Urban Decay or the Uncanny Return of Dionysus

Written in the familiar genre of ruin poems, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’ (1818) is well-expressive of the poet’s profound hatred of tyranny. One of the distinctive features of the poem is the vividly visual images it provides of the ruined statue and the desert as the setting of the poem. Focusing on the images of the desert and ruins, and using the concept of urban decay and mytho-archetypal notions, this study attempts to show that the ruins of the poem anticipate the modern phenomenon of urban decay as the return of the repressed in city-forms. However, what the poem presents as destruction, death, ruins and decay is in fact the potential of bringing about spring and regeneration. Reading this poem in the light of the mentioned concepts provides the reader with an understanding of the function of the ruins in Shelley’s poems as an uncanny Dionysian defiance against both the tyranny of his age and the rationalism of the Enlightenment period.

Pedometer-free Geomagnetic Fingerprinting with Casual Walking Speed

The geomagnetic field has been wildly advocated as an effective signal for fingerprint-based indoor localization due to its omnipresence and local distinctive features. Prior survey-based approaches to collect magnetic fingerprints often required surveyors to walk at constant speeds or rely on a meticulously calibrated pedometer (step counter) or manual training. This is inconvenient, error-prone, and not highly deployable in practice. To overcome that, we propose Maficon, a novel and efficient pedometer-free approach for geo ma gnetic fi ngerprint database con struction. In Maficon, a surveyor simply walks at casual (arbitrary) speed along the survey path to collect geomagnetic signals. By correlating the features of geomagnetic signals and accelerometer readings (user motions), Maficon adopts a self-learning approach and formulates a quadratic programming to accurately estimate the walking speed in each signal segment and label these segments with their physical locations. To the best of our knowledge, Maficon is the first piece of work on pedometer-free magnetic fingerprinting with casual walking speed. Extensive experiments show that Maficon significantly reduces walking speed estimation error (by more than 20%) and hence fingerprint error (by 35% in general) as compared with traditional and state-of-the-art schemes.

Anticipation, Simultaneity/Consecutivity and Distinctive Features in Phonology

The notion of distinctive features has had a firm position in phonology since the time of the Prague Linguistic Circle and especially that of one of its representatives, Roman Jakobson, whose well-known delimitation of a phoneme as “a bundle of distinctive features” (Jakobson, 1962, p. 421), that is, a set of simultaneous distinctive features, has inspired many scholars. Jakobson’s attempt “to analyse the distribution of distinctive features along two axes: that of simultaneity and that of successiveness” (ibid., p. 435) helped cover several phonetic and/or phonological processes and phenomena. Distinctive features, although theoretical constructs (Giegerich, 1992, p. 89), reflect phonetic, that is, articulatory and acoustic, properties of sounds. In the flow of speech, some features tend to influence the neighbouring phonemes. Sometimes speech organs produce something that the brain just ‘plans’ to produce (anticipatory speech errors). There are situations where it seems as if the successive organization of phonemes went hand in hand with the simultaneous nature of certain articulatory characteristics of those phonemes (the transgression of consonants and inherence of vowels in Romportl’s theory), or the given feature seems to be anticipated by the preceding segment. This is the case with nasalization and/or anticipatory coarticulation, as well as regressive (anticipatory) assimilation. In addition, simultaneity/consecutivity is a decisive criterion for the difference between the so-called complex segments, as specified in Feature Geometry, and simple segments (Duanmu, 2009). Moreover, the phonological opposition of simultaneity- successivity (that is, consecutivity) itself functions as a feature making a difference between segmental and suprasegmental elements in the sound system of a language, as was first mentioned by Harris (1944), later indicated by Jakobson (1962) and then fully developed by Sabol (2007, 2012).

