Historical Division Research Articles

Writing teachers’ perceptions of the presence and needs of second language writers: An institutional case study

First-year composition in U.S. higher education has been a major site of L2 writing research. Despite the historical division between mainstream first-year composition and L2 writing, there has been an increasing interest in integrating insights from L2 writing research into the professional literature in rhetoric and composition and writing program administration. Yet, a majority of composition courses are taught by those who are not specialists in these fields, and their level of awareness is yet to be examined. To investigate writing teachers’ perceptions of the presence and needs of L2 writers, we conducted a perception survey of teachers of both mainstream and L2 sections of first-year composition courses. The findings show that writing teachers do recognize the presence and needs of L2 writers, and more than a few teachers were enthusiastic about working with this student population. At the same time, many teachers—including those who taught L2 writing sections—did not make any special provisions to address the unique needs of L2 writers. The findings also show that teachers’ ability to address L2 writers’ needs were constrained by program policies, lack of common teaching and assessment materials, and professional preparation opportunities. This study suggests the need to better understand the specific needs of teachers in order to address the needs of their students.

Sinistra e destra in Grecia dal XX al XXI secolo

Left and Right in Greece from the 20th into the 21st century The article explores the evolution of left/right division in Greece, drawing upon macro sociological theories regarding social and political cleavages. It analyses the major historical divisions that have given meaning to the left/right dichotomy and have structured Greek party system over a century. Among a series of wars, civil quarrels, economical and political crises, which have taken place throughout the Twentieth century, two civil conflicts have marked political rivalries and configured political identities: the National Schism (1915-1917) and the Civil War (1943-1949). They have established a three-camp party system, which had endured until the 1967-1974 military dictatorship. The democratization of the country and the liberalization of political institutions in the post-junta era gave birth to new coalitions and political formations, which established a two-party system on the basis of right/anti-right dichotomy. The outbreak of economic crisis in 2010 and the austerity measures that came as a consequence have divided society and politics in two camps: the advocates and opponents of the Memorandum. The political stances regarding the management of the crisis has magnified the significance of pro/anti-memorandum cleavage and, thus, weakened the importance of the left/right division.

The Origins of the Early Modern

The Origins of the Early Modern Helen Cooper (bio) The Modern History course at the University of Oxford notoriously starts with the fall of Rome. History is divided into two: the Classics faculty is responsible for ancient history, and everything that is not ancient is modern. It is a useful reminder, both that modernity is in the eye of the beholder and that periodization is arbitrary. The dividing of time is always something imposed from outside; rigid historical divisions rarely or never exist, or only locally, and period taxonomies are always misleading. The problem is that, as the experience of numerous victims of brain damage shows, our brains are hard-wired to categorize. That is how we make sense of the world, whether the categories we select have any objective definition (as a mammal is definably different from a fish), or whether we invent them as an aid to our own understanding (literary genres, historical periods, and every other abstract construct that in practice may be better understood as a spectrum). So, we need the “ancient,” the “medieval,” and the “modern” to orient us in relation to historical time and historical culture—and time and culture are not the same, as the briefest glance beyond the Western world will indicate. The modern, however, has the problem that it gets longer every year, and it is now too big and too various to handle as a single concept. “Early modern” was invented as a category to describe a certain stage of European development to help with that quandary; though, as this forum demonstrates, just what that stage encompasses depends very much on what is being looked at and who is doing the looking. The issue is commonly thought of as being most problematic at the late end: when does the early modern give way to the modern? Here, I want to argue that the beginning of the early modern is at least as problematic, not least because of the widespread assumption that there was such a dividing line. There was indeed a growing sense in the early seventeenth century that [End Page 133] things were different: Francis Bacon located the changes in the inventions of the magnetic compass, gunpowder, and the printing press, and Karl Marx adopted those as marking the origin of bourgeois society. All three, however, had originated in China some centuries earlier; a fourth item, the invention of paper, was added to the list there, and it was just as important for Europe too (not only for the transmission of texts, but also for the growth of bureaucracy). With the exception of the printing press, however, all had come to be known and used in Europe in the course of the Middle Ages, starting in the twelfth century. Printing was revolutionized in the mid-fifteenth century by the Western invention of movable type, but that is the only one of these four inventions, or arrivals, that falls within customary definitions of the early modern. Their full implications, of course, not least the possibility for global exploration, hit home most fully after 1490, but paper, gunpowder, and the compass had already been working a slower transformation on the world for a couple of centuries. The printing press itself was initially used extensively to print medieval texts, and for a long time co-existed with a vibrant manuscript culture. Other attempts to define a point of rupture are likewise insufficient or misleading, not least because the belief in such a moment of origin has itself led to the terms for the early modern and the periods that embrace it functioning in very different ways. “Early modern” is largely an academic term, to describe certain historically limited phenomena, whatever dates or events are selected as its boundaries; but “medieval” and “modern” function in the first instance, in everyday speech outside the academy, as value terms. Aristotle recognized another feature of the human brain when he divided the world into binaries: good, evil; light, dark; male, female. And one could add to the list “modern, medieval.” It is extraordinarily difficult to get beyond that association of value, the idea that “medieval” is pejorative. The Middle Ages are perceived not only as being...

