Urban Studies and the Concept of Microcosm: Theoretical Positioning and Research Perspectives

My intent is to try and expose the reasons why I think that the concept of microcosm is pertinent for research, and specifically for the kind of research we are doing in this group. I'll expose first what I consider the theoretical basis of the concept, and then I'll try to illustrate its possible application and its pertinence, in presenting my own research perspectives on Ottoman towns

Mediterranean Connections: The Circulation of Municipal Knowledge and Practices at the Time of the Ottoman Reforms, c. 1830-1910

Please refer to the published version for quotationsThe question of the circulation of municipal knowledge has benefited in the last decade from a renewed historiographical attention.In a Mediterranean context, the stake is mainly to reconsider our perception of the circulation of ideas that enabled (or constrained) the modernisation of societies during the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The subliminal starting point (but sometimes enounced very explicitly) is that circulations occurred from North to South and West to East. The “Mediterranean Crossings” hypothesis I will explore in this chapter, and illustrate with the case of the urban reforms in the Ottoman Empire, is that circulations were more complex, while modernity, even when imported in its exact form, was interacting dynamically with societies in which processes of change were already in action. The study of circulations in a Mediterranean case is a minefield. It provides opportunities not only to understand the circulation of ideas between different cultures, but also to confront the impact of colonialism and imperialism. The very vision of modernity being prejudiced by these issues, the stake of the promotion of a renewed global history involves a reconsideration of two centuries of unequal circulations and, ultimately, a different reading of the fate of modernity in “subaltern” societies. The study of the Ottoman Empire shows that circulations were more complex than a translation of knowledge from ‘export' to ‘import' societies. It is only with a discussion of ideas on circulation that the complexity of these societies can undo this conventional “reception” mode. The Ottoman Empire is particularly adapted to such a historiographical programme. On the one hand, the concept of Empire has recently aroused new developments in global and imperial history. These have revisited the canonical empires, or developed comparative imperial questions between the Russian, the Habsburg and the Ottoman, bringing about new insights into the treatment of local characters, the dynamics of integration and assimilation, the importance of circulation as a social glue for imperial constructions, and the governance of diversity. As for the Ottoman case, a whole new generation of scholars is especially keen to discuss the complex interaction between local and global, and to reach beyond nation and religion as central paradigms. This is not to suggest that these notions are irrelevant. Yet, as they turn our eyes to specificities and peculiarities, they sometimes mask the dynamics of the circulation of ideas associated with modernity. This insistence on cultural specificities also contributed to the conceptual isolation of the Ottoman region, despite Franz Rosenthal's proposals for a firm inscription of Muslim societies into World History as early as 1952

Formal analysis of intonation: the case of the Kuwaiti dialect of Arabic

A formal analysis of intonation is carried out in this study, which involves an investigation of the intonation system of Kuwaiti Dialect of Arabic (KDA). Following the prosodic framework established in Britain in general and Crystal's theory in particular, intonation is viewed here as a unitary system: tonality, tonicity, and tone. Each system is individually considered (chapters four, five, and six). This study consists of six chapters. The introductory chapter (one) is made up of four distinct parts. After a brief discussion of the importance of intonation in speech, part one gradually presents the progress of knowledge in the field of intonation starting from the very early and hence impressionistic treatments until the most recent and hence adopted phonological/phonetic approach. The language under investigation is phonologically and morphologically explored in part two. Part three explicitly states research objectives, the scope of the investigation and the data, and the methodology upon which the study is based. The final part of chapter one is devoted to an independent account of Arabic intonation. Chapter two discusses different prosodic features, such as; loudness, duration, tempo, and pause, and assesses their contribution to intonational contrasts. It also explores the physical nature of pitch as the prime component of intonation. The major functions of intonation are discussed in chapter three, where it is concluded that intonation is multifunctional. Chapter four is exclusively devoted to a consideration of the grammaticality of tonality. It is concluded here, as supported by statistical investigation, that a KDA speaker paragraphs his flow of speech by means of intonation in such a way as to correspond with the structure of elements of clause rather than it being the case that "one clause is one tone group" as suggested by Halliday (1970). Chapter five discusses the communicative importance of tonicity in speech. The position of tonicity is thoroughly examined and related to the informational and grammatical constructions of the utterance in which it occurs. It is concluded that tonicity in KDA is unpredictable, and that the nucleus is position-free. Tonicity is mainly determined by the speaker's assessment of which segment (segments) to focus as guided by the nature of his message. Chapter six answers questions which are fundamentally related to the physical movement of pitch which constitutes the tone system of KDA. Functionally, pitch contour types are related to their concomitant sentence types. A bidirectional method is applied in analysing the KDA tone system; on the one hand, the 'kinetic' and 'static' movements of pitch are phonetically investigated, and on the other hand, pitch contours are phonologically grouped and functionally related through their syntactic relevance to sentence types. It is then concluded that: (a) KDA has five basic tones; rise, fall, level, rise-fall, and fall-rise, and (b) the distribution of pitch contours as related to sentence types is hardly systematic; while the unmarked/marked distinction is clear with an overwhelming frequency in declaratives (fall) and interrogatives (rise), it is certainly less obvious in the case of exclamations and totally absent in the case of commands

