This chapter offers a detailed analysis of a(nother) famous Hesiodic narrative, the creation of Woman, that considers Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Biblical comparanda but also looks further, to Nordic mythology, ethnography and the study of folklore. Coupled with an understanding of the Pandora-scene’s connections to episodes of adornment in other early Greek hexameter poetry, the analysis avoids simplistic notions of direct derivation from this or that Near Eastern source, and concludes that the tale of Pandora represents, instead, a Greek poet’s declension of a common Eastern Mediterranean and Near Eastern mythological motif and compositional pattern.

Blood is a concentrated suspension of deformable, aggregating, red blood cells within a medium of other cells and proteins. It is a complex colloidal system with a non-Newtonian rheology that is characterized by viscoplasticity, thixotropy, and viscoelasticity. After reviewing some of the key biological characteristics of human blood, and after presenting a short historical review of the subject, we present some recent accomplishments. These range from the development of a parameterized Casson model, based on the hematocrit and fibrinogen levels, to the discussion of several recent structural models that are able to capture several of the time-dependent rheological effects of blood. A comparison is also offered between model predictions and the results of recent transient measurements, some involving a newly proposed variant of LAOS: the Unidirectional LAOS. The latter experiment is especially appropriate for the study of blood rheology as it follows roughly the flow experienced by blood in the arterial circulation. It consists of a superposition of steady and large amplitude oscillatory flow in such a way that flow reversal is avoided. Some additional models are discussed along with the challenges and opportunities for future research.

As a theoretical perspective, structuralism focuses on the notion of structure. This notion can be defined in two distinct ways. The intentional definition directs attention to a system of empirically observable relations among the members of a given collectivity, as indicated by their roles and social positions. The effective definition conceives of structure as a set of interrelated but not visible elements, the study of which calls for a special method of inquiry. This method has been applied to anthropology, linguistics, literature, and psychology. Radcliffe Brown, Merton, Lipset, Coleman, and Blau are among the foremost representatives of structuralism intentionally defined. De Saussure, Lévi-Strauss, Barthes, and Althusser, among others, represent structuralism effectively defined.

Sandro Segre is a retired professor of sociology and sociological theory, which he taught at the University of Genoa. Some of his recent publications include Bauman, Elias, and Latour on Modernity and Its Alternatives (2020), Business and Financial Markets: A Weberian Analysis (2016), Contemporary Sociological Thinkers and Theories (2014), Introduction to Habermas (2012), and Talcott Parsons: An Introduction (2012).

Various characteristics of the networks are examined: their composition, density, homogeneity and dispersion. Their overall structure can be very varied, and therefore builds contrasting environments. Using examples, various personal network profiles are described by analysing the social issues that lie beneath their differences. The study of personal networks, their distribution, their temporal strata, their diversity, and their degree of interconnection, therefore allows us to approach a kind of dynamic social mapping of the modes of circulation and anchoring in social worlds. To better grasp the particularities of personal network analysis, the authors briefly explore a few examples.

The only “dose of theoretical study” swallowed by the young Richard Wagner was “about half-a-year’s formal training in harmony and counterpoint in the ‘strict style,’” administered in 1831–2 by Theodor Weinlig of Leipzig’s Thomaskirche. Earlier, “instruction in the fundamentals of harmony from a member of the Leipzig theatre orchestra. Gottfried Müller, achieved little, as the pupil was too much immersed in the fantastic musical realm of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Kapellmeister Kreisler and the Fantasiestücke to submit to the sober rigors of conventional theory.”

This chapter analyzes both Wagner's formal processes and his harmonic and motivic structure in the Ring. The first half of the chapter focuses on the forms Wagner employed in these four operas, including such traditional operatic forms as arias and ensembles, as well as Wagner’s own theory of the "poetic-musical period" and the use of Stabreim, and various strophic and "symphonic" forms. The chapter's second half turns attention onto structure, which largely means Wagner's approach to handling tonality. Far from abolishing this system, as is sometimes supposed, Wagner worked exclusively within it. And yet the extreme way in which he sometimes pushed its logic explains in large part the magnetic effect he has had on radical artists and thinkers of the last century and a half.

