Britannica Research Articles

Foundations of the Theory of Emergency Situations

The basic terms underlying the theory of emergency management are analyzed. The advantages and disadvantages of official definitions are considered, in particular, the data in the law of 21.12.1994 No. 68-FZ (Federal Law), in GOST (State Standard) R 22.0.02-2016, as well as in the number of authoritative foreign sources (Webster's dictionary, encyclopedia Britannica, Cambridge dictionary, Oxford dictionary, documents of the European Commission, etc.). The consequences of the legislative definition of an emergency in No. 68-FZ are investigated. The etymological, epistemological and gnoseological basis of the concepts of emergency, safety and danger, risk and uncertainty are analyzed. There is a great deal of variation in the interpretation of the concepts of safety and danger in sources of different origin and the illegality of mixing or substituting these concepts.

The Russian Revolution in The Encyclopaedia Britannica

Widely considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for its time, the twelfth and thirteenth editions of The Encyclopaedia Britannica, supplements to the earlier eleventh edition, devote considerable space to the origins and consequences of the Russian Revolution. Incapable of maintaining the objective tone customary for works of reference, several of the contributors caught the essence of the turmoil and its impact across Europe, whether through a liberal or socialist lens. This article charts the evolution of the coverage of Russia in The Encyclopaedia Britannica and highlights how its earlier approach was overwhelmed by war and revolution as pre-war certainties were shaken and undermined.

Prominent US authors, born 1800 to 1950

This paper examines the lives of US creative writers over time, in terms of geographic location/migration, literary output and age, For this, we have constructed a novel and large data set on the geographic location, and number of major publications, for every year of the lives of 473 US writers listed in Encyclopedia Britannica born between 1800 to 1949. The main findings of interest are:While the number of female authors at the start of the period equaled that of men, the number of male authors outstripped the former, and increasingly so, from 1875 on.The dominant genre was the novel, but its share of the total works listed decreased slowly after 1860 with a corresponding increase for plays.A high degree of migration of the authors is evident, reaching a marked peak in the ages 18 to 30. This applies in all four subperiods looked at, despite the huge differences across these subperiods in terms of geography and socioeconomic circumstances.After 1870 large numbers migrated abroad but over the whole period the main destination was New York City, making it the continuing dominant location for authors, despite the spread of the US to the West coast in the 19th century.This was driven, based on the case studies examined, by income-earning possibilities, mainly through magazines, the social milieu and a concentration of theatres there.A marked increase in creative output took place between the ages of 20 and 35, with no significant fall-off for many decades in the more recent periods.

An Overview of Welfare vs Environmental Impairment: A Sociological Appraisal

Welfare as a type of government support is supposed to ensure that the members of a society should be able to meet their basic human needs including food and shelter Encyclopedia Britannica...

Encyclopædia Britannica Online

Sa svrhom što potpunijega razumijevanja i donošenja bitnih navedenih zaključaka o općenitome predmetnom pitanju mrežnih priručničkih izdanja, ovaj rad, oprimjeren provedbom i ishodom postupka kakvoćnoga istraživanja Encyclopædije Britannice, daje njezin kraći razvojni pregled i opis glavnih značajka njezinih odabranih izdanja, uz njihovu usporedbu s drugim sličnim priručnicima. Uvodni dio stoga sažeto iznosi gotovo desetljetnu povijest postupnoga Britanničina prijelaza u mrežno okruženje. Raščlanjujući njezine sastavnice, Macropaediju, Micropaediju i Propaediju, i njezino uredničko usmjerenje, središnji pak dio podrobnije razmatra Britanničin put od knjižnične police do računalnoga zaslona te ju dovodi u poredbeni suodnos s ostalim priopćilima na zahtjevnome poslovnom tržištu, poglavito s Wikipedijom. Time je također zaključno ukazano i na neke mogućnosti uporabe takvih suvremenih mrežnih priručničkih sadržaja, koji obavijesnim i priopćajnim proširenjem dosadašnjih granica nedvojbeno postavljaju i nove sustavske razvojne zadatke.

