Historical Product Research Articles

Mapping and analysing historical indicators of ecosystem services in Germany

In recent ecosystem service studies, historical data have gained importance as basis for analysing temporal trends and for adapted land management strategies; however, the total number of such studies remains small. Contributing to recent efforts, the primary objective of this study was to assess local ecosystem service products historically used in Germany and to link their distribution patterns to environmental gradients and traditional land-use systems. From maps and detailed regional descriptions of regionally distinct historic farmsteads, building materials used and village types we extracted information on ecosystem service products appropriated in 1950 and before. A spatial model was used to test the derived ecosystem service diversity against topo-climatic conditions. Regional service richness was further compared to the type of traditional land-use system (i.e. focus on crops, focus on livestock or mixed systems). We were able to identify hot spots of historical ecosystem service provisioning in Northern and Southern Germany, whereas significantly lower service numbers were recorded in Eastern Germany. The strong spatial differences in the diversity of historical service products could be explained best by (high) precipitation during the vegetation period. Furthermore, traditional livestock keeping, which relied on various fodder sources and fertilisation techniques to improve poor soil quality, and mixed systems mostly co-occurred with higher regional ecosystem service richness. The baseline of historical ecosystem service provisioning analysed here aids our understanding of current land-use patterns in Germany. Furthermore, a change of perception for specific landscape elements became apparent from our analyses. For example, hedges planted to separate livestock and to provide fuel in the past are today appreciated as important elements for biodiversity conservation. Furthermore, our study helps to preserve knowledge about locally sourced ecosystem services thereby increasing the understanding of cultural landscapes which may help to maintain their remnants.

En busca de la evaluación de la educación superior en Uruguay: un caso de adopción tardía y asimetría estructural

The chapter analyzes the case of higher education evaluation policies in Uruguay, the only country within MERCOSUR which did not generate neither a national nor a regional accrediting agency and whose public debate on evaluation has very special features. The paper presents the case of Uruguay, in the context of the countries of the region and describes and identifies the major initiatives on evaluation, accreditation and quality assurance in the country. This sector of public policy appears crossed by two key dimensions to understand the domestic case: first a very strong structural asymmetry of the higher education system in transition to new scenarios. Second, his condition of late adopter raises special challenges for the country, which differ from those faced by all those countries where defined public policies have been adopted. The final discussion of the initiatives and ongoing discussion leads to the conclusion that public policy evaluation and accreditation of higher education are concrete and historical products, they can not be transferred uncritically from one country to another, neither from a historical period to another, especially one of acceleration of global and local trends of transformation. In such conditions, a certain amount of critical imagination is required and the relevant chapter provides conceptual categories to take on the task of building a culture of evaluation in the Uruguayan higher education.

Synchrony and diachrony in Menominee derivational morphology

This paper identifies two difficulties with treatments of derivation in Algonquian languages. In traditional approaches to grammar, in which the morpheme is seen as a unitary entity, morphemes are understood as minimal units of meaning and/or function. Definitions share an appeal to the morpheme’s indivisibility. In the Algonquianist literature, in contrast, some morphemes (‘components’) can themselves contain other morphemes (which we call ‘formatives’) and they can also be synchronically derived from other components or stems. Drawing data from Menominee, we propose that these difficulties disappear if the formatives are seen as historical rather than synchronic units, while the components are the synchronic morphemes. Formatives bear the hallmarks of historical products of morphologization (phonetic/phonological reduction, semantic bleaching, and increase in grammatical function), and we conclude that they are not part of synchronic grammatical computation. This resolves problems present in traditional and modern theoretical approaches to Algonquian derivation, and has broader ramifications for linguistic theory: in both the structuralist and generativist traditions, synchronic grammar has often been seen as expansive, responsible for generating surface patterns that may instead be products of history. This has been the case in phonology and syntax. The present paper provides a study of the phenomenon in derivational morphology, and suggests that a more modest role for synchronic rules is called for.

A study of the bullwhip effect in supply- and demand-driven supply chain

A supply- and demand-driven supply chain model was built by introducing supply and demand function and price adjustment equation simultaneously, then the lead time demand was predicted and the bullwhip effect was analyzed. The results show supply and demand fluctuations can’t eliminate the bullwhip effect in any case due to the systematic factor, while there is an inverse relationship between the impacts of supply and demand fluctuation imposed on the bullwhip effect. The supplier has been in an active position in reducing the bullwhip effect, and reducing lead time is apparent to alleviate the bullwhip effect if lead time is in the optimal interval. Meanwhile, the supplier can develop production plan depending on previous multi-period historical product price information to restrain the bullwhip effect, and the retailer should choose the right sales strategy to control the bullwhip effect after analyzing consumers’ price consumption psychology and understanding consumers’ price sensitivity.

