For over 150 years the developments in the Terminal Classic period in the Maya lowlands are studied. There is still no general consensus on the reason of the decline in the southern part and the...Show moreFor over 150 years the developments in the Terminal Classic period in the Maya lowlands are studied. There is still no general consensus on the reason of the decline in the southern part and the transformation in the northern part. The once accepted “collapse” of the Classic Maya civilization is now only argued for by few. The Terminal Classic in the Maya lowlands is perceived as a period of grave changes, transitions, transformations and continuity. Few settlements did experience abrupt total collapse. There is a large variety of causes that are argued to be of influence to the decline. Assessing the contemporary discussion, several key issues arise. There is no consensus on what terms should be used to describe these events as well as the relativity of labeling short and long scale developments is under discussion. Finally the very essence of what is studied here, is human behaviour. The reaction of the Classic Maya to changing situations or resilience, whether in the socio-political system or to climate changes, is paramount in the study of the Terminal Classic.Show less
In this thesis, the legal dimensions of the First Dutch West India Company are discussed on the basis of three case studies. As one of the world's first multinationals, the Company was granted...Show moreIn this thesis, the legal dimensions of the First Dutch West India Company are discussed on the basis of three case studies. As one of the world's first multinationals, the Company was granted public powers that are today regarded as prerogatives of the state. To what extent was the WIC a separate sovereign entity? What was its constitutional position within the Dutch Republic? And to what extent did Company practice accord with seventeenth century legal theory?Show less
Never before in the history of popular culture has a nation been able to draw so much attention worldwide to its music, drama and movies in such a short period. From the moment that South Korea was...Show moreNever before in the history of popular culture has a nation been able to draw so much attention worldwide to its music, drama and movies in such a short period. From the moment that South Korea was forced to open its markets by the IMF and America as a result of the Asian financial crisis, their popular culture has been gaining worldwide recognition. On every continent we can find k-pop fans and Korean dramas on television. This phenomenon got the interest of the media, politicians and scholars. In this paper I’ve been trying to answer the questions who are behind the success of the Korean wave and how do they think about the Korean wave? It turns out that the Korean wave deliberately was created by the Korean government. In 1998 the government decided that the movie industry would be their key industry of growth. The idea was that the exports of movies would bring in a lot of money. The policies of the 1980s had an indirect effect on the drama and music industries. Korean entertainment companies used the popularity of Korean movies and dramas in other countries to successfully export k-pop. For entertainment companies it is essential to export their music to other countries, because the Korean music market is too small to sustain itself.Show less
Reading comprehension is a dynamic process which is influenced by a range of text characteristics and individual characteristics (Van den Broek, 1994). An important text characteristic is coherence...Show moreReading comprehension is a dynamic process which is influenced by a range of text characteristics and individual characteristics (Van den Broek, 1994). An important text characteristic is coherence, a measure of the interconnectedness of information within a text, which can be assessed locally and globally. This study was intended to conceptually replicate previous research using event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the maintenance of global coherence. ERPs were computed for critical words in each story to compare the difference in mean amplitude of the N400 component across coherent and incoherent story conditions. The N400 is thought to be inversely related to the ease with which semantic processing is carried out (Nieuwland & Van Berkum, 2006). It was hypothesised that breaks in global coherence would produce an N400 effect relative to the coherent control condition. A repeated measures ANOVA was carried out to test whether the N400 amplitude, measured as mean amplitude in the 300 – 500ms post critical word time window across 11 chosen scalp sites, was more strongly negative for critical words in the incoherent condition than for those in the coherent condition. Mean amplitude values for the N400 were more negative for critical words in the incoherent condition than those in the coherent condition across 7 out of 11 scalp sites, but the differences did not reach significance.Show less
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of three formats (traditional, vertical, and subtype) on the validity of the Curriculum-based Measurement (CBM) maze measure as an indicator of...Show moreThe purpose of this study was to examine the effects of three formats (traditional, vertical, and subtype) on the validity of the Curriculum-based Measurement (CBM) maze measure as an indicator of reading performance. The effects of gender on maze scores for each format were also examined. Participants were 42 students (17 females, 25 males) in grade 6 between the age of 11 and 13 from a Dutch school. CITO test scores and comprehension questions served as criterion measures for the maze tasks. Results revealed format, but not gender, effects for the mean maze scores. No format effects were found for correlations between maze and the criterion variables. Correlations between maze and CITO scores were all significant and ranged from .34 to .36. Correlations between the maze and comprehension question scores ranged from .25 to .36.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
Restoring law and order and trust in the state is a challenge in a post conflict situation. Especially in the case of Bosnia Herzegovina, where the state is not easy to define. Based on field...Show moreRestoring law and order and trust in the state is a challenge in a post conflict situation. Especially in the case of Bosnia Herzegovina, where the state is not easy to define. Based on field research in the city of Mostar this thesis tries to answer theShow less
