Unequal Sections Research Articles

Assembling the Tropics: Science and Medicine in Portugal's Empire, 1450–1700 by Hugh Cagle

Reviewed by: Assembling the Tropics: Science and Medicine in Portugal's Empire, 1450–1700 by Hugh Cagle Suman Seth Assembling the Tropics: Science and Medicine in Portugal's Empire, 1450–1700. By Hugh Cagle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. xix + 364 pp. In 1787, the English physician, Benjamin Moseley, who had practiced and served as surgeon-general in Jamaica, published A Treatise on Tropical Diseases and on the Climate of the West Indies. The book was perhaps the first English-language work to include the term "tropical diseases" in its title and scholars have, in general, identified the end of the eighteenth century as the period in which the idea of the tropics as a distinct disease environment began to emerge. In this monograph, the author argues that the scholarship is mistaken on this point—that such a conception emerged roughly a century earlier—and that the reason for the error is that we have been looking in the wrong place. Had more of the literature focused on the Portuguese empire than those, say, of the British or French, it would have seen, already in the seventeenth century, arguments for the similarity of diseases between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn and their differences from the afflictions of more temperate zones. To this bold intervention into the history of medicine, the author adds an important corrective to the history of science. The period covered by Assembling the Tropics is one often described in terms of "the" (or at least "a") "Scientific Revolution." In analyzing the works of those studying the natural world at this time, scholars have often tried to identify the novel epistemologies and ontologies that supposedly characterized a newly empiricist age. As Cagle elegantly demonstrates, however, empiricism came in many forms and was encouraged by many logics. For example, that of Garcia de Orta, physician and author of Coloquios dos simples, e drogas e cousas medicinais da India (published in Goa in 1563) was shaped by his involvement in trade in eastern India. Thus, his "work of accumulating, comparing, and identifying Asian nature spoke first and foremost to the intertwined commercial and epidemiological concerns of disadvantaged traders" (p. 309). Instead of trying to read the Coloquios alongside the classics of the European scientific revolution, then, we are directed to see Orta's text as part of "the bustle, possibility and uncertainty of life in mid-sixteenth century Goa—a world rich with commercial and curative possibility, but also riven with economic and epidemiological uncertainty" (p. 65). The book is divided into three unequal sections, defined geographically and in rough chronological order. The first, made up of a single chapter, looks at Portuguese exploration on the coast of [End Page 164] western Africa from the mid-fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries. In this period, Portuguese travelers and traders grappled with the seeming refutation of once-authoritative classical knowledge. Aristotle and others had posited the existence of a lifeless, parched and arid region—the torrid zone—between the tropics. Instead, the Portuguese found a rich and verdant land, one whose very fecundity set up a medical conundrum. Where life seemed so abundant, why did death, particularly from debilitating fevers, seem equally plentiful? The same apparent paradox was to be found in Goa, the principle location of the second section. The main protagonist in the three chapters of this chapters is Orta, with Cagle seeking to steer a third route between two, largely antagonistic, ways of understanding his contributions. Where some scholars have tried to fit Orta into the mould of a "Renaissance humanist" or else a "Portuguese progenitor of a scientific revolution" (p. 64) and others have portrayed him as an intermediary between European and Indian worlds, with his Coloquios serving as a means of transmitting Indian medical knowledge, Cagle insists on understanding de Orta on his own terms and in his own place. Certainly one comes to see the Coloquios as an amalgam, with a fraught religious and social politics shaping engagements with Hindu and Muslim medicine and the curative practices of women from multiple backgrounds. Yet, at the same time, Cagle's aim is almost intimate: "to encounter Goa as Orta did, to peer over...

Igba Nkwu Nwanyi Ceremony of Igbo People of Nigeria

Igboland, also known as Southeastern Nigeria and some parts of South Nigeria, is the homeland of the Igbo people. It is a cultural and common linguistic region in southern Nigeria. Geographically, it is divided by the lower Niger River into two unequal sections – an eastern and a western section. The states captured in this area includes: Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Abia, Ebonyi, and minor parts of Delta, Benue and Rivers states. The Igbo culture and traditions are filled with many colourful ceremonies that distinguish them from the other tribes in Nigeria. Igba Nkwu Nwanyi is one of the many colourful traditions of the Igbo people, and its intricacies vary from one area to another.

