4,043 research outputs found

    Climate Change and Critical Agrarian Studies

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    Climate change is perhaps the greatest threat to humanity today and plays out as a cruel engine of myriad forms of injustice, violence and destruction. The effects of climate change from human-made emissions of greenhouse gases are devastating and accelerating; yet are uncertain and uneven both in terms of geography and socio-economic impacts. Emerging from the dynamics of capitalism since the industrial revolution — as well as industrialisation under state-led socialism — the consequences of climate change are especially profound for the countryside and its inhabitants. The book interrogates the narratives and strategies that frame climate change and examines the institutionalised responses in agrarian settings, highlighting what exclusions and inclusions result. It explores how different people — in relation to class and other co-constituted axes of social difference such as gender, race, ethnicity, age and occupation — are affected by climate change, as well as the climate adaptation and mitigation responses being implemented in rural areas. The book in turn explores how climate change – and the responses to it - affect processes of social differentiation, trajectories of accumulation and in turn agrarian politics. Finally, the book examines what strategies are required to confront climate change, and the underlying political-economic dynamics that cause it, reflecting on what this means for agrarian struggles across the world. The 26 chapters in this volume explore how the relationship between capitalism and climate change plays out in the rural world and, in particular, the way agrarian struggles connect with the huge challenge of climate change. Through a huge variety of case studies alongside more conceptual chapters, the book makes the often-missing connection between climate change and critical agrarian studies. The book argues that making the connection between climate and agrarian justice is crucial

    Cultures of Citizenship in the Twenty-First Century: Literary and Cultural Perspectives on a Legal Concept

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    In the early twenty-first century, the concept of citizenship is more contested than ever. As refugees set out to cross the Mediterranean, European nation-states refer to "cultural integrity" and "immigrant inassimilability," revealing citizenship to be much more than a legal concept. The contributors to this volume take an interdisciplinary approach to considering how cultures of citizenship are being envisioned and interrogated in literary and cultural (con)texts. Through this framework, they attend to the tension between the citizen and its spectral others - a tension determined by how a country defines difference at a given moment

    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volume

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    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volum

    Effects of municipal smoke-free ordinances on secondhand smoke exposure in the Republic of Korea

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    ObjectiveTo reduce premature deaths due to secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure among non-smokers, the Republic of Korea (ROK) adopted changes to the National Health Promotion Act, which allowed local governments to enact municipal ordinances to strengthen their authority to designate smoke-free areas and levy penalty fines. In this study, we examined national trends in SHS exposure after the introduction of these municipal ordinances at the city level in 2010.MethodsWe used interrupted time series analysis to assess whether the trends of SHS exposure in the workplace and at home, and the primary cigarette smoking rate changed following the policy adjustment in the national legislation in ROK. Population-standardized data for selected variables were retrieved from a nationally representative survey dataset and used to study the policy action’s effectiveness.ResultsFollowing the change in the legislation, SHS exposure in the workplace reversed course from an increasing (18% per year) trend prior to the introduction of these smoke-free ordinances to a decreasing (−10% per year) trend after adoption and enforcement of these laws (β2 = 0.18, p-value = 0.07; β3 = −0.10, p-value = 0.02). SHS exposure at home (β2 = 0.10, p-value = 0.09; β3 = −0.03, p-value = 0.14) and the primary cigarette smoking rate (β2 = 0.03, p-value = 0.10; β3 = 0.008, p-value = 0.15) showed no significant changes in the sampled period. Although analyses stratified by sex showed that the allowance of municipal ordinances resulted in reduced SHS exposure in the workplace for both males and females, they did not affect the primary cigarette smoking rate as much, especially among females.ConclusionStrengthening the role of local governments by giving them the authority to enact and enforce penalties on SHS exposure violation helped ROK to reduce SHS exposure in the workplace. However, smoking behaviors and related activities seemed to shift to less restrictive areas such as on the streets and in apartment hallways, negating some of the effects due to these ordinances. Future studies should investigate how smoke-free policies beyond public places can further reduce the SHS exposure in ROK

    Information Encoding for Flow Watermarking and Binding Keys to Biometric Data

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    Due to the current level of telecommunications development, fifth-generation (5G) communication systems are expected to provide higher data rates, lower latency, and improved scalability. To ensure the security and reliability of data traffic generated from wireless sources, 5G networks must be designed to support security protocols and reliable communication applications. The operations of coding and processing of information during the transmission of both binary and non-binary data in nonstandard communication channels are described. A subclass of linear binary codes is considered, which are both Varshamov-Tenengolz codes and are used for channels with insertions and deletions of symbols. The use of these codes is compared with Hidden Markov Model (HMM)-based systems for detecting intrusions in networks using flow watermarking, which provide high true positive rate in both cases. The principles of using Bose-Chadhuri-Hocquenhgem (BCH) codes, non-binary Reed-Solomon codes, and turbo codes, as well as concatenated code structures to ensure noise immunity when reproducing information in Helper-Data Systems are considered. Examples of biometric systems organization based on the use of these codes, operating on the basis of the Fuzzy Commitment Scheme (FCS) and providing FRR < 1% for authentication, are given

