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This volume fills a gap in current research on the Hellenistic Peloponnese, complementing and challenging traditional interpretations by adopting new perspectives on its complex social and political history in response to emerging trends in research. By examining aspects of the region's interstate relations, contemporary politics and modes of representation that have been relatively little studied to date, it affords a much more well-rounded picture of the Hellenistic Peloponnese and a rich basis for broadening scholarly debate and stimulating further research on the area. Each chapter promotes interdisciplinary approaches to a wide range of ancient evidence and material culture, and offers a renewed understanding of how socio-political transformations unfolded within the region. Together they shed new light on key agents of the period and their interactions, material evidence and political history both in and beyond the Peloponnese – from the enduring Macedonian influence in the 3rd century BCE and the violence and terror tactics deployed within the Achaian Koinon, to strategies of identity construction and memory politics wielded by local elites – and will be crucial points of reference for graduate students and scholars with an interest in the region.

The study of photodegradation processes concerns many fields, including those of cultural heritage, the food industry, and water purification. In each of these areas, different questions concerning photodegradation arise, but generally, they are related to either (i) the prevention of photodegradation aiming to avoid loss or change of properties, such as color, taste or smell, or (ii) the exploitation of photodegradation for removal of potentially harmful compounds in, e.g., drinking water. Studying light-induced degradation (LID) reactions is challenging and often it is difficult to establish a strong link between the degradation and the starting products. Several techniques and approaches for studying photodegradation had been developed previously, but these can be laborious and prone to errors. A solution to this could be found in a comprehensive, automated device that enables simultaneous sample irradiation of compounds in solution and chemical analysis in real-time and after photodegradation. The need for such an analytical platform is clarified in Chapter 1. The ‘Toolbox for studying the Chemistry Of Light-induced Degradation’ (TooCOLD) project envisioned to develop an integrated device. It would encompass a light-exposure cell, allow in-situ spectroscopic monitoring of the irradiated sample and on-line coupling to liquid chromatography (LC) with diode array detection (DAD) and mass spectrometry (MS) for direct identification of degradation products formed during irradiation. This thesis describes the step-wise development of such an automated device employing a gas-permeable liquid-core waveguide (LCW) as a light-exposure cell, a sample handler, a spectrograph for in-situ absorption spectroscopy, and switching valves for coupling to LC-DAD-QTOFMS. The full device was applied to study the photodegradation of several compounds to evaluate and demonstrate its analytical performance. Ideally, parameters that affect photodegradation should be known to aid the design of a system that can be used to study photodegradation in the broadest sense. Chapter 2 describes the many parameters that can influence the photodegradation of dyes and pigments in solution and on a substrate. The light-exposure cell developed in this project was based on an LCW, which employs the principle of total internal reflection (TIR) to irradiate the sample from within in contrast to using perpendicular illumination. Chapter 3 reviews the different types of LCWs that are available and applicable as a photoreactor and for chemical analysis. The analysis of complex mixtures resulting from photodegradation may be challenging as the chemical properties of the components can vary greatly. Chapter 4 describes the development of a generic LC-DAD method for the analysis of natural and synthetic dyes. Chapter 5 describes the development and overall performance of a low-volume LID cell based on a gas-permeable LCW made of Teflon AF2400 connected to a spectrograph, allowing the collection of spectral data in real-time. All of the abovementioned results were included in the design of a full prototype of an LID-cell based device. Chapter 6 describes the analytical performance of the fully automated system coupled to LC-DAD. Chapter 7 describes the study to the effect of oxygen on the photodegradation of Riboflavin and EY using the final prototype of the device coupled to LC-DAD-QTOFMS. The feasibility of Raman spectroscopy for studying changes in the molecular structure during irradiation was assessed in several exploratory subprojects, discussed in Chapter 8. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) using silver colloids was compared to on-chip SERS monitoring during the photodegradation of CV using leaning pillar chip substrates. Finally, carbon paper was used as a gas-permeable SERS substrate for the implementation inside a microfluidic device. Finally, Chapter 9 contains conclusions on the work covered in Chapters 1 to 8, discussing several relevant aspects and providing perspectives on future use of the developed system, optimization strategies, and possible new application areas.

Integration of newcomers into existing communities has been an ongoing process throughout the ages. And yet, understanding and improving this process has turned out to be challenging. To this day, migrants report not feeling at home in their country of destination, and psychological evidence of discrimination against migrants abounds. To tackle this ongoing issue, the current dissertation takes a novel approach, by combining historical studies with contemporary psychological experiments. This allows for a broader analysis of the integration process, and for the discovery of novel mechanisms of integration. The focus is on a specific group of newcomers: migrant doctors, who are studied in two distinct historical settings. Their integration is defined as acceptance between them and their social surroundings on three analytical levels: the institution, group, and individual. In four empirical chapters, this dissertation thus addresses the following question: What are the institutional-, group-, and individual-level aspects of the process leading to mutual acceptance between migrant doctors and their social surroundings? The first two chapters take a historical approach, and focus on the integration of skilled workers in 18th century Holland. The Amsterdam Surgeons’ Guild takes centre stage, and how its institutional conditions facilitated migrants to become full-fledged surgeons. While the Guild maintained an open stance towards migrants, it also placed heavy emphasis on local education, resulting in the finding that migrants had a good chance to make career as a surgeon in Amsterdam, but only if they had been educated there within the guild. Taking this finding to the 21st century, the latter two chapters investigate how receiving education in the country of destination affects the way in which migrant doctors perceive themselves, and how they are perceived by patients. The results indicate that migrant doctors develop a specific image of what it means to be a doctor during their education in the country of destination. Patients, in turn, recognise that a doctor’s place of education likely affects their competence, and are thus more willing to accept migrant doctors who have been educated in the country of destination. In conclusion, by combining findings from history and psychology, the current dissertation was able to uncover how institutional arrangements like place of education could impact psychological processes at the group and individual level, which together determine the ease with which migrant doctors can integrate into the professional sphere of their country of destination. With this insight, this dissertation steers the debate about integration away from tried explanations such as place of birth or cultural distance. Instead, it offers a new explanation revolving around the importance of place of education. If not just the place where a doctor was born determines how easily they can become accepted, but also the place where they were educated, this opens the door to policy aimed at making medical educational institutions more accessible for migrant doctors. Meanwhile, targeted psychological interventions aimed at conveying the professional status of migrant doctors to patients might help to convince them that migrant doctors can indeed be trusted.