Radiation instability in a split-cavity resonator

The interaction of an electron beam with the electromagnetic field of a split resonator that consists of a hollow cylindrical resonator and a conducting grid dividing it into coupled sections was considered. In the small-signal approximation, taking into account the space charge of the beam for an asymmetric resonator, the expression for the energy loss by the electron passing through the system was obtained. Within the chosen approximation, it was shown that a resonator with equal length sections provides greater efficiency in the transfer of energy from a charged particles beam to an electromagnetic field in comparison with an asymmetric system configuration. It was found that the interaction of an electron with a space charge in a split resonator leads to the increase of the radiation beam instability with the increase of its density. The effect of current modulation of the electron beam passing through the system was studied. It was shown that the resonator size increase leads to the increase of the amplitude of the beam current variable component at the system output. The increase of the current density of the beam entering the interaction region also leads to the increase of the modulation efficiency. The possibility of increasing the modulated current amplitude in a system with unequal sections was considered.

Testing, simulation and design of back-to-back built-up cold-formed steel unequal angle sections under axial compression

In cold-formed steel (CFS) structures, such as trusses, transmission towers and portal frames, the use of back-to-back built-up CFS unequal angle sections are becoming increasingly popular. In such an arrangement, intermediate welds or screw fasteners are required at discrete points along the length, preventing the angle sections from buckling independently. Limited research is available in the literature on axial strength of back-to-back built-up CFS unequal angle sections. The issue is addressed herein. This paper presents an experimental investigation on both the welded and screw fastened back-to-back built-up CFS unequal angle sections under axial compression. The load-axial shortening and the load verses lateral displacement behaviour along with the deformed shapes at failure are reported. A nonlinear finite element (FE) model was then developed, which includes material nonlinearity, geometric imperfections and modelling of intermediate fasteners. The FE model was validated against the experimental test results, which showed good agreement, both in terms of failure loads and deformed shapes at failure. The validated FE model was then used for the purpose of a parametric study to investigate the effect of different thicknesses, lengths and, yield stresses of steel on axial strength of back-to-back built-up CFS unequal angle sections. Five different thicknesses and seven different lengths (stub to slender columns) with two different yield stresses were investigated in the parametric study. Axial strengths obtained from the experimental tests and FE analyses were used to assess the performance of the current design guidelines as per the Direct Strength Method (DSM); obtained comparisons show that the current DSM is conservative by only 7% on average, while predicting the axial strengths of back-to-back built-up CFS unequal angle sections.

Reactive power and voltage control interaction and optimization in the Danish largest wind power plant at Kriegers Flak

With the total 600MW power production capacity, Kriegers Flak will be the largest offshore wind power plant (OWPP) in Denmark. Kriegers Flak will utilize the two unequal sections, 400MW and 200MW, on the two offshore platforms interconnected via a 9 km 200kV cable and connected to the onshore substation via two 80 km 220kV cables. From the onshore 220kV substation, the 220kV connections continue to the two different 400/220kV substations of the Danish transmission grid. From the 400MW offshore platform, the connection continues to the 150kV offshore infrastructure of Germany. The Kriegers Flak grid connection resamples a meshed offshore grid (MOG) which increases complexity of and requirements to its overall voltage and reactive power control. This presentation describes how the overall voltage and reactive power control system is proposed and designed for optimized operation and reduction of the stress and efforts on the control equipment of the Kriegers Flak 220kV system.

A common error in calculating density of invertebrates in sediment core sections of unequal lengths

In benthic studies, an absolute measure of invertebrate density with depth in the sediment is desirable. It can be expressed as invertebrates per unit of sediment volume or invertebrates per unit of sediment surface area. Calculations are often distorted, however, by whether the core is divided into unequal or equal segments. This is demonstrated in a study conducted in the Vistula Lagoon (South Baltic Sea). We collected 30 cores, and performed an analysis of distribution of invertebrates along the sediment profiles divided into sections of different lengths, or of equal lengths. In both cases, animal density/biomass was calculated both per unit area (m2 ) and per unit volume (L). When cores are divided into equal sections, various ways of data computing do not affect the final results. If, for any reason, the cores are divided into sections varying in length, the only way to obtain an accurate measure of invertebrate distribution in the sediment profile is to express the data per unit volume. In many studies, calculations have been made per unit area using unequal segments, and these calculations are erroneous. The same error is made if density is expressed as the percentage contribution of the numbers/biomass or number of specimens recorded in particular unequal sections.

