Islamic Glass in the Making

The ancient glass industry changed dramatically towards the end of the first millennium. The Roman glassmaking tradition of mineral soda glass was increasingly supplanted by the use of plant ash as the main fluxing agent at the turn of the ninth century CE. Defining primary production groups of plant ash glass has been a challenge due to the high variability of raw materials and the smaller scale of production. Islamic Glass in the Making advocates a large-scale archaeometric approach to the history of Islamic glassmaking to trace the developments in the production, trade and consumption of vitreous materials between the eighth and twelfth centuries and to separate the norm from the exception. It proposes compositional discriminants to distinguish regional production groups, and provides insights into the organisation of the glass industry and commerce during the early Islamic period. The interdisciplinary approach leads to a holistic understanding of the development of Islamic glass; assemblages from the early Islamic period in Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Egypt, Greater Syria and Iberia are evaluated, and placed in the larger geopolitical context. In doing so, this book fills a gap in the present literature and advances a large-scale approach to the history of Islamic glass.

The Boggart

The boggart was a much-feared, little-studied supernatural being from the north of England. Against the odds, it survives today, whether in place-names or in works of fantasy literature – not least Harry Potter. Centring on this mercurial and mysterious figure, The Boggart pioneers two methods for collecting folklore: first, the use of hundreds of thousands of words on the boggart from digitised ephemera; second, about 1,100 contemporary boggart memories that derive from social media surveys and personal interviews relating to the interwar and postwar years. Through a radical combination of this new information and an interdisciplinary approach – involving dialectology, folklore, Victorian history, supernatural history, oral history, place-name studies, sociology and more – it is possible to reconstruct boggart beliefs, experiences and tales. The boggart was not, as we have been led to believe, a ‘goblin’. Rather, this was a much more general term encompassing all solitary, and often ambivalent, supernatural beings, from killer mermaids to headless phantoms to shape-changing ghouls. In the same period that boggart beliefs were dying, folklorists continuously misrepresented the boggart and how the modern fantasy version was born of these misunderstandings. As well as offering a fresh reading of a deep seam of folklore, this book showcases some of the ways in which harnessing recent advances in digitization can offer rich and compelling rewards.

Prevalence of foodborne bacteria isolated from fresh raw ulam

Although vegetables are considered to be an essential part of a healthy diet, studies have shown that they can also represent a hazard for human health as they are usually eaten raw and receive minimal treatment. In recent years, vegetables are among the food groups associated with higher rates of recurrence and are the leading cause of enteric diseases. There is a colossal amount of data available on fresh produce worldwide; however, limited data are available regarding the microbiological quality of ulam in Malaysia. In fact, cross -contamination that occurs during minimal processing of ulam has not yet been studied. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the microbiological quality and the occurrence of Escherichia coli and Salmonella in ulam. A total of 32 samples of ulam were randomly collected from wet markets and supermarkets in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. The samples were analysed for enumeration of aerobic mesophilic bacteria, coliforms, yeast and moulds, Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes and detection of Escherichia coli and Salmonella. In this study, the microbiological quality of ulam were in the range of 6.36-8.83; 4.14-7.48; 0-8.16; 3.94-6.45 log10 CFU/g for aerobic mesophilic bacteria, coliforms, Salmonella and yeast and moulds, respectively. Escherichia coli and Salmonella were detected in 3.13% and 9.4% of ulam samples, respectively. The findings from the study are intended to provide insight into the potential health risks associated with the consumption of ulam. The strong interdisciplinary approach by various agencies and development of safe agricultural systems will ensure the delivery of safe vegetables to the end-users

‘The Game of the Sea’: An Interdisciplinary Educational Board Game on the Marine Environment and Ocean Awareness for Primary and Secondary Students

Games are a proven tool for learning at all ages and in many contexts. They increase the attractiveness of learning processes through arousing interest and enhancing motivation, and aid with the development of social skills. Educational games provide teachers with different approaches to teaching. ‘The Game of the Sea’ is an interdisciplinary board game, specifically designed to teach its players about the marine environment, regardless of their age. Through its 68 sections, coloured according to particular topics and organised as a fish shape, players encounter a wide range of questions and activities. Through playing this game, players acquire a broad knowledge of science, the marine environment and its importance, and literature. The game uses an interdisciplinary approach with question cards on a variety of topics (including maths, physics, biology, chemistry, art, etc.). A total of 222 players (111 children, aged 11–15, and 111 adults, aged 18–72) tested the game. These players were enrolled in different formal and non-formal educational contexts and had different educational backgrounds. For a qualitative analysis of game sessions (participant observation), researchers acted as game moderators and, while doing so, made subtle observations of players playing the game. On top of this, the value of the game, as a didactic tool, was evaluated with a test that players took before and after the game. After playing the game, knowledge of the marine environment, increased in both children and adults, with a slightly higher increase in children. Therefore, ‘The Game of the Sea’ is suitable for teaching all ages about the marine environment. Further, this game can impart to its players the importance of the marine environment and the importance of protecting this environment.

