Suchergebnisse

Abstract
This essay is dedicated to the life and interests of Baron von Falz-Fein who died in 2018 at the age of 106. Having emigrated with his family in childhood, he preserved interest in his Motherland throughout his life and spent considerable time and effort to promote Russia's ties with "White Emigrants." He also contributed to the return of various historical documents and objects of art that had been taken abroad in the upheavals of the 1917 revolution and World War II. Throughout his life, he accumulated a substantial collection of Russian art acquired from various countries of Europe. Displayed in his house, these objects of art reflected life trajectories of émigrés, and his narratives shared with the author reveal the importance of people's diplomacy in changing Russia's attitudes to her diaspora. The prominent figure of the Baron, his friendships, diverse interests, and sports achievements are grandly present in the objects he possessed. His language presents considerable interest for linguists, adding to our understanding on how contact languages influence Russian spoken abroad, and which elements of the language system are robust and which are particularly vulnerable. The essay is richly illustrated with photos made by the author.

Abstract
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic progressive neurological disease clinically characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms, with an increasing impact on the quality of life not only for the patient but also for the caregivers. Twenty-six primary caregivers (female = 19; mean age = 57.04, SD = 10.64) of PD patients were consecutively recruited. Several psychological aspects were verified through clinical screening tests: EQ-5D and PQoL CARER for quality of life, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI), Family Strain Questionnaire (FSQ), and Adult Attachment Questionnaire. We found that the burden was generally higher in cohabiting female caregivers of patients with dementia as compared with not cohabiting caregivers. Severe burden emerged in 7.7% of the participants according to the PQoL. The mean score of this scale was higher in cohabiting caregivers. Finally, according to the CBI, 19.2% of the participants suffered from severe burden, with mean scores of the CIB-S and CIB-E subscales higher in cohabitants. Our study highlights the need to investigate more thoroughly the burden of caregivers of PD patients and its associated factors, and to pay more attention to the physical and psychological health of caregivers to improve their quality of life.

While studies of commerce and trade in Manila's 'Golden Age' are common, the impact of the city's multiethnic society on the daily lives of its inhabitants has often been harder to gauge. Based on 98 Inquisition cases, this article examines the widespread use of folk magic in colonial Manila, offering new insights into cultural interactions and inviting new reflections on the nature and extent of colonial domination. Folk magic—also known as hechicería—was an important part of cultural life within Spanish communities across the empire in the early modern period. Encompassing a variety of different practices, including the use of love charms, luck charms, spell-casting, and divination, it offered individuals opportunities to mediate their relationships, particularly with members of the opposite sex. These practices connected European folk traditions with Asian knowledge of botany, medicine, and spirituality to fulfil the needs of the Spanish community for magic. At the same time, this blending of Spanish and Asian cultures was subversive of colonial authority. Folk magic practices challenged the progression of 'pious imperialism' that pitted Christianity against indigenous traditions, creating spaces of cultural exchange where the balance of power between cultures was more evenly felt than often assumed.

Figurations of the child frequently establish and rely upon a linear conception of time. This article is a response to the problematic linearity of teleological developmentalism through a discussion of non-linear theoretical and fictional approaches to the figuration of the child. The author discusses some of the issues that have been raised with linear developmental models and joins a growing chorus of childhood studies and early education scholars by working against the constrictions of linear time. This article conceptualizes non-linear models of time and development, through exploration of Michael Ende's Momo, a young adult novel that theorizes non-linear time, and Charlie Mackesy's The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, a contemporary best-seller that defies age categorization and invites non-linear material interaction (i.e., defying the determined action of reading from front to back and left to right). This article introduces and exemplifies the concept of "atemporal presence" to define the timeless present moment from which Momo's titular character operates, and it offers the idea of "growing out" as an alternative to notions of "growing up." This author illustrates how establishing non-linear conceptions of time and development creates sites for free, non-hierarchical growth.

Abstract: We are currently living in a digital age where social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and TikTok have made it easier to target one's partner. Between 6% and 39% of college students report being stalked since entering college (SPARC, 2017). When such intimidation occurs on campus, many students of color, particularly African American students have been hesitant to notify the Title IX Office. This research assessed students' perceptions of and experiences with on-campus dating violence and stalking to better describe its prevalence. The study reports on a non-probability quantitative sample of 421 questionnaires, and a qualitative sample of fifteen one-on-one in-depth interviews. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) results yielded differences in students' experiences with dating violence and stalking. More attention should be spent on dating violence, stalking, stalking laws, the Title IX process, available resources, and school policies. Additionally, prevention efforts such as assistance with academic housing accommodations, referrals to ensure the safety and security of the victim/survivor, and the implementation of a Campus Climate Survey should be considered. Such techniques will aid to create and evaluate effective strategies when addressing dating violence and stalking on their campuses.

