger a flight-fight-or-freeze response but also long-term and unpredictable challenges to their general security. Defence systems against such threats involve detecting subtle signs of potential danger and eliciting precautionary responses to them. I will argue here that there is sufficient evidence in the historical, psychological, and anthropological literature to suggest that religions emerged as such “natural security systems.” I will also suggest, however, that with the global improvement in human physical well-being religions no longer play this kind of protective role and may themselves have become a threat to modern civilization.
“ ‘Epiphanius’ and Patristic Debates on the Marital Status of Peter and Paul”
Authors: Eastman David L. 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
A Syriac fragment erroneously ascribed to Epiphanius of Salamis allegedly preserves the names of the wives of Peter and Paul and draws our attention to patristic debates over the marital status of the apostles. In these contexts scriptural interpretation and ascetic ideals interacted, producing varied conclusions about the apostolic teaching and examples. Some patristic authors accepted the married apostles as a matter of fact, while others saw such suggestions as offensive and dangerous. This essay examines the exegetical approaches to key New Testament passages and explores how this fragment fits within the history of interpretation and biographical reception of Peter and Paul.
Spiritual Transformation: Concept and Measurement
Authors: Hermans Chris A.M. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractSpiritual experiences are defined as experiences of ultimate meaning, which are existentially relevant, unexpected and sometimes (but not necessarily) objectively strange compared to normal experience. Two types of spiritual experiences can be distinguished: an orientation type and a transformation type. Spiritual transformation is defined as a process of self-awareness to unify the divided self. The ultimate (final, eternal, sublime) guides this process of change into a true self (wholeness, unification). We distinguish between five types of transformation, following the seminal work by Kees Waaijman,Spirituality: forms, foundations, methods(Dutch, 2000; English translation, 2003). They are labelled form-given, re-forming, con-forming, transparent-form and beyond-form. A measuring instrument was developed, based on this theoretical framework, and tested on a sample of school leaders in South Africa (n=132). Three types of transformation are confirmed (form-given, re-forming and beyond-form); two types clustered together (con-forming, transparent-form). The article concludes with a reflection on this result and suggestions for further development of the measuring instrument and the concept of spiritual transformation.
Biblical and Pastoral Reflections on the Impact of Urbanization on Christians in China
Authors: Zhang Wenxi 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
This article looks at the significant phenomenon of urbanization in China, and its impact on Chinese Christians, focusing on Catholics. The author highlights pastoral challenges that urbanization brings to Christians in China. From the reality of urbanization the author reflects on models of caring for migrants from a biblical viewpoint. He then proposes creative ways of providing pastoral care to migrant workers drawn from these reflections. A sense of urgency is needed among church leaders as people face the ongoing process of the urbanization of the Chinese population; if not, indifference might well result in a two-generation vacuum in faith.
‘Kitchen Knowledge’, Desperate Foods, and Ritual Healing in Everyday Survival Strategies during the Great Famine in China, 1958–62
Authors: Xun Zhou 
Published: February 2014

AbstractFamine is a social and economic crisis that is commonly accompanied by widespread of malnutrition, starvation, epidemic disease, and increased mortality. This paper focuses on the period of the Great Leap Famine in China between 1958 and 1962. Based on newly-collected oral interviews and archival evidence, it gives voices to ordinary villagers from different parts of China—from various counties in one of China’s biggest and most populated Sichuan province in the southwest to Shandong in the east and Hunan in central China and examines their experiences and their survival strategies in times of hunger, illness, and death. It shows that an integral part of everyday famine culture, particularly in rural China, which was worst hit, concerns the kitchen knowledge and practice of healing and nutrition. Many traditional recipes that were used in previous times were rediscovered and used as everyday hunger-coping techniques. Some are dated back to the Ming dynasty—a few were recorded inMateria Medica for Famine Relief(Qiuhuang bencao救荒本草,c. 1406). Using the methodology of oral history set against the historical background of traditional materia medica, this paper elicits how ordinary people in rural China devised complex and plural strategies to cope with fundamental biological crises.
The Clinical Utility of the Concept of Jing in Chinese Reproductive Medicine
Authors: Maxwell Daniel 
Published: February 2014

AbstractThe concept ofjingis fundamental in Chinese medicine (CM). However, English-language discourse reveals the term to be polysemous, confusing, and contradictory. In the currently flourishing field of Chinese reproductive medicine in the West, clinicians claim to be able to provide treatment for age-related pathologies of the human gametes—ascribed by modern CM to be manifestations ofjing—that seem dubious from the perspective of modern biomedicine. Such practitioners reveal scripts that diverge significantly from their biomedical peers. In the context of the unclear modes in which the concept ofjingfunctions, and the emotive sphere of reproductive medicine in which it operates, this paper uses a grounded theory approach to make a thematic analysis of the relevant English-language discourse relating tojing. Interpretive analysis of the resulting themes shows the term being used differently by clinicians and scholars of CM, and that such modes are predicated according to the specific requirements and agendas of the author. Finally, recommendations for clinicians, scholars, and researchers are made along with concluding remarks.
‘Treating Illness’: Translation of a Chapter from a Medieval Chinese Buddhist Meditation Manual by Zhiyi (538–597)
Authors: Salguero C. Pierce 
Published: February 2014

