Debris Flows at the River Mletis Khevi (Greater Caucasus Mountains, Georgia) and its Assessment Methods

The erosional debris flow processes on the right side of the riverbed of Mletis-Khevi, a tributary of the Tetri Aragvi, are assessed on the basis of field and laboratory studies. The values of the mountain slope erosion in the Mletis-Khevi catchment area have been determined on the basis of field studies, taking into account the time factor and the extent of slope damage. Dependences are derived by means of the maximum discharge of debris flow of various intensities. Furthermore the volume of transported debris flow mass is calculated. A physical-mechanical and chemical analysis of the debris flow mass has been carried out in the laboratory. The results can be used at a subsequent stage for predicting the various basic characteristics of debris flows. --debris flow,discharge,erosion coefficient,catchment area

Wine, Beer, Snuff, Medicine, and Loss of Diversity - Ethnobotanical travels in the Georgian Caucasus

Photo Essa

Debris Flows at the River Mletis Khevi (Greater Caucasus Mountains, Georgia) and its Assessment Methods

The erosional debris flow processes on the right side of the riverbed of Mletis-Khevi, a tributary of the Tetri Aragvi, are assessed on the basis of field and laboratory studies. The values of the mountain slope erosion in the Mletis-Khevi catchment area have been determined on the basis of field studies, taking into account the time factor and the extent of slope damage. Dependences are derived by means of the maximum discharge of debris flow of various intensities. Furthermore the volume of transported debris flow mass is calculated. A physical-mechanical and chemical analysis of the debris flow mass has been carried out in the laboratory. The results can be used at a subsequent stage for predicting the various basic characteristics of debris flows

West Palaearctic species of the genus Diostracus Loew, 1861 (Diptera: Dolichopodidae)

A new status (as subgenera of Diostracus Loew, 1861) for Sphyrotarsus Mik, 1874, Lagodechia Negrobov & Tsurikov, 1996 and Ozmena Özdikmen, 2010 stat. nov. is proposed. A new species, Diostracus (Sphyrotarsus) kustovi sp. nov., is described from the Russian Caucasus. The following recombinations (comb. nov.) are also proposed: Diostracus (Sphyrotarsus) argyrostomus (Mik, 1874); D. (S.) caucasicus (Negrobov, 1965); D. (S.) hervebazini (Parent, 1914); D. (S.) hessei (Parent, 1914); D. (S.) hygrophilus (Becker, 1891); D. (S.) leucostomus (Loew, 1861); D. (S.) parenti (Hesse, 1933); D. (Lagodechia) spinulifer Negrobov & Tsurikov, 1988; and D. (Ozmena) stackelbergi (Negrobov, 1965). A key to ten Diostracus species inhabiting the West Palaearctic Region is provided

The European Union and Central Asia: Challenges and prospects of cooperation

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Education for all and for life? : An introduction into primary school education in Senegal

Generally, school participation in Senegal has achieved a lot of progress in recent years. However, several problems remain to be tackled for further improvement. Still, too many children never attend a school. An even more severe problem is the high rate of drop outs, especially when it comes to the transition from primary to secondary school. Here, the national grade six exam, higher costs of schooling and still limited availability of secondary schools are the main barriers. As a result, only a fraction of children completes the ten years of compulsory schooling which is considered necessary to have superior job perspectives. Another issue regarding absenteeism or incomplete formal schooling is the popularity of Quranic education in Senegal. Many parents prioritize religious (esp. Quranic) studies and do not want their children to attend a formal school. In many cases, those who try to combine formal and religious schooling sooner or later have to decide on whether to drop one or the other. Despite the existence of differences between rural and urban milieus no substantial gender disparity can be observed at the primary school level. At the secondary school level, however, girls’ education perspectives worsen so that completion of ten years of schooling is even less likely for girls than for boys. While the quantity of enrolled children has undoubtedly risen during the past years, the development of school quality is more ambiguous. Many school buildings are in a bad condition and pedagogical material is often lacking or hardly usable. After the summer holidays many school facilities face damages due to heavy rainfalls which lead to delayed starts and many schools cannot afford the maintenance costs. The quality of classes itself suffers from too big class sizes, multigrade classes and irregular attendance of pupils. In summary it can be stated that primary school education in Senegal has achieved some noticeable improvements. However, high drop out rates and rivalry with Quranic schooling lead to a low percentage of students with completed secondary education or higher. Since it is expected that formal schooling only pays off in economic terms after at least ten years of education, the achievement of a higher share of students with completed secondary school should be a reasonable task. The purpose of further study will thus be to shed more light on some of the reasons preventing school enrollment and completion. One task will consist in identifying the reasons why many children are never enrolled in school. The research project will proceed with a household survey in the region of Saint-Louis. This region nearly reflects average educational figures of the whole country and is very diverse regarding geographical conditions, population density and economic activity of the population. Data from this survey will allow to disentangle the role of supply and demand sides. According to our expectations and impressions gained from the qualitative field work, even in areas where public schools are available and accessible, not all children are enrolled in school. For this group, parents might not see the benefit of attending formal school or might favor rival activities such as work or attendance of a religious school. A related question is whether school enrollment then depends primarily on household characteristics. Families of a certain educational level and of specific professions could be more prone to sending their children to school. On the other hand, there seems to be heterogeneity within households. We will have to study why some children attend school while their siblings do not. Reasons for the higher drop out rates of girls will also be subject to further study

