Search

Social networks have become an important supplement to traditional forms of marketing channels for destination branding. YouTube is believed to be one of the most influential social media and video sharing platforms. Its visual character, informal setting and address of the youth segment would expectedly mean a high level of creativity in the process of destination branding. By means of qualitative analysis of what are considered to be the best videos as self-selected by the European destination management organizations (DMOs), we wished to ascertain how creative these best case examples really were. The results show that the videos are extremely similar, with the most common type a &ldquo, collage&rdquo, of only loosely connected visuals with rare elements of storytelling or humor as the most typical creative approaches. While following the desire to show the diversity of a destination, the destination branding videos paradoxically become a collection of similar visual images and thus fail to contribute to the differentiation of the destination brand. The results show that future advice to practitioners of destination marketing for YouTube is to go beyond the typical &ldquo, genre of a destination marketing video and focus more on storytelling, humor and especially the most difficult step in the destination branding: strategically focusing on the smaller number of specifics that differentiate a destination rather than on the multitude of the highly diverse experiences.

From the late thirteenth through late seventeenth centuries, a single three-word Latin phrase—sapiens dominabitur astris, or “the wise man will be master of the stars”—proliferated in astrological, theological, philosophical, and literary texts. It became a convenient marker denoting orthodox positions on free will and defining the boundaries of the scientifically and morally legitimate practice of astrology. By combining the methodology of a diachronic historical survey with a microhistorical focus on evolving phraseology, this study argues that closely examining the use of this phrase reveals how debates about the meanings of wisdom, free will, determinism, and the interpretation of stellar influence on human events changed radically across four centuries of Western European cultural and intellectual history. The first half of this article charts the scholastic response to theological criticisms of astrology and the reconciliation of Aristotelian-Ptolemaic cosmology with Catholic theology, paying special attention to its implications for astrology as viewed through scholarly uses of the phrase. The second half of the article shows how the phrase developed a multitude of idiosyncratic meanings in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, fracturing its late medieval scholastic unity, as new forms of philosophical, socio-political, religious, and scientific critiques upended astrological beliefs and practices. Ultimately, this paper argues that examining the theory and praxis of astrology through the changing phraseological meanings of “sapiens dominabitur astris” allows historians and cultural anthropologists to better discern the dialectical (as opposed to binary) relationships between free will and determinism in the West.

Falls, which are increasing at an unprecedented rate in the global elderly population, are associated with a multitude of needs such as healthcare, medical, caregiver, and economic, and they are posing various forms of burden on different countries across the world, specifically in the low- and middle-income countries. For these respective countries to anticipate, respond, address, and remedy these diverse needs either by using their existing resources, or by developing new policies and initiatives, or by seeking support from other countries or international organizations dedicated to global public health, the timely identification of these needs and their associated trends is highly necessary. This paper addresses this challenge by presenting a study that uses the potential of the modern Internet of Everything lifestyle, where relevant Google Search data originating from different geographic regions can be interpreted to understand the underlining region-specific user interests towards a specific topic, which further demonstrates the public health need towards the same. The scientific contributions of this study are two-fold. First, it presents an open-access dataset that consists of the user interests towards fall detection for all the 193 countries of the world studied from 2004–2021. In the dataset, the user interest data is available for each month for all these countries in this time range. Second, based on the analysis of potential and emerging research directions in the interrelated fields of Big Data, Data Mining, Information Retrieval, Natural Language Processing, Data Science, and Pattern Recognition, in the context of fall detection research, this paper presents 22 research questions that may be studied, evaluated, and investigated by researchers using this dataset.

Industry 4.0 brings opportunities for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but SMEs are lacking Industry 4.0 knowledge, and this might result in a challenge to support SMEs’ competitiveness and productivity. During recent years, the European Commission and some government initiatives have been fostering the transition toward Industry 4.0 for SMEs through the creation of Digital Innovation Hubs, the Plattform Industrie 4.0, and some other initiatives. Nonetheless, the authors consider that the lack of knowledge is still a risk toward Industry 4.0 transformation for SMEs. New ways to improve Industry 4.0 knowledge management and especially the knowledge transfer must be developed. When SMEs start the transition to Industry 4.0, first of all, they do not want to start from scratch, and secondly, it can be easy to get lost in the multitude of technologies and tools that are available in today’s market. There is a gap in which to provide a collaborative Industry 4.0 knowledge transfer platform or hub designed for SMEs. Therefore, this research aims to enhance Industry 4.0 knowledge transfer through the development of a collaborative, web-based knowledge transfer Industry 4.0 platform. The outcome of this research is a developed platform that will be referred to as Industry 4.0 HUB.

