Search Results (81)

Among the Anaañ people in Akwa Ibom State, Southeastern Nigeria, the practice of naming serves as a central mechanism for communicating personal identity, recollecting memory and preserving social hierarchy across generations. The act of naming a child after a revered ancestor or existing relative is a form of moral inheritance that binds the name bearer to certain virtues, histories, and expected cultural nuance associated with the namesake. This article investigates the social functions of namesaking and in its role in family inheritance amongst the Anaañ people. This study examines the rituals, ceremonies, and narratives associated with namesaking, and further analyses the intergenerational authority and social status embedded in the practice. The analysis is rooted in social memory theory by Halbwachs (1992), which views names as memory carriers that connect individuals to their nativity and ancestors. Drawing from ethnographic research design, using participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 30 participants who were purposively sampled, the analysis reveals that namesaking and inheritance are interwoven cultural processes that promote social identity, reproduce lineage hierarchies, and individuate the bearer within the social universe of the community. This study concludes that in the Anaañ society namesaking is a symbol of continuity, with specific social expectations, moral obligations and traditional roles tied to the original name-holder. Full article

Our Fairytales: The Cost of Migration, National Myth, and Creative Labor in Unser Deutschlandmärchen is a performance analysis that examines lived cultural narratives through the lens of the Maxim Gorki Theatre’s production of Dinçer Güçyeter’s autobiographical novel Unser Deutschlandmärchen. The impact on Turkish migrants in Germany and their descendants is explored through an investigation of primary production texts, migration and diaspora literature, and Turkish–German cultural commentary. A discussion of fairy tales and national mythos reveals the material contributions migrant communities often make to host nations through systemic endurance and cultural enrichment, frequently at the cost of forgoing “happily ever after.” The reformation of the traditional fairy tale recasts Turkish–German migrants as modern fairy-tale heroes who generate counter-cultural narratives through collective, intergenerational, and ethnographically inherited memory. Full article

Intergenerational wealth transfer represents a central mechanism through which genealogical bonds, family continuity, and economic stability are maintained across generations. This article examines inheritance law and financial regulation from a genealogical perspective, focusing on the role of family property as both a legal institution and a socio-economic structure rooted in kinship and lineage. By integrating approaches from genealogy, legal studies, and financial analysis, the study explores how inheritance frameworks shape intergenerational relations, preserve family identity, and influence patterns of economic inequality. The article analyzes inheritance law as a key instrument through which genealogical continuity is institutionalized, highlighting the ways in which legal norms regulate the transmission of assets, rights, and obligations within families. Particular attention is given to the interaction between financial regulation and family-based wealth, demonstrating how legal structures affect long-term economic sustainability and social cohesion. The study adopts a qualitative and theoretical methodology, supported by comparative references to selected legal traditions, in order to illustrate how inheritance systems reflect broader cultural, historical, and genealogical values. By situating inheritance and wealth transfer within the broader framework of genealogical relations, this article contributes to interdisciplinary discussions on family, law, and the economy. It argues that inheritance law should be understood not merely as a financial or legal mechanism, but as a genealogical process that shapes intergenerational bonds, social structures, and economic outcomes over time. Full article

Background: Advanced paternal age is increasingly encountered in assisted reproduction as parenthood is deferred. The clinical question is whether paternal age from about 40 to 45 years and older affects embryo development or outcomes, and to what extent any effect relates to the sperm epigenome. Methods: This narrative review synthesized PubMed-indexed evidence on sperm aging biology, including DNA methylation, chromatin packaging and nucleosome retention, small non-coding RNAs, telomere dynamics, DNA fragmentation, and oxidative and mitochondrial stress, and their potential clinical impact on assisted reproduction outcomes. Results: Maternal age remains the principal determinant of embryo aneuploidy. After multivariable adjustment, independent paternal-age effects on fertilization, blastocyst formation, and preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy are small or not detected. At very advanced paternal ages near or above 50 years, some studies report higher miscarriage and lower live birth, without a consistent change in early embryo morphology. Aging in men is linked to higher DNA fragmentation and oxidative and mitochondrial signatures, together with reproducible sperm-epigenome changes, including age-linked DNA methylation, altered histone retention, and small-RNA shifts. These molecular findings support modest intergenerational influences on early development, while stable transgenerational inheritance in humans is not supported. Conclusions: Advanced paternal age should be regarded as a risk modifier rather than a primary driver of preimplantation failure. Counseling should emphasize realistic effect sizes and the predominance of maternal age. Laboratory workflows should minimize oxidative stress. Selective DNA-fragmentation testing may be appropriate in recurrent ART failure or recurrent loss. Sperm-epigenome assays remain investigational and should undergo prospective, standardized validation before use in routine care. Full article

