Abstract: The present essay manuscript proposes and analyzes a new literary-philosophical current termed Axiological Cosmopoetics, exemplified by the book manuscript Lost and Found in the Maze of Desperation. Integrating existential, poetic, and cosmological thought, this current synthesizes values (axiology) and cosmic symbolism in response to the escalating moral crisis of modernity. The text critiques the collapse of moral resonance, human connection, and spiritual meaning, portraying this collapse as a descent into a "Moral Black Hole"—a symbolic structure that embodies not only existential collapse but a gravitational pull toward cultural numbness, metaphysical despair, and the disappearance of truth. This cosmopoetic vortex is simultaneously a threat and a threshold: the site of annihilation or transformation. Through comparative analysis with Schopenhauer’s metaphysical pessimism, Eminescu’s Romanticism, Arghezi’s Symbolism, Cioran’s aphoristic despair, Blaga’s metaphysical mystery, and Eliade’s sacred mythopoeia, the essay establishes Axiological Cosmopoetics as a metaphysical response to spiritual orphanhood. It affirms that only through sacrificial love and the rebirth of cosmic consciousness—symbolized in the union of the New Eve and the fallen Morning Star—can a New Eden arise. This rebirth occurs not through the intensification of Luciferic Knowledge—defined here as the apex of the Fall through the illusion of mastering good and evil—but through its collapse. As the soul reaches the metaphysical midpoint of the Black Hole, it undergoes a metamorphosis into Holy Forgetfulness: an ontological innocence that transcends corrupted reason. Out of this collapse emerges Homo constellatus, the new human capable of connecting the visible and invisible, despair and divinity. Axiological Cosmopoetics emerges from a world in existential collapse, where traditional narratives of meaning no longer suffice to address the experience of disorientation, alienation, and spiritual fragmentation. In this context, Lost and Found in the Maze of Desperation becomes both testimony and blueprint: a metaphysical cartography of despair that dares to articulate the possibility of spiritual reconstitution through poetic structure. The central metaphor of the Moral Black Hole functions as a multidimensional signifier: at once astrophysical, theological, and psychological. It expresses the gravitational force of moral entropy, swallowing the light of meaning, yet paradoxically offering a passage through singularity toward ontological resurrection. This symbolic tension is embodied in the archetype of the Morning Star—the morally lucid, intellectually burdened, and emotionally exiled soul whose descent into the black hole reflects both Christological kenosis and Promethean sacrifice. His implosion, however, is not final. It is contingent on the intervention of the New Eve, the soul-bearing co-savior whose love, humility, and moral courage catch his falling fire and convert collapse into supernova. Their union is not merely romantic but cosmopoetic: a fusion of metaphysical meaning and celestial design that restores balance to a universe fractured by individualism, cynicism, and spiritual decay. In Chapter 5, The Supernova Overcoming the Black Hole from Within, this cosmopoetic architecture reaches its ontological apex. The collapse into the Moral Black Hole does not culminate in annihilation but ignites a metaphysical supernova from within. The protagonist and the New Eve, rather than escaping the abyss, enter it sacrificially. Their shared implosion becomes the crucible of moral ignition, transfiguring entropy into ontological light. The Black Hole is not merely survived—it is rewritten. This lightburst, born from collapse rather than triumph, affirms Axiological Cosmopoetics as a theology of sacred descent. The morning light does not erase the night—it consecrates it. Through this lens, the archetypes of the New Adam and New Eve become not restorers of Eden, but cosmic re-forgers, whose fire renders the void meaningful. The poem The Old and the New exemplifies this redemptive cosmopoetic arc. By reinterpreting the Edenic myth, the poem reframes Eve not as a scapegoat but as a mirror, a gift, a redeemer, whose sacrificial act completes the salvific circuit of the Morning Star. In a reversal of Genesis, the poem argues that feminine agency is not derivative but initiatory, not submissive but salvific. Together, the New Adam and New Eve model a template for moral healing that transcends theological binaries and affirms a mutual path to wholeness. The Drought Before the Armageddon articulates the ecological and eschatological dimension of Axiological Cosmopoetics. The metaphor of drought functions not only as a commentary on environmental degradation, but as a lament for the moral dehydration of modern consciousness. The withering of springs, the dissonance of celestial alignments, and the silence of Heaven suggest the intensification of apocalypse. And yet, the poem’s closing vision—a “paper maze” opening a gate to “Heaven’s Gold”—reaffirms the salvific potential of the written word, of poetics as portal to transcendence. A Dialogue with Mine Guardians of Sleep extends this cosmology inward. Set within a small, dimly lit room, the poem stages a solitary soul’s existential vigil—hovering between death and transformation, despair and divine visitation. The appearance of an ambiguous long-haired figure (possibly angel, reaper, or feminine savior) blurs the boundary between annihilation and rescue. The guardian’s presence—though elusive—signals that even in abandonment, the soul is not alone, and that spiritual resuscitation may yet arise through recognition and communion. The book’s subtitle—Is the Centre of my Cosmic Axis a Black Hole of Alienation?