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Indonesia is one of the countries with the lowest tax collection rate in Southeast Asia. Optimizing tax collection is very urgent considering the economic conditions post the Covid-19 pandemic. This is the government's effort to ensure the availability of public goods and services, including health services that must be provided to Indonesian citizens. This is what underlies the aim of this research, namely analyzing the comparison of regional government income and expenditure and looking at the performance of regional tax collection by the Regional Revenue Service of West Kalimantan Province. The research form uses a comparative descriptive method. The type of data used is primary data in the form of questionnaire results and secondary data in the form of financial reports of the regional government of West Kalimantan Province. The data collection techniques that will be used are questionnaires/surveys, documentation techniques, and literature studies. Analysis technique with a comparative approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incorporation of cultural elements into the language education curriculum, particularly within the context of second language acquisition, is widely acknowledged as an essential and foundational component that significantly enhances the overall effectiveness and success of the educational process. This inclusive approach not only fosters linguistic proficiency but also promotes cross-cultural understanding. It provides students with a comprehensive and immersive learning experience, cultivating a deep appreciation for diverse cultures while refining their language skills. It is crucial to recognize and understand the deep connection between culture and language, as they are closely intertwined and mutually dependent. The interconnected relationship between culture and language suggests that they should be considered together rather than separately in human communication and expression. In order to gain a deep understanding of a foreign language, learners should engage with the cultural context that shapes it. This includes exploring the traditions, beliefs, and customs that influence the language of a community. Immersing oneself in the cultural background not only enhances comprehension but also facilitates the attainment of fluency and proficiency in the language being learned. Therefore, educators in the field of language instruction are responsible for integrating cultural aspects into their teaching methods, ensuring that students receive a comprehensive language learning experience that encompasses both linguistic and cultural aspects. Incorporating cultural insights and practices into language teaching enables instructors to facilitate a more comprehensive and effective learning process, allowing learners to engage with the language in a meaningful and authentic manner. It is widely accepted that the integration of cultural elements not only enhances the learning experience but also plays a pivotal role in fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of the target language, thereby enriching the linguistic proficiency of the learners. This study aims to explore the role of translation in teaching culture to foreign language learners and its impact on their intercultural communicative competence. It focuses on assessing the current state of cultural education in the context of foreign language learning and the significance of translation in conveying cultural concepts to language students. The study also seeks to investigate teachers' attitudes towards incorporating translation in foreign language classrooms at Algerian universities and the impact of these attitudes on their teaching curricula. To acquire relevant information, a structured questionnaire was shared among a total of 18 instructors who specialize in foreign languages within the academic realm of Algerian tertiary institutions, aiding in the collection of primary data that was subsequently subjected to thorough examination and interpretation through the utilisation of a research framework that combines descriptive and analytical methodologies. The findings of the study indicate that translation plays a crucial role in enhancing linguistic competence for language learners. Understanding cultural nuances is essential for language educators and students due to the interconnectedness of language and culture. Integrating cultural components into language teaching is significant as it provides learners with diverse perspectives and contexts. Additionally, translation is important in educating foreign language learners about culture, helping them deepen their understanding of their own cultural background and compare it with the culture they are studying, thus improving their intercultural skills and enhancing their ability to acknowledge and respect cultural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plants are capable of a range of complex interactions with the environment. Over the last decade, some authors have used this as evidence to argue that plants are cognitive agents. While there is no consensus on this view, it is certainly interesting to approach the debate from a comparative perspective, trying to understand whether different lineages of plants show different degrees of responsiveness to environmental cues, and how their responses compare with those of animals or humans. In this paper, I suggest that a potentially fruitful approach to these comparative studies is provided by automata theory. Accordingly, I shall present a possible application of this theory to plant communication. Two tentative results will emerge. First, that different lineages may exhibit different levels of complexity in response to similar stimuli. Second, that current evidence does not allow to infer great cognitive sophistication in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, based at Concordia University in Montreal, is Canada’s leading research institute and advocacy centre for the study of conflicts, mass atrocity, genocide, and human rights. Nowadays, its featured tasks range from mapping prejudices and hatred online, elaborating new strategies to prevent disinformation or fake news, to defending human lives and strengthening democracy in the whole world. The centre hosts several conferences and workshops every year in order to help politicians, diplomats, academics, experts, soldiers, stakeholders, and general public counter extremism in all its forms. The history of this institution is deeply rooted in the attempt to study conflicts and violence following a comparative, interdisciplinary — chiefly historical and, in some ways, socio-psycho-historical — approach which emerge from the work of the British historian Norman Rufus Colin Cohn (1915–2007) and his Centre for Research in Collective Psychopathology (1962–80). This article deals with the hitherto unexplored contribution of Cohn, his studies on antisemitism and witch hunt in the creation of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politicians must navigate the complexities of social policy reform to ensure sustainable fiscal policies while considering their impact on citizens. News media play a crucial role as a source of political information, influencing public attitudes towards policy changes through selective framing of issues. This study focuses on how European news media frame the controversial policy reform of raising the retirement age, and explores factors that potentially explain variations in framing across contexts. Using a manual content analysis of newspapers in Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom over the period 2011–2020 (n = 1059 articles), we examine country-, newspaper-, and time-related factors to explain the relative presence of issue-specific diagnostic and prognostic frames in European news coverage of pension reform. While the results show that all three types of factors determine the coverage of the reform measure to some extent, in particular variations across newspapers and over time are prevalent. The most striking differences are that left-leaning newspapers emphasize frames related to inequality, and that over time, framing crystallizes into a more concentrated set of diagnostic and prognostic frames. This article sheds light on European news coverage of a much-debated policy issue and its contextual dependency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tufa deposits in karst rivers are unique habitats created by mutual