Religious Poetry and Musical Performance under King Hammurāpi of Babylon and His Successors

Mit Beginn des 2. Jt. v. Chr. erlebt Mesopotamien einen historischen Wandel auf politischer, sozialer und religiöser Ebene. Aus dem Westen einwandernde so genannte amurritische Dynastien übernehmen die politische Macht in Zentralbabylonien, wo sie ihr eigenes ,akkadi-sches‘ Erbe begründen. Ursprüngliche sumerische Traditionen Südmesopotamiens werden dabei entweder aufrechterhalten, überlagert oder aufgegeben. Vermehrt sind Neuerungen unter König Hammurāpi und seinen Nachfolgern zu verzeichnen. Basierend auf der keilschriftlichen Überlieferung werden in diesem Kapitel Wandlungsprozesse mit Auswirkungen auf die Tempel- und Hofmusik identifiziert und analysiert. Hierbei wird auch der Frage nach den Initiatoren solcher Prozesse und ihrer politischen wie kulturellen Motivation nachgegangen

AN INDEX METHOD FOR SELECTING REPRESENTATIVE CITIES OF A TARGET MARKET

An index was developed to rank U.S. metropolitan areas according to overall similarities in their socio-economic characteristics to the U.S. average. This index is given as a solution to matching a representative city or market area to a target market as well as matching a group of cities which are similar to each other. The index shows stability in ranking these cities with different consumption data for similar products and proves to be a promising approach whenever the researcher must find a group of cities which are similar to each other and to the target market.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Self-Interference Cancellation Using Time-Domain Phase Noise Estimation in OFDM Full-Duplex Systems

In full-duplex systems, oscillator phase noise (PN) problem is considered the bottleneck challenge that may face the self-interference cancellation (SIC) stage especially when orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission scheme is deployed. Phase noise degrades the SIC performance significantly, if not mitigated before or during the SIC technique. The presence of the oscillator phase noise has different impacts on the transmitted data symbol like common phase error (CPE) and inter-carrier interference (ICI). However, phase noise can be estimated and mitigated digitally in either time or frequency domain. Through this work, we propose a novel and simple time domain self-interference (SI) phase noise estimation and mitigation technique. The proposed algorithm is inspired from Wiener filtering in time domain. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has a superior performance than the already-existing time-domain or frequency domain PN mitigation solutions with a noticeable reduction in the computational complexity

Candida albicans blastospores and hyphae respond differentially to fluconazole: additional virulence factor of germination process

Background: The morphologic transition from yeasts (blastospores) to hyphae, through the germination process, is a crucial virulence factor of Candida albicans ( C. albicans), as it enhances adherence, tissue invasion and biofilm formation. The study aimed at comparing fluconazole susceptibility patterns of C. albicans yeast and germinated forms. Methods: Six C. albicans strains, including C. albicans ATCC 10231 and 5 clinical isolates were tested in yeast forms and germinated forms for fluconazole susceptibility using CLSI M27-A3 broth microdilution and CLSI M44-A2 disk diffusion reference methods. Results: Fluconazole minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were 0.125-1 µg/ml and 0.25-4 µg/ml for yeasts and germinated forms, respectively. The sensitivities of yeasts were higher than those of their corresponding germinated forms with 1 to 4-fold dilutions differences. The MIC50s of yeasts and germinated forms were 0.125 and 1 µg/ml, respectively, with 3-fold dilution difference, while MIC90s were 1 and 4 µg/ml for yeasts and germinated forms, respectively, with 2-fold dilution difference. Means of inhibition zones were 31-46.7 mm and 29.3-43.7 mm for yeasts and germinated forms, respectively. The germinated forms of all tested strains had inhibition zones smaller than those of their corresponding yeast forms with 0.2-4.8 mm differences. There was significant statistical difference in sizes of inhibition zones between yeasts and germinated forms (p = 0.043). Conclusions: Yeast and hyphae of C. albicans, both in planktonic state, respond differentially to fluconazole, as the hyphae are less sensitive than their yeasts counterparts, which can be considered as a virulence factor for hyphae, which should be considered in treatment plans of candidal infections.&nbsp

Chapter 28 Media effects on perceptions of societal problems

This chapter focuses specifically on how the news media influence perceptions of societal problems. This research question is discussed and reviewed in three ways. First, to better understand the context and contingencies of media effects on societal perceptions specifically, the outcome variable is related to the broader literature on sociotropic beliefs and cognitive schema theory. Second, classic theories of media effects focusing on societal perceptions are reviewed. The relevance and viability of these theories are discussed in light of the dramatic media environmental transformations of the last two decades. Third, a model of conditional media effects on sociotropic beliefs in contemporary high-choice media environments is proposed and discussed. The chapter concludes with some suggestions for future research on media effects on sociotropic beliefs

Political Participation and Power Relations in Egypt:The Scope of Newspapers and Social Network Sites

The political use of media in Egypt post-2011 revolution brought about drastic transformations in political activism and power structures. In the context of communication power theory, this article investigates the effects of newspapers and social network sites on political participation and political power relations. The research employed a mixed methodology, comprised of a survey of 527 Egyptian youth and semi-structured interviews of 12 political activists and journalists. The results showed a significant relationship between reading newspapers and youth’s political participation, but not between using social network sites and political participation. In addition, newspapers and social network sites were platforms for a series of conflicts and coalitions that emerged between pro- and anti-revolution actors. Despite the importance of social network sites as key tools for informing and mobilizing the public, they eventually failed to empower new political actors, and this was because old actors, supported by newspapers and other mainstream media, managed to obstruct the new actors’ progress

On new extensions of the generalized Hermite matrix polynomials

Various families of generating matrix functions have been established in diverse ways. The objective of the present paper is to investigate these generalized Hermite matrix polynomials, and derive some important results for them, such as, the generating matrix functions, matrix recurrence relations, an expansion of xnI, finite summation formulas, addition theorems, integral representations, fractional calculus operators, and certain other implicit summation formulae