Intersectoral and spatial spill-overs of firms’ bankruptcy in Spain

This paper employs provincial data to study the spatial and intersectoral spill-overs in aggregate failure rates in Spain, by using an Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation. The analysis is based on NUTS3 data over the time span 2005Q1-2013Q4. By speculating on the effects of the Spanish financial crisis, we document empirical evidence of the presence of spatial spill-overs among neighboring counties. Furthermore, some intersectoral spill-overs are also detected: we observe that Industry and Agriculture exhibit a positive impact on the Service sector. These results can be useful to design proper policy rules to better manage the spread of bankruptcies over time and space.

Processional Culture and Black Mobility in Maggie Washington's Wilmington

This article addresses changes in the built environment of the postbellum American South through an examination of the life histories, parade routes, and costuming practices of the Afro-Caribbean Jonkonnu masking tradition. I juxtapose the stories of two practitioners of the tradition across the color line in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Wilmington, North Carolina. Using a material culturally inflected approach to the study of landscapes, I use these two narratives to deepen the histories of African American processional cultures toward a longer time span and a more immersive, performer-oriented approach. Though few conventional objects of ornamentation and display from these practices survive, this article posits that an approach rooted in the materiality of landscape can help uncover festive cultures that have been understudied or undertheorized in more conventional historical approaches. Further, the ubiquitous presence of Jonkonnu and other Black processional traditions in the post-emancipation city suggests the importance of these and other objects, practices, and larger cultures of celebration in combating white supremacist culture.

Honey Bee Venom Re-Challenge During Specific Immunotherapy: Prolonged Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation Allowed Survival in a Case of Near Fatal Anaphylaxis

BACKGROUND Specific immunotherapy for patients with honey bee hypersensitivity is commonly applied. Re-challenge with venom is performed to prove protection.CASE PRESENATION We report a case of near fatal anaphylaxis with asystolia for 24 minutes in a 35-years-old patient with mastocytosis after honey bee sting challenge despite 5-years of specific immunotherapy. Successful cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was applied for 32 minutes.CONCLUSION This intervention demonstrates, that in anaphylaxis with cardio-vascular arrest prolonged CPR for up to 40 minutes might be appropriate to overcome half time span of massively released histamine. Failure of specific immunotherapy was possibly due to sensitization to the allergen Api m10, probably underrepresented in commercial honey bee venom extracts. Also, molecular analyses might alert to potential unsuccessful outcome of venom specific immunotherapy especially in high-risk patients such as mastocytosis.

Citation Trend of Indian Physics and Astronomy Research during 2005 2020 through the Lens of Some New Indicators

The indicator Citation Swing Factor (CSF) has recently been developed to quantitatively measure the diffusion process from h-core zone to h-core excess zone. This paper calculated CSF for Indian physics and astronomy research output appeared in selective Indian journals since 2005 to 2020. The theoretical values of CSF are also calculated on the basis of its fundamental equation and same was compared it with the respective observed values. The average error over entire time span is found 2.26 per cent indicating close proximity between theoretically expected and practically observed values. Besides, three other scientometric indicators are introduced here, viz. Time-Normalised Total Cited Ratio (TC), Time-Normalised Cited Uncited Ratio (CU) and Time-Normalised Total Uncited Ratio (TU). Of these four indicators, the variation of TC is highest (1.76), followed by TU (0.53), CU (0.37) and CSF(E) (0.09), as evident from the values of respective Coefficients of Variations. The numerical values of these indicators are found out for the same sample and the temporal variations along with their mutual interrelationships are determined by regression analysis. It is observed that the three indicators, TC, CU and TU are mutually interrelated through the following linear regression equations, i.e. TC = -0.76 + 1.88*TU and CU = -0.201 + 0.34*TU.

Music of Razak Abdul Aziz: Preparing Chosen Solo and Collaborative Piano Works for Two Academic Recitals

For the first time in history, full-scale performances on musical compositions by a Malaysian composer, Razak Abdul Aziz, were presented through two academic recitals—27 July 2019 and 6 February 2020—at Orchestra Hall, Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan (ASWARA). These recitals consisted of solo and collaborative piano works, performed by me and a team of music collaborators that were specifically selected for this purpose. Razak Abdul Aziz, who is still actively composing, spent most of his career life as an academic, first serving for Institut Teknologi MARA (ITM), then Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) until his retirement in November 2019. Besides fulfilling the academic requirements set by Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) for my doctoral degree, I had chosen to perform works by this composer as he is generally known to the local music community as one of the earliest contemporary composers in the country (started composing in the 1980s). Yet, a full-scale performance of his works was long overdue, though he had the opportunities to have some of his works premiered and performed on local and international platforms as part of concert programmes. This artist project talks about the preparation I made for both recitals, briefly explaining the creative process I journeyed through and the challenges I faced during this time span, discussing each work I had selected for these academic recitals. These recitals could, perhaps, be the pioneers in studying and performing works by Razak Abdul Aziz, hoping to expand this effort to national and international levels.

