Reviews

Computers and Typography edited by Rosemary Sassoon, Oxford, Intellect, 1993. ISBN: 1–871516–23–4

Social Innovation Policy In Europe: Where Next?

The global challenges we face are resistant to conventional policy measures. Tackling issues like inequality, climate change and migration requires new thinking, new collaborations and new practices. Meanwhile, it is widely argued that to create an inclusive and cohesive society, we need more people to be involved in these processes.This builds the case for policymakers to take a different perspective on innovation. Innovation has long been an interest for public policy, but mainly for the purposes of economic (or military) advancement. Now, however, policymakers are increasingly becoming interested in how innovation can be directed to broader social goals, and how innovation processes can be opened up to a much broader range of people and organisations

Social innovation policy in Europe: where next?

The European Commission (EC) has been a leading proponent of social innovation for over ten years. The Commission and its Directorates-General have used several of the policy levers at its disposal - from structural funds and public procurement to regulation - to promote social innovation at a European level and in Member States, while working to facilitate international collaboration. In recent years a number of social innovation experiments and policies have emerged. As a result, we can start to see how ‘social innovation policy’ might eventually emerge as a recognised policy field. Although good progress has been made, the degree to which social innovation is supported by different parts of the Commission remains uneven. In the first of its annual policy reports, ‘Social innovation policy in Europe: where next?’, published late in 2016, the Social Innovation Community set out the future vision of what a distinctive field of social innovation policy could look like. While support for social innovation at a European level has gained ground in recent years, the report challenges European policymakers to go further in forging this new field, in particular by: 1. Creating a more joined-up approach to social innovation policy within the European Commission, as well as by policymakers at sub-EU level. 2. Empowering policymakers to use the tools of social innovation to make better policy. 3. Helping to find ways to enable social innovation to flourish in those places where the concept is still new but could add great benefit

The Interaction of morphological and stereotypical gender information in Russian

Previous research, for example in English, French, German, and Spanish, has investigated the interplay between grammatical gender information and stereotype gender information (e.g., that secretaries are usually female, in many cultures), in the interpretation of both singular noun phrases (the secretary) and plural nouns phrases, particularly so-called generic masculines—nouns that have masculine grammatical gender but that should be able to refer to both groups of men and mixed groups of men and women. Since the studies have been conducted in cultures with broadly similar stereotypes, the effects generally reflect differences in the grammatical systems of the languages. Russian has a more complex grammatical gender system than the languages previously studied, and, unlike those languages frequently presents examples in which grammatical gender is marked on the predicate (in an inflection on the verb). In this study we collected stereotype norms for 160 role names in Russian, providing a useful resource for further work in this language. We also conducted a reading time study examining the interaction of grammatical and stereotype gender information in the interpretation of both Russian singular noun phrases, and plurals that were (potentially) generic masculines. Our results show that, although both types of gender information are used, when available, the effects of grammatical marking on the predicate are not as strong as those of such marking on subject noun phrases

Quatre prophètes coraniques

1. Noé Dans la Sourate al-Taḥrīm (66, « Déclarer illicite »), le Coran s’occupe d’un problème entre le Prophète et ses femmes (v. 3-5). La tradition nous raconte qu’il s’agit d’un complot de deux femmes de Muhammad – Ḥafṣa et ʿĀ’isha – contre sa concubine, Marie la Copte, un complot qui s’est déroulé durant la période médinoise. Suite aux références aux problèmes domestiques du Prophète, le Coran donne l’exemple de deux femmes infidèles et de deux femmes fidèles : 66.10. Allah a cité en parab..

Quatre prophètes coraniques

1. Noé Dans la Sourate al-Taḥrīm (66, « Déclarer illicite »), le Coran s’occupe d’un problème entre le Prophète et ses femmes (v. 3-5). La tradition nous raconte qu’il s’agit d’un complot de deux femmes de Muhammad – Ḥafṣa et ʿĀ’isha – contre sa concubine, Marie la Copte, un complot qui s’est déroulé durant la période médinoise. Suite aux références aux problèmes domestiques du Prophète, le Coran donne l’exemple de deux femmes infidèles et de deux femmes fidèles : 66.10. Allah a cité en parab..

