Mediamusic (E-Journal)
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Early Christian ‚Binding Spells‘? The Formulas in 1 Cor 12:3 Read Against the Background of Ancient Curse Tablets
No full textThe Use of Spells and Curses in Antiquity Curses or binding spells were frequently used in antiquity1 to assert a person’s wishes and claims by trying to control opponents and competitors by inflicting physical, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual harm or even death.2 Curse texts were written on a variety of materials, for example, papyrus, ostraca, shells, or metal sheets.3 Curses and binding spells were also used in the form of inscriptions on buildings, boundary stones, grave epitaphs, or votive offerings. Of special interest in this chapter is a corpus of texts so far widely neglected in New Testament Studies: the defixionum tabellae, short defixiones, ancient curse tablets—thin lead tablets inscribed with curses, which were rolled up or folded, sometimes pierced by nails or needles, and often buried near shrines or temples or deposited in graves or wells.4 The lead itself, originally simply a cheap writing material, became a carrier of meaning over time, for the cold of the lead, its weight, and its property of being easily meltable, for example, are associated with the desired magical effect on the victim
The Supervisor's Toolkit:Strategies of Supervisors to Entrust and Regulate Autonomy of Residents in the Operating Room
No full textOBJECTIVE: To identify what strategies supervisors use to entrust autonomy during surgical procedures and to clarify the consequences of each strategy for a resident's level of autonomy.BACKGROUND: Entrusting autonomy is at the core of teaching and learning surgical procedures. The better the level of autonomy matches the learning needs of residents, the steeper their learning curves. However, entrusting too much autonomy endangers patient outcome, while entrusting too little autonomy results in expertise gaps at the end of training. Understanding how supervisors regulate autonomy during surgical procedures is essential to improve intraoperative learning without compromising patient outcome.METHODS: In an observational study, all the verbal and nonverbal interactions of 6 different supervisors and residents were captured by cameras. Using the iterative inductive process of conversational analysis, each supervisor initiative to guide the resident was identified, categorized, and analyzed to determine how supervisors affect autonomy of residents.RESULTS: In the end, all the 475 behaviors of supervisors to regulate autonomy in this study could be classified into 4 categories and nine strategies: I) Evaluate the progress of the procedure: inspection (1), request for information (2), and expressing their expert opinion (3); II) Influence decision-making: explore (4), suggest (5), or declare the next decision (6); III) Influence the manual ongoing action: adjust (7), or stop the resident's manual activity (8); IV) take over (9).CONCLUSIONS: This study provides new insights into how supervisors regulate autonomy in the operating room. This insight is useful toward analyzing whether supervisors meet learning needs of residents as effectively as possible.</p
A flexible and swift approach for 3D image–based survey in a cave
No full textIn the geomatics field, modelling and georeferencing complex speleological structures are some of the most challenging issues. The use of conventional survey methods (for example, those employing total stations or terrestrial laser scanner) becomes more difficult, especially because of the space constraints and the often critical light conditions. In this work, a flexible and swift methodology to survey an in-progress excavation is presented, through image-based modelling techniques. The proposed approach allows obtaining a reliable and georeferenced three-dimensional model of the underground environments, preserving the integrity of the scene. The 3D model is scaled and georeferenced through three ground control points located just outside the cave, using data acquired by a double-frequency GNSS receiver in static session mode. Further targets were employed to check the deformation of the model inside the cave. The surveys were conducted on two archaeological sites: La Sassa cave and Guattari cave, both located in southern Latium
Platform pop:disentangling Spotify’s intermediary role in the music industry
No full textIt has been widely recognized that platforms utilize their editorial capacity to transform the industries they intermediate. In this paper, we examine the intermediary role of the leading audio streaming platform – Spotify – on the recorded music industry. Spotify is often called the ‘new radio’ for the influence it has on breaking songs and artists, and for the role it plays in music discovery and consumption. Our purpose is to determine whether Spotify is leveling the playing field or entrenching hierarchies between major labels and independent labels. We attempt to answer this question through a longitudinal analysis of content owners (major labels or ‘indies’) and formats (albums, tracks, or playlists) promoted by Spotify through its global Twitter account: @Spotify. As a carefully curated venue for corporate speech @Spotify provides a window into continuities and changes in Spotify’s corporate strategy. By using @Spotify as a proxy through which to track patterns of promotion between the years 2012 and 2018, this paper offers a novel empirical examination of how Spotify is shaping the consumption of music, and in turn the structure of the recording industry. In doing so, we provide evidence for speculating about the future of the recorded music industry in a platform era
Who Controls the Smart City? From Machines of Loving Grace to a Democratic Transformation from Below
No full textIn this paper, I argue that smart cities instantiate a form of what Herbert Marcuse called “technological rationality”: that is, the process whereby substantive political questions are reduced to ostensibly “neutral” questions of efficiency or cost-effectiveness. Unfortunately, I argue, technological rationality coheres poorly with the necessarily inefficient deliberative and aggregative procedures upon which the legitimacy of democratic systems is premised. Considering that incompatibility, we need to reconceptualise what smart cities are and how they function. These technologies, I argue, need to undergo what Andrew Feenberg calls a “democratic transformation from below”; a transformation whereby citizens can bring smart technologies under collective control, thus preserving the legitimacy of democratic systems. This democratic transformation gives the polis an opportunity to recognise and discuss the affordances that smart technologies offer—and, by extension, an opportunity to collectively and systematically address the philosophical question of what a city can and should be.</p