AbstractThis translation is an excerpt from a meditation treatise by one of the most important figures in East Asian Buddhist history, the Chinese scholar-monk Zhiyi (538–597). Zhiyi was notable as a systematizer and domesticator of Buddhist knowledge, and particularly for his writings onśamathaandvipaśyanāmeditation. The excerpt translated below is a complete chapter from the shorter of his meditation treatises. It focuses specifically on how various strands of Indian and Chinese medical and religious knowledge could be employed to diagnose and treat illness while the practitioner remained engaged in seated meditation. Incorporating both foreign and domestic knowledge into the framework ofśamathaandvipaśyanā, this chapter represents one of the earliest examples of systematic Indo- Sinitic medical syncretism, and one of the most important expressions of a unique medieval Chinese Buddhist perspective on healing.
Chinese Political Values in Colonial Victoria: Lowe Kong Meng and the Legacy of the July 1880 Election
Authors: Macgregor Paul 
Published: February 2014

AbstractLowe Kong Meng (Liu Guangming 劉光眀, 1831-1888),1 pre-eminent merchant and community leader of gold-rush Melbourne, was active in Australian politics, self-regarded as a British subject yet engaged with the Qing dynasty and was likely the first overseas Chinese awarded rank in the Chinese imperial service. Victoria’s mid-1880 election was a watershed: the immediate aftermath was the re-introduction of regulations penalising Chinese, after over 15 years of free immigration and no official discrimination. After the election it was claimed that Lowe Kong Meng persuaded Victoria’s Chinese to vote for the government, but was it in his interests to do so? This article examines the nature of Lowe Kong Meng’s engagement in European and Chinese political activity in the colony, as well as the extent of his leadership in Chinese colonial and diasporic life and explores how much he could have used that leadership to influence electoral outcomes. The article also examines how Lowe Kong Meng and the wider Chinese population of the colony brought changing political agendas to Victoria and developed these agendas through their colonial experiences.
Confucian Heritage, Public Narratives and Community Politics of Chinese Australians at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century
Authors: Kuo Mei-fen 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
This paper focuses on the meanings of Confucian heritage for the Chinese ethnic community at the time Australia became a Federation. It will argue that public narratives about Confucian heritage provided a new agency for mobilizing urban Chinese Australian communities. These narratives politicized culture, helped to shape Chinese ethnic identity and diasporic nationalism over time. The appearance of narratives on Confucian heritage in the late 19th century reflected the Chinese community’s attempt to differentiate and redefine itself in an increasingly inimical racist environment. The fact that Chinese intellectuals interpreted Confucian heritage as symbolic of their distinctiveness does not necessarily mean that the Chinese community as a whole aligned themselves with the Confucianism revival movement. By interpreting Confucian heritage as a national symbol, Chinese Australian public narratives reflected a national history in which the Chinese community blended Confucian heritage into a nationalist discourse. This paper argues that this interpretation of Confucian heritage reflects the Chinese community’s attempts to redefine their relationship with the non-Chinese culture, they were a part of, in ways which did not draw on colour or race.
Mink’s Riddle of Narrative Truth
Authors: van den Akker Chiel 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
The problem how to ascertain the truth about the past is as old as history itself. But until the work of Louis Mink, no clear distinction was made between questions concerning the truth of statements on the past and questions concerning the truth of historical narratives as a whole. A narrative, Mink argues, is not simply a conjunction of statements on the past. Therefore its truth cannot be a function of the truth of its individual statements. The problem of narrative truth is according to him thus: although each statement (or set of statements) asserting a relation between events is subject to confirmation and disconfirmation, the combination of interrelations as established by the historical narrative is not, even though such combination of interrelations represents a real combination in past reality and is claimed to be true. As if to further complicate the problem, Mink maintains that history shares its form with fiction. Three and a half decades after Mink formulated the problem of narrative truth, it has not been dealt with in a satisfying manner. Mink does not solve nor dissolve the problem he posed. That task is taken up in this essay. It will move us away from the vocabulary of literary theory towards a pragmatist account of narrative truth.
Le personnage de Rostam dans Bīžan et Manīže de Ferdowsī
Authors: Bazzi Rachid 
Published: February 2014

Résumé
Examiner de plus près les différents emprunts qui ont abouti à la formation du personnage de Rostam tel qu’on le trouve dans Bīžan et Manīže de Ferdowsī est d’importance cruciale pour l’étude du récit de facture populaire. Qu’est-ce à dire sinon que l’envergure du personnage de Rostam n’a pas valeur explicative et que le lecteur attentif de l’œuvre de Ferdowsī finira par découvrir que plusieurs apports, dont ceux provenant d’un autre héros, aux traits moins marqués certes, Esfandyār en l’occurrence, ont permis à l’illustre pahlavān de prendre consistance et de s’affirmer le long de son parcours ?