The European Encyclopedia: From 1650 to the Twenty-First Century, by Jeff Loveland

In Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693), John Locke insisted that the example of good behaviour imparted by a polite tutor to a young gentleman was more important ‘than all the hard Words, or real Knowledge he has got from the Liberal Arts, or his Tutor’s learned Encyclopaidia’. Despite the existence of Johann Heinrich Alsted’s Latin Encyclopaedia (1630), it is unlikely that Locke was referring to a printed book. In the late 1600s, the term ‘encyclopaedia’ still denoted the pathway through the liberal arts and sciences, as attained by selective reading, study and conversation. The source of this idea was the Greek concept of enkyklios paideia, as interpreted by the Romans. In this impressively researched book, Jeff Loveland considers the period in which ‘encyclopaedia’ came instead to denote a multi-volume ‘alphabetical book of knowledge’ covering a wider range of subjects (p. 1). The main specimen-types in Europe were the Encyclopedie (from 1751), the Encyclopaedia Britannica (from 1771) and the German Konversations-Lexikon published by the Brockhaus family from the early 1800s.

Knowledge Organization in the Wild: The Propædia, Roget’s, and the DDC

Abstract Three popular knowledge organization systems (KOSs)—the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s “Outline of Knowledge,” Roget’s International Thesaurus’s “Synopsis of Categories,” and the Dewey Decimal ...

ATG Interviews Theodore Pappas. Executive Editor and Chief Development Officer at Encyclopaedia Britannica and Archives, American University in Cairo

ATG Interviews Theodore Pappas. Executive Editor and Chief Development Officer at Encyclopaedia Britannica and Archives, American University in Cairo

O. Henry’s A Madison Square Arabian Night: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue

In this paper, the assertion of cross-culture in the American literature is studied and put for discussion. Aside from the inspiration of the American writers of the Arabian Nights, the inspiration of the Arabian Culture is inspired as well. O. Henry is given as an example in his short story “A Madison square Arabian Night”. The first part of this research is going to highlight the importance of the Arabian Nights in the American literature. It tries to give a brief idea about the Arabian nights and according to this it is divided into five parts to give enough information as possible about these nights. The first part includes the understanding of the Arabian nights from different perspectives those found in some encyclopaedias, like the Encyclopaedia Americana, the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Encyclopaedia of Islam. For the necessity of historical background about the contents of the Arabian Nights, the paper deals with the authorship of the stories of the Arabian nights and the contents which includes a short summary of the story of the Arabian nights. A general idea about the origins of the thousand nights and a night is widely explained. The last part is dedicated to stereotype something about the influence of the Arabian nights on the other literatures. O. Henry wrote most of his major works in short story. Thus the short story is the most outstanding literary genre in this age and its explanation has a space in this paper in the sense that it gives a comparison between Baghdad and New York from O. Henry’s point of view. This paper deals with his major work A Madison Square Arabian Night since it is the work in which a very clear example of comparison between Baghdad and New York is composed. His thesis in this story reveals the cross-cultural dialogue and his tendency towards the orientalism.

On Veritism. Pritchard’s Defense

This time Pritchard is on a rescue mission. Veritism is besieged and he rises to defend it. I do agree with much in his Veritism, but I demur when he adds: “So, the goodness of all epistemic goods is understood instrumentally with regard to whether they promote truth”. If Big Brother brainwashes us to believe the full contents of The Encyclopedia Britannica, then even if we suppose those contents to be true without exception, that would not make what they do an unalloyed good thing, not even epistemically. But it does seem to promote truth. What might then diminish Big Brother’s action so much, so as to make it so deplorable epistemically after all, despite how powerfully it does instrumentally promote truth. At a minimum we need to say more about the relations between epistemic goods and truth, so as to better understand how it is that the epistemic good is made so good by what specific relation to the truth. I lay out a way to understand Veritism so that it can say more about the relations between epistemic goods and truth, thus enhancing our understanding of epistemic normativity. And in a second part I lay out a solution to Linda Zagzebski’s Swamping problem for reliabilism. I argue that it is a problem for process reliabilism, but not for a virtue epistemology that accepts a kind of reliabilism, but in an agential telic framework, and not in a process framework. So, I lay out one way to be a “veritist”, by defending explicitly its Axiological side, and by implication its Conceptual side as well. I have raised questions for Pritchard’s own defense and have offered in each case an alternative defense that I believe fits the words of his formulations, and is in their spirit as well.

