Reading Order Research Articles

Sexual and Gender Diversity, National State and Biopolitics in the Global South: Lessons from Africa

In the last 25 years, a considerable number of texts by African researchers have been published dealing with the expressions of gender and sexual gender diversity on the African continent from the perspective of the social sciences. The texts have in common the relationship they present between sexuality, national state, and globalization, considering the effects of colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism. I intend here to present a summary of the main ideas developed in some of these publications to a public of Portuguese-speaking readers in order to promote some comparative reflections on sexuality in the Global South.

“Into the mutation”: Osahon Ize-Iyamu’s “More Sea than Tar” (2019) as Climate Fiction

In this paper, Nigerian author Osahon Ize-Iyamu’s 2019 short story “More Sea than Tar” is used as a template for “Climate Fiction.” This ecodystopian short story is read within the broader category of speculative fiction and is part of an emerging stream of dystopian fiction from Nigeria and Africa more generally. I first analyse the poetics and politics of the “African Anthropocene” through a close reading of the text and through references to other writers and philosophers’ works. Then, the question of vulnerability is raised, as Ize-Iyamu puts forward an environment that has become unfamiliar and hostile, in order for the readers to “experience fear in their guts.” Finally, I study how Ize-Iyamu weaves both resilience and hope into his narrative in order to counterbalance the sinister atmosphere. Despite the “ecodystopian” environment, there are dreams of a better world, and strategies of survivalism that are put in place. “More Sea than Tar” can also be read as a cautionary tale, a pedagogical nudge to the readers in order for them to lead more ecofriendly lives.

РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦІЯ ОБРАЗУ ГЕРОЯ-ВОЇНА В УКРАЇНСЬКІЙ СОЦРЕАЛІСТИЧНІЙ ЛІТЕРАТУРІ

The article is devoted to the research of socialist realism canon in Ukrainian literature. This canon is considered an artificially modeled power project in the sphere of culture and literature which aimed at creating a monostylistic system with clearly defined rules and recommended schemes, especially including thought-out characters understandable for the mass Soviet reader in order to monopolize power at all levels and to establish a new Soviet identity (“homo sovieticusˮ). The socialist realism canon is a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon. It imposed patterns for analysing and reflecting on reality in art and culture. From the 1930s, any texts following the authorities’ regulations acquired a typical structure, predictable and recognizable features that turned literature into a mass-produced uniform “artistic” product. The task of such a governmental experiment was both to transform the world, and to change the way reality was perceived. The aesthetized falsification of existence, the clear domination of everything “ideological” and “totalitarian” in the field of culture, shaping the socialist realistic theory as a process of politicizing artistic consciousness - these are the blocks that determined the formation and functioning of the socialist realism canon of Ukrainian literature. The publication reflects a new vision of the problem of the literary representation of the Soviet Pantheon of Heroes in the socialist realism texts, in particular novels by Natan Rybak, Yurii Zbanatskyi, Oles Honchar, Andrii Malyshko, Natalia Zabila etc. Basically, the idea is that in order to build a bright future the Soviet system needed a new man, so all the forces were thrown into the “newanthropological typeˮ. The article deals with the modeling role of the hero-warrior in the socialist realism text. This image was established in the mass consciousness by means of propaganda and agitation.

English - Indonesian Translation of Idiomatic Expressions Found in The Adventure of Tom Sawyer: Strategies Used and Resulted Equivalence

This study was focused on the analysis of idiomatic expressions translated from English into Bahasa Indonesia from novel “The Adventure of Tom Sawyer. The analysis included on the translation strategies utilized by translator in transferring idiomatic expression and the relationship toward translation strategies and equivalence of idiomatic expression translation. The results of the study showed that (1) free translation strategy became the frequent strategy used by the translator of the novel which led to the conclusion that in rendering idiomatic expression in the children literary book was mostly done by re-creating the idiomatic expressions in the target language. (2) the translator tended to re-create the words and phrases in the target language neglecting the words and grammatical units of source language in order to get the similar meaning and essence of the source language (3) the use of translation strategies in the translation of idiomatic expression had close relationship with the resulted equivalence of idiomatic expression in Indonesian. In translating the idiomatic expression, it is better if the translator knows the context of the situation where the narrator tells about the story in the novel to improve the quality of the translation. In addition, it is also recommended that the use of translation strategy in rendering idiomatic expression should be based on the genre of the text and also the target readers in order to achieve best quality of equivalence.
 
