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The present paper is focusing on the interpretation of a coin deposit found within a sacred area at one of the key fortresses in Iron Age Dacia – Costești-Cetățuie.Based on a detailed catalogue, the analysis is taking into account the closest analogy, the geographic area of coin type distribution, the monetary iconography and the comparison with similar situations from other parts of ancient Europe prior to the Roman conquest.Following these aspects, the conclusions are emphasizing the votive function instead of economic one of certain coins when deposited in specific areas and in association with particular artefacts. It is demonstrated that this ritual practice at the Costești is part of a general pattern.Chronologically, this votive deposit may be connected with the ritual activity at the Costești fortress in the aftermath of the Dacian king, Burebista, campaign at the Black Sea shore (second half of the 1st century BC).

Abstract In this paper, a piecewise collocation discretization scheme based on the piecewise constant approximation with the concept of quarter-sweep Jacobi (QSJ) iteration is discussed in solving the linear Fredholm integral equations of second kind. By considering the piecewise approximation equations, the generated linear system has been constructed with its large scale coefficient matrix. The purpose of this quarter-sweep iteration concept is to reduce the computational complexity of the linear system. For the purpose of comparison, the formulation and implementation of full-sweep Jacobi (FSJ), half-sweep Jacobi (HSJ) and QSJ iterative methods are also included. The results of these three proposed methods showed that the QSJ method is better than others Jacobi iteration family.

This paper presented our approach to developing the 3d model of A Famosa Faortress in Melaka, Malaysia. As the physical remnant of the fortress are minimal, a traditional 3D modelling technique based on collected data has been adopted. This method has been adopted based on case studies of three comparable reconstruction projects namely Michelsberg synagogue, The Jewish Quarter in Regensburg and Reconstruction of the old main church in Curitiba, Brazil. In this paper we discussed the 3D modeling technique used and presented some output of the model.

On August 29, 1870, Li Hung-chang, who had been brought to Chihli along with twenty-five thousand men of the Anhwei Army to deal with the Sino-French crisis touched off by the Tientsin Massacre of the preceding June, was appointed governor-general of Chihli, replacing the ailing Tseng Kuo-fan. Less than three months later, on November 12, he was given an additional appointment as imperial commissioner of trade for the Northern Ports. Li was instructed to reside in Tientsin, going to the provincial capital of Pao-ting only in the winter months when the port of Tientsin was closed. In addition, Li remained the untitled commander of the Anhwei Army, which was at this time responsible for, among other things, the defense of the metropolitan region. He was also to function as the unofficial central coordinator for the self-strengthening activities from his key position within the Ch'ing government.1 In these multiple capacities, Li played the leading role in the conduct of Ch'ing foreign policy for a quarter o...

Xi'an was once called Chang'an and has nearly 1100-year history as the capital of China. The Shuyuanmen block located inside the South Gate along the city wall was built in the Ming Dynasty, which is well known as the quarter of culture and education in the past. At present there are some historic and monumental buildings scattering over, such as the Confucius Temple and Steles of the Song Dynasty, the city wall of the Ming Dynasty and the Baoqingsi Pagoda of Qing Dynasty etc. Under the effect of the strategy of passive protection on the historic sites in the latest years, the status of historic block has been the ever worse, the residential environment deterioration and the living quality degradation made the area an neglected part in the process of urban development. Therefore this paper points out the conservation of historic city should implement a more positive urban strategy. The conservation of historic city and the revival of traditional culture deserve to be related with the upgradation of residential environment and living quality. Thus the urban development can stride forward in a favorable way.

The scientific discipline of “Movement Ecology” (Nathan et al. 2008) has played an important role in advancing our understanding of almost every ecological and evolutionary process, from nutrient cycling, to habitat selection, to population dynamics and community ecology. Interestingly, it has been almost a quarter of a century ago since Rodgers and Anson (1994) stated that GPS-based animal-location systems would become the standard for habitat selection studies. They were right! The data made available from GPS telemetry (i.e., sequence of GPS locations) quickly boosted the field of “Movement Ecology” (Nathan et al. 2008), and this field was also greatly advanced when the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology developed a free online database, Movebank (movebank.org), that allowed movement data from many, many species to be freely accessed and analysed (millions and millions of travel routes). Further advancements became possible with the development and use of new analytical tools to understand the rules used by the study animals to move (Ropert-Coudert and Wilson 2005; Sengupta et al. 2018).

In this study we report the underlying reasons to why bacteria are present on banknotes and coins. Despite the use of credit cards, mobile phone apps, near-field-communication systems, and cryptocurrencies such as bitcoins which are replacing the use of hard currencies, cash exchanges still make up a significant means of exchange for a wide range of purchases. The literature is awash with data that highlights that both coins and banknotes are frequently identified as fomites for a wide range of microorganisms. However, most of these publications fail to provide any insight into the extent to which bacteria adhere and persist on money. We treated the various currencies used in this study as microcosms, and the bacterial loading from human hands as the corresponding microbiome. We show that the substrate from which banknotes are produced have a significant influence on both the survival and adherence of bacteria to banknotes. Smooth, polymer surfaces provide a poor means of adherence and survival, while coarser and more fibrous surfaces provide strong bacterial adherence and an environment to survive on. Coins were found to be strongly inhibitory to bacteria with a relatively rapid decline in survival on almost all coin surfaces tested. The inhibitory influence of coins was demonstrated through the use of antimicrobial disks made from coins. Despite the toxic effects of coins on many bacteria, bacteria do have the ability to adapt to the presence of coins in their environment which goes some way to explain the persistent presence of low levels of bacteria on coins in circulation.

AbstractThe supply of coins and their metal materials is important for state governance. Many details about the monetary supply network in ancient China still need to be verified. In this paper, 15 early Tang dynasty Kaiyuan Tongbao 開元通寶 coins excavated from the Lafu Queke 拉甫却克 cemetery, Hami 哈密 city, were studied by combining scientific analyses (PXRF and MC-ICP-MS etc.) with the archaeological context and historical texts. The results show that all of these coins are made of Cu-Sn–Pb ternary alloy. The lead isotopes match with the isotopic signatures of some southwest China lead mines consistent with historical records, 14 coins are located in the range of Southern China geochemical province, and the lead of 5 coins could be considered as highly radiogenic lead (HRL). Combining these results with the archaeological context and historical texts, it can be inferred that the coins minted in southwest China were made from locally exploited raw metal, and supplied to the northwest borderland of the Tang dynasty in the seventh century CE.

Yangsze Choo’s The Ghost Bride, which was a finalist for the 2014 Mythopoeic Awards, has recently enjoyed renewed success owing to the Netflix serial based on its premise. The novel takes place in a liminal world populated by Chinese ghosts, Gods and demons. Cassandra Khaw’s short story “Some Breakable Things”, on the other hand, provides a painful and intimate look at loss and bereavement while utilising the Hungry Ghost as a metaphor. A postcolonial feminist reading of Derrida’s theory of hauntology will be applied to my construction and coining of a Malaysian Chinese Domestic Gothic to interrogate and contextualize the hybrid and transnational nature of these texts, which are a palimpsest of Western Gothic traditions and diasporic Chinese funerary customs. The texts’ re-creation and re-visioning of these traditional beliefs and customs display the interstitial dilemma of transnational travellers and diasporic individuals who have to constantly negotiate between consent, autonomy and inherited nostalgia. This article will interrogate these narrative palimpsests to unearth how these tales could provide an answer to the problematics of consent inherent in Derridean hauntology.