Promoting Students' Soft Skills in a Telecommunication Engineering Course with an Elevator Pitch Activity

An elevator pitch is a short summary used to quickly and simply define a process, product, service, organization, or event and its value proposition. The name comes from the idea that it should be possible to deliver the sum-mary within the time span of an elevator ride, so anywhere between 30 sec-onds and 2 minutes, which means the key points need to get across quickly. In this particular educational context, technical students have been encour-aged to defend, under the typical rules of the elevator pitch, the knowledge acquired during the semester in a specific subject. This contribution focuses on the classroom experience and how the transversality of the activity can help students to strive and think in a different way than they are used to in the classroom of a technical career.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Possible Futures of Adult Online Learning in Higher Education : Six Trends That Could Shape the Future

The COVID-19 pandemic has had and will have, profound effects on adult education (Boeren, Roumell & Roessger, 2020; Kapplinger & Lichte, 2020) and online learning practices. The impact was unprecedented and led to the largest and quickest transformation of pedagogic practice ever seen in contemporary universities (Brammer & Clark, 2020). Although it is too soon for a full assessment, the first step is to gain insight into an understanding of the macro trends taking shape inside and outside the walls of institutions and then explore how these trends may affect the future. Against this background, a question arises: How is the COVID-19 pandemic shaping the future of adult online learning in higher education? Drawing on adult education and higher education scholarly and practitioner literature published over the last year, the purpose of this paper is threefold: (i) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, to identify and analyze emerging trends that could shape the future of adult online education in higher education, (ii) to analyze these trends over a longer time span in the literature, and (iii) to explore the possible futures of adult education and online learning in higher education.

Muslim Coins as a Commodity and Means of Payment in International and Internal Trade In Volga-Ural Region In 8th- Beginning of 11th cc

The article examines the spread of Muslim Kufic coins in Eastern, Western and Northern Europe, on the territory of Volga Bulgaria, Ancient Rus, the neighbours of Bulgars – ancestors of the Mari, Udmurt, Mordva and other Finno-Ugric ethnicities during the early Middle Ages in the 8th – beginning of the 11th centuries. The research of these coins shows the list of countries and Muslim dynasties the above-mentioned countries had trade relations with and their chronological framework. Coins of Umayyads, Abbasids, Samanids, Buwayhids, Ziyarids, Qarakhanids and other Muslim dynasties were discovered. Ways of Kufic dirhems expansion and their chronological framework are shown. The main role of Khazar Khanate is marked for the time span of 8th – 9th centuries whereas since X century the principal part was played by Volga Bulgaria. American numismatist T. Noonan designated them as Khazar and Bulgar phases of trade of Kufic coins. Bulgar coins, minted in 902–990-s, participated actively in this process. Together they acted as a commodity and medium of exchange, which reflected the scale of trade operations of the early Middle Ages. The study of Muslim Kufic dirhems allowed the author to clear up the role of Khazar Khanate and Volga Bulgaria in the functioning of Great Silk and Volga routes in the 8th – beginning of the 11th centuries.

Determinants of Economic Growth in the European Union Countries

This paper reassesses the long-debated relationship between the financial system development and economic growth. We use not only indicators for financial access, efficiency, stability and depth of the bank-oriented financial sector, but we also consider Eurozone membership, corruption perception and competitiveness of countries to examine the determinants of economic growth. We apply a panel data approach to 27 European countries over the 2004–2017 period. By splitting the time span, we examine whether the effect of financial system development, Eurozone membership, corruption perception and competitiveness on economic growth is affected by the occurrence of financial and debt crises. Our results indicate that loans to private sector do not always support economic growth. Our research also reveals that corruption perception has a negative impact on economic growth, and so does membership in Eurozone during a crisis.

Analyzing Wildfires and their Socio-economic Factors in Sardinia

In the last decades, wildfire hazards have increased to dangerous levels, becoming the focus of debate among policymakers both at the local and national levels. This paper proposes a Spatio-temporal approach to study the determinants of fire size distributions taking Sardinia as a case study in the time span 1998-2009. Special attention is devoted to socioeconomic factors of local communities where wildfires occurred. The main finding of this study is that the proportion of public lands in a given municipality tends to mitigate the extent of the burned area. In addition, communities with a higher percentage of people employed in the primary sector are less likely to experience large burned extents.