Traditional vehicle routing problems focus primarily on cost minimization. This paper addresses the unbalanced transportation problem, aiming to minimize both costs and carbon emissions. We propose a Cost–Carbon Emissions Adaptive Genetic Algorithm (CSC-AGA) based on the Cost–Carbon Synergy (CSC) mechanism, which quantifies the marginal cost of carbon emission reduction by comparing intergenerational changes in cost and emissions. This mechanism enables dynamic adjustment of penalty coefficients during the evolutionary process. The algorithm adapts penalty coefficients and search parameters to optimize both objectives within a single framework. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms traditional approaches in both cost control and emission reduction, while also approximating or surpassing the approximate Pareto front of existing multi-objective methods with better computational efficiency. The Generalized Unbalanced Transportation Problem (G-UTP) is an NP-hard optimization problem, inheriting the complexity of classical transportation problems while also balancing economic and environmental objectives. Full article

In the era of digital intelligence, cultural heritage is undergoing a profound transformation. This study investigates how digital technologies facilitate the inheritance and innovation of traditional culture in China, focusing on the case of Huangyan’s Song Rhyme Culture in Zhejiang Province. Drawing on the framework of “glocalized intelligent heritage,” the research explores how global technological systems interact with local cultural practices to produce new forms of cultural continuity. Methodologically, the study employs a qualitative case study approach supported by empirical data. It combines policy analysis, semi-structured interviews with twenty-six stakeholders, field observations, and quantitative indicators such as visitor statistics, online engagement, and project investment. This mixed design provides both contextual depth and measurable evidence of digital transformation. The findings show that digital intelligence has reshaped cultural representation, platform-based public engagement, and local sustainability. In Huangyan, technologies such as AI-based monitoring, 3D modeling, and VR exhibitions have transformed heritage display into an interactive and educational experience. Digital media have enhanced public engagement, with more than 1.2 million virtual visits and over 20 million online interactions recorded in 2024. At the same time, the project has stimulated cultural tourism and creative industries, contributing to a 28.6% increase in cultural revenue between 2020 and 2024. The study concludes that digital intelligence can function as a cultural bridge by strengthening heritage mediation, widening access, and enabling platform- and institution-based participation, while noting that embodied intergenerational cultural transmission lies beyond the direct measurement of this research design. Full article

This study examines the impact of Kosovo’s matrimonial property and inheritance laws on intergenerational inheritance and family connections. It explores how the division of property during marriage or upon divorce influences inheritance outcomes and the continuity of family lineage. The research employs a comparative approach, including genealogical case studies, to analyze these effects. Findings demonstrate that legal provisions significantly influence the preservation of family property and help prevent intra-family disputes. Well-structured laws ensuring the participation of children and the surviving spouse promote gender and social equality, respect heirs’ rights, and support economic sustainability. Comparative experiences from Germany and France offer practical examples for harmonizing property management in Kosovo. Additionally, the study highlights the importance of accurate property data and the use of genealogical records to maintain continuity in material inheritance and the construction of family history. Overall, matrimonial property and inheritance laws are more than legal instruments; they uphold social order and safeguard families’ material legacies. The study concludes with concrete recommendations for policy and legal practices that address communities’ real needs while acknowledging family history. Full article

Materiality has emerged as a significant theme in Holocaust literature as well as in Holocaust studies scholarship, highlighting the pivotal role of physical objects. This materiality has been conceptualized in various ways in recent scholarship, including «testimonial objects», «objects of return», and «artifacts of memory». Building on this conceptual framework, the article analyzes the ways in which transgenerational memory transmission is thematized in Monica Csango’s memoir Fortielser. Min jødiske familiehistorie («Concealments. My Jewish Family History», 2017), investigating what memorial functions material places and objects—in particular inherited objects—serve in the transmission and representation of memory within the narrative. The central question the article addresses is: Which places and objects are central to the narrative’s representation of memory, and in what ways do they mediate memory and trauma? The article suggests that postmemory transforms physical objects and places spaces into sites of remembering and mourning, enabling transgenerational continuity and memory transmission in Fortielser. These findings underscore the central role of material and spatial mediums in sustaining intergenerational remembrance, suggesting that inherited artifacts and projected spaces constitute vital modes of memory transmission, or «acts of transfer», within parts of Jewish Norwegian second- and third-generation literature. Full article

Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, local Daoism in southeastern Hebei Province has developed in a complex and intertwined manner, characterized by the multiplicity and interpenetration of Daoist lineages. The inheritance of contemporary local Daoism persists in a living form in this region; despite gradual decline in modern times, it has preserved a wealth of local Daoist texts as well as complete traditions of jiao (offering) and zhai (retreats) rituals. Based on scriptures, Daoist priests’ oral histories, and ritual records collected in southeastern Hebei, this article examines the transformation of ritual texts of local Daoism in the region since the Ming and Qing dynasties from two perspectives: vertical transmission and horizontal dissemination. It analyzes the local mechanisms and operational models underlying text evolution. Among these, the transmission model emphasizes intergenerational inheritance rooted in Daoist lineages, serving as the primary mode of text circulation which reflected the diachronic trajectory of text transmission. The dissemination model highlights the circulation and transformation of shared texts across lineages, representing a typical example of the integration and symbiosis of ritual traditions among Daoist lineages in a synchronic context. As the core operational mechanisms for text generation, transmission and dissemination have provided a vertical and horizontal framework as well as a dynamic foundation for the transformation of ritual texts in this region over the past century. Full article

Culter alburnus (topmouth culter, TC) is extensively distributed in various rivers and lakes in China. As a widely adaptive fish species, they have significant economic value and special ecological roles. Intergeneric hybridization is a pivotal strategy for generating novel hybrid lineages and species. In a previous study, we obtained an improved bisexual hybrid culter, BTBTF₁, derived from the hybrid lineage of Megalobrama amblycephala (blunt snout bream, BSB, 2n = 48, ♀) × Culter alburnus (2n = 48, ♂). In this study, we established an improved hybrid culter lineage by the self-crossing of BTBTF₁ and evaluated the biological characteristics regarding cytology, morphology, and genetics. DNA content and chromosome analyses confirmed that BTBTF₁-F₂ was a diploid lineage (2n = 48), with morphological traits exhibiting intermediate values between parental species, except for significantly TC-biased full-length-to-body length (FL/BL) and body length-to-head length (BL/HL) ratios (p < 0.05). ITS sequencing analysis revealed that BTBTF₁-F₂ inherited ITS1 sequences from BSB and TC. The global methylation level in BTBTF₁-F₂ was substantially reduced compared to progenitors, characterized by elevated full and diminished hemimethylation states. Transcriptomic analysis identified 7877 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), displaying 9.05%/8.30% maternal (BSB)-dominant and 17.01%/18.95% paternal (TC)-dominant expression patterns in BTBTF₁ and F₂. Remarkable intergenerational similarity in phenotypic and molecular profiles, coupled with bidirectional inheritance of progenitor characteristics, confirmed BTBTF₁-F₂ as a genetically stable allodiploid lineage. Remarkably, methylation patterns, and DEG expression collectively demonstrated significant TC-oriented bias (p < 0.05). This study reports a novel stabilized allodiploid culter lineage after a comprehensive assessment at cytology, morphology, and genetic levels, and provides new insights into genetic bias in hybrid progeny. Full article

This paper interrogates two important but obscured admission policy developments at leading American universities in the post-World War II era. First, we critically examine the University of California’s “special admissions,” later formalized as the “Admission by Exception” policy adopted at two flagship campuses (Berkeley and UCLA) to open opportunities for veterans returning from the War under the GI Bill. The scale of this Admission by Exception policy was orders of magnitude larger than any comparable admissions policy in recent decades, including both the eras with and without legally permissible affirmative action. Second, we excavate archival evidence from the immediate aftermath of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, where leaders at the flagship University of Texas at Austin campus hastily adopted a new standardized exam requirement because their enrollment modeling indicated this was the most efficient way to not face further losses in federal court while excluding the largest number of African Americans (and thereby resisting Brown) and maintaining the same overall size of the freshmen class. These two post-war admission policy changes, one arising in de facto segregated California and the other in de jure segregated Texas, operated as racialized institutional mechanisms analogous to “redlining” racially restrictive housing policies that are a more familiar feature of the post-War era. We draw on historical data about earnings and wealth accumulation of the overwhelmingly white graduates of UC and UT in the 1950s–70s and connect these findings to the theoretical frameworks of Cheryl Harris’s “whiteness as property” and George Lipsitz’s racialized state investment. We show how these admission policies contributed to the intergenerational transfer of advantage. We then turn to the contemporary admissions landscape at highly selective American universities after the Supreme Court’s SFFA v. Harvard ruling. We link current trends at some elite institutions toward a return to standardized testing requirements, maintaining considerations of athletic ability mostly in “country club” sports as manifestations of bias in university admissions, which tend to favor white applicants. The paper connects historical racialization of admissions to ongoing inequities in access and outcomes, showing how both historical and contemporary admissions policies reward inherited forms of cultural capital aligned with whiteness. Full article

