Humanities & Social Sciences

This book is a study of the cultural and political history of Christian Iraq, the Church of the East, the so–called ‘Nestorians’. This history is seen through the Chronicle of Seert, a medieval Arabic Chronicle that reuses sources written several centuries earlier. This monograph aims to isolate different layers of composition and looks for trends in the choice of material and the agenda of their historians. Each layer of the text provides insight into the social construction of ‘orthodox belief’ in Iraq and the church as an institution. A central narrative is the growing power of the bishops (catholicoi) of the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon, their apostolic heritage, and their alliance with the Persian shahs. The monograph also considers the relationship of the catholicoi with monastic and scholarly centres and with Christian communities of the West. In each of these cases, the material that the Chronicle includes shows us how independent historical traditions were annexed by a narrative focused on Ctesiphon and its bishops. The monograph begins in the fifth century, when a series of abortive alliances between church and shah generated small-scale persecutions. It continues this story into the sixth and early seventh, when the church witnessed considerable growth in numbers and prestige. At each stage, we can see Christians rewriting the past to accommodate a new political and social situation, turning a murky past into a glorious golden age. The book concludes with a final chapter on the church under Muslim rule, when the Chronicle was compiled.

This volume examines the stylistic characteristics of threatening and abusive letters by right-wing extremists as well as left-wing extremist position papers and claims to responsibility. It applies qualitative and quantitative analytical methods to identify and describe the differences and similarities between these text types. The findings facilitate understanding of these text types and provide new perspectives for forensic author analysis.

The interdisciplinarity of contemporary medical sciences, that combine insights from biology, medicine, computer science, and engineering, enables accurate diagnoses, effective treatments, and personalized patient care. Bioinformatics and medical informatics use the advantage of computational power to decode vast amounts of biological data, translating it into actionable medical knowledge. The 'Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics Annual Volume 2024” highlights the integration of these computational techniques and emphasizes the importance of developing new methodologies to tackle emerging health issues and improve patient outcomes. From continuous monitoring of bio-signals using advanced health technology devices to the application of multiscale mathematical modeling for analyzing complex biological systems, the book covers a range of innovative approaches. It also explores the potential of 5G technology to revolutionize healthcare delivery by enabling faster, more reliable communication and improving access to medical resources, particularly in rural areas. The topics covered are timely and crucial, addressing global health challenges and directing future developments.

Leagues of Laughter traces how a Soviet-created youth game changed as students’ nation states collapsed, competed and went to war. The game, called KVN (Klub veselykh i nakhodchivykh, or Club of the Cheerful and Clever), spread to universities across the USSR in the 1960s. It is scored by a panel of judges, like figure skating, but is played in school and university leagues, much like football. KVN rocketed to mass popularity, oddly, due to Soviet censorship. Young people could not protest in essays, speeches or fiction, but the referents of live jokes are hard to prove. KVN became a forum for Aesopian free speech. Soviet pedagogues promoted the game as a wholesome, intellectual youth activity, leading to a preponderance of ordinary schoolchildren gaining at least some experience writing jokes. Even after the fall of the USSR, millions of young people across the former Soviet bloc continued playing KVN in schools, universities and semi-pro leagues. Drawing on fieldwork in Russia and Ukraine between 2015 and 2019, Garey compares KVN traditions in two post-Soviet nation states at war. A series of interconnected, cross-border stories spanning 60 years illustrates how laughter and oppression entwined in the long cultural context of the war in Ukraine.

The paper analyses a brief passage from the dialogue De lite inter Naturam et Fortunam by Albertino Mussato, in which two animal similes are employed. The sources of these similes are identified, revealing a combination of literary and poetic passages as well as of scientific treatises. Among the latter, Aristotle’s De historia animalium in the rare translation by William of Moerbeke stands out, whose circulation in early 14th-century Padua is discussed. Finally, the author reflects on Mussato’s use of elements drawn from the animal world, highlighting both the continuity and innovations compared to medieval practices.

Der vorliegende Sammelband zur Kolmarer Liederhandschrift (München, BSB, Cgm 4997) widmet sich der überlieferungs- und kulturgeschichtlichen Stellung dieser herausragendsten und umfangreichsten Meisterliederhandschrift sowie ihrem Verhältnis zu den übrigen Codices der rheinisch-schwäbischen Gruppe der Liederhandschriften. Der Band vereint verschiedene Aspekte aus den Bereichen der Überlieferungs- und Wirkungsgeschichte sowie der Kulturgeschichte des Meistergesangs. Im Fokus stehen die textuellen und melodischen Kunstformen der Kolmarer Liederhandschrift, die Textualität der überlieferten Lieder sowie das facettenreiche geistliche Liedgut der Handschrift.