Do Cuidado da Alma ao Cuidado da Vida: Evoluções Históricas do Exercício do Cuidado Pastoral – Parte II

This essay examines the literature regarding the different emphases of the exercise of pastoral care in diverse historical phases. The historical division that is utilized here is random. The text has two principal objectives: first, to recapture this thousand year old practice of the Church; second, to inspire in the life of the Church this witness, in its historical trajectory, in order to maintain continuous renovation of current pastoral action. The focus is concentrated on socio-cultural interaction and correspondent pastoral emphases within the selected historical periods.

Koncepcje odbudowy szczecińskich zabytków po 1945 roku i możliwość ich realizacji

Th e concepts for the reconstruction of Szczecin monuments aft er 1945 and possibilities of their realizationThe first professionals dealing with an inventory and protection of cultural monuments arrived in Szczecin in the second quarter of 1946. The group included Leopold Kusztelski (PhD), art historian, who became the Voivodeship Restorer of Monuments on 8 April. In 1953 the decision was made to get rid of war damage in the Old Town, and reconstruct only the most precious monuments, not maintaining the historical urban planning. It was also planned to widen the streets and erect modern residential buildings near the cathedral. The following monuments were included in the reconstruction plan: the medieval churches of St. Jacob the Apostle, of SS. Peter and Paul, of St. John the Evangelist, The Old Town Hall, the early modern palaces of Grumbkov and Velthusen, the Berlin and Royal Gates, the Panieńska tower, the castle of the Pomeranian Dukes, and tenement houses in Kusnierska street. Th e second stage of restoration activities took place at the beginning of the 1990s and it included the area of Podzamcze. It was to be conducted according to the concept which won the tender announced by the city in 1983, and which assumed the reconstruction of the historical network of streets and squares with a historical division of the area. The planned contemporary architecture was to refer to the 17th and 18th centuries, which was why the buildings were to have 3–4 storeys. Baroque tenement buildings, known for their iconographic materials, were also included in the reconstruction plan as the nearest surrounding of the monumental Town Hall. Serious restoration works embraced also the revitalization of the city centre, including 56 quarters with about 1000 tenement buildings from the end of the 19th century, situated on the area of 105 hectares. Another restoration activity consisted in considerable investments started in the years 2004–2006 owing to the funds of the European Union. They included the cathedral of St. Jacob the Apostle with the reconstruction of the spire to the height of 110 metres and the conversion of the tower into a scenic overlook, the renovation of the Church of St. John the Evangelist and buildings of the National Museum, the conversion of the abandoned tram depot in Niebuszewo into the Museum of Transport and Technology. The obligation to prepare the investment process and to define the new functions made the owners of the monuments prepare to give answers explaining not only how to restore the buildings, but also why the restoration of a given building was necessary or whether the suggested function would meet the needs of the public.

