Surname Research Articles

IDENTIFYING PRINCE VASILY OF KOSTROMA IN «THE TALE OF ICON OF THE MOTHER OF GOD DEDICATED TO SAINT THEODORE STRATELATES, ITS APPEARANCE AND MIRACLES»

The article is devoted to a question that has for a long time confused researchers of «The tale of Icon of the Mother of God dedicated to Saint Theodore Stratelates, its appearance and miracles», a literary monument of the 17th - 18th centuries: which Kostroma prince was named Vasily, as it was him who, according to the Tale, discovered the image of the Mother of God on the branches of a tree near Kostroma city and then supervised the bringing of the icon to Kostroma. In the most famous and widespread edition of the Tale, called the extended one, this prince is called the Grand Prince Vasily Georgieyvich Kvashnya, the grandson of Alexander Nevsky; however, the only Kostroma prince named Vasily known to us is Vasily Yaroslavich, the younger brother of Alexander Nevsky (1241-1276). The article examines the opinions of researchers of the 1st half of the 18th century on this matter: the unknown author of the “Notice of the Grand Prince Vasily of Kostromaˮ of 1719, as well as Leontiy (secular name Luka Pavlov), the hegumen of the Monastery dedicated to Macarius of the Yellow Water Lake and the Unzha, who is now considered to be the author of Kostroma hagiography of Saint Prince George II of Vladimir and the “News of the years in which the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos dedicated to St Theodor appeared in Kostromaˮ. An explanation is offered for the appearance of the patronymic “Georgiyevichˮ in the extended edition of the Tale: its author, Theodor, the archpriest of the Assumption Cathedral of Kostroma Kremlin, actually mixed up the personalities of two brothers, princes, the glorified saint Georgiy Vsevolodovich and Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, and he considered the names Yaroslav and Georgiy to be the family and baptismal names of the same Grand Prince, the parent of Vasily Yaroslavich.

A review of fossil scorpion higher systematics.

Scorpions (Arachnida: Scorpiones) are a diverse and widespread arachnid order with a rich and deep fossil record. Here we review the, sometimes complex, historical development of fossil scorpion higher classification. We present a chronological account of family and genus names, together with an overview of higher taxa as potential clade names. In 1884 Thorell & Lindström divided scorpions based on whether the legs were short and pointed (Apoxypoda) or ended in paired claws (Dionychopoda). Pocock in 1911 used the morphology of the ventral mesosomal sclerites, which could either be bilobed (Lobosterni) or of a modern configuration (Orthosterni). Petrunkevitch in 1949 attached importance to a putative first opisthosomal tergite being present (Protoscorpionina) or absent (Euscorpionina). Kjellesvig-Waering in 1986 recognised four major groups (Holosternina, Meristosternina, Lobosternina and Bilobosternina) based on the shape of the ventral mesosomal sclerites. The Stockwell/Jeram schemes from the 1980s and 1990s proposed a cladistic progression from early branching lineages, for which the names Protoscorpiones and Palaeoscorpiones were used, towards Scorpiones sensu stricto defined by the presence of book lungs and coxapophyses. Scorpiones was further divided into Mesoscorpionina and Neoscorpionina. Neoscorpions were characterised by a reduced number of lateral eye lenses and comprise the paleosterns, with marginal lung spiracles, and orthosterns with spiracles in the middle of the sternite. We briefly discuss the merits of these alternatives and present a summary of the current higher classification of scorpions. Forty-three extinct family groups are currently recognised, and of the 24 living families seven have fossil representatives. Including incertae sedis taxa, there are 76 extinct genera and five extant genera with fossil representatives. Both modern parvorders, Buthida and Iurida, were potentially present in the Triassic. Buthidae, Chaerilidae, Chactidae and perhaps Hormuridae have been reported from the Cretaceous. Euscorpiidae are known from the Palaeogene and Scorpionidae has potential (but unconfirmed) records from the Neogene. Given the complexity of this history and the present taxonomy of the group, we hope this contribution provides a first step towards simplifying fossil scorpion systematics.

