Valuing the cultural monuments of Armenia: Bayesian updating of prior beliefs in contingent valuation

The most appropriate way to measure the social benefits of conserving built cultural heritage sites is to ask the beneficiaries of conservation interventions how much they would be willing to pay for them. We use contingent valuation - a survey-based approach that elicits willingness to pay (WTP) directly from individuals - to estimate the benefits of a nationwide conservation of built cultural heritage sites in Armenia. The survey was administered to Armenian nationals living in Armenia, and obtained extensive information about the respondents' perceptions of the current state of conservation of monuments in Armenia, described the current situation, presented a hypothetical conservation program, elicited WTP for it, and queried individuals about what they thought would happen to monument sites in the absence of the government conservation program. We posit that respondents combined the information about the fate of monuments provided by the questionnaire with their prior beliefs, and that WTP for the good, or program, is likely to be affected by these updated beliefs. We propose a Bayesian updating model of prior beliefs, and empirically implement it with the data from our survey. We found that uncertainty about what would happen to monuments in the absence of the program results in lower WTP amounts. © 2008 Pion Ltd and its Licensors.

Analysis of temporal and spatial variations of forest. A case of study in notheastern Armenia

The forest has a crucial ecological role and the continuous forest loss can cause colossal effects on the environment. As Armenia is one of the low forest covered countries in the world, this problem is more critical. Continuous forest disturbances mainly caused by illegal logging started from the early 1990s had a huge damage on the forest ecosystem by decreasing the forest productivity and making more areas vulnerable to erosion. Another aspect of the Armenian forest is the lack of continuous monitoring and absence of accurate estimation of the level of cuts in some years. In order to have insight about the forest and the disturbances in the long period of time we used Landsat TM/ETM + images. Google Earth Engine JavaScript API was used, which is an online tool enabling the access and analysis of a great amount of satellite imagery. To overcome the data availability problem caused by the gap in the Landsat series in 1988- 1998, extensive cloud cover in the study area and the missing scan lines, we used pixel based compositing for the temporal window of leaf on vegetation (June-late September). Subsequently, pixel based linear regression analyses were performed. Vegetation indices derived from the 10 biannual composites for the years 1984-2014 were used for trend analysis. In order to derive the disturbances only in forests, forest cover layer was aggregated and the original composites were masked. It has been found, that around 23% of forests were disturbed during the study period.

St. Catharines and District Council of Women fonds

The St. Catharines and District Council of Women was founded in 1918 and elected as its first president, Mary Malcolmson. In 1910 Mrs. Malcolmson founded North America’s first Girl Guide Association in St. Catharines. The aim of the organization was to work for the betterment of conditions pertaining to the family, community and state. The Council is an umbrella group for various women’s organizations in the area and functions at the provincial, national and international levels and is associated with the United Nations. In the early years the National Council brought in the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) and started the Women’s Canadian Club. The St. Catharines Council initiated Child Welfare Centres in local churches that grew into the Well Baby Clinics. Women were encouraged to take political office and join committees with much success. In 1929, “Shop at Home” exhibition became an annual event highlighting the services of local merchants. Money raised by the Council was donated to local charities and in 1930 the Council assisted the local Armenian community in building the first Armenian Church in Canada. In 1932 the Council started the Maternal Welfare programme in which Mothers’ Meetings were held weekly with various speakers from the Public Health Department. In 1975 to celebrate International Women’s Year and the 1976 Centennial of the City of St. Catharines, the group sponsored the book Women of Action, 1876-1976, written by two of its members, Lily M. Bell and Kathleen E. Bray. Some time after 1976 the name of the organization changed from St. Catharines Local Council of Women to St. Catharines and District Council of Women. Today the organization functions as an advocacy and educational group.

A tale of two childhoods : the virtual child and the real child in Romania, 1970s and 1980s

This thesis deals with the everyday use of propaganda in Romania, between 1971 and 1989. It explores the way in which the propaganda discourse of the Romanian Communist Party was disseminated through popular culture artifacts targeting children: Pioneers' magazines, textbooks, Almanacs and moralizing stories. These artifacts configured the image of a model child, whose preoccupations complied with the requirements of the Romanian Communist Party and communicated a set of recommended practices, to be followed by Romanian children. At the same time, the thesis incorporates the response of the actual children to these desirable practices, and implicitly, their response to state propaganda.