 
 
 

Heuristic and Meta-Heuristic Optimization Models for Task Scheduling in Cloud-Fog Systems: A Review

Nowadays, cloud computing has attracted the attention of large companies due to its high potential, flexibility, and profitability in providing multi-sources of hardware and software to serve the connected users. Given the scale of modern data centers and the dynamic nature of their resource provisioning, we need effective scheduling techniques to manage these resources while satisfying both the cloud providers and cloud users goals. Task scheduling in cloud computing is considered as NP-hard problem which cannot be easily solved by classical optimization methods. Thus, both heuristic and meta-heuristic techniques have been utilized to provide optimal or near-optimal solutions within an acceptable time frame for such problems. In this article, a summary of heuristic and meta-heuristic methods for solving the task scheduling optimization in cloud-fog systems is presented. The cost and time aware scheduling methods for both bag of tasks and workflow tasks are reviewed, discussed, and analyzed thoroughly to provide a clear vision for the readers in order to select the proper methods which fulfill their needs.

New Onset of DiabetEs in aSsociation with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (NODES Trial): protocol of a prospective, multicentre observational trial

IntroductionPancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a dismal prognosis with an overall 5-year survival of approximately 8%. The success in reducing the mortality rate of PDAC is related to the discovery...

Poetry and the Play of the Goddess: Theology in Jayaratha’s Alaṃkāravimarśinī

The beginning of Jayaratha’s commentary on Ruyyaka’s Alaṃkārasarvasva contains a long digression on the nature of the goddess Parā Vāc, “Highest Speech,” referred to in Ruyyaka’s benedictory verse. This is an unusual choice in a text on poetics, and attention to Jayaratha’s religious context reveals that the digression is based closely on Abhinavagupta’s Parātrīśikāvivaraṇa, a tantric commentary. Jayaratha models his opening passage on this text in order to bolster an argument he wants to make about poetry, namely that poetry is the appearance of the goddess Highest Speech, who has split herself into both poet and reader in order to blissfully interact with herself. He does this, I suggest, in order to mark the discussion that will follow—an extremely detailed and polemical analysis of the nature and mechanisms of various rhetorical figures, with very little explicit theology—as a discussion that takes place squarely within a Śaiva universe, one which can only be fully understood in Śaiva terms even though, or perhaps precisely because, the language of theology is not necessary for analyzing any individual rhetorical figure.

Inspecting historical vaulted ceilings by means of physical and chemical analyses: an integrated approach combining active infrared thermography and reflectance spectroscopy

The present study discusses the experimental physicochemical results obtained from the historical vaulted ceilings of an ancient church located in central Italy. Infrared thermography (IRT) in the active configuration was used to map subsurface defects caused by a seismic event and to discover buried structures, while the visible and near-infrared (VIS-NIR) fibre-optics diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (FORS) technique was applied to identify the pigments of wall paintings decorating the vault. Historical photographs are useful to readers in order to clarify the state of conservation before and after the earthquake that took place in 2009. The combination of the experimental results can be useful in restoration processes.

CONTENT OF ISLAMIC EDUCATION FOUND IN AL-QUR’AN SURAH AR-RAHMAN

In Al-Qur’an surah Ar-Rahman we find the content of Islamic education which consists of the education of Faith (Akidah), Morality (Akhlak), Islamic Law (Fikih) and Islamic History (Tarikh). However, many moslems just read it, do not know it and do not try to analyze it. Therefore, the researcher chooses the title “Content of Islamic Education Found in Al-Qur’an Surah Ar-Rahman,” and formulates the problem, how is the content of Islamic Education Found in Al-Qur’an surah Ar-Rahman?. The objective of the research is to describe the content of Islamic education found in Al-Qur’an Surah Ar-Rahman. It is hoped that this research will be useful for all.
 The approach of the research is phenomenological approach and the instrument of analysis is hermeneutics to interpret the facts, cause and effect based on the available phenomena. The research is qualitative research in form of content analysis and the method of research is descriptive-text-analysis. The data is taken from the words, phrases, sentences and verses found in the Holy book Al-Qur’an surah Ar-Rahman. The procedure of research is preparation, data collection, and finalization. The researcher then analyzes the data by the way of reducing data, presenting data and concluding data. He also validates them in order that the data he collects are really valid.
 The researcher then describes his finding data about the content of Islamic education in the Holy Al-Qur’an surah Ar-Rahman, consisting of the content of Faith (akidah), Morality (akhlak), Islamic Law (Fiqih) and Islamic History (tarikh). The discussion of Islamic education is done deeply and seen from many perspectives. The researcher concludes that in Al-Qur’an surah Ar-Rahman he finds Islamic education mentioned above. He, in this case, suggests the readers in order to read Al-Qur’an and to learn the content more and to try to analyze with the hope that they will get more understanding about it.

