Other Periods (other + period)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Supreme Court Advocacy in the Early Nineteenth Century

JOURNAL OF SUPREME COURT HISTORY, Issue 1 2005
DAVID C. FREDERICK
The early nineteenth century was transformative of the Supreme Court's practices. Yet understanding those fundamental changes requires some appreciation of practice before the Court in the late eighteenth century, and the developments in the early nineteenth century produced changes in the Court's practices that are still felt today. In this first half-century or so of the Court's existence, more dramatic developments and changes occurred in oral argument practice than in any other period of the Court's history.1 [source]


Associational links with home among Zimbabweans in the UK: reflections on long-distance nationalisms

GLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 2 2009
JOANN MCGREGOR
Abstract In this article, I provide an overview of the character of associations formed in Britain by Zimbabweans in the context of the mass exodus that gathered pace from the late 1990s. I discuss the politicization of the Zimbabwe diaspora, which infuses many aspects of associational life beyond specifically political organizations, and also emphasize the importance of Zimbabwean church fellowships. I offer an historical explanation for the strength of nationalism expressed in the diaspora and the absence of ,translocal' associations characteristic of other African diaspora groups, such as hometown associations, and explore reasons why burial societies, which have been centrally important for Zimbabwean migrants in other periods and contexts, are less prevalent in Britain. I build my argument on an historical discussion of continuities and changes in the associational forms characteristic of labour migrancy and urbanization within the southern African region. I emphasize the legacies of a strong segregationist settler state, the mobilizations and international solidarities of the protracted struggle for independence, the Christianization of elite African culture in Zimbabwe's cities, and the international politics of the recent multifaceted crisis. My discussion of the associational expression of ,long distance nationalisms' is based on interviews conducted in 2004,5, participation in diaspora meetings and events, and reading of diaspora media and websites. In the article I aim to highlight the specific social histories of association and the political context of diaspora formation, which are essential for understanding the nature of institutions connecting with home, and ideas about home itself. [source]


The impact of storm events on solute exports from a glaciated forested watershed in western New York, USA

HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 16 2006
S. P. Inamdar
Abstract This study analysed the importance of precipitation events from May 2003 to April 2004 on surface water chemistry and solute export from a 696 ha glaciated forested watershed in western New York State, USA. The specific objectives of the study were to determine: (a) the temporal patterns of solutes within individual storm events; (b) the impact of precipitation events on seasonal and annual export budgets; and (c) how solute concentrations and loads varied for precipitation events among seasons as functions of storm intensity and antecedent moisture conditions. Analysis of solute trajectories showed that NH4+, total Al and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) peaked on the hydrograph rising limb, whereas dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations peaked following the discharge peak. Sulphate and base-cations displayed a dilution pattern with a minimum around peak discharge. End-member mixing analysis showed that throughfall contributions were highest on the rising limb, whereas valley-bottom riparian waters peaked following the discharge peak. The trajectories of NO3, concentrations varied with season, indicating the influence of biotic processes on the generation, and hence flux, of this solute. Storm events had the greatest impact on the annual budgets for NH4+, K+, total dissolved Al, DON and DOC. Storm events during summer had the greatest impact on seasonal solute budgets. Summer events had the highest hourly discharges and high concentrations of solutes. However, NO3, and DOC exports during a spring snowmelt event were considerably more than those observed for large events during other periods of the year. Comparisons among storms showed that season, precipitation amount, and antecedent moisture conditions affected solute concentrations and loads. Concentrations of solutes were elevated for storms that occurred after dry antecedent conditions. Seven of the largest storms accounted for only 15% of the annual discharge, but were responsible for 34%, 19%, 64%, 13%, 39% and 24% of the annual exports of NH4+, K+, Al, NO3,, DON and DOC respectively. These results suggest that the intense and infrequent storms predicted for future climate-change scenarios will likely increase the exports of solutes like DOC, DON, NH4+, Al and K+ from watersheds. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Circadian patterns of gastric electrical and mechanical activity in dogs