Aristotelianism in the First Century BCE: Xenarchus of Seleucia by Andrea Falcon (review)

Reviewed by: Aristotelianism in the First Century BCE: Xenarchus of Seleucia by Andrea Falcon Robert Mayhew Andrea Falcon. Aristotelianism in the First Century BCE: Xenarchus of Seleucia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Pp. ix, 227. $95.00. ISBN 978-0-521-87650-6. The past few decades have been an excellent time to be interested in Peripatetic thought after Aristotle, as much work has been devoted to Theophrastus and [End Page 279] other early Peripatetics, as well as to Alexander of Aphrodisias and the other Greek commentators on Aristotle. Falcon’s study of Xenarchus is an important addition to this growing body of work, one that admirably covers territory not treated elsewhere (or not so well). (I should mention that I have not seen M. Isnardi Parente’s Senocrate-Ermodoro: frammenti [Naples, 1982].) The book has three parts 1. Xenarchus: The Man and his Work; 2. Texts, Translations, and Notes; 3. Reception. There is an introduction and a conclusion. In the introduction, Falcon discusses how Xenarchus has been treated by other scholars and in what sense he is a Peripatetic. Falcon writes: “The epithet ‘Peripatetic’ [from some sources] is best explained as an indication of his commitment to a careful study of Aristotle’s works . . . without the overriding goal of fidelity” (1–2). The precise nature of Xenarchus’ Aristotelianism is further discussed in part 1, an essay on the life and thought of Xenarchus and the intellectual context within which he worked (with a focus on the revival of interest in Aristotle in the first century b.c.e.). This is an excellent entry into the study of Xenarchus, who is usually known, if known at all, merely as a Peripatetic who objected to Aristotle’s conviction that celestial bodies were composed of a special fifth element. The heart of the book, however, is part 2, which consists of two unequal sections. The first contains the text with translation of Aristotle, De Caelo 268b17–269b17. In his translation, Falcon has usefully italicized those lines that are the objects of Xenarchus’ criticisms. The second section (Xenarchus: The Testimonies, with no attempt to distinguish testimonia and fragmenta, a prudent decision) is further divided into five parts: Life (one testimony from Strabo); Physics (eleven from Simplicius’ commentary on De Caelo, and one from Julian the Emperor); Psychology (one from Aëtius via Stobaeus, and one from Philoponus); Ethics (one from Alexander of Aphrodisias); and the Timaeus (one from Proclus). For each testimony (T), the Greek (or in one case, Latin (T 15) is presented first, followed by Falcon’s translation, then by an analysis, and finally by notes geared toward lemmata. This would have been more user-friendly, however, had all of the texts been presented on one side with their translations on facing pages, followed by the commentary. Presentation aside, the translations are faithful to the Greek and in readable English, and the analyses and notes are superb, clarifying what is often dense and difficult material. The accuracy of any account of Xenarchus depends in large part on the value of the sources from which the testimonies come. Falcon defends the reliability of Simplicius as a source for Xenarchus (2–4), although he could have expanded the discussion given this source’s importance. Nevertheless, he is careful with the sources (see for example 129–32, on Aëtius) and in general is a cautious scholar, as every editor of fragmentary material must be. A minor example: in in De Caelo 13.22 (T2), Simplicius’ πρὸς τὴν πέμπτην οὐσίαν is usually considered a title (Against the Fifth Substance); but Falcon—lacking sufficient support for such a reading—translates it without italics (defending his interpretation on 66–68). For those new to Xenarchus, I present as an example the core of one of his objections to Aristotle. This is from T6 (Simpl. in De Caelo 24.21): “It is impossible for circular motion to be natural for a simple body, since in the simple bodies, which are uniform, all the parts have an equal speed, whereas in a circle [the parts] near the center are always slower than those near the periphery, since they move a shorter distance in the same [time period]” (90). [End Page 280] Given...