AbstractAt the core of this article lies the argument that the Ottoman grand vizierate and the rise of the Köprülü family to power in the seventeenth century should be studied and analyzed mainly within two analytical and comparative frameworks. First, we should situate the office of the grand vizier in a diachronic view of the Islamic vizierate. Second, the Köprülü grand vizierate, in particular, should be viewed as one part of a synchronic 'Eurasian age of the chief minister," in a historical domain stretching from early modern Mughal and Safavid worlds to European empires and kingdoms. This article presents preliminary observations that may form a blueprint for future investigations into this global aspect of the grand vizierate and chief ministry. A broad perspective that merges these diachronic and synchronic approaches will allow us to detect theoretical and practical peculiarities of the Ottoman grand vizierate in comparison to its peers in Islamic history and across early modern Eurasia. Using that Eurasian macro perspective, I argue that the Köprülü grand viziers spearheaded the restoration of an independent vizierial authority that was idealized by generations of pre-Ottoman and Ottoman political writers and had numerous precedents in Islamic history.1

This study investigates the effect of exercise-induced fatigue on change of direction performance and serve precision among young tennis players. A group of 21 players (age 12.90 ± 0.76 years), ranked among the top 50 players on the national tennis federation scale and the top 300 on the "Tennis Europe" scale, participated in the study. They underwent a standardized physiological load protocol using the "300-m running test" which consists of consecutive runs for 15 shares of 20 m (15 × 20). Its intensity was determined using the Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale where subjects evaluated their level of experienced load on a scale from 0 to 10. Prior to and after the protocol, they performed a pre-planned change of direction T-test and serve precision test. Results showed significant increase of time in the T-test (from 11.75 ± 0.45 s to 12.99 ± 0.4 s, p = 0.00) and decrease in serve precision parameter from (6.00 ± 1.04 to 4.00 ± 1.26, p = 0.00) after the fatigue test protocol. The RPE increased from 5 to 9, after the fatigue protocol, indicating the desired fatigue effect. These findings indicate that exercise-induced fatigue impairs change of direction performance and serve precision among young tennis players.

AbstractOver the past decades, the number of single households is constantly rising in metropolitan regions. In addition, they became increasingly heterogeneous. In the media, individuals who live alone are sometimes still presented as deficient. Recent research, however, indicates a way more complex picture. Using the example of Vienna, this paper investigates the quality of life of different groups of single households in the city. Based on five waves of the Viennese Quality of Life Survey covering almost a quarter of a century (1995–2018), we analyse six domains of subjective well-being (satisfaction with the financial situation, the housing situation, the main activity, the family life, social contacts, and leisure time activities). Our analyses reveal that, in most domains, average satisfaction of single households has hardly changed over time. However, among those living alone satisfaction of senior people (60+) increased while satisfaction of younger people (below age 30) decreased. Increasing differences in satisfaction with main activity, housing, or financial situation reflect general societal developments on the Viennese labour and housing markets. The old clichéd images of the "young, reckless, happy single" and the "lonely, poor, dissatisfied senior single" reverse reality.

Despite increased awareness of sex trafficking of minors in the U.S., prosecution of traffickers remains difficult, in part because of victim uncooperativeness. There are questions about how that uncooperativeness is expressed, whether it is evident in successfully prosecuted cases, and whether it is unique to trafficked minors or it emerges in similar age victims of sexual abuse. To provide insight relevant to these questions, we compared appellate opinions in two types of successfully prosecuted criminal cases: sex trafficking and sexual abuse of adolescent victims. In the trafficking opinions, victims were rarely described as disclosing on their own or as knowing their trafficker before the victimization. The opinions also often alluded to the trafficking victims' uncooperativeness and delinquency history, and frequently mentioned electronic evidence and prosecution experts. The sexual abuse opinions, in contrast, tended to suggest that victims' own disclosures initiated the case, perpetrators were known and trusted adults, and caregiver support during the case was common. Finally, the sexual abuse opinions never explicitly mentioned victim uncooperativeness or electronic evidence and rarely mentioned expert testimony or delinquency. The different characterizations of the two case types highlight the need for improved education concerning effective prosecution of sex crimes against minors.

L'auteure étudie les multiples réappropriations de l'histoire de la Kahina dans la sphère francophone en procédant à la lecture croisée d'œuvres savantes, publiées par des orientalistes français, et d'ouvrages de fiction, écrits par des femmes. La lecture intertextuelle souligne les mécanismes de formation et de transmission d'un héritage féministe autour de cette souveraine amazighe, dont la légende rapporte qu'elle s'opposa à l'invasion arabe de l'Afrique du Nord au viie siècle. Bien que sa vie et son identité demeurent incertaines, la Kahina s'est prêtée depuis le Moyen Âge « à toutes sortes de récupérations » (Modéran), tour à tour symbole de berbérité, de féminisme, de nationalisme, d'identité juive, ou encore de lutte des classes. Pour les auteures mentionnées dans cet article, s'inscrire dans l'héritage contesté de la Kahina correspond à une « recherche des origines » (Halimi) qui émancipe et relie des femmes d'horizons différents, et traverse la frontière symbolique de la Méditerranée. À travers ces mécanismes d'identification transculturelle, l'auteure de cet article propose de considérer les (ré)appropriations féministes de la Kahina comme des sites potentiels de résistance anti-impériale, retournant l'instrumentalisation qu'en avait faite l'empire français et offrant une réinterprétation de l'histoire à travers la fiction. La Kahina devient figure de proue d'un panthéon féministe transculturel, sans cesse réinventé.

