Servio in Epigr. Bob. 45 e 62? Possibili tracce dell’esegesi virgiliana tardoantica nella Silloge Bobbiese

The anonymous auctor of Epigr. Bob. 62 may have based his translation of Hesiod. fr. 304 Merkelbach-West (= 171 Rzach) on the version of Verg. georg. 2.293-7 passed down from Servius auctus. Such an example sheds light on the general influence that the Late Antique Vergilian exegesis had on the Bobbian Sylloge.

The Contraction of European Economic Distances through Sustainable Tourism in the Pre-Pandemic Period

The current importance of tourism leads us to analyze the extent to which the receipts from international tourism, and tourism in general, influence the capacity of European countries to reduce the development gaps of this sector in the European context and the extent to which the economic growth is sensitive to changes in tourist arrivals, tourism receipts and expenditures. Studying the GDP per capita and the receipts from international tourism for the period 1995-2017, we find that the European tourism has an important role in economy but secondary to capital stock and exports. The methodology used is a sensitivity analysis and a multiple linear regression with two models. The results show that, on short term, the gap in the European tourism sector is explained by the ability to attract income from the international tourism. The European growth of the tourism sector depends to a large extent on the amount of expenditures that tourists are making, on tourism receipts and, to a lesser extent, on tourist arrivals, but in all cases, the connection is a direct and positive one but, even so, the capital stock and the exports continue to play a very important role for the European economy. The analysis suggests that tourism is not a panacea for growth. On the contrary, it is one of the activities that stimulate growth along with investments, technology, or any other form of capital, together with exports and labor market conditions.

Catholic Church Law: Challenges by Secular Law and Religious Pluralism

This article examines the challenges which arise for Catholic canon law from the collision with secular law and the law of other religious communities. It begins by looking at the conditions provided by canon law itself in order to meet these challenges. Subsequently it addresses the specific challenges posed by secular law, especially human rights, and its general influence. Finally, it discusses the challenges posed by religious pluralism, first clarifying the church’s legal relationship with other religious communities and then addressing the very specific question of why church law also applies to non-members in certain cases. The conclusion is that catholic canon law is better equipped to face the current challenges than other religious laws. Nevertheless, there are fruitful tensions and inevitable breaks.

A Systematic Analysis of Hand Movement Functionality: Qualitative Classification and Quantitative Investigation of Hand Grasp Behavior

Understanding human hand movement functionality is fundamental in neuroscience, robotics, prosthetics, and rehabilitation. People are used to investigate movement functionality separately from qualitative or quantitative perspectives. However, it is still limited to providing an integral framework from both perspectives in a logical manner. In this paper, we provide a systematic framework to qualitatively classify hand movement functionality, build prehensile taxonomy to explore the general influence factors of human prehension, and accordingly design a behavioral experiment to quantitatively understand the hand grasp. In qualitative analysis, two facts are explicitly proposed: (1) the arm and wrist make a vital contribution to hand movement functionality; (2) the relative position (relative position in this paper is defined as the distance between the center of the human wrist and the object center of gravity) is a general influence factor significantly impacting human prehension. In quantitative analysis, the significant influence of three factors, object shape, size, and relative position, is quantitatively demonstrated. Simultaneously considering the impact of relative position, object shape, and size, the prehensile taxonomy and behavioral experiment results presented here should be more representative and complete to understand human grasp functionality. The systematic framework presented here is general and applicable to other body parts, such as wrist, arm, etc. Finally, many potential applications and the limitations are clarified.

The Globe on Saturday, the World on Sunday: Toronto Weekend Editions and the Influence of the American Sunday Paper, 1886–1895

Between 1886 and 1895, the Sunday newspaper in U.S. cities became a cauldron for an emerging mass, popular culture—one with reach into Canada. The concurrent development of weekend newspapers in Toronto, Canada, distinguished local innovations against the unspecified, general influence of the “American Sunday paper.” The Sunday World and the Saturday Globe followed and refuted, respectively, the ideal set by the American Sunday paper, but together defined Canadian weekend leisure reading. The reference in Canadian newspapers to an idealized American Sunday model offers an example of an emergent continental mass popular culture where cultural forms circulated, and were transformed, producing interesting local specificities.