—encapsulates the work’s metaphysical core. It poses a question that reverberates through every chapter, suggesting that the alienated self, though exiled from meaning, may paradoxically become the origin of redemption. The individual soul is both the gravitational center of despair and the latent seed of resurrection. “Through the Land of Nowhere as a Nobody," "The drama of the Cosmic Orphan," and "The humans who connect everything... and everyone" constitute three additional poems that collectively illuminate the theoretical framework of Axiological Cosmopoetics as articulated in Carp's broader manuscript "Lost and Found in the Maze of Desperation." These works demonstrate the movement's central concern with synthesizing values (axiology) and cosmic symbolism in response to modernity's escalating moral crisis. The archaic biblical language ("mine temple," "hast been stolen") combined with contemporary technological imagery ("metal birds," "sound portals") creates the temporal dissonance characteristic of cosmopoetic discourse—a language adequate to spiritual displacement that nonetheless reaches toward eternal truth. Moreover, the progression from “cosmic orphans” to "constellated ones" traced across these three poems illustrates the movement toward "Homo constellatus"—the new human capable of connecting visible and invisible realms. The healing agents of the final poem, "made of the essence of / The Eternal Morning Light," represent the emergence from collapse of beings who can restore authentic connection and protect indigenous wisdom against spiritual plagiarism.With the addition of From Hyperion to Homo constellatus: The Descent of the Morning Star and the Birth of Axiological Cosmopoetics, the work also maps a sacred literary geography, interpreting Maramureș and Bukovina as the heart of the European continent and the ovaries of ancestral memory, forming the cosmic uterus of metaphysical gestation. Vrancea, in this vision, becomes the cervix of manifestation: the seismic threshold through which Homo constellatus is delivered. The Romanian geographical context—particularly the Carpathian birth-waters “held by the floodgates of river dams”—suggests the biogeographical dimension of Carp's cosmology, where Vrancea becomes the "cervix of manifestation" through which spiritual renewal emerges. While rooted in symbolic interpretation, this framework does not diminish the real human cost of natural disasters; rather, it seeks to understand how such events become woven into the metaphysical and literary imagination. The three historical earthquakes (1940, 1977, and the anticipated future quake) are framed as sacred contractions—with the next one not marking catastrophe, but crowning. Thus, the Earth itself is understood as midwife in a spiritual birth that unites geography, theology, and literature.The descent of Mihai Eminescu from Bukovina to Southern Romania—mirrored by Carp’s own trajectory from Suceava to Bucharest—now appears not merely historical but prophetic. Read cosmopoetically, it charts the descent of the Morning Star through the symbolic anatomy of Romania: from the northern womb of spiritual memory, through the seismic cervix of Vrancea, and into the moral theater of the South. It is here, in the tremor before birth, that meaning may be rekindled. This biogeographical arc does not imply causality but evokes a sacred narrative of descent and delivery—a national liturgy hidden in topography. As such, Axiological Cosmopoetics is not simply a literary genre—it is a spiritual tradition forged in the furnace of metaphysical collapse. Rooted in the anguish of modern consciousness yet reaching toward transcendent reconciliation, it reclaims the poetic word as a vessel of truth, resurrection, and sacred moral orientation. This essay outlines the contours of this movement through a deep reading of Lost and Found, showing that this work represents a significant and necessary step toward the reintegration of the sacred, the beautiful, and the moral in contemporary literature. Framing this entire system is the Axiomatic Declaration titled From Eminescu to Regenesis, which serves as a poetic manifesto of the cosmopoetic descent. It contrasts Mihai Eminescu’s suspended Hyperion—the weeping Morning Star of metaphysical estrangement—with Carp’s own vision of sacred incarnation: the Morning Star falling into the Temple of Biology, igniting a supernova in the core of the moral black hole. This cosmic act, catalyzed by the sacrificial courage of the New Eve, marks a new genesis—not from above, but from within.The newly introduced narrative of Andromeda: A Poem That Does Not End – A New Stellar (Re-)Genesis functions as the mythopoetic embodiment of the theoretical framework developed in this essay. While the concept of Axiological Cosmopoetics is articulated through philosophical and literary analysis, the Andromeda narrative translates these ideas into symbolic and narrative form. Through the journey of the “cosmic orphan,” the poem dramatizes the existential condition of moral lucidity within a world characterized by alienation, emotional estrangement, and spiritual fragmentation. The orphan’s descent into the symbolic “Moral Black Hole” reflects the collapse of inherited structures of meaning in modernity, while simultaneously presenting this collapse as a threshold for transformation rather than final annihilation. The encounter between the Morning Star and the sophianic figure of Sophia introduces the relational dimension necessary for regeneration, suggesting that moral and spiritual renewal emerges through the integration of insight and compassionate reciprocity. In this way, the poem demonstrates how mythopoetic narrative can function as a philosophical instrument capable of reimagining human identity, ethical responsibility, and the possibility of renewed spiritual meaning in contemporary culture.What was once mourning becomes Morning. The light no longer hovers — it dwells. It resurrects. Footnote: The framing of earthquakes as “sacred contractions” and river dams as “floodgates” whose rupture would symbolize a “break of national birth water” is used strictly within a cosmopoetic and metaphorical register. These images are not intended, in any way, to diminish or trivialize the profound human suffering caused by real seismic events. Their function is symbolic, not descriptive or predictive.