THE GENRE OF RIDDLE IN FOLKLORE OF THE TUVANS OF RUSSIA, CHINA, AND MONGOLIA

В статье в сравнительно - сопоставительном плане анализируются загадки тувинцев Китая, России и Монголии, рассматриваются их общие и отличительные особенности. Семантическая наполненность жанра загадки в анклавных традициях тувинского фольклора, а также их прагматика соответствуют идентичным жанрам материнской традиции. Совпадают их общая идейно - тематическая направленность, структура и содержание. В большинстве случаев тувинские загадки сохраняют устойчивую форму, но в то же время в зарубежных традициях отмечаются черты этнолокальной специфики, «вибрирование» фольклорных текстов в рамках общетувинской традиции на уровне лексики. The article analyzes the riddles of Tuvans of China, Russia, and Mongolia in a comparative way, and examines their common and distinctive features. The semantic content of the riddle genre in the enclave traditions of Tuvan folklore, as well as their pragmatics, correspond to the identical genres of the mother tradition. Their General ideological and thematic orientation, structure and content coincide. In most cases, Tuvan riddles retain a stable form, but at the same time, foreign traditions show features of ethnolocal specificity, "vibration" of folklore texts within the framework of the General Tuvan tradition at the level of vocabulary.

Delayed juvenile behavioural development and prolonged dependence are adaptations to desert life in the grey Falcon

Rapid learning in the young of most endothermic animals can be expected to be favoured by natural selection because early independence reduces the period of vulnerability. Cases of comparatively slow juvenile development continue, therefore, to attract scientific attention. In most species of birds, including raptors, the young depend on their parents for some time after fledging for the provisioning of food and for protection whilst they learn to become nutritionally and otherwise independent. Among raptors, post-fledging dependence periods that exceed six months are exclusive to the largest species and these have reproductive cycles that exceed 12 months. By contrast, young of the medium-sized grey falcon Falco hypoleucos have been reported in close company with their parents up to 12 months after fledging, i.e., at a time when the adults are expected to breed again. We investigated the occurrence and characteristics of prolonged adult-juvenile association relative to other falcons and similar-sized raptors. We found that the behavioural development of grey falcon young is extremely delayed, and that they even depend nutritionally on their parents for up to 12 months after fledging. We suggest that these two distinctive features are, ultimately, adaptations of the grey falcon to its extreme environment, Australia’s arid and semi-arid zone, one of the hottest environments in the world.

The Advocacy Universe: A Methodology to Identify Politically Active 501(C)(4) Organizations

This article provides a framework that defines politically active 501(c)(4)s organizations and describes a methodology for identifying them among more than 80,000 social welfare organizations. We estimate that approximately 15% of (c)(4)s likely pursue advocacy or political action, while most are engaged in unrelated activities. Understanding the distinctive features of the social welfare sector and the politically engaged organizations within it are essential tasks for nonprofit scholars, yet the methodological and empirical challenges are complex and significant. To date, there has been no systematic study of the nature and efficacy of these organizations. We create a multistage methodology that allows researchers to identify politically active (c)(4)s and to investigate subgroups focused on different policy issues and with different member groups. This article summarizes how we identify organizations and strategies needed to reveal whether an organization is engaged in political activities. We explain the approach we took and the challenges we encountered.

Al-Wasaţiyah al-Intiqâiyah al-Taqlîdiyah: Dirâsat Haula Harakâti wa Afkâri Kiâi Hâjî Hâsyim Asy’arî fî Fiqh al-Siyâsah al-Ijtimâ’iyah bi Indûnîsiâ

