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This article analyzes a print that was published in Venice in 1797 as the opening image to a biography of Catherine II. Certainly prepared during the empress’s life, the publication appeared just months after her death in a watershed year for Europe which saw the fall of the Republic of Venice. The print imagines the moment that Peter the Great founded the new city of St. Petersburg over ninety years earlier. Through an exploration of the carefully constructed messages in the print, this paper examines the legacy of the image of Peter in Western Europe against which Catherine was understood. It considers the imagery of St. Petersburg in relation to Venice: the capitals of two empires, one in its ascendency and one at the point of collapse.

Anurupa Roy, director of a troupe of puppeteers in Delhi, India, discusses with Paula Richman, emerita professor at Oberlin College (USA), various facets in the creation of her puppet play About Ram. Roy wanted the audience to experience the diversity of the Ramayana tradition as a tragic love story about a hero (first a prince and later a king) who feels duty-bound to banish his wife with the result that he remains alone for the rest of his life. The play is filled with images of the hero’s past life through animation of his memories and weapons on a screen mounted on stage and music with no words but with a percussion emphasis that draws upon different musical instruments from various regions. Over the period of improvisation by which the performance developed, Roy made the war scenes very stylized and the animator contemporized the weapons to include jet propulsion and machine guns. As part of her goal to develop an embodied language for contemporary puppet practice in India, Roy incorporated dances based on martial arts, which led to a grammar of movement for the puppet performance that was contemporary and engaging.

In this study, we developed and validated a new instrument: an emotional intelligence scale for teachers. This paper focused on the psychometric properties of the emotional intelligence scale for school teachers dealing with adolescent students. The study also validated the tool over 608 secondary school teachers in India. This scale was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Cronbach’s alpha, and item-total correlation. Results showed good fit (χ2/df =1085.66, CFI = 0.956, GFI = 0.876, TLI = 0.951, PCFI = 0.860, PNFI = 0.843, RMSEA = 0.06 and SRMR = 0.056) for the five components (Self-Perception, Self-Regulation, Self-Drive, Empathy, Social Motive) of the measurement model. However, 80.18% of the total variance was explained by the factors Reliability (Cronbach alpha = 0.95) and construct validity means convert and discriminant validity was established for a teacher’s innovative emotional intelligence scale. Finally, the robust findings indicated that the instrument could be used in further studies in different research areas.

Quality of living is a multidimensional concept of an individual or a society. It has been influenced by different factors such as housing conditions, health conditions, education, assets, and other basic amenities. This research deals with assessing the level of household Quality of Living (QoL) of Berhampore Town (city) in Murshidabad district in West Bengal, India. Household Quality of Living is measured based on twenty indicators. These indicators are used as different domains like Human Capital Index, Assets Index, Basic Amenities Index, and Housing Index. Quality of living conditions is determined based on composite scores. The result shows that living conditions differ in different parts of this town. The living condition of the central part is better than other parts of this city.

The history of cinema is characterized by the fight for cultural legitimacy. Specifically, in the 20th century, cinema played a key role for the expansion of the aesthetic field in debates on contemporary times and even influenced the philosophy of art. Aesthetic categories are taken from other and more traditional artistic forms (such as representative arts, literature and theatre). The purpose is to expand the field of cultural legitimacy of cinema also to those fields which were considered too involved in the industrial needs. This is the reason why contemporary cinephilia have sometimes extended the broad definition of “beautiful” also to more marginal areas as well as to the most unpredictable places (from pornography to horror), thus identifying forms of art everywhere. So, what is cinephilia and how did it revolutionize the aesthetic criteria of cinema?

The emerging discipline of complexity science, applied to the social sciences, seeks to study the rise of human civilization as a part of a natural, evolving biological system that exploits energy resources to fuel its growth into a complex social system. In order to understand the whole system, the reductionist approach, typical to Western science, must be supplanted. The atomistic study of various scientific fields as separate mechanical parts of the system must be broadened, creating a more holistic view of human culture as an integral part of larger universal process of evolution and creation. In this article I wish to integrate the various scientific fields, including physics, chronobiology (studying the effect of solar cycles on biological growth), biology, evolutionary psychology, and the social sciences, to achieve a unified understanding of our cultural evolution.

In my work I argue that sexual differences in the brain seem to shape the ideological gulf between the respective social groups each side represents. And most significantly, it is the male sex hormone testosterone that is the primary hormone affecting our sexual evolution. Not only does testosterone fuel the passion for reproduction and play a critical role in the length of human lives, it is an integral component to the mechanism of human civilization—its triumphs and its tragedies. In order to understand the forces that drive the life cycles of human cultures and form the engine of history, it is important to look at the most fundamental building blocks of human neuroscience. Our hormones are the impetus for our history. Hormones regulate and control the way the human mind perceives the world and forms social organizations and political order accordingly. Hormones drive waves of social mood, shaping the evolution of our social life, the fluctuations of religious doctrines, cultural crusades, and sexual norms.

