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This article delves into Bosnia-Herzegovina, and especially into the town of Bihać, to ethnographically examine the changing nature of the state and family, as visible through practices of elder care. I use my ethnographic data gathered at a nursing home Vitalis in Bihać, and especially the predicament of an elderly Bosnian woman whom I call Zemka, to argue that both the state and family in postwar and postsocialist Bosnia-Herzegovina materialize as semi-absent. In the process of unpacking these multiple semi-absences, I reveal the lived effects of changing postwar and postsocialist state, and altering kinship relations as they affect "ordinary" people.
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Launched on ‘International Women’s Day’ on 7 March 2008, Wikigender is a project created by the OECD Development Centre that aims to facilitate the exchange and improvement of knowledge on gender-related issues around the world. Girls: A No Ceilings Conversation was an event hosted on 17 April 2014 by the Clinton Foundation ‘No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project’, was designed to foster and advance progress for women and girls worldwide. The two projects are investigated here as new types of communication on the World Wide Web. The analysis tries to ascertain whether and to what extent the generic features and discursive strategies of the two new collaborative platforms contribute to the co-construction of information, the dissemination of knowledge and awareness, and the development of a participatory agenda (Jones 2008; Campagna, Garzone, Ilie and Rowley-Jolivet 2012) on themes related to gender as well as resistance to inequality and otherness. An examination of these two examples of on-line communication will entail a scrutiny of new digital genres (Yates, Orlikowski and Renneker 1997), of the genre-specific features of web communication (Gruber 2008), and of the democratizing impetus embedded in their discourse. Promoting the exchange and creation of information and increasing citizens’ access to it enables readers to simultaneously become users, writers and critics; it seems to be the new trend of new web-mediated forms of communication that is resulting in the ‘democratization’ (Fairclough 1992; 1995a; 1995b; 1998) of several types of discourse.
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Age is a social construct that should be analysed as a flexible, contextual category, while old age is subject to coding and interpreting that create different formal and informal concepts of old age. As a micro-social universe, a home for old and infirm persons functions as socio-cultural framework within which, by analysing the experiences of its beneficiaries, we established the existence of four dominant interpretations of old age: fatalist, affirmative, stoical and relativistic. This work is focused on the authentic voices of old persons and personal experiences of old age and ageing. Contextuality and variability (of the feeling) of age, articulately testified by those experiences, show that perceptions of old age and feeling of getting old decisively depend on a personal vision and interpretation of the experience, that need not be compatible with the actual chronological age.
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One widespread proverb in Bulgaria, knowing some different versions, says that “Man, who did not passed conscription is not a man”, “A boy, who failed to enter military service is second-hand man”, “A man, who has not walked as a soldier knows nothing”. What exactly is conscription according to public understanding of Bulgarians? What attitudes have the society to compulsory conscription? Frontier of what is the portal on the military unit? These and other issues related to conscription during socialism will be explored.
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This article focuses on the practice of "working for yourself" (rabota na sebia), which was common in the Soviet Union in the 1970s-1980s and entailed manufacturing and repairing household items during work hours, using factory resources.
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The concept of social identity is being reconsidered in the social sciences due to transformations undergone by (post)modern societites, such as globalization, localization, and the intensification of global migration. In the context, the Siberian identity (being "Sibiriak") is an interesting object of research for it reflects the cultural, political, and economic effects of globalization and localization, as well as transformations in individual self-perception. This paper demonstrates that Siberian identity is not only a personal matter but also a new type of social solidarity and political claim. In Russian, extended summary in English.
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The author studied the manner of depicting conflicts in the Middle East in articles published on Polish information portals in 2015-201; she also analysed photographs used in those articles and the contemporary technologies of portraying war.
