Historical Status Research Articles

Understanding the Role of the Exodus in the Institutionalization and Dismantling of Apartheid: Considering the Paradox of Justice and Injustice in the Exodus

The Exodus played an explicit and implicit role in sustaining the policy and practice of apartheid in South Africa and in various other places that went through the pains of colonization. Interestingly, the same Exodus also played a central part in the resistance to and the subsequent dismantling of the apartheid policy and practice in South Africa. That readers on both sides of the divide found solace in the Exodus was put down to the common assumption that guided both parties. The assumption of historicity caused the Exodus to be read as if it were a photographic record of what happened and the experience of oppression and discrimination by the readers assigned the Exodus a historical status for speaking to a historical situation. The assumption of historicity was central in the destructive uses of the Exodus thereby creating a cycle of oppressed–oppressors across the African continent, as groups took turns to seek out their own advantage. An assumption of justice was proposed as an alternative guiding principle through which justice for all, in line with pivotal events of the Old Testament, can be realized in the world.

China’s Special Poor Areas and Their Geographical Conditions

Special functional areas and poor areas tend to spatially overlap, and poverty is a common feature of both. Special poor areas, taken as a kind of “policy space,” have attracted the interest of researchers and policymakers around the world. This study proposes a basic concept of special poor areas and uses this concept to develop a method to identify them. Poor counties in China are taken as the basic research unit and overlaps in spatial attributes including old revolutionary bases, borders, ecological degradation, and ethnic minorities, are used to identify special poor areas. The authors then analyze their basic quantitative structure and pattern of distribution to determine the geographical bases’ formation and development. The results show that 304 counties in China, covering a vast territory of 12 contiguous areas that contain a small population, are lagging behind the rest of the country. These areas are characterized by rich energy and resource endowments, important ecological functions, special historical status, and concentrated poverty. They are considered “special poor” for geographical reasons such as a relatively harsh natural geographical environment, remote location, deteriorating ecological environment, and an inadequate infrastructure network and public service system. Some areas suffer from underdevelopment and even lack the infrastructure for basic living. In order to prevent further deterioration of the economic, social, and ecological environments in these areas, targeted policies need to be implemented.

Using anecdotal reports to clarify the distribution and status of a near mythical species: Australia’s Night Parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis)

ABSTRACT Shortfalls in our knowledge of the most basic parameters, such as overall range and population size, ensure evidence-based conservation of poorly known or ‘missing’ species is inherently difficult. Often, the only source of such knowledge is anecdotal reports, which are usually considered too unreliable to be of value. Methods that help conservation decision-makers use anecdotal records of poorly known or ‘missing’ species to decide where conservation action should occur, and how urgent that action might be, will support better conservation decisions for those species. Here, we use a Delphi-style process based on expert opinion to assess the largely anecdotal sightings record of the Night Parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis), an endangered species from arid central Australia that underwent a significant decline following the arrival of Europeans. Our results clarify the patterns and possible causes of this decline and subsequent range contraction. We conclude that the species persists in only two broad regions, and is probably extinct throughout much of its former range. Our method is applicable to other poorly known species with a similarly sporadic and largely anecdotal sightings record. This method could be used to clarify the historical and current distribution and status of such species, a critical first step in understanding their conservation requirements.

Six Decades of U.S. Tax Reform: Why Has the Average Couple's Tax Burden Increased?

ABSTRACTWe collect basic federal tax laws over a 64-year period in order to simulate the historical effective tax rates of median income wage-earning couples. We find that effective income tax rates have decreased over the sample period; however, when payroll taxes are included in our calculations, total tax burdens have increased significantly. Interestingly, this increase in middle-class wage taxation has occurred over an historical period in which total federal tax revenue relative to GDP has remained somewhat constant. This implies that the middle class has borne an increasing relative tax burden in recent years. We hope that our analyses inform both the taxpaying public and policy makers of the historical status of middle-class wage earners.