Abstract There has been much recent debate over whether the European Union is or should be a ‘militant democratic’ actor in order to respond to democratic backsliding in EU member states. This article argues that the EU is a militant democracy in a specific and limited sense, but that this may be normatively undesirable from a democratic perspective. I first develop a definition of militant democracy that focuses on the militant democratic paradox. I argue that the strongest justifications for militant democracy require that two conditions are met: an ‘existential threat condition’ and a ‘necessity condition’. Next, I analyse four ways in which the European Union has been said to be empowered to act in a militant democratic fashion to combat democratic backsliding in EU member states. I show how some, though not all, of these warrant the label ‘militant democracy’. Moving from the descriptive to the normative analysis, I then consider whether the necessity condition can ever be met since there is always the possibility of non-militant responses through forms of EU disintegration. If we accept this argument, EU actors should prioritize robust non-militant measures where possible while pro-democratic member states should disassociate from frankly autocratic member states where non-militant measures fail.

This PhD research investigates the FN Late to EH II Late ceramics of Geraki (3500-2200 B.C) from a compositional and socio-technological perspective. Geraki is a large, fortified settlement located at the inland of Laconia in southern Greece. The study focuses on the first periods of habitation of the settlement and investigates how patterns of interaction can be traced through the pottery. So far, investigations towards interaction have primarily focused on communities that are located in coastal areas and on islands, leaving the role of inland sites largely unexplored. The contrasting, inland perspective offered in this study therefore provides an important contribution to our understanding the diachronic developments of the social dynamics of interaction during the Final Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age in the Aegean. In this research, patterns of interaction are studied through an integrated macroscopic, petrographic and chemical ceramic analysis. This analysis has shed light on the composition and technological characteristics of the pottery and has, in relation to geological clay samples, provided insights into the provenance of the pottery and the production practices involved. The study has demonstrated that a large degree of continuity in ceramic composition and technology existed from FN Late to EH II Early, with significant changes occurring in EH II Late, both in terms of local production practices and in the scale and character of inter-community interactions. This knowledge has gained new information into the way objects, technological knowledge and ideas were exchanged, thereby shedding light on the changing scale and character of interaction within which the community of FN – EH II Late Geraki was engaged

Research assessment reform is crucial for the social sustainability of research infrastructures (RIs): RIs can only thrive in the long term if the researchers who contribute to their development and growth receive academic credit for the kind of work they do in and around research infrastructures. To put it bluntly, research infrastructures have a vested interest in supporting the reform of research assessment. But, conversely, ongoing attempts to reform research assessment can also benefit from the work of research infrastructures because RIs have a great deal of experience creating and maintaining public services for producing, curating and harvesting both traditional and non-traditional academic outputs. The goal of this paper is to outline DARIAH’s position on the importance of research assessment reform for thematic RIs and the importance of thematic RIs for research assessment reform at the European level.

"Change, alter, or perhaps transform?" Selecting the perfect word for a specific context, such as when composing a report or a speech, is all the easier with a thesaurus at hand⁠. These lexicographic resources are invaluable for looking up alternative words or phrases that convey a specific meaning⁠. In addition, thesauri offer a number of uses beyond looking up alternative phrasings: they are veritable treasure troves for cultural, linguistic, anthropological, and literary-critical research — especially when these resources are arranged in a topical fashion, a hierarchical ordering of its groups of loosely synonymous words according to their meaning⁠. This doctoral dissertation investigates how Web-based dissemination of historical language thesauri can be improved to facilitate academic explorations of language and culture⁠. The investigation includes a case study of "A Thesaurus of Old English", expressing it in a Linguistic Linked Data form and making it available through the web application Evoke, newly developed by the author of this dissertation⁠. A number of researchers, taking part in the research project Exploring Early Medieval English Eloquence, have engaged with these two digital resources and show that thesauri are by no means exhausted by previous investigations⁠. The results demonstrate that both the new dissemination form and the innovative functionalities provided by the web application can offer novel ways in which to explore and analyse thesaurus content of this early medieval variant of the English language⁠.

Cultural heritage collections available as linked open data (LOD) may contain harmful stereotypes about people and cultures, for example, in outdated textual descriptions of objects. Galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) have suggested various approaches to tackle potentially problematic content in digital collections. However, the domain expertise and discussions about words and phrases used in LOD-collections are scattered across different resources and detached from the collections themselves. In this paper, we capture domain expertise about English and Dutch contentious heritage terminology in a knowledge graph. Contentious terms in the resulting graph are then linked to entities from other LOD-resources used in the cultural domain and beyond, including Wikidata and WordNet. We make our design decisions explicit and report on the linking process. The developed knowledge graph makes expert knowledge interoperable, so it can be reused by the cultural heritage community and other LOD-developers to contribute to a more inclusive representation of cultural heritage on the Web.