ПОТЕНЦІАЛ «ЕНЦИКЛОПЕДІЇ СУЧАСНОЇ УКРАЇНИ» В МОДЕРНІЗАЦІЇ ОСВІТНЬОГО ПРОСТОРУ ДЕРЖАВИ

Reforming of education requires updating its content and methodological components, including didactic toolkits. In a broad sense, the proposed study is concerned with the design and implementation of a wide range of educational tools in the educational process. In a narrow sense, it identifies the opportunities and prospects of using encyclopedic online resources as a didactic toolkit. These issues are covered on the example of the e-version of The Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine. The idea of using electronic encyclopedias in the educational process is not new. Researchers suggest that thematic encyclopedias are very important in the teaching of certain subjects. The introduction of encyclopedias into teaching is a contemporary trend initiated by the publishers of the world’s largest encyclopedias. For example, the popular Encyclopedia Britannica has recently become available in three online versions: for primary school students (Britannica Kids), middle school students (Britannica Students), and high school students (Britannica Scholars). This study demonstrates that the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine a) can be a platform for providing encyclopedic knowledge in a subject; b) can be a didactic tool that increases the effectiveness of learning; c) can be used as a source of information for in-depth study of topics in various subjects. Thus, electronic encyclopedias (in particular the online-version of the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine) provide significant opportunities for successful study of educational material, focusing on the most important aspects of educational topics and creating conditions for systematization and generalization of information, as well as actively involving students in self-study, arousing their interest in learning and generally increasing their motivation.

Editorial

Editorial

Tablični prikazi kao prilozi strukturiranosti enciklopedičkih djela

Enciklopedička djela čine sintezu znanja područja koje obrađuju, nerijetko i ukupnih ljudskih dosega u vremenu u kojem nastaju. Važan dio njihova koncepta čini strukturiranost sadržaja radi lakšega pronalaženja, razumijevanja i korištenja željenom informacijom. Važan element te strukturiranosti mogu činiti unificirani tablični prikazi podataka. ovaj rad istražuje zastupljenost, način organizacije i funkcionalnost tabličnih prikaza u nizu enciklopedičkih djela, a osobito onih za koja je utvrđeno da se koriste tabličnim prikazima kao elementima strukturiranosti. Istraživanje je provedeno na svjetskim enciklopedičkim izdanjima (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Americana, Chambersʼs Encyclopaedia, World Book Encyclopedia, Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, La Grande Encyclopédie, Wikipedija) te projektima hrvatske enciklopedike (Hrvatska enciklopedija, Proleksis enciklopedija i Hrvatska tehnička enciklopedija). Sadržajnom analizom enciklopedičkih projekata utvrđeni su zastupljenost i sadržaj tabličnih prikaza te različitosti i sličnosti vrsta tih prikaza i njihova sadržaja. Također, analizirane su funkcionalnosti takva oblika strukturiranoga sadržaja u mrežnim izdanjima nekih projekata. Pokazalo se kako unificirani tablični prikazi koji prate pojedine tipske članke najviše pridonose strukturiranosti enciklopedičkih djela te otvaraju nove mogućnosti za unutarnje i vanjsko povezivanje sadržaja, razvoja ontologija i sl. evolucija tabličnih prikaza u enciklopedičkim izdanjima, od pukih prikaza usustavljenih podataka u tradicionalnim (tiskanim) izdanjima do sastavnica elemenata strukture mrežnih izdanja, otvara nove mogućnosti u razvoju enciklopedike i dovodi do promjena u pristupu izvedbi mrežnih enciklopedičkih projekata.

