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The presence of persistent regional development disparities in rural China has become one of the most important concerns about the country's further sustainable development. As the key engine driving the rural economy, rural industrial development plays a dominant role in understanding rural regional development disparities. This study utilizes a provincial panel dataset to examine the determinants of industrial development in rural China over the period 1992–2014. The analysis compares rural output growth and export growth as indicators of rural industrial development, and identifies significant regional variations in the determinants of these indicators across the three main regions of the country. The results suggest that domestic capital investment is the most important cause of regional rural output growth disparities, while FDI is the main reason for rising regional disparities in export growth. A strong self-reinforcing effect in output growth is identified for the Eastern region, which has generated faster economic growth compared to the other regions. There exists a regional divergence in export growth, accelerating the regional export disparity between the three regions. Based on the findings of this study, we argue that, to reduce regional development disparities, the formulation of policies to promote national economic goals should take explicit account of the regional context in which those policies operate. • The study examines the determinants of rural regional development disparities. • Variations in the determinants exist between output and export growth across the three main regions. • Domestic capital investment is the most important cause of regional rural output growth disparities. • FDI is the main reason for rising regional disparities in export growth. • The formulation of policies should take explicit account of the regional context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THIS PAPER EXAMINES AL-SHABAAB AND BOKO HARAM ACTIVITIES IN KENYA AND NIGERIA. IT EXAMINES THE CONNECTIVITY BETWEEN EXPRESSED RHETORIC; CAUSAL FACTORS OF VIOLENT ACTIVITIES AND THE MODES OF OPERATION OF THE TWO MOST DREADED ARMED GROUPS IN AFRICA. RELYING ON PRIMARY, SECONDARY DATA AND CONTENT ANALYSIS OF RELEVANT LITERATURE, THE OPINIONS AND FINDINGS FROM SECURITY DEPARTMENTS, IDPS, AND INFORMATION ON THE DATELINE OF ATTACKS IN NIGERIA AND KENYA HELPS IN THE UNDERSTANDING OF HOW BOKO HARAM AND AL-SHABAAB CARRY OUT THEIR ACTIVITIES. ALSO, THEIR OBJECTIVES AND TARGET, ARMS AND WEAPONS USED AND OTHER OPERATIONAL MODES PROVIDE THE BASE FOR COMPARISON. THE COMPARATIVE METHOD IS ADOPTED TO SHOW THAT AL-SHABAAB AND BOKO HARAM ARE SIMILAR IN THEIR MODES OF OPERATION IN SOME ASPECTS AND ARE DIFFERENT IN OTHERS. THE TWO GROUPS COMBINE ELEMENTS OF LIBERATION MOVEMENTS, INSURGENT MOVEMENT, SEPARATIST AND ISLAMIST MOVEMENTS. THEY ALSO HAVE ELEMENTS OF MILITIA, ARMED GROUPS AND REBEL MOVEMENT. AND, FUNDAMENTALLY, AL-SHABAAB AND BOKO HARAM ADOPTS TERRORISM STRATEGIES AND TACTICS COUPLED WITH CONVENTIONAL MILITARY TYPE OPERATIONS BUT BOKO HARAM HAVE BEEN MORE LETHAL IN ADOPTING MILITARY STRATEGIES AND TACTICS SUCH AS GROUND BATTLE AND DIRECT ASSAULT AGAINST THE STATE MILITARY THAN AL-SHABAAB IN KENYA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the prospects of a comparative approach within the field of the dissemination of European popular print. Currently, it is still hard to find studies that address distribution of popular print with a Europe-wide scope. After an introduction about the main concepts, models and approaches, the article discusses some topic related issues, questions, approaches and sources. Social and professional categorisations are explored, as well as the differences between urban and rural distribution, the impact of regional and international networks, the effects of trade regulations and the collaborative features of distribution practices. What became clear is that a wide-ranging study that includes all European countries is urgently needed but not within reach soon, due to a lack of fundamental research and assessible sources. We should therefore first start to collect data systematically and conduct a series of comparative case studies in which we explore important questions and approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comparative study of two different film versions of the same staging of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Comédie-Française, filmed ten years apart by different directors and for different broadcasters, illustrates the interdependent links between stage and screen. Scenic constraints, e.g. the placement of a digital screen above the stage to enhance the perspective of the theatre audience, require strategic filming choices that highlight the aesthetics of film-theater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of proclisis in contexts that typically exclude it in European Portuguese has been described as a syntactic feature that characterizes Angolan Portuguese. This article studies the presence of this feature in the literary language, based on a corpus of texts by Angolan and Mozambican authors, representing two generations: authors born in the colonial period (the Angolan Pepetela and the Mozambicans Mia Couto and Paulina Chiziane) and authors born after the independence of their countries (the Angolan Ondjaki and the Mozambican Lucílio Manjate). The study results show that proclisis has a stronger presence in the works of Angolan authors than Mozambican authors, suggesting that the shift towards the generalization of proclisis is more advanced, socially widespread and accepted in Angolan Portuguese than in Mozambican Portuguese, although it is visible in both. It is in non-finite domains that the contrast between the two African varieties is more evident. Not only is the frequency of proclisis to the infinitive higher in the Angolan Portuguese corpus, but only there is proclisis to the past participle attested. Comparing the two generations of writers, we see a significant rise of proclisis to the infinitive between Pepetela and Ondjaki and it is in Ondjaki's works that proclisis to the past participle occurs. Regarding the Mozambican Portuguese corpus, however, there seems to be a regression in the advance of proclisis between Mia Couto and Manjate. A closer look at Rabhia, by Manjate (2017), suggests that young speakers with a high level of education may perceive the spread of proclisis as a socially marked feature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Iberian Journal of the History of Economic Thought is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