Trademark Ownership by the Local Government of the Special Region of Yogyakarta: A Model for Municipal Ownership of Intellectual Property Rights

This article aims at elaborating the trademark ownership by the local government in Yogyakarta. As an effort to leverage the region’s historical status in order to add value to products made in this region, the Special Region of Yogyakarta (the “DIY” or the “DIY Government”) has registered its trademarks like “Jogjamark” and “100% Jogja.” However, there remains a question as to wether the DIY Government have the same rights and obligations concerning intellectual property as private entities, as longa a municipal government is concerned. Generally, a public legal entity is subject to the same laws, with both rights and obligations, as any other legal entity. In this context, the local government of the DIY’s registration of these marks clearly confirms that the Local Government of the DIY is the trademark owner of those trademarks. This registration requires the question as to whether this government entity can legally own registered trademarks or not. In addition, even if the registration is legal, to what extent can the local government use and protect its intellectual property? This paper will address these two issues through an empirical research study, and determines that as a legal entity, the local government can and should own trademarks for the benefit of its population.

Dynamic Topology Awareness in Active Distribution Networks Using Blockchain-Based State Estimations

With growing complexity and uncertainty from distributed generations and active customers, distribution networks are facing more unexpected events and topology changes; while very limited measurements may degrade the observability of distribution system states and endanger the security of the system. Meanwhile, massive data from various types of users (if they can be used), can be valuable for power utilities. This makes privacy and data security a more critical issue, while being endowed with operation and market flexibilities. Thus, we propose a blockchain-based privacy-protecting approach for Dynamic Topology Awareness (DTA) to distinguish topology changes from cyber anomalies, including physical, cyber and business layers. At the bottom layer (physical layer), the distribution network is partitioned into subareas and tie-line areas, coping with local data from measurement devices or users. Estimated border values from parallel local estimations would be examined through data consistency checking. And DTA consensus algorithm might be triggered, querying historical status stored as blockchain contracts for anomalies detections and new block formations. Voting mechanism is then adopted to verify new blocks from data tampering. The performance of the proposed DTA approach is validated through simulations to identify topology changes and cyber anomalies, with additional discussions on the trade-off between DTA sensitivity and estimation accuracy.

수구 · 개화 이항 대립 틀의 허상 탈피 - 조선후기 時務改革論의 추이와 변화 -

The traditional contemporary affair reforms were raised in the process of solving contemporary and social challenges amid extreme social fluctuations in the late Goryeo and early Chosun period. However, the reforms were based on the logic of ‘The mean in time’ (時中) and ‘change’ (變易) in the understanding of Neo-Confucianism, contrary to the reforms of the preceding period. At the same time, It differs from the historical status and social meaning of the Confucian scholars and bureaucrats in that it addresses the social challenges of the time but is based on philosophical principles.<BR> The reforms are largely divided into the transitional reforms represented by Yi Yi(李珥) and Kim Yuk(金堉) and the legal reforms represented by Yu Hyungwon(柳馨遠) and Yi Ik(李瀷). It stems from the difference between the perception of times and the situation. Even after its opening in 1876, The reforms influenced the formation of various ones.

Tri-Marium as the ‘emancipation’ of East-Central Europe: framing European counter-narratives in Poland

ABSTRACT The historical notion of Inter-Marium captured Poland’s centuries-old concept of integrating, in a form of confederation, the new states that appeared on the map between the Baltic and Black Seas after 1918. Reincarnated as the contemporary narrative of Tri-Marium, this notion is gaining new momentum and has been most visible in Poland, the largest state of the European Union’s Eastern semi-periphery. This article examines Inter-Marium as one of the most clearly articulated counter-narratives to the mainstream European integration project. Drawing on original research rooted primarily in critical discourse analysis, the article uses framing as an interpretative tool. It analyses the narrative entrepreneurs who are constructing the political message, as well as the resulting narrative itself and how it is employed in contemporary discourse. Unpacking this emancipatory framing, the paper makes three inter-connected arguments. First, it shows that the Inter-Marium concept narratively challenges Western domination (framed as post-colonial constellation) and re-constructs the connected emancipation narratives. Second, the article highlights that the Inter-Marium concept acts as acounter-narrative to the mainstream European integration. Third, it explores the ways in which the Inter-Marium narrative serves the ambitions of the Polish ruling party which aims to regain Poland’s historical status as aregional power.