Framing conflicting scientific views of John Robison on the Euler’s column buckling problem in the socio-political context of the late XVIII century

The analytical approach of Leonhard Euler to the solution of an elastic column under compression is seen today as a landmark in buckling studies. However, this work was not well received in Great Britain during the late XVIII and XIX centuries. This paper considers the reaction of John Robison, Professor at the University of Edinburgh, published as an article in Encyclopedia Britannica, who attempted to disqualify Euler at scientific, methodological, and personal levels. The article was reproduced from edition three to eight, thus covering a period of some 90 years. The technical arguments made by Robison, together with the context in which he lived, are taken into account in order to explore the reasons behind the aggressive campaign of Robison against one of the most famous mathematicians of the XVIII century.

Evaluating the Impact of the Long-S upon 18th-Century Encyclopedia Britannica Automatic Subject Metadata Generation Results

This research compares automatic subject metadata generation when the pre-1800s Long-S character is corrected to a standard < s >. The test environment includes entries from the third edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and the HIVE automatic subject indexing tool. A comparative study of metadata generated before and after correction of the Long-S demonstrated an average of 26.51 percent potentially relevant terms per entry omitted from results if the Long-S is not corrected. Results confirm that correcting the Long-S increases the availability of terms that can be used for creating quality metadata records. A relationship is also demonstrated between shorter entries and an increase in omitted terms when the Long-S is not corrected.

A Forerunner of “A Descent into the Maelström”

A Forerunner of “A Descent into the Maelström”

Dream Machines: The Motorcar as Sign of Conquest and Destruction in F. Scott Fitzgerald's <em>The Great Gatsby</em>

Dream Machines: The Motorcar as Sign of Conquest and Destruction in F. Scott Fitzgerald's <em>The Great Gatsby</em>

\u201cThey are talking from the Encyclopedia Britannica brain\u201d: diabetes patients\u2019 perceptions of barriers to communicating with physicians

BackgroundUnderstanding patients’ beliefs about their role communicating in medical visits is an important pre-requisite to encourage patients’ use of active participatory communication, and these beliefs may be particularly relevant for patients with diabetes.MethodsFocus groups were conducted to examine patients with diabetes view of their role communicating in medical encounters. Patients had type 2 diabetes, A1C ≥ 8% (64 mmol/mol), and were from an inner-city VA hospital. Guiding questions for the focus groups were based on theoretical models of patient-physician communication. Focus group transcripts were analyzed with the constant comparative method.ResultsFour focus groups were conducted with a total of 20 male Veterans. Participants mean age was 61 years, 65% self-identified as black or African-American, 80% completed high school or higher education, and mean A1C was 10.3% (89 mmol/mol). Eight themes were identified as to why patients might have difficulty communicating with physicians. These themes were grouped into three overarching categories explaining reasons why patients might avoid participatory communication and included patients’ view about their condition; about physician’s communication behaviors; and about external influences on patient-physician communication. For example, patients described how use of the EHR may deter patients’ use of active participatory communication.ConclusionsThese results are important for understanding how patients’ use of active participatory communication is influenced by their beliefs and expectations, physicians’ behaviors, and structural factors. The results may be useful for educational efforts to increase patient, physician, and healthcare systems awareness of problems that patients perceive when communicating with physicians.

Assessing the Accessibility of Library Tools & Services When You Aren’t an Accessibility Expert: Part 1

In 2019, the Goldey-Beacom College library served its first 100% blind student. To become more familiar with accessibility efforts at other colleges and universities, the authors compiled a brief literature review that discusses state statutes for accessibility, university policies on accessibility, and librarians’ audits on web accessibility and vendor supplied databases. To determine the accessibility of the library’s subscribed tools and services, the director of the office of institutional research & training and the director of the library, archives, and learning center used the WAVE online accessibility checker to audit the main library electronic resources: Gale Power Search, ProQuest, Yewno, EBSCO, LibGuides, SpringShare A–Z Database List, JSTOR, Adam Matthew, SAGE Research Methods, and Encyclopedia Britannica. WAVE results indicate that there are errors with 9 out of 10 electronic resources reviewed and alerts with 10 out of 10 of the audited electronic resources.