The present essay through a close investigation of Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999) and Fury (2002) looks into the challenges posed by global capitalism at the turn of the 21st century. The resilience of civilizations, in particular their cultural vocabulary and ethnic compositions, is explored in the face of the homogenizing drive of capitalist enterprise. The encounters between various ethnicities and cultures create liminal spaces of exchange where social innovation plays a critical role in shaping cross-cultural dialogues. Exchange takes place in terms of cultural values. Using the cultural dialectics of desire as a navigational compass the essay seeks to understand civilization(s) as a set of complex encounters. The multiplicity of civilizing processes at play on the global plane are scanned through the critical lens of “desire”, which is given a psycho-social orientation. The endless possibilities of neural networking opened up by globalization is born out of a legacy of conflict and interdependence. Two contrary trends emerge simultaneously; on the one hand there is an increasing tendency towards economic monopolization and Americanization and on the other hand there are decentralized and despatialized flows conducive to the growth of a hybrid cultural economy. Globalization at the turn of the century thus emerges as an economic and a cultural enterprise embracing plurality. The essay through the trope of desire explores the plural dynamics of globalization in the interaction, interdependence and contact between civilizations and cultures. It seeks to retrieve desire from the domain of market logistics and activate its ontological potential in terms of subjective empowerment and a critical aesthetics of change.

During World War I, in response to substantial advancements in wartime surveillance, it became a common practice to rely on “vision specialists” to devise effective methods of fooling the enemy (tromper l’ennemi). These methods, collectively referred to now as camouflage, were designed by so-called camoufleurs, men who in civilian life had been trained as artists, graphic designers, architects, and theatre scenographers. Among the techniques they employed (for both ground and ship camouflage) were perspective-based spatial distortions, of the sort that are also frequently used in theatrical set design, trompe l’oeil paintings, and wildlife displays (called habitat dioramas). This paper describes these methods, explains how they were intended to work, and discusses their effectiveness.

This paper addresses the institutional practices of communal governance in the village of Capulálpam de Méndez, located in the State of Oaxaca in Mexico. Based upon a communal system inherited from the agrarian reform implemented by the Mexican Revolution and upon ancestral practices, this village was vitalized by several community-based modes of governance and various collective economic initiatives. The way the system of collective responsibilities (the "cargo" system) in the village operates and the way development has been articulated has enabled Capulálpam to resist the neoliberal reforms implemented or promoted by the Mexican government since the 1980s.- This paper shows how a normative and cognitive framework and mechanisms of social reproduction have favoured use value and quality of life by subjecting development to social priorities and citizen interests. In this context, the territory, both in its physical or symbolic dimension, promotes social cohesion and allows the predominance of the ordinary.

The mosquito Culex tritaeniorhychus is an established vector of Japanese encephalitis in India and many Asian countries. Entomological monitoring enables estimation of the abundance of the vector mosquitoes and therefore aids in vector management and disease control. In compliance with this proposition, an assessment of the pupal productivity of the mosquito C. tritaeniorhynchus was made from selected rice fields of West Bengal, India. The results are expected to provide the present status of mosquitoes in an endemic region of Japanese encephalitis. In course of sampling of the rice fields, the mosquito C. tritaeniorhyhchus was found in abundance with other mosquitoes like Culex bitaeniorhynchus, Anopheles subpictus, Anopheles vagus, Anopheles barbirostris. Application of multivariate analysis indicated that the plant height, water depth and temperature could explain the variations in the pupal productivity of C. tritaeniorhynchus in rice fields. The correspondence of the immature abundance of C. tritaeniorhynchus with plant height suggests persistence of the population throughout the paddy rice cultivation period. Using the plant height as an indicator, the abundance of the mosquito C. tritarniorhynchus can be predicted enabling application of appropriate strategies for population intervention and thus the possibility of the disease.

The Buddhist approach to testimony (āptavāda, āptāgama) as a valid means of cognition (pramāṇa) is far from univocal and involves an intricate and often also ambivalent attitude toward scriptural authority. The paper focuses on several early Yogācāra Buddhist thinkers who accepted testimony as a reliable epistemic warrant, and offers an account of the sophisticated and highly reflective manner in which they approached the issue of scriptural meaning and authority. For this purpose, the paper first outlines the theoretical framework for considering scripture presented by the early Yogācāra philosopher Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti, focusing especially on his discussion of the criteria for canonicity and its implications for a system of hermeneutics based on the uncovering of authorial intent. The paper then examines in turn the way in which this framework and its internal tensions were worked out in the writings of Sthiramati (circa 6th century CE) and especially in his Madhyāntavibhāga-bhāṣya-ṭīkā, focusing on his definition of “treatise” (śāstra) and his implied understanding of textual authority.