LIMBAH KAYU SEBAGAI MEDIA KARYA SENI LUKIS

Penciptaan ini mempunyai latar belakang limbah yang berada pada lingkungan sekitar, dengan adanya pemanfaatan limbah sebagai bahan yang bermanfaat dan mempunyai nilai ekonomi. Limbah yang dihasilkan adalah jenis limbah padat berupa kayu sebagai media untuk pengganti kanvas. Ada beberapa jenis limbah kayu yang dihasilkan berupa limbah kayu mahoni dan pinus. Bentuk yang dihasilkan bermacam-macam sesuai dengan bentuk sisa-sisa potongan limbah tersebut. Dalam medianya potongan kayu tersebut disusun pada papan seperti bentuk kolase dengan cara ditempel. Fokus penciptaan pada karya ini adalah pemanfaatan limbah kayu sebagai media berkarya seni lukis. Sedangkan tujuan dari penciptaan ini adalah untuk mengurangi pencemaran lingkungan dan menjadikan bahan sisa limbah kayu menjadi karya seni yang mempunyai nilai ekonomi. Metode yang digunakan dalam penciptaan ini adalah metode penciptaan . Tahap penciptaan adalah suatu proses untuk menciptakan karya. Dalam hal ini ada beberapa tahapan yang digunakan untuk proses pembuatan karya seni lukis antara lain; pengamatan visual, menginat/rasional/ lahiriah, rasa/jiwa/ batiniah, seniman, ide, konsep, proses dan hasil karya seni. Pada proses penciptaan limbah kayu sebagai media limbah kayu ini, langkah pertama adalah menyiapkan media kayu berupa sisa-sisa potongan kayu dari berbagai macam bentuk, proses pengamplasan yang mana untuk menghaluskan gerigi-geri kayu untuk mempermudah dalam pewarnaannya, proses penyusunan bentuk kolase yang diaplikasikan untuk media melukisnya, selanjutnya yang terakhir proses penempelan potongan kayu yang menggunakan lem kayu. Setiap potongan kayu dan susunan akan mendapatkan hasil bentuk yang berbeda-beda. Hasil dari penciptaan limbah kayu sebagai media berkarya seni lukis ini mengahsilkan 21panel dalam empat karya dengan berbagai bentuk susunan dan model potongan kayu. Pada karya pertama yang berjudul “Work Housewife (pekerjaan ibu rumah tangga)”, media limbah kayu ini ada 8panel setiap panel berukuran 60x60cm. karya kedua yang berjudul “ Wanita Masa Kini” dengan media kayu ukuran 140x70cm. karya ketiga yang berjudul “Memori” media kayu ini ada 8panel berukuran 40x40cm. Dan yang terakhir karya keempat yang berjudul “ Nada-Nada Indah” media kayu 4panel dengan ukuran 40x40cm.  Kata kunci: Limbah kayu, media, penciptaan, karya seni lukis.&nbsp