From misleading news articles around elections in Brazil and the United States to mob lynchings fueled by false social media messages in India to made-up stories about COVID19 vaccination, a deluge of disinformation and misinformation is affecting various aspects of citizens’ lives around the world. Although there is an increasing number of research papers dealing with disinformation or misinformation, a majority of these have focused on the United States. This Special Section on comparative approaches to mis/disinformation features conceptual and data-informed articles with international and global perspectives on the prevalence, impact, and diffusion of mis/disinformation in different countries. Articles selected for the Special Section provide new theoretical and empirical contributions to existing bodies of knowledge whether focusing on one country or offering comparative perspectives involving multiple countries. The articles, individually and collectively, offer important scholarly and policy implications for studying and combating mis/disinformation around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Porównania / Comparisons. A Journal on Comparative Literature & Interdisciplinary Studies is the property of Adam Mickiewicz University Poznao, Press of "Poznanskie Studia Polonistyczne" and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent comparative studies have suggested that cooperative breeding is associated with increases in maximum lifespan among mammals, replicating a pattern also seen in birds and insects. In this study, we re-examine the case for increased lifespan in mammalian cooperative breeders by analysing a large dataset of maximum longevity records. We did not find any consistent, strong evidence that cooperative breeders have longer lifespans than other mammals after having controlled for variation in body mass, mode of life and data quality. The only possible exception to this general trend is found in the African mole-rats (the Bathyergid family), where all members are relatively long-lived, but where the social, cooperatively breeding species appear to be much longer-lived than the solitary species. However, solitary mole-rat species have rarely been kept in captivity or followed longitudinally in the wild and so it seems likely that their maximum lifespan has been underestimated when compared to the highly researched social species. Although few subterranean mammals have received much attention in a captive or wild setting, current data instead supports a causal role of subterranean living on lifespan extension in mammals.

This study examines the comparative strengths and weaknesses of the Estelahname-ye Maaref-eQoran and Estelehname-ye O’lome Qorani. In today’s society where the documents are kept electronically, retrieval and dissemination of information for the development of research, is more important than saving documents. Thesauri are the base of indexing of various sciences and one of the solutions for storing, organizing and classifying information in recent decades. This Article uses a comparative approach and desk review by comparative method. Data were compared according to rates, defects, removing inconsistencies in terminology and referral system. The results suggest that although Estelehname-ye O’lome Qorani has a useful introduction and has more resources than Estelahname-ye Maaref-e Qoran content, but is similar to Estelahname-ye Maaref-e Qoran in function. In addition both books have no developer and supporter system. For those who keep thesaurus updated, access to systems that respond basic needs is nessecery, and they must employ thesaurus management software that some research centers use.

The article deals with the idea of Central Europe and aims to identify common devel¬opmental tendencies of the region in the medieval period and early modern age. The author emphasizes the advantages of the comparative approach primarily in the case of the medieval and early modern Polish, Czech and Hungarian states. Alongside common developmental tendencies the author emphasizes also important differences which cast doubt on the very idea of Central Europe.