interactions between specific environmental and biotope features and inhabited by diatoms as a highly abundant and diverse algal group. This pilot study aimed to investigate the diversity of diatom communities on tufa depositing habitats and assess the Una River's ecological status using a comparative molecular and morphological approach for diatom identification. The 312 base pairs of the rbcL gene were barcoded and analyzed using MiSeq reads and amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) obtained by the DADA2 pipeline. The reference database Diat.barcode v7 was used for taxonomic assignment. The morphological identification of the diatoms was carried out in parallel. In total, the combined dataset revealed 46 taxa identified at genus rank, 125 on the subgenus, and 145 on combined taxonomy rank. The metabarcoding approach mostly leads to a lower number of identified taxa at species rank (58 in molecular vs. 119 in optical inventory), resulting in higher values of beta diversity and heterogeneity in diatom assemblages in samples obtained by morphological approach. Despite the high percentage of taxonomically not assigned diatom ASVs to the species rank, high Shannon diversity index values and a similar number of taxa per locations compared to the morphological approach were obtained. Taxa Achnanthidium minutissimum (Kützing) Czarnecki, Achnanthidium pyrenaicum (Hustedt) H.Kobayasi, Amphora pediculus (Kützing) Grunow, Diatoma vulgaris Bory, Navicula cryptotenella Lange-Bertalot, and Navicula tripunctata (O.F.Müller) Bory were identified at all locations in both inventories. Although limited consistency in the diatom abundances between the two inventory datasets was found, a similar grouping of samples was observed connected to the river's longitudinal gradient. The data obtained using molecular approach in most sites indicated a mostly lower ecological status (good or moderate) compared to the data obtained from the morphological approach (high, good, and moderate). The potential of environmental DNA (eDNA) diatom metabarcoding for water monitoring and diversity studies is undeniable, but to fully realize the benefits of these methods in the future, it is essential to standardize protocols and expand the reference database for species found in specific habitats, such as tufa deposits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significance of schools' self-evaluation is intrinsically linked to their autonomy and responsibility in interpreting and executing educational tasks. However, this authority is influenced by both European and national policies. This paper aims to compare the policies and practices underlying the process of school self-evaluation in Slovakia and Portugal. Employing a qualitative approach rooted in comparative research, this study involves analyzing legal documents and field notes collected through informal conversations with school board directors in both countries. While both nations demonstrate some influence from European recommendations in their objectives and procedures, disparities exist in their approaches and emphases. Notably, variations are evident in the purposes of schools' self-evaluation and the teams responsible for conducting it. Nevertheless, both countries underscore the importance of students' achievements within the framework of school self-evaluation.

Contrary to comparativist critics of ideal theory, I argue that ideal institutions become relevant for issues of nonideal theory through their role as part of the ideal guidance approach (IGA). So far, the most important argument against the IGA has been the second-best argument. However, this argument is only damaging for the IGA under certain conditions: Firstly, when the ideal is not realizable, and, secondly, when the path to the ideal does not contain the second-best world. Since it is an empirical question whether this is the case, the article discusses the empirical relevance of the second-best argument. By employing causal mechanisms identified in the institutionalist literature – path dependence and institutional complementarity – I argue that the IGA actually offers better prospects for the evaluation of nonideal alternatives than the comparative approach. This is, because the latter systematically excludes the information of how an ideal institutional design looks like from consideration. I also discuss and reject the objection that a more comprehensive version of the comparative approach could take these issues into consideration: Such an approach is either epistemically infeasible or very similar to the IGA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pupal colour of many butterflies is plastic, being green or brown depending on the environment in which they develop. In most species with pupal colour plasticity (PCP), larvae that pupate on leaves tend to develop into green pupae whereas those that pupate off‐leaf (e.g., on the stem or soil) tend to become brown. This correlation between background and pupal colour has been hypothesized to protect the butterflies against predation by allowing them to match their background, although experimental evidence is scarce. Furthermore, not all butterflies exhibit PCP, and the extent to which substrate choice influences PCP remains unclear. We use a comparative approach involving multiple, closely related species varying in the degree of PCP to test predictions related to the correlation between pupal colour and pupation substrate. We studied PCP in response to larval density in five common satyrine species (Nymphalidae), two dimorphic and three monomorphic. As predicted, species with monomorphic green pupae preferred to pupate on leaves whereas those with monomorphic brown pupae preferred off‐leaf substrates. In species with dimorphic pupae, pupal colour correlated with pupation substrate. We also predicted that higher larval density induces a greater proportion of off‐leaf pupation in the dimorphic species, but not in the monomorphic species. However, this prediction was not supported. Overall, we found a strong across‐species correlation between pupation substrate choice and pupal colour plasticity, and our results support the idea that pupal colour plasticity can be an adaptation against predation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Body size is a key component of individual fitness and an important factor in the structure and functioning of populations and ecosystems. Disentangling the effects of environmental change, harvest and intra‐ and inter‐specific trophic effects on body size remains challenging for populations in the wild. Herring in the Northwest Atlantic provide a strong basis for evaluating hypotheses related to these drivers given that they have experienced significant warming and harvest over the past century, while also having been exposed to a wide range of other selective constraints across their range. Using data on mean length‐at‐age 4 for the sixteen principal populations over a period of 53 cohorts (1962–2014), we fitted a series of empirical models for temporal and between‐population variation in the response to changes in sea surface temperature. We find evidence for a unified cross‐population response in the form of a parabolic function according to which populations in naturally warmer environments have responded more negatively to increasing temperature compared with those in colder locations. Temporal variation in residuals from this function was highly coherent among populations, further suggesting a common response to a large‐scale environmental driver. The synchrony observed in this study system, despite strong differences in harvest and ecological histories among populations and over time, clearly indicates a dominant role of environmental change on size‐at‐age in wild populations, in contrast to commonly reported effects of fishing. This finding has important implications for the management of fisheries as it indicates that a key trait associated with population productivity may be under considerably less short‐term management control than currently assumed. Our study, overall, illustrates the need for a comparative approach within species for inferences concerning the many possible effects on body size of natural and anthropogenic drivers in the wild. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comparative approach is a crucial method to gain a better understanding of the behavior of living human and nonhuman animals to then draw informed inferences about the behavior of extinct ancestors. One focus has been on disentangling the puzzle of language evolution. Traditionally, studies have predominantly focused on intentionally produced signals in communicative interactions. However, in collaborative and highly dynamic interactions such as play, underlying intentionality is difficult to assess and often interactions are negotiated via body movements rather than signals. This "lack" of signals has led to this dynamic context being widely ignored in comparative studies. The aim of this paper is threefold: First, we will show how comparative research into communication can benefit from taking the intentionality-agnostic standpoint used in conversation analysis. Second, we will introduce the concepts of 'intercorporeality' and 'bodily affordance', and show how they can be applied to the analysis of communicative interactions of nonhuman animals. Third, we will use these concepts to investigate how chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) initiate, end, and maintain 'contact social play'. Our results showed that bodily affordances are able to capture elements of interactions that more traditional approaches failed to describe. Participants made use of bodily affordances to achieve coordinated engagement in contact social play. Additionally, these interactions could display a sequential organization by which one 'move' by a chimpanzee was responded to with an aligning 'move', which allowed for the co-construction of the activity underway. Overall, the present approach innovates on three fronts: First, it allows for the analysis of interactions that are often ignored because they do not fulfil criteria of intentionality, and/or consist of purely body movements. Second, adopting concepts from research on human interaction enables a better comparison of communicative interactions in other animal species without a too narrow focus on intentional signaling only. Third, adopting a stance from interaction research that highlights how practical action can also be communicative, our results show that chimpanzees can communicate through their embodied actions as well as through signaling. With this first step, we hope to inspire new research into dynamic day-to-day interactions involving both "traditional" signals and embodied actions, which, in turn, can provide insights into evolutionary precursors of human language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muhammad's (pbuh) journey to Miraj has become a source of inspiration for numerous Muslim and non-Muslim philosophers, mystics, and authors. A significant number of specifics and topographical outlines of scenes and episodic depictions in the Divine Comedy, the types or analogous models of which did not appear in the various versions of Muhammad's mirage narrative, also have antecedents and models, either akin to or identical in the Qur'an, hadith, or other Islamic literature describing the afterlife. The work Risaletu'l Gufran by Ebu'l-Ala el-Maarri was composed at the beginning of the 11th century, while Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy was created in the latter half of the 13th century. Regardless of the geographical and temporal distances, these two works share numerous meeting points. The issue of Dante Alighieri's influence by Islamic eschatological themes, despite countless literary and historical debates and controversies, remains unresolved. Similarly unresolved is Dante's boldness in incorporating pagan figures and polytheistic elements in the "Christian masterpiece of the Middle Ages". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tufa deposits in karst rivers are unique habitats created by mutual interactions between specific environmental and biotope features and inhabited by diatoms as a highly abundant and diverse algal group. This pilot study aimed to investigate the diversity of diatom communities on tufa depositing habitats and assess the Una River’s ecological status using a comparative molecular and morphological approach for diatom identification. The 312 base pairs of the rbcL gene were barcoded and analyzed using MiSeq reads and amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) obtained by the DADA2 pipeline. The reference database Diat.barcode v7 was used for taxonomic assignment. The morphological identification of the diatoms was carried out in parallel. In total, the combined dataset revealed 46 taxa identified at genus rank, 125 on the subgenus, and 145 on combined taxonomy rank. The metabarcoding approach mostly leads to a lower number of identified taxa at species rank (58 in molecular vs. 119 in optical inventory), resulting in higher values of beta diversity and heterogeneity in diatom assemblages in samples obtained by morphological approach. Despite the high percentage of taxonomically not assigned diatom ASVs to the species rank, high Shannon diversity index values and a similar number of taxa per locations compared to the morphological approach were obtained. Taxa Achnanthidium minutissimum (Kützing) Czarnecki, Achnanthidium pyrenaicum (Hustedt) H.Kobayasi, Amphora pediculus (Kützing) Grunow, Diatoma vulgaris Bory, Navicula cryptotenella Lange-Bertalot, and Navicula tripunctata (O.F.Müller) Bory were identified at all locations in both inventories. Although limited consistency in the diatom abundances between the two inventory datasets was found, a similar grouping of samples was observed connected to the river’s longitudinal gradient. The data obtained using molecular approach in most sites indicated a mostly lower ecological status (good or moderate) compared to the data obtained from the morphological approach (high, good, and moderate). The potential of environmental DNA (eDNA) diatom metabarcoding for water monitoring and diversity studies is undeniable, but to fully realize the benefits of these methods in the future, it is essential to standardize protocols and expand the reference database for species found in specific habitats, such as tufa deposits.

The comparative approach is a crucial method to gain a better understanding of the behavior of living human and nonhuman animals to then draw informed inferences about the behavior of extinct ancestors. One focus has been on disentangling the puzzle of language evolution. Traditionally, studies have predominantly focused on intentionally produced signals in communicative interactions. However, in collaborative and highly dynamic interactions such as play, underlying intentionality is difficult to assess and often interactions are negotiated via body movements rather than signals. This “lack” of signals has led to this dynamic context being widely ignored in comparative studies. The aim of this paper is threefold: First, we will show how comparative research into communication can benefit from taking the intentionality-agnostic standpoint used in conversation analysis. Second, we will introduce the concepts of ‘intercorporeality’ and ‘bodily affordance’, and show how they can be applied to the analysis of communicative interactions of nonhuman animals. Third, we will use these concepts to investigate how chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) initiate, end, and maintain ‘contact social play’. Our results showed that bodily affordances are able to capture elements of interactions that more traditional approaches failed to describe. Participants made use of bodily affordances to achieve coordinated engagement in contact social play. Additionally, these interactions could display a sequential organization by which one ‘move’ by a chimpanzee was responded to with an aligning ‘move’, which allowed for the co-construction of the activity underway. Overall, the present approach innovates on three fronts: First, it allows for the analysis of interactions that are often ignored because they do not fulfil criteria of intentionality, and/or consist of purely body movements. Second, adopting concepts from research on human interaction enables a better comparison of communicative interactions in other animal species without a too narrow focus on intentional signaling only. Third, adopting a stance from interaction research that highlights how practical action can also be communicative, our results show that chimpanzees can communicate through their embodied actions as well as through signaling. With this first step, we hope to inspire new research into dynamic day-to-day interactions involving both “traditional” signals and embodied actions, which, in turn, can provide insights into evolutionary precursors of human language.