VERIFICATION OF AREAS OF I.S. ROLLED STEEL SECTIONS

Abstract General Steel Structures are designed using standard steel sections. The design is governed by the Code IS 800-2007, and the standard steel sections are chosen from SP: 6(1)-1964.The standard steel sections regularly used in construction are, I, Channel, Tee and Angle (Equal & Unequal) sections, i.e., overall 252 sections. SP: 6(1)-1964 gives the sectional properties of all these 252 standard sections, including the cross sectional areas, for the use of designers, to select the most stable and economical section to satisfy the loading conditions of the structure. An economical section is one which has the least cross sectional area and hence, least weight. In SP: 6(1)-1964, the cross sectional areas are given in cm to an accuracy of two decimal places. In this paper, the accuracy of the areas of all these sections, except ISHB sections (all IS Heavy Beams) and ISWB 600 @ 145.1 kg/m, i.e., totally 234 sections, are verified in mm to an accuracy of two decimal places. The results show differences in values of areas for eight Tee-sections only, which have been tabulated. Cross sectional areas of all other 226 sections perfectly match with the values given in SP: 6(1)-1964.

Jacques Guillemeau’s 16th-Century Account of Ophthalmoplegia

In 1585, the renowned French royal surgeon Jacques Guillemeau published his Traité des maladies de l'oeil. The book is divided into 9 unequal sections devoted to the description of eye anatomy and ophthalmological diseases including muscle, membrane, and humor disorders; optic nerve damage; and eyelid affections. Section 3, in particular, focuses on a form of ophthalmoplegia involving progressive paralysis of extraocular muscles. Here we describe and discuss Guillemeau's theoretical framework and practical approach to this ophthalmological disorder. To determine whether this physician was possibly influenced by the thought of antique and contemporary learned men, we reviewed some fundamental ideas on cranial nerves and their paralysis as presented by authors such as Herophilus of Chalcedon, Erasistratus of Ceos, Claudius Galen, Andreas Vesalius, and Leonhard Fuchs.

Miniaturized Distributed Marchand Balun Using Coupled Synthesized CPWs

A miniaturized distributed Marchand balun, composed of two unequal sections of coupled slow-wave synthesized coplanar waveguides, is developed in this letter. With the even odd mode analysis, the propagation characteristics of the coupled synthesized lines are analyzed. A simple phase compensation scheme, with unequal coupling sections, is proposed to compensate for the phase imbalance due to the non-zero connection line between the coupled-line sections. Without the need of surface-mounted capacitors, the proposed balun provides a comparable miniaturization capability but wider bandwidth when compared with its lumped-distributed counterparts. The circuit topology, design consideration, and simulated and experimental results are discussed thoroughly.

Gilles Deleuze: Image and Text

This collection of essays, selected from over sixty papers given at a 2007 Deleuze conference at the University of South Carolina, must have presented an organizational challenge. The designated fields were upscaled prairies: literary, artistic, and philosophical production viewed from a Deleuzian perspective, as well as analyses of Deleuze's explorations of ontological and epistemological concepts. The resulting volume does its best to recognize this rhizomatic complexity. Its three unequal sections — ‘Text/Literature’, ‘Image/Art’, ‘Philosophy’ — do orient the discussion but also allow for multiple transversal connections. In the first group, two essays on Beckett (by Ronald Bogue and Colin Gardner) present, on the one hand, the figure of the ‘landscape’ as a recurrent participant in key Deleuzian concepts such as faciality, percepts, and affects, and, on the other, a discussion of Deleuze's L'Épuisé, the text devoted to Beckett's television plays. (The latter contributor unfortunately cites the former in calling Dream of Fair to Middling Women a ‘fragment’, whereas it is a full-length novel — Beckett's first). The section also includes a fascinating essay by Sarah Posman that uses Deleuze as a go-between in an encounter between Gertrude Stein and Henri Bergson, by means of their attachment to (especially cinematic) movement. The second section comprises a rich diversity of engagements with the artistic image. These include Nadine Boljkovac's analysis of the Deleuzo-Guattarian ‘desiring-machine’ as suggested by Chris Marker's compelling and beautiful 1962 film La Jetée. A practising artist, Jondi Keane, examines the notion of embodiment in relation to conceptualization, perception, and action. Most impressive of all is the careful essay by Elizabeth Grosz, which forges a connection between the vibrancy of affect and the intensity of artistic production, arguing that ‘art is where intensity is most at home’ (p. 86). In her essay ‘Why is Deleuze an Artist-Philosopher?’, Julie Kuhlkens rescues the term from its pejorative usage, arguing convincingly that Deleuze (like Nietzsche) is an artist-philosopher (rather than a ‘philosophers’ philosopher') in the sense that his relation with art is not historical or mythical but future-oriented and creative. Her characterization of Deleuze's mode of philosophizing is structurally underlined by the fact that, while seven essays tumble out of the middle section on ‘Image/Art’, only two feature in the last section, on ‘Philosophy’. Constantin Boundas's essay posits Deleuze as a philosopher of freedom, though one that is productive of a series of paradoxes. The final contribution in the volume, by Hélène Frichot, uses Deleuze's commentary on Spinoza to set out three steps towards the refuge of beatitude, understood as a mode where the active power of existing is most fully expressed in its milieu. This attractively written essay is exemplary in terms of its imaginative presentation and its proficiency in drawing together many of the volume's threads. In a pluriform collection such as this, one would not expect all essays to be as scintillating as those of Grosz and Frichot — one entitled ‘(Giving) Saving Accounts’, for all its commitment, should have received much sterner editing — but all in all this is a valuable addition to Deleuzian scholarship, and one that will (as Deleuze would have celebrated) attract a multidisciplinary readership.