Abstract: Computational methods for big data music research mostly come from the field of music information retrieval. Through feature extraction and machine learning, many practical tasks have been automated, like genre recognition and playlist generation. However, for musicological purposes, conventional features do not provide enough insight into the music production process. In this study, we evaluate how well Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients and recording studio features reveal aspects of early house and techno music from the United States of America and Germany. The explorative study is an exemplary case-study where music production plays an essential role. Further studies may reveal how much the findings transfer to other producer-driven music, like hip hop and electronic dance music.

Abstract: According to its published mission, the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH), a most recent flagship initiative of the European Commission, cur-rently being developed by the EU-funded project ECHOES, is “…a digital ecosystem designed to serve as a platform for cultural heritage professionals, researchers, and in-stitutions across Europe… to unify Europe’s fragmented cultural heritage sector through advanced digital collaboration…”. While recognizing that “…one of the most persistent challenges in the European cultural heritage sector is the dispersion of data in incom-patible formats and isolated institutional practices…”, the ECCCH advances “…a unified approach (that) will radically transform and greatly facilitate … collaborative research…”, promoting the engagement with small, peripheric Cultural Heritage (CH) institutions and providing (tangible and intangible) CH data under their custody. The article describes an experiment in assessing the readiness of available digital data on a specific type of CH objects, namely Cypriot Late Bronze Age figurines. Most of the ca. 170 figurines un-earthed were found in Cyprus, where they were also produced. Out of these, ca. a third are hosted in museums in Cyprus, and the others are dispersed in some 36 museums, primarily in the UK, museums across ten EU countries, the USA and the Russian Fed-eration. Less than half of them provide, through their digital, open-access collections catalogue, information on these figurines. The study reported here investigated the usefulness of this information for conducting synthetic research on their nature and the socio-cultural role they may have fulfilled while in use in the past. Consequently, the study explored the potential of the information provided by these museums to be inte-grated and expressed through the Heritage Digital Twin concept, at the core of the ECCCH.

Abstract: Theories of consciousness span a wide conceptual spectrum, yet most may be broadly categorised into one of two methodological perspectives: the Local-Quantitative (LOQ), positing consciousness arises exclusively from quantifiable, neurological processes, and the Anti-Local-Quantitative (ALOQ), positing extra-physiological, unquantifiable origins. By delineating key criteria—such as neural localisation, empirical measurability, and metaphysical assumptions—this framework offers a structure with which one may more effectively organise and compare theories ranging from Global Workspace Theory (Baars, 1988) to Orchestrated Objective Reduction (Hameroff and Penrose, 1996). Rather than replacing existing philosophical taxonomies, this framework serves as a supplementary tool to identify the commitments and experimental conditions of contemporary models. Establishing this dichotomy may streamline discourse, clarify philosophical commitments, and promote more coherent debate in consciousness research.

Abstract: Introduction: Bodybuilding is fundamentally influenced by biomechanical efficiency, which plays a crucial role in optimizing muscular development and minimizing the risk of injury. Despite its widespread significance, the systematic integration of biomechanical principles in bodybuilding practice remains insufficiently explored, especially within emerging fitness communities. Objective: The primary aim of this systematic review is to synthesize current scientific evidence regarding the biomechanical principles that underpin effective bodybuilding techniques. The review seeks to identify key mechanical factors that influence performance outcomes and to propose practical recommendations for enhancing training efficacy and athlete safety. Methodology: A comprehensive analysis of 23 peer-reviewed studies was conducted, focusing on the relationship between biomechanical variables such as joint angles, body alignment, and load application and their effects on muscle recruitment and strength enhancement. The studies were selected based on relevance, methodological quality, and contribution to applied bodybuilding biomechanics. Results: The findings indicate that precise manipulation of joint positioning, optimized load distribution, and correct body posture significantly improve muscle activation and strength development. These elements, when systematically applied, contribute to greater training efficiency and reduced injury incidence. Discussion: The outcomes of this review corroborate existing literature in sports science, while offering bodybuilding-specific insights that address a notable research gap. The contextual relevance to Albania further underscores the need for biomechanical education in evolving fitness sectors.Conclusions: Incorporating biomechanical principles into bodybuilding training can substantially improve performance, safety, and long-term health outcomes. Future research should pursue longitudinal and intervention-based studies to further validate these findings and inform practice.

Abstract: Religion, culture, and ethnic heritage play a significant role in shaping migrant identities. This paper investigates the interplay of these factors in the identity formation of African Christian migrants in Europe. In particular, it analyzes how second-generation (2G) migrants integrate Western secular values with Pentecostal orientations to facilitate upward social mobility. The analysis is based on a critical review of existing literature, supported by selected ethnographic case studies and qualitative interviews discussed in the cited works. By drawing on empirical research from various European contexts, this study aims to provide a rigorous and multidimensional understanding of intergenerational identity reconstruction among 2G African Christians. By centering the Pentecostal family as a primary site of socialization, this paper explores how 2G African Christians both distance themselves from indigenous African spirit cosmologies and adapt elements of these cosmologies to pursue secular, achievement-oriented objectives. This dialectical engagement highlights a generational shift: while first-generation migrants depend heavily on religion and religious institutions for integration, 2G migrants prioritize secular aspirations as they navigate socioeconomic structures, negotiate belonging, and construct new forms of transnational identity.

