Hasil untuk "Folklore"

Kaiwen Sun, Haowu Wang

A folklore conjecture states that the Nahm sum associated with a pair of Dynkin diagrams of type $ADET$ is a modular function. In this paper, we extend this conjecture to Dynkin diagrams of type $ABCDEFGT$ in the context of generalized Nahm sums. The modular Nahm sums are closely related to the characters of 2d rational conformal field theories. In this work, we identify many specific generalized Nahm sums with characters of some well-studied 2d CFTs. For example, we find that the generalized Nahm sums associated with $(T_1, C_r)$ and $(T_1,D_r)$ correspond to the supersymmetric Virasoro minimal models $\mathrm{SM}(4r+6, 4)$ and $\mathrm{SM}(8r+4, 2)$, respectively.

Matthew Bolan

We produce a family of bodies in $\mathbb R^3$ parameterized by $\varepsilon > 0$, each bounded by a smooth topological sphere with principal curvatures in $[-1, 1]$, and having volume arbitrarily close to $ 16 - 4\sqrt 3 + \left(10 \sqrt 3 - 14\right) π- \left(\frac{10}{3} - \sqrt 3\right) π^2 \approx 3.70.$ Thus, in contrast to the two-dimensional case, the unit sphere (which bounds a ball of volume $\frac{4 }{ 3} π\approx 4.19$) does not enclose the minimal volume among all smooth spheres in $\mathbb R^3$ with principal curvatures in $[-1,1]$. This answers a folklore question of Dmitri Burago and Anton Petrunin.

Michael Anastos, Sahar Diskin, Joshua Erde et al.

Let $Q^d$ be the $d$-dimensional binary hypercube. We form a random subgraph $Q^d_p\subseteq Q^d$ by retaining each edge of $Q^d$ independently with probability $p$. We show that, for every constant $\varepsilon>0$, there exists a constant $C=C(\varepsilon)>0$ such that, if $p\ge C/d$, then with high probability $Q^d_p$ contains a cycle of length at least $(1-\varepsilon)2^d$. This confirms a long-standing folklore conjecture, stated in particular by Condon, Espuny Díaz, Girão, Kühn, and Osthus [Hamiltonicity of random subgraphs of the hypercube, Mem. Amer. Math. Soc. 305 (2024), No. 1534].

Shoichiro Sendai

ABSTRACT This paper aims to clarify the concept of the “Selection, Tradition, Creation” Exhibition (1941) by the French furniture decorator and architect Charlotte Perriand (1903–1999), to analyze her interpretation of Japanese “folklore” during her one‐year stay in Japan to teach export crafts. Perriand's works (mainly tables, chairs and carpets) exhibited were directly influenced by Japanese folk crafts. However, almost all of them were variations on the prototypes of forms Perriand had developed in France. In other words, Perriand made a shift in materials and techniques (bamboo, straw materials and weaving techniques), a reduction in the size of furniture (a reference to traditional Japanese lifestyle) and a transfer of patterns (Japanese symbolic signs) in order to interpretate the Japanese “folklore” discovered by the modern Japanese through their own forms. It was both a way of understanding Japan and a reflection on her own design methods.

Elena G. Maklashova

The article presents an analytical overview of the roundtable discussion “Ethnosocial and Ethnopolitical Processes in Siberia and the Far East,” held as part of the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Institute for Humanitarian Research and Indigenous Studies of the North of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (September 16, 2025, Yakutsk). The event, which brought together leading ethnosociologists from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Novosibirsk, and Yakutsk, was aimed to consolidate theoretical and empirical expertise to address contemporary challenges that face multilingual, multiethnic, and multicultural Russia. The discussion focused on analyzing the theoretical and methodological foundations of ethnosociology, driven by a paradigm shift in development. In this context, the potential of the discipline’s central category – “ethnic identity” – was subjected to a critical analysis in situations of social instability. The empirical field for this analysis included issues of migration policy, the interplay between civic and ethnic identity, and the methodologies of visual studies and factor analysis in ethnosociology. The roundtable discussion not only facilitated an analysis of current trends, but also promoted the synchronization of research programs among leading academic centers, thereby outlining prospects for future research.

Nikhil Khatri, Tuomas Laakkonen, Jonathon Liu et al.

We introduce a category-theoretic diagrammatic formalism in order to systematically relate and reason about machine learning models. Our diagrams present architectures intuitively but without loss of essential detail, where natural relationships between models are captured by graphical transformations, and important differences and similarities can be identified at a glance. In this paper, we focus on attention mechanisms: translating folklore into mathematical derivations, and constructing a taxonomy of attention variants in the literature. As a first example of an empirical investigation underpinned by our formalism, we identify recurring anatomical components of attention, which we exhaustively recombine to explore a space of variations on the attention mechanism.