Slovenian Primary School Teachers' Opinion on Interdisciplinary Approach Between Fine Art and Science Education

<p style="text-align: justify;">In this article we present research on Slovenian primary school teachers' opinion about the interdisciplinary approach between fine art and science education. With the help of questionnaires, interviews, and analysis of lesson plans, we determined how primary school teachers use this type of interdisciplinary approach, how often and what their views are. We included 138 primary school teachers from every region in Slovenia. It turned out that primary school teachers in Slovenia use an interdisciplinary approach between fine art and science teaching quite often and consider it useful to achieve different aspects of pupils' development. The study revealed that most teachers find it difficult to consider the educational goals of both fields (fine art, science). They often use the connection between the subjects only on an associative level - they only mention the teaching content of one subject quickly and carelessly, without making meaningful connections and without achieving the goals of both subjects. Content taught in this way cannot be considered a cross-curricular approach in the subject sense.</p>

THE IMAGE OF TATTA LAND AND YAKUTSK CITY IN THE FORMATION OF FIGURATIVE GEOGRAPHY IN THE EARLY 21 ST CENTURY

Актуальность темы связана с новыми методологическими подходами в исследовании современной культуры Якутии начала 21 века. Авторы попытались применить метод междисциплинарного подхода в исследовании образной географии Якутии начала 21 века на примере проекта «Образная карта - маршрут Таттинского улуса». Город и село в 20 веке являются разными средами обитания современного человека. В первой среде зарождается креативная культура, а во второй - дольше сохраняется традиционная культура. Трансформация традиционной культуры в начале 20 века в городе Якутске привело к зарождению нового креативного типа культуры, а в конце 20 века в постсоветском пространстве формируется образная география конкретного региона или улуса, стянув пространство ландшафта и памятников культурного наследия, что ярко прослеживается на материале Таттинского улуса. The relevance of the topic is related to new methodological approaches in the study of modern culture of Yakutia in the early 21st century. The authors tried to apply the method of an interdisciplinary approach in the study of the figurative geography of Yakutia of the early 20th century by the example of the project "Figurative map - the route of Tatta ulus". City and village in the 20th century are different environments of a modern man. In the first environment, creative culture is born, and in the second, traditional culture is preserved longer. Transformation of traditional culture at the beginning of the 20th century in Yakutsk city led to the birth of a new creative type of culture, and at the end of the 20th century, in the post-Soviet space, a figurative geography of a specific region is formed, pulling together the space of the landscape and cultural heritage monuments, which is clearly seen in the material of Tatta ulus.

Research trends in tourism and hospitality from 1991 to 2020: an integrated approach of corpus linguistics and bibliometrics

PurposeThis study aims to track the historical development in tourism and hospitality research over the past 30 years by applying a novel interdisciplinary approach, combining both corpus linguistics and bibliometric analysis.Design/methodology/approachMost frequently discussed topics and newly emerging topics were identified by investigating 18,266 abstracts from 18 leading tourism and hospitality journals with corpus linguistics toolkit AntConc and natural language processing (NLP) tool spaCy. Trend analysis and bibliometric methods were used to determine the longitudinal changes of research topics, most highly-cited publications and authors' production.FindingsThis study revealed the evolution patterns of the identified 576 most frequently discussed topics across the four subperiods (1991–2000, 2001–2010, 2011–2015 and 2016–2020). Specifically, results showed that information technology-related topics account for the largest proportion of the identified 38 newly emerging topics from 2011. Besides, researchers are increasingly focusing on the use of more sophisticated and advanced statistical methodologies.Practical implicationsThis study helps researchers make sensible decisions on what research topics to explore; it also helps practitioners and stakeholders make the shift and track opportunities in the field.Originality/valueNo other studies have employed the novel interdisciplinary approach, combining corpus linguistic tools in linguistics, NLP techniques in computer science and bibliometric analysis in library and information science, for exploring research trends in tourism and hospitality.

IMAGES OF A BULL IN ROCK ART OF THE ANGARA

Изучение древнего наскального искусства требует междисциплинарного подхода. Cотрудничество исследователей петроглифов и палеозоологов позволяет провести реконструкцию состава палеофауны региона, помогает в интерпретации териоморфных образов. Предметом изучения данной статьи являются похожие на быков изображения в наскальном искусстве р. Ангара. Многие изображения датируются эпохой неолита - ранней бронзы. Причины их появления в таежном наскальном искусстве могли быть различными: влияние художественной традиции окуневской культуры с юга; стилизация образа лося или оленя; мифологизация образов таежных животных; наличие для древнего художника реальной натуры - дикого быка. Согласно данным палеозоологии в эпоху голоцена на Ангаре обитали реликтовые животные - бизоны, туры. Возможно, они обитали и на Среднем Енисее. Это позволило высказать предположение, что в наскальном искусстве изображен дикий бык, на которого охотился древний человек. The study of ancient rock art requires an interdisciplinary approach. Active cooperation of rock art researchers and paleozoologists makes it possible to reconstruct the composition of the paleofauna, to interpret theriomorphic images. The subject of the article is images similar to bulls in rock art on the Angara River. Many of the images date back to the Neolithic - early Bronze Age. The reasons for their appearance in taiga zone rock art could be diff erent: the infl uence of artistic tradition of the Okunev culture from the South; stylization of the image of an elk or a deer; mythologization of the images of taiga zone animals; the presence of a real animal in the nature - a wild bull. According to paleozoological data of the Holocene Epoch the Angara River valley was inhabited by relict animals - bisons, tours. Perhaps, they also lived in the Middle Yenisei. Therefore, we suggest that some petroglyphs depict a wild bull, which was hunted by an ancient man.