Tasserkidrilus cf. americanus (Clitellata, Naididae) – A new record from Slovakia confirms the dissimilarity between the European and North American populations

The main objective of this study is to present a new record of Tasserkidrilus cf. americanus found in a channel near the Tešmak swamp in Slovakia (Central Europe) and to compare its morphological features and habitat requirements with those of populations occurring in North America and Europe. The new specimens are similar to those found in The Netherlands and Belgium, but dissimilar to previously reported North American material of T. americanus, reopening the question of whether the European form is a separate species. The European form has the penis sheaths approximately twice as long as and wider than the North American form and may inhabit slow-flowing or standing waters of a eutrophic character, which is in conflict with the current knowledge on the morphology and ecology of North American populations. Further investigation is necessary to solve the questions about the origin and taxonomic relationship of the European population to other populations.

Rape as an Element of Power Dominance in Nampally Road by Meena Alexander and Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

In the subaltern countries such as India and Africa, the form of government adapted or infused was that of the Colonial or European form of governance. For instance, during the colonial invasions in India and Africa the governance was changed or forced from the feudal system to the constitutional form of government. While the colonial form of governance has many positive aspects, the inhumane practice of rape was prominent to exhibit political dominance. In order to prove this practice of inhumane act two novels have been chosen for this research. One is Nampally Road by Meena Alexander that talks about the societal imbalance caused during the period of “Emergency act” and the other is Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi that deals with a period of three centuries starting from the “Slave Fugitive act” to post independence, where the plots depict the prominence of rape to exhibit power and control the natives.

The Ponto-Caspian parasite Plagioporus cf. skrjabini reaches the River Rhine system in Central Europe: higher infestation in the native than in the introduced Danubian form of the gastropod Theodoxus fluviatilis

The introduction of non-indigenous organisms in new areas in the context of host-parasite interactions is still poorly understood. This study aimed at a parasitological and histopathological comparison of two phylogenetically distinct forms of the freshwater snail Theodoxus fluviatilis in the River Rhine system: the native Northern-European form, which showed a decline for unknown reasons and is nowadays extinct in the River Rhine, and the non-indigenous Danubian form, which was introduced via the Main–Danube canal. We histopathologically examined populations of Northern-European T. fluviatilis from three smaller rivers of the Rhine system and of Danubian T. fluviatilis from the River Rhine, after confirming the phylogenetic background of the respective population genetically. Results showed differences in the prevalence of trematodes and histopathologic organic alterations between the two snail forms. Both were infected with an opecoelid trematode Plagioporus cf. skrjabini, whereby its prevalence was significantly higher in the Northern-European than in the Danubian form. The parasitic trematode is, to our knowledge, a new trematode species in the River Rhine system, presumably co-introduced through the invasion of its second intermediate and final hosts, i.e. Ponto-Caspian amphipods and gobies. Its impact on native populations of Northern-European T. fluviatilis needs to be subject of future studies.

“Islamic Discourse” in Modern Western Political Philosophy: “Paradoxes” of Tolerance

The discourse of Islam in modern Western political philosophy is constructed in the horizon of "evidence" and solutions, the clarification of the origin and essence of which is the task of philosophical interpretation. The article analyzes three representative examples: the in-terpretation of the "ideology of Islam" in relation to the global liberal economic order (D. Lal); “Islamic terrorism” as a kind of ressentiment (S. Zizek); “Islamic fundamentalism” in the hori-zon of the “global empire” (M. Hardt, A. Negri). It is established that the conceptual framework of all three discourses of Islam is the dominant Western "economic paradigm" (J. Agamben) of political philosophy. The liberal new European form of the latter makes a fundamental distinc-tion between the public and the private, making room for free civic identities based on the arbi-trary individual choice of an autonomous subject and homogenizing social reality into ideal ab-solute anarchy. This is possible only on the basis of the tradition of secularization, which is im-manent in the West and alien to Islam. With regard to any “other”, strategies of assimilation or destruction are applied. The conclusion is made about the unsuitability of liberal “instruments” for the establishment and maintenance of peace through the policy of separation and multicul-turalism; theoretically possible alternatives to the “notion of the political” are indicated

Politics in Focus: The Conservatives

The chapter outlines and critiques various factions within the Conservative Party and the stresses, strains and opportunities that Brexit presented to them. The chapter reflects upon the demise of One Nationism a more liberal and pro-European form of Conservatism and contrasts it with the Eurosceptic ‘Brexiteers’ within the party some closely aligned with hyperglobalism, a more militant form of neoliberalism, that constitutes an attempt by core countries like the USA and Britain to re-orientate their economic models in order to maintain an advantage over old and emerging competitors and retain their hegemony. Key personalities involved in the discussion are: Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Dominic Grieve and Ken Clarke among others. The chapter considers whether the Conservatives have transformed into a radical right form of populism.

