scholarly journals Dancing in the 'Contact Zone'

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Wulff
Keyword(s):  
Contact Zone ◽  
The West ◽  
Cultural Encounters ◽  
Performance Space ◽  
Arts Festival ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Complex Relationships ◽  
Multicultural Arts ◽  
Embodied Practice

In October 2002 I performed and exhibited Troppo Obscura: A Peepshow of Historical Perversity at the Performance Space as part of the multicultural Arts festival, Carnivale, in Sydney, Australia. Troppo Obscura is a multimedia installation that explores some aspects of the complex relationships between the West and Asia. The work looks at a large range of possibilities, from the colonial gaze through to personal relationships forged through artistic endeavor. This paper—the first of two extended mediations on the topic—focuses on one such personal relationship addressed in the installation, namely that between traditional master mask dancer Ibu Sawitri from Cirebon on the West coast of Java, Indonesia and myself, a Sydney based contemporary dancer and performance artist. Between 1992 and 1999, the year Ibu Sawitri passed away, I spent many long-term visits learning dance and living in Ibu Sawitri’s house in Losari. This essay focuses on Ibu Sawitri’s family and dance background and how she, the younger generation of dancers, the dance context, and the dance itself, have been transformed over time as a result of rapidly changing socio-historical conditions. In the second half of this paper I move the discussion to the broader issues of cross-cultural encounters in what Pratt terms the ‘contact zone’ (1992). This includes looking at dance as an embodied practice and its function in the ‘contact zone’ as well as dealing with Spivak’s debates about the subaltern voice in reference to my telling of Ibu Sawitri’s story, both in the installation and in text. A closer analysis of the dynamics of my dance with Ibu Sawitri in the ‘contact zone’ is addressed here.

Mafias on the Move

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Varese
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Market Expansion ◽  
The North ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
At Will

Organized crime is spreading like a global virus as mobs take advantage of open borders to establish local franchises at will. That at least is the fear, inspired by stories of Russian mobsters in New York, Chinese triads in London, and Italian mafias throughout the West. As this book explains, the truth is more complicated. The author has spent years researching mafia groups in Italy, Russia, the United States, and China, and argues that mafiosi often find themselves abroad against their will, rather than through a strategic plan to colonize new territories. Once there, they do not always succeed in establishing themselves. The book spells out the conditions that lead to their long-term success, namely sudden market expansion that is neither exploited by local rivals nor blocked by authorities. Ultimately the inability of the state to govern economic transformations gives mafias their opportunity. In a series of matched comparisons, the book charts the attempts of the Calabrese 'Ndrangheta to move to the north of Italy, and shows how the Sicilian mafia expanded to early twentieth-century New York, but failed around the same time to find a niche in Argentina. The book explains why the Russian mafia failed to penetrate Rome but succeeded in Hungary. A pioneering chapter on China examines the challenges that triads from Taiwan and Hong Kong find in branching out to the mainland. This book is both a compelling read and a sober assessment of the risks posed by globalization and immigration for the spread of mafias.

Charlemagne’s Health in ‘Old Age’: Did It Affect Carolingian Military Strategy?

Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-53
Author(s):  
Bernard S. Bachrach
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Strategy ◽  
The West ◽  
Long Time

During the first thirty-three years of his reign as king of the Franks, i.e., prior to his coronation as emperor on Christmas day 800, Charlemagne, scholars generally agree, pursued a successful long-term offensive and expansionist strategy. This strategy was aimed at conquering large swaths of erstwhile imperial territory in the west and bringing under Carolingian rule a wide variety of peoples, who either themselves or their regional predecessors previously had not been subject to Frankish regnum.1 For a very long time, scholars took the position that Charlemagne continued to pursue this expansionist strategy throughout the imperial years, i.e., from his coronation on Christmas Day 800 until his final illness in later January 814. For example, Louis Halphen observed: “comme empereur, Charles poursuit, sans plus, l’oeuvre entamée avant l’an 800.”2 F. L. Ganshof, who also wrote several studies treating Charlemagne’s army, was in lock step with Halphen and observed: “As emperor, Charlemagne pursued the political and military course he had been following before 25 December 800.”3

scholarly journals Macho Buddhism: Gender and Sexualities in the Diamond Way

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-103
Author(s):  
Burkhard Scherer
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Buddhism ◽  
Gender Stereotyping ◽  
Sexual Ethics ◽  
Tibetan Buddhist ◽  
Historical Source ◽  
The West ◽  
Cultural Attitudes ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Previous Scholarship