    Developing Tools For Probing Stellar Interiors With Asteroseismology

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    Asteroseismology is the study of stellar oscillations. Recent space missions, such as CoRoT, Kepler, and TESS, are rapidly revolutionising the field by collecting vast amounts of data. These data have enabled accurate characterisation of stellar oscillations for a wide range of stars, leading to improved understanding of stellar physics and knowledge of Galactic and planetary populations. This thesis builds on existing tools and develops new techniques to advance our understanding of stars using their oscillations. Firstly, we investigate 36 subgiants observed by Kepler, measuring their oscillation parameters and extracting their frequencies, amplitudes and linewidths. They are used as modelling input to derive accurate stellar parameters. Secondly, we measure the core and envelope rotation rates for these subgiants, and study them as a function of stellar properties. We find near solid-body rotation in early subgiants and differential rotation in later stages. Thirdly, we evaluate the intrinsic scatter of the asteroseismic scaling relations, using the sharpness of population-level features that are naturally formed by stars. We constrain the intrinsic scatter to be a few percent. Fourthly, we propose a new method to correct the stellar surface effect, which involves prescribing the surface effect as a function of stellar surface parameters. This method reduces the scatter of model-derived stellar properties and provides a revised correction for the Dnu scaling relation. Fifthly, we test the numax scaling relation by comparing observed numax with model-inferred scaling numax constrained by individual frequencies. We conclude no noticeable deviation of the numax scaling relation and a lack of metallicity dependency. Lastly, we construct a mass-radius diagram for red clump stars, leading to the discovery of two new types of post-mass-transfer stars. The new finding offers exciting opportunities to study binary evolution using asteroseismology

    The Long Lives of Old Lutes: The Cultural and Material History of the Veneration of Old Musical Instruments

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    This study examines the object biographies of musical instruments and the function of age in the cultural and material history of the lute. It follows the central question of why old instruments were valued more greatly than new ones and what measures had to be executed to adapt the objects to the ever-changing musical style. It traces the lute in its several cultural functions from the 17th to the 19th century: as a musical instrument, as a symbol, as a commodity, and as an object that had to be adapted, repaired, and altered by several generations of lute makers. This interdisciplinary approach uses a broad spectrum of sources from treatises, lute manuals, forewords in printed lute music, and depictions of lutes in literature, poetry, and visual arts to construct a narrative of the appreciation of old musical instruments. It investigates the material changes that were necessary to ensure their continued use by a profound study of more than 100 instruments in public and private collections. The different business models and prices in the trade of lutes are compared and connected to the common knowledge about old instruments and their brand characteristics among lute players. This study employs methods from musicology, organology, material culture studies, acoustics, economics, art history, technology, and digital humanities. This multivalent approach enhances the understanding of the general dynamics of commodities as status symbols, object biographies, and functional objects and connects them to the material and cultural history of objects using the lute as a case study.Die Studie untersucht die Objektbiografien von Musikinstrumenten und die Funktion des Alters für die kulturelle und materielle Geschichte von Lauteninstrumenten. Sie geht der zentralen Frage nach, warum alte Instrumente höher geschätzt wurden als neue und welche Maßnahmen ergriffen werden mussten, um die Objekte an den sich ständig verändernden Musikstil anzupassen. Sie verfolgt die Laute in ihren verschiedenen kulturellen Funktionen vom 17. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert: als Musikinstrument, als Symbol, als Gebrauchsgegenstand und als Objekt, das von mehreren Generationen von Lautenbauern angepasst, repariert und verändert werden musste. Der interdisziplinäre Ansatz nutzt ein breites Spektrum von Quellen wie Traktate, Lautenhandbücher, Vorworte in gedruckter Lautenmusik und Darstellungen von Lauten in Literatur, Poesie und bildender Kunst, um die Geschichte der Wertschätzung alter Musikinstrumente nachzuverfolgen. Anhand einer eingehenden Untersuchung von mehr als 100 Instrumenten in öffentlichen und privaten Sammlungen werden die Eingriffe untersucht, die notwendig waren, um ihre weitere Nutzung zu gewährleisten. Die unterschiedlichen Geschäftsmodelle und Preise im Handel mit Lauten werden verglichen und mit dem Wissensvorrat unter Lautenisten über alte Instrumente und deren Markencharakteristiken in Verbindung gebracht. Die Studie verwendet Methoden aus der Musikwissenschaft, der Organologie, der materiellen Kulturwissenschaft, der Akustik, der Ökonomie, der Kunstgeschichte, der Instrumentenbautechnologie und der Digital Humanities. Der multivalente Ansatz verbessert das Verständnis der allgemeinen Dynamik von Waren als Statussymbole, von Objektbiografien funktionaler Objekte und verbindet sie mit der materiellen und kulturellen Geschichte der Objekte am Beispiel der Laute

    Untying the Mother Tongue

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    Untying the Mother Tongue explores what it might mean today to speak of someone’s attachment to a particular, primary language. Traditional conceptions of mother tongue are often seen as an expression of the ideology of a European nation-state. Yet, current celebrations of multilingualism reflect the recent demands of global capitalism, raising other challenges. The contributions from international scholars on literature, philosophy, and culture, analyze and problematize the concept of ‘mother tongue’, rethinking affective and cognitive attachments to language while deconstructing its metaphysical, capitalist, and colonialist presuppositions
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