Abstract: The present essay introduces and develops the concept of Homo constellatus as a new anthropological and metaphysical archetype, emerging from the visionary corpus of Theodor-Nicolae Carp – specifically in The Conquest from Within and the Incoming Platonic Revolution, Birthing Homo constellatus: From the Humans Who Know Everything to the Humans Who Connect Everything and Andromeda as Archetype: The Neurodiverse as the First-Called in a Post-Neurotypical Cosmology. Situated at the intersection of neurodiversity, symbolic anthropology, cosmopoetics and Platonic theology, Homo constellatus represents not a technocratic leap in cognitive performance, but a metaphysical transfiguration of the human being. It signals an evolutionary milestone defined not by biology or machinery, but by communion, emotional depth and the recovery of sacred symbolic consciousness. This emerging figure is metaphorically birthed through intellectual exile and metamorphic suffering. It is not a successor by gene but by soul: the one who integrates fragmentation into communion, rationality into sacred symbol, and loneliness into ontological design. Moreover, the present manuscript proposes the emergence of a new literary current called Axiological Cosmopoetics following two major “waves” in the history of European literary discourse (Classicism and Modern Romanticism), and it has as its core theme a poetic restoration of order and harmony in the Universal realm, and Homo constellatus appears to be the central archetype of such a new current. Axiological Cosmopoetics is transdisciplinary in nature and integrates axiology (value-theory) with cosmopoetic symbolism, drawing on literary theory, philosophy of art, religious and secular philosophy, as well as cultural myth, to articulate ethically ordered imaginaries of human reintegration, particularly amid times of post-traumatic restoration. The emergence of Homo constellatus signals a shift in consciousness marked by an integrative tendency: a gravitational impulse toward reconstellation. Rather than dissolving difference or imposing uniformity, this archetype seeks to reposition disparate elements within a wider field of meaning, drawing fragmentation toward coherence without erasing plurality. Its movement is not centrifugal but centripetal – not toward collapse into sameness, but toward relational alignment. In this sense, reconstellation describes a reordering of perception: domains once held in tension – reason and reverence, structure and fluidity, individuality and communion – are gradually perceived as dynamically interrelated. The archetype does not force convergence; it inclines toward integration. Like a system approaching a higher-order equilibrium, Homo constellatus orients consciousness toward patterns of deeper resonance, where complexity is neither denied nor absolutized, but harmonized within an ever-expanding constellation of meaning. Through references to sacred geometries – such as Gabriel’s Horn and Brâncuși’s Column of Infinity – Carp envisions Homo constellatus as a being who lives in harmony with the poetic architecture of the cosmos. Drawing on Eastern Orthodox theology, Platonic intimacy, and neurodivergent phenomenology, the essay reframes suffering as sacred gestation and neurodivergence as prophetic sensitivity. The new human archetype of Homo constellatus challenges existing anthropocentric and ableist paradigms by revealing that emotional resonance, symbolic intelligence, and spiritual wholeness are not byproducts of evolution, but its very telos. In dialogue with these literary and philosophical works, Elegy of Mine Exile serves as a lyrical-theological meditation on sacred alienation. This elegy does not mourn exile as punishment – it reclaims exile as consecration. The speaker, likened to a prophetic voice or even to the Ambassador of the Morning Star himself, is rejected by the world not because he is broken – but because he burns too brightly. By distinguishing between the fall of Christ as the true Morning Star – through humility – and the fall of Lucifer through pride, the study describes the speaker’s descent is both sacrificial and revelatory: he suffers not to disappear, but to transmute. Through metaphors of collapse and rising, the poem places spiritual alienation in direct dialogue with divine gestation – turning mourning into Morning. The expanded version of Elegy of Mine Exile amplifies this vision by incorporating ecological, theological, and anthropological dimensions. The soul’s descent is reimagined as the fermentation of the New Eden; cosmic orphanhood becomes an archetypal human condition; and the emergence of Homo constellatus is framed as both elemental fusion and divine inheritance. The eschatological arc of the poem culminates in a nuptial invocation – where divine breath, moral resuscitation, and relational transfiguration give birth to a new co-creative covenant. Suffering becomes not merely transformative, but luminous: the seedbed for Edenic restoration and planetary rebirth. Further expanding this vision, the literary commentary Luceafărul: The Morning Star, Neurodivergence, and the Birth of Homo constellatus interprets Mihai Eminescu’s Hyperion not merely as a tragic figure of cosmic distance, but as a neurodivergent archetype whose refusal of worldly assimilation prefigures Homo constellatus. Hyperion’s vertical longing, divine remoteness, and emotional clarity are re-read as prophetic attributes – illuminating how divine exile is inseparable from metaphysical fidelity. Crucially, the symbolism of the Morning Star – also known as the Evening Star – reveals a prophetic paradox: those who were unseen will become luminous. In eschatological terms, these hidden figures will not only come to light, but also sound the alarm of a nearing apocalyptic threshold, becoming the sensitive instruments of revelation before the advent of the Adversary of the Icons of the Universe on Earth (deemed as anti-Universal Messiah in religious discourse). The poem Behold, the human communing with the Stars continues this metaphysical arc, giving lyrical voice to the full manifestation of Homo constellatus. In this cosmic hymn, suffering culminates in stellar transformation; exile gives way to supernova; and the fallen Morning Star becomes the harbinger of the Eternal Morning. The New Eden is not a return, but a convergence – symbolized by the reassembled Pangaea and the fusion of past and future into infinity. Through mythopoetic eschatology, the poem celebrates a spiritual anthropology rooted not in control, but in communion – marking the fulfillment of a cosmic gestation first conceived in exile. It stands as the poetic benediction of this archetype's emergence. The model proposed here extends into geology and astronomy, as it displays a planetary cartography: the Alpine-Himalayan mountain system as observed in geography, is interpreted as the spinal cord of the “Old, Neurotypical World,” while the Rocky-Andean chain represents the backbone of a “New, Neurodiverse World.” These two continental bodies – much like the approaching collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda as hinted in astronomy – are destined not for destruction, but for synthesis. Their eventual convergence is envisioned as a tectonic, civilizational, and spiritual transformation – an emergence of a post-neurotypical world, one capable of holding both structure and fluidity, reason and reverence. Finally, the invocation of the Morning Star – held in tension between Christ’s descent and Lucifer’s fall in Christianity – serves as a theological fulcrum for this cosmopoetic vision. By distinguishing between the one who chose humility and the one who chose pride, the poem and its accompanying commentary avoid conflating rebellion with brilliance. Christ’s descent becomes the archetype of divine communion, while Lucifer’s fall reveals the tragic consequence of light divorced from love. This distinction safeguards the eschatological hope at the heart of Homo constellatus: that the radiant ones misunderstood by the world are not deviant, but divine harbingers of a healed cosmology – symbols not of rebellion, but of redemptive luminosity. This essay articulates the philosophical, theological, and societal implications of Homo constellatus across multiple domains: from education to sacred urbanism, from intimacy to symbolic linguistics, from planetary ethics to liturgical cosmology. It proposes that the future of humanity lies not in transcending our nature through technology, but in transfiguring it through love, meaning, and communion. Through its interdisciplinary method and poetic form, this work positions Homo constellatus as a necessary archetype for healing a fragmented world, initiating a planetary renaissance grounded in reverent complexity, emotional literacy, and the sacred rhythm of becoming. In its expanded formulation, the Homo constellatus framework now extends beyond symbolic anthropology into trauma-informed civic imagination. Concepts such as Urban Wombs, graduated relational housing, Touch Plazas, lullaby infrastructures, and platonic intimacy literacy are rearticulated not as utopian communal fantasies, but as phased, ethically scaffolded prototypes. These trauma-informed urban prototypes may incorporate calibrated biophilic design within dense metropolitan contexts, integrating natural light and ecological elements as regulatory supports for psychological stability rather than as aesthetic idealism. These models prioritise sovereignty, consent, and psychological pacing, especially in contexts involving survivors of violence and crime, including domestic abuse, coercive control, assault and trafficking. Platonic intimacy is therefore repositioned not as universal remedy, but as a regulated and optional dimension within broader recovery ecosystems where autonomy precedes affection and safeguarding precedes proximity. By embedding strict ethical guardrails – continuous consent, trauma-informed facilitation, independent oversight, and tiered participation structures – the vision of Homo constellatus matures from prophetic archetype into disciplined compassion. The new human is no longer defined solely by sacred exile, but by the capacity to design environments where relational safety becomes infrastructural. In this development, communion ceases to be abstract aspiration and becomes civic architecture. The eschatological horizon remains luminous, yet it is tempered by legal, psychological, and cultural accountability. Thus, Homo constellatus evolves from metaphysical figure into socially responsible archetype: radiance integrated with restraint, transcendence integrated with trauma-awareness, and love integrated with law. Ultimately, the literary and philosophical vision of Homo constellatus does not remain a theoretical construct, but emerges as a liturgical anthropology – a life-form shaped by presence, patience, and symbolic resonance. Its birth reframes neurodivergence as divine invitation, demanding structural repentance in education, theology, and care. It invites a post-neurotypical civilization to reorient itself not around efficiency, but reverence. Though rooted in Orthodox theology and European literary myth, its archetypal signature is transcultural: it echoes the bodhisattva, the qalandar, the wounded healer – universal figures of radiant exile and sacred return. Thus, this vision does not end in abstraction, but in enactment: the return of the human soul to the cosmic choir – not as soloist, but as constellation.