Orbital cycles analysis and its genesis significance for the sequence hierarchy: A case study of Carboniferous Karashayi Formation, Central Tarim basin

The Carboniferous Karashayi (卡拉沙依) Formation of Tarim basin formed in the epi- continental sea shelf environment where the evolution of basins is pediocratic. As an important reservoir-forming combination, the Carboniferous Karashayi Formation consist of clastic rocks, car- bonate rocks and gypsum rocks, which show clear sedimentary cyclicity. According to paleontology research and stratigraphic correlation, Karashayi Formation corresponds to Visean and Serpukhovian in international stratigraphic chart with a time limit about ±27 Ma. The sequence stratigraphic study for the Karashayi Formation is rough because of the difficulty to identify the unconformity surfaces. The current study mostly divides it into three or four 3rd sequences. However, this partition cannot meet the geological crossing correlation. At the theory aspect of sequence stratigraphy, the genesis of the 3rd sequence is also a disputed problem. Cyclostratigraphy study of the Natural Gamma-Ray Log, Spontaneous Potential Log and other logging curves has been taken out by spectrum analysis and wavelet analysis, etc.. For Well Shun6 and Well Zhong1 in Tazhong (塔中) and neighbouring area, combined core observation and base level analysis, the Karashayi Formation was divided into 9 or 11 sequence stratigraphic units. Continuous constraints of each sequence is about ±2.40 Ma, correspond- ing to astronomical cycle formed by three parameters of Earth orbit. Accompanied by the historical division of 3rd sequences, the formation mechanism of 3rd sequences was possibly forced by the 2.4 Ma astro-

Regional and temporal variations in coding of hospital diagnoses referring to upper gastrointestinal and oesophageal bleeding in Germany

BackgroundHealth insurance claims data are increasingly used for health services research in Germany. Hospital diagnoses in these data are coded according to the International Classification of Diseases, German modification (ICD-10-GM). Due to the historical division into West and East Germany, different coding practices might persist in both former parts. Additionally, the introduction of Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) in Germany in 2003/2004 might have changed the coding. The aim of this study was to investigate regional and temporal variations in coding of hospitalisation diagnoses in Germany.MethodsWe analysed hospitalisation diagnoses for oesophageal bleeding (OB) and upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) from the official German Hospital Statistics provided by the Federal Statistical Office. Bleeding diagnoses were classified as "specific" (origin of bleeding provided) or "unspecific" (origin of bleeding not provided) coding. We studied regional (former East versus West Germany) differences in incidence of hospitalisations with specific or unspecific coding for OB and UGIB and temporal variations between 2000 and 2005. For each year, incidence ratios of hospitalisations for former East versus West Germany were estimated with log-linear regression models adjusting for age, gender and population density.ResultsSignificant differences in specific and unspecific coding between East and West Germany and over time were found for both, OB and UGIB hospitalisation diagnoses, respectively. For example in 2002, incidence ratios of hospitalisations for East versus West Germany were 1.24 (95% CI 1.16-1.32) for specific and 0.67 (95% CI 0.60-0.74) for unspecific OB diagnoses and 1.43 (95% CI 1.36-1.51) for specific and 0.83 (95% CI 0.80-0.87) for unspecific UGIB. Regional differences nearly disappeared and time trends were less marked when using combined specific and unspecific diagnoses of OB or UGIB, respectively.ConclusionsDuring the study period, there were substantial regional and temporal variations in the coding of OB and UGIB diagnoses in hospitalised patients. Possible explanations for the observed regional variations are different coding preferences, further influenced by changes in coding and reimbursement rules. Analysing groups of diagnoses including specific and unspecific codes reduces the influence of varying coding practices.

Personality and psychopathology

Personality and psychopathology are increasingly recognized as tightly linked domains of study, despite historical and theoretical divisions. In this paper, we discuss the history of these divisions, models of inter-relations between personality and psychopathology, and selected examples from the literature demonstrating personality/psychopathology inter-relations in clinical and community populations. We begin by summarizing how personality, temperament, and personality disorders are increasingly conceptualized as overlapping entities. We next address relationships between personality traits and common mental illnesses/symptoms (e.g. internalizing and externalizing problems). Then we discuss the various ways in which personality traits may relate to Axis I conditions causally, with methods for distinguishing between them. We conclude with a more in-depth example, relating personality traits to schizophrenia.