The Nordic countries have collaborated in setting guidelines for dietary composition and recommended intakes of nutrients for several decades through the joint publication of the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (NNR). This 5th edition, the NNR 2012, gives Dietary Reference Values (DRVs) for nutrients, and compared with earlier editions more emphasis has been put on evaluating the scientific evidence for the role of food and food patterns contributing to the prevention of the major diet-related chronic diseases. Recommendations on physical activity are included and interaction with physical activity has been taken into account for the individual nutrient recommendations wherever appropriate. A chapter on sustainable food consumption has been added. A Nordic perspective has been accounted for in setting the reference values.The NNR 2012 has used an evidence-based and transparent approach in assessing associations between nutrients and foods and certain health outcomes. Systematic reviews form the basis for the recommendations of several nutrients and topics, while a less stringent update has been done for others. The systematic reviews and individual chapters have been peer reviewed and the systematic reviews are published in the Food & Nutrition Research journal. The draft chapters were subject to an open public consultation. Recommendations have been changed only when sufficient scientific evidence has evolved since the 4th edition. The primary aim of the NNR 2012 is to present the scientific background of the recommendations and their application. A secondary aim is for the NNR 2012 to function as a basis for the national recommendations that are adopted by the individual Nordic countries.

This book provides an authoritative overview of the criteria and standards of the doctorate across a wide range of international settings, with a particular focus on the practices of examining. Presenting case studies and research from 13 universities in 13 countries across Africa, Asia, North and South America, Australia, and Europe, the book is based on in-depth interviews and comparative analyses of the PhD examining experience. It reveals the variations and similarities in different academic traditions and investigates the extent to which there are comparable expectations and standards across countries. It suggests that criteria and standards – both written and unwritten – are broadly similar, but shows that there is a need for much more explicitly formulated criteria and standards for an internationalised approach to doctoral assessment. Following on from the 2019 book The Doctorate as Experience in Europe and Beyond, this book will be of great interest to current and potential doctoral examiners, researchers of higher education, and university administrators.

Lugar de Emilia Pardo Bazán en la literatura española y gallega se ha ganado duro, y ella todavía no ha recibido el reconocimiento que se merece. En Género, nación y literatura: Emilia Pardo Bazán en la literatura gallega y Española, Carmen Pereira-Muro estudia la obra y personalidad de este fascinante autor en el contexto de los nacionalismos que compiten español y gallego. Ella vuelve a leer las historias literarias y cánones nacionales de España y Galicia como narrativas patriarcales que luchan para asimilar o silenciar proyecto nacional alternativo de Pardo Bazán. Pereira-Muro sostiene que Pardo Bazán postuló la inclusión de las mujeres en la cultura nacional como un paso clave para eludir la lógica representacional detrás de realismo y el liberalismo en el estado-nación moderno. Al insistir en que las mujeres deben ser socios iguales, Pardo Bazán adoptó problemáticamente el binarismo patriarcal que asigna a la mujer a la naturaleza y los hombres a la cultura, pero también subvierte que al negar su relación complementaria. Su elección astuta y manipulación de modelos culturales masculinos (Realismo, no Romanticismo; prosa, no la poesía; lengua castellana, no gallego) en última instancia, su- a pesar de la feroz oposición ganaron inclusión en el canon nacional español. Por otra parte, el estudio de sus relaciones con espinosos emergente nacionalismo gallego muestra que su exclusión de la "literatura gallega" se debió en gran parte a su actuación transgresora género. Finalmente Pereira-Muro sostiene que en la última novela del autor, Pardo Bazán experimentó con la creación de una escritura femenina y una femenina canon para España. Sin embargo, la política de género predominantes aseguraron que sólo su producción realista (masculino) lo hizo en el canon español, y no este último modernista escrito, (femenino). En conclusión, este libro cuestiona la naturalización de los cánones nacionales por el descubrimiento de las políticas de género detrás de lo que se echa determinada como natural por idiomas y geografía. Hacer esto también expone a las restricciones de género paralelas en el trabajo detrás aparentemente opuestos central (español) y (Galicia) proyectos nacionales periféricos. Emilia Pardo Bazan's place in Spanish and Galician literatures has been hard won, and she has yet to receive the recognition she deserves. In Género, nación y literatura: Emilia Pardo Bazán en la literatura gallega y Española, Carmen Pereira-Muro studies the work and persona of this fascinating author in the context of Spanish and Galician competing nationalisms. She re-reads the literary histories and national canons of Spain and Galicia as patriarchal master narratives that struggle to assimilate or silence Pardo Bazán's alternative national project. Pereira-Muro argues that Pardo Bazán posited the inclusion of women in the national culture as a key step in circumventing the representational logic behind Realism and Liberalism in the modern nation-state. By insisting that women should be equal partners, Pardo Bazán problematically adopted the patriarchal binarism that assigns women to Nature and men to Culture, but she also subverted it by denying its supplemental relationship. Her astute choice and manipulation of masculine cultural models (Realism, not Romanticism; prose, not poetry; Castilian language, not Galician) ultimately won her-despite fierce opposition-inclusion in the Spanish national canon. Furthermore, the study of her thorny relations with emerging Galician nationalism shows that her exclusion from "Galician literature" was due largely to her transgressive gender performance. Finally Pereira-Muro contends that in the author's last novel, Pardo Bazán experimented with creating a feminine writing and a feminine canon for Spain. Nevertheless, the prevailing gender politics ensured that only her realist (masculine) production made it into the Spanish canon, and not this last, modernist (feminine) writing. In conclusion, this book questions the naturalization of national canons by uncovering the gender politics behind what is cast as naturally determined by language and geography. Doing this also exposes the parallel gender strictures at work behind seemingly opposed central (Spanish) and peripheral (Galician) national projects.