Abstract: This study examines the role of music education as an instrument of national identity construction in the five Central Asian states and analyses the consequences of this function for regional educational integration. Drawing on the theory of invented tradition (Hobsbawm and Ranger, 1983) and the concept of imagined communities (Anderson, 1983), the research analyses music curriculum content in the principal conservatories of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The source material includes publicly available curriculum documents, programme descriptions, UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage nomination files, national education laws, and World Bank statistical data. The analysis maps the divergent national music canons that have been constructed through higher education curricula since independence in 1991. A pattern we term curricular nationalism emerges from this mapping: the deliberate use of music education curricula to construct nationally specific cultural identities by selecting canonical instruments, elevating particular musical genres to national heritage status, and incorporating specific musicians and composers into national pantheons. Each of the five states has built a distinct canon within its conservatory system. Kazakhstan has centred its curriculum on the dombra and the kuy tradition; Uzbekistan on the Shashmaqom classical system and the dutar; Kyrgyzstan on the komuz and the Manas epic tradition; Tajikistan on a reframing of the shared Shashmaqom heritage as distinctly Tajik; and Turkmenistan on the dutar and the bakhshi bardic tradition. These divergent canons are not accidental products of institutional development but purposeful constructions that serve to distinguish each newly independent state from its neighbours. The study identifies a structural paradox: the cultural proximity of the five states, including shared musical traditions, instruments, and performance practices that could in principle support regional cooperation, is precisely what drives curricular divergence, because shared traditions become objects of competitive national appropriation rather than a basis for integration. We suggest that this dynamic forms an identitarian barrier to regional music education integration that the structural mechanisms of the Bologna Process and the relational mechanisms of bilateral cooperation are largely unequipped to resolve, since the obstacle is not technical or institutional but political in nature.