'He understands me in a different way than others do'

In this paper a group of young people from Torshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands, share their personal reflections and views on the ‘Faroese father’ in present-day society. The material from this qualitative study is used to examine and analyse the role and position of the father in relation to his family and working life, his masculinity and identity, and his general historic status in society. The main aim of the paper is to outline and illustrate a pattern of transition in Faroese fatherhood resonating new gender and family values, but also a social shift towards a (late) modern and diversified labour market with emerging female-dominated professions. Seen from the son’s and the daughter’s perspective, this paper suggests, the father’s place in the life of his children mirrors a very special relation associated with feelings of affection, safety, and guidance. Drawing on theoretical scholarship from fatherhood research in the tradition of critical men’s studies, as well as from anthropological family studies, this paper contributes to scientific reviews of fatherhood and masculinity in small island communities in shift. This study is part of the larger research project called Faroese Fatherhood in Transition (2018-2021) financed by Research Council Faroe Islands.&#x0D; Keywords: fatherhood, masculinity, family life, fishermen, small islands, young people

The content analysis of regional entrepreneurship

Subject. The study determines directions for developing the business activity in the Russian regions. Methods. The study is based on the systems approach and methods of statistical, neural network and cluster analysis. Results. I review the current aspects of the regional business development when business rules are changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The article scrutinizes the concept of entrepreneurship in terms of historical development and legal status. Having conducted the content analysis of the business activity in a lagging region of the Russian Federation, I found its highest concentration, with small businesses (and microbusinesses) taking the lead and maintaining the employment. Businesses tend to trade in goods of other producers, thus decreasing the average headcount for smaller businesses, including microbusinesses. Studying the hierarchy of economic activity types small businesses engage in by share of investment in the capital stock (in terms of new and imported fixed assets), I note the unprofitable investment n such foreign trade activities, such as Agriculture, forestry, hunting, fisheries and fish farming, and Construction. The dynamism of small businesses drops earlier, longer and deeper if compared to sole proprietors. In a lagging region, smaller business forms can evolve only if they deal with trade. Conclusions and Relevance. The content analysis of the Russian regional business gave an understanding of its development limits from perspectives of a lagging region, which determines the growth rates of business activity in Russia. The content analysis reveals high growth rates of trade in goods that smaller businesses sell, without being their producers. The findings contribute to the knowledge and competence of specialists working for the Russian Ministry of Economic Development to make consistent managerial decisions concerning the distribution and redistribution of investment resources.

Designing Supreme Court Term Limits

Since the Founding, Supreme Court justices have enjoyed life tenure. This helps insulate the justices from political pressures, but it also results in unpredictable deaths and strategic retirements determining the timing of Court vacancies. In order to regularize the appointment process, a number of academics and policymakers have put forward detailed term limits proposals. However, many of these proposals have been silent on many key design decisions and there has been almost no empirical work assessing the impact that term limits would have on the composition of the Supreme Court. This Article provides a framework for designing a complete term limits proposal and develops an empirical strategy to assess the effects of instituting term limits. The framework we introduce outlines the key design features that any term limits proposal must make, including frequently overlooked decisions like what the default would be if there is Senate inaction on a president’s nominee. The empirical strategy we develop uses simulations to assess how term limits proposals would have shaped the Court if they had been in place over the last 80 years of American history. These simulations enable comparative assessments of term limit proposals relative to each other and to the historical status quo of life tenure. Using these simulations, we are able to isolate the design features of existing proposals that produce significant differences in the composition of the Supreme Court. For instance, proposals that commence appointing term-limited justices immediately could complete the transition in just 16 years, but proposals that wait until after the sitting justices leave the Court to appoint term limited justices would take an average of 52 years to complete the transition. Our results also reveal that term limits are likely to produce dramatic changes in the ideological composition of the Court. Most significantly, the Supreme Court had extreme ideological imbalance for 60 percent of the time since President Franklin Roosevelt’s effort to pack the Court, but any of the major term limit proposals would have reduced the amount of time with extreme imbalance by almost half.