Diaspora arménienne de Montréal : comparaison intergénérationnelle du contenu des imaginaires nationaux et des sources de (re)production culturelle

Le génocide arménien de 1915 a eu de conséquentes répercussions identitaires sur les différentes générations d’Arméniens en diaspora, créant ainsi, pour les communautés arméniennes diasporiques, une responsabilité de perpétuer la mémoire collective traumatique. Cependant, des différences s’observent entre ces générations dans la définition de l’arménité ainsi que dans les sources d’approvisionnement identitaire. Ainsi, notre question de recherche vise à comprendre comment les contenus des imaginaires nationaux et les sources de (re)production culturelle changent entre les deuxième, troisième et quatrième générations d’Arméniens établis à Montréal. L’objectif de cette présente recherche est de faire combiner la littérature scientifique émergente sur le nationalisme diasporique, ainsi que celle sur le rôle du cyberespace. Par le biais d'entrevues auprès d'Arméniens, exilés depuis le génocide arménien de 1915 et établis à Montréal, nous montrerons, dans un premier temps, comment le contenu des imaginaires nationaux change par le passage d'une identité traditionnelle à une identité symbolique. Deuxièmement, nous verrons comment les sources de (re)production culturelle se transforment par le passage de sources traditionnelles aux sources numériques avec l'avènement du cyberespace.

Análisis del reconocimiento del genocidio armenio como un problema de política internacional. Periodo: 2006-2012

La presente monografía caracteriza al genocidio armenio como un problema de Política Internacional, entre el año 2006 y 2012. Así la presente investigación se divide en tres capítulos, en el primero se analiza el reconocimiento del genocidio armenio por parte de Francia y la unión europea, el segundo es un análisis de la importancia del mismo proceso de reconocimiento del genocidio en Estados Unidos y por último se realizó el análisis de la influencia que ha tenido este proceso en las relaciones de Turquía y Armenia y como esa influencia termina por ser contraria a los intereses franceses y estadounidenses.

Women and writing c1340-c1650; the domestication of print culture

The transition from medieval manuscript to early printed book is currently a mmajor topic of academic interest, but has received little attention in relation to women's involvement. The essays in this volume both add female names to the list of those authors who created English Literature, and examine women's responses to older texts. Taking its cue from the advances made by recent work on manuscript culture and book history, this volume also includes studies of material evidence. These reveal women's participation in the making of books, and also the traces they left behind when handling individual volumes. Finally, studies of women's roles in relation to apparently ephemeral texts, such as letters, pamphlets and almanacs, challenge traditional divisions between public and private spheres and between manuscript and print.

Domesticating the calendar: the hours and the almanac in Tudor England

This article examines two genres of text which were extremely popular in the late-medieval and early modern periods, and it pays particular attention to women users. The printed almanacs of sixteenth-century England were enormously influential; yet their contents are so formulaic and repetitive as to appear almost empty of valuable information. Their most striking feature is their astrological guidance for the reader, and this has led to them being considered 'merely' the repository of popular superstition. Only in the last decade have themes of gender and medicine been given serious consideration in relation to almanacs; but this work has focused on the seventeenth century. This chapter centres on a detailed analysis of sixteenth-century English almanacs, and the various kinds of scientific and household guidance they offered to women readers. Both compilers and users needed to chart a safe course through the religious and scientific battles of the time; and the complexities involved are demonstrated by considering the almanacs in relation to competing sources of guidance. These latter are Books of Hours and 'scientific' works such as medical calendars compiled by Oxford scholars in the late middle ages. A key feature of this chapter is that it gives practical interpretations of this complex information, for the guidance of modern readers unfamiliar with astrology.

Social policies and socioeconomic indicators for transitional economies

Includes bibliography

Para ler nos caminhos de ferro: o Almanach Litterario de São Paulo (1876-1885)

Analiso, neste artigo, a circulação do Almanach Litterário de São Paulo, periódico editado anualmente de 1876 a 1885, com a exceção de 1882 e 1883. A abordagem inclui o quadro de autores, os gêneros de textos publicados e suas principais temáticas. O trabalho com a fonte permite compreender a formação da sociedade letrada paulista nas últimas décadas do século XIX.

O hibridismo textual em como agua para chocolate (1989), de Laura Esquivel: folhetim, almanaque, caderno de receitas e diário íntimo

Este artigo pretende discutir como se articulam, na estrutura híbrida do romance Como agua para chocolate, alguns gêneros textuais discursivos comumente dedicados à leitura de mulheres – folhetim, almanaque, caderno de receitas e diário íntimo –, cuja presença fica sugerida desde o subtítulo “novela de entregas mensuales, con recetas, amores y remedios caseros”. Esses gêneros se misturam na construção da narrativa, possibilitando, no âmbito da pós-modernidade, uma leitura crítica do papel da mulher na sociedade patriarcal da primeira metade do século XX.