Source Of Facts Research Articles

When social policy walks into the justice system...

Abstract This paper aims to elaborate on the dilemmas Hungarian courts face when they appear in the forefront of policy implementation. Firstly, what kind of (legal) sources and documents should the court involve in in its legal interpretation? Secondly, what are the trade-offs between offering effective remedy sanctions and respecting the differences between branches of law and the division of power? For purpose of this analysis, we turn to the example of school segregation lawsuits between 2007 and 2022. In terms of equal and equitable education, the regulatory frameworks in the CEE Countries are harmonized to the EU standards and are strongly based on the anti-discrimination approach. In theory, policy programs and documents could be used as a source of facts, as well as a source of information regarding legislative goals and policy context. In theory, courts should aim to opt for sanctions with the most potential to achieve effective remedy. If this leads to specific policy-type sanctions, within the bounds of the parties’ actions courts should be able to decide so. However, courts tend to refrain from such sources and decisions. In the context of democratic backsliding the possibilities of such activism are somewhat unclear. Issues around the independence of the judiciary, the attitude of the executive branch towards certain social policy issues, and the practice of overwriting by amendment on part of the National Assembly supermajority may discourage courts and judges from policy-sensitive or innovative adjudication of cases with social policy relevance.

Facing the tragedy of change in the semiotic process: the role of science

We offer an interpretation of the concepts of integrity and quality of science based on semiotics. Science is a key component of the semiotic process in society, its role being the selection of representations of relevant events for guiding policy with the ultimate goal of preserving society's identity. The fitness of scientific information depends on the definition of its usefulness and relevance, and, therefore, on the identity of the 'self' of the semiotic process. Several distinct definitions of identity co-exist that are negotiated across levels (individuals, households, communities). Growing feelings of belonging to a post-truth world signal a failure in the preservation of the integrity of the semiotic process: scientific crises are coupled with social and political crises in an impredicative way. It is concluded that science should evolve from being a mere source of facts to a source of insights about how to deal with the tragedy of change.

«VIOLENT ROMANCES»: EMOTIONAL PRACTICES IN PETTY BOURGEOIS EVERYDAY LIFE OF RUSSIAN CITIES

The article analyzes the problem of the history of feelings of the largest urban class in the Russian Empire, bourgeoisie. The events of everyday life of the townspeople of Russian cities are studied on the basis of achievements of one of the fastest growing areas in modern historical science history of emotions. Dialogues of burghers with the power on various occasions of their daily life were permeated with emotions. You can study the lives of people on dry recorded in various sources of facts. And you can study peoples lives in the context of their emotional experiences of life. Class status and the ensuing obligations, circumstances could cause collective emotions, for example, the emotion of grief because of the recruitment duty, or because of the need to pay taxes, because of passport dependence on local authorities, etc. The degree of severity of emotional sphere of pettybourgeois life can be focused in the cultural sign of cruel romance (pettybourgeois romance). In any case, this article is the first experience in the historiography of analysis of the collective class emotion of bourgeoisie, focused on the main points of bourgeois everyday life in the framework of this article, mainly recruitment. Recruit was lost to society. So parting with recruit is similar to crying about a dead man. Legitimate, for the most part, petty-bourgeois, as a rule, could avoid recruitment with the help of volunteers or family belongings separating. That is, passive acceptance of the inevitable is another general emotional state. The study of the class of emotions allows you to identify the mentality of society and compare with the image of the petty-bourgeois, which was created by Russian artistic literature and being denounced by intelligentsia.

SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics: An Overview

Operational analytics is all about answering business questions while doing business and supporting business users across the organization, from shop floor users to management and executives. Therefore, business transactions and analytics must co-exist together in a single platform to empower business users to drive insights, make decisions, and complete business processes in a single application and using a single source of facts without toggling between multiple applications. Traditionally transactional systems and analytics were maintained separately to improve throughput of the transactional system and that certainly introduced latency in decision making. However, with innovation in the SAP HANA platform, SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics enables business users, business analysts, and management to perform real-time analytics on live transactional data. This paper reviews technical architecture and key components of SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics. This paper reviews technical architecture and key components of SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics.