Multi-indicator comprehensive evaluation: reflection on methodology

&lt;abstract&gt; &lt;p&gt;The number and field of researches on the application of Multi-Indicator Comprehensive Evaluation (MICE) are increasing. It is important to reflect on the understanding of the MICE method systematically and the issues implied behind it. This paper compares the core concepts and methodological elements of the three papers that systematically study the MICE method. It is found that the views of the three papers on the core issue are consistent and mutually supportive, but there are differences in the step division and sequence of the evaluation content. In addition, this paper considers the historical status of the MICE and holds that the key to solving the quality of weight lies in the "equivalent conversion" problem in the MICE. Taking the Human Development Index as an example, this paper illustrates the absoluteness of the "equivalent conversion" relationship. In addition, there are multiple processing methods for the MICE from the spatial dimension and multiple evaluation results accordingly, therefore, the results of the MICE need to be used carefully. Finally, based on the systematic summary and reflection of the MICE method, three suggestions are given for the application of the MICE method.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/abstract&gt;

California

Although California continues to transition away from its historical status as one of the nation’s most important oil and gas-producing states, California is still among the top-ten states in oil production and produces a significant amount of natural gas. California has a long history of oil and gas exploration, production, refinement, and marketing, and as a result, well-established common law principles and statutory and regulatory laws are in place that govern all facets of the industry. The following update summarizes key changes in California oil and gas law for the survey period from January 1, 2019 to October 15, 2019.

Death Investigation and Forensic Medicine in South Africa: Historical Perspectives, Status Quo, and Quo Vadis?

Death Investigation and Forensic Medicine in South Africa: Historical Perspectives, Status Quo, and Quo Vadis?

Interdiscursivity and Promotional Discourse: A Corpus-Assisted Genre Analysis of About Us Texts on Chinese University Websites

Abstract The debate on the marketization of discourse in higher education has sparked and sustained interest among researchers in discourse and education studies across a diversity of contexts. While most research in this line has focused on marketized discourses such as advertisements, little attention has been paid to promotional discourse in public institutions such as the About us texts on Chinese university websites. The goal of the present study is twofold: first, to describe the generic features of the university About us texts in China; and second, to analyze how promotional discourse is interdiscursively incorporated in the discourse by referring to the broader socio-political context. Findings have indicated five main moves: giving an overview, stressing historical status, displaying strengths, pledging political and ideological allegiance, and communicating goals and visions. Move 3, displaying strengths, has the greatest amount of information and can be further divided into six sub-moves which presents information on campus facilities, faculty team, talent cultivation, disciplinary fields construction, academic research, and international exchange. The main linguistic and rhetorical strategies used in these moves are analyzed and discussed.

First evidence of Opuntia Ficus-Indica leaves used in ancient surface finishing treatments of stone architecture in Salento (Apulia, Italy)