Linguistic landscape as a reflection of the linguistic and ideological conflict in the Valencian Community

The Valencian Community is an area in Spain where Valencian, a variety of Catalan, is the co-official language along with Spanish. Differently from other bilingual areas in Spain, the unique historical circumstances that the Valencian Community underwent have led to the current linguistic and ideological conflict in the area. The historical division between Spanish versus Valencian, with Spanish being the high prestige language, was reinforced during Franco's dictatorship. After Franco's death, there was a slow process of language normalisation intended to reinforce the use of the local language. In Valencia, this situation was hindered by the birth of a secessionist movement claiming that Valencian and Catalan were two different languages. This ideological situation frames the language policy in Valencia and is reflected in the public space. This paper analyses 248 linguistic landscape items collected in two urban sites representing public and private institutions. The data uncover existing conflicts such as the inconsistency between institutional norms and language practices, and provide evidence of the implicit and explicit mechanisms that determine ‘de facto language policies’.

Efficient simulation of active sonar using concepts from room acoustics and auralization.

Many systems for real‐time simulation of active sonar reflect the historical division between propagation and reverberation algorithms. Though sonar returns comprise continua of echoes, systems treat scatterers as discrete targetlike entities or as distributed entities described by scattering strengths associated with regions of the ocean boundaries or volume. This approach limits the development of computational algorithms. In the fields of room acoustics and virtual reality there has been significant research devoted to development of efficient algorithms that enable computational simulation and real‐time rendering (auralization) of sound fields resulting from complex scenarios. Such work exploits knowledge of the physical processes and limitations of the human auditory system to enhance the relevant aspects of fidelity while reducing computational load. Similar conditions exist for the simulation of active sonar. This presentation describes how concepts from room acoustics and auralization can be applied toward an active‐sonar simulation that is scalable and implicitly incorporates tradeoffs between speed and accuracy. Rather than develop new propagation or reverberation algorithms, gains can be achieved by creating a system that treats all echos within a unified framework and explicitly accounts for properties of source, path, and receiver in order to optimize use of existing algorithms.

Caste, Social Stigma and Identity Processes

Caste persists as an important socio-psychological phenomenon in many spheres of Indian social life and particularly within village contexts. It is argued that socio-psychological insights into caste identity and caste-based stigma may complement ongoing sociological and anthropological research into caste. Drawing upon identity process theory, this article explores the possible functions performed by caste-based stigma both for the higher caste groups (HCGs) and the ‘Scheduled Caste’ (SC) groups. It examines how the maintenance of the social hierarchy implicated in the caste system, the spatial and endogamous separation of caste groups and the historical division of labour in accordance with caste group affiliation, may impinge upon identity processes among both groups. It is argued that caste group affiliation and caste-based stigma have differential and sometimes conflicting implications for identity processes among the HCGs and SCs. While negative social representations of the SCs may threaten self-esteem among SC members, it may enhance the self-esteem, meaning and distinctiveness principles among the HCGs. The systematic positioning of the caste ingroup and outgroups within the social matrix may enhance meaning and distinctiveness among both the HCGs and SCs. This article highlights a potential rationale underlying caste group members’ resistance to social change vis-à-vis caste, even among those who might be expected to benefit from such change. Some theoretical points are made in the form of testable hypotheses and methodological issues in caste-related research are considered.

