Ein frommes Wort- und Schriftspiel auf einer Münze des Negus Gersem

Miscellaneous Article  

Das Charisma des Herrschers

In den Herrschaftssystemen der Vormoderne beruhte Macht zu einem erheblichen Teil auf Vorstellungen von einer besonderen Ausstrahlung der Herrschenden. Für den politischen Erfolg war es entscheidend, dass diese Besonderheit überzeugend und nachhaltig vermittelt wurde und dass sie auf der anderen Seite die Zustimmung der Beherrschten fand. Die Beiträge des Bandes untersuchen, von der griechisch-römischen Antike ausgehend, in welchen Formen Vorstellungen vom Charisma des Herrschers ihren Ausdruck fanden. Es geht um die numinose Aura, mit der die privilegierte Nähe vormoderner Herrscher zu göttlichen Wesen bezeichnet wurde. Dabei wird zum einen für die Zeit des Hellenismus und der römischen Kaiserzeit ein breites Spektrum aufgezeigt. Einen zweiten Teil nehmen entsprechende Phänomene aus anderen Epochen und Kulturen ein

Genetic Diversity of the Cestode Echinococcus multilocularis in Red Foxes at a Continental Scale in Europe

Echinococcus multilocularis is a tapeworm of the red fox, which represents a considerable health threat to respectively infected humans. Main endemic areas are located in China, Siberia, and central Europe. Alarmed by an emerging or reemerging situation in Europe, the question of how the parasite gets spatially and temporally spread and transmitted becomes essential to prepare appropriate control programs. The question was tackled by using genetic data on a large sample size of E. multilocularis adult stage tapeworms, combined with geographical site location data input. The historically documented endemic area, represented by the northern Alpine arch, was shown to harbour the highest genetic richness and diversity, as compared to surrounding areas in northern and eastern Europe. The spatial and temporal spread of different E. multilocularis genotypes in Europe seems to be ruled by a founder event, linked to exportation of parasites from the central core to newly identified (western and eastern) areas or subregions, where these parasites could subsequently disseminate under geographical separation from the original foci

ETHNIC GROUP DIFFERENCES IN SELECTED ASPECTS OF TEST-TAKING BEHAVIOR ON A STANDARDIZED ADMISSIONS TEST

The present study investigated the hypothesis that observed test score differences between ethnic groups might be due, in part, to the different proportion of examinees from each group who were proficient in the use of selected aspects of test-taking behavior. A standardized multiple-choice aptitude test used for admission to a graduate/professional school was employed. The possibility that some examinees guessed on the test while others used either partial information, misinformation, or refused to answer the difficult items could have created ethnic group score differences when the true ability was, in fact, not different. The problem of differentiating those examinees who guesssed throughout the test from those who did not guess was also addressed. Furthermore, the question of whether low scoring examinees tended to guess more than non-low scoring examinees and the extent of such ethnic group differences was investigated. The methodology employed in the present research combined the recent Federal Guidelines for the assessment of equal opportunities in education and employment with tests of statistical significance. Subjects were classified according to ethnicity; examinees were not excluded from the study on the basis of their socioeconomic status, age, sex, or educational level. The personal biserial index which is the correlation of each examinee\u27s correct and incorrect responses with the respective group-determined item difficulties, was used to identify those subjects who probably guessed throughout the test. An examinee identified as a guesser was suspected not to have employed the knowledge required by the examination in selecting responses to difficult multiple-choice test items. Applicants from the white, black, American Indian, asian, and hispanic groups, 95% of whom were college seniors, were compared with respect to the proportion of examinees who (a) obtained extremely low scores, (b) guessed answers throughout the examination, and (c) omitted 10% or more of the verbal multiple-choice items which were not corrected for guessing. Significant differences were obtained between ethnic groups in the proportion of examinees who were identified as low scorers as well as in the proportion of examinees who were identified as guessers. Consistent with past research, a greater proportion of minority examinees were found to be low scorers when compared with the white majority group. However, the only significant post hoc difference detected between ethnic groups in the proportion of guessers was the white-hispanic contrast, perhaps indicating a language difficulty for the bilingual hispanic group. However, no ethnic group differences were discovered in the proportion of guessers when the association between ability level and guessing was known. It was concluded that subjects of low ability would be identified as guessers more often than examinees of higher ability, although some non-low scoring examinees were observed to guess throughout the test. Additionally, the black group was found to exhibit a significantly greater proportion of examinees who omitted 10% or more of the test items when compared with the white majority group. Since, the test was not corrected for guessing, atmosphere bias and poor test-wiseness skills were suggested as possible sources of the observed black-white difference in the omission of large portions of the test. In general, these data were in agreement with the results obtained by other researchers, clarifying some of the incongruities in the literature and reaffirming the usefulness of the personal biserial index as a technique for studying test-taking behavior. Suggestions were included for future research

Die altäthiopischen Monatsnamen ägyptisch-koptischer Herkunft: Beispiele wiederholter Entlehnung aus einer sich verändernden Matrixumgebung

The amount of different spellings for the Ethiopian month names originally borrowed from Coptic has always been confusing. On a closer look, they can be divided into two groups, whose differences exactly correspond to those between the Coptic dialects Sahidic and Bohairic. Thus, the nouns in question are not only of greatest value for our understanding of Coptic phonology – and through their etymological connections to Old Egyptian even for this very early stage of the language - , they show very clearly, how the successive borrowing of loanwords from changing linguistical environments works. The first Coptic month names were borrowed from the Saidic dialect, but when the patriarch’s see moved from Kairo to Alexandria, the corresponding words were borrowed again, this time from the northern Bohairic dialect. After the Coptic names had been borrowed in Arabic and the Coptic language itself came to be extinct, those words were borrowed a third time, their forms being now taken from Arabic. On the level of phonology, special attention should be given to the consonants, which have been reconstructed as being postglottalized in Old Egyptian, a proposal which is confirmed by the Ethiopian evidence