Grocery retailing in Germany : situation, development and pricing strategies

Over the last four decades, the German food-retailing sector has been subject to continuous structural change. Most important has been the combination of increasing concentration with rising store size and the growing role of discounters implementing an aggressive EDLP pricing strategy. Thus, consumers have benefited from intensive price competition, despite the higher market share of leading food retailers. The analysis of market conduct, in terms of price formation and pricing strategies, reveals a typical situation of imperfect competition. The law of one price certainly does not hold for individual foods. Price levels and pricing strategies diverge substantially across firms and store types. There are successful retailers with an EDLP strategy, as well as others with a HiLo strategy. A major lesson to be learned from the German experience is that increasing concentration in food retailing does not necessarily imply that more market power is exerted at the expense of consumers. Competitive markets are compatible with a high level of concentration as long as a strong competitive fringe, for example discounters, challenges the large chains in food retailing

Grocery retailing in Germany: Situation, development and pricing strategies

Like many other industrialised countries Germany has experienced a powerful concentration process in food retailing. There are some issues, however, which make Germany a special case in Europe and among industrialised countries in general. This holds true in terms of market structure and concentration, market development and pricing strategies. The market share of hard discounters like Aldi and Lidl has grown continuously in recent decades and the market share of discounters in general has reached a magnitude that is well above that found in other European countries. This has led to robust price competition in German food retailing. Along with this development, it has been very difficult for inward foreign direct investment (FDI) to gain ground in the German food retailing industry. One example was the market entry by Wal-Mart which, given its initial ambitious goals, was not successful. On the other hand, German hard discounters have strongly affected outward FDI by other German food retailers. In the process of expanding into other markets abroad, these companies have had a positive impact on exporting by the German food industry. This article describes and analyses these major trends in German food retailing in detail. It is organised as follows. The structure of food retailing is described and explained in Section 2. Section 3 deals with the importance of inward and outward FDI in German food retailing. It is discussed in both sections how increased concentration in food retailing affects the marketing chain. Price competition is intense in Germany, and studies of food pricing strategies have used scanner data. Therefore a special case study in Section 4 is the analysis of food pricing strategies in Germany based on scanner-data evidence. The analysis shows that the pricing behaviour of food retailers is characterised by the every-day-low-pricing (EDLP) strategies of discounters and the high-lowpricing (HiLo) strategies of their major competitors. The main elements of pricing policies are indicative of firms' market power: repeated price discounts for major food brands, frequent changes of loss leaders, the dominant role of psychological pricing, and a strong price rigidity for all other foods which are not on special offer. --

Humanities in transition : liberation of knowledge in Central Asia and the potential role of the European Union