Comment on “A Dual-Frequency Transformer for Complex Impedances With Two Unequal Sections”

The analysis presented in the above titled paper is defective because equations (7a)-(7d) are based on the assumption that the complex impedances Z0 and ZL do not change when the frequency changes from f 1 to f2 = mf 1. As a result, the numerical solutions based on these equations are not valid either.

Reply to ‘Comments on “A Dual-Frequency Transformer for Complex Impedances With Two Unequal Sections”’

Dr. Roy points out that the proposed method presented is not valid when the complex impedances Z <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">o</sub> and Z <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">L</sub> change at the two different frequencies. Although the constant complex impedance is considered, the assumption is reasonable to a certain extent and the design method is useful in common frequency-dependent microwave circuits.In general, for the complex frequency-dependent impedances, when the relative variation of |Z <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">xf1</sub> -Z <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">xf2</sub> |/|Z <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">xf1</sub> (x=o, L.) is in the range of 0% ~ 10%, our design method is also useful in practical microwave circuits.

A Dual-Frequency Transformer for Complex Impedances With Two Unequal Sections

In this letter, a small dual-frequency transformer with two unequal sections for complex impedances is proposed. To design this transformer, two different groups of nonlinear equations and the corresponding solutions processes are obtained. The results of numerical examples show that two complex impedances can be matched at two different frequencies simultaneously. This proposed transformer can be regarded as the extension of small dual-frequency transformer in two sections for two resistances.

Statistics of Polarization-Mode Dispersion Emulators with Unequal Sections

We study two models for the generation of polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) with unequal, fixed-length sections: an isotropic model, in which the orientations of all the sectional PMD vectors are taken to be randomly and uniformly varying across the Poincare sphere, and a rotator model, in which all sections are taken to be linearly birefringent waveplates randomly rotatable with respect to one another. We describe the implementation of importance sampling for first- and second-order PMD in both models, including a targeting method for first-order PMD. We then use analytical and numerical methods to reconstruct the statistics of first- and second-order PMD for the two models. Our results show that the statistical properties of PMD depend significantly on the specific details of how PMD is generated.