Magma plumbing for the 2014–2015 Holuhraun eruption, Iceland

AbstractThe 2014–2015 Holuhraun eruption on Iceland was located within the Askja fissure swarm but was accompanied by caldera subsidence in the Bárðarbunga central volcano 45 km to the southwest. Geophysical monitoring of the eruption identified a seismic swarm that migrated from Bárðarbunga to the Holuhraun eruption site over the course of two weeks. In order to better understand this lateral connection between Bárðarbunga and Holuhraun, we present mineral textures and compositions, mineral‐melt‐equilibrium calculations, whole rock and trace element data, and oxygen isotope ratios for selected Holuhraun samples. The Holuhraun lavas are compositionally similar to recorded historical eruptions from the Bárðarbunga volcanic system but are distinct from the historical eruption products of the nearby Askja system. Thermobarometry calculations indicate a polybaric magma plumbing system for the Holuhraun eruption, wherein clinopyroxene and plagioclase crystallized at average depths of ∼17 km and ∼5 km, respectively. Crystal resorption textures and oxygen isotope variations imply that this multilevel plumbing system facilitated magma mixing and assimilation of low‐δ18O Icelandic crust prior to eruption. In conjunction with the existing geophysical evidence for lateral migration, our results support a model of initial vertical magma ascent within the Bárðarbunga plumbing system followed by lateral transport of aggregated magma batches within the upper crust to the Holuhraun eruption site.

Sobre la ciencia jurídica dominante en las Facultades de Derecho: la crisis de la reforma

El estado de crisis en que se encuentra la ciencia jurídica es descrito como un efecto estructural más de la crisis de la sociedad capitalista. La necesidad de legitimación y reproducción del sistema capitalista exige un modelo de ciencia neutral y descriptiva, pese al descrédito del cientificismo y de las metodologías positivistas. En el caso de la ciencia jurídica, la ciencia del derecho sigue anclada en un paradigma formalista que aboga por una descripción simple del contenido de las normas y que, sin embargo, es una forma de hacer política, pues contribuye a legitimar y no desvelar las dimensiones políticas del tráfico y las relaciones jurídicas. Las conclusiones de la filosofía de la ciencia general y los cambios que el Estado social ha supuesto para el derecho obligan a tomar en serio que el derecho es un fenómeno social y un producto histórico que tiene una razón de ser que excede del mero dato de su existencia impuesta por la fuerza del Estado. Abogan también por revisar la separación entre filosofía del derecho y ciencia del derecho y por un modelo de ciencia explicativa y crítica del derecho, que dé cuenta de su sentido y sus transformaciones y asuma una función crítica inmanente al derecho, objetiva, dialéctica —porque recurre a la totalidad social como elemento mediador de los análisis científico-jurídicos—, jurídica —porque tiene por objeto normas—, política —porque afecta a las relaciones de poder.

METODE BIBEL DALAM PEMAKNAAN AL-QUR’AN (Kajian Kritis terhadap Pandangan Orientalis)

Orientalist’s attention against the Quran can be traced since the visit of Peter Venerable, from Cluny, to Toledo in the mid 12th century. He asked some western scholars to produce a series of works that will be a scientific basis for the western intellectual meeting with Islam. Orientalist’s critical study against the Quran is not limited to questioning its authenticity. The issues raised are the classic that is always a matter of the influence of Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, and the contents of the Quran. Orintalist then snaring to a naïve assumption that the Quran is the historical product. Orientalist’s biggest mistake was to assume the Quran equal to the bible. When a critical study of the bible to prove some of its contents are not original anymore, so they assumed that a critical assessment of the Quran to prove the same thing. Though, the biblical method proved the originality of the quran. Therefore, their desire to make a critical edition, and restore the text of the Quran is closer to a fantasy rather than a scientific work

Perspectiva histórica, etnicidade e historicidade para a compreensão dos Kinikinau

The Brazilian indigenous group Guana-Aruak called Kinikinau was considered extinct in the first half of the 20th century – in theory. This article shows that new or renewed conceptions in Anthropology allowed new approaches to the indigenous people, including their perceptions and adopting a historical perspective, thus enabling a reconstruction of their experiences beyond the one-way view and voice of history. The “disappearance” of that group, like in many similar cases, is a historical and theoretical product shattered by their presence in Brazilian society – invalidating all pessimistic prognoses as to their permanence. The article points out the theoretical and methodological resources that allow giving visibility to ethnic groups otherwise considered extinct, on the basis of the experience of a written part of Kinikinau history – which demanded a dialogue between the fields of History and Anthropology, renewed from the decade of 1970 onwards. Keywords: Indigenous History, historical perspective, ethnicity.