Contribution of Nonmarket Works In Bangladesh Considering Educational Qualification and Sex Issues: An Opportunity Cost Analysis

Nonmarket works (NMWs)are always undermined by the usual market evaluation process. Considering the basic idea of value generationthe NMWs produce significant (384.79 billionlabor hours, studied by author)value in Bangladesh. The economically inactive peopleare the main source of labor force of the NMWs. The problem of conventional measure fails to recognize the value of the NMWs. This paperconsidered to the contributions of the females (from sex issue) and the graduates (from qualification issue) to produce NMWs. To determine the monetary appraisal of the NMWs an opportunity cost method was employedaccompanied by a precise methodology. A distinct theoretical framework, primary data and some case studies were the sources of facts. In each separate model this study uncovered thatthe graduates and the femalesproducedNMWs of the value intaka three thousand five hundred and ninety four per person/month and taka two thousand five hundred eighty eight per person/monthrespectively. Considering boththe variables in a collective model,these figures were tk. 3361.08 per person/month and tk. 2466.03 per person/month.

Giroud, Vincent Nicolas Nabokov: A Life in Freedom and Music (review)

REVIEWS 167 illuminates some of the tactics that the avant-garde employed in anticipating and accommodating official demands, and it provides valuable insights into the way that these artists, especially prominent figures like Malevich, managed to survive during this very unsettled period in Russian history. University of Kent Christina Lodder Giroud, Vincent. Nicolas Nabokov: A Life in Freedom and Music. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015. xvii + 562 pp. Illustrations. Checklist of works and writings. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £25.99. Few composers of Nabokov’s talent can have been so neglected in both words and performances. Vincent Giroud’s magisterial biography is the first comprehensive account of his extraordinary subject’s life and work, and is thus especially welcome. It is hardly likely to be bettered. Nicolas Nabokov, who lived from 1903 to 1978, was a cousin of the far better known writer Vladimir Nabokov, and a friend, indeed often an assistant, to many of the leading cultural and political figures of his day; the book’s Index alone will give an impression of the immense circle of people whose lives were touched by an outstanding person who was also a considerable, though unfashionably traditional, composer. His own imaginative autobiographies and musical writings, notably Old Friends and New Music (1951) and, especially, Bagazh (1975) provide a lively though sometimes unreliable basis which Giroud has had to balance against other sources of facts or information; he rises to this challenge admirably, particularly in the early chapters dealing with Nabokov’s life in Russia and his emigration. Later periods, in France, America and elsewhere, are less factually debatable. Throughout his very full life Nabokov played many roles. He worked as a teacher at, successively, Wells College, St John’s College Annapolis and the Peabody Conservatory, and these posts undoubtedly helped rather than hindered his creative work. In 1951, however, he became secretary-general of the newly founded Congress for Cultural Freedom which played a considerable role for the American side in the Cold War until it foundered in the mid 1960s following increasingly strident accusations of CIA funding. During this period and later Nabokov tried to balance his writing of music with numerous demanding though stimulating administrative commitments. Later he became an organizer of prestigious music and other festivals in Europe, America, India and Japan. It is impossible to name all the positions he held, or to begin to list all the people he knew, including, to name but a few of the closest and most celebrated: Stravinskii, Virgil Thomson, Elliot Carter, Yehudi Menuhin, Isaiah Berlin, W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Diaghilev and Balanchine. With these, and many others, Nabokov maintained extensive correspondence and lasting friendships; one of the few people with whom his relationship was less than SEER, 94, 1, JANUARY 2016 168 cordial was fellow-émigré composer Arthur Lourié (see SEER, 93, 2015, 3, pp. 550–52). Part of Old Friends and New Music became a short and very personal book about Stravinskii in 1964. The epigraph to the present volume was largely written by one of his closest friends, Elliot Carter. Originally taught by Vladimir Rebikov, Nabokov wrote music that was essentially lyrical in nature, eclectic and distinctively Russian, with occasional hints at dodecaphony. His works included ballets, operas, oratorios and symphonic, chamber and instrumental pieces. As is the case with many minor composers, several works were praised at the time (even by Stravinskii), but few enjoyed more than one performance and some remained on the page. His main works include the ballet-oratorio, Ode: Evening Reflections on the Greatness of God Inspired by the Northern Lights (1928), a ballet, Union Pacific (mid 1930s), the three-act opera, Rasputin’s End (second half of the 1950s) and a piece for baritone and orchestra, Symboli chrestiani (1955). Most, but far from all, of Nabokov’s works were published at or soon after the time of writing; few of them, however, were put onto discs, although his friend Rostropovich recorded a few pieces, and a modern recording of Ode is still available. Thus, it is possible that some of his work may still reach a wider audience. Important as music was to Nabokov, and anxious as he naturally was to have his...