Inter-Provincial Water Conflicts in Pakistan: A Critical Analysis

42 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 43, No.2, Winter 2020 Inter-Provincial Water Conflicts in Pakistan: A Critical Analysis Adil Khan* Nazakat Awan** Introduction Human history is predominantly a history of wars and conflicts. These wars and conflicts were the outcome of unlimited desires of mankind to conquer and control the natural resources. Water remained one of these natural resources which caused a number of wars. Most of the great civilizations emerged and flourished around the great rivers like Sindh, Euphrates, Nile and Ganges etc. Water, which once was used for irrigation and domestic purpose only, with the passage of time, has become a very important component of industrial growth in the modern world. Production of different commodities requires the consumption of water also. ‘The scale of water consumption for producing different commodities is increasing with rapid industrial expansion. For example in order to produce one litter of petroleum, one container of vegetables, one kilogram of paper and one ton of woollen cloth, it is necessary to consume ten litters, forty litters, hundred litters and six hundred litters of water, respectively’1 .This exponential growth of water usage in addition to water scarcity due to a number of *Adil Khan. is serving as a lecturer in the Department of Pakistan Studies, Hazara University Mansehra He earned his PhD in Politics and International Relations from the International Islamic University, lamabad, Pakistan. His interests are democratization and Pakistani politics. **Nazakat Awan is a lecturer in the department of English, at Hazara University Mansehra. He is pursuing his PhD in linguistics from National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad. his recent publication entitled ‘Hybridity and linguistic pluralism: a study of university academic discourse’ is published in Global Social Science Review, Islamabad, Pakistan. 1 Encyclopedia Britannica Macrop/Edia, (Chicago: Helen Hemming Way, 1973-74, Vol.: 19). 43 climatic factors has given birth to a range of new conflicts. These conflicts range from inter-state to intra-state conflicts. he history of water related conflicts in sub-continent predates partition of Indo-Pak. The first water related conflict in Western India, which now constitute Pakistan, emerged in the post-World War I period among Punjab, Sindh, Bhawalpur and Bekaner states over the water sharing mechanism of river Indus.2 The upper and lower riparian regions relied on different arguments to win more water share. The upper riparian, Punjab, demanded more share on the basis of its greater contribution to the overall economy, whereas, the lower riparian, Sindh, demanded this share on the basis of its greater needs. The conflict was ultimately managed by the British Government acting as neutral arbitrator and facilitating negotiations among the conflicting parties.3 Water related conflicts in the post partition period once again emerged not only at interstate level, between India and Pakistan, but also at the domestic intrastate level, among the federating units of Pakistan. The Indus Water Treaty (TWT) in 1960 to some extent resolved interstate conflict between India and Pakistan, but it gave birth to a new controversy in West Pakistan, at intrastate level, as Pakistan lost its right on the waters of three major rivers; Sutlej, Bias and Ravi, resulting in a great imbalance of demand and supply of water. This imbalance and the resulting conflict not only negatively affected the economic growth in Pakistan but it also had serious implications for the federal structure. This article explores the causes of inter-provincial water conflicts, critically analyzes the arguments posed by various federating units, evaluates the performance of various commissions formed over the period since independence to resolve these conflicts, and finally explores the implications of inter-provincial water conflicts for the federation of Pakistan. This paper is organized broadly into four sections. The first section includes discussion on overall demand of water in Pakistan and the volume available to satiate this demand. The second section is a critical analysis of the causes of inter-provincial water conflicts. The third section comprises debates on major water related issues and an evaluation of the performance of various commissions formed to address the water conflicts among federating units. The fourth and concluding section is an attempt to 2 Michal-Aloys Arthur (1967), The Indus...