This article takes a comparative qualitative approach to explore the intertwined external accountability and legitimacy attempts of independently wealthy philanthropists. By comparing accountability forums and institutional logics stated by philanthropists, it is investigated to whom they are externally accountable and how they legitimate their controversial funding of public goods. The study compares the external accountability and legitimacy attempts of philanthropists with that of public agencies, corporations, and fundraising-dependent nonprofits. Empirically, this is a cross-sectional study of funders supporting human embryonic stem cell research in either California or Sweden. The study shows that it is through local isomorphism, rather than any specific accountability forum or institutional logic, that philanthropists are accountable and thus legitimate their giving. This is in contrast to other types of funders, which are more similar within each form when comparing accountability forums across societies, and more similar within societies in their usage of institutional logics, with certain patterned statements. In addition, philanthropists in both societies are more detached than any other type of funder as regards both specific patient populations and the general electorate. This finding raises questions on what philanthropists' private funding for public purposes actually entails. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feats of arthropods, and of the well-studied insects and crustaceans in particular, have fascinated scientists and laymen alike for centuries. Arthropods show a diverse repertoire of cognitive feats, of often unexpected sophistication. Despite their smaller brains and resulting lower neuronal capacity, the cognitive abilities of arthropods are comparable to, or may even exceed, those of vertebrates, depending on the species compared. Miniature brains often provide parsimonious but smart solutions for complex behaviours or ecologically relevant problems. This makes arthropods inspiring subjects for basic research, bionics, and robotics. Investigations of arthropod spatial cognition have originally concentrated on the honeybee, an animal domesticated for several thousand years. Bees are easy to keep and handle, making this species amenable to experimental study. However, there are an estimated 5–10 million arthropod species worldwide, with a broad diversity of lifestyles, ecology, and cognitive abilities. This high diversity provides ample opportunity for comparative analyses. Comparative study, rather than focusing on single model species, is well suited to scrutinise the link between ecological niche, lifestyle, and cognitive competence. It also allows the discovery of general concepts that are transferable between distantly related groups of organisms. With species diversity and a comparative approach in mind, this special issue compiles four review articles and ten original research reports from a spectrum of arthropod species. These contributions range from the well-studied hymenopterans, and ants in particular, to chelicerates and crustaceans. They thus present a broad spectrum of glimpses into current research on arthropod spatial cognition, and together they cogently emphasise the merits of research into arthropod cognitive achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the article is to compare the peculiarities of the embodiment of poetry "I fear thy kisses, gentle maiden" by P. B. Shelley in the translation of K.Balmont in the vocal works of the same name by A. Arensky and B.Lyatoshynsky. The methodology of the research is to use the comparative method at the level of analysis of phonetic, lexical, syntactic, metrical, and rhythmic structural features of the poetic original and its translation, as well as ‒ melodic-harmonic, form-forming, intonational, genre-stylistic features of vocal works by A. Arensky and B. Lyatoshiski. The novelty of the work consists of the proposed aspect of the research, the determination of the rhythm structure of the original and translation, the musical and artistically ‒ expressive properties of the latter, the common and distinctive features of the chamber-vocal works of A.Arensky and B. Lyatoshynsky. Conclusions. Despite the presence of many common points in the approaches of A. Arensky and B. Lyatoshynsky to the implementation of the P.B. Shelley‘s verse, but in general, their works differ substantially in intonation and genre-style, showing classicalromantic and modern-expressionistic variants of his interpretation. The aforesaid proves the broad artistic and expressive possibilities of the analyzed poetry by P. B. Shelley and her convincing artistic use in a variety of stylistic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews relevant literature to track changes in the family institution by utilizing a comparative approach between Western and Muslim families. The purpose of this method is to map trends in the last five decades and to identify gaps, if any, between the two modern-day family institutions. The article in its introduction, reviews literature that emphasizes on the significance of the family institution as the nucleus of civilization. The second part of the article continues with a review of important works that focus on the challenges in postmodern family life. The main question is whether the family institutions in the Western and Muslim worlds respond differently when faced with the same challenges. The third part of the paper concludes with solution-based familism literature from both jurisdictions that concentrates on empowerment of family institutions. Drawing on these relevant literatures, we find that despite all these changes, values remain an important constant in stabilizing the family institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanisation and industrialisation have led to a huge increase in the generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) across the globe. The world's cities generate about 1.3 billion tons of solid waste per year and this is expected to increase to 2.2 billion tons by 2025. The most common method of waste management adopted by cities is to dispose of MSW in open dumps and oversaturated landfills. The improper management of MSW has become a threat to public and environmental health. However, this waste can also be perceived as an opportunity and a source of energy through Waste to Energy (WtE) technology. WtE technologies are used to produce various by-products like electricity, heat, biofuels and compost. In developed nations, it is primarily the non-organic elements of MSW that are used in WtE incineration. Developing nations are also investing heavily in WtE incineration, irrespective of the fact that their MSW consists primarily of biodegradables. The existing WtE incineration plants in India and China are not only causing heavy pollution but also posing a serious threat to the environment and human health. In this article, the author focuses on the current status and challenges of different WtE technologies used in Europe, US, China, Japan and India. Furthermore, the author recommends that waste incineration should not be treated as a source of renewable energy and suggests anaerobic digestion methods (biomethanation) as a solution for countries with more biodegradable waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent comparative studies have suggested that cooperative breeding is associated with increases in maximum lifespan among mammals, replicating a pattern also seen in birds and insects. In this study, we