Knowledge Based Technologies for Promoting Innovation in Material Science

Materials and their properties are nowadays mostly represented either in forms of material data bases or digital data sheets. While these are sources of facts about the particular materials, the interconnection between the different materials, their usage and development is still lacking. Besides, the data bases are mostly distributed, run by different institutions or specialized on only one category like metals or polymers. The given article addresses the application of knowledge management in the area of material science and engineering for gathering, representing and distributing knowledge as well as supporting a sustainable material and product development. Sustainability, green engineering and innovativeness are crucial deciding factors for today’s material development and should therefore be addressed and integrated in the scope of promoting innovation in material science. To accomplish the aforementioned goal, a combination of semantic and case based methods will be applied in a holistic concept, entitled MatProSQI. It is thus become possible to interconnect and reference fact or knowledge of materials, like category, property, test results, production requirements, sustainability factors, user feedback and experiences of former applications. In addition to the representation of knowledge, collaboration between the engineers is detected as an essential factor for a steady transfer of knowledge.

The Aesthetic Life of Cyril Scott by Sarah Collins (review)

The Aesthetic Life of Cyril Scott. By Sarah Collins. Woodbridge, Suffolk, Eng.: Boydell Press, 2013. [xxxi, 248 p. ISBN 9781843838074. $95.] Music ex- amples, illustrations, list of library sigla, bibliography, index.Proponents of Cyril Scott (1879-1970) have been delighted with the publication of new recordings and scores of his music during the past fifteen years. Much credit should be given to the composer's son, Desmond Scott, who has become strong advocate for his father's music and has readily assisted performers and scholars alike by providing access to his father's archive. The complete solo piano works have been recorded by Leslie De'Ath in five volumes (Dutton CDLX 7150, 7155, 7166, 7183, 7224 [2005-2009], CDs). Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra have recorded many of Scott's orchestral works (including several pre- miere recordings) on four compact discs (Chandos CHAN 10211, 10376, 10407, 10452 [2004-2008]). Both of these labels have also recently released recordings of major chamber works (Dutton CDLX 7116 [2001], CD; Chandos CHAN 10575 [2010], CD). In 2001, Scott's Sonatina for guitar was rediscovered. Written for Andres Segovia, it has now been published and recorded. Scholarly work on Scott needs to catch up. Musicologists have called for reevaluation of Scott's music for decades. A fairly steady stream of doctoral students have focused on Scott for their theses. One of these resulted in the book currently un- der review, Sarah Collins's The Aesthetic Life of Cyril Scott. The book has both strengths and weaknesses to consider.Collins's approach is certainly intriguing and relevant, but her task is difficult. She sets out to show the influence of symbolism on Scott during his youth and how it be- came both central part of his guiding aes- thetic and a pathway into spiritual con- ception of his life and The latter refers to Scott's interest in theosophy.Collins did not set out to write biogra- phy, but her book depends upon it to set the foundation of her study. Divided into two parts, the first section of the book, ti- tled Public Indiscretions, Private Con- fessions: Scott's Life and Influences is largely psycho-biographical (p. xxviii). The second part, Artist, Priest, Prophet: Scott's Aesthetic Thinking draws on the first part to examine Scott's aesthetic views. Throughout her study, Collins draws upon Scott's two autobiographies, My Years of Indiscretion (London: Mills & Boon, 1924) and Bone of Contention (New York: Arco, 1969); his books on music and other topics; his anonymous books; and letters from variety of libraries and archives (British Library, Grainger Museum, Stefan George Archiv, University of London, and Wurttembergische Landesbibliothek).Scott's two autobiographies are impor- tant and cannot be dismissed in any serious study of him or his work. In fact, I will quote from them in this review. But the au- tobiographies must be approached with skepticism. As I have said elsewhere of My Years of Indiscretion, one can leave the book having gleaned few details about his [Scott's] life, much less gaining insight into his personality (Laurie J. Sampsel, Cyril Scott: A Bio-Bibliography [Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000], 129). I have de- scribed Bone of Contention as frustratingly inadequate ... as source of facts and dates (Sampsel, p. 143). In short, Scott is an unreliable narrator, and caution is in or- der. That is why Collins's use of letters to corroborate the events of Scott's life is so valuable. When she turns to the anony- mous writings by Scott (the Initiate series, Autobiography of Child, etc.) even greater caution should be used. Collins mentions this, saying . . it would be extremely un- wise to trust the word of the 'unreliable narrator' (p. 17). Yet at times, Collins does just that if it helps her prove point. While Scott's anonymous books are surely autobiographical to some extent, that ex- tent has not been determined. …