The research examines the binary opposition of "good" and "evil" in the English and French languages within the context of foreign language teaching. The aim is to analyze these concepts' lexicalsemantic and cultural aspects and explore their implications for foreign language learners. The study adopts a comparative approach, considering the similarities and differences in representing "good" and "evil" in the two distantly related languages. The analysis focuses on the semantic structure and distribution of lexical units associated with these concepts and the cultural connotations embedded in their usage. The research focuses on how the binary opposition of "good" and "evil" impacts language learners' understanding of the target culture and their ability to communicate effectively in the foreign language. The latter gain a deeper appreciation of the target culture's moral values and social dynamics by examining the cultural meanings and connotations associated with these oppositions. The findings highlight the asymmetry of lexical units within the lexical-semantic groups of "good" and "evil", revealing discrepancies in the number and distribution of words and their meanings. Antonymy and enantiosemy are identified as regularities in forming vocabulary, denoting good and evil in the compared languages. These linguistic tools enable learners to express contrasting concepts and enhance their linguistic and intercultural awareness. Incorporating the binary opposition of "good" and "evil" in foreign language teaching can promote a deeper understanding of the target culture's values, norms, and worldview. Learners become more sensitive to cultural aspects and better equipped to navigate intercultural interactions by unravelling the underlying cultural codes embedded in language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Haredi community in Israel is the youngest community. It grows at a higher rate than that of the Arab population in Israel. The calls to introduce more secular education are motivated by both a desire to acculturate the Haredi population and bring it closer to the norms and values of the Israeli discourse and from a wish to integrate more people from this community into the job market. Calls to introduce more secular education in the Haredi system have seen constant resistance that has been documented in scholarship. In the U.S., the discussion on the correct role of general education started with a different frame of reference. The existence of meaningful religious education was put into question, and only after the holocaust did American Orthodoxy significantly expand its educational options. This text will describe the diverse spectrum of Haredi educational institutions and their approaches to secular education. I am using Monsey as a test case since it is a good representation of the kaleidoscope of Orthodoxy in the U.S., as far as the different communities are concerned. It is also a very decentralized community, since there is no dominant group in Monsey. This fact allows for more initiatives, including educational initiatives, to be undertaken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Veterinarska Stanica is the property of Croatian Veterinary Institute 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.)

The RNA secondary structure is one of the extensively explored subjects in bioinformatics due to its pivotal involvement in various biological processes. Several methods have been developed for predicting the optimal secondary structure of a given RNA sequence. However, only a limited number of these methods have produced satisfactory results, especially when dealing with complex secondary structure components such as pseudoknot classes. This paper introduces RNAknot2S, a novel program for RNA secondary structure prediction. RNAknot2S is based on the genetic algorithm and combines two main approaches, the comparative approach and the thermodynamic approach. It takes three inputs, the first is the target RNA sequence (S1) for which the secondary structure is to be determined, the second is another RNA sequence (S2) expected to be homologous to S1, and the third element is the secondary structure (Ss) of the sequence S2 presented in dot-bracket format. RNAknot2S produces as output a secondary structure that includes various components such as stems, hairpin loops, multi-branched loops or multi-loops, bulge loops, internal loops, H-type pseudoknots, and hairpin kissing interactions. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, a comparative study has been performed using some of the most popular methods for RNA secondary structure prediction and the database Rfam. The obtained results clearly demonstrate a significant enhancement in the prediction accuracy of the proposed method when compared to other existing programs. RNAknot2S exhibits the highest average values for specificity (SP) at 55.22%, sensitivity (SN) at 58.29%, and F-measure (F-M) at 55.59% when compared to its counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Rhythmicity in the millisecond to second range is a fundamental building block of communication and coordinated movement. But how widespread are rhythmic capacities across species, and how did they evolve under different environmental pressures? Comparative research is necessary to answer these questions but has been hindered by limited crosstalk and comparability among results from different study species. Most acoustics studies do not explicitly focus on characterising or quantifying rhythm, but many are just a few scrapes away from contributing to and advancing the field of comparative rhythm research. Here, we present an eight‐level rhythm reporting framework which details actionable steps researchers can take to report rhythm‐relevant metrics. Levels fall into two categories: metric reporting and data sharing. Metric reporting levels include defining rhythm‐relevant metrics, providing point estimates of temporal interval variability, reporting interval distributions, and conducting rhythm analyses. Data sharing levels are: sharing audio recordings, sharing interval durations, sharing sound element start and end times, and sharing audio recordings with sound element start/end times. Using sounds recorded from a sperm whale as a case study, we demonstrate how each reporting framework level can be implemented on real data. We also highlight existing best practice examples from recent research spanning multiple species. We clearly detail how engagement with our framework can be tailored case‐by‐case based on how much time and effort researchers are willing to contribute. Finally, we illustrate how reporting at any of the suggested levels will help advance comparative rhythm research. This framework will actively facilitate a comparative approach to acoustic rhythms while also promoting cooperation and data sustainability. By quantifying and reporting rhythm metrics more consistently and broadly, new avenues of inquiry and several long‐standing, big picture research questions become more tractable. These lines of research can inform not only about the behavioural ecology of animals but also about the evolution of rhythm‐relevant phenomena and the behavioural neuroscience of rhythm production and perception. Rhythm is clearly an emergent feature of life; adopting our framework, researchers from different fields and with different study species can help understand why.

Recent scholarship on women's substantive representation has expanded from its initial focus on gender inequalities in parliaments and now studies (1) various group interests, (2) in different venues, (3) across different contexts and (4) using different methods and approaches. Building on these advances, we present a new comparative measure of women's substantive representation. This 'Substantive Representation Index' combines eight indicators, linked to two key dimensions of women's substantive representation, in one composite quantitative index. As such, we offer a consistent modality that allows scholars to measure women's substantive representation systematically and comparatively across and within democratic countries and over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diego de Torres Villarroel publica en 1724 un almanaque titulado Melodrama astrológica: teatro temporal y político. El opúsculo, además de granjearle notoriedad al presuntamente vaticinar en él la muerte del rey Luis I, supone uno de los primeros intentos por insertar contenidos literarios en los pronósticos astrológicos. Este artículo trata de demostrar que, frente a las teorías que ven en el "modelo literario" un hallazgo original e inesperado, Torres se inspira en ciertas fórmulas que algunos autores de su tiempo practican con éxito en otras partes de Europa, concretamente en los Estados italianos. Diego de Torres Villarroel published in 1724 an almanac entitled Melodrama astrológica: teatro temporal y político. The chapbook, besides helping him to gain fame by having supposedly predicted the death of King Louis I, is one of his first attempts at incorporating literary content into astrological predictions. This article aims to demonstrate that, contrary to those critics who see in the "literary model" an original and fortuitous discovery, Torres is inspired by certain formulas that some other contemporary authors were successfully practicing in Europe, specifically in the Italian States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Methodical Perspectives / Metodički Vidici is the property of Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad 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.)