Malaysia’s various ethnic groups make interesting study both sociologically and culturally. With such a heady mix of cultural elements to explore, it is often natural that the many groups stumble upon ‘rare gems’ that reflect their ‘Malaysianess’. Have Malaysians really ever appreciated the many and varied aspects of culture that they are seemingly suddenly thrown into? Do we embrace these happily or are we constantly rejecting them? Fortunately, through the medium of film, we are, from time to time, allowed to reflect on our obvious similarities and even more apparent disparities. In this paper, we explore the culture and perceptions of people from the major ethnic groups that are the human base of this very country. When was it we have last laughed at ourselves … heartily? Nasi Lemak 2.0 provides an interesting, if not disturbing insight into the workings of the Malaysian ‘mind’. Nasi Lemak 2.0 was released on 8th September 2011 and impacted a whole generation of Malaysians. The characters have been well chosen and have done a wonderful job of being representations of the various communities in this nation. Ethnocentrism is a reality and often rears its head, ‘ugly’ or otherwise in several situations. Are we able to grapple with the levels of ethnocentrism that we encounter? These are some of the issues that will trigger much debate and discussion among ourselves and perhaps also reflect our cores.

Most models of land cover change predict change using physical and socio-economic factors in raster grids where temporal and spatial scales must be selected to optimize prediction and calculation time. This study tests the impacts of spatial extent and spatial resolution (cell size) on land cover change modelling. Spatial extent here is equivalent to increasing the area of a dormant category. Two extents (33.6 km² and 79.1 km²) and three resolutions (25 m, 50 m and 100 m) were tested on study zones located in SE France in the Var department. The 50 m and 100 m resolutions were downscaled back to 25 m and compared to the initial 25 m maps. Land cover maps dated from 1950, 1982, 2003 and 2011, and IDRISI’s Land Change Modeler (LCM) was used to predict 2011. Dormant category improved Cramer’s V values (1.3 to 1.5 time greater) and quantity and allocation disagreement values. Actual change predictions were similar for the two zones, but the high persistent forest in the large window artificially improved prediction statistics, so increasing dormant category area (spatial extent) artificially inflates prediction statistics. Spatial resolution appeared to have little impact at first, but upscaling/downscaling revealed that coarser cell sizes lose predictive power (1.5-2 times greater allocation errors). The dormant category area should be minimized and upscaling/downscaling should be done if data are modelled at coarser resolutions than original cell size.

Bombay, the city where Salman Rushdie spent his childhood, features prominently in four of his novels, namely Midnight’s Children (1981), The Satanic Verses (1988), The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995) and The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999). However, in traditional literary approaches, the built environment and the materiality of Bombay evident in Rushdie’s fiction are largely lost disallowing Rushdie’s portrayal of the city to be explained as the real-imaged lived space, which Henri Lefebvre (1991) defines as “representational space” and Edward Soja (1996) as “third space”. In the globalized world of ubiquitous placelessness, the strategies and the tactics of recovering the lived space, sometimes involving the micro level of the body and sometimes larger scales such as the communities, are matters of great significance for the prominent spatial thinkers of our times. Therefore, by considering that Rushdie’s depiction of Bombay provides an access to its lived space, and particularly concentrating on the issues related to the land-reclamation in Bombay, this paper finally aims to explore how Rushdie’s sense of place is a progressive, global sense of place, which neither collapses in to a reactionary nostalgia; nativist bigotry, nor does it surrender to a spectral, deterritorialized globality.

Official development assistance (ODA) began to flow on an unprecedented scale to developing countries in the wake of India's foreign exchange crisis and her urgent need for balance of payments support in 1958. However, there have been several criticisms of ODA programmes since that time. The issue of aid and recipient's use of aid is re-examined with reference to Australia's aid to Papua New Guinea. JEL Codes: F31, F35

Investigations on the anti-bacterial activity of ZnO nanoparticles on Staphylococcus aureus were made by using bio-technical method. Light scattering properties of these particles were studied as a function of scattering angle by using a versatile laboratory light scattering setup in order to find the scattering profile of ZnO nanoparticles and also the mode of action of these particles on bacterial property.