Western Tibetan Buddhist movements have been described as bourgeois and puritanical in previous scholarship. In contrast, Ole Nydahl’s convert lay Karma Kagyu Buddhist movement, the Diamond Way, has drawn attention for its apparently hedonistic style. This article addresses the wider issues of continuity and change during the transition of Tibetan Buddhism from Asia to the West. It analyses views on and performances of gender, sexual ethics and sexualities both diachronically through textual-historical source and discourse analysis and synchronically through qualitative ethnography. In this way the article demonstrates how the approaches of contemporary gender and sexualities studies can serve as a way to question the Diamond Way Buddhism’s location in the ‘tradition vs modernity’ debate. Nydahl’s pre-modern gender stereotyping, the hetero-machismo of the Diamond Way and the mildly homophobic tone and content of Nydahl’s teaching are interpreted in light of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist sexual ethics and traditional Tibetan cultural attitudes on sexualities. By excavating the emic genealogy of Nydahl’s teachings, the article suggests that Nydahl’s and the Diamond Way’s view on and performance of gender and sexualities are consistent with his propagation of convert Buddhist neo-orthodoxy.

Design and planning of the balanced scorecard: A case study

2007 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-227
Author(s):  
Ming-Hon Hwang ◽  
Hsin Rau
Keyword(s):  
Performance Evaluation ◽  
Balanced Scorecard ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Company Performance ◽  
Correct Process ◽  
The Balanced Scorecard ◽  
Strategy Planning ◽  
And Performance

In the industrial economy, evaluating company performance based on financial results was good enough. However, in the current globalized and highly competitive environment, maintaining long term competitiveness requires companies to engage in overall strategic planning and performance evaluation. The balanced scorecard is a tool or method for balancing an organization's performance and can react to situations where a company's direction becomes disoriented. This approach assists in strategy planning, process management, and performance evaluation from four perspectives, including financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth. Good strategy planning provides companies with a correct management direction, correct process management ensures the efficient execution of plans, and correct performance evaluation illustrates the execution results. This study mainly focuses on how a large rubber company in Taiwan utilizes the balanced scorecard in its organization. As the technical perspective is important in the rubber keypad industry, besides the four above perspectives, this company has added the technical perspective. By introducing this company and its progress in implementing the balanced scorecard, this study hopes to provide other companies, especially rubber companies, with a planning direction and reference for the future implementation of the balanced scorecard.

Optimal adaptive inspection and maintenance for redundant systems

2021 ◽  
pp. 1748006X2110201
Author(s):  
Chaochao Lin ◽  
Matteo Pozzi
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Systems ◽  
Discounted Cost ◽  
Markov Decision ◽  
Inspection And Maintenance ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Partially Observable ◽  
Series Systems ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Redundant Systems

Optimal exploration of engineering systems can be guided by the principle of Value of Information (VoI), which accounts for the topological important of components, their reliability and the management costs. For series systems, in most cases higher inspection priority should be given to unreliable components. For redundant systems such as parallel systems, analysis of one-shot decision problems shows that higher inspection priority should be given to more reliable components. This paper investigates the optimal exploration of redundant systems in long-term decision making with sequential inspection and repairing. When the expected, cumulated, discounted cost is considered, it may become more efficient to give higher inspection priority to less reliable components, in order to preserve system redundancy. To investigate this problem, we develop a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) framework for sequential inspection and maintenance of redundant systems, where the VoI analysis is embedded in the optimal selection of exploratory actions. We investigate the use of alternative approximate POMDP solvers for parallel and more general systems, compare their computation complexities and performance, and show how the inspection priorities depend on the economic discount factor, the degradation rate, the inspection precision, and the repair cost.

scholarly journals Heatwaves in Kenya 1987–2016: Facts from CHIRTS High Resolution Satellite Remotely Sensed and Station Blended Temperature Dataset

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Martial Amou ◽  
Amatus Gyilbag ◽  
Tsedale Demelash ◽  
Yinlong Xu
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Reference Period ◽  
The West ◽  
Tana River ◽  
Short Period ◽  
The World ◽  
Northern Side ◽  
Data Source