Discursive Legitimation of a Contested Actor Over Time: The Multinational Corporation as a Historical Case (1964–2012)

In this study, we explicitly engage with the historical dimension of discursive legitimation to understand how a sense of legitimacy is maintained for a controversial actor over a long period of time. Analyzing articles in The Economist that address opposition against multinational corporations during the current wave of globalization, we identify and situate the different multinational corporation-related controversies and discursive legitimation strategies in their specific historical context. Our historical interpretation suggests three phases, each representing the discursive creation of particular actor images that either legitimize multinational corporations or de-legitimize its opponents. From our findings, we propose that, over time, the nature of discursive legitimation changes and introduce ‘discursive antagonism’ and ‘discursive co-optation’ as two different forms of legitimation. We further reflect on our present understanding of multinational corporations, reinterpreting their current political role as a historical product of the legitimacy process over time.

Biomimicry: Streamlining the Front End of Innovation for Environmentally Sustainable Products

OVERVIEW:Biomimicry, defined as innovation through the emulation of biological forms, processes, patterns, and systems, is particularly valuable for its focus on solution discovery, as opposed to solution validation. GOJO Industries, Inc., used biomimicry to drive environmentally sustainable product innovation. The approach proved both efficient and effective: in comparison to a historical new product development project with a similar objective and scope, the biomimicry-driven project produced double the intellectual property and, based on a preliminary assessment of lead product concepts, at least double the energy savings for just one-sixth the resource commitment. Biomimicry also showed potential to increase the overall speed of front-end innovation. This case study suggests that biomimicry may be a highly promising approach for driving innovation, and particularly environmentally sustainable innovation, but further investigation is needed to validate the conclusions of this single case study. The authors will discuss their study in more detail at an IRI-sponsored webinar, October 7, 2016, 12–1 pm EST. For more information, visit https://tinyurl.com/hz9cmsj.

The MEDESS-GIB database: tracking the Atlantic water inflow

Abstract. On 9 September 2014, an intensive drifter deployment was carried out in the Strait of Gibraltar. In the frame of the MEDESS-4MS Project (EU MED Program), the MEDESS-GIB experiment consisted of the deployment of 35 satellite tracked drifters, mostly of CODE-type, equipped with temperature sensor sampling at a rate of 30 min. Drifters were distributed along and on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar. The MEDESS-GIB deployment plan was designed as to ensure quasi-synoptic spatial coverage. To this end, four boats covering an area of about 680 NM2 in 6 h were coordinated. As far as these authors know, this experiment is the most important exercise in the area in terms of number of drifters released. Collected satellite-tracked data along drifter trajectories have been quality controlled and processed to build the presented MEDESS-GIB database. This paper reports the MEDESS-GIB data set that comprises drifter trajectories, derived surface currents and in situ SST measurements collected along the buoys tracks. This series of data is available through the PANGAEA (Data Publisher for Earth and Environmental Science) repository, with the following doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.853701. Likewise, the MEDESS-GIB data will be incorporated as part of the Copernicus Marine historical products. The MEDESS-GIB data set provides a complete Lagrangian view of the surface inflow of Atlantic waters through the Strait of Gibraltar and thus, very useful data for further studies on the surface circulation patterns in the Alboran Sea, and their links with one of the most energetic Mediterranean Sea flows: the Algerian Current.

The Absence of the Sexual Relationship: A Transcendental Invariant of the Human Species?

Is what psychoanalysis calls the ‘absence of the sexual relationship’ the basic transcendental invariant of the speaking animal? Or should it be understood as a historical product? Also, assuming that language is structurally incomplete, and therefore that Homo sapiens cannot avoid the dialectic of semblance and truth, does this necessarily entail that the absence of meta-language always correspond to the absence of the sexual relationship? In this article I will show how, in his Seminars of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Lacan develops two different narratives.