Digitalization and digital transformation of companies have turned from global trends to an urgent need. Thanks to digitalization and digital transformation, organizations can overcome the times of crisis, the times of lockdowns with less losses and respond more effectively to any adverse changes in the external environment. The assessment of the level of digitalization and digital transformation allows to determine how fast the processes of introducing digital technologies and optimizing processes with digital solutions proceed, both in companies and across the industry as a whole. The article provides an analysis with the systematization of foreign and domestic methods, methodological approaches, methods for assessing the digitalization level and digital transformation, as well as reveals their positive and negative aspects. Based on a comparative analysis, an improved author-developed methodological toolkit is proposed for assessing the level of digitalization and digital transformation, alleviating the disadvantages of the existing methodological experience. The approbation of the author-developed methodological toolkit was performed using the oil and gas industry as an example; the following companies, being the industry leaders, were analysed: PJSC “Lukoil”, PJSC “NK “Rosneft”, PJSC “Gazprom”, and PJSC “Tatneft”. According to the results, the digitalization and digital transformation processes of the domestic oil and gas industry are insufficiently dynamic. It was found that in the period from 2016 to 2020, the Russian Federation industry leaders were in the following order from the most advanced to the least advanced in terms of the digitalization level and digital transformation: PJSC “Gazprom” topped the list; PJSC “NK “Rosneft” was second; PJSC “Lukoil” was the third largest company, and PJSC “Tatneft” held the fourth position.

The article's purpose is to present partial research results devoted to the issue of criminal liability for counterfeit money or its surrogate and crimes related to such imitation. Partial results refer to the issue of the limits of the statutory threat of criminal punishment in various European countries. The analysis presented made it possible to distinguish the models preferred by the legislator for determining the criminal sanction for the indicated crimes. Moreover, those variants of sanctions (taking into account the lower and upper limits of the threat) that are most often used in legislative practice were indicated. The considerations led to the formulation of de lege ferenda postulates in terms of modification of the Polish Criminal Law. The research uses theoretical and dogmatic methods of analyzing the legal text of criminal statutes and the comparative law method.

Urban vitality, understood as a key factor in the achievement of cities' sustainability, shows a strong relationship with urban morphology. The city theorist Jane Jacobs suggested morphological aspects to promote vital cities in the 1960s, which remain valid in the present. However, few studies in the Andean region quantitatively exemplify this. This paper aims to test the measurement of urban vitality in a neighborhood of Quito, Ecuador, called La Mariscal, integrating Jacobs' approach. In particular, three urban vitality indexes are evaluated with the application of GIS software using cadastral data obtained from the Metropolitan District of Quito and field data collection. Results show that context-based previous knowledge and scale of analysis are essential factors in the configuration of dimensions, indicators, and spatial representation of any urban vitality index. In the study area, land use mixture, contact opportunity, and accessibility dimensions are fundamental. Regarding indicators, the incorporation of informal small-scale commerce, the quality of sidewalks, and well-conditioned street furniture is recommended. Finally, a hybrid representation (raster and vectorial) is suggested to precisely measure urban vitality at a block scale. Altogether, by providing a comparative approach, we intend to provide a useful framework for researchers and planners to study urban vitality in Andean cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhythmicity in the millisecond to second range is a fundamental building block of communication and coordinated movement. But how widespread are rhythmic capacities across species, and how did they evolve under different environmental pressures? Comparative research is necessary to answer these questions but has been hindered by limited crosstalk and comparability among results from different study species.Most acoustics studies do not explicitly focus on characterising or quantifying rhythm, but many are just a few scrapes away from contributing to and advancing the field of comparative rhythm research. Here, we present an eight‐level rhythm reporting framework which details actionable steps researchers can take to report rhythm‐relevant metrics. Levels fall into two categories: metric reporting and data sharing. Metric reporting levels include defining rhythm‐relevant metrics, providing point estimates of temporal interval variability, reporting interval distributions, and conducting rhythm analyses. Data sharing levels are: sharing audio recordings, sharing interval durations, sharing sound element start and end times, and sharing audio recordings with sound element start/end times.Using sounds recorded from a sperm whale as a case study, we demonstrate how each reporting framework level can be implemented on real data. We also highlight existing best practice examples from recent research spanning multiple species. We clearly detail how engagement with our framework can be tailored case‐by‐case based on how much time and effort researchers are willing to contribute. Finally, we illustrate how reporting at any of the suggested levels will help advance comparative rhythm research.This framework will actively facilitate a comparative approach to acoustic rhythms while also promoting cooperation and data sustainability. By quantifying and reporting rhythm metrics more consistently and broadly, new avenues of inquiry and several long‐standing, big picture research questions become more tractable. These lines of research can inform not only about the behavioural ecology of animals but also about the evolution of rhythm‐relevant phenomena and the behavioural neuroscience of rhythm production and perception. Rhythm is clearly an emergent feature of life; adopting our framework, researchers from different fields and with different study species can help understand why. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urgent need for medical treatments of alcohol use disorders has motivated the search for novel molecular targets of alcohol response. Most studies exploit the strengths of lab animals without considering how these and other species may have adapted to respond to alcohol in an ecological context. Here, we provide an evolutionary perspective on the molecular and genetic underpinnings of alcohol consumption by reviewing evidence that alcohol metabolic enzymes have undergone adaptive evolution at 2 evolutionary junctures: first, to enable alcohol consumption accompanying the advent of a frugivorous diet in a primate ancestor, and second, to decrease the likelihood of excessive alcohol consumption concurrent with the spread of agriculture and fermentation in East Asia. By similarly considering how diverse vertebrate and invertebrate species have undergone natural selection for alcohol responses, novel conserved molecular targets of alcohol are likely be discovered that may represent promising therapeutic targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction After the term "Folklore" was coined by Ambroise Morton in 1846 and the beginning of research on folk literature and culture, Studies related to this field had many developments and scientific advances. Research in the field of Persian folk culture and literature also began with the