Every European region and country has some specific heraldry. In this paper, we will consider heraldry in the People’s/Socialist Republic of Macedonia, understood by the multitude of coats of arms, and armorial knowledge and art. Due to historical, as well as geographical factors, there is only a small number of coats of arms and a developing knowledge of art, which make this paper’s aim feasible. This paper covers the earliest preserved heraldic motifs and coats of arms found in Macedonia, as well as the attributed arms in European culture and armorials of Macedonia, the кing of Macedonia, and Alexander the Great of Macedonia. It also covers the land arms of Macedonia from the so-called Illyrian Heraldry, as well as the state and municipal heraldry of P/SR Macedonia. The paper covers the development of heraldry as both a discipline and science, and the development of heraldic thought in SR Macedonia until its independence in 1991.

Literary descriptions of the multitude of experiences during the Holocaust and World War II face the dilemma of the (non)representability of extreme duress. This article delves into the testimonial remnants of two men in the gray zone of complicity: Eliezer Gruenbaum’s harrowing recollections of starving prisoners in Birkenau, and Konrad Jarausch’s chronicling of his burgeoning despair over his inability to feed Soviet POWs in the winter of 1941. Both men testify to the devastating effects of hunger (due to deliberate starvation policies) from positions that implicate them as complicit observers. This article employs Naomi Mandel’s idea of complicity as the condition for responsibility, Jill Stauffer’s ethical loneliness, and Primo Levi’s gray zone to make interpretive suggestions for understanding their testimonies.

Intelligent and autonomous agents is a subarea of symbolic artificial intelligence where these agents decide, either reactively or proactively, upon a course of action by reasoning about the information that is available about the world (including the environment, the agent itself, and other agents). It encompasses a multitude of techniques, such as negotiation protocols, agent simulation, multi-agent argumentation, multi-agent planning, and many others. In this paper, we focus on agent programming and we provide a systematic review of the literature in agent-based programming for multi-agent systems. In particular, we discuss both veteran (still maintained) and novel agent programming languages, their extensions, work on comparing some of these languages, and applications found in the literature that make use of agent programming.

Land degradation affects a significant portion of the Earth&rsquo, s ice-free land area and several countries have embraced the challenge of restoring large parts of their degraded lands. Success in these efforts depends on various factors, including the amount of resources invested, the technical capacity available and the degree of involvement of stakeholders. Burkina Faso has committed to restoring 5 Mha of degraded land by 2030. We identified 39 forest landscape restoration initiatives (FLR) in this country and interviewed their managers to obtain an overview of critical aspects and constraints that could orient future efforts. Our results show a recent growth of FLR initiatives, as most of the projects examined started in the last few years, however, the scale of implementation seems incompatible with country-level targets. Funding is coming mainly from international cooperation and this may lead to risks in long-term continuity and sustainability of FLR. Furthermore, FLR projects are carried out by a multitude of agencies, with local NGOs and associations as the main players, this finding highlights the need to coordinate ongoing efforts and flag challenges in tracking progress. Tree planting is common to most FLR initiatives examined, with aspects of quality and quantity of planting material available becoming critical in ensuring success, this raises the need to ensure farmers are well-trained in its collection and handling. Finally, more homogeneous approaches in monitoring across FLR initiatives should be adopted.

We consider a multitude of topics in mathematics where unification constructions play an important role: the Yang&ndash, Baxter equation and its modified version, Euler&rsquo, s formula for dual numbers, means and their inequalities, topics in differential geometry, etc. It is interesting to observe that the idea of unification (unity and union) is also present in poetry. Moreover, Euler&rsquo, s identity is a source of inspiration for the post-modern poets.

