The relationship between vegetation and modern pollen assemblages on Mount Paggeo (NE Greece)

In this study, we investigated the relationship between vegetation and modern-pollen rain along the elevational gradient of Mount Paggeo. We apply multivariate data analysis to assess the relationship between vegetation and modern-pollen rain and quantify the representativeness of forest zones. This study represents the first statistical analysis of pollen-vegetation relationship along an elevational gradient in Greece. Hence, this paper improves confidence in interpretation of palynological records from north-eastern Greece and may refine past climate reconstructions for a more accurate comparison of data and modelling. Numerical classification and ordination were performed on pollen data to assess differences among plant communities that beech (Fagus sylvatica) dominates or co-dominates. The results show a strong relationship between altitude, arboreal cover, human impact and variations in pollen and nonpollen palynomorph taxa percentages.

Veer e midir. The licensing of private building works in Lisbon in the modern period

Using legal instruments and council records, this article analyses the legal rules, the procedure and the cost of licensing a private building work as well the practices used by competent authorities to sanction and solve illegal actions in Lisbon through the modern age.

Cooperative or collaborative learning: Is there a difference in university students’ perceptions?

The hypothesis that the same educational objective, raised as cooperative or collaborative learning in university teaching does not affect students’ perceptions of the learning model, leads this study. It analyses the reflections of two students groups of engineering that shared the same educational goals implemented through two different methodological active learning strategies: Simulation as cooperative learning strategy and Problem-based Learning as a collaborative one. The different number of participants per group (eighty-five and sixty-five, respectively) as well as the use of two active learning strategies, either collaborative or cooperative, did not show differences in the results from a qualitative perspective.

Diabolical Witches or Sinful Princes? “Political” Foundations of Demonological Skepticism in the Early Modern Period

Skepticism regarding witchcraft, characteristic (but not exclusive) of the Spanish lands, corresponds with a particular view of evil’s etiology. Whereas paradigmatic texts of radical demonology, as the Malleus Maleficarum, gave a conclusive step towards the demonization of natural evil (as they put the blame on the devil and the witches for calamities and plagues), texts of Castilian origin, as Alonso de Espina’s Fortalitium fidei, embraced the traditional position: they considered the devil as a promoter of moral evil in the world, meanwhile natural evil is seen as a result of the wrath of God for the sins of His people –particularly, the sin of Christian princes. I argue that the distinction between these two ways of thinking the causality of the world’s misfortunes can be read in political terms.

Un-Editing Alfred: Rethinking Modern Editions of Pre-modern Texts from a Post-modern Sensibility

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Modern Horn Playing in Beethoven: An Exploration of Period Appropriate Techniques for the Orchestral Music of Beethoven for the Modern Horn Player

Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

EXPLORING VIENNESE TUNING AND ITS BENEFITS FOR THE MODERN DOUBLE BASSIST

The role of the double bass in Vienna during the eighteenth century evolved significantly between 1760 and 1812. During these years, Viennese composers began to view the double bass less as an accompanimental instrument and more as a solo voice. Despite the abundance of music written for the double bass during this time, few of these compositions are regularly performed today. This dissertation serves three purposes. I explore how learning eighteenth-century Viennese compositions in the original tuning can influence modern performances of these works. Secondly, I document the arrangement of a lesser-know work for the modern tuned bass using the manuscript as the source material. Finally, by performing a variety of eighteenth-century bass works, I bring this music to the public's attention. The research for this dissertation has been presented in two forms. The recitals present both solo and chamber works from eighteenth-century Vienna. The repertoire for the three recitals was chosen so that each recital addresses one of the three purposes mentioned above. The research paper presents performance practices of the eighteenth century, challenges the modern double bassist faces when playing this literature, as well as a look into how to arrange one of these works for the modern tuned double bass. The three recitals were performed on the campus of the University of Maryland in the Leah M. Smith Hall, Gildenhorn Recital Hall and the Ulrich Recital Hall, respectively. Recordings of all three recitals can be found in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).