ბარათაშვილის ეპიგონი „კლდე-კანელის“ ლექსების ატრიბუციისათვის

The article echoes Professor Gocha Kuchukhidze's letter "Who is hiding behind the pseudonym Klede-Kaneli (unknown poems of Nikoloz Baratashvili?)". According to the author, two po­ems under the pseudonym Klede-Kaneli in the Censor Committee Fund of the National Archives of Georgia (folder 480-1-718), titled: "I found the temple" and "God-parent", may belong to Nikoloz Bara­tashvili, and the family name Palavandishvili written underneath refers to them. On the origin from the archive of Nikoloz Palavan­dishvili. The poems were submitted for publication in the "Theatre" newspaper. On January 26, 1886, the chief censor, Solomon Me­lik-Megrabov, was forbidden to print the poems, taking into account the 6th and 9th clauses of the statute of the censorship committee. Is it possible that Nikoloz Baratashvili is the author of the presented poems? In addition to the public's great interest in the issue, it is my duty as a textologist and scientific head of the Bara­tashvili project to answer this question! (Project FR-23-10216. 2023 19.12.– 2026 19.12 "Preparation of a new academic volume of the works of Nikoloz Baratashvili and a digital chronicle of the poet's life and work" is supported by the Rustaveli National Science Foundation). Determining attribution (issue of authorship) in textology requires com­plex research and is based on the following necessary data: 1. Documen­tary references (writer's archive, autograph and prin­ted sources, bibliog­raphic lists, biographical references, memo­ries of contemporaries, various types of records, censorship commi­ttee materials, prints, etc.); 2. Ideological analysis of texts 3. Lin­guistic-stylistic research (see studies: Reiser, Opuls­kaya, Shtokman, Lortkipanidze). However, due to the lack of sufficient docu­mentary material, the researcher may not be able to reach the exact result even by using these methods, that's why in the academic editions of the essays, a section is allocated the so called "Dubia" ("The suppo­sed"), where texts are printed, about the authorship of which there are more or less credible arguments (see studies: Prokhorov, Chrelashvili). The article presents all the arguments, considering which allows us to prove that the opinion about the origin of the poems from Nikoloz Pala­vandishvili archive is based only on the assum­ption of the researcher, and we do not have any other credible argu­ment yet. Also, it is impossible to attribute these poems to Nikoloz Baratashvili, since we do not have enough documentary material for the present time; Ideological and stylistic com­patibility of the poems with Baratashvili's poetry is not observed. Hence, the arguments presented by the researcher are insuffi­cient to determine the attribution of the text. For the same reason, we do not con­si­der the mentioned poems as probable texts, and we do not consider it appro­priate to include them in the "Dubia" sec­tion at this stage.

Investigation and Analysis of Poisonous Plants in Landscape Plants of a Residential Area in Hefei

This paper lists the common poisonous flowers and poisonous plants in landscaping, and explains the matters needing attention in landscape design, which should consider their toxicity and functionality in landscape design, and use the design to play the aesthetic feeling of plants in landscape design. In this paper, the methods of field investigation and consulting data were used to investigate the poisonous plants in a residential area of Hefei.The family name, species name, poisonous parts and toxicity of these poisonous plants were listed, and the problems existing in the application of landscape plants in a residential area of Hefei City were discussed and the solutions were put forward.

Picardisch in het Vlaams/Nederlands

This paper traces the evolution and integration of Picardian elements into Flemish, showing how many modern Flemish words and family names originate from Picardian forms, not standard French. Picardian influence on Middle Dutch orthography and phonology can be traced in Middle Dutch spellings form Flanders, with examples such as plache (D. plaats, ‘place’) and family names like Franchois from François. Additionally, the article highlights how Picardian preserved the Latin plosive k that evolved into a fricative ch in some other French dialects and later standard French, as seen in canter (Fr. chanter, ‘to sing’) and capiau (Fr. chapeau, ‘hat’). Also, some regional pronunciation variations, such as 'Pierre' evolving to 'Pire', are explained. Overall, the analysis suggests that many words traditionally attributed to French are more accurately derived from Picardian, emphasizing the profound linguistic interconnections between Flemish and Picardian dialects.

