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Exploring the Mysteries of Babylonian Astronomy with Maple
No full textModern scholarship asserts that the Babylonians were able to determine the synodic periods (discussed below) of the outer planets with exceptional accuracy. We experimented with a simple Maple mathematical software model to see if we could mathematically re-create the synodic cycles of Mars determined by Babylonian astronomers starting from around 400 BC. We sought first to understand whether unique planetary cycles known as Goal-Year periods which the Babylonians gleaned from centuries of observation were mathematically inevitable. We wanted to determine their accuracy quantitatively and find out if other plausible Goal-Year choices were available to them. The Babylonians also invented a method of using Goal-Years in error-canceling combinations to create long-term ‘exact’ periods that markedly improved the accuracy of their planetary predictions for centuries ahead. We tested whether the mathematical method surmised by scholars made sense in terms of our own program and whether we could replicate it. This paper is a report on the success of those efforts
Entretien avec le cinéaste égyptien Khairy Beshara sur Le Collier et le bracelet
No full textRelying on the expressive power of polysemic cinematographic language and on his own experience in the field of documentary as well as the cinematic references that have shaped his conception of cinema, Khairy Beshara has managed to capture the soul of Yahya Tahar Abdallah’s work while imbuing it with his own aesthetic and ideological vision. He has thus succeeded in striking a balance between reinvention and fidelity. We had the opportunity to meet him and to talk about the key moments that allowed his film adaptation project to see the light of day.En s’appuyant sur la force expressive du langage cinématographique polysémique et en puisant dans son expérience dans le domaine des documentaires ainsi que dans les références cinématographiques qui ont façonné sa conception du cinéma, Khairy Beshara a su capter l’âme de l’œuvre de Yahya Tahar Abdallah tout en l’imprégnant de sa vision esthétique et idéologique. Il a réussi ainsi à trouver la juste mesure entre la réinvention et la fidélité. Mais, comment a alors évolué l’adaptation cinématographique au sein du cinéma égyptien depuis cette époque ? Nous avons eu la chance de le rencontrer et de parler avec lui des points et des moments clés qui ont permis à son projet d’adaptation cinématographique de voir le jour
Locke's Ethics of Virtuous Thinking
No full textLocke is generally taken as promoting an ethics of belief. For him, we must apply a doxastic norm so that we properly conduct our understanding. Thus, he forcefully highlights one key epistemic norm, the norm of evidence, that prescribes that we adjust the strength of our assent to the available evidence. I shall argue that Of the Conduct of the Understanding constitutes the framework within which Locke’s remarks in the Essay must be inserted. Far from promoting a mere ethics of belief, Locke actually promotes a virtue epistemology, or an ethics of virtuous thinking. Contrary to doxastic anti-voluntarism, this new way of apprehending Locke’s remarks does not downplay the role of the will. But compared to doxastic voluntarism, it gives its due role to the will (it is not devoted to the control of our assent, but to the ordering the consideration of an idea, or the forbearing to consider it, which is at the bottom of the acquisition of intellectual habits). Moreover, it takes into account important aspects of our intellectual life, namely diachronic and social aspects
Une francophonie palimpseste
No full textIntroduction aux entrevues du numéro et à la nouvelle « Joe, la chienne de vie ».Introduction aux entrevues du numéro et à la nouvelle « Joe, la chienne de vie »
Long-time behavior of a nonlocal dispersal logistic model with seasonal succession
No full textThis paper is devoted to a nonlocal dispersal logistic model with seasonal succession in one-dimensional bounded habitat, where the seasonal succession accounts for the effect of two different seasons. Firstly, we provide the persistence-extinction criterion for the species, which is different from that for local diffusion model. Then we show the asymptotic profile of the time-periodic positive solution as the species persists in long run
"A serious rift": The Indigenous Health Research Community's Refusal of the 2014 CIHR Funding Reforms and Underlying Methodological Conservatism
No full textIn 2014, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) senior administration established reforms to the Open Suite of Programs and Peer Review processes (OSP), implementing changes that it claimed would improve its funding and peer review structures. The purpose of the research reported in this paper was to investigate how CIHR reforms to the OSP were poised to negatively affect Indigenous health research. We found that the reforms were guided by a governmental and institutional trajectory of methodological conservatism that (a) privileged commercial research over projects that focus on social determinants of health and community relations, and (b) created a peer review system re-designed in ways that reduce inclusiveness. Interventions by the CIHR Institute of Indigenous Peoples Health' Advisory Board and an ad-hoc Indigenous Health Research Steering Committee (kahwa:tsire) were urgently organized and mobilized to reverse the CIHR decisions that were being made under the guise of so-called 'consultation.