Rossignos by John of Howden, Glynn Hesketh

MLR, I03. I, 2oo8 223 In sum, this volume offers a theoretically dense, but usually lucid, reading of amorous martyrdom in a constellation of Old French and Occitan courtly texts. Gaunt succeeds in fascinatingways both in 'tak[ing] the discourse of fin'amors seri ously' (p. 7), as he puts it, and in complicating both his own reading of the ethics of dying for love and our understanding of what fin'amors may have represented/ articulated/signified in the Middle Ages. UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-KANSAS CITY KATHY M. KRAUSE Rossignos. By JOHNOF HOWDEN. Ed. by GLYNN HESKETH. (Anglo-Norman Texts, 63) London: Anglo-Norman Text Society. 2006. 270 PP. ?37.50 (?25 toSociety members). ISBN 978-o-905474-46-5. Glynn Hesketh's edition of JohnofHowden's Rossignos fillsa significantgap in Anglo Norman literature,and completes our knowledge of an importantAnglo-Latin writer of the thirteenthcentury. Since theonly previous edition of the text isan unpublished thesisunavailable forconsultation, and theonly published study of thepoem appeared sixtyyears ago, thisnew edition isparticularly welcome. As important as Howden is to Insular literature, little is known of his life.Hes keth summarizes the documentary evidence of John 'deHoueden' and reviews fairly sceptically earlier attempts to identify thepoet. Howden's long poetic meditation (5272 lines) on the life(and particularly thePas sion) of Jesus Christ is dedicated toEleanor of Castile. The Anglo-Norman poem ismodelled on his earlier Latin Philomena inboth its form (monorhymed quatrains) and its structure (short meditative or lyrical passages on the lifeof Christ and the Virgin organized chronologically), and is a thorough reworking of thematerial for a layaudience. The editor has retained the scribal division into thirty-four unequal sections marked by a guide letter and space left for large initials, although none of these was ever filled in.The introduction contains an extensive linguistic study thatdistin guishes carefully between the characteristics of the thirteenth-century text and the habits of the fourteenth-century scribe. One unusual feature of thepoem is itsversi fication 'as correct as any to be found on theContinent, and which isclearly at pains to follow the same conventions of scansion' (p. 28). On thebasis of thismetrical regu larity,the editor has made emendations to correct faulty metre, but has scrupulously noted his changes in the rejected readings at the footof thepage. He has, inaddition, supplied punctuation and capitalization which are helpful to the reader.The glossary, though selective, isquite extensive, providing considerable guidance. This aid iscom plemented by thenotes, where the editor discusses difficulties in the textand justifies emendations both made and rejected; he indicates sources, treatsunusual forms and meanings ofwords, and on occasion provides translations of difficultphrases or lines. This admirable edition ofRossignos will certainly be essential to scholars ofAnglo Norman literature,but itwill also be of great interest to those interested inAnglo Latin literature and inmedieval French religious literature. UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MAUREEN BOULTON Debate and Dialogue: Alain Chartier in his Cultural Context. By EMMA CAYLEY. Oxford: ClarendonPress. 2006. xi+258pp. J50. ISBN 978-o-ig-929026-o. The importance of this addition to latemedieval French literary,cultural, and codi cological studies lies in threemajor achievements. Firstly, its pioneering work on ...

Approaches to Teaching Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina' by Liza Knapp , Amy Mandelker (review)

304 Reviews poetry. This threat to the traditional printed poem requires the corrective of leesbevordering based on a Romantic notion of literature and delivered by those who 'act froma cultural ideal and use a relatively superior tone' (p. 109) and who neglect digital culture. But Vaessens also notes that the reading programme itself has a democratic aspect in that it actively seeks a broad audience. While the papers discussed above represent the strong trend towards analysis of the literary field in the Netherlands, other contributors address the theme of time in the culture of the Low Countries from the perspectives of colonial and postcolonial studies, medieval studies, and linguistics. Natasha Tinsley approaches a Surinamese woman writer from the perspective of decolonizing queer theory, while Orlanda Lie looks at 'The Concept of Time in the Medieval World View'. Jan Noordegraaf ar? gues that Dutch eighteenth-century linguistics, an aspect of Dutch learning that has been largely ignored, marks the beginning of a historical and empirical dimension to linguistic philosophy and a sense of the possibility of change over time and therefore of what Willemyns refers to as 'language planning'. Other contributions from lin? guists focus on time as expressed through the use of tenses (Wim Klooster, Robert S. Kirsner), adverbials (Thomas F. Shannon and Michael P. Coffey), and particles (Kirsner). Readers ofJanus at the Millennium will gain a sense of the state of Dutch Studies in the world through a wide range of articles on the language, literature, history,and society of the Low Countries which are generally of a high quality. Scholars in the field will undoubtedly extend their knowledge and understanding of the Netherlands and Belgium and encounter new approaches to their subject. University College London Jane Fenoulhet Approaches to Teaching Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina'. Ed. by Liza Knapp and Amy Mandelker . (Approaches to Teaching World Literature) New York: The Modern Language Association of America. 2003. x + 229 pp. ?22.55 (pbk ?9.75). ISBN 0-87352-904-9 (pbk 0-87352-905-7). This book is to be very warmly welcomed. While covering some fairlyfamiliar ma? terial and approaches in a form which will be accessible to undergraduates and the general reader, it also offersspirited and innovative discussions of key aspects of what is perhaps the most important of Russian novels. As such, it accords well with the overall aims of the series of which it forms a part: 'The series is intended to serve non-specialists as well as specialists, inexperienced as well as experienced teachers, graduate students who wish to learn effectiveways of teaching as well as senior professors who wish to compare their own approaches with the approaches of colleagues in other schools' (p. vii). In these terms it should become an indispensable part ofthe preparatory materials of all teachers of nineteenth-century Russian literature. This specific volume was prepared by soliciting responses to a questionnaire from those who actually teach the novel, although the precise mechanism by which the contributions came to be written is not fully explained. After a series of five intro? ductory sections written by the two editors, there are twenty-one short essays divided into three unequal sections, 'Anna Karenina in Tolstoy's Life, Thought and Times', 'Anna Karenina in the Literary Traditions of Russia and the West', and 'Classroom Approaches to Anna Karenina'. All the essays have much to offer,while many belie the ostensible purpose of the volume to become, in effect,outstanding short articles. The contributors are almost all from the USA, including most of the 'stars' of that particular firmament. Although it is not altogether clear why the two editors chose to hive offtheir own five introductory pieces, each of these contributions is a model of clarity and pro? vides an excellent overture to the thematics and problematics of the volume. Amy MLR, ioi.i, 2006 305 Mandelker's 'Teaching Anna Karenina' points to the challenges and difficulties of teaching this novel in the twenty-firstcentury: 'Those of us who teach the novel regularly find that it persistently detonates heated classroom debates of issues that continue to be topical: sex and sexuality, gender roles, social constriction of indivi? dual self-expression and fulfilment' and so on...