The Qur'an Seminar Commentary

The Qur'an Seminar Commentary is an unprecedented work of collaboration in the field of Qur'anic Studies, involving the insights of 25 scholars on 50 Qur'anic passages. These scholars represent a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds and provide readers with unique insights into the latest trends of research in the Qur'an. This Commentary is a useful and illuminating reference work for students and scholars in the field of Qur'anic Studies

The Role of Diffusive Shock Acceleration on Nonequilibrium Ionization in Supernova Remnant Shocks II: Emitted Spectra

We present a grid of nonequilibrium ionization models for the X-ray spectra from supernova remnants undergoing efficient diffusive shock acceleration. The calculation follows the hydrodynamics of the blast wave as well as the time-dependent ionization of the plasma behind the shock. The ionization state is passed to a plasma emissivity code to compute the thermal X-ray emission, which is combined with the emission from nonthermal synchrotron emission to produce a self-consistent model for the thermal and nonthermal emission from cosmic-ray dominated shocks. We show how plasma diagnostics such as the G'-ratio of He-like ions, defined as the ratio of the sum of the intercombination, forbidden, and satellite lines to the resonance line, can vary with acceleration efficiency, and discuss how the thermal X-ray emission, when the time-dependent ionization is not calculated self-consistently with the hydrodynamics, can differ from the thermal X-ray emission from models which do account for the hydrodynamics. Finally we compare the thermal X-ray emission from models which show moderate acceleration (~ 35%) to the thermal X-ray emission from test-particle models.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures. accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

The Qur'an Seminar Commentary

The Qur'an Seminar Commentary is an unprecedented work of collaboration in the field of Qur'anic Studies, involving the insights of 25 scholars on 50 Qur'anic passages. These scholars represent a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds and provide readers with unique insights into the latest trends of research in the Qur'an. This Commentary is a useful and illuminating reference work for students and scholars in the field of Qur'anic Studies

Vertical tillage parameters to optimize energy consumption

Proper selection and correct use of machinery in agriculture must be understood as a component of a process which aims to optimize crop yield and to make a more efficient use of resources. The objective of this study was the assessment of different chisel plow body arrangements using different settings of the most important operating parameters for tillage work in order to optimize energy consumption for vertical tillage. The influence of different operating parameters of tillage tools on the performance in cultivation practice must be considered before applying deep plowing for a more efficient use of energy. The parameters considered in this study were: 1) working depth based in the critical depth theory 2) position and spacing of chisels 3) number of bodies and 4) usage of wings or sweeps. The field work was divided into five different groups of chisel arrangements and a control group. The field experiment was performed using an articulated chisel plow prototype allowing the setting of those operation parameters, an integral force transducer with three extended octagonal rings to measure the draft forces (kN) and a perfilometer to determine the cross-sectional area of soil disturbed (m2) in terms of specific resistance of the soil (kN/m2) were used. The total energy consumption for disturbed soil area (MJ ha-1) was determined assessing the area under the curve generated by draft force using Matlab R2012b V software.The results shown that the best arrangement for vertical deep tillage was the one integrated by four shallow chisels working at 0.20 m and two deep winged chisel at 0.30 m when compared with the integral arrangements of seven chisels working at the same depth of 0.30 m. A significant savings up to 23.9% in the total energy consumed, 40% in power demand and 38.7% in the specific soil resistance was obtained with an increase of 7.35% in disturbed soil area.The best arrangement for vertical deep tillage was the T13 treatment (four shallow chisels at 0.20 m and two deep winged at 0.30 m) when compared with the integral arrangements T15 (seven chisels at the same deep of 0.30 m) the results have shown highly significant savings up to 23.9% in the total energy consumed, 40% in power demand, and 38.7% in the specific soil resistance, with a non-significant increase of 7.35% in disturbed soil area.