As global temperatures continue to rise unabated, episodes of heat-related catastrophes across the world have intensified. In Kenya, heatwave phenomena and their associated impacts are ignored and neglected due to several reasons, including unreliable and inconsistent weather datasets and heatwave detection metrics. Based on CHIRTS satellite infrared estimates and station blended temperature, this study investigated the spatiotemporal distribution of the heatwave events over Kenya during 1987–2016 using the Heatwave Magnitude Index daily (HWMId). The results showed that contrary to the absence of heatwave records in official national and international disaster database about Kenya, the country experienced heatwaves ranging from less severe (normal) to deadly (super-extreme) between 1987 and 2016. The most affected areas were located in the eastern parts of the country, especially in Garissa and Tana River, and in the west-northern side around the upper side of Turkana county. It was also found that the recent years’ heatwaves were more severe in magnitude, duration, and spatial extent. The highest magnitude of the heatwaves was recorded in 2015 (HWMId = 22.64) while the average over the reference period is around 6. CHIRTS and HWMId were able to reveal and capture most critical heatwave events over the study period. Therefore, they could be used respectively as data source and detection metrics, for heatwaves disaster emergency warning over short period as well as for long-term projection to provide insight for adaptation strategies.

scholarly journals A Compact Muon Tracker for Dynamic Tomography of Density Based on a Thin Time Projection Chamber with Micromegas Readout

Particles ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-342
Author(s):  
Ignacio Lázaro Roche
Keyword(s):  
Time Projection Chamber ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Track Reconstruction ◽  
Long Term Stability ◽  
Societal Issues ◽  
Primary Signal ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Time Projection

Tomography based on cosmic muon absorption is a rising technique because of its versatility and its consolidation as a geophysics tool over the past decade. It allows us to address major societal issues such as long-term stability of natural and man-made large infrastructures or sustainable underwater management. Traditionally, muon trackers consist of hodoscopes or multilayer detectors. For applications with challenging available volumes or the wide field of view required, a thin time projection chamber (TPC) associated with a Micromegas readout plane can provide a good tradeoff between compactness and performance. This paper details the design of such a TPC aiming at maximizing primary signal and minimizing track reconstruction artifacts. The results of the measurements performed during a case study addressing the aforementioned applications are discussed. The current works lines and perspectives of the project are also presented.

scholarly journals Productivity of Ospreys, Pandion haliaetus, Affected by Water Levels Near Loon Lake, Saskatchewan, 1975-2002

2010 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 219
Author(s):  
C. Stuart Houston ◽  
Frank Scott ◽  
Rob B. Tether
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Success ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Lake Levels ◽  
The West ◽  
Canadian Data ◽  
Human Use ◽  
The Town ◽  
Western Half ◽  
Eastern Half

Between 1975 and 2002, diminished breeding success of Ospreys was associated with drought and falling lake levels in the western half of our study area near the town of Loon Lake, west-central Saskatchewan. Only 46% of nest attempts were successful in the west compared to 72% in the east, producing 0.88 young per accessible nest in the west and 1.42 in the east. Breeding success was greater in the eastern half, where water levels were stable, in spite of increased human use of the resort lakes there. Our unique long-term Canadian data base results support Ogden's 1977 prediction that Osprey productivity may decrease when water levels drop and fish populations are reduced.

Reduced volume and increased training intensity elevate muscle Na+-K+pump α2-subunit expression as well as short- and long-term work capacity in humans

2009 ◽  
Vol 107 (6) ◽  
pp. 1771-1780 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Bangsbo ◽  
Thomas P. Gunnarsson ◽  
Jesper Wendell ◽  
Lars Nybo ◽  
Martin Thomassen
Keyword(s):  
Endurance Training ◽  
Muscle Protein ◽  
Work Capacity ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Muscle Adaptations ◽  
Subunit Expression ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Trained Runners

The present study examined muscle adaptations and alterations in work capacity in endurance-trained runners as a result of a reduced amount of training combined with speed endurance training. For a 6- to 9-wk period, 17 runners were assigned to either a speed endurance group with a 25% reduction in the amount of training but including speed endurance training consisting of six to twelve 30-s sprint runs 3–4 times/wk (SET group n = 12) or a control group ( n = 5), which continued the endurance training (∼55 km/wk). For the SET group, the expression of the muscle Na+-K+pump α2-subunit was 68% higher ( P < 0.05) and the plasma K+level was reduced ( P < 0.05) during repeated intense running after 9 wk. Performance in a 30-s sprint test and the first of the supramaximal exhaustive runs was improved ( P < 0.05) by 7% and 36%, respectively, after the speed endurance training period. In the SET group, maximal O2uptake was unaltered, but the 3-km (3,000-m) time was reduced ( P < 0.05) from 10.4 ± 0.1 to 10.1 ± 0.1 min and the 10-km (10,000-m) time was improved from 37.3 ± 0.4 to 36.3 ± 0.4 min (means ± SE). Muscle protein expression and performance remained unaltered in the control group. The present data suggest that both short- and long-term exercise performances can be improved with a reduction in training volume if speed endurance training is performed and that the Na+-K+pump plays a role in the control of K+homeostasis and in the development of fatigue during repeated high-intensity exercise.

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