ПРАГМАТИЧНІ ФУНКЦІЇ СТИЛІСТИЧНИХ ЗАСОБІВ У АВТОРСЬКИХ ВІДСТУПАХ У РОМАНІ РІЧАРДА ОЛДІНГТОНА «СМЕРТЬ ГЕРОЯ»

The article dwells on the peculiarities of the author’s usage of different stylistic devices. Richard Aldington uses a variety of lexical and grammatical stylistic devices in his outstanding novel «Death of a Hero». He is trying to implicitly show his readers his real attitude towards the setting hos novel takes place in. The author constantly leads an indirect dialogue with his readers in order to make them understand the real course of events, but instead of addressing them directly and persuading them to take his point of view as a truly accurate one, Richard Aldington uses a whole range of creative metaphors, similes, hyperbolas, allusions, epithets, parallel constructions and other stylistic devices to convey the true meaning of what he describes. His usage of figures of speeches serves a double purpose: a stylistic one, i.e. to beautify the text and make it linguistically and literary rich, and a pragmatic one, i.e to serve as a source of additional information. The article makes an attempt to find the correlation between these two functions and to come to the conclusions concerning their role in the author’s speech of the novel as an additional source of information.

Environmental Criticism in Kulah's Short Story Gus Tf Sakai's Work: An Overview of Ecocritics

Literary work is not born from an empty thing. It was born from the results of human hands on the other hand interacting and absorbing many things from the complexity of the environment in which it lives. This explains how a literary work has an intimate relationship with nature. Literary ecology exists as a bridge to understand how nature is placed in a work. The object of this research is Kulah's short story written by Gus Tf Sakai. Kulah's short story contains a lot of environmental criticism that is very strongly illustrated. Through interpretation efforts and descriptions when approaching the data in the form of quotations of words or sentences taken in my short story. Ecological theory tries to explain how humans and nature influence each other as an ecosystem. Some of the environmental criticisms contained in kulah short story are criticisms of the deteriorating condition of the watershed which has resulted in many disasters such as floods, massive forest loss, and the dangers of waste which must be a concern for all parties. Efforts to prevent damage to nature must be taken in various ways including through the literary path. Environmental damage is the beginning for other disasters, therefore the effort to understand literature through natural perspectives becomes very important and crucial. Ecological’s point of view when reading literature are expected to be one of the educational solutions for readers in order to take part in protecting nature.

Women’s History in the Age of Reformation: Johannes Meyer’s Chronicle of the Dominican Observance by Johannes Meyer