To develop superior grouper aquaculture varieties, in this study, a intergeneric hybrid breed was constructed by crossing a male Plectropomus leopardus, with a female parent Epinephelus fasciatus. Here, we researched embryonic development and mitochondrial composition of the new hybrid germplasm. Results revealed that the fertilization and hatching rate were 85.87 ± 5.22% and 70.37 ± 0.33%, respectively. Hatching occurred 28 h 55 min after fertilization at 24.8 ± 0.5 °C, and the newly hatched larvae were 2.05 ± 0.37 mm in total length. The mitochondrial genome length of the hybrid was 16,570 bp, preserving 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, and 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes. The mitochondrial gene composition and arrangement of the hybrid were very similar to those of the maternal E. fasciatus. Additionally, analyses including co-linearity, Ka/Ks ratio, and phylogenetic tree all demonstrated that the hybrid’s mitochondria are inherited from the mother. Furthermore, the genetic distance between the hybrid and species from the maternal genus is shorter than that between the hybrid and the paternal P. leopardus. This study provides detailed insights into the embryonic development and mitochondrial inheritance of an intergeneric hybrid grouper, offering valuable molecular biological evidence to support grouper hybrid breeding, germplasm identification, and the conservation of genetic diversity. Full article

Distant hybridization in fish serves to integrate the genetic material from two distinct, distantly related species. In this study, we successfully produced a new hybrid fish (BG) through the intergeneric hybridization of blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala, BSB, 2n = 48, ♀) and green tip culter (Culter dabryi, GTC, 2n = 48, ♂). The objective of this research was to characterize the genetic, morphological, reproductive, and nutritional features of the hybrid compared with its parents. The DNA content and chromosomal number analysis revealed that BG was a diploid hybrid fish with 48 chromosomes. Integrated analysis of 5S rDNA, mitochondrial DNA, and Sox9 gene sequences revealed that BG predominantly inherited its genetic traits from BSB. Notably, certain gene fragments (376 bp segment of 5S rDNA class II and 718 bp segment of BG Sox9-II) originated from the paternal GTC, demonstrating biparental genomic integration. The growth performance analysis revealed that BG exhibited enhanced growth, achieving a body weight significantly greater than that of BSB and 1.81-fold that of GTC (both p < 0.05). The reproductive analysis indicated that BG possessed bisexual fertility, with testicular histology revealing accelerated spermatogenesis relative to BSB. Additionally, the nutritional analysis of BG muscle revealed elevated levels of crude protein (18.13%) and umami amino acids (5.45%) compared to those in its parents. BG showed higher growth, bisexual fertility, and improved muscle nutritional composition. This hybrid represents a promising resource for cyprinid breeding and aquaculture diversification. Full article

Obesity is a multifactorial chronic disease resulting from complex genetic, molecular, environmental, and behavioral interactions. Its prevalence rises worldwide, affecting cardiovascular, metabolic, oncological, hepatic, respiratory, and skeletal health. Beyond caloric excess, genetic predisposition, epigenetic modifications, gut microbiota dysbiosis, endocrine-disrupting agents, circadian misalignment, and intergenerational and prenatal influences are critical determinants of obesity risk. Core pathophysiological mechanisms include insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, chronic low-grade inflammation, and neuroendocrine dysregulation of appetite and energy balance. These processes are linked to comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis, fatty liver disease, sleep apnea, osteoporosis, and cancer. Advances in molecular profiling, metabolic phenotyping, and body composition analysis are refining obesity classification and enabling precise risk stratification. Current therapeutic strategies include behavioral interventions addressing stress-related mechanisms, pharmacological therapies such as GLP-1 receptor agonists, emerging gene therapy approaches, and bariatric surgery. Gut-derived hormones (leptin, ghrelin, GLP-1, PYY, CCK) are recognized as pivotal regulators of appetite and weight. Preventive strategies increasingly emphasize circadian alignment, while epigenetic inheritance and prenatal exposures such as maternal obesity or smoking highlight early-life programming in future metabolic health. Additionally, artificial intelligence-based platforms and personalized nutrition provide innovative opportunities for individualized prevention and management. This review synthesizes contemporary evidence on the biological basis, systemic consequences, preventive strategies, and evolving therapeutic modalities of obesity, affirming its recognition as a complex chronic disease requiring personalized, multidisciplinary care. Full article