Automated anonymization of radiology reports: comparison of publicly available natural language processing and large language models.

Medical reports, governed by HIPAA regulations, contain personal health information (PHI), restricting secondary data use. Utilizing natural language processing (NLP) and large language models (LLM), we sought to employ publicly available methods to automatically anonymize PHI in free-text radiology reports. We compared two publicly available rule-based NLP models (spaCy; NLPac, accuracy-optimized; NLPsp, speed-optimized; iteratively improved on 400 free-text CT-reports (test set)) and one offline LLM approach (LLM-model, LLaMa-2, Meta-AI) for PHI-anonymization. The three models were tested on 100 randomly selected chest CT reports. Two investigators assessed the anonymization of occurring PHI entities and whether clinical information was removed. Subsequently, precision, recall, and F1 scores were calculated. NLPac and NLPsp successfully removed all instances of dates (n = 333), medical record numbers (MRN) (n = 6), and accession numbers (ACC) (n = 92). The LLM model removed all MRNs, 96% of ACCs, and 32% of dates. NLPac was most consistent with a perfect F1-score of 1.00, followed by NLPsp with lower precision (0.86) and F1-score (0.92) for dates. The LLM model had perfect precision for MRNs, ACCs, and dates but the lowest recall for ACC (0.96) and dates (0.52), corresponding F1 scores of 0.98 and 0.68, respectively. Names were removed completely or majorly (i.e., one first or family name non-anonymized) in 100% (NLPac), 72% (NLPsp), and 90% (LLM-model). Importantly, NLPac and NLPsp did not remove medical information, while the LLM model did in 10% (n = 10). Pre-trained NLP models can effectively anonymize free-text radiology reports, while anonymization with the LLM model is more prone to deleting medical information. Question This study compares NLP and locally hosted LLM techniques to ensure PHI anonymization without losing clinical information. Findings Pre-trained NLP models effectively anonymized radiology reports without removing clinical data, while a locally hosted LLM was less reliable, risking the loss of important information. Clinical relevance Fast, reliable, automated anonymization of PHI from radiology reports enables HIPAA-compliant secondary use, facilitating advanced applications like LLM-driven radiology analysis while ensuring ethical handling of sensitive patient data.

Exploring Belief Systems in Kinship Fostering Practice in Igbo Indigenous Communities of Southeast Nigeria

ABSTRACTKinship fostering in Igbo indigenous communities is an enduring alternative child care practice that promotes collective responsibility for child care in a family environment. The practice is believed to be fundamental for family and community continuity. Weakening extended family ties and a lack of social work support services in this care arrangement have cast doubt on the continual viability of this alternative child care practice This is an exploratory study using grounded theory. In‐depth interviews with six community leaders and six senior public social welfare officers provided insight on belief systems promoting kinship fostering in Igbo indigenous communities. Findings were thematically analysed to show continuity of lineage, preservation of family name and challenges associated with kinship fostering. Belief systems on kinship fostering provides insights on how children are viewed in Igbo culture, which can help policymakers design intervention programme that are culturally relevant in child‐care formation in Nigeria given challenges in kinship fostering. The study promotes indigenous knowledge that is vital for social work education and practice in Nigeria. Further study suggests exploring the belief of foster children and their experiences in kinship fostering.

