Hybrid Phenomena Research Articles

Smart regions: insights from hybridization and peripheralization research

ABSTRACT In recent years, discourse on urban development and planning has shifted its emphasis to smartness. Latest studies might offer ideas about planning objectives regarding territorial cohesion and how to meet the demand for information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure. However, so far there is barely any literature on smart regions as relational and hybrid phenomena looking at urban and rural areas as being spatially interlinked. The article aims to generate a deeper theoretical understanding of smart regions by discussing hybridization and peripheralization processes and applying them to debates on smart regions. By merging these perspectives, these authors advocate a diversification of meaning and scope which underscores the involvement of actors in the social (re-)construction of regions. A new analytical perspective on smart regions will be suggested that distinguishes between the three dimensions of discourse, implementation and regulation and refers to concomitant spatial effects as well as to implications for planning practices and procedures. Therewith, the paper encourages critical reflection on normative concepts of smart regions as well as on the usability of ICT for solving local problems.

Evidencias del origen de una posible nueva entidad de Dioscorea (Dioscoreaceae) de las Sierras de Calilegua, Jujuy (Argentina). Un enfoque morfo-anatómico

En las Sierras de Calilegua reconocimos siete especies de Dioscorea como parte de su flora y una octava entidad que denominamos Dioscorea sp., la cual evidenció algunos caracteres morfológicos similares a D. glomerulata y D. haumanii, posibles progeni- tores de ésta, dado que comparten el área de distribución en zonas propicias para el fenómeno de hibridación. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue analizar la morfología floral y la morfoanatomía foliar de D. glomerulata, D. haumanii y Dioscorea sp. Se tra- bajó con material fresco y herborizado al que se aplicaron técnicas convencionales. Los resultados evidenciaron que los caracteres morfoanatómicos de Dioscorea sp. no son intermedios a los de sus probables progenitores. El análisis de componentes principales permitió agrupar a los individuos de cada entidad por separado. Por esta razón, podemos concluir que este estudio posiciona a Dioscorea sp. en un lugar estable e independiente.

How adapted are built-environment professionals to flood adaptation?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how architectural practices have been considering flood-risk adaptation within regular design activities. It relies on the assumptions that floods are hybrid phenomena that require actions in both the anthropic and hydrological domains to be successfully managed, and that floods’ spatial dimension can be subject to design to minimize the impacts of disasters.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on the conclusions of a research focussing on the design of flood-prone urban projects in Europe, within which 22 built-environment professionals (BEPs) were interviewed. The statements of these informants were examined through content analysis, as a means to reveal barriers and incentives that affect their perception and practice of dealing with floods through design.FindingsHaving different experiences with flood-related projects, the interviewees showed uneven degrees of sensitivity to manage floods through design. The analyses pinpoint that for BEPs to be up to the challenges associated with these projects, besides technical expertise, some soft skills are needed such as professional openness and a positive mindset.Originality/valueThis paper explores flood adaptation not only as a spatial challenge but also as a cultural change that needs to be embraced within flood risk management efforts.

Populismo “a la rusa” : una aproximación histórica.

El artículo quiere ofrecer una reflexión sobre la peculiaridad del populismo ruso que, a lo largo de los años, ha perdido la originaria connotación para afirmarse como un fenómeno híbrido que une elementos propios del populismo contemporáneo con aspectos específicos de la tradición rusa. La escasa participación de cuerpos intermedios, el uso de un discurso mesiánico para justificar nuevos proyectos políticos, y la afirmación de líderes carismáticos que actúan en nombre de un pueblo visto como una masa indistinta incapaz de hacer oír su voz, son condiciones propias de fenómenos populistas que han caracterizado la historia de Rusia también. El mismo Putin, a pesar de no haber surgido de una plataforma populista, se ha convertido en un modelo de referencia para los populistas del siglo XXI perpetuando en su país un sistema que impide la consolidación de una democracia sustancial en favor de un poder autoritario fuertemente personalizado.