research of orientalists (see Afshari, 1388: 289). After that, even despite the increasing process of recording the components of folk culture and literature and even the establishment of the orientation of folk literature in 2013 and the specialization of studies in this field in Iran, the research conducted in this field still has obvious flaws. Stopping at the stage of registering the components of folk literature, the ambiguity in the structure and characteristics of these components, and most importantly, the weakness in the theoretical foundations are among the most important things that can be pointed out (see. Aliani et al, 2019: 10). One of the main reasons for this issue is the neglect of the Arabic sources of the early Islamic centuries as the preservers of Iranian folklore culture and literature in the era of the loss of Persian sources and neglect in the history of folklore Persian literature. "It is an important issue that the Arabic language played an important role as the preserver of Iranian folklore literature before Islam." (Cejpek, 2014: 27 & 26). Despite this, in addition to the researches that have been done in the field of folklore culture and literature, the importance of these resources and the effective role of the comparative approach have not been paid attention to in the design of the lessons of the folkliterature orientation. Especially since in the list of courses of this heading, there is a course called "Arabic Prose and Poetry" in which these sources are expected to be paid attention to, but these sources were not paid attention to in its design. Based on this, in this article, while explaining the reasons for the importance of these sources, the most important available Arabic sources are introduced in terms of the reflection of Iranian folk literature and its developments in the first centuries of Islam, And in order to eliminate the existend shortcomings, a heading has been designed for the course "Arabic Poetry and Prose Texts". Methodology Considering the need to refer to Arabic sources for the historical connection of the elements and components of Iranian culture and literature before Islam with the Islamic era, this research has been done by descriptive-analytical method and by analyzing the literature history data available in the library sources. Discussion The task of transferring Iranian culture and literature to Arabic culture and language in the first centuries of Islam has been undertaken by the translation movement. "Many sources of the past folklore of Iran have been translated into Arabic by Iranian scholars such as Ibn Moqfa, Tabari, Masoudi, Thaalebi, Hamzeh Isfahani and others and are available to us today." (Beihaghi, 1365: 41). Despite this, the heading designed for Arabic poetry and prose lesson of the heading of Persian folk literature in order to get familiar with official Arabic literature, including Arabic mystical texts, poems by Arab poets, Arabic works by Persian poets and writers, and contemporary Arabic research texts in the field of language and literature, the Qur'an, Nahj al-Balagha, and commentary texts, Arabic proverbs, phrases and verses common in Persian texts. The general approach and a cursory look in the selection of texts and the focus of this heading on official literature texts and neglecting the importance of the comparative approach do not meet the scientific needs of students in this field. Therefore, the issue of interest in this article is that despite the many reasons for the high importance of Arabic texts in the history of Iranian folk literature, how the sources of Arabic poetry and prose texts in the heading of folk literature to explain the nature of Iranian folk culture and literature and its developments In the first centuries of Islam and attention to the importance of the comparative approach has not been organized?. Reasons for the importance of the comparative approach in the history of Persian folk literature Some of the most important intratextual and extratextual reasons for the importance of Arabic sources in the field of Iranian folk culture and literature are as follows: 1. The existence of different forms of Iranian folk stories and proverbs and and anecdotes in Arabic sources: in many cases, these sources have become the oldest or only sources of Iranian folklore stories. Such as the reflection of a story about Ardeshir Babkan, in the book "nehayat-al-arab" under the name of Irajosteh and Khosrow in the persian translation of Varavini's Marzbannameh. 2. The importance of the works of Arabic-speaking Iranian writers and poets, especially the Shaoubians, in terms of recording the components of Iranian folk literature: The Shaoubieh movement is one of the most important factors in the transfer of Iranian folk culture and literature to Arabic culture and sources. The works of this group, such as Ibn Muqafa, Mahmoud vorraq, Saleh ibn Abd al-Quddus and Bashar ibn Burd, contain a large number of poetice or prose form of components of Iranian folk literature such as Iranian proverbs and admonition in Arabic In Arabic: "The tooth is still worn out, and the one who has it is still in pain and is leaving it. "(Ibn Muqaffa, 2002: 140). In Persian:" The eaten by worm (destroyed) tooth of the should be removed" (Amini, 2009: 287). 3. The importance of Arab collections(collections of poetries and writers works and folklore content too) in Iranian folk culture and literature: whith spread of a new style in Arabic writings is via Jahiz Basri (under name of collection writing) and the creation of numerous works imitating it, the reflecting ideas, admonitions and anecdotes related to folklore culture and literature in written works increased. The reflection of some common beliefs in Iranian culture in Abu hayyan Tawhidi's Al-Emta va Al-Moanesat about trees, animals and mineral stones is one of these (cf. Tawhidi, 2005: 235). 4. The need to pay attention to the literary components in Arabic sources that have a folk origin: one of the main necessary steps in explaining the importance of Arabic written sources in the field of Iranian folk literature is to pay attention to the literary components that have a folk origin. "There has been a continuous mutual influence between written and oral literature" (wellek, 2013: 41 & 42). Fables, parables, jokes, Arabic folk poems of Iranian origin, quatrains, and beggars' stories originating from Iranian culture are among the most important of this group. 5. The importance of Arabic sources in terms of recording the legendary history of Iranians and its importance in the discussion of mythological studies: the translation of Iranian history sources into Arabic, especially the "Khuday nameh", and the comparison of different characterizations of Iranian mythological champions such as Rostam in these sources with the Shahnameh and Iranian folk culture, It doubles the importance of Arabic sources in studying the history of developments in Iranian mythology. 