A Companion to Wolfram's "Parzival"

Hasty, Will, ed. A Wolfram's Parzival. Rochester, NY. Camden House, 1999. 318 pp. $75.00 hardcover. A number of Companion to volumes relating Middle High German literature have been, or are about be, published under this imprint, including Nibelungenlied and Gottfried's Tristan. The intended audience of present volume is not made absolutely clear (see xix), but impression gained is that it is directed more at students and medievalists in other fields than at cutting edge of scholarship. It is likely find its way onto all undergraduate reading lists on in English-speaking world, as it gathers together contributions on a number of important themes and topics, and offers help nonexpert reader, by providing English translations of quotations from primary sources. As such, its appearance is be welcomed, but with a number of caveats. Given boast for this volume that essays provide a treatment in English of significant aspects of Parzival (xix), we are bound ask how definitive and how significant? Answering second of these first, we now examine scope of volume, which is divided into four unequal sections, preceded by an introduction by editor, dealing with some aspects of previous scholarship, mainly at level of literary history. The sections are: People, Places, and Things in (1-96), with four contributions; Wolfram's Art of Narration (97-140), with two; Cultural Contexts (141-242) with five. and The Modern Reception of Wolfram's (243-58), with only one; a consolidated bibliography of 19 pp. completes volume. Clearly, a work such as this cannot hope do justice vast array of secondary literature on Parzival, but it is indicative of level and scope of volume that there are no footnotes and only minimal references secondary literature in brackets in text of articles. One must therefore ask: are topics treated those which one would most like see included in an introductory work on Parzival? The answer can be only a qualified yes, since, although many seminal topics are ostensibly treated, treatment of some is wayward, so that actual mainstream coverage of important aspects is often wanting. The first section contains a short and somewhat superficial treatment of Gahmuret and Herzeloyde by Francis Gentry, in which much more could have been made of heritage of Parzival's parents later in work. This is followed by Women Characters, discussed profitably by Marion Gibbs, who, while taking issue with more recent scholarship, especially relating negative aspects of Herzeloyde in Book III, does not see fit modify her conclusions, which are essentially those of her earlier monograph. Martin Jones offers a long, carefully argued, well-structured essay on Gawan Story, which is a model of clarity and brings out cogently both significance of Gawan action and its relationship that of Parzival. In his investigation of Wolfram's Grail (curiously always spelt with a lower case initial letter in volume), Sidney Johnson gives a convenient survey of nature, characteristics, and possible origins of that mystical object of Parzival's quest, although some parts of argumentation, especially references Old Testament, based on Horgan, fail convince. Introducing second section, Adrian Stevens's essay on Narrative Sources argues with considerable acuity, comparing Wolfram's mode of composition with that of Chretien de Troyes (in his Erec et Enide) and evaluating in Wolfram's dependence on, and independence of, Contes del Graal of Chretien (generally agreed be his principal source), alongside Wolfram's references his alleged source, fictitious Kyot. This essay contains many insights, including how, working within generic form of Arthurian romance, Wolfram consciously wrote fiction, enjoying the freedom alter, recast and invent (113). …