A készülő Dunántúli történeti családnévtárról

This paper aims to present the Database of the Historical Surnames of Transdanubia in its current state. This database showcases new, innovative trends in onomastics that ensure the versatile, interdisciplinary usability of linguistic resources. The database is designed to facilitate the geographical and typological analysis of the family names of the Carpathian Basin in the second half of the eighteenth century, with a particular emphasis on functional-motivationalaspects. It also aims to explore the linguistic and onomastic consequences of the great migration waves of that century. The data originate from the name tables of the 1767-1774 tax unification of Maria Theresa and complement the material of the Atlas of Historical Surnames of Hungary, which shows the situation before the migration processes with data from the beginning of the century. The second half of the paper presents an analysis of the Hungarian and German family name data from Győr County in the Database of the Historical Surnames of Transdanubia and of the entire Hungarian family name data and the German family name data from the Transylvanian Saxon territories in the Atlas of Historical Surnames of Hungary. This analysis reveals the similarities and differences between the name stocks, emphasising routinised name patterns and their socio-cultural and historical background.

Recent advancements in cGAS-STING activation, tumor immune evasion, and therapeutic implications.

The cGAS-STING signaling pathway is indeed a pivotal component of the immune system and serve as a crucial link between innate and adaptive immune responses. STING is involved in the cellular response to pathogen invasion and DNA damage, and which has important consequences for host defense mechanisms and cancer regulation. Ongoing research aiming to modulate the cGAS-STING pathway for improved clinical outcomes in cancer and autoimmune diseases is underway. Indeed, the interaction between the cGAS-STING pathway and immune evasion mechanisms is a complex and critical aspect of cancer biology. Pathogens and various host factors can exploit this pathway to reduce the effectiveness of cancer therapies, particularly immunotherapies. Thus, immunotherapies or combination therapies may assist in overcoming the immune suppression and improving clinical outcomes. This review explores recent advancements in understanding the cGAS-STING signaling pathway, with particular emphasis on its activation mechanisms and role in tumor immune evasion. The dual role of the pathway in boosting immune responses while simultaneously enabling tumors to evade the immune system makes it a crucial target for innovative cancer treatment approaches.Please confirm if the author names are presented accurately and in the correct sequence (given name, middle name/initial, family name). Author 2 Given name: [Md Mazedul] Last name [Islam], Author 3 Given name: [Mst Rubaiat Nazneen] Last name [Akhand] and Author 5 Given name: [Md Rashedunnabi] Last name [Akanda]. Also, kindly confirm the details in the metadata are correct.AQ1: Here Author 4 given name: [Byung-Yong] Last name [Park] is missing. Metadata are correct.

Madrid’s linguistic landscape: languages and cultural allusions in the Vista Alegre neighbourhood

ABSTRACT The linguistic landscape of Vista Alegre, a multicultural migrant neighbourhood in Madrid, was analysed to explore the interplay between language use, public spaces, and societal dynamics. By examining 137 non-official signs geolocated in linguistic cartography, the study aimed to identify the languages employed and the strategies of certain communities to make themselves visible. Spanish emerged as the predominant language, followed by English, while Chinese, Romanian, Arabic, and Italian collectively accounted for less than 10% of the sample, indicating a broad linguistic diversity not directly correlated with the resident population's linguistic composition. Regarding strategies, nearly half of the signs displayed semiotic strategies such as personal and family names, geographic references, and flags. Notably, nationalities such as Chinese and Romanian do not leverage the linguistic landscape for identity expression, in contrast to Honduran, Colombian, Ecuadorian, and Venezuelan communities, which use it to render themselves visible. The term ‘Latino’ is prominently presented to foster a collective identity among various nationalities. This linguistic landscape analysis underscores that in the ethnolinguistic vitality of Vista Alegre, national visibility is made apparent through the choice of language along with cultural and geographical references that will help negotiate identities.