Indigenous Engagement in Health Research in Circumpolar Countries: An Analysis of Existing Ethical Guidelines
No full textIn this paper, we review existing ethical guidelines that support Circumpolar Indigenous Peoples’ engagement in health research. For this study, we collated national and regional ethical guidelines addressing health research engaging with Indigenous communities. Our study found that ethical guidelines addressing Indigenous engagement in health research have emerged in Canada and the U.S.A. Currently, there are no Indigenous-specific provisions in national guidelines, or legislation concerning health research engaging Indigenous peoples, in Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, or Russia. Where guidelines exist, they show considerable variations. We conclude that guidelines are essential to ensure that research undertaken in Indigenous communities is relevant and beneficial to those communities, is conducted respectfully, and that results are appropriately contextualized and accurate. We believe that our analysis might serve as a checklist to support the development of comprehensive guidelines developed by, or at least in partnership with, Arctic Indigenous communities
"Learning from “Our Relations” Indigenous Peoples of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and United States: A Review of Culturally Relevant Diabetes and Obesity Interventions for Health
No full textGlobally, Indigenous Peoples suffer disproportionately higher rates and complications of diabetes and obesity than non-Indigenous people. Western health interventions combined with culturally appropriate Traditional approaches can reduce incidence, prevalence, and related co-morbidities. This literature review reports effective culturally relevant Traditional and Western diabetes and obesity prevention and management intervention programs for Indigenous populations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Experiential, immediate, interactive, and low-cost programs, co-developed and delivered by local Indigenous people within the communities they live, are most effective in improving health and wellbeing. Key themes of success of Togetherness, Empowerment, and Local Familiarity inform action for policy and practice changes adaptable for chronic disease prevention, treatment, and self-management programs for Indigenous Peoples globally.
Felix Mendelssohn’s Religious Hybridity Revealed Through His Oratorios
No full textOver the course of the last century, scholars and musicologists have debated the piety of Felix Mendelssohn. It is plausible to argue that Mendelssohn was purely Jewish, and that his musical contributions to the liturgy of the Christian Church are merely a consequence of cultural pressure and widespread Anti-Semitism. However, it is also conceivable that Mendelssohn not only embraced the Christian tradition for himself, but also endeavoured to reform its theology and doctrine. How then, should we understand Mendelssohn’s faith? Given that the oratorio functions as a vehicle for religious expression, I employ three of Mendelssohn’s most widely discussed oratorios as the main subjects of the paper’s investigation. By analyzing the text, musical characteristics, and historical context of Mendelssohn’s St. Matthew Passion, Paulus, and Elias, I explore the ways in which Mendelssohn was deeply and inwardly conflicted with his faith. Moreover, such oratorios illustrate how Mendelssohn’s religious discernment was a non-linear evolutionary process; by the time Mendelssohn composed Elias (1846), his trajectory of religious discernment culminated in the reconciliation of both the Jewish and Christian aspects of his identity. While Mendelssohn’s music narrates the ancient Judeo-Christian story, it also simultaneously exposes his own account of religious polarization and the subsequent desire for harmonization
Policy, Market and Mortgages : Reflections of the Causes of the 2008 Mortgage Crisis in the Canadian Housing Boom
No full textThe 2008 financial crisis resulted in the end of a long period of booming housing prices and economic wellbeing in the United States. Concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic may be a trigger for a similar event in the Canadian market have caused much speculation. This paper provides a transnational analysis by comparing American and Canadian government policy both prior to and following the 2008 crash. It is concluded that the Canadian housing environment is unlikely to face a systemic crash similar to that of 2008 due to fundamentally different market conditions, as well as new and effective policies that lessen exposure to risk factors including poor loan quality, high financialization of mortgage products, and information asymmetries amongst investors