Memories into Images: Aegean and Aegean-like Objects in New Kingdom Egyptian Theban Tombs

Diplomatic relations between the 18th-dynasty Egyptian court and the polities of the Aegean Bronze Age are gaining increasing scholarly attention. The work conducted so far on chronological synchronization has established a relatively firm base for further discussions on social relations. The role of the prestige objects arriving from the Aegean to Egypt has not received the same attention. This is partly because our knowledge of these objects is restricted to Egyptian visual representations in tombs of the officials and not the imported objectsper se. This paper will discuss the transformative capacities of Egyptian decorum in regards to the foreign prestige objects of the Aegean provenance arriving in the Egyptian 18th-dynasty court. We first have to understand the iconographical phenomena of transference, hybridization and creativity in Egyptian visual culture, and only then may we attempt to read any historical reality behind them. These transformative representational processes are crucial for the understanding of the reception and the memory of the Aegean objects.

The Processualism of the Creative Approach in an Artistic Context

Abstract The following article attempts a discussion concerning the issue of creativity in the context of artistic approaches, by taking into consideration the central concepts: creative personality, creative process, and creative product/ creative performance. Our analysis is based on two questions that concern the extent to which we can speak of flexibility and creativity in contemporary artistic activities. Our conclusion is that creative artistic activities are not disorderly/ unorganised, they are realised according to artistic rules and principles that relate to the forms of expression that can be used in creative artistic approaches. Furthermore, in the context of the cultural hybridization phenomenon, the merging of the traditional with the postmodern allows the manifestation of cultural and artistic diversity, as well as the revaluation, redefinition and update of the traditional forms of expression and of cultural forms in a creative manner, by means of a creative exploitation of their spectacular artistic potential.

Tradução do Hibridismo: Análise da Versão Portuguesa de “The Joy Luck Club” de Amy Tan

As a writer of American literature, while being of Chinese extraction, Amy Tan was born and raised in the United States. In her works, we sometimes notice the appearance of marks of the Chinese language, which is sometimes evident in the discourse of a bilingual person. In addition, her works are also full of cultural words strongly linked to traditional Chinese culture that, when translated, find lexical gaps in the target language, producing divergence and loss of meaning. Through the analysis of linguistic and cultural hybridity in the Portuguese translation of The Joy Luck Clubby her, we intend to highlight how these hybrid phenomena are transposed from the source text to the target text, to help readers better understand the functions and translational results of these hybrid phenomena.

Dicotomías documentadas: las obras de Kseniia Khrabrykh como la ventana hacia la Otredad

The conceptual dichotomies «masculine-feminine», «Self-Other» structure our reality by leaving out any hybrid phenomenon and, therefore, foment inequalities. In the present essay we analyse the expressive strategies that are used in the documentaries ‘Art of Being Yourself’, ‘The Word’ and ‘Vidimo-Nevidimo’ by Kseniia Khrabrykh, an emerging Russian artist who challenges the dichotomous cognitive schemes, creates a symbolic space of encounter with Otherness and thus promotes empathetic and tolerant attitudes towards the inherent social diversity. We start by approaching the theories on the role of alterity in the construction of identity (including perspectives of postcolonial feminisms and queer studies) with the aim to corroborate the presence of its principles in the three mentioned projects. Next, we focus on defining the conceptual discourse of each work, the format of its visual narrative, its way of evoking the problems treated and the level of its interactivity.

Local Knowledge of Past and Present Uses of Medicinal Plants in Prespa National Park, Albania

Ethnobotanical studies have highlighted the need to address temporal dynamics of local knowledge in response to socio-economic changes. The southwestern Balkans are a hotspot of folk botanical knowledge and represent a unique region to study such dynamics. The present study focused on changes in ethnomedicinal knowledge in the rural mountains of Prespa National Park, Albania. The resident ethnic Macedonian minority was fairly isolated under communism (1946–1991), with a long tradition of wild medicinal plant collection. We identified 80 adults and 20 young community members through snowball sampling based on knowledgeability of medicinal plants. In-depth open and semi-structured interviews, free-listing, and participant observation elicited ethnomedicinal knowledge on past and present uses. We recorded 82 botanical taxa belonging to 39 families. Cultural importance analyses showed that Sideritis raeseri Boiss. & Heldr. was by far the culturally most salient species. Informants perceived a steep increase in home consumption of medicinal plants compared to the communist period, despite increased globalization and market liberalization. Trade had significantly decreased but remained an important fallback option in times of economic uncertainty. We observed the phenomenon of knowledge hybridization through access to “modern” knowledge and homogenization through political influences, pointing towards a both resilient and dynamic body of knowledge.