AbstractClassifying sleep stages is an important basis for neuroscience, health sciences, psychology and many other fields. However, the manual determination of sleep stages is tedious and time consuming. Therefore, the development of automatic sleep stage classifiers based on data collected with low-cost sensor systems is an important research area. This study aims to analyse the generalisability of different machine learning approaches for sleep stage classification. We train three different models (random forest, CNN-LSTM and seq2seq) for classifying three as well as four sleep stages, with the MESA data set. For validation, we use a fivefold cross-validation and further validate the models with one new self-recorded test data set to analyse the models' generalisability to a completely new cohort with different characteristics with regard to age and health status. Our results show that the two deep learning approaches performed better than the random forest. Moreover, all models are generalisable and therefore suitable for sleep stage classification on a new three-stage classification data set. However, generalisability for the four-stage classification task shows poorer performance, and therefore requires new approaches such as transfer learning or a larger data set to train the models.

AbstractAn extensive body of demographic literature has described Jews as 'long-lifers'. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, this pattern affected all age groups and was particularly well expressed among Jewish males but was also present among Jewish females. It held good independently of the Jews' socio-economic position. This became known as 'Jewish pattern of mortality'. This paper has two aims. The first aim is to show the impact of COVID-19 on Jewish mortality. This is a study of a global pandemic in the Jewish population which is, to the best of our knowledge, unique in its scope and quality. The second aim is to settle the finding of relativelyhighmortality from COVID-19 in certain Jewish communities ('Jewish penalty' in relation to COVID-19) with the notion of 'Jewish pattern of mortality'. The author proceeds to show that the status of Jews as a low mortality group under a Western epidemiological regime, when mortality and morbidity are dominated by non-communicable diseases, does not stand in contradiction to a higher vulnerability among Jews to coronavirus. Thus, the paper further develops understanding of mortality of Jews and serves as a contribution to ethnic and religious demography and epidemiology.

AbstractAlmost all creatinine is excreted by the kidney in individuals. Serum creatinine concentration, a widely used renal function index in clinical practice, can be affected by both genetic and environmental factors, as evidenced by current research exploring the relationship between these factors and kidney function. However, few studies have explored the heritability of serum creatinine in Asian populations. Therefore, we explored the genetic and environmental factors that affect the serum creatinine level in Asian populations. Participants in this study came from the Qingdao Twin Registry in China, and 374 pairs of twins were included, of which 139 pairs were dizygotic twins, whose ages ranged from 40 to 80 years old, and the serum creatinine level ranged from 10 to 126 μmol/L. Structural equation models were constructed using Mx software to calculate heritability, with adjusted covariates being age, sex, and body mass index. The results of heritability analysis showed that ACE was the best fit model. Serum creatinine level is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. The result of heritability was 35.44%, and the influence of shared environmental factors accounted for 52.13%. This study provided the relevant basis for future research on genetic and environmental factors affecting serum creatinine levels in Asian populations.

Political communication refers to developing and exchanging political ideas and opinions among the general public, elected officials, political parties and affiliated organisations like the media. Recent years have seen an enormous amount of literature in the area of political communication owing to the growing interest of academics in the subject. Using the R package bibliometrix and the Visualisation of Similarities viewer programme, this study aims to enhance graphical mapping of the bibliographic data for political communication publications in select countries of Asia. The results show that, especially since 2016, scholars have been paying more and more attention to the study of political communication in the age of fake news, hyperpolarization, etc. They also show that research publications on the topics of communication, China, Taiwan, India, the USA, social media, articles, politics, the internet, decision-making, democracy, governance and elections are gaining momentum in recent years. Additionally, the findings show that the top three nations for publishing articles on political communication are the USA, China and Russia. The findings also reveal that even scholars from non-democratic or less democratic countries have made substantial attempts to improve political communication studies, despite the fact that political communication is one of the most crucial components in democratic countries.

Abstract
Recently, the causal associations between traffic emissions and health effects were strengthened by the systematic reviews by the Health Effects Institute (HEI#23, 2022). According to EuroStat data Europeans spend 87-97% of their time indoors in homes, workplaces, schools and nurseries. Breathing volumes are dominated by the time spent indoors (16 m³ indoors and 1.4 m³ outdoors), even though breathing rates in outdoor environments are higher. This demonstrates the importance of taking into account time activity as well as infiltration to indoor spaces when estimating intake of particles.
The ULTRHAS project aims to link in vitro toxicological evidence for particulate matter to health impact assessments to look specifically into this. An integrated exposure pathway model will consider for different microenvironments, and physical activity patterns to quantify the particle intake in selected gender and age groups. Relative to the commonly applied approach using residential address and corresponding outdoor pollution levels we specifically add handling of (i) infiltration into indoor spaces and (ii) variability in breathing volumes based on physical activities. The model will provide inhalation volumes for selected target populations, to be applied in the intake-DALY estimation of burden of disease parameters in the following phases of the project.