Abstract: Background: Ejagham, an African language, has received limited scholarly focus compared to other African languages. Most studies emphasise grammar and sociolinguistics, while its number system remains underdocumented. Number systems in underdocumented languages like Ejagham are rarely examined for their cognitive, philosophical, or symbolic dimensions. Yet, Ejagham’s counting system may encode concepts of economy, hierarchy, memory, and logic, reflecting broader cultural values. Objective: This paper analyses the Ejagham counting system from one to ten, seeking to understand its structure, cultural reasoning, and mnemonic potential. It also aims to support the documentation and promotion of this amazing language. Method: This study focuses on the Cameroonian variety of Ejagham, also known as Eastern Ejagham. It employs critical analysis, an insider perspective, and simple arithmetic to examine patterns and explore possible connections. The numbers are transcribed using the International Phonetic Alphabet. Results: Ejagham numbers from one to ten follow a cultural logic: larger numbers are formed additively and spoken first, reflecting seniority and economic mastery. A distinct word for ten confirms a decimal system. Conclusion and Recommendation: This research argues that Ejagham’s numerical expressions reflect a worldview grounded in economy, seniority, symmetry, and cognitive efficiency. The cultural logic embedded in Ejagham numbers contributes to ongoing efforts to document this language. Increased scholarly and financial support is vital for its preservation and for further interdisciplinary study.

Abstract: The present study investigates the governance of music higher education in Central Asia by examining two competing external integration frameworks that currently operate in the region: the European Bologna Process and China's Belt and Road Initiative. The empirical focus is placed on five Central Asian states, namely Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The research draws on the theory of policy borrowing and lending as formulated by G. Steiner-Khamsi, the concept of soft power in educational cooperation, and the theory of regional education space as developed by S. Marginson, with the aim of analysing how these two frameworks act upon Central Asian music education institutions through different mechanisms and produce different effects. Documentary evidence is collected from national education laws, institutional reports from principal conservatories in the region, programme descriptions from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music's Belt and Road Art Talent Training Programme, Aga Khan Music Programme publications, diplomatic agreements from the 2023 China-Central Asia Summit, and statistical data from the World Bank and UNESCO. The analysis brings to light that the Bologna Process acts on Central Asian music education through structural standardisation, which requires the adoption of compatible degree formats, credit systems, and accreditation mechanisms, while China's Belt and Road Initiative operates through relational exchange, which offers talent training programmes, bilateral institutional partnerships, and cultural diplomacy events that do not require structural convergence. The paper puts forward the concept of dual integration pressure to describe the condition in which music education institutions must respond to both frameworks at the same time, and identifies a structural incompatibility between the multilateral norm convergence logic of the Bologna model and the bilateral relationship logic of the Chinese model. The findings point to the fact that music education, as a domain where cultural specificity and institutional standardisation exist in direct tension, makes visible a governance problem that remains hidden in other fields of higher education cooperation in Central Asia. A complementary engagement framework is proposed that identifies conditions under which the two models can operate without mutual interference and suggests that Chinese cooperation can address gaps in heritage documentation, traditional instrument exchange, and performance-based mobility that Bologna-oriented reforms are structurally unable to fill.