Middle Power in Perspective

Founded as the Department of External Affairs in 1909, Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade took full advantage of its recent centenary celebrate its past. Among the manifestations were a large banner on the outside ofthe department's headquarters, the Lester B. Pearson building in Ottawa, a postage stamp, several conferences, and a number of publications, including the proceedings of a conference held in Ottawa in December 2008 and a collection of important documents created over the years since the department's establishment.1 What has the department done record its history over those years and make it known, and what can be learned from it?THE ORIGIN OF THE HISTORICAL RECORDThe department's first under-secretary (deputy minister), Joseph Pope, appreciated the value ofthe record. Having already been frustrated, as a negotiator on matters such as the Canada-US boundary, by the spotty nature of Canadian documentation, Pope made it one of his first items of business pull together as complete as possible a set of records dealing with international subjects of interest Canada. It was his intention be thorough. am naturally desirous, he wrote, to carry the date of our beginning as far back as possible and I do not see why I should not start with the... Commission Jacques Cartier from Philippe Chabot, Admiral of France, dated 30 October 1534. 2 The object of this exercise was not search for lessons from the past, but ensure that Canadian negotiators were properly briefed on the basis of all the relevant documentation. The collection was for internal use only, and no provision seems have been considered, or have been requested by outside users, for any kind of public access.MAKING THE RECORD AVAILABLEThis situation prevailed for many years, not surprisingly, perhaps, given Canada's limited involvement in international diplomacy at the time. The Second World War and its aftermath, however, changed all that, and senior officials and the minister, Lester Pearson, gave thought gathering some of the record in a documentary publication. As in Pope's day, this was not seen as a search for lessons from history; the object, rather, was inform the public and no doubt receive some good publicity from accomplishments of the past. The comparative youth of the department, however, was a stumbling block. Much ofthe documentation in the earlier files was British, and still closed in the United Kingdom. Many ofthe participants in the work that would be recorded were still departmental employees actively engaged in formulating policy advice and carrying out the government's instructions. Progress, therefore, was slow and cautious.The importance ofthe department's record was acknowledged in 1950, when the directorate of research and reports (redesignated a in 1952 and renamed historical division in 1957) was created, numbering among its responsibilities the oversight of an archives unit charged with the development of policy governing the department's dormant records. In 1956, this came under the direction of George Glazebrook, a once-and-future member of the history department at the University of Toronto and the author of well-known studies of Canada's external relations.3 Among his assigned tasks were the preparation of recommendations on research be carried out by the department and the development of regulations for access the files by outside researchers. Lack of staff, however, prevented fulfilment of these objectives. Academics and other researchers, meanwhile, were getting more interested in Canada's international activity, and the department began experience criticism for the inaccessibility of its records: in 1962, for example, the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Historical Association adopted resolutions condemning the department's glacier-like pace in making records available. …

The Indian Ocean tsunami in Swedish newspapers: nationalism after catastrophe

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze how the Swedish mass media constructed Sweden and Swedes during the first days after the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles from four of the largest newspapers in Sweden was conducted.FindingsThe results show that the tsunami was framed as a Swedish disaster almost exclusively focusing on Sweden, Swedish victims and Thailand, and that there was a division between “us” and “them”. Two categories of “us” and “them” were identified in the coverage: on the international level Sweden, i.e. “us”, was glorified and contrasted with “inferior” countries such as Thailand, “them”; on the national level, the distinction between “us” and “them” was not as obvious, but by including particular experiences and practices and excluding others, lines are drawn between “us” – ethnic Swedes – and “them” – everyone else. The conclusion of the paper is that mediated frames of catastrophes are influenced by stereotypes and nationalistic values.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is based on a qualitative analysis and it is not possible to generalize to other cases. Additional quantitative studies would therefore be of value.Practical implicationsThis study can be used in the education of crisis and disaster managers to make them aware of how underlying norms guide news coverage and encourage them always to consider information based on mass media reports critically.Originality/valueThis paper gives new theoretical and empirical insights into the way in which disasters contribute to recreating and maintaining the historical division between regions and people, on both a national and an international level.

Brazil, Lyric, and the Americas (review)