This thesis consists of two related parts. In the first part the Qgonality of X1(N) is computed for all odd N ≤ 29 and a very good lower bound is given for N = 31 (see corollary 2.17). In the...Show moreThis thesis consists of two related parts. In the first part the Qgonality of X1(N) is computed for all odd N ≤ 29 and a very good lower bound is given for N = 31 (see corollary 2.17). In the second part of this thesis it shown that if there is a torsion point of prime order p on an elliptic curve over a number field with degree 5 over Q, then p ≤ 19 or p ∈ {29, 31, 41}. Also all primes p ≤ 19 occur as the order of a torsion point of some elliptic curve over a number field of degree at most 5. Table 3.2 also contains the results obtained using the same techniques for number field of degrees 6 and 7.Show less
The data used for this thesis are data about Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) and they have some special characteristics. The numerical values are semi-quantitative, the response is categorical (BV...Show moreThe data used for this thesis are data about Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) and they have some special characteristics. The numerical values are semi-quantitative, the response is categorical (BV negative, intermediate and BV positive) and the data are high-dimensional. Categorical regression (CATREG) is a method that can be used to analyze these data. To determine how CATREG performs in predicting future outcomes from these data it will be compared to Random Forests, one of the golden standards in statistical learning. The dataset was randomly divided in a training and test set. The training set was used for variable selection and determining the values of the regularization parameters, and the test set was used for estimating the prediction accuracy. Based on the training set a Random Forests model and a CATREG model were chosen and used for prediction. Random Forests and CATREG both classify 68% of the outcomes correctly, but the models are not able to distinguish well between intermediate and BV positive women. When the intermediate and BV positive women are taken together, the percentages of correctly classified women increases to 95% and 97% for Random Forest and CATREG, respectively. Overall this analysis showed that CATREG performs as well as Random Forests in the prediction and therefore it can be considered as a worthwhile alternative.Show less
The museum over time has undergone many changes. Its meaning and role have altered frequently according to the social and cultural structure of each era. Its activities have enriched sharing...Show moreThe museum over time has undergone many changes. Its meaning and role have altered frequently according to the social and cultural structure of each era. Its activities have enriched sharing knowledge not only within the scientific community but also with all kinds of visitors. The educational programs are one of the newer activities of museums that allow children, the roots of society, to learn about the historical past through external education. The specific research, in what way can an archaeological museum organize the educational programs in order to introduce children to the cultural past, is based on two museums; the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden and the Archaeological Museum of Sparta. For this purpose, archival research and a lot of interviews with the museum professionals and the museum visitors were conducted. Different people from different posts and with different views were asked to talk about and evaluate the educational programs. In the end, a new educational program for the Archaeological Museum of Sparta is proposed. This new three stage program, consisting of visit preparation, the visit itself and activities at school, is influenced by the programs of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. It is designed to be easily adapted for local museums yet still provides the same educational benefits for national museums.Show less
Linear enamel hypoplasias are growth disruptions in enamel thickness, formed during childhood and, since enamel does not remodel, stay forever. These defects are seen as stress markers and widely...Show moreLinear enamel hypoplasias are growth disruptions in enamel thickness, formed during childhood and, since enamel does not remodel, stay forever. These defects are seen as stress markers and widely used to interpreted childhood health. This study examined the permanent dentition of a sample of the 19th century rural Beemster population. The teeth are examined macroscopically and systematic disturbances are identified by matching hypoplasias among different teeth. The highest frequency of LEHs are on the central maxillary incisor and mandibular canine. The sample consists of 11 subadults and 39 adults. From all individuals, 64% showed linear enamel hypoplasia. A higher prevalence of LEH was found in the females, although there was no statistically significant difference between the sexes. Adolescents exhibit a significantly higher number of events in comparison to the adults, and have more affected teeth per individual. There is no difference in the mean age-at-death between individuals with and without LEH. Thus, the presence of LEH does not affect mortality in this sample, but the individuals with the highest number of hypoplastic events die at a younger age. The specific age occurrences of LEH fall between 1.5 and 5.3 years of age, with the highest number of LEH between 2.5 and 3.5 years of age. These peaks do no correspond to historically suggested weaning age. The combination of malnutrition and epidemics are suggested to be responsible for the majority of LEH forming events.Show less