Reviewed by: Women’s History in the Age of Reformation: Johannes Meyer’s Chronicle of the Dominican Observance by Johannes Meyer Sharon M. Wailes Johannes Meyer. Women’s History in the Age of Reformation: Johannes Meyer’s Chronicle of the Dominican Observance. Translated by Claire Taylor Jones. Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2019. 306 pp. Paper, $35.00. Claire Taylor Jones offers a contemporary English translation of Johannes Meyer’s narrative of the late-fourteenth-and early-fifteenth-century Dominican Reform movement, a narrative that focused on women’s monasteries within German regions. The word Reformation in the book’s title refers not to the Protestant Reformation but to a late-medieval effort to reform Dominican monastic communities. Those practicing what was called the Observance desired to return to the austere way of life and deliberate religious devotion, perceived as being the original ways of the order. For women’s monastic communities, enclosure— separating the community from the outside world— accompanied reform. Jones’s introduction warns that Meyer’s narrative style, although perhaps bizarre to a modern reader, is typical for a late-medieval Dominican friar. Meyer includes copious references to historical figures but also impresses with his detailed accounts of specific communities, the sisters there, and how these communities were reformed. Woven into historical accounts are depictions of miracles that come to those advocating the reform. Accounts of sisters’ visions and divine ecstasy coexist with narratives of the practical duties of their offices and the bureaucratic and political obstacles they face. Entrusted for a great deal of his career with pastoral care in women’s monasteries, Meyer writes specifically for his primary audience, Dominican nuns. For his narrative, he chooses the genre of the Schwesternbuch (sisterbook), a genre containing writings by nuns with nuns as the intended audience. Meyer makes women visible not only by telling their stories and by directly addressing his female audience but also by deliberately naming the nuns involved in starting the reform: “I have recorded here the names of these thirteen devout mothers because they were the holy foundation [ . . . ] one also reads the names of distinguished holy fathers worthily commemorated in this way” (68). The lives of monastic women are being given more visibility by an emerging corpus of editions, translations, and secondary sources. Through her translation, Jones adds to this body of literature and provides access to a specific moment in women’s history in German-speaking [End Page 123] regions. Her translation of the original (late) Middle High German is formal but deliberately not archaic. Her thorough introduction and copious footnotes offer ample scaffolding to the modern reader in order to give maximum access to the author’s world. She explains specialized terminology, gives essential information for historical figures, provides reference information for other works to which Meyer refers, gives references when certain nuns are mentioned in outside sources, and corrects Meyer’s information when it is not consistent with other sources. Beyond building a historical context, Jones also explains the meaning of certain religious practices and the significance of the religious imagery within the narrative. For scholars, connections between the translation text and the corresponding locations in the main manuscript used (Strasbourg, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire, MS 2934) provide orientation points for comparison. Also for ease of comparison, Jones has written her translation in anticipation of a possible modern critical edition of Meyer’s text. Concise footnotes mark variations among manuscripts. Because of the book’s accessible style, it can be used in lecture and discussion material. Meyer’s book includes both positive and negative aspects of these women’s lives. He mentions different offices women held for self-governance. He praises female scribes, talented in copying both text and music. However, behind his recounting of God’s aid in reforming difficult nuns, one sees that communities were often enclosed against their will, facing excommunication and, ironically, imprisonment if they refused. Thus, in a gender studies course, one can use the text to teach about women’s autonomy, yet also about abuse. German instructors teaching cultural history must often begin in the Middle Ages with the feudal pyramid including the nobility, ministeriales, and serfs. This book offers a way to...

La comprensión lectora en la enseñanza del español LE/L2: De la teoría a la práctica by Victoria Rodrigo