Concluding this article, the importance of the rational discourse in modern classes and local forums in contemporary Central Asia should be mentioned again. The liberation of knowledge should be a permanent part of educational initiatives in this region, which is on its long journey from one party autocratic system to the democratic pluralistic one. During this transition some few things should be central. 1. All innovations on education, including the revising role of humanities should be based on the indigenous traditions and the long history of the region including Islamic, Jadid’s tradition, but also soviet experiences in the last century (historically inherited German system). Furthermore, the modern international experiences on humanities should be not only superficially implemented from outside, but thoroughly integrated. The development of independent and creative thinking of the learners (students) should be always central for reform initiatives. 2. The revised concept of knowledge and cognitive system has to be based on new epistemology with broader perspective, including all the types of knowledge. These different types of knowledge include not just so called “rationalistic” one, which in fact often serves the interests of ruling classes, but also the experiences of all slices of societies, as well as the cross-civilization approaches, which open the way of dialog and communication with others. 3. It should be suggested to remove the dominating dichotomy type of thinking, escape Manichean dualistic concepts in order develop new bodies and research areas of humanities, based on pluralism (but not on secularism only). Communication and collaboration with the educational and research institutions of developed countries like EU and US would be essential for achievement of the desired goals and implementation of projects. During a conference on higher education in developing countries with focus on Muslim regions organised by the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilization AKU ISMC in February - March 2005 in London one participant pointed out the importance of mentioning the indigenous Islamic educational heritage like memorization in Central Asian education. Regarding this remark, the questions arises, whether the memorization is the only real indigenous Islamic heritage in education. In this case what is the role of memorization in Muslim philosophy, arts, sciences, other creative professions? Was memorization essential for such Muslim scholars and encyclopaedists from the10th to the15th centuries like Avicenna, Abu Raikhan Biruni, Nasiriddin Tusi and Mirzo Ulughbek, artists like Kamaliddin Behzod or esoteric teachers such as Sufis like Jalaliddin Rumi etc.? Memorizing was not the only learning method in Muslim culture. According to his autobiography, Avicenna read Aristotle´s ‘Metaphysics’ time, but not only for the sake of memorization, but mostly to find its adequate meaning. Every time time, when he understood the meaning of this book with help of Abu Nasr Farabi´s comments, he celebrated this event by sending charity to the people in mosque. The memorization would be essential, if one accepts Islam only as religion, but not as culture and civilization. Of course, memorization has an important role in education, but only at the beginning, in elementary and secondary schools, but not at the universities. It is a useful tool for teaching and performing of religious rituals, for poetry and other humanities, as well as for medicine (for example, the formulation of the treatments in poetic form as in Urjuza fi-t-tib,Ibn Sina). Memorization in Muslim culture was the way to refer to the other sources, as scholars used to cite by memory, not by direct copying of the sources. It is well-known fact, that humanities have played an important role in Muslim civilisations (Goodman, 2003) and they had a strong impact on other cultures, especially, western European. Many scholars agree with the statement, that Muslim humanistic traditions was transformed by Europeans and served as one of the sources of humanism and renaissance. Recent scientific works on humanities have redefined the disciplinary organization of teaching and research and have introduced wider variety and new areas, such as gender or minoritie issues, studies of cultural diversities etc. However, many American scholars nowadays are worrying about the decline of humanistic research (Kernan, 1997) and about the shift of curriculum from university to “multiversity” and to “demoversity”. It is necessary to analyse, rethink and spread the positive experiences of Jadids and AKHP, as well as to motivate and encourage humanities teachers for innovations. Central Asian scientists in humanities have wide field for new research area. There are so many unknown (unthought) slices of culture (formal, informal), which never have become the object of research because of the political correctness, ideology, religious, ethnics or gender superstitions. Central Asian universities need to develop new research programs in humanities, similar to the well-known works by Martha C. Nussbaum (2000, 2004), Peter N. Stearns (1993) and others in USA. However, these kinds of works depend on investments, which cannot be provided by the current central state budget due to corruption, turbulent financial crisis and economic stagnation. Regarding this issue, one should think about new projects for collaboration and integration with EU. The courses in humanities with new approaches in arts, literature, sociology, philosophy, religions, political sciences, research in gender, cultural, religious and minorities issues, as well as analysis of such human behaviour like disgust, shame or hatred are important for liberation of thinking process in order to develop new generation of leaders in the region. Only the modern values, based on indigenous roots can help to build new and good society. However, this should not be implemented artificially. Currently several educational programs organised by EU for Central Asian countries, like Tempus, Erasmus Mundus etc. are working in the region. Last years the majority of Central Asian countries joined Bologna-process of education. The dialog between higher education institutions is important and the communicative ethics (the notion of J. Habermas) play a central role in this exchange. More effective support in form of scholarships, research programs, training projects for teachers and the students will have a very positive influence on Central Asia with regard to the broader mutual understanding and democracy promotion

Bear in Mind: Bear Hunting in the Mesolithic of the Southern Caucasus

We present new faunal data from Kotias Klde rockshelter, Republic of Georgia, where a substantial part of the faunalv assemblage consists of brown bear remains (Ursus arctos) found in clear association with Mesolithic artifacts. Bear remains are unusually well represented in comparison with other faunal assemblages from the Caucasus and Eurasia in general. The diversity of species, dominance of young individuals, full representation of skeletal elements, and skinning butchery marks indicate that bears were actively hunted. Such an endeavor of hunting denotes the complex network of relationships that linked the Mesolithic hunting societies with the animal world surrounding them.Anthropolog