Socioeconomic Changes in South Arabia in The First Half of The Sixteenth Century.

One of the world’s largest humanitarian crises that have been going on in Yemen for the last ten years has highlighted the growing tensions within its society. To better understand the rising antagonism between the North and the South, it is necessary to analyze the significant historic events that influenced the development of the Yemeni identity. For the inhabitants of South Yemen and Hadramaut, many of such events took place in the first half of the sixteenth century. The following article presents an analysis of these events focusing on the available Yemeni sources, especially the “Tārīkh al-Shiḥr wa akhbār al-qarn al-‘āshir”, the annals by Muḥammad b. ‘Umar al-Ṭayyib Bā Faqīh al-Shiḥrī (d. 17th cent. AD). The comparison of this chronicle with other sources reveals how the clash between Hadramaut, the Portuguese and the Ottoman empires, as well as an attempt by the Kathīrī Sultan Badr Bū Ṭuwairiq to establish a centralized South Arabian state, caused deeper integration of this region into global politics. Ironically, it was the Sultan’s loyalty towards the Ottoman Empire meant to ensure the rise of al-Shihr as one of the main trade centres of the Arabian Peninsula that soon contributed to its decline. Lastly, the sources reflect the spread of firearms that had an impact on the stratification of South Arabian society and gave more power to the tribes, allowing them to subjugate the sultans, thereby preventing the creation of a unified state in the following centuries.

Surnames in south-eastern France: structure of the rural population during the 19th century through isonymy

An analysis of the distribution of surnames through time and space allows us to understand the structure of human groups, their exchanges or even their possible isolation. The French population has already been studied through surnames and it has been shown that the Sud-Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region differed from the rest of France in both the 20th and 21st centuries (Mourrieras et al., 1995; Scapoli et al., 2005). The objective of this study was to understand the population evolution and particularities of the Sud-Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region through an analysis of the distribution of surnames over an earlier period: the 19th century. For this work, 806,069 birth records from 521 communes between 1810 and 1890 were recorded and a total of 23,340 surnames were collected. The estimation of various isonymic parameters has allowed a description of this corpus never exploited before. In order to appreciate the population evolution, the data set was divided into three periods of 25 years. The canton was the geographical unit of this study, and similarities and differences between each of them were evaluated using Lasker distances, which allow the construction of dendrograms. A positive and significant correlation (p<0.0001) was found between Lasker distances and geographical distances using the Mantel test. The lowest inbreeding estimates were found in the Durance Valley. Migration, estimated from the v-index of Karlin and McGregor (1967), showed higher values in the south-western quarter of the region. The decrease in Rst values across the three periods is consistent with a homogenization of the patronymic between the cantons. This three-period approach showed a population evolution influenced by linguistic, cultural, historical and migratory phenomena since the Middle Ages, disrupted by the socioeconomic changes of the 19th century.

A Study on the Development and Validation of an Intergenerational Solidarity Measuring Tool Using Mixed Methods

Intergenerational conflicts caused by rapid socioeconomic changes have highlighted the importance of strengthening intergenerational solidarity, emphasizing the necessity of tool designed to measure intergenerational solidarity. This study developed a standardized intergenerational solidarity measurement tool using mixed methods. In the qualitative research stage, 27 main survey questions were derived through literature research, in-depth interviews, and content validity verification. In the quantitative research stage, based on the results of a survey of 1,109 adults, both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the questions were conducted, and the validity of the questions was confirmed. The analysis results were used to develop a 10-item measurement tool consisting of two factors: “recognition of intergenerational solidarity in the family” and “recognition of social intergenerational solidarity.” This study is the first attempt to develop a standardized measure of intergenerational solidarity, and it can be used for nationwide panel surveys in academic and policy research.

ECONOMIC GROWTH: HISTORICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ASPECT

The article deals with the features of the socio-economic development of Russia, the issues of state intervention in the economy. Based on the analysis of the historical development of the post-socialist transition countries, it is shown that different countries with transit economies are characterized by special trajectories of entrepreneurship development. The importance of ethical, cultural and institutional factors in the implementation of entrepreneurship, the important role of traditions of economic behavior that explain the specifics of the longterm development trajectory of Russia is emphasized. For the countries of the post-socialist transition, the possibility of ensuring sustainable economic growth is determined by the different civilizational history at the previous stages of development and the need to form a modern institutional environment that promotes socioeconomic changes. In many ways, the factors influencing economic growth are the low level of innovation activity and competitiveness, as well as the growing influence of the state on the economy, the increase in its share due to the growth in the number and scale of state-owned companies, which limits the potential of Russian entrepreneurs within the framework of the domestic market. The main challenge to overcome dependence on previous development trajectories and prospects for long-term economic growth will be the formation of entrenched political institutions of civil society, guarantees of property rights, the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary, freedom of trade and the absence of strict state regulations.

Is European Data Protection Toxic for Innovative AI? An Estonian Perspective

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is, together with its seven principles, designed to function as the cornerstone of data protection in the European Union. Although the GDPR was meant to keep up with technological and socioeconomic changes while guaranteeing fundamental rights, its unclear wording with regard to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems has led to uncertainty. Therefore, the development and application of ever new AI systems raises various, as yet unresolved questions. Moreover, the complexity of legal requirements poses the risk of inhibiting AI innovation in the European Union. On the other hand, the GDPR gives Member States certain leeway to regulate data processing by public authorities. Therefore, data protection requirements for AI systems in public administration must be assessed under both the GDPR and national law. Against this backdrop, the article aims to guide the reader through the relevant data-protection rules applicable to AI systems in both the EU and in Estonia.

Genome-wide methylation data improves dissection of the effect of smoking on body mass index

Variation in obesity-related traits has a genetic basis with heritabilities between 40 and 70%. While the global obesity pandemic is usually associated with environmental changes related to lifestyle and socioeconomic changes, most genetic studies do not include all relevant environmental covariates, so the genetic contribution to variation in obesity-related traits cannot be accurately assessed. Some studies have described interactions between a few individual genes linked to obesity and environmental variables but there is no agreement on their total contribution to differences between individuals. Here we compared self-reported smoking data and a methylation-based proxy to explore the effect of smoking and genome-by-smoking interactions on obesity related traits from a genome-wide perspective to estimate the amount of variance they explain. Our results indicate that exploiting omic measures can improve models for complex traits such as obesity and can be used as a substitute for, or jointly with, environmental records to better understand causes of disease.