Reviewed by: La comprensión lectora en la enseñanza del español LE/L2: De la teoría a la práctica by Victoria Rodrigo Pete Swanson Rodrigo, Victoria. La comprensión lectora en la enseñanza del español LE/L2: De la teoría a la práctica. Routledge. 2019. Pp. 304. ISBN 978-1-13865-177-7. In La comprensión lectora en la enseñanza del español LE/L2: de la teoría a la práctica Rodrigo advances state-of-the-art theory and teaching practices for integrating reading skills into the teaching of Spanish. Serving as part of a cogent line of research on the effects of integrating reading into the Spanish as a foreign language curriculum, this timely publication bridges a much needed gap between research supporting reading as an integral part of second language acquisition (SLA) and classroom practice. Throughout the book, the author explains her goal of motivating students to read in the target language as well as to read a variety of genres and texts. Following a brief introduction and an explanation of a few preliminary concepts related to reading and SLA, the book is divided into 12 chapters. Afterward, Rodrigo offers some notes, a bibliography, a helpful glossary of bilingual terms, and answers to the activities presented in the book. In each chapter, she provides a consistent format that includes the chapter’s objectives, questions for reflection as readers enjoy the chapter, an overview of ideas, concepts, and studies related to the chapter, activities, pedagogical considerations, critical question appropriate for discussion, and readings that may be of interest to readers in order to gain a deeper understanding of the theme presented in the chapter. The author makes a special effort to relate her ideas to the proficiency levels for reading as set forth by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) and by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). In chapter 1, “El proceso de lectura: fundamentos teóricos,” Rodrigo begins by presenting some general principles related to reading such as top-down and bottom-up processing while paying special attention to cognitive schema theory. She includes 13 activities in which readers can engage before providing several Consideraciones pedagógicas and further readings related to theoretical foundations of teaching reading, which are found at the end of each of the chapters. In chapter 2, “La mecánica de la lectura: características del lector eficaz,” she begins by posing six questions related to the mechanics of reading. In the chapter she discusses the research on various topics such as how eye movement, visual field, and the brain interacts and impacts one’s ability to read. Near the end of the chapter she presents characteristics of effective readers, the importance of readers acquiring reading fluency, and offers some suggestions on how to become a better reader. Chapter 3, “El poder de la lectura: la lectura en L2,” focuses on reading in the second language. Specifically, Rodrigo makes reference to Cummin’s (1979) notion of linguistic interdependence where certain first language knowledge can be positively transferred during the process of second language acquisition. Afterward, she presents the linguistic and cognitive benefits of reading in the second language. Next, in chapter 4, “Estrategias de lectura: los buenos lectores,” she lays out pre-reading, during the reading, and post-reading strategies. Among other parts of this book, I found this section to be of the utmost importance as many language teachers tend to underestimate the efficacy of pre-reading and post-reading strategies and activities. Near the end of the chapter, Rodrigo includes a brief Likert-scale survey that language teachers [End Page 139] can use with their students to reflect on certain strategies. In the following two chapters, “La comprensión lectora: la importancia del léxico” (chapter 5) and “Tipos de texto y formas de leer: criterios para su selección” (chapter 6), she discusses the role that vocabulary plays in reading by focusing on incidental acquisition and direct instruction as well as types of text and the criteria that should be used when selecting texts for second language learners. In my experience...

Evaluation of Slovak Automotive Industry Competitiveness Based On Market Concentration Indicators

This paper evaluates the concentration of Slovak automotive industry, and its potential impacts on competitiveness and innovation activities of businesses operating within the industry. It analyses the concentration of automotive industry by using relevant metrics as market share, concentration ratio CR3, CR5, CR10 and Herfindahl index. The aim of this paper is to analyze financial results of Slovak automotive businesses, then measure the degree of concentration of whole industry in order to explain industry competitiveness in context of Slovak economy. Finally, the paper should inspire a reader in order to make him consider, what is the impact of strongest automotive companies on whole business environment in Slovak Republic.

I Suffer, Therefore I Am: Engaging with Empathy in Contemporary French Women's Writing by Kathryn Robson

Reviewed by: I Suffer, Therefore I Am: Engaging with Empathy in Contemporary French Women's Writing by Kathryn Robson Didem Alkan Robson, Kathryn. I Suffer, Therefore I Am: Engaging with Empathy in Contemporary French Women's Writing. Legenda, 2019, 140 pp. ISBN 978-1-781886-75-5. $99 (cloth, paper, and eBook). In this remarkable study of contemporary French women's writing of pain and suffering, Robson explores the notion of empathy focusing on the relationship between the reader and the text. Analyzing a variety of texts depicting anorexia, the death of a child and maternal filicide, Robson not only reflects on empathy and its limits, but also challenges the ways in which the reader is positioned and negotiates this positionality. The first chapter explores anorexia and subverts the idea that the anorexic performance enables a response from its spectator (the reader). Juxtaposing multiple narratives to demonstrate the performativity of anorexia, Robson [End Page 149] emphasizes the complexity of the relationship between the text and the reader. She argues that these texts invite neither empathy nor identification with the characters, but rather, they alienate the reader in order to destabilize the relationship between self and other. The second chapter explores the articulation of the traumatic loss of a child and the reader's response to these narratives. Robson problematizes the notion of "knowledge" which is accessible to the bereaved parent only through fantasies. Referring to Cathy Caruth's trauma theories, including Derrida and Freud, she demonstrates to what extent the reader's experience is also similar to the parent's, since he/she can only grasp the suffering of the parent in a similar mediation process, through dreams. In this sense, the texts on the death of a child do not promote empathy as a shared experience but emphasize that knowledge is "rooted in fantasy" (67). In Chapter Three, Robson explores the fictional representations of maternal filicide, questioning at the same time the limits of empathy in relation to the reader's response. She argues that although it is easy to communicate the infanticide for the narrator, the ethical concerns allow us to rethink the notion of empathy since the reader maintains a distance from the violent act. Yet, Robson suggests that reflecting on one's own relationship with these texts allows one to establish new boundaries with them. Taking as point of departure Judith Butler's Giving an Account of Oneself, Chapter Four explores the ethical demands of autofictional texts, reflecting at the same time on the role of the reader. Adding into her reflections the reader's active engagement "as part of the production of giving account to oneself" (119), she suggests that one should rethink the notion of empathy from a larger perspective, and consider taking certain measures which could be a violent process. She emphasizes the importance of taking responsibility for one's own reading and thinking critically, which could enable new approaches for understanding the suffering of the other. In this outstanding analysis on the representations of pain and suffering in contemporary French women's writing, Robson challenges the notion of empathy as a way of putting oneself in someone else's shoes, destabilizing at the same time the reader's fixed positions. In doing so, she invites us to rethink empathy as a possibility for creating alternative approaches and challenges our ways of approaching others' pain. Didem Alkan Connecticut College Copyright © 2020 Women in French Studies