6. The influence of Arabic-Islamic culture on the components of Iranian folk literature: When discussing the importance of Arabic sources in the discussion of Iranian folklore literature, it is necessary to consider the effects of Arabic-Islamic culture on Iranian public culture and literature. including the influence of Arabic proverbs and admonitions and the importance of influence of Semitic and Islamic history in the discussion of comparative mythology and the spread of Arabic love stories in Iranian culture. Authors and important works: the works of Ibn Muqafa as the first collections containing Iranian proverbs and rulings after Islam, the works of Jahiz, the important work of Abu al-Faraj Isfahani called Al-Aghani, the works of Thaalibi Neishabouri, the book of Abu hayyan Tawhidi's Al-EMtaa and Al-Mu'anasat, the works of Qazi Mohsen Tanukhi and the work of Ragheb Isfahani With the name of Mohazerat al-odaba va Mohaverat al-shoara va al-bolagha, which contain verse and prose form of proverbs and admonitions, anecdotes, stories, superstitions, Arabic stories that are influential in Iranian culture, jokes and popular opinions. these cases are the most important things is the importance of Arabic sources in reflecting folk culture and literature. Designing the heading of the Iranian folk culture and literature course in Arabic poetry and prose texts: based on the discussed topics, it is suggested to change the title of the Arabic poetry and prose texts course in the Persian folk literature heading to "Iranian folk culture and literature in Arabic prose and poetry texts" and educational topics should be organize under these main headings: "The importance and role of Nahj al-Balagha and the Holy Quran in Iranian folk culture and literature" "Iranian admonitions, Arabic admonitions and understanding the importance of moral and religious admonitions and advice in Iranian culture (before and after Islam)" "Iranian proverbs in sources of Arabic proverbs, Arabic proverbs, stories of proverbs, examples of Arabic poems by Iranian poets (poetice form of proverbs and admonitions)" "The importance of historical sources in the analysis and investigation of Iranian, Semitic and Islamic mythology and how to synchronize them" "Analysis and investigation of Iranian folk culture and literature in the Arabic collections" "Study of Arabic love stories introduced into Persian culture and literature" "The influence of folk culture and literature in the creation of the literary type of Maghameh" "Jokes and comical in Arabic sources" "Familiarization with the research texts of Arabic writers in the field of the connection between Iranian folk culture and literature with Arabic and Islamic culture and literature". Conclusion The current heading of the course on Arabic poetic and prose texts of the folk literature major does not fit with the goals and nature of the major. In the design of the proposed heading in this article, three effect-oriented, component-oriented and research-oriented approaches have been considered. In teaching these cases, you can pay attention to these three approaches. This means that in effect-oriented cases, the focus should be on the study of literary components that have an impact on people's culture, in component-oriented cases, emphasis should be placed on comparing and studying the course of changes in literary components, and in research-oriented cases, emphasis should be placed on the reflection of various components of Iranian folk culture in the Arabic collections. By presenting such cases, it is possible to solve part of the historical problem regarding the nature of Iranian folk culture and manners after Islam, and to direct students' minds to the importance of theoretical foundations in research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been international recognition of the burgeoning climate change crisis, with numerous conventions attempting to foster collaboration and cooperation between countries. However, it has been established that there exists a discrepancy, with certain countries historically polluting more, while other countries bear the brunt of these erratic changes with specific categories of people having to bear even more. Through this there arises a requirement to analyze the efforts countries make to alleviate climate change, especially their interaction with other nations in terms of forming alliances or adopting similar measures. The utopian ideation behind law is to provide a voice for the voiceless and to safeguard the interests of the masses. Though corruption and sheer inefficiency has riddled this powerful tool with deficits. The current rate of environmental degradation demarcates the failure of the law, as marginalized communities continue to face mass discrimination and struggle to mobilize to courts. It is important to understand the bodies involved in governance and the unique manner in which an issue gets addressed through the system. Only through this understanding can gaps be bridged and functional legislation enacted. Moreover, as there is a shift in global politics and a need to deconstruct Western hegemony, it is crucial to understand the Global South’s perspectives in dealing with the contention of climate change. In particular, countries like India and Morocco that are distinct but share certain common intricacies as developing countries with torrid pasts. This paper aspires to explore and examine Indian and Moroccan environmental acts or laws towards protection in juxtaposition to the surmounting levels of pollution.

The burgeoning research into the impact of populism on foreign policy mostly revolves around polarising chief executives, but has still paid little attention to the personality attributes characterising leading agents of populism such as Chávez, Erdoğan, or Trump. The paper therefore uses leadership trait analysis (LTA) to explore to what extent the thoughts and actions of populist foreign policy agency are rooted in particular individual predispositions. As a theoretical contribution, the conceptual tenets of the ideational and political-strategic approaches to populism are systematically connected to the personality traits contained in LTA. The developed expectations are empirically tested by profiling a sample of eight populist government leaders from Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Overall mixed results indicate that conceptual distinctions between populist and non-populist leaders are not fully reflected at the personality level. Even so, some traits such as high self-confidence and high distrust of others could indeed provide fertile 'individual ground' for the observable impact of populism on foreign policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, there are presented and analysed the characteristics of criminal legislation for children in several states in order to become familiar with their criminal justice systems. On this regard, importance is given to the comparative approach of juvenile justice, comparing criminal legislations of some states, such as the juvenile justice of the Republic of North Macedonia, the Republic of Kosovo, the Republic of Albania, the Republic of Croatia, the Netherlands, the Swiss Confederation, Norway, England and Wales, in these comparative elements: the minimum age of children; minimum age for criminal responsibility of children, minimum age for the imposition of sentences on children and reaching adulthood. These comparisons are also illustrated in tabular form to provide a clearer picture to the reader regarding the aforementioned comparisons. Also, in this regard, the three main models of legalpenal treatment of children in different states have been discussed and clarified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Haredi community in Israel is the youngest community. It grows at a higher rate than that of the Arab population in Israel. The calls to introduce more secular education are motivated by both a desire to acculturate the Haredi population and bring it closer to the norms and values of the Israeli discourse and from a wish to integrate more people from this community into the job market. Calls to introduce more secular education in the Haredi system have seen constant resistance that has been documented in scholarship. In the U.S., the discussion on the correct role of general education started with a different frame of reference. The existence of meaningful religious education was put into question, and only after the holocaust did American Orthodoxy significantly expand its educational options. This text will describe the diverse spectrum of Haredi educational institutions and their approaches to secular education. I am using Monsey as a test case since it is a good representation of the kaleidoscope of Orthodoxy in the U.S., as far as the different communities are concerned. It is also a very decentralized community, since there is no dominant group in Monsey. This fact allows for more initiatives, including educational initiatives, to be undertaken.