Revisiting the Homoploid Hybrid Speciation Process of the Triatoma brasiliensis macromelasoma Galvão, 1956 (Hemiptera, Triatominae) Using Cytogenetic and Molecular Markers

Triatomines are vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiologic agent of Chagas disease. Although the evolutionary process in triatomine is considered as disruptive, cryptic speciation and homoploid hybridization also are possible modes of speciation. Several analyses suggested Triatoma brasiliensis macromelasoma as a product of hybridization between T. brasiliensis and Triatoma juazeirensis. Thus, we analyzed genetic characteristics (chromosomal analysis, genetic distance for the mitochondrial ND1 gene, and the pattern of bands of internal transcribed spacer [ITS]-1) of these species, with emphasis on the phenomenon of homoploid hybridization. All species showed the same cytogenetic characteristics, low genetic distance for ND1 gene, and the same pattern of ITS-1 bands. We consider that these genetic characteristics, together with the large chromatic polymorphism and the viability of experimental crosses possibly are due to the processes of introgression that these species suffered during the process of homoploid hybridization.

Theoretical Investigation of the Electronic Structure and Magnetic Properties in Ferromagnetic Rock-Salt and Zinc Blende Structures of 3d (V)-Doped MgS

In this work, we studied the properties of vanadium doped binary MgS compound Mg1−xVxS (x = 0.125, 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75) in both ferromagnetic rock-salt and zinc-blende structures. The studied properties are structural, electronic and magnetic. The objective of this study is to explore the new dilute magnetic semiconductor systems. We have used two approximations to simulate these properties: Wu–Cohen generalized gradient approximation for structural properties, and the modified Becke–Johnson potential combined with the local density approximation for electronic and magnetic properties. The general context in which the calculations are done is based on the formalism of the spin-polarized density functional theory and the full-potential linear-augmented plane wave method. Among the various compounds studied, we have identified a ferromagnetic semiconducting behavior in the rock-salt structure. In the zinc-blende structure, we have one metallic candidate consisting of 75% V-doping of the Mg-sublattice, and all other compounds have a half-metallic ferromagnetic behavior. We conclude that the Mg1−xVxS compounds, for x = 0.125, 0.25 and 0.50, in the zinc-blende structure are a diluted magnetic semi-conductors materials. To see the effects of the exchange splitting process, the exchange constants N0α and N0β are calculated. For each concentration x, we have found the values of the total magnetic moment equal to 3 μβ excepted for the case of Mg0.25 V0.75S compound in the zinc-blende structure. The value of the total magnetic moment is due principally to V magnetic atom and to other both nonmagnetic atoms Mg and S, which show small local magnetic moments localized on their sites. The presence of ferromagnetic order in this type of compound can be explained by the p-d hybridization phenomena.

Cyborgology and bioprinting: The biotechnological future of maxillofacial rehabilitation

Maxillofacial prostheses now benefit from the growing advances in converging technologies, such as nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, informatics and cognitivism (NBIC). Instead of being laid and passive, prostheses can now ensure true neurophysiological interactions with their wearers through complex phenomena of hybridization and vicariance. These new devices get closer to “maxillofacial amplification prosthesesâ€, by improving the world perception through restored sensory properties and new extra-sensory properties. These technological devices also benefit from the bioengineering revolution that will soon allow the bioprinting of graft prostheses with an intimate integration to the organic maxillofacial support. In this article, the authors would like to present some major advances in cyborgology and bio-printing in maxillofacial hybridization contexts. (Int J Maxillofac Prosthetics 2019;1:20-26)