E-Mobility Scheduling for the Provision of Ancillary Services to the Power System

In the present paper, the charging of an electric vehicles fleet is scheduled in order to provide power balance regulation to the electric grid. The starting of e-cars charging can be optimized according to predetermined limits set by users, in order to adjust the power exchange profile of the aggregated fleet. Ancillary services are sold on the Ancillary Services Market. Therefore, an analysis of the Italian Ancillary Services Market is provided to check the performance of the strategy proposed according to the actual market requirements. In this way, useful figures are provided to the reader in order to evaluate the technical and economic viability of the approach.

Poezia visului real

Abstract This article aims to review the anthology One Hundred and One Poems that includes a collection of poems and critical quotes selected by Alina Bako, who not only provides an overview of the lyrical universe created by Leonid Dimov, but also the critical tools needed for the specialized or non-specialized reader in order to step into the essence of Dimov’s creation. Thereby, the researcher contributes to the revival of the work of a poet who is still actual and valuable.

The Reader’s Scrutiny Towards the English Usage of “The Hindu”

To find out the opinion of readers on “The English usage of The Hindu”.“The press is the Fourth pillar of Democracy”. Even though it flashes the day today affairs or events, by the way it focuses the issue through the usage of the language, it may give a totally different shade to the content. Newspapers have an important role to play and it has a strong social responsibility. And at the same time, They have a pressure to hold the readers in order to maintain or increase the circulation rate. Way of witting is an important factor to keep the target audience in its custody.

Analysis of extracellular vesicles by flow cytometry – basics, limitations and prospects

Flow cytometry is a well-established technique that classically is used to detect cells and quantify related parameters on the cellular surface, e. g. the expression of surface protein markers. Within the last few years, there also have been considerable advances of using flow cytometry to detect extracellular vesicles (EVs) in the size-range of exosomes and quantify their concentration and surface marker expression in EV-containing samples such as cell culture supernatant or biological fluids. Of note, such analyses of EVs within a size range well beyond <300 nm are still challenging and require a suitable instrumentation and a certain level of expertise to make sure essential controls are included and to ensure that resulting datasets can be interpreted appropriately. After giving a brief, basic introduction into flow cytometry which is essential especially for non-experienced readers in order to understand submicron particle flow cytometry data, we will give a concise overview about current possibilities and methods available in the field.

Using Space Particle Dualism Theory to Solve the Hierarchy Problem

The following paper is based on an approach to quantum gravity the author has been developing since 2005 [1]. In this theory space is quantized by postulating that every particle carries its own quantum of space with it, which is a 2-sphere with two complex dimensions [2, 3]. Different from all other approaches to quantum gravity is that in this theory, which the author calls ‘space particle dualism theory’ the quantums of space do not all have the same size and are not inhabiting the Planck scale, but are comparatively large in size, being just below the subatomic level and having an energy dependent size. In this theory gravity is modeled as differences in the density of elementary spaces. The density of elementary spaces in the absence of gravity determines the strength of gravity. The aim of this paper is to test whether or not this leads to the right strength (or weakness) of gravity. This present paper is not an introduction to the theory, and therefore not all the concepts that are needed to understand it can be introduced at length. A few equations of the theory have to be known to the reader in order to understand the paper.