Vitaly P. Ivanov

The article examines the contribution of Professor N.I. Vorobyev to the scientific study of complex aspects of the ethnogenesis of the Chuvash people. The scientist is rightfully considered one of the prominent researchers of the problem of the origin of the Chuvash. Being one of the leaders and authors of the first volume of the collective monograph “The Chuvash. Ethnographic research. Part One” (1956), N.I. Vorobyev outlined in it his so-called "autochthonous theory" of the ethnogenesis of the Chuvash, as a people based on Finno-Ugric, but with the Turkic Bulgarian language. The article highlights the scientist's not always unambiguous views on the origin of the Chuvash, as set out by him in publications of 1930, 1950, 1953. It is noted that while many scientists at the beginning of scientific research adhered to the concept of the Finno-Ugric origin of the Chuvash, and subsequently took the position of N.I. Ashmarin, N.I. Vorobyev initially rather inclined to the Bulgarian theory, and only later became an autochthoniste. It is pointed out that one of the weak points in the scientist's interpretation of the issues of ethnogenesis was the ignoring of the factor of their Bulgarian-type language. For N.I. Vorobyev, the main basis for judgments about the origin of the Chuvash was the material and partly spiritual culture, which had a lot in common with the Mari. The article also points to the fact that the scientist did not pay attention to the factor of pagan religion in the ethnic history of the Chuvash. At the same time, it should be noted that in search of the origins of the Chuvash people, he quite widely attracted materials from famous archaeological sites of the Chuvash region. Special attention is paid in the article to the coverage of critical assessments of N.I. Vorobyev’s views by Chuvash historians V.F. Kakhovsky and V.D. Dimitriev.

Noam Berger, Diana Conache, Anders Johannson et al.

In this paper we solve two open problems in ergodic theory. We prove first that if a Doeblin function $g$ (a $g$-function) satisfies \[\limsup_{n\to\infty}\frac{\mbox{var}_n \log g}{n^{-1/2}} < 2,\] then we have a unique Doeblin measure ($g$-measure). This result indicates a possible phase transition in analogy with the long-range Ising model. Secondly, we provide an example of a Doeblin function with a unique Doeblin measure that is not weakly mixing, which implies that the sequence of iterates of the transfer operator does not converge, solving a well-known folklore problem in ergodic theory. Previously it was only known that uniqueness does not imply the Bernoulli property.

Stephen Lester, Igor Wigman

Hardy conjectured that the error term arising from approximating the number of lattice points lying in a radius-$R$ disc by its area is $O(R^{1/2+o(1)})$. One source of support for this conjecture is a folklore heuristic that uses i.i.d. random variables to model the lattice points lying near the boundary and square-root cancellation of sums of these random variables. We examine this heuristic by studying how these lattice points interact with one another and prove that their autocorrelation is determined in terms of a random model. Additionally, it is shown that lattice points near the boundary which are "well separated" behave independently. We also formulate a conjecture concerning the distribution of pairs of these lattice points.

Ruochuan Liu, Nha Xuan Truong, Liang Xiao et al.

Under a stronger genericity condition, we prove the local analogue of ghost conjecture of Bergdall and Pollack. As applications, we deduce in this case (a) a folklore conjecture of Breuil--Buzzard--Emerton on the crystalline slopes of Kisin's crystabelian deformation spaces, (b) Gouvea's $\lfloor\frac{k-1}{p+1}\rfloor$-conjecture on slopes of modular forms, and (c) the finiteness of irreducible components of the eigencurve. In addition, applying combinatorial arguments by Bergdall and Pollack, and by Ren, we deduce as corollaries in the reducible and strongly generic case, (d) Gouvea--Mazur conjecture, (e) a variant of Gouvea's conjecture on slope distributions, and (f) a refined version of Coleman's spectral halo conjecture.