The Globe on Saturday, the World on Sunday: Toronto Weekend Editions and the Influence of the American Sunday Paper, 1886–1895

Between 1886 and 1895, the Sunday newspaper in U.S. cities became a cauldron for an emerging mass, popular culture—one with reach into Canada. The concurrent development of weekend newspapers in Toronto, Canada, distinguished local innovations against the unspecified, general influence of the “American Sunday paper.” The Sunday World and the Saturday Globe followed and refuted, respectively, the ideal set by the American Sunday paper, but together defined Canadian weekend leisure reading. The reference in Canadian newspapers to an idealized American Sunday model offers an example of an emergent continental mass popular culture where cultural forms circulated, and were transformed, producing interesting local specificities.

No specific relationship between hypnotic suggestibility and the rubber hand illusion: a commentary with new and verification analyses

In a recent study, Lush et al. (Nat Commun 11, 4853, 2020) claimed that they found “substantial relationships” between hypnotizability and experimental measures of the rubber hand illusion. The authors proposed that hypnotizable participants control their phenomenology to meet task expectations arising from the experimental paradigm. They further suggest that the rubber hand illusion “may or may not” be entirely explained by hypnotic suggestions driven by task expectancies and therefore could reflect top-down control of perception, instead of multisensory mechanisms. However, in reanalyzing their data, we observe no significant relationships between hypnotic suggestibility and the rubber hand illusion when quantified using a control condition in line with the authors’ preregistered hypothesis. Furthermore, we note that the relationships that the authors describe are weak and observed for a visual “hallucination” control experience and in the control condition, indicating a general influence of hypnotizability on cognition, rather than sensations that specifically relate to the rubber hand illusion. Overall, the results fit well with the view that the rubber hand illusion is a perceptual illusion driven primarily by multisensory mechanisms.

Baby Bust: Falling Fertility in US Counties Is Associated with COVID-19 Prevalence and Mobility Reductions

The United States experienced a 3.8 percent decline in births for 2020 compared with 2019, but the rate of decline was much faster at the end of the year (8 percent in December), suggesting dramatic early effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which began affecting social life in late March 2020. Using birth data from Florida and Ohio counties through February 2021, this analysis examines whether and how much falling birth rates were associated with local pandemic conditions, specifically infection rates and reductions in geographic mobility. Results show that the vast majority of counties experienced declining births, suggestive of a general influence of the pandemic, but also that declines were steeper in places with greater prevalence of COVID-19 infections and more extensive reductions in mobility. The latter result is consistent with more direct influences of the pandemic on family planning or sexual behavior. The idea that social isolation would cause an increase in subsequent births receives no support.

Roads not adopted: tourism research in neo-liberal(?) times.

This chapter explores conceptions of neo-liberalism in the context of the development of tourism research. Although its intellectual origins are somewhat earlier, neo-liberalism as an economic philosophy is mostly seen as growing in global dominance from the late 1970s and early 1980s. However, the starting point for this discussion is the extensive and ongoing debate about neo-liberalism's general influence on higher education in particular. This is justified in terms of the corresponding growth of tourism in higher education since the 1970s. Putting it another way, in the English-speaking world (and, some would argue, beyond), the apparent growth of neo-liberalism in higher education is coincidental with the rise of tourism as a subject in that milieu. Accordingly, we might not unreasonably expect the development of tourism as a relatively new area of enquiry to more strongly reflect the supposed tropes of the neo-liberal project than is the case with more established subjects. Following from this, the chapter seeks to explore the extent to which the neo-liberal project has influenced tourism research, finally reflecting on the implications of such an analysis.

Letter to the Editor Concerning Skuk et al., “Parameter-Specific Morphing Reveals Contributions of Timbre and Fundamental Frequency Cues to the Perception of Voice Gender and Age in Cochlear Implant Users”

Purpose The purpose of this letter is to compare results by Skuk et al. (2020) with Meister et al. (2016) and to point to a potential general influence of stimulus type. Conclusion Our conclusion is that presenting sentences may give cochlear implant recipients the opportunity to use timbre cues for voice perception. This might not be the case when presenting brief and sparse stimuli such as consonant–vowel–consonant or single words, which were applied in the majority of studies.