Reviewed by: Brazil, Lyric, and the Americas Aileen El-Kadi Perrone, Charles A. Brazil, Lyric, and the Americas. Gainesville, FL: U of Florida P, 2010. Pp. xvi + 250. ISBN 978-0-8130-3421-8. The title of Charles A. Perrone's latest book—Brazil, Lyric, and the Americas—sounds like the keywords of an essay. As he mentions in the preface, he had previously thought of an alternative title, "Interfaces: Insularity, Invention, Brazilian Lyric in/and the Americas," which he finally used for the introduction. Between the compressed title and the extended one lies Perrone's scholarly proposal and challenge: to condense and create an accessible narrative of a complex, multi-leveled artistic production, addressing the last two decades of Brazilian lyric and its relations with the poetry of the Americas. On a more philosophical note, his study of transamerican poetics "in a comparative perspective can help to answer concerns about the inequalities of globalization and to imagine a utopian hemispheric solidarity" (ix). The title's words function as metonymies of this vast process of interconnecting genres, languages, and nations, finding answers and elaborating sharp questions on the American cultures. Over the past twenty years, Perrone has researched and written on Brazilian popular music and poetry from the Brazilian Modernism to the present, thus becoming, together with Christopher Dunn, one of the most authoritative and influential scholars in the field. This book focuses on the last twenty-five years and examines varied poetic productions from song lyric and visual poetry to discursive verse presented in multiple media resources. It consists of an introduction, six chapters, and an (In-) Conclusion, as he named it, plus forty-six pages of notes and bibliography. Thematically organized, each chapter refers to a different cultural phenomenon. Historically and linguistically different from its neighboring countries, Brazil presents singular characteristics—singularity that becomes negative when conceived in terms of isolation and exoticism. The first chapter addresses this issue, having cultural globalization as the core of the Brazilian lyric study. Mass media becomes the default vehicle for disseminating ideas and information, and the ground that allows interrelations of local and international aesthetics. Perrone uses the concept "deterritorialization" and "reterritorialization" to address hybridity and re-signifying lyric in different contexts. This chapter not only summarizes the book's thesis, but it also questions the harmful stereotypical views of Brazil, among which are its insularity and the country's image as "the quintessentially carnivalesque location" (13). The second chapter focuses on the use of English in Brazilian lyric and the reception of North American poetry in Brazil. Perrone mentions several bilingual anthologies as a literary cooperation between both countries. Nevertheless, Perrone is especially interested in the use of English in nontraditional Brazilian lyric. He also refers to the political aspect of the US- Brazil dialogue. The third chapter furthers the previous chapter's focus by extending the poetic outreach of US-Brazil relations to a deeper analysis of the mass media and popular culture roles as agents of the "transamerican awareness." Graphic arts, films, and songs are examples of the lyric experience that contributes to the formation of a hybrid poetic imagination. As Perrone questions: "[h]ow not to admit the implications of massive media presence and the imbrications of languages and nations?" (96). In the fourth chapter, the author traces images of Brazil in epic poems, pointing out the seeds of an early interamerican contact. For him, the "Three Americas" is an ambiguous term, for it is neither just a geographical reference nor an ethnic or cultural-linguistic one; on the contrary, it includes a Pan-American sense, in the widest and most popular Bolivarian use of the term. His mention of an "epical hemispheric fellowship" points to a sign of positive idealism in his critical understanding of cultural differences in the Americas. Even so, his original approach to poetry through the epical grand narrative serves as an indispensable base for his interpretation of a gradual overcoming of historical division within the continent. [End Page 710] The fifth chapter interconnects Brazil and its neighboring nations through individuals and varied subjects, having as its main axes poetry and mobility (of people, goods, ideas). The chapter "Scions of Tropicália" is...

Preparing for the Long War: The United States Army and the Early Cold War Period 1945–1950

As American and British troops pushed into the heart of the Third Reich during the spring of 1945 (March–May 1945), the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff began making preparations for a postwar force that supposedly would maintain the peace on the European continent and prevent the outbreak of a third, more devastating conflict. Unfortunately, as events turned out, the victorious U.S. Army of some 8 million men that had fought in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) rapidly demobilized once the surrender of Germany (and later Japan) had been achieved. This in turn left Germany and much of Western Europe, already devastated by the effects of the war on their soil vulnerable to exploitation and possible invasion by the Soviet Army. Maintaining the peace in Europe was a U.S. military that was but a remnant of the mighty U.S. and British military machine that had defeated the Wehrmacht, that had now been whittled down to a mere occupation or constabulary force.1 1 For an analysis of U.S. Army operations from January to May 1945 see MacDonald, C. B. (1973/2000). United States Army in World War II: The European theater of operations, the last offensive Washington, D.C.: for the occupation of Germany see Cameron, R. There and back again: Constabulary training and organization, 1946–1950. In Combat Studies Institute. (2004) Armed diplomacy: Two centuries of American campaigning, a conference at the Combat Studies Institute, 5–7 August 2003, Ft. Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute, pp. 115–35; Ziemke, E. F. (1990). The U.S. Army in the occupation of Germany, 1944–1946. Washington, D.C. Center of Military History,; Frederiksen, O. J. (1955). The American military occupation of Germany, 1945–1953. Darmstadt, Germany: Historical Division, Headquarters, United States Army Europe, and Gott, K. D. (2005). Mobility, vigilance, and justice: The U.S. Army constabulary in Germany, 1946–1953. Fort Leavenworth, KS. Combat Studies Institute.