Natalia N. Nikolaeva, Liudmila S. Dampilova

Introduction. It is urgent enough to reveal original features of epic traditions in certain ethnic environments to draw a general epic picture of Central Asian peoples. As is evident, shamanism has given rise to diverse epic and poetic genres. Shamanic and epic texts of Mongols are characterized by identical mythological patterns of world order, unified heavenly pantheons, coherent and synonymous ideas and concepts. Goals. The article aims to identify the functions of a shaman/shamaness in plots of Buryat epic narratives, determine the former’s position and status in the system of images. So, the paper shall analyze epic texts clustering with different local traditions of Cis-Baikal Buryats, delineate images of shamans and shamanesses to consider them in a comparative perspective with the involvement of ethnographic material. Materials and methods. The study employs comparative-historical and contrastive methods as key tools of analysis. It examines Buryat epic texts — both published ones and those contained in archives of the Center of Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs (IMBTS SB RAS). Results. The paper suggests that in the Buryat epic tradition shamans and shamanesses can be viewed as traditional characters traced back to most archaic beliefs, though their functions in uligers are essentially limited and monotypic. There is a gender division at different levels of the universe: celestial deities of upper realms are represented by male shamans, while only shamanesses exhibit activity in the Middle World (i.e., on the Earth). The functions of male shaman deities are nominal and not that significant for the plot. The status of a shamaness in variants and versions of the Unga Geseriad is quite high: she serves as mediator between Heaven and Earth, defender, assistant and adviser to the main characters, clairvoyant and soothsayer — and performs the classical role of shamans in society. Narratives recorded from shaman taletellers or individuals with extensive expertise in shamanic traditions tend to entrust shamanesses with larger plot development impacts rather than those delivered by mere narrators. However, in other uligers (not included in Geseriad) the shamaness — though endowed with the same functions of a clairvoyant, soothsayer and adviser — is opposed to the main character and supports his enemies. So, such uligers often contain the motif of her physical elimination. As can be seen from the above, in Buryat uligers male shamans are rather passive and nominal characters, while shamanesses do play most active roles. In general, the status of shamanesses in the epic tradition does not quite correlate with the traditionally high status of shamans and shamanesses among Cis-Baikal Buryats.

Kristina Radomirović Maček, Saša Babič

The article discusses conspiracy theories concerned with the global crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia based on material collected from the Internet and during fieldwork. Content is examined using the well-established foundations of conspiracy theories, the semiotics of the conspiracy theories, and their mythological structure. Pandemic-related conspiracy stories appear to emerge from already established conspiracy narratives, linking them to a bigger and imminent threat to the health and freedom of humanity, believed to be perpetrated by conspiring evil forces.

Marwa A. A. Fayed, Mohamed E. Abouelela, Mohamed S. Refaey

Abstract Heliotropium is a genus of the Boraginaceae family. Its members are used in many traditional and folklore medicines to treat several ailments. Despite this widespread usage, only a few evidence-based scientific studies investigated and identified its phytoconstituents. Herein, we documented the chemical profile of the Heliotropium ramosissimum methanolic extract using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–ESI–MS/MS) and assessed its antioxidant and cytotoxic effects. The methanolic extract exhibited high phenolic content (179.74 ± 0.58 µg/mL) and high flavonoid content (53.18 ± 0.60 µg/mL). The GC–MS analysis of the lipoidal matter allowed us to identify 41 compounds with high percentages of 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, bis(2-methoxyethyl) ester (23.91%), and 6,10,14-trimethylpentadecan-2-one (18.74%). Thirty-two phytomolecules were tentatively identified from the methanolic extract of H. ramosissimum using LC–MS/MS. These compounds belonged to several phytochemical classes such as phenolic acids, alkaloids, coumarins, and flavonoids. Furthermore, we assessed the antioxidant activity of the methanolic extract by DPPH assay and oxygen radical absorbance capacity assay, which yielded IC50 values of 414.30 µg/mL and 170.03 ± 44.40 µM TE/equivalent, respectively. We also assessed the cytotoxicity of the methanolic extract on seven different cell lines; Colo-205, A-375, HeLa, HepG-2, H-460, and OEC showed that it selectively killed cancer cells with particularly potent cytotoxicity against Colo-205 without affecting normal cells. Further studies revealed that the extract induced apoptosis and/or necrosis on Colo-205 cell line at an IC50 of 18.60 µg/mL. Finally, we conducted molecular docking on the LC–ESI–MS/MS-identified compounds against colon cancer antigen 10 to find potentially cytotoxic compounds. Binding score energy analysis showed that isochlorogenic acid and orientin had the highest affinity for the colon cancer antigen 10 protein, with binding scores of (− 13.2001) and (− 13.5655) kcal/mol, respectively. These findings suggest that Heliotropium ramosissimum contains potent therapeutic candidates for colorectal cancer treatment.

River Chiang, Klaus Niederkrüger-Eid

We show that the germ of the contact structure surrounding a certain kind of convex hypersurfaces is overtwisted. We then find such hypersurfaces close to any plastikstufe with toric core so that these imply overtwistedness. All proofs in this article are explicit, and we hope that the methods used here might hint at a deeper understanding of the size of neighborhoods in contact manifolds. In the appendix we reprove in a concise way that the Legendrian unknot is loose if the ambient manifold contains a large enough neighborhood of a 2-dimensional overtwisted disk. Additionally we prove the folklore result that the singular distribution induced on a hypersurface $Σ$ of a contact manifold $(M, ξ)$ determines the germ of the contact structure around $Σ$.