Geo-information heritage contained within Kitab-ı Bahriye (Book of Navigation): The Sicily Island

Abstract Historical cartography is a fundamental part of Cultural Heritage for its valuable content related to spatial reference as well as its artistic value. The importance of cartographic heritage mainly seems to base upon the spatial and time-related information within historical maps and other connected materials. The historical cartographic products portrayed a particular moment in the past, and represent a starting point for detecting physical and cultural changes in the environment through the time, in the studies, ranging from environmental to cultural, geographic or administrative tasks. The comparison of historical cartography with modern data gives an opportunity to interpret the spatial and the time scale of environmental and anthropogenic changes on the content. In this paper, one of the leading works of Piri Reis, Kitab-i Bahriye (Book of Navigation) that is a book of geography and an atlas of the Mediterranean Sea is studied. Kitab-i Bahriye combines numerous charts and maps with geo-information relating to the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean Sea. The Sicily Island is selected as the case study from Kitab-i Bahriye . In conjunction with the medieval Islamic literature ( Book of Curiosities and Book of Roger ), the geographical and spatial information about the Sicily Island from Kitab-i Bahriye were compared with the modern data to evaluate the reliability of the unique geo-information stored in Kitab-i Bahriye as a historical data source.

Iterations for the Lemniscate Constant Resembling the Archimedean Algorithm for Pi

We give an iterative algorithm that converges to the lemniscate constant L. This algorithm resembles the famous Archimedean algorithm for π. The derivation is based on the recently discovered product of nested radicals for by Aaron Levin. Levin's product closely resembles Vieta's historic product for .

The Impact of the Business Environment in Developing an Enterprise - Case Study: Furniture Manufacturing Tefik Canga Design

The enterprise is an organization that reconciles the workforce, real capital, techniques, information and knowledge to produce and service. The enterprise cannot control or have any impact on the environment that it`s surrounded by, only to adjust to it. Despite that, enterprises can be specialized in a special market segment, yet it will be subject to competitive pressure. Furniture Manufacturing Tefik Canga Design has taken over the use of natural and unnatural resources to promote the development and growth, or to solve financial and operational problems. With this research, we propose a growth model of a manufacturing enterprise in relation to the business environment. Implementation of the case is described and the profitability and productivity performance is analyzed using five years of historical data product. Therefore, by this study is expected to achieve results, that will improve the input-output relationship in order to increase the firm's productivity, increase the value of employees and create opportunities for development in order to cut production costs.

Professores de Matemática em atividade de ensino de álgebra: Apropriações da teoria histórico-cultural

Este artigo tem o objetivo de apresentar as evidências das apropriações de um grupo de professores de Matemática que, inconformados com a situação do ensino da álgebra, participaram de um curso de formação que os colocou em atividade de ensino. Neste curso, os professores tiveram contato com a teoria histórico-cultural e com as atividades orientadoras de ensino. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa que se utilizou de um experimento didático desenvolvido com um grupo de professores de Matemática da Educação Básica. Os principais resultados desta pesquisa indicam a importância de ações de formação que permitam que os professores possam inserir-se em um movimento de produção de sentidos ao aprenderem e ensinarem álgebra numa proposta que entende o conhecimento matemático como um produto histórico-cultural.

Estimating Primary Demand for a Heterogeneous-Groups Product Category under Hierarchical Consumer Choice Model

This paper discusses the estimation of primary demand (i.e., the true demand before the stockout-based substitution effect occurs) for a heterogeneous-groups product category that is sold in the department store setting, based on historical sales data, product availability, and market share information. For such products, a hierarchical consumer choice model can better represent purchasing behavior. This means that choice occurs on multiple levels: A consumer might choose a particular product group on the first level and purchase a product within that chosen group on the second level. Hence, in the present study, we used the nested multinomial logit (NMNL) choice model for the hierarchical choice and combined it with non-homogeneous Poisson arrivals over multiple periods. The expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm was applied to estimate the primary demand while treating the observed sales data as an incomplete observation of that demand. We considered the estimation problem as an optimization problem in terms of the inter-product-group heterogeneity, and this approach relieves the revenue management system of the computational burden of using a nonlinear optimization package. We subsequently tested the procedure with simulated data sets. The results confirmed that our algorithm estimates the demand parameters effectively for data sets with a high level of inter-product-group heterogeneity.