re-examine the case for increased lifespan in mammalian cooperative breeders by analysing a large dataset of maximum longevity records. We did not find any consistent, strong evidence that cooperative breeders have longer lifespans than other mammals after having controlled for variation in body mass, mode of life and data quality. The only possible exception to this general trend is found in the African mole-rats (the Bathyergid family), where all members are relatively long-lived, but where the social, cooperatively breeding species appear to be much longer-lived than the solitary species. However, solitary mole-rat species have rarely been kept in captivity or followed longitudinally in the wild and so it seems likely that their maximum lifespan has been underestimated when compared to the highly researched social species. Although few subterranean mammals have received much attention in a captive or wild setting, current data instead supports a causal role of subterranean living on lifespan extension in mammals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in the regulation of complex cellular processes, including transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression relevant for development and stress response, among others. Compared to other important crops, there is limited knowledge of cassava lncRNAs and their roles in abiotic stress adaptation. In this study, we performed a genome-wide study of ncRNAs in cassava, integrating genomics- and transcriptomics-based approaches. In total, 56,840 putative ncRNAs were identified, and approximately half the number were verified using expression data or previously known ncRNAs. Among these were 2229 potential novel lncRNA transcripts with unmatched sequences, 250 of which were differentially expressed in cold or drought conditions, relative to controls. We showed that lncRNAs might be involved in post-transcriptional regulation of stress-induced transcription factors (TFs) such as zinc-finger, WRKY, and nuclear factor Y gene families. These findings deepened our knowledge of cassava lncRNAs and shed light on their stress-responsive roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue des Sciences de l'Education is the property of Revue des Sciences de l'Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Literary texts, and especially those that are aesthetically mediocre or even pretentious, have been an important platform for political expression in the interwar Europe. A significant number of Polish (and foreign) women writers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as Wanda Miłaszewska, Zofia Kossak, Pola Gojawiczyńska, and Halina Krahelska - to mention only a few representative names - wrote many personal and fictional narratives about female experience, regional culture, and collective identity. However, while male writers' contribution to literary regionalism has been well documented, the contribution of female authors to the development of regional writing and regional identities has not been explored as thoroughly as it ought to be. This article proposes a new approach to analyzing regional women's writing by drawing particularly on studies of women's literature, comparative literature, and geopoetics. It poses a number of research questions whose aim is to spark a debate in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to offer a new approach to the study of the riots in Alexandria in 38 ce. This riot is one of the better attested outbreaks of mass urban violence from antiquity. Yet, in spite of the weight of scholarship, the rioting remains a puzzle. The article argues that rather than seeing the riots as a function of deep-seated hostility between Greek and Jewish communities or as a dispute over citizenship rights, we need to see the riot as embedded within the urban sociology of Alexandria. A close reading of the literary accounts points to the importance of associations in the organisation of the riots. The article argues that the associations were integrated with the Alexandrian political elite through large social networks, to which thejews had limited access. Alexandrian politics centred on competing networks. These networks allowed a community of interest to develop between elites and lower class members of the network. In explaining how that competition might have encouraged extreme violence, the article deploys a range of comparative examples concerning the operation of such networks and extreme civil violence. In a similar fashion to several of the referenced cases, I argue that the Alexandrian violence resulted from a political crisis which allowed both elite and street-level political agents to mobilise violent support in pursuance of their individual interests. The result was to polarise the city and set the conditions for the subsequent decades of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article outlines a new scientific approach developed under the title of "General Subject Didactics". This concept is based on the existence of several scientific disciplines that can be called "subject-matter didactics" (or short: subject didactics). These are linked to certain domains like biology or mathematics and to respective school subjects. General subject didactics can be defined as the theory of subject didactics. It observes and reflects how the individual subject didactics explore subject-specific teaching and learning. This is done both by top-down reflections and by bottom-up comparisons. 17 subject didactics in Germany are compared on the basis of six impulses, leading to new insights, e.g. on the reference sciences of subject didactics or the sources and selection of subject content. The article develops further perspectives on the usefulness of this innovative theory as part of the philosophy of education, nationally and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that the memoirs and autobiographies provide us with a specific point of view and therefore present unique types of historical sources has long been debated. As they present first-person narratives on someone’s past, investigating them can clarify and fill in the often colourless variety of historical data. The basis for the research at hand are five narratives dealing with this subject, namely by Imbro Tkalac, Juraj Matija Šporer, Mijat Stojanović, Ljudevit Gaj and Dragojla Jarnević. Although the accounts here investigated should be handled with great care, since they are almost always intertwined with the authors’ ideals, aspirations and other characteristic first-person data, a sound comparative approach can yield important results and provide a closer perspective of the life of children and youth in the first half of the 19th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To ensure reliability of making decisions concerning investments into urban planning projects, it is useful to have a model of the urban real property value, e.g. apartment value. This article proposes an algorithm for estimating the value of an urban real estate object using Pareto ranking and a method of mutual concessions. The article begins with a brief description of the Pareto ranking method. Then parameters to be taken into account in the apartment value model are defined. After that the task solution algorithm is described. The algorithm is implemented in the FORTRAN-90 language. The software developed is used for solving the task of estimating the value of Moscow apartments. The urban apartment valuation is made using information on similar objects. The software outputs an interval estimate of the apartment value.