Meral Demiryürek

Orhan Hancerlioglu (1916-1991) was a writer who served in civil service positions in Istanbul, Anatolia and Thrace. Although at the present day he is usually remembered with his philosophical works, he had contributed to the Turkish literature with his novels and stories, in which he had told his observations about the places where he had lived and observed depending on people, nature and tradition. In particular, his stories which were published between 1946 and 1953 drew attention with his observations about the people living in Istanbul together with the details about Turkish villagers from the point of view of a townsman who had to serve away from the city. The contrast depending on a townsman who live in a village creates an astonishing and strengthening effect of the perception about rural settlement. Depending on the features of Turkish peasants and townsmen which were presented by Hancerlioglu in his Unmanned City, which was published in 1953, this essay seeks to commemorate him on the 30th anniversary of his death, examine the various aspects of Turkish people’s abilities in rural and urban life through the possibilities of fictional structure and remember his place in Turkish literature.

Hanaa Kamal Hassan Elseaidy

The history of Al Ahsa is shown in the folk arts produced by productive families where they respond to the needs of the society in which we live. The research aims to emphasize the importance of the handicrafts of productive families in the tourism revitalization of Al Ahsa in line with the Saudi Vision 2030. The research has been divided into several parts starting with the definition of research, problem, objectives, hypotheses, importance, limits, methodology and research terms with a theoretical review, followed by technical analysis of the proposed designs. Also, 12 design ideas were done, accompanied by technical analysis and employment models to reach the results and recommendations. The research methodology is based on the descriptive approach of handicrafts and the experimental analytical method in producing contemporary art designs inspired by folklore. This study shows the importance of the productive families in increasing the national income by their handicraft and the income of beneficiaries that effect on the economic and social stability of the individual.

Martin Sulzmann, Kenny Zhuo Ming Lu

Solving of regular equations via Arden's Lemma is folklore knowledge. We first give a concise algorithmic specification of all elementary solving steps. We then discuss a computational interpretation of solving in terms of coercions that transform parse trees of regular equations into parse trees of solutions. Thus, we can identify some conditions on the shape of regular equations under which resulting solutions are unambiguous. We apply our result to convert a DFA to an unambiguous regular expression. In addition, we show that operations such as subtraction and shuffling can be expressed via some appropriate set of regular equations. Thus, we obtain direct (algebraic) methods without having to convert to and from finite automaton.

Shahyar Daneshgar

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Samuel Fernández-Pichel

The present paper examines the construction of overlapping (trans)national and gendered (female) imaginaries in Kurdwin Ayub’s Paradise! Paradise! (Paradies! Paradies!, 2016). Drawing, among other sources, on Lipovetsky & Serroy’s (2007) theories about the multiplexity-image, this essay argues that Ayub’s re-negotiation, and self-representation, of her own hybrid identity in (and through) the film results in the coalescence between, on the one hand, global media culture and traditional (Kurdish) folklore and, on the other hand, between pseudo-ethnographic filmmaking and the aesthetic deregulation associated to new media practices.

Andres Kuperjanov

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of tree-related aetiological legends, the main motifs of these tales, and the characters occurring in them on the basis of digitised materials. The article presents motifs related to the most popular characters in the tales, followed by the frequent motifs and sub-motifs by different species of trees. Since Estonian materials are relatively difficult to acquire and have not been translated into other languages, this article tries to introduce as many sample texts as possible. Where possible, story types have been pointed out by making use of Antti Aarne’s catalogue (1918) and the academic fairy tale anthology compiled by Vaina Mälk, Ingrid Sarv, and Richard Viidalepp (1967). There are over 21,000 texts in the material digitised by the Department of Folkloristics of the Estonian Literary Museum, which are directly related to trees, and in addition to this, trees have been mentioned in other texts in nearly 400 different aspects. The most important of these are predominantly concerned with folk medicine, calendar traditions, folk astronomy, harvest predictions (predicting cattle growth and crops) and day-to-day household use. Many narratives about hidden treasures are also related to trees. Tree aetiologies (more than 100 texts) represent a specific group that shares common features with other types of lore and the Christian tradition, but these common occurrences also need to be specified. Unfortunately, these stories were collected relatively late, in the last decades of the 19th century, and the interpretation of these stories was delayed due to other research projects that were deemed more interesting. The fact that tree-related stories, for example, are closely connected with Christian legends, apocryphal manuscripts, and other explanatory Christian folk stories, may have also been a hindering factor. For centuries, aetiological legends spread as vernacular Christianity, serving as an interesting symbiosis of Christian scripture and verbal lore, and for this reason these texts remained on the fringe of 20th-century folklore studies. It is this type of lore that centres around intercultural and transcultural processes and interaction. The predominance of aspen-related lore in all story motifs (trembling leaves) and activities stands out in the material. Aetiological legends follow a pattern whereby there is one dominating motif in these legends and very few or single records of other motifs. The most prominent character is Jesus, but Mary, Judas, Elijah, the Devil or Old Heathen, and God or Grandfather are also mentioned.