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The category of educational, social and cultural experience is inseparably linked to the spaces of interpersonal contact. Such experience always finally finds its actual frame of reference in a space that is public (open). Public space, as the reverse of private space, implies direct contact between what is known and close and what is unknown and foreign. Thus the open character of public space by very definition requires recognition of what is expressed by the notions of inter-subjectivity and transparency of thought and action. In this context, the author discusses the dialogical attitudes through the category of Unquantifiability, while in turn the categories of intersubjectivity and transparency are considered from the perspective of Non-obviousness. Kategoria doświadczenia edukacyjnego, społecznego i kulturowego odsyła nas do międzyludzkiej przestrzeni styczności. Doświadczenie takie zawsze ostatecznie odnajduje swe rzeczywiste ramy odniesienia w przestrzeni, która ma charakter publiczny (otwarty). Przestrzeń publiczna jako odwrotność przestrzeni prywatnej zakłada zaś bezpośrednią styczność tego, co znane i bliskie z tym, co nieznane i obce. Otwarty charakter przestrzeni publicznej z założenia wymaga więc uznania tego, co wyraża się w racjach intersubiektywności i transparentności myślenia i działania. W tym też kontekście nastawienia dialogiczne rozpatruję przez pryzmat kategorii Niewymierności, z kolei samą intersubiektywność i transparentność rozpatruję przez pryzmat kategorii Nieoczywistości.
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Липчева-Пранджева, Л. & Гетова, Е. (2018). Васил Левски. Из кривините на литературната иконография. София: Аз-буки
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The activity of ad-terrorism, taking advantage of too easily influential media, is an active generator of negative feelings among the civilian population. 2017 was introduced on the list of time intervals for the most monstrous terrorist attacks, not because of countries such as Iraq, where 267 1446 dead, 1661 wounded and 12 abducted persons were executed, due to the over-mediation of attacks on the territory of European states such as the United Kingdom, which generated about 4% of the attacks by SI in 2017, but which represented the first media news media. Practically, the media is responsible for the gap created between helping, supporting and building security between the West and the Middle East through ignorance of massacres on the Asian continent and the outlook for the Muslim population in the area.
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A review of the book ‚Monologue or dialogue? The controversial world in the lens of global television‘ by Maria Neikova, ‚St. Kliment Ohridski‘ University Press.
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The paper represents problems (theoretical and practical) of the 45th International Chemistry Olympiad and the solutions of theoretical problems. Comments of Bulgarian team presentation are given.
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The aim of this article is to demonstrate to show intergenerational differences in the culture of studying and in the perception of the university and teaching from the last 50. years. Memories of lecturers regarding sociological studies at the Institute of Sociology of the University of Lodz and their opinions on current students of sociology and student culture (from the didactic perspective) were compared with the subjective observations of the author of the article representing that generation who completed their studies in 2017. The aim of distinguishing these three perspectives is to high light the transformation of the university which, as an idea, has undergone many modifications since its crystallisation in the Middle Ages. The outline of the university’s history, as well as various approaches to its functions and model adopted in the article is an introduction to illustrating the dynamic process of constant change taking place, both in the aspect of creating and transferring science, as well as broadly understood academic relations. The article seeks to distinguish and demonstrate generational differences in the Mannheim’s perspective between sociology students undertaking studies in the sixties and beginning studies after the first decade of the 21st century.
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Novel hydrazone Schiff base viz. 6,6’,8,8’-tetramethyl-4,4’,7,7’- tetrahydro-7,7’-bi-1,2,4,5-tetrazocine-3,3’(2H,2’H)-dithionehas been synthesized from3,4-diacetylhexane-2,5-dione and thiocarbohydrazideandcharacterized. The bicyclichydrazone Schiff basehas been found active against bacteria[S.aureus and K.pneumoniaae] and fungi [A.niger and Trichophytonrubrum]. DNA photo-cleav¬age and antiangiogenic behavior of synthesized hydrazone Schiff base has been studied. Furthermore,the synthesizedhydrazone Schiff basesignificantly inhibited cell proliferation with IC50 value 62.5μg/ml. The flow-cytometry analysis of hy¬drazone Schiff base treated human breast cancer cells showed that apoptosis rate increased with increase in dose. In conclusion present study proposes the develop¬ment of novel therapeutic strategy for MCF-7 cancer cell treatment.