The purpose of this study is to explore that, despite severe challenges, welfare economics still exists. This descriptive study is conducted through some specific time line developments in this field. Economists are divided over the veracity and survival of the welfare economics. Welfare economics emphasizes on the optimum resource and goods allocation with the objective of better living standard, materialistic gains, social welfare and ethical decisions. It origins back to the political economics and utilitarianism. Adam Smith, Irving Fisher and Pareto contributed significantly towards it. During 1930 to 1940, American and British approaches were developed. Many economists tried to explore the relationship between level of income and happiness. Amartya Sen gave the comparative approach and Tinbergen pioneered the theory of equity. Contemporarily the futuristic restoration of welfare economics is on trial and hopes are alive. This study may be useful to understand the transitional and survival process of welfare economics.

The goal of this work is to present a new interpretation of the problematic gloss amosio: annuo (Fest., p. 26). Firstly, a critical analysis of the emendations proposed by previous scholars is offered in order to demonstrate their inconsistency both from a philological and linguistic perspective. Secondly, it is shown that the only philologically plausible emendation is correcting amosio to annosio. Subsequently, this form annosio is analyzed as an old -osio genitive of the word for ‘year’, Lat. annus, crystallized as an adverb. It is argued that the newly acquired form annosio supports the idea that Very Old Latin inherited a genitive singular o-stem ending -osio from Proto-Italic (and PNIE), and that Latin inherited in its earliest phases a genitive of time construction as well, exactly as Oscan and other Indo-European languages.

This paper analyses the transfer of the Greek dactylic hexameter to Latin. The discussion centers on two questions: the unequal proportion of spondees and dactyls and the incidence of metrical bridges. In line with generative and prosodic metrics the rhythmic basis of both Latin and Greek is the stress-matrix of one heavy or two light syllables. The hexameter line when parsed into these constituents turns out to have exactly six stress-clashes per line. From this observation it is argued that the preference for heavy syllables to be stressed is the reason for the preponderance of spondaic feet and the lack of metrical bridges in the Latin hexameter.