Abstract: Building details are often treated as technical externalities, subordinate to form, image and architectural narrative. Reading details as liminal spaces reverses that hierarchy. The joint concentrates transitions between inside and outside, public and private, ex-posure and protection, and those transitions are constructed as intervals, experienced through thickness, reveal, edge condition, shadow, touch and the small resistances that accompany crossing. The article develops its analysis through archival hand-drawn detail drawings from the Azrieli Architectural Archive. It defines building details as both technical assem-blies and threshold devices, points where architecture becomes accountable to percep-tion as well as to climate, labor, regulation and everyday use. A semiotic reading of large-scale sheets shows how line weight, hatching, notation and layout encode priori-ties, marking boundaries between what must be precisely resolved and what may re-main adjustable. The archive is treated as a laboratory of “detail families,” recurring junction types such as windows, stairs and envelope edges that reveal office-specific languages of joining. Two case studies, by the architects Ram Karmi and Arieh Sharon with Eldar Sharon, show how micro-variations in depth, overlap and edge control tune thresholds, pro-ducing perceptual tipping points where comfort can shift into irritation, calm into un-ease and openness into vulnerability. Although grounded in a local archive, the argu-ment addresses a broader condition of contemporary practice: standardization and digital production chains can relocate authorship and responsibility away from the joint, precisely where buildings most affect everyday conduct. The paper proposes a liminal literacy of detailing as both a historiographic method and a design ethic aimed at making threshold decisions legible, contestable and accountable in present-day workflows.

Abstract: China's "Double Reduction" policy, introduced in 2021 to curtail excessive academic tutoring, has redirected millions of families toward extracurricular arts education, particularly music. Yet this surge in demand has exposed longstanding structural weaknesses in China's extracurricular music education system, including an entrenched examination-grading culture, market fragmentation, and a narrow conception of musical learning centered on technical reproduction rather than creative engagement. This paper presents a comparative analysis of extracurricular music education systems in the United States, Germany, and Japan, examining how each country has developed distinct institutional arrangements to support music learning outside the formal school curriculum. The United States relies on a decentralized, community-driven model that privileges creative expression and cultural pluralism. Germany maintains an extensive network of publicly funded music schools (Musikschulen) organized as a complement to general schooling. Japan embeds much of its extracurricular music activity within the school-based club (bukatsu) system, supplemented by well-established industry-education partnerships with corporations such as Yamaha and Suzuki. Drawing on policy documents, institutional data, and existing scholarship in comparative education and music education, we identify both shared principles and irreducible differences across these three models. The analysis suggests that China's current predicament cannot be resolved through market expansion alone; rather, it requires a reconfiguration of institutional design, pedagogical orientation, and the relationship between assessment and musical experience. We conclude by outlining a set of policy directions, including reforming the graded examination system, expanding public provision at the community level, and reorienting teacher education toward broader conceptions of musicianship.

Abstract: This paper examines why music higher education across five Central Asian states—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan—resists the regional integration that general higher education has begun to pursue. We compare degree structures, accreditation systems, and curriculum models at each country’s national conservatory, and we analyse national education laws alongside international agreements to trace the roots of divergence. The analytical lens combines institutional isomorphism—a framework that explains how organisations copy, comply with, or professionally absorb external models—with the concept of regional education space as a deliberate governance project. The evidence reveals a pattern we call the conservatory paradox: every government simultaneously pushes its conservatory toward Bologna-compatible degree formats and charges the same institution with safeguarding nationally distinct oral music traditions that UNESCO has inscribed on its heritage lists. This dual mandate opens a persistent gap between what formal structures describe and what classrooms actually deliver. Rather than full harmonisation, we propose a three-level coordination framework—mutual trust through accreditation without curriculum uniformity, joint heritage projects anchored in shared traditions such as Shashmaqom, and short-term mobility windows that bypass the credit-transfer bottleneck.

Abstract: The security crisis in Burkina Faso has displaced over two million people, disproportionately affecting women and children, who are exposed to multiple forms of violence. This study assesses the resilience capacity of internally displaced women in the Boucle du Mouhoun region. A mixed-methods approach was employed with 1,056 participants, combining questionnaires administered via KoboToolbox and semi-structured interviews, in compliance with ethical standards. Findings reveal statistically significant correlations between year of displacement and both physical (r = 0.150, p = 0.017) and psychological violence (r = 0.072, p = 0.022). Nearly 46.74% of respondents lost relatives in atrocious circumstances (summary executions, throat-slitting, immolation), generating post-traumatic disorders including chronic insomnia, flashbacks, and psychosis. Despite psychosocial support from NGOs, prayer (39.74%) and silence (23.36%) remain the predominant coping strategies. These findings underscore the imperative for psychosocial interventions grounded in the victims’ cultural habitus to enhance their effectiveness.

Abstract: Methodological statistics has developed under the pervasive belief that the value of a simulation study lies in its ability to demonstrate the superiority of a proposed method. This belief has distorted the epistemic role of simulation research by encouraging selective reporting, narrow design spaces and the suppression of results that fail to show improvement. Drawing on philosophical accounts and on meta scientific critiques by several studies, this paper argues that non superiority is not a failure but an essential source of methodological knowledge. It marks the boundaries at which a method performs adequately, where it begins to degrade and where it breaks. Using empirical patterns evident in contemporary methodological literature and drawing on the widely cited case in which machine learning methods often failed to outperform logistic regression in clinical prediction, this paper demonstrates how non-superiority clarifies expectations and guides methodological refinement. The paper proposes a structural remedy that pairs the Registered Reports model with principled simulation design following the ADEMP framework of \citet{morris2019using}. This alignment protects the visibility of non-superiority and restores the integrity of simulation research. Boundary mapping is therefore not a modest contribution but a scientific and ethical imperative for methodological transparency and applied reliability.