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Suited for both elite athletes and untrained individuals, high intensity interval training (HIIT) is an increasingly popular cardio respiratory training technique that involves repeated bouts of high intensity exercise alternated with short periods of rest. This study was aimed at investigating the effects of a 4-week HIIT program on pulmonary function and aerobic capacity in recreationally trained individuals. Participants were 11 students (8 males and 3 females), aged between 21 and 25 years. They were randomly assigned to two groups: a Control group (5 subjects) and an Experimental group (6 subjects). Participants from the Experimental group trained 3 times per week, for a period of 4 weeks, performing HIIT with their own bodyweight. The exercises chosen for the training sessions were Burpees, squat jumps, push-ups, lunge jumps, mountain climbers, tuck jumps, planks, etc. Prior and post training protocol, all subjects effectuated pulmonary function tests with the Spirobank II® spirometer, manufactured by MIR (Medical International Research), Italy. The software used to process the acquired data was WinspiroPRO PC Software®. Anthropometric measurements and VO2max assessments were also carried out. VO2max was estimated using an online calculator after performing the Three Minute Step Test.After 4 weeks of bodyweight HIIT, the Experimental group showed improvements in VO2max, forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1/VC). HIIT has proved effective in enhancing physical performance. Further research is needed to identify the effects of this particular training method on the cardiorespiratory function of individuals with different levels of physical training.
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Recent technologies are an opportunity for creating advanced data analytics tools for various domains. There are diverse methods based on smart technologies for implementing and supporting data analytics in educational environments, e.g. descriptive methods (reports), diagnostic methods (automated analysis), predictive and prescriptive methods (recommendations, alerts). The educational data come from online surveys, biometric sources, but, mostly, from activities in learning management systems (LMS). The current paper presents a new learning analytics instrument - LeProVE - uCluster for Moodle LMS, which creates virtual profiles of the students and aggregates those profiles into clusters which are further used by teachers to optimize the teaching process. The tool is suitable for today's social and cultural values, as the students' performances (reflected in grades, completed assignments) are not analysed only based on a standard a priori settled by the teacher, but considering the colleagues' performances and social interactions as well. Thus, the teacher can use the results obtained by using LeProVE - uCluster to adjust the homework/exams difficulty to the class context and can recommend further useful resources to individual students and clusters of students. The technologies and methods which are used to implement our instrument are modern: Scala, Spark - a general engine for big data processing, Angular JS, data mining algorithms (K-Means) and Big Data Sampling algorithms. To validate the functionality of the proposed tool, we used 2167 anonymised students' profiles which were imported from a Moodle data set freely available for research purposes. Possible interpretations of data and directions to be followed by teachers to improve their teaching skills are also offered.
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The use of Hidden Markov Model in stock market sector rotation is not investigated in the past. In this research, we consider an industry sector index portfolio based on the Shenwan first-class classification and propose state transition matrix for investment. In particular, we design an correlation analysis strategy that initialized state probability transition matrix Additionally, we design the observation state sequence which consisting of a series of stocks. Using Pearson's Correlation Coefficient to screen out the 10 stocks with the highest correlation in each industry sector. We put these parameters into the HMM and use the Baum-Welch algorithm to obtain the iterative solution results. Using the solved matrix into the back test program, the results show that the strategy returns well.
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The paper briefly discusses some issues approached in the study ‘A comment on the law of supply and demand’ by M. Northrup Buechner, published in this issue of J Phil Econ. The way of discussing is logical-theoretical, without bringing into attention empirical data. Even less than that, only a few of the issues debated in the original study are examined, namely those issues which appeared to this author as both the most problematic and susceptible to drive the future discussion in the matter.
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Graduate economics departments have largely abandoned the law of supply and demand (henceforth, The Law). Nevertheless, The Law continues to be taught in all undergraduate economics programs, and it is accepted as the fundamental law of price throughout the world. This paper explains how the modern conceptions of demand and supply as schedules have driven The Law from graduate economics. A reinterpretation of the meaning of supply and demand is suggested as the basis for bringing The Law back into the corpus of economic theory, that is, supply and demand should be conceived of the same way Adam Smith and the whole classical school conceived of them—as simple quantities.
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