THE TOPONYMY OF THE VILLAGE OF PADESH, BLAGOEVGRAD AREA – SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION AND STRUCTURAL SPECIFICS

The present text describes the toponymy of the village of Padesh, Blagoevgrad area. It represents a semantic classification of the place names and observes their structural specifics. The text also mentions some word-formation and morphological peculiarities. More than 210 microtoponyms and oykonyms are classified in three main groups. The first group analyses toponyms derived from geographical characteristics or from some other specifics of the place. The group contains 98 names and the analysis shows that 47 of them include geographical terms. The second group observes toponyms reflected by cultural history of Padesh - names related to the village agriculture and forestry, religious concepts and settlement structure. The most of the toponyms are classified as a possessives in the third group. The least of them are formed by а personal name, а nickname or by an adjective. The other ones are names for ownership, derived by proper names and some specific suffixes such as -ица and -ец. The most of the toponyms in that group come from resident/ family names or have as a constituent a possessive adjective. All the names are analyzed as simple toponyms, complex toponyms and compounds. The text finds that the toponymy of the village of Padesh contains mostly simple place names, less often the toponyms formed by an adjective and a noun and just two of the place names are compounds.

Krumelurer med svag ställning

This paper presents a quantitative study of the registration of diacritics in Hungarian, Spanish, Vietnamese and Turkish family names in the official Swedish population records. Out of the examined diacritics, vowels with accents and the Turkish letter <ç> are registered in up to 21 % of the cases, whereas the Turkish letter <ü> is registered in over 90 % of the occurrences. Parts of a bigger interview study is also presented, where informants share their views of diacritics in the Swedish population records.

NOMINA OF MARRIED WOMEN IN CUM MANU MARRIAGES IN THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AND PRINCIPATE ERAS

Generally, a daughter in parental power in Roman family in the Republic and the Principate did not have personal name, but bore her father’s name in the feminine. A woman kept her father’s family name in marriage, but if she came under her husband’s lawful authority and became a member of his clan, her father’s family name became her personal name and her husband’s family name was added in the nominative or genitive case. In modern historical and legal science is traditionally considered that this custom was strictly observed in Republican Rome. But in the 2nd – 1st centuries BC this custom disappeared with the gradual withering away of cum manu marriage (confarreatio, coemptio, usus). The author, basing on the position of Theodor Mommsen about the family name of married women, analyses the sources of classical Roman law of the 1st – 3rd centuries AD and concludes that the marriages confarreatio and coemtio and the husband’s power over the wife continued throughout the Principate. In addition, the author hypotheses that the tradition of attaching the husband’s name to the father’s family name of the married woman also continued throughout the classical period of Roman law.

MUM, a maternal unknown message, inhibits early establishment of the medio-lateral axis in the embryo of the kelp Saccharina latissima.

Brown algae are multicellular photosynthetic organisms that have evolved independently of plants and other algae. Here, we have studied the determinism of body axis formation in the kelp Saccharina latissima. After microdissection of the embryo, we show that the stalk, an empty cell that retains the embryo on the maternal tissue, represses longitudinal cell divisions in the early embryo, thereby reinforcing the establishment of the initial apico-basal axis. In addition, it promotes cell growth and controls cell shape and arrangement in the flat oblong embryo composed of cells aligned in rows and columns. Although the stalk persists for several weeks until the embryo reaches at least 500 cells, proper embryogenesis requires connection to maternal tissue only during the first 4 days after fertilisation, i.e. before the embryo reaches the 8-cell stage. Transplantation experiments indicate that the maternal signal is not diffused in seawater, but requires contact between the embryo and the maternal tissue. This first global quantitative study of brown algal embryogenesis highlights the role of MUM, an unknown maternal message, in the control of growth axes and tissue patterning in kelp embryos.

Pseudopregnancy in Murciano-Granadina dairy goats in Iran: prevalence, risk factors and treatment

