Transportation and Change through an Anthropological Lens

This paper provides a broad overview of anthropological research on roads and transport as a prelude and context for the other papers in this themed issue. The paper begins with a short historical overview of anthropological approaches to roads and transportation. Then it offers a case study on how roads both facilitated and reflected major socio-economic changes in Methana, Greece, reflecting change in the broader context of Greece society. Next, it describes applied social analysis approaches to the design of roads that emerged from the World Bank and related organizations. Finally, it explores the current flowering of anthropological research on roads, which encompasses technopolitical, political ecology, spatial, and semiotic analyses.  A second case study describes efforts to build a “culture” of inclusive road stewardship through a World Bank financed rural roads project in Vietnam. The paper concludes by reflecting on possible future directions for transport anthropology, which offers strategic opportunities to influence large infrastructure investments, transport policy, and anthropological theory

Kiovan Rusin taistelu Jerusalemista : Iigorin sotaretki (1185) ja Hattinin taistelu (1187)

Artikkeli kertoo 1100-luvun lopun ja 1200-luvun alun Kiovan yhteyksistä tuon aikakauden kuuluisimpiin ristiretkitarinoihin. Sen merkittävä tutkimustulos on, että kuuluisa Iigorin laulu, sekä Iigorin sotaretkestä kertovat kronikka-passukset ovat selkeästi saaneet vaikutteita Hattinin taistelun uutisoinnista ristiretkikronikoissa.Peer reviewe

Eigenvalue estimates for submanifolds of warped product spaces

We give lower bounds for the fundamental tone of open sets in minimal submanifolds immersed into warped product spaces of type $N^n \times_f Q^q$, where $f \in C^\infty(N)$. We also study the essential spectrum of these minimal submanifolds.Comment: 17 page

Measure for the Degree of Non-Markovian Behavior of Quantum Processes in Open Systems

We construct a general measure for the degree of non-Markovian behavior in open quantum systems. This measure is based on the trace distance which quantifies the distinguishability of quantum states. It represents a functional of the dynamical map describing the time evolution of physical states, and can be interpreted in terms of the information flow between the open system and its environment. The measure takes on nonzero values whenever there is a flow of information from the environment back to the open system, which is the key feature of non-Markovian dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, published versio

Social cohesion, sexuality, homophobia and women’s sport in South Africa

In the post-Apartheid era sport has been consistently celebrated as an avenue for fostering social change, curing various social ills, and uniting South Africans across the divides of race, class, gender and geography. The argument for using sport to foster social cohesion in South Africa rests on two main assumptions: firstly, that direct participation in sport and physical activity promotes sustained communication, collaboration and understanding across social divides; and secondly, that the success of national teams and athletes promotes national pride and unity. In this article we raise the question of whether sport can indeed foster social cohesion in a context where women’s sports participation and symbolic embodiment of the nation give rise to regulatory schemas that enforce compulsory heterosexuality and mainstream constructs of ‘feminisation’. We explore these issues by drawing on media reports of cases in which South African elite women athletes have had their gender or sexual identities questioned, challenged or regulated according to heteronormative gender regimes. By so doing we argue that efforts to increase women’s sports participation or the promotion of women athletes as embodiments of the nation can contribute to facilitating social cohesion. To realise the potential of sport as a tool for building social cohesion, a conscious and dedicated effort must be made, we argue, to deal more directly with narrow heteronormative gender regimes and the homophobic attitudes and prejudices that these foster.Keywords: Gender, sexuality, homophobia, sport, social cohesion, race,South Afric

Calculation of the Voronoi boundary for lens-shaped particles and spherocylinders

We have recently developed a mean-field theory to estimate the packing fraction of non-spherical particles [A. Baule et al., Nature Commun. (2013)]. The central quantity in this framework is the Voronoi excluded volume, which generalizes the standard hard-core excluded volume appearing in Onsager's theory. The Voronoi excluded volume is defined from an exclusion condition for the Voronoi boundary between two particles, which is usually not tractable analytically. Here, we show how the technical difficulties in calculating the Voronoi boundary can be overcome for lens-shaped particles and spherocylinders, two standard prolate and oblate shapes with rotational symmetry. By decomposing these shapes into unions and intersections of spheres analytical expressions can be obtained.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure

A normative approach to transitions in energy demand: an energy justice and fuel poverty case study

Meeting emissions targets necessitates both the rapid transformation of our physical energy systems and the societies that surround or use them, influencing who uses which energy source, how, and when. Thus, it is inevitable that there will be winners and losers, including the people who, for a variety of reasons, cannot access or afford the benefits from those transitions. In this vein, making sure that all voices are represented in transitions plans and their actualisation is undoubtedly a question of social justice. Yet despite ongoing debates about ethics and justice, one social element missing from transitions frameworks is explicit, practice-oriented engagement with the energy justice concept; an omission that is arguably mirrored in practice. In this regard, this chapter serves a dual purpose. First, it reiterates and reaffirms the need for socially just transitions approaches in energy demand scholarship and explores the role of the energy justice concept in this. Second, through a case study of fuel poverty, it begins to explore what this may practically look like. We close with policy-relevant recommendations

Low-level carbon monoxide exposure affects BOLD fMRI response.

Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) fMRI is a common technique for measuring brain activation that could be affected by low-level carbon monoxide (CO) exposure from, e.g. smoking. This study aimed to probe the vulnerability of BOLD fMRI to CO and determine whether it may constitute a significant neuroimaging confound. Low-level (6 ppm exhaled) CO effects on BOLD response were assessed in 12 healthy never-smokers on two separate experimental days (CO and air control). fMRI tasks were breath-holds (hypercapnia), visual stimulation and fingertapping. BOLD fMRI response was lower during breath holds, visual stimulation and fingertapping in the CO protocol compared to the air control protocol. Behavioural and physiological measures remained unchanged. We conclude that BOLD fMRI might be vulnerable to changes in baseline CO, and suggest exercising caution when imaging populations exposed to elevated CO levels. Further work is required to fully elucidate the impact on CO on fMRI and its underlying mechanisms