Des del començament dels anys noranta, diversos instruments internacionals han posat l'accent no només sobre la «protecció » de les minories, sinó també sobre la necessitat d'assegurar la seva «participació » en la vida cultural, social, econòmica i pública de l'Estat en el qual viuen. Aquest article examina diferents tipus de solucions «integradores» i «autonomistes» escollides per certs estats per reflectir, en el seu ordenament jurídic intern, aquest «dret de participació». Les solucions «integradores» asseguren a les minories una representació fins i tot al si de les institucions de l'Estat, ja sigui al si dels òrgans legislatius, de l'Administració pública o de l'ordenament jurídic. Les solucions «autonomistes» permeten a les minories participar, al marge de les institucions estatals, en la vida de l'Estat establint instruments que efectuen una nova disposició de les estructures i dels poders. En aquests casos, es pot optar per la creació d'institucions minoritàries de diàleg o per la concessió d'una o altra forma d'autonomia territorial (regional o local) o personal (sectorial o general).

In his history of the Second Punic War, Livy describes in grisly detail the final moments of L. Postumius Albinus (pr. 216 BCE), who fell in battle to the Gallic Boii: “The Boii stripped his body of its spoils and cut off the head and bore them in triumph to the most sacred of their temples. According to their custom they cleaned out the skull and covered the scalp with beaten gold; it was then used as a vessel for libations” (23.24.6-13). Livy’s Gauls were wild, fierce, and wholly barbaric to Roman eyes. Such depictions were a common literary topos but differ starkly from the visual stereotype of the Gallic warrior that developed beginning in the second century BCE: the subdued and bound captive. By tracing the origins and function of the Gallic warrior topos in Roman visual culture, this paper argues that the very dissonance of these representations lent symbolic power to the image of the captured Gaul. In stamping such images on the coins that funded further war efforts, the Romans made potent claims to dominance over Gallic peoples. These martial coins, however, did not serve merely as a vehicle for Roman self-fashioning, they circulated among conquered peoples, whose own coin iconography adapted to and reacted against Roman authority. Drawing on the same visual language that rendered them permanently captive, Gallic elites carved out their own potent claims to power within the new landscape of Roman dominance.

By integrating the entire body of research in human sexual dynamics, immune responses, and sociocultural behavior, we can conclude that the mass hysteria our society is currently experiencing originates in our evolved psychological adaptations to pandemic conditions[i]. A lack of hormonal balance[ii], due to a collapse in testosterone levels, may cause a disproportionate immune response that leads to the destruction of our cherished sociopolitical institutions—the very institutions that are design to protect human liberty and prosperity. What is playing out at a societal level is similar to an excessive immune response that causes the body to attack itself: decreased testosterone causing the kind of auto-immune response that is more prevalent in females. [i] Barzilai, R. (2020). Low Solar Activity, Winter Flu Conditions, Pandemics and Sex Wars: A Holistic View of Human Evolution. Science & Philosophy, 8(1). Doi: 10.23756/sp.v8i1.514 [ii] Barzilai, R. (2019). Solar cycles, light, sex hormones and the life cycles of civilization: Toward integrated chronobiology. Science & Philosophy, 7(2). doi: 10.23756/sp.v7i2.483

In this brief essay, I connect conceptualizations of dispossession with those of conjuncture, specifically conjuncture as an ethico-political category. Interested in the long history of racial capitalism and its iterative spatialities, I seek to foreground the contingency of the present and the politics made possible across time and in time. Drawing on postcolonial thought, especially that attentive to Blackness, I make an argument about the necessity of understanding urban transformations in relation to the present history of colonial settlement and removal.

The current spread of coronavirus has caught our modern world by surprise, which leads to widespread panic, fear and confusion. However, if we view the unfolding of these events from a scientific historical perspective of past human evolution, we may discover the reoccurring patterns of the environmental conditions that give rise to such epidemics. Hence, we can figure out better methods to prepare and react to the infectious agents that spread diseases that have shaped the course of human history before. Here, I propose a holistic view of human evolution, with an interdisciplinary approach that studies how cyclic variation in solar UV energy affects the evolution of viruses and shapes the symbiotic dynamics of human life on earth.

Cet article consiste en une réflexion conceptuelle d’ordre épistémologique et didactique sur un enseignement de la technologie centré sur le processus de conception technique. En vue de construire une communauté discursive interdisciplinaire scolaire dans ce domaine, nous convions les enseignant·e·s à faire acquérir aux élèves six pratiques épistémiques d’ingénierie : définir un problème technique, générer et sélectionner des solutions en recourant à une approche systématique et itérative, analyser et modéliser, expérimenter et évaluer, communiquer et prendre des décisions. Ces pratiques discursives interdisciplinaires caractérisant la pensée design des élèves sont cohérentes avec les pratiques sociotechniques de référence et jouent un rôle central dans le développement d’une culture technique authentique.