Book Review: “ASIA ON TOUR: Exploring the rise of Asian tourism”

A review of the book "Asia on Tour: Exploring the Rise of Asian Tourism," edited by Tim Winter, Peggy Teo and T. C. Chang is presented

Race, Slavery, and the Re-evaluation of the T\u27ang Canon

In his article Race, Slavery, and the Revaluation of the T\u27ang Canon Gregory E. Rutledge re-evaluates—from the purview of African Diaspora literary studies—historiography that considers the place of East African slave lore in T\u27ang Dynasty fiction. Julie Wilensky\u27s The Magical Kunlun and \u27Devil Slaves\u27: Chinese Perceptions of Dark-skinned People and Africa before 1500 (2002), a revision of Chang Hsing-lang\u27s The Importation of Negro Slaves to China Under the T\u27ang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907) (1930), is pivotal since it occupies the nexus between European-American, East-Asian, and African-Diasporic canons and policies. Rutledge situates Wilensky\u27s and Chang\u27s works in the context of Edward W. Said\u27s Orientalism, an essential heurist for understanding Western subjugation of the Orient. However, in light of Wilensky\u27s and Chang\u27s non-engagement with the vast body of Western research on slavery, Rutledge argues that an older Afro-Orientalist frame is needed to establish an heuristic sensitive to the ancient East African culture and exceptionalism immanent in the stories Wilensky and Chang treat

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article Race, Slavery, and the Revaluation of the T\u27ang Canon Gregory E. Rutledge re-evaluates—from the purview of African Diaspora literary studies—historiography that considers the place of East African slave lore in T\u27ang Dynasty fiction. Julie Wilensky\u27s The Magical Kunlun and \u27Devil Slaves\u27: Chinese Perceptions of Dark-skinned People and Africa before 1500 (2002), a revision of Chang Hsing-lang\u27s The Importation of Negro Slaves to China Under the T\u27ang Dynasty (A.D. 618- 907) (1930), is pivotal since it occupies the nexus between European-American, East-Asian, and African-Diasporic canons and policies. Rutledge situates Wilensky\u27s and Chang\u27s works in the context of Edward W. Said\u27s Orientalism, an essential heurist for understanding Western subjugation of the Orient. However, in light of Wilensky\u27s and Chang\u27s non-engagement with the vast body of Western research on slavery, Rutledge argues that an older Afro-Orientalist frame is needed to establish an heuristic sensitive to the ancient East African culture and exceptionalism immanent in the stories Wilensky and Chang treat

On The Panel Unit Root Tests Using Nonlinear Instrumental Variables

This paper re-examines the panel unit root tests proposed by Chang (2002). She establishes asymptotic independence of the t-statistics when integrable functions of lagged dependent variable are used as instruments even if the original series are cross sectionally dependent. She claims that her non-linear instrumental variable (NIV) panel unit root test is valid under general error cross correlations for any N (the cross section dimension) as T (the time dimension of the panel) tends to infinity. These results are largely due to her particular choice of the error correlation matrix which results in weak cross section dependence. Also, the asymptotic independence property of the t- statistics disappears when Chang's modified instruments are used. Using a common factor model with a sizeable degree of cross section correlations, we show that Chang's NIV panel unit root test suffers from gross size distortions, even when N is small relative to T

Eileen Chang and cinema

The death of Eileen Chang on September 8, 1995 in Los Angeles made headlines in all the Chinese newspapers. In the Chinese-speaking areas of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China, a veritable cult of mystique has been built around her by both public media and the large number of her fans (who called themselves Chang-mi or Chang-fans”). However, in the last twenty-three years of her life Chang lived quietly and incognito in Los Angeles, shunning all social contact and escaping publicity by constantly changing her residences in numerous hotels, motels, and small apartment houses until her death in an obscure apartment building in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. This “mystery” of her last years adds only more glamour to her legend: she was like a retired movie star past her prime, like Greta Garbo

Presence of arthralgia exacerbates decreased quality of life in hidradenitis suppurativa patients

Hidradenitis suppurativa is characterized by chronic follicular occlusion that presents with recurrent nodules, inflamed abscesses, and scarring. Research has shown that these patients have a decreased quality of life. In addition to its psychosocial effects, hidradenitis suppurativa has recently been associated with joint pathology. In this study, we distributed a survey consisting of the Short Form 12 Health Survey, used for assessing health outcomes, along with additional questions about joint pain to an online hidradenitis suppurativa support group in order to understand the effect of comorbid arthralgia on quality of life in this disease. The respondents in this study had significantly reduced physical health composite scores-12 (PCS-12), (35.8 versus 50, P<0.001) and mental health composite scores-12 (MCS-12), (33.7 versus 50, P<0.001) scores compared to the general population. Additionally, patients reporting severe arthralgia had significantly lower PCS-12 (32.3 versus 36.5; P<0.05) and MCS-12 (33.3 versus 40.5; P<0.001) scores compared to those with mild arthralgia. Despite the effect of comorbid arthralgia on quality of life, only 11% reported having been asked about joint pain by their dermatologist. Routine screening questions concerning associated arthralgia and diminished quality of life may be helpful during clinician assessment and treatment of hidradenitis suppurativa patients

An idea for a new modeling approach of climatic changes. A correlation study for Cyprus

Mathematical Modeling in climatic changes prediction has been based on more or less simple energy balances considering the Earth along with its atmosphere, with the so-called solar "constant" taken as an invariant. However evidence has been supplied in previous WSEAS Conferences that this constant, S, does not remain a constant but it does fluctuate, following the cycles of the solar activity. Furthermore the transmission parameters concerning the input and the output energy, τ V and τ IR from/to the system Earth-Atmosphere also vary and this reflects the human activity leading to increased greenhouse gas quantities, being blamed for a dramatic climatic change the last decades. Thus, considering those fluctuating properties, the following equation for Earth's mean temperature, T, has been developed (A being albedo equal to 0.3 and σ is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant) (Equation presented) with the following multivariate treatment: (Equation presented) We need to obtain the derivatives: (Equation presented) because all S, τ IR, τ V chang