Early termination in interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation:numbers, timing, and reasons. A mixed method study
No full textPURPOSE: To analyse the number of, timing of, and reasons for early termination of interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation (IPR).METHODS: A multicentre study in two Dutch rehabilitation centres with a mixed method design. Quantitative part: retrospective patient file review of all IPR patients. Qualitative part: 20 semi-structured patient interviews with early IPR terminators.RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-seven of 428 participants (31.3%) had terminated IPR early, of which almost 30% had a positive reason. Of a planned treatment duration of 12 weeks, the median (interquartile range (IQR)) reduction was 5.3 week (3.0; 8.0). Over 80% of the early terminators with negative reasons stopped in the first half of IPR, whereas approximately 55% of the early terminators with positive reasons stopped in the final quarter of IPR. A discrepancy between patient expectations of the aim and content and the actual IPR was mentioned as a negative reason for early termination. Many of the positive early terminators were able to self-manage.CONCLUSIONS: Previously reported figures on early termination were confirmed. Early termination of IPR should not be considered negative per se, because a substantial proportion of early terminations have a positive reason. Negative early terminators tend to stop earlier during IPR, compared to positive terminators. Implications for rehabilitation Substantial rates of patients (31%) terminate interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation (IPR) earlier than planned. Early IPR termination should not be considered negative per se, because a substantial proportion of early terminations have a positive reason (i.e. goals achieved early). Although patients receive extensive personalised information about aim and content of IPR before starting, early terminators with a negative reason often have different expectations about the aim and content of treatment. Clinicians and researchers should be focused on how to explain IPR to the patient and check whether the patient has understood it well and is convinced of its credibility.</p
Socioeconomic Health Inequalities in Europe:The Role of Law and Human Rights
No full textThis chapter discusses the role of law and human rights in socioeconomic health inequalities in Europe. Given that socioeconomic health inequalities are largely unnecessary and avoidable, it is widely claimed that they lead to health inequities (i.e., avoidable inequalities in health). Addressing health inequities is considered to be an ‘ethical imperative’ and a ‘matter of social justice’. Human rights standards provide a moral and legal framework for assessing matters of social justice, including socioeconomic health inequalities. This chapter analyses how the main European organizations (EU and Council of Europe) address health inequalities. Specific attention is paid to the role of human rights law as a tool that may give support and priority to improving health and reducing inequities. By way of explaining how social determinants are addressed at the domestic level, the chapter discusses (the approaches to) socioeconomic health inequalities in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The chapter establishes that while not as dramatic as in the United States, socioeconomic health inequalities are a reality in Europe, and that inequalities have widened both between and within European countries. It concludes that reducing health inequalities should be a key priority in European and domestic health policy, and that human rights law plays an important role in informing what needs to be done
Can black swans be tamed with a flexible mean-variance specification?
No full textWe examine the homogeneity of the highly improbable returns, what practitioners and the mainstream economic press also call black swan events. By setting up a simple framework and using the benchmark stock market indices of all OECD countries, we find that the frequency of black swans varies greatly over the last two decades often with dramatic changes that can be related to major economic events. Moreover, during the global financial crisis, black swans were substantially more frequent for most countries even after controlling for the level of volatility. This implies that, despite the plethora of appropriate financial instruments to counter this effect, during an obvious economic turmoil, stock markets are still more likely to experience highly improbable events.</p
Putting the Cart Before the Horse:Ernest Nagel and the Uncertainty Principle
No full textIn The Structure of Science, Ernest Nagel finds fault with Werner Heisenberg’s explication of the uncertainty principle. Nagel’s complaint is that this principle does not follow from the impossibility of measuring with precision both the position and the momentum of a particle, as Heisenberg intimates, rather it is the other way around. Recent developments in theoretical physics have shown that Nagel’s argument is more substantial than he could have envisaged. In particular it has become clear that there are in fact two uncertainty principles; as a result, there are four pairs of quantities to examine, whereas Heisenberg considers only one. These findings throw new light on Nagel’s criticism. They enable us to see that his intuition was surprisingly apposite, but also make clear where his argument misses the mark
Multifaceted effects of globalisation on welfare attitudes:When winners and losers join forces
No full textHow does economic globalisation influence individuals’ welfare state preferences? Moving beyond the unidimensional understanding of globalisation exposure, we intersect two dimensions of exposure perceptions (gain vs loss and individual vs societal impacts) and propose a novel typology: collective winner, lone winner, lone loser and collective loser. We then explain the preference gap among losers (collective losers vis-à-vis lone losers) and among winners (collective winners vis-à-vis lone winners) by considering three distinct motivations for welfare state support: compensation, risk-pooling and inequality reduction. We illustrate the usefulness of our typology using an original survey in South Korea. We find that lone winners are far more supportive of welfare spending than collective winners. At the same time, collective losers are found to be much more supportive of welfare spending than lone losers. We provide some first-cut evidence that the insurance-seeking motivation common to lone winners and collective losers drive their welfare state support