Creating a modern home: homeowners in post-war suburban Glasgow, 1945-1975

This thesis examines how married couples bought and created a modern home for their families in suburban Glasgow between 1945-1975. New homeowners were on the cusp of the middle-classes, buying in a climate of renters. As they progressed through the family lifecycle women’s return to work meant they became more comfortably ensconced within the middle-classes. Engaged with a process of homemaking through consumption and labour, couples transformed their houses into homes that reflected themselves and their social status. The interior of the home was focused on as a site of social relations. Marriage in the suburbs was one of collaboration as each partner performed distinct gender roles. The idea of a shared home was investigated and the story of ‘we’ rather than ‘I’ emerged from both testimony and contemporary literature. This thesis considers decision-making, labour and leisure to show the ways in which experiences of home were gendered. What emerged was that women’s work as everyday and mundane was overlooked and undervalued while husband’s extraordinary contributions in the form of DIY came to the fore. The impact of wider culture intruded upon the ‘private’ home as we see they ways in which the position of women in society influences their relationship to the home and their family. In the suburbs of post-war Glasgow women largely left the workforce to stay at home with their children. Mothers popped in and out of each other houses for tea and a blether, creating a homosocial network that was sociable and supportive unique to this time in their lives and to this historical context. Daily life was negotiated within the walls of the modern home. The inter-war suburbs of Glasgow needed modernising to post-war standards of modern living. ‘Modern’ was both an aesthetic and an engagement with new technologies within the house. Both middle and working-class practices for room use were found through the keeping of a ‘good’ or best room and the determination of couples to eat in their small kitchenettes. As couples updated their kitchen, the fitted kitchen revealed contemporary notions of modern décor, as kitchens became bright yellow with blue Formica worktops. The modern home was the evolution of existing ideas of modern combined with new standards of living. As Glasgow homeowners constructed their modern home what became evident was that this was a shared process and as a couple they placed their children central to all aspects of their lives to create not only a modern home, but that this was first and foremost a family home

A study of ignorance: suffering and freedom in early Buddhist teachings and parallels in modern neuroscience

What might early Buddhist teachings offer neuroscience and how might neuroscience inform contemporary Buddhism? Both early Buddhist teachings and cognitive neuroscience suggest that the conditioning of our cognitive apparatus and brain plays a role in agency that may be either efficacious or non-efficacious. Both consider internal time to play a central role in the efficacy of agency. Buddhism offers an approach that promises to increase the efficacy of agency. This approach is found in five early Buddhist teachings that are re-interpreted here with a view to explaining how they might be understood as a dynamic basis for ‘participatory will’ in the context of existing free will debates and the neuroscientific work of Patrick Haggard (et al.). These perspectives offer Buddhism and neuroscience a basis for informing each other as the shared themes of: (1) cognition is dynamic and complex/aggregate based, (2) being dynamic, cognition lacks a fixed basis of efficacy, and (3) efficacy of cognition may be achieved by an understanding of the concept of dynamic: as harmony and efficiency and by means of Buddha-warranted processes that involve internal time.

University Reforms in the Context of the Bologna Process

Georgia, a former Soviet Union state, has undergone a lot of political, social, economic and of course educational changes. This article shows how Georgia’s higher education system has developed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As an independent country, Georgia has started developing a free nation with a new type of the education system. The government of Georgia chose the European system of higher education and their major aim was to become a part of the Bologna process. Reforms made in Georgian higher education system have been essential for the country and indeed a lot has changed since the starting period. Georgia managed to hold unified national entry exams and has implemented the ECTS system; there are modern curricula that meet the requirements of European standards. etc. But still, even though a lot is being done, a lack of funding, outdated teaching methods and old facilities in some universities are still unresolved problems.

Towards modern municipal sports and recreation management in Costa Rica

Sports and recreation management is addressed here using a model that combines the policies and methodologies applied in the Costa Rican context as a result of a concern to identify the real needs in the sports, recreation, and health promotion fields through the different manifestations of human movement.  This approach has been developed during eight years of work in the Costa Rican Sports and Recreation Institute (Instituto Costarricense del Deporte y la Recreación-ICODER) together with different Costa Rican communities, both rural and urban, and local organizations, such as Comprehensive Development Community Associations, Sports and Recreation Community Boards (CCDR), Municipal Mayorships, and NGOs, among others.  This article particularly takes into consideration the experience of the CCDRs as entities that have been given the responsibility by the Costa Rican Government to promote and manage municipal sports and recreation services with a convenient offering that would meet the needs of users or customers.  In this way, this article is aimed at answering the question on how Boards should conduct an efficient management in a way that they also meet the needs of public users or customers in the municipalities of the country, by proposing a management model that serves as an additional instrument to improving the already existing services managed by the aforementioned entities.  This study presents a model of Costa Rican management structured with the theoretical elements that currently define the organization and planning of sports and recreation as a service.

Central Europe's Lessons for Modern Cuba- Presentation by Ambassador Michael Zantovsky

The Steve J. Green School of International and Public Affairs and the Vaclav Havel Program for Human Rights & Diplomacy invite you to a conversation with Ambassador Michael Zantovsky, former Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United Kingdom, United States and to Israel. Zantovsky lectures on lessons learned in Central Europe that are relevant to Cubans, the Cuban diaspora and the entire Miami community.

Lecture by Glenn. D. Lowry, given at Florida International University, February 17, 2006

Glenn D. Lowry's lecture "Rethinking the Modern" focuses on the Museum of Modern Art as a place as well as the concept of modern art. Introduction by Stacy de la Grana. President Modesto Maidique speaks. Dahlia Morgan introduces Glenn D. Lowry.