This study was conducted in a large industrial Murciano-Granadina dairy goat farm, aiming to investigate prevalence, risk factors and cure rate of pseudopregnancy. Bred does (N = 1310) were examined by ultrasonography, around 40 days after exposure to bucks. The relationships between age, parity, milk production, season, and prevalence of pseudopregnancy were analyzed. In the second part of the study, two groups of affected does (n = 12) were treated by two intramuscular injections of cloprostenol sodium (100 µg per animal, i.m.) 11 days apart, or received the same treatment regimen together with procaine penicillin (20000 IU/kg) and dihydrostreptomycin (20 mg/kg) for three consecutive days, from the time of diagnosis. The prevalence of pseudopregnancy was 9%. The average age of the diseased goats was higher (P = 0.05) compared to non-affected does. The prevalence of pseudopregnancy varied between different age groups (P = 0.0003) and parities (P < 0.0001). A different prevalence of pseudopregnancy was found between different milk production groups (P < 0.0001). Comparing milk production between normal and diseased does showed tended significance, (P = 0.07). The prevalence of pseudopregnancy was similar in and out of the breeding season. Moreover, the cure rate in the first and second treatment group was 66.8% (8/12), and 75% (9/12), respectively (P = 0.6). In conclusion, despite higher prevalence of pseudopregnancy in certain ages and milk production groups, no significant trend by increasing age and milk production group was found. Moreover, adding antibiotic to prostaglandin treatment regimen, failed to significantly improve cure rate and post treatment pregnancy rate.

The complete mitochondrial genome of the bubble-gum coral Paragorgia papillata (Octocorallia: Coralliidae) from the seamount in the tropical Western Pacific

The complete mitochondrial genome of Paragorgia papillata Li et al. 2021, a deep-sea gorgonian inhabiting at 858 m in Caroline Ridge, was obtained in this study. The length of the mitochondrial genome is 19,018 bp with 14 protein coding genes, one transfer RNA (tRNA-Met) and two ribosomal RNA genes contained in this circular molecule. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that P. papillata and P. coralloides Bayer, 1993 were two closely related species, and a total of 26 mutational sites (four nonsynonymous mutations included) can be detected between their mitochondrial genomes. This exhibits a case that mitochondrial genomes can be applied to differentiate closely related species in gorgonians. The phylogenetic tree constructed with mitochondrial genomes showed that the families in Octocorallia are reciprocally monophyletic, provided that the family names were revised according to the systematic revision of Octocorallia guided by phylogenomics. However, the relationships of the families within each order were different between the previous phylogenomic work and ours. Integrating mitochondrial genomes from a wider array of Octocorallia families is essential for a more accurate comparison of phylogenies derived from nuclear and mitochondrial sequences in future study.

이자겸의 집권 배경과 인종초 이자겸 권력의 공식화

This article aimed at analyzing complex factors that made Yi Ja-gyeom in power and furthermore tried to find out how Goryeo reflected his unique authority in his position and officialized special power that originated from his authority. Yi Ja-gyeom was the first bureaucrat that was from non-royal family but alive as a grandfather of present king. In the same time, he was a meritorious retainer who enthroned his grandson King Injong by gathering support among aristocratic network members. His exceptional identities were formed by comprehensive combination of marriage rules of the Goryeo royal family, political situation after King Sukjong's accession, marriage strategies of the royal family in mid-Goryeo period, and biological coincidence. Hierarchy between King Injong and Yi Ja-gyeom differentiated according to the public and private spheres. Serious debate on legislative ways to accept their conflicting conditions was proceeded in the early period of King Injong’s reign and as a result the concept of ‘feudal lords with different family names (異姓諸王)’, which had already existed in chinese investiture system, was created in the Goryeo dynasty. Yi Ja-gyeom got the title as Joseongukgong (朝鮮國公), new rank higher than duke (公; gong) of the royal family. This concept and systematic foundation like arrangement of feudal administration office (開府) for it were used continuously until the period of Choi dictatorship. Yi Ja-gyeom went to the stage of referencing regent (知軍國事) as using the public foundation permitted to Joseongukgong. Unlike the case of Joseongukgong, this position of regent able to substitute for the monarchy could never be allowed in the Goryeo dynasty, and that’s why Yi Ja-gyeom failed in the end.