Greek Vases: From Artistic Personalities to Archaeological Contexts

Ancient Greek vases are a challenging and complex subject. With their detailed imagery, elegant forms, utility, and wide distribution, the decorated vessels of archaic and classical Greece constitute a significant and substantial category of archaeological evidence. The information they provide about mythology and daily life is unparalleled in the whole of ancient art. Integral to the pursuits of both the classical archaeologist and the ancient art historian, Greek vases have for quite some time been considered equal to sculpture, architecture, and other arts.1 Their importance for both relative and absolute chronology is notable. But their place in the greater scheme of classical studies is sometimes awkward and unpredictable. Although Greek vases are rife with depictions of gods and heroes, it is all too often assumed they are mere snapshots of antiquity and that their decorated surfaces exist in large part to illustrate the stories better known to us from ancient texts. It is also presumed that their iconography and artistic merit make them accessible and comprehensible to a wider group of enthusiasts, and, as a result, they become the ready targets of simplistic visual interpretation. Yet as any specialist in vase painting knows, such attitudes make about as much sense as the assumption that Aristophanes is just as good in translation or that Homer can be read without a cursory knowledge of dactylic hexameter. Greek vases produced in the city of Athens and elsewhere are a language unto themselves. Like other visual forms of other cultures and traditions, they possess an internal structure, grammar, and vocabulary.2 While there are numerous ways to “read” the ancient Greek vase, and it is fair to say that no particular way is better than another, there remain a few unwritten rules: Beazley’s lists are an indispensable reference framework; the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum volumes are primary sources of facts and (these days) of good illustrations; the vase is the sum of its parts and should be viewed holistically rather than selectively; fragments are as useful and valid as whole specimens; excavation pottery and museum-quality objects each have their place in the scholarly enterprise. At the same time, no one, not even the most dyed-in-the-wool connoisseur, is under the illusion that vases alone hold all the answers. Indeed, one of the most frustrating aspects of all Greek vase scholarship is the utter silence of the ancient sources on the subjects of vase production, techniques, and craftsmen.3 The five books under review here (two monographs, two conference proceedings, and a single exhibition catalogue) exemplify both the challenges and the complexity of Greek vase scholarship and demonstrate that these figuredecorated ceramic objects are at once visual and material, art and artifact, beautiful and ugly, tactile and portable. They also show that the merit of vases as archaeological data is rarely overlooked in current publications and scholarship. The notable amount of overlap among the bibliographies and the recurrence of authors exposes a certain “preaching to the choir” aspect to this intriguing and distinct disciplinary subfield. Although the books are produced in several countries, by different publishers and in various formats,

Improving response on the United States economic census through communication, coordination, and outreach