Microscopic information processing and communication in crowd dynamics

Due, perhaps, to the historical division of crowd dynamics research into psychological and engineering approaches, microscopic crowd models have tended toward modelling simple interchangeable particles with an emphasis on the simulation of physical factors. Despite the fact that people have complex (non-panic) behaviours in crowd disasters, important human factors in crowd dynamics such as information discovery and processing, changing goals and communication have not yet been well integrated at the microscopic level. We use our Microscopic Human Factors methodology to fuse a microscopic simulation of these human factors with a popular microscopic crowd model. By tightly integrating human factors with the existing model we can study the effects on the physical domain (movement, force and crowd safety) when human behaviour (information processing and communication) is introduced. In a large-room egress scenario with ample exits, information discovery and processing yields a crowd of non-interchangeable individuals who, despite close proximity, have different goals due to their different beliefs. This crowd heterogeneity leads to complex inter-particle interactions such as jamming transitions in open space; at high crowd energies, we found a freezing by heating effect (reminiscent of the disaster at Central Lenin Stadium in 1982) in which a barrier formation of naïve individuals trying to reach blocked exits prevented knowledgeable ones from exiting. Communication, when introduced, reduced this barrier formation, increasing both exit rates and crowd safety.

Political Cleavages and Socio-economic Context: How Welfare Regimes and Historical Divisions Shape Political Cleavages

The paper argues that despite significant changes taking place in the social structure of contemporary industrial societies and the weakening of links between parties and voters, structure and value-based divisions still count as a source of electoral behavior in advanced industrial societies. Furthermore, the way these divisions impact on the politics of Western European countries is affected by the characteristics of welfare regimes and the historical importance of cultural and economic divisions. Interaction of these two variables produces three configurations of cleavages. In the first configuration dominance belongs to economic cleavages. In the second configuration economic cleavages are supplanted by weaker cultural cleavages. In the third configuration cultural cleavages have a more important role than economic cleavages. The empirical analysis using European Value Survey data broadly supports these expectations and finds the presence of a link between welfare state characteristics and historical divisions on the one hand and value cleavages on the other.

Afghanistan and Pakistan: The Question of Pashtun Nationalism?

The Pashtun people that straddle Afghanistan and Pakistan are divided along family, clan and tribal lines, but constitute an ethnic-based nation in the classic sense of the term. Since the end of 2001, many of them find themselves subjected to intense efforts by the Afghan and Pakistani governments, backed by the US and many of its allies, to expunge the Pashtun-dominated radical Taliban Islamic movement from their midst. However, many Pashtuns now see themselves as squeezed in by adversarial forces, encroaching upon their religion, land, resources, honour, and cultural-social norms and values. In the absence of a return to peace and stability in their lives and locations, they are becoming increasingly prone to accommodating the Taliban not only as a religious, but also as a nationalist movement, and could eventually brush aside their historical divisions, and rally behind the Taliban leadership in pursuit of their historical goal of an independent “Pashtunistan”. This paper identifies several ways of acting to avert such a development—a consideration that seems to be missing in the strategic calculations of the Afghan and Pakistani governments, as well as their international backers.