This article explores moderate and eclectic traditionalism beyond Kiai Haji Muhammad Hashim Ash’ari’s contribution in the shariah and Islamic jurisprudence of social politic (Fiqh al-Siyâsah al-Ijtimâ’iyah) in Indonesia. It is conceptual research referring to some of his works as well as discussion about his thought among Islamic scholars. Based on definition of moderation from the Qur’an, hadith, and some scholars’ opinion, Hashim can be best categorized as Islamic traditionalist figure who enforced both moderation and eclecticism. However, he maintained distinctive features compared to both traditionalist and modernist Islamic figures. It is mainly clear from both his thought and movement which rely on the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’ah in theology, four fiqh school leaders (Hanafiyah, Malikiyah, Syafi’iyah dan Hambaliyah), and thariqah sufiyah mu’tabarah. Additionally, he showed appreciation and promoted for adaptation to both local and foreign idea that later inspired distinctive religiosity in Indonesia. This particularly applies in the concept of relation between Islamic law and nationalism, jihad, political fiqh and governmental system in Islam. تستكشف هذه الورقة الوسطية التقليدية والانتقائية التي ساهمها كياهي حاجي محمد هاشم الأشعري في الشريعة الإسلامية وفقه السياسة الاجتماعية. إنه بحث مفاهيمي يشير إلى بعض أعماله وكذلك مناقشة حول أفكاره كعلماء المسلمين. بناءً على تعريف الوسطية من القرآن والحديث وبعض آراء العلماء، يمكن تصنيف هاشم بشكل أفضل على أنه الشخصية الإسلامية التقليدية التي فرضت الوسطية والانتقائية. ومع ذلك، فقد حافظ على سمات مميزة مقارنة بكل من الشخصيات الإسلامية التقليدية والحداثية. يتضح بشكل أساسي من فكره وحركته اللذين يعتمدان على أهل السنة والجماعة في العقيدة، قادة المذاهب الفقهية الأربعة (حنفية، المالكية، الشافعية والحبلية) والطريقة الصوفية المعتبرة. بالإضافة إلى ذلك، أظهر التقدير والترويج للتكيف مع الأفكار المحلية والأجنبية التي ألهمت لاحقًا التدين المميز في إندونيسيا. وهذا ينطبق بشكل خاص على مفهوم العلاقة بين الشريعة الإسلامية والوطنية والجهاد وفقه السياسية والنظام الحكومي في الإسلام.

‘Long Covid’ (post-covid syndrome): Mechanism of occurrence, diagnosis and rehabilitation

The article is devoted to the study of an urgent problem of modern humanity – the fight against a pandemic caused by a new coronavirus infection, namely: the study of the mechanism of development of ‘long Covid’ (post-covid syndrome), a new clinical and laboratory method of its diagnosis, issues of drug and non-drug rehabilitation of patients who have suffered COVID‑19. The paper describes the etiopathogenesis of post-covid syndrome (PS), the distinctive features of which are the defeat of the cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous, digestive, immune systems of the body, ENT organs and musculoskeletal system. For the diagnosis of post-covid syndrome, a monochrome nanoparticle analyzer (MAN) has been tested for the first time in the Russian Federation, which allows determining pathophysiological shifts in the homeostasis system. It was found that the MAN method has a sufficiently high diagnostic sensitivity (78%), and shifts in the homeostasis system in post-covid syndrome are statistically significant (p < 0.001). A fundamentally important point of this study is that an algorithm has been developed for noninvasive diagnosis of PS by saliva (oropharyngeal flushes), based on the detection of a high contribution to the scattering of laser radiation in the mid-frequency range of the spectrum on nanoparticles ranging in size from 119 to 121 nm. The article also pays special attention to medicinal and non-medicinal methods of treatment of patients with ‘long Covid’ experiencing the consequences of a new coronavirus infection. It has been established that the best effect is provided by complex treatment combining methods of the traditional European school (drug therapy with the use of cardiovascular drugs, nootropic agents, chondroprotectors, vitamins and mineral complexes, hormones, hepatoprotectors, biostimulants, sedatives and anti-inflammatory drugs and other drugs) and non-drug methods of restorative treatment practiced by Oriental medicine (acupuncture, hirudotherapy, massage, osteopathy, etc.).

Digital labor platforms: new forms of labor organization and regulation

The monograph presents an extensive study of new forms of labor organization in the context of the development of technical, technological, financial, economic and socio-cultural factors. The distinctive features of digital labor platforms, their classification, as well as the strategies of key players in the global and Russian-speaking distance labor markets are given. Based on the analysis of current international analytical reviews, foreign and domestic scientific publications, current legislation and court decisions, the author gives approaches and methods of regulatory regulation of platform labor. The author does not ignore such controversial issues as: direct and indirect methods of state influence on the activities of digital labor platforms, problems of social responsibility, as well as prospects for the development of platform cooperativism in the world and Russia as an alternative to labor platforms focused on the global level. It is of interest to researchers, government authorities, teachers of higher educational institutions, graduate students and students studying these problems.