In modern societies the functional differentiation of medicine and religion is the predominant paradigm. Contemporary therapeutic practices and concepts in healing systems, such as Transpersonal Psychology, Ayurveda, as well as Buddhist and Anthroposophic medicine, however, are shaped by medical as well as religious or spiritual elements. This book investigates configurations of the entanglement between medicine, religion, and spirituality in Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa. How do political and legal conditions affect these healing systems? How do they relate to religious and scientific discourses? How do therapeutic practitioners position themselves between medicine and religion, and what is their appeal for patients?

Over the past three decades, Central and Eastern Europe has experienced rapid economic transformation, accelerated by accession to the European Union and deeper integration into global financial markets. While improved access to credit has supported rising living standards, it has also increased households’ exposure to financial fragility when economic shocks occur. This book investigates the financial fragility of households in the region, offering new insights into how households cope with economic shocks and structural change. Despite shared experience of post-socialist transformation, Central and Eastern European countries display significant economic, social, and institutional diversity. This raises important questions: Do households across the region differ in their levels of financial fragility? Which socio-demographic groups are most vulnerable? What factors shape household resilience to economic shocks? Combining conceptual discussion with comparative empirical analysis, the book examines the determinants and dynamics of household financial fragility across the region. It explores changes in household financial conditions – including consumption patterns, debt dynamics, savings behaviour, and subjective financial well-being – and identifies cross-country differences in vulnerability using comparative and cluster-based approaches. The analysis also discusses how external shocks, including the global financial crisis of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic, have shaped household financial stability. By linking structural transformation, institutional context, and household-level outcomes, the book fills an important gap in the literature and offers new insights into the challenges of strengthening household resilience in the face of economic shocks. This book will be of interest to researchers, policymakers, and students in economics, finance, consumer economics, and European studies who seek a deeper understanding of household financial fragility in Central and Eastern Europe.

Space debris has become a major aspect in the last few years. The vast amount of artificial objects orbiting the Earth is increasing. These objects are a threat for active and future missions. Besides, the possibility of uncontrolled re-entry of some of them reaching the surface of the Earth exists. The aim of this work is to provide a view on how to use additive manufacturing technology to design the next generation of satellites in order to reduce the space debris. The components that can be manufactured with additive manufacturing are identified, together with the technologies that are enabled by additive manufacturing to reduce space debris. Finally, the results of these studies and analysis are incorporated into the design of the structure of a small satellite. This study is being part of the H2020 European Project ReDSHIFT (Project ID 687500).

Two-hundred years after the issuance of the "Edict concerning the civil rights of Jews in the Prussian state," the thirteen essays in this volume examine the Prussian emancipation model with the benefit of previously unresearched sources. Starting from the situation facing Prussian Jews at the time of King Friedrich II, the contributors explore the question of what new options the Edict opened up for the Jews and which constraints they continued to face as before.

L'ouvrage constitue une réflexion approfondie sur la problématique de la confiance mutuelle dans l'espace pénal européen, un thème d’une brûlante actualité dès lors que l'importance de la confiance mutuelle dans cet espace va croissant.

Iconographies of Occupation is the first book to address how the “collaborationist” Reorganized National Government (RNG) in Japanese-occupied China sought to visualize its leader, Wang Jingwei (1883–1944); the Chinese people; and China itself. It explores the ways in which this administration sought to present itself to the people over which it ruled at different points between 1939, when the RNG was first being formulated, and August 1945, when it folded itself out of existence. What sorts of visual tropes were used in regime iconography and how were these used? What can the intertextual movement of visual tropes and motifs tell us about RNG artists and intellectuals and their understanding of the occupation and the war? Drawing on rarely before used archival records relating to propaganda and a range of visual media produced in occupied China by the RNG, the book examines the means used by this “client regime” to carve out a separate visual space for itself by reviving pre-war Chinese methods of iconography and by adopting techniques, symbols, and visual tropes from the occupying Japanese and their allies. Ultimately, however, the “occupied gaze” that was developed by Wang’s administration was undermined by its ultimate reliance on Japanese acquiescence for survival. In the continually shifting and fragmented iconographies that the RNG developed over the course of its short existence, we find an administration that was never completely in control of its own fate—or its message. Iconographies of Occupation presents a thoroughly original visual history approach to the study of a much-maligned regime and opens up new ways of understanding its place in wartime China. It also brings China under the RNG into dialogue with broader theoretical debates about the significance of “the visual” in the cultural politics of foreign occupation.