Every 5 years the U.S. Census Bureau conducts an Economic Census covering the non-farm, private economy. The Economic Census is the major source of facts about the structure and functioning of the United States’ economy. It forms the foundation of most statistics about American business and industry and also provides the industry and geographic detail businesses and communities need to assess their performance, promote economic development, and identify business opportunities. Census forms were mailed to five million businesses in late 2007. The forms were due February 12, 2008, and results were to be released starting in early 2009. This ambitious schedule depended on timely and accurate responses from all businesses: millions of small, single-location businesses, and also thousands of very large businesses that account for a substantial share of national output. Obtaining needed information from all of these businesses has become an increasing challenge, for a variety of reasons, including reduced budgets for preparation of Government reports, wariness about the validity of all information requests, and skepticism of the value of statistics being compiled. This particularly affects industries characterized by large numbers of small and relatively new businesses. The Census Bureau conducted a comprehensive communication program to encourage business response to the 2007 Economic Census. This effort involved systematic improvements in and coordination of operations, procedures, and communications, managed relationships with large businesses, and promotional activities directed at industries with relatively low historic response rates. The result was reversal of a fifteen-year downward trend in response rates as well as a dramatic improvement in timeliness

We Lead, Others Follow: First Canadian Division, 1914–1918 (review)

Reviewed by: We Lead, Others Follow: First Canadian Division, 1914-1918 Mark Humphries We Lead, Others Follow: First Canadian Division, 1914–1918. Kenneth Radley. St Catharines: Vanwell, 2006. Pp. 415, illus., b&w, $49.95 cloth In the preface to We Lead, Others Follow, Kenneth Radley promises that his adapted PhD dissertation will be the first history of a Canadian division from either world war. While the subject holds much promise, the book falls short of its potential. [End Page 340] We Lead, Others Follow is not a history of the First Canadian Division, but rather a study of staff work, training, and leadership within the division. The book takes an anecdotal approach to explaining how battles are planned, how soldiers are created, and how people are led. While the book is thematically divided into studies of each of these three areas, Radley often deals with all three subjects at once, which would not normally be a significant problem if the book had an underlying narrative backbone that held the analysis together. Instead, the major events in the history of the division are accorded little space, making it difficult for all but the most experienced readers to connect the content of the book to the bigger picture of Canada's Great War experience. In all fairness, Radley's interest is not the forest: it is the trees, shrubs, and individual blades of grass that he wants to examine. The author lays out for the reader the fruits of his exhaustive archival research in 415 pages. Radley combed through endless boxes of administrative files, containing the millions of pages generated during the daily functioning of a division at war, and managed to extract the historically significant documents from the accounts of company messes and inventories of shirt buttons. While the book's evidentiary basis is impeccable, the author's analysis fails to penetrate its surface. 'The central idea of this book,' writes Radley, 'is that 1st Canadian Division became a good division. What made it a good one, that is to say what took it from raw militia to a good, professional fighting formation, was competent command and control, thorough staff work and sound training' (21). Aside from the fact that no historian has ever argued that First Canadian Division became a 'bad' division, and that it is difficult to make such an assessment without taking a comparative approach, such a simplistic argument devalues the very research that is the book's source of strength. Perhaps if the author had focused his study of one of the book's three themes (which, given the density of the book's content, would have been possible), a more complex, nuanced argument could have been constructed. Instead, the author is seemingly so concerned with squeezing every last bit of his research into the book, that interpretation takes a back seat to uncontextualized detail. This is not to say that the book is devoid of insightful analysis. Radley's discussions of the personalities of First Canadian Division, the place of the Canadian Corps within the British Expeditionary Force and the like between training and tactics are useful and at times revealing. That said, the author's observations remain largely [End Page 341] unconnected to one another, leaving the overall message unclear. The clarity of the author's interpretation is also, at times, impeded by his style of writing. Prose such as 'In July 1918 of the 28 Staff Officers in HQ 1st Division, only the AA & QMG (a Canadian) was p.s.c. In September 1916 two were p.s.c. (both British), and in December 1917 the AA & QMG (Canadian) and the GS01 (British) were staff trained' (185) does not help bring clarity to a complex subject. His book is, however, clearly aimed at the military specialist male reader and he makes no attempt to disguise this: 'For real excitement, combat must surely take precedence over everything else in a man's life . . . Only a man with experience can appreciate these sensations' (xiii). Despite its flaws, the book will prove useful to specialists of Canada's First World War and military aficionados alike. As a source of facts on the inner workings of the...