<i>The </i>Piers Plowman <i>Electronic Archive, vol. 6: San Marino, Huntington Library Hm 128 (Hm, Hm<sup>2</sup>)</i> (review)

Reviewed by: The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, vol. 6: San Marino, Huntington Library Hm 128 (Hm, Hm2) Lawrence Warner The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, vol. 6: San Marino, Huntington Library Hm 128 (Hm, Hm2). Edited by Michael Calabrese, Hoyt N. Duggan, and Thorlac Turville-Petre. Cambridge: Published for The Medieval Academy of America and the Society for Early English and Norse Electronic Texts by Boydell & Brewer, 2008. CD-ROM. $60. Michael Calabrese, Hoyt N. Duggan, and Thorlac Turville-Petre have done full justice to the Piers Plowman texts of San Marino, Huntington Library, MS Hm 128. A major benefit of the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive (PPEA), of course, is its provision of full-color digital facsimiles of the manuscripts, but even more useful to the scholar is the XML-encoded transcription, accessible via either the default “JR viewer” or Eugene Lyman’s more advanced “Elwood viewer.” The latter enables extraordinarily sophisticated searches. Within a minute or so, an enterprising user can, for instance, generate a spreadsheet indicating how many terms with a medial oe appear in each passus. And then there is the edition’s interpretive material, in the editors’ Introduction to Hm/Hm2, which addresses all the major textual, codicological, paleographical, and linguistic features of the manuscript. This Introduction, on which my review focuses, is a major feat of medieval scholarship. It would, for instance, serve as a wonderful introduction to textual and manuscript studies for students, and it shows seasoned scholars, too, what is to be gained from this sort of careful and sustained attention to single documents. In Part I the editors thoroughly describe the manuscript, which comprises six items, in six main hands plus that of a rubricator/corrector: Prick of Conscience, the fragment of Piers Plowman called Hm2 (i.e., Kane-Donaldson 2.208–3.72), Expositio sequentiarum, the main Piers Plowman text, The Siege of Jerusalem, and How the Good Wife Taught her Daughter. The most important section of Part I concerns the sequence of the manuscript’s construction, concluding that Piers Plowman “was left unrubricated for a long while” but that “some sort of rather loose collaborative effort informed the production of this manuscript in the (probably religious) community in which it was created” (I.6). One error is the editors’ claim that “Kane and Donaldson propose that some kind of ‘historical division’ existed after fol. 97,” which, we are told, recent discoveries by Ralph Hanna and David Lawton have disproved. In fact Kane and Donaldson, too, dismiss this “proposal,” arguing instead, as the PPEA editors had acknowledged at the beginning of the paragraph, for “a common and contemporaneous origin for items 1, 2 and 4, and therefore also for 5 and 6.” Part II, on “The Text,” has by far the richest analysis available of the myriad problems presented by Hm/Hm2. Calabrese, Duggan, and Turville-Petre’s discussion of the odd dislocation whereby the text reads K-D 11.425–12.81 / 11.218–424 / 11.111–217 is intelligent and fascinating, especially in pointing out that “the new junctures are grammatical and make local sense” (II.1.2), which seems to have prevented any early readers from noticing the error. The account of Hm2’s [End Page 538] production is full and reliable. There is an extensive catalogue of the correcting hands in the manuscript, of whom the individual who also rubricated Piers Plowman is most prominent. This, together with the account of the manuscript’s production, is the heart of the edition, and indeed the two topics, as becomes clear in this section, are intimately related. But the edition is somewhat confused about the nature of the evidence it brings to bear on these important questions, so we will need to take a few moments to sort things out. The editors refreshingly acknowledge one source of the confusion, though they could have done more to prevent it. At stake is a relatively straightforward question: was the rubricator/corrector’s exemplar the same one used by the two main hands at work on the Piers Plowman texts? The edition initially argues—and this is certainly Turville-Petre, since this is based on a 2002...

South America: Framing Regional Security

The August 2009 meeting of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) in Argentina showed the difficulties in building an effective regional security institution from the top down and revealed the need for Unasur to develop a stronger institutional base. The Defence Council of Unasur, which convenes defence ministers for a more focused agenda, offers the promise of being just the right vehicle, if heads of government are willing to empower it with the means of carrying out a pragmatic agenda of consultations. A measured programme of regular meetings on agreed subjects could in time serve to cultivate a more common strategic culture among South American states and develop settled norms to govern conflict resolution. The form of Defence Council consultations would have to be closely aligned to the reality of current South American security dilemmas and responsive to the historical suspicions and current political divisions that exist.