Here, we introduce a concept that addresses the complex interrelations between land use and biodiversity by applying an organismic and comparative approach towards grassland ecosystems in southern Africa and temperate Europe. While the natural savannas of southern Africa evolved millions of years ago, cultural grasslands in Europe emerged as a result of intensifying agriculture only a few hundred years ago. A unique feature of recent African ecosystems is the high original megafaunal species diversity (taxa existing prior to Pleistocene extinctions). European ecosystems have been shaped by humans and the original megafaunal species diversity is clearly reduced. Similar to the situation in southern Africa today, large herbivores also created a cyclic habitat mosaic in Europe during the last interglacial. The depleted herbivore community in Europe during the early Holocene was no longer able to maintain this cyclic succession. This resulted in a more uniform and dense vegetation type – a process that can be currently witnessed in Africa in bush encroachment. The comparative approach considers further strong natural and cultural linkages between Europe and Africa, such as biogeographical relations between continents, faunistic similarities during the late Pleistocene, the Afro-Palearctic bird migration system or the domestication history of European and African cattle. Our approach is based on the assumption that comparative investigations of response patterns under different ecological conditions lead to a better understanding of the common interrelations between land use and biodiversity. It deals with the central question, whether ecosystems respond in a similar way to disturbances. Biodiversity response patterns in relatively undisturbed savanna ecosystems might be a valuable reference for Europe, e.g. in terms of increasing aridity in Europe in the future. The comparative approach requires a careful selection of primary taxa. Special focus is on the use of terrestrial small mammals as ecological indicators. The approach further focuses on human–wildlife interactions. The emergence of top predators in Europe reveals the value of the experience from Africa, where pastoralists manage to coexist with large predators since millennia. The investigation of African grasslands enables a critical reflection and a thorough understanding of processes, which have occurred a long time ago in Europe. Our approach leads to a revaluation of the significance of Africa in terms of a conservative, relict case scenario that can provide essential insights into the original situation of ecosystems, especially in view of “rewilding” approaches in Europe. Thereby, the approach leads to a careful consideration of the term “wilderness”.

The article deals with the main problems of creating the agricultural lands market in Ukraine due to the absence of the normative and legal support of its circulation, which should define the set of rights and restrictions of the implementation of this process. It is determined that the agricultural lands market is a social and economic complex that functions in accordance with market laws, national specificity, territorial scope and consists of a set of enterprises, establishments and representative offices, which are directly related to turnover of agricultural lands market. The main prerequisites for formation of effective functioning of the agricultural lands market are substantiated. Structural and logical scheme of this process implementation is constructed. Despite the ban on the purchase and sale of agricultural lands, the market value of land for private peasant farming has been calculated according to an expert assessment of a comparative methodological approach in determining the degree of similarity of objects using the Euclidean distance. The proposed method is appropriate to use in determining the market land value, regardless of its target use, by the degree of similarity of the objects of comparison according to the area, location, physical characteristics, functional characteristics and the availability of improvements, which allows to take into account its quantitative and qualitative characteristics.

Nowadays, more and more attention is paid to the process related to the language teaching. Therefore, there is an increasing need to update the teacher’s tools. Innovative approaches that make the learning process more effective and interesting for students are in a high demand today. That´s why the article analyses the current issue of teaching Russian and English as a foreign languages in the context of a comparative approach. The essence of the comparative approach is to find and understand the similarities and differences in the compared languages.

Cities under 50,000 inhabitants represent almost 75 percent of European built-up urban areas and constitute essential nodes of the European space. However, metropolization processes raise the question of the future of these small cities in the long term. Within the framework of a comparative approach based on a harmonized database (TRADEVE), this paper aims at exploring the demographic trajectories of small towns regarding the regional settlement patterns in which they are located. The two methods used for understanding the longitudinal dimension of such trajectories converge and highlight a relative over-representation of a structural, regular and historical decay in isolated rural areas. Nevertheless, this same trend concerns, in absolute value, a very significant number of small towns in dense and urban regions facing a difficult industrial reconversion and/or an ageing population, particularly in Western Europe.

The study of Asian American literature has developed for almost two decades since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Inspired by Kuan-Hsing Chen's "Asia as method," which situates Asia at the center and uses Asian societies as each other's points of reference, we use China as a site to reconsider how to read, teach and study Asian American literature in its new phase by exploring the following interactions: (1) between Asian American literature and American literature; (2) between Asian American literature and overseas Chinese literature; (3) between Asian American literature and Chinese literature. We encourage writers, readers and scholars to adopt Chen's inter-Asia approach to rethink and reconsider the writing of Asian American subject, the study of Asian American literature, the inquiries made about it, and the methods of teaching it. We further expand it to include both a global perspective and a comparative approach that also uses national/regional literatures as reference points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]