A Generalised Measure of Disparity for Dichotomous Populations

Many populations are intrinsically dichotomous and many others are meaningfully dichotomized. For gauging the level of disparity between two sections with respect to a certain trait, many disparity indices have been devised. They are all based on aggregate sectional rates. They all err ignoring the relative size of the two sections, thus tacitly assuming that the two sections an of equal size. This paper devises a new positive disparity measure through a simple geometrical device and generalises it for the situation of unequal size sections. The measures are applied to female-male and rural-urban dichotomies in the case of literacy for the States of India. It is found that a disparity measure that ignores the issue of relative size, grossly underestimates/overestimates the magnitude of disparity.

Transcontinental America, 1850–1915. Vol. 3 of The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History by Donald W. Meinig (review)

Transcontinental America, 1850-1915. Vol. 3 of The Shaping ofAmerica: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years ofHistory Donald W. Meinig New Haven: Yale University Press Reviewed by E l l io t M c I n t ir e California State University, Northridge B ecause of the Internet, the links between one place and another and the meaning of distance are undergoing profound changes. The implications of these changes are, as yet, unclear to most of us. A current project of mine involves collaboration with colleagues in four countries on three continents, and communication among this group is as fast as with my colleagues on the same hallway. In how many ways will this technological change transform our world? It is too soon to tell, although there is no doubt it will be profound. But this is only the most recent of such transformations. The railroad had a simi­ lar transforming effect on the late nineteenth-century world, and this 208 MCINTIRE: Review of Transcontinental America, 1850-1915 209 third volume of Don Meinig’s acclaimed series on the historical ge­ ography of the United States traces that impact. The growth of the rail network of this country, the spread of settle­ ment, and the development of interconnections between the separate, and often disparate, parts of this country are a theme that runs through this volume. Volume 2 (Continental America) covered the period from 1800 to 1867, examining the changing geography of the U.S. from the earliest days of independence through the Civil War. This volume, commencing with 1850, overlaps with Volume 2 and exam­ ines the sudden spread of effective control of space over the western half of the continent, beginning with the incorporation of California into the United States. The consequences and implications of such a coast-to-coast national unit, made possible by the railroads, provide the framework for this volume. The book is divided into four unequal sections around the themes of articulation, dominion, consolidation, and spheres. The brief first section focuses on the efforts to connect the two coasts by rail, and the implications of this rapid and cheap linking of far-flung regions. The lengthy second section examines the emergence of American wests, with the emphasis on their plurality. It was not one West, but many, each with its own distinctive character. The long third section focuses on creation of a re-United States in the post-Civil War pe­ riod, with critical analysis of why and how the South developed a distinctive, but subordinate, role in American society. Part four, again fairly brief, looks at the spread of American influence beyond our continental borders, with sections on Canada, Mexico, the Pacific, and the Caribbean, as this country, on the eve of the First World War, suddenly found itself a world power, without much sense of what that implied. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is a good map worth? Illustration 61, a U.S. map from the Statistical Atlas of the United States (1914), shows the percentage of foreign stock popula­ tion by county for 1910. No text could demonstrate what set the South 210 APCG YEARBOOK • VOLUME 61 • 1999 off as a separate region so effectively as this map. Nearly a hundred illustrations, mostly maps, with a few diagrams and a number of wellchosen historical photographs, provide graphic illustration of many of the points made in the text. The maps created for this volume are a real plus, and the few historic maps from other sources are also easily read, unlike the muddy examples all too commonly found. Many of the maps are on a base of either the Raisz physiographic maps or the USGS National Atlas Map, Major Waterway Systems, both of which provide a clear sense of the relationship between landforms and the features illustrated. A few maps contain symbols not explained in the legend nor in the accompanying text, but the only real error noted was the placement of Seattle in central Washington (p. 298). The text is also remarkably free of typos. An extra zero on page 225 gives Fall River, Massachusetts, a population of a million, but careful attention to detail shows...