NEUROGASTROENTEROLOGY & MOTILITY, Issue 1 2008
R. Aviv
Abstract, Gastric motor function assessment, in humans and animals, is typically performed for short recording periods. The aim of this article was to monitor gastric electrical and motor activity in the antrum and fundus simultaneously, for long periods, using a new implantable system. Ten dogs were implanted with fundic and antral electrodes for assessment of impedance and electrical activity. Dogs were studied while in cages, for periods of 22,26 h. From late evening and until feeding on the next day, slow wave (SW) rhythm demonstrated a distinct pattern of intermittent pauses (mean duration = 22.8 ±4.1 s) that delineated groups of SW's. Phasic increases in fundic tone were seen mostly in association with SW pauses, and were highly correlated with antral contractions, R2 = 0.652, P < 0.05. The SW rate (events per minute) in the postprandial period, fasting and night time was 4.2 ± 0.2, 5 ± 0.2 and 4.7 ± 0.3, respectively, P < 0.05 postprandial vs other periods. Antral and fundic mechanical activities were highly correlated during fasting, particularly at night. This novel method of prolonged gastric recording provides valuable data on the mechanical and electrical activity of the stomach, not feasible by current methods of recording. During fasting, fundic and antral motor activities are highly correlated and are associated with periodic pauses in electrical activity. [source]


THE DOUBLE-AXE: A CONTEXTUAL APPROACH TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF A CRETAN SYMBOL IN THE NEOPALATIAL PERIOD

OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 1 2010
MATTHEW HAYSOM
Summary The Double-Axe has always been considered as one of the most important religious symbols in Minoan Crete. This paper reassesses the significance of the Double-Axe and puts forward a new interpretation for it. It recognizes the great potential for change in symbolic meanings during the Bronze Age and seeks to understand the Double-Axe in as narrow a period as is realistically possible by filtering out evidence from other periods. Central to the argument is the principle that the meaning of symbols is contextually dependent. It builds, therefore, a new interpretation of the Double-Axe on the basis of as wide a range of contextual associations as possible, both within iconographic sources and in the wider material record. From these contextual associations, it suggests that in the Neopalatial period the Double-Axe was a symbol primarily associated with a social group which exercised power in the economic, military and religious realms and that it became a solely religious symbol only later. [source]


PIGS FOR THE GODS: BURNT ANIMAL SACRIFICES AS EMBODIED RITUALS AT A MYCENAEAN SANCTUARY

OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2004
YANNIS HAMILAKIS
Summary. The archaeology of animal sacrifice has attracted considerable attention, although discussions on the meanings and social effects of the practice in different contexts are rather under-developed. In the Aegean, classical antiquity has provided abundant literary, zooarchaeological and iconographic evidence (and has inspired some excellent studies) but it has also overshadowed discussion on sacrifice in other periods. Until recently, it was assumed that burnt animal sacrifices (i.e. the ritual burning of bones or parts of the carcass, often taken to be offerings to the deities) were absent from the pre-classical contexts. Recent studies have shown this not to be the case. This article reports and discusses evidence for burnt animal sacrifices from the sanctuary of Ayios Konstantinos at Methana, north-east Peloponnese. It constitutes the first, zooarchaeologically verified such evidence from a sanctuary context. The main sacrificial animals seem to have been juvenile pigs, which were transported as whole carcasses into the main cultic room; non-meaty parts were selected for burning whereas their meaty parts were first consumed by humans and then thrown into the fire (some neonatal pigs may have been thrown into the fire whole). The article integrates zooarchaeological, other contextual, and comparative archaeological evidence and explores the social roles and meanings of sacrifice in the Mycenaean context and more broadly. It is suggested that, rather than focusing on possible continuities of the practice through to the classical period (an issue which remains ambiguous), sacrifice should be meaningfully discussed within the broader framework of the archaeology of feasting, and more generally food consumption, as a socially important, sensory embodied experience. The evidence from Ayios Konstantinos may reveal a hitherto eluding phenomenon: small-scale, sacrificial-feasting ritual in a religious context, conferring cosmological and ideological powers on few individuals, through the participation in an intense, embodied, transcendental experience. [source]


Exploring Romano,British finds assemblages

OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 4 2002
H. E. M. Cool
This paper presents a synthesis of current approaches to the comparison of archaeological assemblages. It draws its data from Roman Britain but the methodology discussed is equally applicable to other periods and places. Different types of assemblages including those of small finds, broken vessels and animal bones are discussed, and the problems relating to quantification are considered. The different sorts of questions that may be asked of data of varying quality are examined, and it is shown that even ,poor quality' data can provide useful insights into past societies. It is argued that to explore the full richness of the data available, multivariate statistics are an invaluable tool and this is illustrated by exploration of two groups of assemblages using Correspondence Analysis. Finally, attitudes within the archaeological community which may prove a barrier to further advances are examined. [source]


Equity Premia as Low as Three Percent?