EHerbarium: A Global Platform for Exploring and Sharing Herbarium and Live Plant Images to Enhance Biodiversity Preservation

Historically, herbaria have been instrumental in preserving and studying plant biodiversity. The widespread use of smartphones has led to a surge in the digital documentation of plants. Over the last decade, herbarium digitizing projects are also underway. Many of the digitized herbarium images are available online through different portals. The examples of these portals include Kew Gardens and New York Botanic Garden Herbarium. Combining the latest mobile, cloud and AI technologies as well as plant taxonomy and herbarium artifacts, the mission of eHerbarium*1 is to provide an accessible digital platform for plant enthusiasts, including botanists, researchers, students, as well as the general public around the world, to collect, identify and share live plant and herbarium images. It promotes data collection and data sharing around the globe for biodiversity preservation. It further provides educational benefits about plants and the plant biodiversity around us and the world. eHerbarium offers access to an extensive collection of herbarium images from Kew’s Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The platform is also extensible, allowing it to host images from other herbaria. In addition, this platform provides high-quality botanical visuals, enabling users to capture and share live plant photos or herbarium images, or upload from existing collections. Customizable licensing options facilitate community use and enhance collaborative botanical research. The platform’s AI-powered tools streamline plant identification, offering autocomplete suggestions for taxonomy details such as scientific name, family name or common names. Our proprietary technology ensures seamless and accurate botanical data entry by automatically retrieving corresponding scientific or common names. Additionally, eHerbarium enriches botanical records by automatically associating image locations with Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Level 2 regions. TDWG Level 2 regions are specific geographical areas defined by TDWG to standardize the recording and reporting of biodiversity data. These regions, which typically correspond to large countries or significant subnational areas, help ensure consistent and accurate geographical referencing in botanical studies and herbarium records, while also respecting image owners' location privacy. eHerbarium has more than 40,000 worldwide downloads since its debut less than six months ago on March 18, 2024. We encourage further collaborations to expand our repositories for herbarium and live plant images. We also welcome partnerships to tailor the application to specific needs for natural history and biodiversity data collection.

A bidirectional free space optical link for last-mile terrestrial access links employing a novel wavelength shift keying technique

In this study, we propose a novel wavelength shift keying (WSK) technique that is combined with the conventional intensity modulation scheme for the transmission of point-to-point bidirectional data at the rate of 10 Gbps in each direction. We observe that WSK technique has not been investigated for implementation in point-to-point free space optical (FSO) links. Therefore, to the best of our knowledge, our study is the first one to perform this investigation. Our proposed link uses WSK in the downlink direction while we re-use the optical carriers for the transmission of uplink data. The use of WSK in the downlink direction enables us to perform balanced detection at the receiver, resulting in 3 dB improvement in receiver sensitivity compared to simple direct detection. We present bit error rate (BER) results for the signals transmitted in both the directions under different turbulence conditions and FSO link lengths. It was observed that the downlink signals generally perform better compared to the uplink due to the use of balanced detection and higher intensity fluctuations induced over the re-used optical carrier transmitted in the uplink direction.Please check and confirm that all the author names (given name, family name) and initials are correctly identified. The author names and initials are CORRECT.

Language choices reflecting social changes: multilingualism in the popular music of Guinean jelis

ABSTRACT This paper explores multilingual popular music in the Republic of Guinea (West Africa) by focussing on hereditary musicians of Manding origin, known as jelis or griots. I demonstrate how jeli songs developed in the course of recent Guinean history as divided into three periods: the Colonial period (1898–1958), the Decolonial Socialist Regime of Sekou Touré (1958–1984), and the Liberalisation period (1984 – present). While the Colonial period featured the dominance of European music and languages in the public domain, the jeli music and Maninka language appeared at the forefront of Guinean popular music stage in the radically decolonising Socialist regime of Sekou Touré. The Liberalisation period saw a growing capitalist economy and the rise of Susu urban music. In this more competitive context, the jeli songs have become truly multilingual, featuring other local Guinean languages, mainly Susu and Pular, which now appear as mixed registers, or urban vernaculars, influenced by French through code-mixing and borrowings. The transitions between local languages, however, are constrained by the song structure, first, reflecting the actual patterns of multilingual language use in Guinea, but also potentially signalling more discreet identities of the musicians reinforced via using Maninka jeli family names as professional ‘brands’.