A description of the varied types of complex business structures employed by large, transnational businesses is outside the scope of this book. However, a few key facts about corporate growth and structure are important to note, given the current jurisdictional paradigm’s focus on the “home” (or in Europe, domicile) of a corporation – a paradigm that is based on outdated notions of how TNCs are structured. First, the sheer growth in number of TNCs has changed the operation of business and the resultant potential for human rights violations at the global scale. The number of TNCs – including parent companies and subsidiaries – has grown exponentially over the last fifty years. Moreover, as companies grow in size and expand overseas, the number of subsidiaries tends to increase and companies’ structures become even more complex.1 Over the last several decades, as TNCs have grown and created other corporations, they have rapidly changed form, with the emergence of complex multi-tiered corporate structures which include numerous affiliated entities that collectively conduct the business of the enterprise.2 As a result, it is difficult to determine ownership of TNCs’ various affiliated companies or to compile complete financial data on TNCs due to their complex structure, the existence of holding companies, and the fact that a subsidiary can be owned by multiple parent corporations.3 Lack of transparency surrounding ownership and existence of various TNC affiliates only exacerbates the problem.

Chapter 4: explores the interactions of light with structures, or strictly the interactions with the combination of the structure’s dimensions and the materials from which it is fabricated. In general terms we have the large compared to the wavelength, the comparable to and the small. The large includes light from the stars and, often contrived, structures such as lenses mirrors. But the detailed properties of these also depend on the comparable to – in minute imperfections and minute structural detail such as polishing. Even astronomical telescopes are tuned to the order of the wavelength of light! When we get to the tiny there are many strange effects exemplified in colloidal gold used in ancient glassware as permanent colouring. But are even these effects really that strange or unfamiliar? We all are aware that for example a piece of wire behaves very differently depending on it size (especially diameter) and its geometry – most familiar in the induction coil…. The basic ideas are explored here with due recognition of how the very small wavelength and the very high frequency of a light wave can have profound impact on any interaction mechanisms.

This chapter examines passages in Hebrews where the Spirit is portrayed as the speaker of Scripture quotations (Heb 3:7–4:11; 10:11–18). Due to previous skepticism about the Spirit’s role in Hebrews, this chapter also argues that the Spirit is a speaker in the same way as the Father and Son and that the author uses his speech to develop a thoroughly distinct divine character. In Hebrews 3-4, potentially the longest pneumatological discourse in the NT, the Spirit encourages the addressees to avoid the error of the wilderness generation and press on towards rest. In Hebrews 10, the Spirit “testifies” to the benefits of the new covenant - especially forgiveness. In contrast to the Father and Son, the Spirit’s conversation partner is “us.”

If the written word is to be our principal source in this study, in which historical accounts are used to shed light on the institutions that gave rise to them, then we need a fairly comprehensive sense of what that source represents. Accordingly, this chapter is concerned with the epistemological status of writing as a “window” on the past and, more specifically, the viability of using it to understand long-extinct political systems.

Few issues are more central to understanding an ancient people than how they were organised politically, a topic that touches on virtually every aspect of their social, cultural, and economic life. Configurations of power are the critical frameworks within which identities, relationships, and events are formed, understood, and function both within communities and in their interactions with others. This was no less true for the ancient Maya, who occupied the Yucatan Peninsula and adjacent highlands to the south, an area now divided between the nations of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and the western extremities of Honduras and El Salvador (Map 1; see also Maps 2–4) – today home to millions of their descendants.

The notion that comparison is not the search for similarities but the systematization of differences leads to the question of which shared set of concepts and assumptions might be employed to explore this notion. Comparative analysis should at once reduce the complexity of data in the service of comparison and yet still reference the uniqueness and specificity of local values and ideas. Three types of comparison potentially fulfill these criteria. Claude Lévi-Strauss traces the transformations of oppositions and codes across cultural boundaries without claiming to compare societies as such. Louis Dumont contrasts systems of values that represent societies-as-wholes by analyzing their structuring into hierarchical levels. Niklas Luhmann’s theory of autopoietic systems enables the comparison of relationships between social systems and their environments, without assuming societies as units of comparison – examples being the making of ethnic identities and boundaries. A synthesis of the three approaches provides avenues of comparison in a globalized world, as is exemplified by the author’s own work in upland Southeast Asia.

Chapter 17 describes effective grammar instruction and examines the instructional practices of six teachers involved in grammar courses. The results indicate that teachers have at their disposal a number of instructional options and the effectiveness of these options is mediated by individual, linguistic, and contextual variables.