RUSSIAN LITERARY MODERNISM AND ITS INFLUENCE ON BULGARIAN LITERATURE

The paper discusses to what extent major currents and representatives of Russian modernism and the Avant-garde had influenced the works of prominent representatives of 20th-century Bulgarian literature such as L. Stoyanov, Liliev, Debelyanov, Trayanov, Sirak Skitnik, and many others. In addition to addressing the influence of Russian symbolism on Bulgarian writers, the article examines the impact of Acmeism on the work of El. Bagryanа and At. Dalchev; the one of Imaginism on the work of Bulgarian modernists from the 1920s such as Slavcho Krasinski, Geo Milev and others. The intertwining of features of the poetics from different avant-garde currents, both in the works of individual authors and in the works of a single writer appeared as a typical phenomenon in the life of the Bulgarian avant-garde. Such poets as N. Furnadzhiev, A. Raztsvetnikov, N. Marangozov and others, and fiction writers as Ch. Mutafov, A. Karaliychev, A. Strashimirov, J. Yovkov, repeatedly experienced the influence of contradictory modernist and avant-garde currents, however, in their works they managed to add the “European form” to the “Bulgarian content”. The study also involves Bulgarian avant-garde journals such as Crescendo, Libra/Vezni, etc. This paper argues that by going against the rules, the avant-garde writers created a productive artistic method, a kind of alternative classic.

Europe as a Cultural-Civilizational Construct

This chapter examines the different meanings that “Europe” has historically had. It explores the geographic, cultural, religious, and historical understandings of Europe, stressing the uncertainty regarding Europe’s eastern boundary, and how this uncertainty has given rise to the idea that there are actually many “different” Europes, including Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Mitteleuropa, and the Balkans. It stresses the role of Christianity in understanding Europeanness, and the role that Orthodoxy plays as a “quasi-European” form of Christianity, and Islam as Europe and Christianity’s certain “other.” It also discusses how Russia, in both its Tsarist and Soviet guises, has been judged by others (and itself) to only imperfectly fit the criteria associated with Europeanness, even as it judged non-Russian others within its realm according to those same criteria.

Uncovering historical semantic connections with the help of image schemata

Standard etymological dictionaries agree that Modern English some, same and their Old English cognate sam- ‘half’ descend from the same etymon. However, while explaining their phonological development from the same proto-form is unproblematic, their divergent meanings make the reconstruction of their semantic evolution more challenging. The paper examines the historical semantic connection between these three morphemes from a cognitive perspective and attempts to provide an explanation of how they are conceptually linked to each other. Based on a cognitive semantic analysis of the meanings of these forms, we propose that all three concepts are understood on the basis of and embedded in one and the same image schematic domain – comprised by the general unity/multiplicity schema – and derive from entailments of its subschemata. Such an image schematic account of the conceptual connections between these meanings provides an explanation for the various paths of semantic development from the original etymon leading to the established later meanings. This approach will also facilitate the semantic reconstruction of the ancestral Proto-Indo-European form and help identify the exact cognate relationships between some, same and sam-.

"Schießen wie die anderen?"

This commemorative book reprints articles by Reinhard Mutz which promote a security policy compatible with peace and a peace policy compatible with security. After the end of the system-driven global conflict, hopes for an era of peace, unity and democracy were high. However, Reinhard Mutz soon realised that the West had made a different choice. A resilient pan-European form of security or even peace did not emerge. Instead, Germany threw off its shackles concerning the use of troops, and NATO mutated from a defensive alliance into a hegemonic power and intervention cartel. Military interventions in a changed conflict environment became routine. The humanitarian reasoning behind them also intensified disputes within the peace research community. Reinhard Mutz did not only see the noble ambitions fail in action; he also identified the price the Western states were prepared to pay: the erosion of the prohibition of violence as the basis of every peace policy.