Abstract The application of hydrophobic coatings on the Lecce stone is a widespread practice today to preserve stone monuments from decay. The practice of covering the stone facades of the buildings was also used in the past in Salento (Apulia, Italy): in fact, ancient sources report that natural waterproofing agents were used for esthetic, protective, hygienic and conservative purposes. The materials and methods of preparation of these finishes became often secret of the workshop and were not handed down, and when known, they may have undergone changes over time. The identification of the materials and methodologies used on historical buildings for their protection, plays a major role to establish correct protocols for their restoration. For this purpose, selected religious and civil buildings (based on requirements, such as historical reasons, conservation status, restoration interventions and presence of visible or documented surface treatments), made of Lecce stone and located in the territory of the Salento, were studied and the presence of surface treatments was investigated. Samples were analyzed by pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis (Py-GC/MS) with and without thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation. The results of the analyses showed that these buildings have been protected with different natural products. This paper, indeed, gives evidences of the presence of surface treatments, i.e. identifies the ancient finishing techniques through diagnostic analyses. Furthermore, for the first time, the identification of chemical biomarkers of prickly pear leaves confirms the use of Opuntia Ficus-Indica in finishing treatments of Lecce stone.

Usage of Urdu as the Language of Elitism among the Muslims of the Northern and the Deccan parts of India: A Socio-Cultural Review

Purpose: The paper examines how Urdu evolved from the language of the rulers to the lingua franca of Muslims in the modern times. The paper attempts to highlight how Urdu is still being used as an identity marker for Muslims with respect to the other communities and is a source of ascendancy, an achieved elitist status within the Muslims of the North and Deccan. Approach/Methodology/Design: Socio-cultural analysis. Findings: The usage of Urdu as a political instrument by the Muslim League and the cultural influence the language has exerted on the Muslim community led to its usage as a source of elitism within the community in the modern times. The analysis indicates that there is harking back to the highly Persianised, nastaliq form of Urdu, which was manifested in its literature in the twentieth century as the pure, hegemonic and the aspired language, true to the identity of the community. The language was characterized by its emergence as a monolithic, distinctive medium, overcoming the different varieties and registers during the British rule through the Hindi-Urdu controversy. Practical Implications: This review study situates Urdu in a socio-cultural context, reflecting the historical status of the language in India. Originality/value: Urdu has been recognized as a language of a particular community i.e. Muslims in the Indian subcontinent, especially those in the Northern and the Deccan parts of the independent India. This review article, through the use of literature review and content analysis, shows that Urdu is used as a language by Muslims in a way that denotes their high status within the community, due to a variety of factors embedded in the socio-cultural history of the community in the Indian subcontinent.

조선시대 성소(聖所)로서 금성당의 문화사적 위상 - 성저십리 내 금성당의 지리적 의미를 중심으로 -

조선시대 성소(聖所)로서 금성당의 문화사적 위상 - 성저십리 내 금성당의 지리적 의미를 중심으로 -

Smart city visions: pathways to participatory planning in two American cities

PurposeThis paper aims to evaluate the use of community visioning in Montgomery, Alabama and Chattanooga, Tennessee, as each municipality seeks to become a globally competitive 21st century smart city while also fostering participatory and inclusive planning processes.Design/methodology/approachThis research is qualitative, drawing upon discourse analysis of relevant mass media and public documents to map the consultation process and identify the key themes and challenges arising in the two visioning projects.FindingsMontgomery and Chattanooga are committed to using participatory visioning to generate inclusive pathways to smart city status by 2040. Each used the local utility company as the key platform to enable a smart city because of each company’s inclusive demographic reach and historical status. The two cities are at different stages of the smart city trajectory and each faces ongoing challenges in ensuring that the benefits of smart city development reach beyond elites to include communities across racial and economic lines. To date, the planning process in each city is more accurately classified as a responsive community visioning rather than participatory.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a pilot assessment of community visioning in Montgomery and Chattanooga. Implementation of each vision is ongoing and further research is needed to illuminate how each city meets ongoing challenges and opportunities, particularly in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and its flow-on economic and social shocks.Originality/valueThe value of this work lies in the comparison of community visioning across two mid-sized and diverse American cities in the Southern region that must compete with larger and more established technology-hubs in both the USA and globally for investment, amenities and human capital.

Chemical and Technological Characterization of Dairy Products

The dairy sector is facing a decisive challenge in developed countries, which could deeply influence its future and its historical status of being a pillar for human nutrition [...].