Beemster was a rural municipality in the Netherlands which was founded in the 17th century on drained land. The cemetery of Middenbeemster lies in the central village of Beemster and was used from...Show moreBeemster was a rural municipality in the Netherlands which was founded in the 17th century on drained land. The cemetery of Middenbeemster lies in the central village of Beemster and was used from the 17th to 19th century and 450 skeletons were excavated in 2011. Forty nine subadults from the ages of one to fifteen years were examined for rickets. In the 19th century, rickets had become epidemic in most industrialised cities throughout Northern Europe. Crude rickets prevalence in contemporaneous urban populations from the Netherlands varied from 1% to 7%. To identify this disease in the sample of Middenbeemster ten features as described by Ortner and Mays (1998) were scored. Bending deformities of the lower limbs or at least three non-bending features had to be present in order to diagnose rickets. Five individuals displayed evidence of rickets, which is 10.2% of the entire sample. This alone is a high rickets prevalence, but even more for a rural community. In addition, all the affected individuals belonged to the same age category, one to three years (n=25), so the age-specific prevalence becomes much higher at 20.0%. This is an unexpectedly high prevalence of rickets in a community where sunlight was readily available. Specific practices and activities associated with the young age of affected individuals must have diminished sunlight exposure to such a degree that their diet was not sufficient enough to replenish required vitamin D levels to prevent rickets development. Cultural practices including the swaddling of older infants, occlusive clothing for infants and children, keeping the young indoors, and the famine of 1845-1847 likely have contributed to this high rickets prevalence.Show less
This thesis tries to answer questions about aegyptiaca at certain Greek sanctuaries in the Archaic period. We hope to shed light on aspects of Greek-Egyptian contact and exchange, as well as the...Show moreThis thesis tries to answer questions about aegyptiaca at certain Greek sanctuaries in the Archaic period. We hope to shed light on aspects of Greek-Egyptian contact and exchange, as well as the Greek perception of ‘Egyptian’, and Greek religious practice. As background are discussed the theories behind material culture studies, the general history of Greek-Egyptian contact, the Greek view on Egypt as discussed by Herodotus, and the nature of Greek sanctuaries and votive dedications. Then, a closer look is taken at certain sanctuaries: Samos, Ephesus, Perachora, Artemis Orthia, Delphi and Olympia. The aegyptiaca at these sites are discussed. Based on these data alone a conclusive answer to our question cannot be found. However, it becomes clear that these items were part of a complex and wide exchange system, rather than the result of direct contact between Archaic Greece and Egypt.Show less
From the Dutch cemetery of Middenbeemster, individuals from the rural community of the Beemster were excavated, mostly dating to the nineteenth century. The Beemster had an agriculture-based...Show moreFrom the Dutch cemetery of Middenbeemster, individuals from the rural community of the Beemster were excavated, mostly dating to the nineteenth century. The Beemster had an agriculture-based economy, focused on dairy farming. It was a relative latecomer to modernization and farming machinery. This dissertation establishes levels of physical activity and associated social differentiation in the Beemster, based upon skeletal markers of activity in the upper limbs. These are osteoarthritis (OA) and musculoskeletal stress markers (MSM’s). OA is a joint disease, and MSM’s are the sites at which muscles attach to bone, whose morphology may be indicative of muscle use and strain. The high prevalence of OA established that this population engaged in generally strenuous physical labor, more so than contemporaneous Dutch settlements. Although OA severity increased with age, its prevalence did not, indicating that joint-related wear was already occurring in young adults. MSM’s suggested a gendered division of labor. Males had more pronounced MSM’s in all sites but the triceps brachi. Males were especially involved in activities exercising the biceps and brachioradialis, as these showed the highest sexual dimorphism. In general, the pectoralis major muscle was highly pronounced, whereas the multifunctional deltoid muscle was the least developed. There was a clear positive correlation of MSM’s with age. The high symmetry between upper limbs in OA and MSM results also points to strenuous physical activity. Two young adult females had low scores for OA and MSM’s, suggesting they led less strenuous lives and could have belonged to a more elite class. The study also evaluated the usefulness of the methods. Both need further study to become reliable, especially MSM research which is in its infancy. Osteoarthritis was concluded to be most useful on an inter-population level. There was a very low correlation between OA and MSM’s, thus combining them to reconstruct activity in past populations is of limited use. Further standardization of scoring methods is also necessary for both skeletal activity markers. Overall, this research contributed to our understanding of OA and MSM’s as activity markers, both separately and combined, while also providing new data on activity levels in a post-medieval Dutch population.Show less
Decades of research on the role and frequency of fire use in human evolution have only yielded a blurred understanding of the chronology of anthropogenic fire practise. This predicament has by and...Show moreDecades of research on the role and frequency of fire use in human evolution have only yielded a blurred understanding of the chronology of anthropogenic fire practise. This predicament has by and large resulted from an ambiguous archaeological record, issues of preservation of fire residues, as well as undefined frameworks for the scientific study of anthropogenic fire. In fact, besides stirring scholarly debates that in many ways has produced more heat than light, very little actual progress has been made in the last decade with regards to the general understanding of when and where various fire practices (i.e. controlled, opportunistic, and habitual) have emerged. Instead, variable length chronologies have been developed in which various researchers read and interpret the same evidence of fire in a variety of ways. This thesis sets out to add some clarity to the debate by 1) providing a comparative analysis of the various chronologies, with a focus on testing the strengths and weaknesses of the shorter chronologies against the wider background of fire evidence, i.e. the long chronologies; 2) by examining major challenges hindering any considerable progress in establishing a sound and agreed upon chronological framework for fire use and its subsequent production during the Pleistocene Period; and 3) by providing practical solutions and suggestions on directions for future research.Show less