Perceptions of the Past in the Early Middle Ages

Historical writing of the early middle ages tends to be regarded as little more than a possible source of facts, but Rosamond McKitterick establishes that early medieval historians conveyed in their texts a sophisticated set of multiple perceptions of the past. In these essays, McKitterick focuses on the Frankish realms in the eight and ninth centuries and examines different methods and genres of historical writing in relation to the perceptions of time and chronology. She claims that there is an extraordinary concentration of new text production and older text reproduction in this period that has to be accounted for, and whose influence is still being investigated and established. Three themes are addressed in Perceptions of the Past in the Early Middle Ages. McKitterick begins by discussing the Chronicon of Eusebius-Jerome as a way of examining the composition and reception of universal history in the ninth and early tenth centuries. She demonstrates that original manuscripts turn out in many cases to be compilations of sequential historical texts with a chronology extending back to the creation of the world or the origin of the Franks. In the second chapter, she explores the significance of Rome in Carolingian perceptions of the past and argues that its importance loomed large and was communicated in a great range of texts and material objects. In the third chapter, she looks at eighth- and ninth-century perceptions of the local past in the Frankish realm within the wider contexts of Christian and national history. She concludes that in the very rich, complex, and sometimes contradictory early medieval perceptions of a past stretching back to the creation of the world, the Franks in the Carolingian period forged their own special place.

SUSTAINABILITY OF GREENHOUSE FRUIT VEGETABLES: SPAIN VERSUS THE NETHERLANDS; DEVELOPMENT OF A MONITORING SYSTEM

Sustainability is becoming more and more important in the competitive battle between the greenhouse-grown fruiting vegetables produced in Spain and the Netherlands. A monitoring system has been developed. Sustainability is a broad concept regarding primary producers and other links in the chain. However, the greatest impact on the environment comes from the primary production. The first phase of the research is aimed at energy use and crop protection at the production level. Primary knowledge and experience of real experts of suppliers of horticultural inputs is used as a source of facts and developments. Physical production is lower in Spain and greenhouses are usually unheated. Primary fuel consumption per kg of tomatoes, sweet peppers and cucumbers is estimated to be 13, 14-17 and 9 times greater respectively in the Netherlands. Due to the lower prices in spring no widespread heating of greenhouses is expected in Spain in the near future. Innovation is therefore a slow process in Spanish greenhouse horticulture. It is estimated that 19, 16 and 24 times more active ingredients are applied per kg of tomatoes, sweet peppers and cucumbers respectively in Almeria than in the Netherlands. Biological disease control is common in the Netherlands and in Spain on less than 5% of the acreage. Biological disease control is used on 60% of acreage of sweet peppers in Murcia. This is related to the start of cultivation in winter and the low risk of virus infection by insects during that period. Heating is used on about 20% at the acreage of this crop and is beneficial for the reduction of the use of fungicides. This combination makes the picture of sweet peppers in Murcia more rosy.