Today, inhabitants residing in floodplains face a serious and perpetual threat of flooding. Flooding causes fatalities and considerable property damage in metropolitan areas. Therefore, robust structural measures need to be adopted to eliminate flood catastrophe. Structural measures in the floodplain are the most promising solutions. However, there are cost-associated factors for proposing a flood retention plan. Navsari city (98.36 km2, area extent) of Gujarat was used as a case study to investigate the impact of mesh grid structures (100 m, 90 m, and 50 m) along with structural measures for the preparation of a flood retention plan. The HEC-RAS 2D hydrodynamic model was performed for the Purna River. The output of the model was characterized by four different scenarios: (i) Without weir and levees (WOWL), (ii) With weir (WW), (iii) With levees (WL), and (iv) With weir and levees (WWL). The statistical parameters (R2, RMSE, NSE, inundation time, and inundation area) were determined to evaluate model accuracy. The outcome of the model revealed that a 50 m size mesh grid exhibited more accurate results, yielding high NSE and R2 values (0.982 and 0.9855), a low RMSE value (0.450 m), and a smaller inundation area (114.61 km2). The results further revealed that the WW scenario was the most effective flood retention measure as it delayed the flood water for up to 16 h, and managed the flood with the WOWL case. Moreover, the mean error (WW scenario) estimated from profiles 1 and 2 ranged from (−0.7 to 0.62) and from (−0.1 to 0.02 m), respectively, which were evaluated as very low when compared with other scenarios. The novel scenario-based flood retention plan emphasizing the stability of mesh grid structures using the hydrodynamic model can be applied to any other region around the globe to recommend efficacious structural flood measures for flood decision making systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human auditory system is capable of processing human speech even in situations when it has been heavily degraded, such as during noise-vocoding, when frequency domain-based cues to phonetic content are strongly reduced. This has contributed to arguments that speech processing is highly specialized and likely a de novo evolved trait in humans. Previous comparative research has demonstrated that a language competent chimpanzee was also capable of recognizing degraded speech, and therefore that the mechanisms underlying speech processing may not be uniquely human. However, to form a robust reconstruction of the evolutionary origins of speech processing, additional data from other closely related ape species is needed. Specifically, such data can help disentangle whether these capabilities evolved independently in humans and chimpanzees, or if they were inherited from our last common ancestor. Here we provide evidence of processing of highly varied (degraded and computer-generated) speech in a language competent bonobo, Kanzi. We took advantage of Kanzi's existing proficiency with touchscreens and his ability to report his understanding of human speech through interacting with arbitrary symbols called lexigrams. Specifically, we asked Kanzi to recognise both human (natural) and computer-generated forms of 40 highly familiar words that had been degraded (noise-vocoded and sinusoidal forms) using a match-to-sample paradigm. Results suggest that—apart from noise-vocoded computer-generated speech—Kanzi recognised both natural and computer-generated voices that had been degraded, at rates significantly above chance. Kanzi performed better with all forms of natural voice speech compared to computer-generated speech. This work provides additional support for the hypothesis that the processing apparatus necessary to deal with highly variable speech, including for the first time in nonhuman animals, computer-generated speech, may be at least as old as the last common ancestor we share with bonobos and chimpanzees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study by Kidd and Garcia is long overdue. Their analyses of published research on language acquisition highlight the lack of typological diversity in studies of how children acquire their native tongue. We concur with their conclusion that more research on understudied languages is urgently needed. However, we argue that what the field needs is not just wider cross-linguistic coverage but a systematic comparative approach to language acquisition – one in which investigations of well-studied languages still has much to contribute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article's purpose is to present partial research results devoted to the issue of criminal liability for counterfeit money or its surrogate and crimes related to such imitation. Partial results refer to the issue of the limits of the statutory threat of criminal punishment in various European countries. The analysis presented made it possible to distinguish the models preferred by the legislator for determining the criminal sanction for the indicated crimes. Moreover, those variants of sanctions (taking into account the lower and upper limits of the threat) that are most often used in legislative practice were indicated. The considerations led to the formulation of de lege ferenda postulates in terms of modification of the Polish Criminal Law. The research uses theoretical and dogmatic methods of analyzing the legal text of criminal statutes and the comparative law method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Head appendages in Annelida contribute significantly to the immense morphological diversity in this spiralian taxon. Nevertheless, the evolutionary origin of annelid antennae, palps, cirri and tentacles are part of vast theories and debates that took place over decades. One of these heavily discussed groups are the Terebelliformia, which bear numerous anterior tentacles originating from different regions of the head. The question, whether these tentacles are homologous to feeding palps in other annelids or if these structures evolved convergently in terebellids and the remaining taxa, has been highly debated in the past. Results By using morphological methods including immunohistochemistry, confocal microscopy, Azan-stained serial sections and 3D-visualisation, we are able to shed new light and a fresh look on the old question of the evolutionary origin of the buccal tentacles and their associated head structures in Terebelliformia. Our investigations show that the brains of the ampharetid Hypania invalida and the aulophora larvae of Lanice conchilega (Terebellidae) consist of a dorsal, more prominent and a more slender, ventral brain region. Neurite bundles innervating the buccal tentacles split off from the ventral and dorsal root within the ventral brain region and thus originate from the dorsal and ventral root of the circumoesophageal connectives. Hence, the observed neurite bundles fulfil the morphological criteria for the innervating neurite bundles of feeding palps known from Paleoannelida. Conclusions We disagree with former conclusions that buccal tentacles are part of the alimentary canal. Based on the presented data, the buccal tentacles of terebelliform taxa are innervated by neurite bundles and can be homologized with peristomial feeding palps of other Annelida. Our comparative investigations reveal important insights into morphological changes during the evolution of anterior head appendages in Terebelliformia and Annelida in general. Nevertheless, our analyses also illustrate the gaps in knowledge and that more investigations throughout the annelid tree are necessary to explain and understand the huge diversity of annelid anterior appendages.