An exhaustive phylogeny of the combtooth blenny genus Salaria (Pisces, Blenniidae) shows introgressive hybridization and lack of reciprocal mtDNA monophyly between the marine species Salaria basilisca and Salaria pavo

A comprehensive phylogeny of the genus Salaria based on mitochondrial and nuclear markers grouped the extant species of the genus in well-characterised marine and freshwater clades, thus rejecting the hypothesis of a polytypic origin of the freshwater Salaria populations and supporting the occurrence of a single invasion event of the inland waters by the genus.Based on both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA datasets, the Salaria species of the freshwater clade proved to be vicariant taxa originating from a common ancestor which could possibly spread throughout the circum-Mediterranean inland waters during the late Miocene Messinian salinity crisis, then experiencing a process of allopatric differentiation after the re-flooding of the Mediterranean basin.Within the marine clade, although the nuDNA datasets showed the existence of well-supported subclades in accordance to the morphological identification of the studied specimens, one of the two subclades obtained in the phylogenetic tree based on the mtDNA dataset included both S. basilisca and S. pavo specimens, thus failing to find the two species as reciprocally monophyletic. Such a mito-nuclear discordance is here ascribed to multiple mtDNA unidirectional introgression events from S. basilisca to S. pavo, and the molecular diversity pattern of the marine Salaria species is here ascribed to a Pleistocene speciation event nowadays partly concealed by the occurrence of introgressive hybridization phenomena between the two taxa.Our results urge for prudence when implementing DNA barcoding approaches since, in the presence of mito-nuclear discordance phenomena, single-marker mtDNA-only analyses might lead to significant misidentifications.

Higher-efficiency for combined photovoltaic-thermoelectric solar power generation

ABSTRACTSolar energy application in a large spectrum has the potential for high-efficiency energy conversion. Though, solar cells can only absorb photon energy of the solar spectrum near their band-gap energy, and the remaining energy will be converted into thermal energy. The use of the thermoelectric generator becomes a necessity for convert this thermal energy dissipated so as to increase efficiency conversion.This paper analyses the feasibility of photovoltaic-thermoelectric hybrid system and reviews their performance in order to optimize harvested energy. Regarding the thermoelectric effect, a new method of the ambient energy harvesting is presented. This method combines thermoelectric generators and the effects of heat sensitive materials associated to photovoltaic cells in phase change for generating both energy day and night. Experimental measures have been conducted primarily in laboratory conditions for a greater understanding of hybridization phenomena under real conditions and to test the actual performance of devices made. Results show that the hybrid system can generate more power than the simple PV and TEG in environmental conditions. This hybrid technology will highlight the use of renewable energies in the service of the energy production.

Phenomenon of hybridity in public administration layout

Phenomenon of hybridity in public administration layout

Geochemical conditions of hydrocarbon accumulation in low-permeability shale sequences

The report is devoted to the study of conditions for the formation of organic porosity–void spaces of organic origin formed during transformation of the organic matter into hydrocarbons, and their role in the formation of hydrocarbon accumulation in low-permeability shale strata. The experience of studying and developing known shale formations of the world testifies to the fact that such strata are hybrid phenomena, that is, they are both oiland gas-bearing strata containing traditional and non-traditional accumulations of hydrocarbons. Based on the results of the programmed pyrolysis by the Rock-Eval-6 method, an estimate has been performed to quantify organic (kerogen) porosity. This estimate allows for determining the forecast retention volume of HCs generated during catagenesis.