The Postmodern Novel in Saudi Arabia and America

In the early twenty-first century, Saudi Arabia is a global economic power that stands as an equal among the other members of the most powerful economic organizations, including as the Group of Twenty and The World Trade Organization. As a result of this economic status and of Saudi Arabia never having been colonized, recent Saudi novels (especially those published after 2001) can usefully be read postmodern, rather than as postcolonial—the usual paradigm in readings of contemporary Arab novels. To establish a reference point, a comparative approach that engages Saudi and American postmodern novels is applied in this dissertation through the critical lens of Fredric Jameson’s theory of postmodernism. I rely on the postmodern features which are listed in M. Keith Booker’s Monsters, Mushroom Clouds, and The Cold War: American Science Fiction and The Roots of Postmodernism, 1946-1964. Girls of Riyadh by Rajā al-Sani\u27, Throwing Sparks by Abdo Khal, and Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart share postmodern features such as schizophrenia, fragmentation, and suspicion toward grand narratives, which demonstrate instability of personality. Weak historical thinking permeates The Dove\u27s Necklace by Raja Alem, Life on Hold by Fahd al-Atiq, and No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. The resulting effect of late capitalism, a weak utopian imagination, shapes the outcomes of Where Pigeons Don\u27t Fly by Yousef al-Mohaimeed, Days of Ignorance by Laila al-Johani, and City of Glass by Paul Auster. Although the project of modernization has not yet been fully completed in Saudi Arabia, the expression of postmodern characteristics is clear in twenty-first century Saudi novels, as might be expected due to Saudi Arabia’s economic positioning in the late capitalist model

Anticancer activity and phytochemical composition of wild Gundelia tournefortii

Artichoke‑like wild thistles are often used in Palestinian cuisine. One of the most commercially recognized species of these wild edible thistles is Gundelia tournefortii, a common plant in the Mediterranean region. G. tournefortii, or ‘Akoob’ in Arabic, remains uncultivated, harvested wild by local populations and considered highly valuable due to its reputed health benefits. The present study aimed to investigate the anticancer effects of G. tournefortii on the human colon carcinoma HCT‑116 cell line. Methanol and hexane extracts were identified to exert considerable antitumor activity against the HCT‑116 cancer cell line, while the aqueous extract was inactive. The phytochemical profiles of the methanol and hexane extracts were investigated using gas chromatography‑mass spectrometry. A total of 6 of the 27 natural compounds identified, including sitosterol, stigmasterol, lupeol, gitoxigenin, α‑amyrin and artemisinin, have been previously validated as being active against cancerous cells. Therefore, the presence of these phytochemicals in G. tournefortii is of importance in its role in preventing and treating cancer. according to different localities. In Palestinian traditional medicine and ethno‑botany, this plant is believed to possess nutritive and curing benefits for diabetes, epilepsy, stomach and intestinal diseases (3,4). According to the literature, it has been validated to exert antioxidant, hepatoprotective and antibacterial effects (1,5). A previous study (2) conducted among Palestinians eating Akoob on a regular basis revealed a consensus belief of its capability to prevent and cure cancer. However, an intensive search of PubMed (using the terms gundelia tournefortii and cancer; on 12th September 2016) indicates that there is no single study on the effects of G. tournefortii extracts against cancer. The present study aimed to investigate the anticancer effects of G. tournefortii on the human colon cancer HCT‑116 cell line. Gas chromatography‑mass spectrometry (GC‑MS) was utilized to explore the potential phytochemicals responsible for the anticancer activity. A total of 27 constituents were identified in G. tournefortii, of which 6 phytochemicals, including sitosterol, stigmasterol, lupeol, gitoxigenin, α‑amyrin and artemisinin have been demonstrated to exhibit anticancer activities. To the best of our knowledge, the present study was the first to investigate the potential benefits of consuming wild edible G. tournefortii for cancer, and to analyze the phytochemical contents known for their anticancer effects.The present study was supported by unrestricted grants from Al‑Qasemi Research Foundation (Baqa‑El‑Gharbia, Israel; grant no. 898002) and Ministry of Science, Technology and Space, Israel