Unsung melodies from margins - By Antony John Baptist

In modern India of 2016, the question as to whether caste is still a moral issue or a political tactic is fiercely debated. The ruling political party and their supporters insist that caste is no longer a relevant issue today, whereas others say that caste affects every aspect of their lives. Debates about caste in India have been happening for at least a hundred years, but this is a pressing issue today for those that feel they have been downtrodden and discriminated against.Into this backdrop, Dr. A. J. Baptist wrote this book, looking at feminism and “Dalit (“down-trodden”) Feminism,” and advocating for a “Dalit Feminist Biblical Scholarship” to be accepted and championed by the nations. He looks at traditional ways of looking at certain texts, and then, teaching about “subaltern hermeneutics,” looks at the same text from the point of view of oppressed women. He also looks to combat the notion that the Bible is necessarily anti-women, looking again at texts from two different viewpoints. Also included are stories of oppression that modern Dalit women do face.In general, though a few sections do seem to not match the theme of the rest of the book, this work advocates for giving voices to “the voiceless,” and allowing them to thrive. It seems that it would be especially pertinent to Indologists, missiologists, theologians, feminist advocates, and advocates for Dalit rights

Unsung melodies from margins - By Antony John Baptist

In modern India of 2016, the question as to whether caste is still a moral issue or a political tactic is fiercely debated. The ruling political party and their supporters insist that caste is no longer a relevant issue today, whereas others say that caste affects every aspect of their lives. Debates about caste in India have been happening for at least a hundred years, but this is a pressing issue today for those that feel they have been downtrodden and discriminated against.Into this backdrop, Dr. A. J. Baptist wrote this book, looking at feminism and “Dalit (“down-trodden”) Feminism,” and advocating for a “Dalit Feminist Biblical Scholarship” to be accepted and championed by the nations. He looks at traditional ways of looking at certain texts, and then, teaching about “subaltern hermeneutics,” looks at the same text from the point of view of oppressed women. He also looks to combat the notion that the Bible is necessarily anti-women, looking again at texts from two different viewpoints. Also included are stories of oppression that modern Dalit women do face.In general, though a few sections do seem to not match the theme of the rest of the book, this work advocates for giving voices to “the voiceless,” and allowing them to thrive. It seems that it would be especially pertinent to Indologists, missiologists, theologians, feminist advocates, and advocates for Dalit rights

Towards a Global Music Theory: Practical Concepts and Methods for the Analysis of Music Across Human Cultures (Mark Hijleh)

Michael T. Balonek reviews Mark Hijleh's Towards a Global Music Theory. What benefits to global music analysis are suggested by Hijleh's book? Balonek critiques the positive and negative aspects of the book and offers guidance about the right readership

Experimental and Modeling Analysis of the Thermal Behavior of an Autothermal C 3

In this work, a spatially resolved sampling technique is applied to characterize the performance of a C3H8 CPO reformer and to compare it with that of a CH4 reformer. The case of Rh-coated honeycomb catalysts is examined. The axial profiles show that higher temperatures are reached in C3H8 CPO, especially at the reactor inlet. Surface hot-spot temperatures around 950 °C lead the catalyst to rapid loss of activity. A detailed model analysis is also applied to better understand the reasons for the observed differences of the thermal behavior. On one hand, the heat release via oxidation reactions is controlled by O2 mass transfer rate and thus proportional to O2 inlet concentration, which is 20% higher in the C3H8/air mixture at equal C/O ratio. On the other hand, while CH4 steam reforming is partly chemically controlled, C3H8 steam reforming is mainly limited by gas–solid diffusion. Thus, a less efficient balance between exo- and endothermic reactions occurs in the case of C3H8 CPO, and this results in much higher hot-spot temperatures. As a consequence, specific strategies for the optimization of the thermal behavior are required depending on the fuel. Modeling of the C3H8 CPO results shows that an increased catalyst load or a suitable aspect ratio of the reactor, combined with a decrease of the flow rate, produces a beneficial moderation of the hot-spot temperature of the catalytic wall