Online Access to the Encyclopaedia Slavica Sanctorum

Encyclopaedia Slavica Sanctorum project aims at building a repertoire of medieval and early modern Bulgarian texts for saints in combination with ethnological data and some visual sources. A basic project task is to produce an accessible on-line digital repository of this valuable cultural heritage treasure. The paper presents the Encyclopaedia Slavica Sanctorum environment, its architecture, functional specification, application modeling process and software implementation. The paper also discusses the specifics of the ―Encyclopaedia Slavica Sanctorum‖ project and its knowledge domain. The paper also presents the integration between the Encyclopaedia Slavica Sanctorum and the Bulgarian Iconographical Digital Library, a digital library keeping rare specimens, private collections of Orthodox icons, wall- paintings and other iconographical objects, selected from difficult-to-access storages, distant churches, chapels, and monasteries, objects in a risk environment or unstable conditions.

Mission and development : Finnish Pentecostal, Lutheran and Orthodox mission agencies in development work in Kenya 1948 - 1989

År 1974 började den finska regeringen kanalisera pengar för utvecklingssamarbete genom medborgarorganisationer. Tre år senare och fram till år 1988 beviljade regeringen ett speciellt anslag specifikt för missionsorganisationers utvecklingsprojekt. De finska pingstvännerna, lutheranerna och de ortodoxa utvidgade samtliga sitt sociala arbete i Kenya med statens stöd. Deras projekt var likadana: alla byggde läroanstalter, utvecklade Kenyas hälsoservice och sysselsatte kenyaner. Olikheterna mellan pingstvännerna, lutheranerna och de ortodoxa blev tydliga genom diverse problem som de mötte inom ramen för utvecklingssamarbetet. Den finska pingströrelsen bestod av självständiga församlingar, och pingstvännerna måste omvandla sin takorganisation, Suomen Vapaa Ulkolähetys, så att utvecklingsprojekt blev en viktig gren av dess verksamhet. Lutheranerna som till en början hade sänt missionärer för att arbeta i den kenyanska kyrkans tjänst började i medlet av 1970-talet i ökande grad bygga sociala anstalter med statens pengar. Ett problem var att statens stöd varade endast för en begränsad tid och att den lutherska kyrkan i Kenya inte hade råd att överta dessa anstalter och täcka deras löpande kostnader i framtiden. De finska ortodoxa, för sin del, igångsatte sociala projekt i samarbete med de ortodoxa i Kenya. Under några år fick de dock lära sig att de inte kunde driva självständiga utvecklingsprojekt i Patriarkens i Alexandria maktsfär. Den finska ortodoxa missionen blev tvungen att underkasta sig ärkebiskopen i Nairobi. År för år beviljade den finska regeringen större anslag för missionsorganisationernas utvecklingsprojekt och statens ansvar för kostnaderna ökade från 50% till 60% år 1984. Intressant nog mottog både lutheranerna och de ortodoxa mindre statliga pengar för utvecklingssamarbete år 1989 än 1984. Däremot växte pingstvännernas utvecklingssamarbete i Kenya under hela 1980-talet. Eftersom pingstvännerna inte ville använda sina medlemmarnas pengar (som var avsedda för missionsverksamhet) till sociala projekt täckte de sin andel i utvecklingskostnaderna med pengar från utanförstående. Pingstvännerna utvecklade en omfatttande komersiell och även industriell verksamhet för att samla in pengar för sina utvecklingsprojekt.

Secular Possession: Cinematic Iconography of Addiction

Addiction, and the experience of being addicted, is notoriously difficult to describe verbally and explain rationally. Would multifaceted and multisensory cinematic images work better in making addiction understandable? This study enquires how cinematic expression can render visible the experience of being addicted which is invisible as such. The basic data consists of circa 50 mainly North American and European fiction films from the early 1900s to the early 2000s that deal with addictive disorders as defined in the psychiatric DSM-V classification (substance dependence- and gambling disorders). The study develops an approach for analyzing and interpreting a large volume of digital film data: digital cinematic iconography is a framework to study the multifaceted cinematic images by processing and viewing them in the “digital image-laboratory” of the computer. Images are cut and classified by editing software and algorithmic sorting. The approach draws on early 1900s German art historian Aby Waburg’s image research and media archaeology, that are connected to film studies inspired by the phenomenology of the body and Gilles Deleuze’s film-philosophy. The first main chapter, “Montage”, analyses montage, gestural and postural images, and colors in addiction films. The second main chapter, “Thingness”, focuses on the close-ups of material objects and faces, and their relation to the theme of spirituality in cinema and art history, The study argues that the cinema engages the spectator to "feel" what addiction is through everyday experience and art historical imagery. There is a particular, historically transmitted cinematic iconography of addiction that is profane, material, thing-centered, abject, and repetitive. The experience of being addicted is visualized through montages of images characterized by dark and earthy colors, horizontal compositions and downward- directed movements. This is very profane and secular imagery that, however, circulates image-historical traces of Christian iconography, such as that of being in the grip of an unknown power.

Tele-education environment and didactic iconography in sexual transmitted diseases

The field of advertising has developed techniques of mass communication and rapid transmission of information. Among these techniques are slogans and iconographies. This work used such tools for educational purposes and was divided into three modules. Module 1 evaluated the use of simplified textual communication (slogans) about the subject Sexually Transmitted Diseases. It was applied to third-year medical students, which had not taken the course on this theme. To evaluate the impact of the textual communication form (slogans), long phrases were elaborated in scientific language containing 15 topics. From these long phrases, compact phrases were developed using techniques of the advertising area for elaboration of slogans. Three forms of didactic material about that theme were developed. The first form consisted of long phrases in descriptive topics, using scientific language. The second was constituted exclusively of compact phrases in the form of slogans, and the third was composed of the combination of the two previous forms. Then, 10 multiple-choice questions were elaborated and applied in two phases. In the first phase, application occurred immediately after the reading of didactic texts; in the second phase, it happened 60 days after the reading. For statistical analysis, Snedcor's F test was used for analysis of variance, at 5% significance level. There was an increase in memorization by students who read the material containing the association between long phrases and slogans, which indicates that the latter, when used as an auxiliary model of learning, can bring significant benefits for education. Module 2 consisted of analyzing the elaboration of educational videos produced in graphic computing (called iconographies) for development of dynamic communication means. The theme Hair Cycle was utilized. Viability of high quantities of information in few minutes of animation could be demonstrated together with the advantage of presenting the process in a dynamic form without wasting scientific details. Module 3 presented the inclusion of slogans in educational videos produced in graphic computing about the Hair Cycle, showing a new tool for rapid and efficient transference of data. Slogans and iconographies, when utilized in educational material, can bring significant benefits for the student's learning.

Exports and industrialization in an orthodox model: Chile, 1973-1978

Includes bibliography

Orthodox adjustment programmes in Latin America: a critical look at the policies of the International Monetary Fund

Includes bibliography

External debt and crisis: the decline of the orthodox procedures

Includes bibliography