Creative Education in the Critical Situations: A View from Russia

The article analyzes a possibility of creative education of civil society volunteers under a critical situation (hereafter the CS), especially in the transition period toward the Fourth scientific and technological revolution (hereafter the STR-4). Drawing on Russian and foreign literature, the author’slong-term studies of environmental and other social movements in Russia and abroad, the author came to the following conclusions. First, the STR-4 opens new opportunity for the volunteers but at the same time the probability of risk emergence is growing. The world as a whole is entering in the epoch of hybrid phenomena in which “normal” and the “critical” situations are merging. Therefore, the creative education is much wider and more diversified than the “classical” one. The creative education is a permanent process of adapting human activity and its institutions to multisided development of risky environment, be it natural, social or technologically constructed. In the run of the CS, the time of risks transformation and their metabolic outcomes are becoming the key factors of the creative education. Therefore, the secondary and higher education have to outstrip the current local-global processes of environmental transformations i.e. the process of education should be based on the complex socio-bio-technical prognostics.

Widows, Native Law and the Long Shadow of England in Thirteenth-Century Wales

Abstract This article examines complex core–periphery relationships in the medieval British Isles and, for the first time, explores the role of elite women in facilitating and shaping those relationships. It takes the advent of English-style dower in native Wales before Wales’s conquest by Edward I of England (1282) as a case-study, and explores the interrelationship between ‘law’ and ‘custom’ in the native legal culture, in order to shed new light on Wales’s relationship with England in the final eighty or so years of Welsh independence. It contends not only that Wales, like other ‘peripheral’ regions of the British Isles, was complicit (however unwittingly) in its own subjection to the English ‘core’, but also that the elite women for whom the dower provisions were made were integral to the very processes of cultural exchange that led to the development of ‘Welsh dower’. While modelled on English common law provisions, Welsh dower—a hybrid phenomenon—was also consistent with Welsh legal norms. By variously turning to the law courts, and employing extra-curial and extra-legal methods of negotiation and redress, the women helped to shape and promote these changes, and to embed them in native Welsh before its final conquest by England. It also makes clear not only that the experiences of Wales in these matters differed from those of other of England’s insular neighbours, such as Ireland, but also that the right of these women to suitable provision was always upheld, no matter how mixed or contested the legal environment.

Ambivalences of populism: The case of Catalan independentism

Most of the Spanish media have portrayed Catalan independentism as nationalism and populism. This article argues that this political and social mobilization does not fit into the usual definitions of populism as anti-elitist, anti-liberal and anti-pluralistic movement. Catalan independentism is here interpreted by stressing its democratic features, namely as a form of democratic populism: horizontally organized, and critical of procedural safeguards and counter-majoritarian powers. The popular organization of the referendum on 1 October 2017 and the vigorous democratic experience by almost half of the population of Catalonia allow for a characterization of this populism as a hybrid phenomenon that includes bottom-up and top-down dynamics, thereby contrasting with the usual leader-centred understanding of populism.

Hybridity and Linguistic Pluralism: A Pragmatic Analysis of University Academic Discourse

The language used in academic texts and pedagogy is referred as academic discourse. Being student and teacher, the researchers observed that mixing of home language with academic language was a common practice in many institutions. Some linguists appreciate it, while others resist it by claiming it detrimental to objectivity and neutrality. Chiang (2006) finds role of teacher’s discourse a determining factor in pedagogy. Current study was conducted to observe the phenomenon of hybridization in academic discourse and to assess it in the light of pragmatics. Pragmatic analysis is known as a useful method to infer covert and implicit meanings of language (Savignon, 2007) and the researchers deemed it appropriate for current research. The pragmatic analysis could provide a newer outlook on academic discourse. Data was collected through observation sheet from the classes. Questionnaire was also used to get relevant data from teachers. The findings revealed that teachers often relied on cultural and ideological underpinnings in their pedagogy. The individual conversational styles were also responsible for different mode of hybridization and subsequently reinforced diverse facet of discourse different in pragmatic nature. The data was first analyzed for hybridization followed by its pragmatic analysis. The study was important in the backdrop of one of many beliefs, that meaning never remains fixed and it resides in socio-cultural structures and lack of pragmatic knowledge among interlocutors impedes semantic proficiency. The study revealed utility of pragmatic competence in turning this mixing of discourses in a class into a continuum. It also found that knowledge of academic pragmatics could reinforce semantic proficiency.