HBIM and matching techniques: considerations for late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century buildings

Historic Building Information Modelling (HBIM) is limited by the irrelevance of object libraries and the inability of 3D scans to determine structures in buildings of dissimilar age and construction. The potential for energy conscious initiatives to make informed judgments regarding the ‘deep renovation’ of traditional buildings requires development of better non-invasive appraisal methods. Presumptions are dangerous for the majority of forms of historic building construction, yet older buildings benefit from better statutory control against alteration in any event. Here it is proposed that the pre-existing standard methods of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century construction could improve capacity to build data for a significant number of buildings of that era. The matching of images to develop place recognition algorithms has been deployed in a number of contexts. Standards, Patents and Specifications provide the means for developing new object libraries nested and shared from the surface to the structure. The example of decorative finishes, commonly used in public buildings at the turn of the twentieth century, demonstrates a traceable route whereby classifications could be determined using historic specifications and product data. The wider potential for such groundwork to enhance capacity to model energy performance of these less well protected buildings is suggested.

Linking buildings, archives and museums of the 19th century Turin's Cultural Heritage

Abstract. The documentation of Cultural Heritage asset is the basis for all the interventions and policies on Cultural heritage conservation and management. The documentation is mainly based on historic knowledge and metric survey. As far as historic knowledge is concerned many information are still recorded and preserved inside written documents that are usually not easy to reach and correctly understandable by all the experts that have specific responsibilities on Cultural Heritage. The digitalization of documents (hardly faced in the last years) is not sufficient to guarantee the effective access to the historical information useful inside a documentation process. The documentation always needs an historical interpretation based on a critical reading produced by linking heterogeneous materials. Iconography also is an important source when it is correctly interpreted and linked to other sources. IT development and digital technology diffusion allowed offering new way to record, organize and share historical information: GIS and 3D modeling can be used as standard approaches to transfer the historical knowledge in a proper way to specialists involved in Cultural Heritage conservation and management. They have been generally used as tool to represent information for different targets, the ones mostly for specialized users, the others for edutainment. GIS are largely diffused yet in the Cultural Heritage management, and 3D modeling is wide spread used in museums communication. Nevertheless, both of them have more potential. They could be integrated in order to manage different data set related with the same matter. They could be used to make new research by surveying and improving interpretation in a way ready to transmit the outcomes. To produce a new generation of affordable digital historical products is necessary that the GIS and 3D modeling design and realization would be developed in a multidisciplinary approach that must be explained and demonstrated to the people that in the future will offer to the community this expertise. The paper describes a teaching and research training experience started two years ago at the Politecnico di Torino in the master course on Architecture (Conservation).

Biodiversification as an historical process: an appeal for the application of historical ecology to bio-cultural diversity research

In the context of recent appeals for the adoption of historical perspectives emerging in environmental and conservation studies, ‘biodiversification processes’ would be considered as specific historical and historiographical topics. However, as highlighted in this paper, a broader discussion of the biodiversification processes as historical processes is needed. This paper discusses some consequences that are presented during the study of biodiversification processes when focusing on the links between cultural and biological diversity at the individual landscape level rather than on an overview of the current literature on the subject. In this discussion, we briefly underline dissimilarities in the methods adopted in historical ecology to those in the conventional historical approach nurtured in global environmental history where biodiversification processes, as subjects of historical study, are largely ignored or subsumed into general observations concerning global change or embedded in presumed ahistorical ‘traditional’ economies and practice systems. Such a broad reassessment is required before multi- or inter-disciplinary applications seek to answer ‘common questions’ (Szabo, Environ Conserv 37:380–387, 2010) in the field of environmental and cultural conservation studies. This paper comments on field and documentary evidence collected during multidisciplinary historical ecology approaches to research in the Northern Apennines (Italy) and Pyrenees (Franco-Spanish) sites. These site-level investigations suggest that medieval and post-medieval changes in local practices and systems of environmental resource production and activation appear to have been key drivers in co-related variations observed in the past biodiversity dynamics of the sites. In order to corroborate the sedimentary evidence (or traces of evidence) concerning taxonomic and habitat changes, historical ecology has proposed the adoption of a local approach in which a specific historical analysis and use of documentary and archival sources—as well as the archaeological and sedimentary evidence—has posed a number of new questions to the traditional use of archival and textual sources by professional historians. In doing so, it becomes clear that when observed at a local, topographical site-scale or on an individual landscape-scale, the links between biological and cultural diversity appear more clearly as historical products, rather than broad co-evolutionary issues relating to the ‘co-evolution of nature and culture’. These historically produced links between biological and cultural diversity—identified as biodiversification processes that can be uncovered and explored through the adoption of approaches from historical ecology—are the driving forces that ‘generate’ processes of circulation in local ecological knowledge and its related practices.