Introduction

IntroductionSpecial Cluster: New American Studies in Science and Technology: Essays in Cultural Historicism Richard Grusin (bio) As it completes its third year of publication, Configurations is still in some senses defining what it means to be “a journal of literature, science, and technology.” In the very first essay of the journal’s very first issue, Joseph Rouse provides a cogent definition of the practice of “cultural studies of scientific knowledge,” which he situates in opposition both to “postpositivist history and philosophy of science” and to the “social constructivism” of “the Edinburgh ‘strong programme,’ the Bath constructivist-relativist approach, applications of discourse analysis to science, and ethnographic laboratory studies.” 1 Despite the inaugural or originary force of this paper’s placement, however, it is not at all clear that Configurations has restricted itself to work in that (inter)discipline. Nor is it clear that the three essays in this cluster would fall under Rouse’s rubric of “cultural studies of scientific knowledge.” In assembling this cluster, then, my hope has been in part that these papers would contribute to and help expand the ongoing definition of what it means for Configurations to call itself “a journal of literature, science, and technology.” Perhaps the most obvious way in which these essays can contribute to the definition of the journal’s identity is in their shared focus on the role of science and technology in the cultural construction of the idea of America in the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century. Although Configurations has published special [End Page 349] issues on the cultural construction of Russia or of cyberspace, this cluster represents its first coordinated effort to focus on America. For most of the journal’s first three years, the idea of America has remained unspoken, despite the fact that Configurations is basically an American journal: edited by American academics, and published by an American academic press, for an audience made up mostly of Americans. Americanness has been, in some sense, an unmarked term in much of the journal’s discussion of science and technology—even functioning as a kind of absent or unseen other in the special issue on “Communities of Science and Culture in Russian Science Studies.” These papers will, I hope, initiate the discussion of the idea of America in Configurations—that is, of how the idea of America both defines and is defined by the network of relations among literature, science, and technology. Less obvious than their shared focus on American science, technology, and culture are the methodological or theoretical affinities among the three essays. All three authors were trained at Berkeley in the late seventies and early eighties, during the emergence of the new historicism in Renaissance and American literary studies. “New historicism” has been defined in opposition to an older historicism in which history was seen as a neutral or unproblematic context against which to interpret literary texts. Unlike this older historicism, new historicism extended to history the poststructuralist axiom that everything is a text; consequently, it turned to history, not as a source of facts or events or statistics, but as a source of textual analogues to the literary texts that were their primary focus. In so doing, new historicism also recognized that literature itself was historically constructed—that is, that it was the product of economic, political, and social (i.e., of ideological) practices. Consequently, literature was seen as a contested site, an arena where the ideological conflicts of history were played out. As second-generation new historicists, each of the authors can be said to practice what I would like to call “cultural historicism.” Unlike much first-generation new historicism, in which the literary was singled out as a privileged (if still ideologically and culturally constructed) site of analysis, each of these three papers treats the literary as one cultural discourse among others. The aim of these essays in cultural historicism, then, is not to focus primarily on the ways in which literature plays out the cultural and ideological conflicts of history. Rather, each focuses on the way in which certain myths of American cultural origin are played out across a number of diverse and heterogeneous discourses and technologies of representation...

Controlling eating disorders with facts, advice, and resources

Now there is a new source for facts and information on eating disorders that dispels the myths and distortions. Eating Disorders assembles the current clinical wisdom and knowledge and presents it in a usable context. The book features 23 articles prepared by working professionals that provide definitions, background material, and detailed descriptions of symptoms. The book also supplies information on how to get help, including a listing of centres and groups for care and treatment, as well as sources for additional information.

Costa Rican Natural History

volume is a synthesis of existing knowledge about the flora and fauna of Costa Rica. The major portion of the book consists of detailed accounts of agricultural species, vegetation, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds, and insects. This is an extraordinary, virtually unique work...The tremendous amount of original, previously unpublished, firsthand information is remarkable.--Peter H. Raven, Director, Missouri Botanical Garden An essential resource for anyone interested in tropical biology...It can be used both as an encyclopedia--a source of facts on specific organisms--and as a source of ideas and generalizations about tropical ecology.--Alan P. Smith, Ecology

Plans for the 1954 Census of Agriculture

N OCTOBER and November, for the sixteenth time since 1840, the Bureau of the Census will take a Nationwide Census of Agriculture. Thus, once again the farm census will provide a national, state and county inventory of farm resources and measurement of farm production and activities. It is universally recognized that the U. S. Agriculture Census provides the greatest source of facts about agriculture in the United States. The 15 agricultural censuses taken since 1840 represent a patient and large scale effort to add together a multitude of simple facts, each usually well known by a single farmer. The Agriculture Censuses by collecting, totalling and arranging these facts have provided a comprehensive picture of agriculture in the United States. Moreover the 15 National Censuses of Agriculture have provided a factual basis for looking back through the years and seeing the ever occurring changes in U. S. agriculture.

Retrospect 1939–1945

These notes are not intended to be a history of the Second World War. They are no more than a survey of the effect of that war on the financial institutions, namely, the Life Insurance Companies, with which British actuaries are particularly concerned. It is hoped that the survey will be of value to those members of the Students' Society who have been out of touch—through no fault of their own—with what has been happening in the field in which their peace-time activities mainly centre.The Companies operate under conditions of ‘Freedom with Publicity’ in furtherance of which there was published, pre-war, the yearly volume of Assurance Companies' Returns, which, with the summaries appended to it, offered a convenient source of facts and figures. The publication of the Returns ceased during the war years, the last figures available relating to the operations of the year 1937; for most purposes, therefore, 1937 has been used as the ‘pre-war basic year’.