Abstract: One of the gaps in green building research in Euro-Mediterranean countries is the assessment of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified projects in the context of the LEED rating system’s ongoing transition from a prescriptive to a performance-based approach. This study evaluates LEED certification strategies by analyzing the causal relationships between five independent LEED performance indicators and the overall LEED score for LEED for Existing Office Buildings version 4.1 (LEED-EB v4.1) gold-certified office projects in Sweden, Italy, Israel, Spain, Germany, and Ireland using simple linear regression. Linear regression showed that each of the six above-mentioned countries demonstrated a unique LEED certification strategy for LEED-EB v4.1 gold-certified office projects. Linear regression revealed, for the first time in the literature, that the causal relationship between the independent indicator “energy” and the dependent indicator overall LEED score was statistically insignificant (R2 = 0.04 and p = 0.359; R2 = 0.13 and p = 0.112, respectively) in LEED-EB v4.1 gold-certified office projects in Germany and Ireland. However, in Sweden, Italy, Israel and Spain, this relationship was statistically significant (R2 = 0.38, 0.46, 0.53 and 0.40 at p < 0.001 in all cases, respectively).

Abstract: Translatable oral characteristics can be translated between poetic languages that are linguistically or metrically very different. This paper begins with describing an effort of manually clustering such characteristics and listing the passages in which they co-occur. Following this process, five non-trivial clusters have been discovered in the Iliad. The clusters are non-trivial in the sense that they have many semantically diverse characteristics, are often detailed, are few in number, and are widely applicable. As such, they contrast with trivial clusters of semantically close characteristics, like king, wealth, and gold. The discovery of three of these non-trivial clusters is supported by chi-square tests of independence. They are conjectured to have origins in separate Mycenaean, Aeolian, and Ionian oral traditions. Nevertheless, the statistical investigation is about the existence of these three non-trivial clusters, not their geographical origins. A list of 21 statistically significant results is obtained, of which 13 are extremely significant, while only 4 are not significant. Given that no trivial concept, type-scene, or story explains the clusters, their existence, meaning, contours, and origins should be of primary concern for Homerists, as they probably have much historical and literary value.

Abstract: Competency-Based Education (CBE) represents a significant shift from traditional higher education, emphasizing learning outcomes and mastery of specific skills over time-based credit systems. Synthesizing findings from 73 peer-reviewed empirical studies and official institutional data, the analysis examines the core principles of CBE, its implementation frameworks, and its practical application in higher education institutions. The analysis further reveals how CBE addresses current challenges in postsecondary education, including providing flexible learning pathways, developing industry-relevant skills, and achieving measurable learning outcomes. Through institutional case studies and implementation strategies, this analysis provides a framework for understanding CBE's role in transforming higher education and assessing student achievement.

Abstract: Selections for sick and unfit prisoners and their murder through lethal injections or in gas chambers were characteristic of Nazi camps like Auschwitz. This article investigates the start of these murders through the lens of a system of forced labour camps for Eastern Upper Silesian Jews, so-called Schmelt camps, that did not form part of the usual concentration camp system. Their independent status gave Schmelt camps more leeway for experimenting with killing methods and they implemented respective policies to liquidate unfit prisoners several months before the concentration camps. However, they were also supervised by SS physicians from Auschwitz and began to send unfit prisoners to the camp's gas chambers from early 1942. In parallel, they developed despicable killing methods, primarily water-induced murders. These events are contextualized within Giorgio Agamben's concept of 'homo sacer.' The paper demonstrates that Fritz Todt, whose Reich Motorway Company utilized Jewish labour for construction work in Silesia, was a driving force behind Himmler's decision to eliminate 'unproductive' prisoners. It shows how civilian camp leaders collaborated in these crimes. Finally, it delineates the transformation of convalescent camps in Schmelt's system from places of recovery for lightly ill prisoners to killing centres and collection points for Auschwitz transports.

Abstract: Humanity is facing an unprecedented socio-ecological and climate crisis resulting from human impact on the planet, which requires a profound transformation in how we inhabit and develop our territories. Regenerative development is emerging as a key approach to strengthening living systems and improving environmental health. In this context, UNESCO Biosphere Reserves are consolidating their role as strategic instruments that link biodiversity conservation with sustainable development through integrated and par-ticipatory land management models. Mexico stands out for its regional and global leadership in implementing these areas. Participatory governance, promoted by the MAB program, encourages the active involvement of local communities. This article analyses the application of a regenerative and participatory design methodology in a Biosphere Reserve, evaluating both the process and the tools used. Beyond the fulfilment of sus-tainability objectives, it examines the lessons learned, results and scope from a regen-erative perspective, providing critical reflections on its effectiveness as a strategy for the socio-ecological management of vulnerable territories.