THE JOURNAL OF FINANCE, Issue 5 2001
Evidence from Analysts' Earnings Forecasts for Domestic, International Stock Markets
The returns earned by U.S. equities since 1926 exceed estimates derived from theory, from other periods and markets, and from surveys of institutional investors. Rather than examine historic experience, we estimate the equity premium from the discount rate that equates market valuations with prevailing expectations of future flows. The accounting flows we project are isomorphic to projected dividends but use more available information and narrow the range of reasonable growth rates. For each year between 1985 and 1998, we find that the equity premium is around three percent (or less) in the United States and five other markets. [source]


FRW minisuperspace with local N=4 supersymmetry and self-interacting scalar field

ANNALEN DER PHYSIK, Issue 3 2003
P. Vargas Moniz
Abstract A supersymmetric FRW model with a scalar supermultiplet and generic superpotential is analysed from a quantum cosmological perspective. The corresponding Lorentz and supersymmetry constraints allow to establish a system of first order partial differential equations from which solutions can be obtained. We show that this is possible when the superpotential is expanded in powers of a parameter ,,1. At order ,0 we find the general class of solutions, which include in particular quantum states reported in the current literature. New solutions are partially obtained at order ,1, where the dependence on the superpotential is manifest. These classes of solutions can be employed to find states for higher orders in ,. Our analysis further points to the following: (i) supersymmetric wave functions can only be found when the superpotential has either an exponential behaviour, an effective cosmological constant form or is zero; (ii) If the superpotential behaves differently during other periods, the wave function is trivial ( = 0, i.e., no supersymmetric states). We conclude this paper discussing how our FRW minisuperspace (with N = 4 supersymmetry and invariance under time-reparametrization) can be relevant concerning the issue of supersymmetry breaking. [source]


A STUDY OF GLASS TESSERAE FROM MOSAICS IN THE MONASTERIES OF DAPHNI AND HOSIOS LOUKAS (GREECE)

ARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 5 2010
R. ARLETTI
In this work 51 glass mosaic tesserae from decorations of the two Greek monasteries of Daphni and Hosios Loukas were analysed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy, electron microprobe analysis and X-ray powder diffraction. On the basis of the chemical analyses, after discrimination between the tesserae of the original decorations and those from other periods, it was possible to outline the distinctive traits of Byzantine mosaic tesserae. In both the monasteries, the original mosaics were decorated with tesserae produced with plant ash based glass, either of the typical composition or a mixture with natron type glass. The samples from the Hosios Loukas decorations show a more homogeneous composition compared with those from Daphni. The major differences among the original samples are due to the presence of opacifiers and colourants. [source]


Do Controlling Shareholders Manage the Timing of Information Disclosure When Making a Stock Gift?,

ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL STUDIES, Issue 6 2009
Woon-Oh Jung
Abstract In Korea, controlling shareholders in general tend to transfer their shares to their family members or related parties. In this paper, we investigate whether Korean controlling shareholders attempt to influence stock prices by managing the timing of information disclosures when they transfer stocks to related parties as gifts. Because gift taxes are levied based on the average market value of the stock transferred for a certain period known as the valuation period, controlling shareholders may have incentives to depress the stock prices in this period in order to reduce the gift tax. We make a specific conjecture that controlling shareholders may wish to time the disclosure of good news and bad news so that the latter (the former) is released during (outside of) the valuation period for the stock to be transferred. To test this hypothesis we examine the disclosure timing of good and bad news for a sample of 118 gift transactions by 83 firms over the period of 2000,2004. We find that during the valuation period (i.e., the 4-month period extending over the 2 months before and after the gift transaction) the frequency of good news was considerably lower than in other periods, whereas the frequency of bad news during the valuation period was substantially higher. This result supports the hypothesis that controlling shareholders may delay good news and bring forward bad news in an attempt to influence stock prices during the valuation period. Despite the attempts by controlling shareholders to keep stock prices depressed in the valuation period, we also find that the prices tend to increase after the gift announcement date. We provide some of the potential explanations for the upward price movement subsequent to gift transactions. [source]