The study of conflicts over natural resources is neither governed by a coherent set of theories nor limited by strict disciplinary boundaries. Rather, it encompasses a multitude of conceptions grounded within a wide array of disciplines and epistemological assumptions concerning the links between institutional change and conflicts, often concluding in contradictory propositions. This article aims at providing conceptual guidance for the special issue, by reviewing institutional research with a particular focus on institutional change and associated conflicts and drawing some implications from transformative settings. More specifically, the paper explores certain propositions and concepts utilised by institutional economists to explain why conflicts persist despite institutional reforms explicitly or implicitly introduced to resolve them. The author revisits diverse cases from different regions to investigate key concepts related to institutional change and its implications on environmental conflicts associated to transformations, complementing this view from a political science perspective. The paper concludes by offering an overview of factors identified as instrumental in understanding the institutional change and conflict&ndash, cooperation continuum.

The recycling of e-waste by the informal sector has brought countries in the Global South raw materials (e.g. metals and plastics), second-hand electronic equipment and components, and economic opportunities in conjunction with appalling environmental pollutions and health problems. Despite the longstanding international and national legislation regulating transnational trade and domestic recycling, informal e-waste economies are still clustering in many Global South countries. This study offers historically and geographically specific explanations of this conundrum, by interrogating the multi-scalar regulatory frameworks in which the informal e-waste economies and their pollutions are embedded, by drawing on China, particularly the former global e-waste hub-Guiyu town, as the case study. We argue that the contested and problematic application of current international and national legislation in regulating e-waste is in part pertaining to the slippery definition of what counts as &ldquo, e-waste&rdquo, and its paradoxical nature as both resources and pollutants. At the global scale, trajectories of global e-waste flows are shaped by the multitude of loopholes, contradictions and ambiguous articles left by the Basel Convention and by different countries&rsquo, disparate attitudes towards the e-waste trade. At the national scale, the ambiguities and contradictions in the Basel Convention have been passed on to and shaped China&rsquo, s national e-waste regulatory frameworks. China&rsquo, s equivocal legislation, paradoxical attitude, and formal enterprises&rsquo, weak competence contribute to the rise of informal e-waste recycling in Guiyu. Yet, China&rsquo, s e-waste regime has been greatly restructured within the past decade, with formal recycling enterprises playing an increasingly significant role.

Argumentative writing is the most commonly used genre in writing classroom practices and assessments. To draft an argumentative essay in authentic settings, writers are usually required to evaluate and use content knowledge from outside sources. Although source-based argumentation is a sustainable skill that is crucial for students’ academic career, this area remains under-researched. Hence, this paper presents a within-subject study that investigated Hong Kong secondary school students’ argumentation construction in L1 and L2 source-based writing from both product-oriented and process-oriented perspectives. Multiple sources of data were collected, including L1 and L2 source-based argumentative texts, eye-tracking metrics and recorded videos, and stimulated recall interviews. Findings of our study show that the L1 source-based argumentative compositions of the Hong Kong secondary student writers differed greatly from their L2 ones in terms of the argument structure, source use, and reasoning quality. Analyses on four cases further revealed a multitude of factors such as self-regulation and cultural orientations coming into play in similar and different argumentation performance between L1 and L2 source-based writing tasks. This study contributes new knowledge to better understand the argumentation in L1 and L2 source-based writing, yielding meaningful implications on pedagogy and assessment in this field.

Debates about judicial review and departmentalism have continued to rage, and in the wake of the last three Supreme Court appointments and current Presidential Commission on the Court, only look to intensify. Should the US adopt a notwithstanding or override provision, of the kind that exits in Canada and Israel? These countries take a departmentalist approach to allow the legislature to override the Court, “notwithstanding” its ruling. Although America is a presidential framework, a paradox emerges: evidence exists that its system already makes possible the equivalent of a notwithstanding clause. This consists of Congress and the President together “overruling” the Supreme Court. In another sense, however, this is not an accepted practice—large parts of the legal community hold that the US Constitution establishes judicial supremacy. To better understand this dynamic, we consider two kinds of power: formal and authorized (potestas) as well as direct and concrete (potentia). The contrast between the positions on both power and sovereignty of Thomas Hobbes (associated with potestas) and Baruch Spinoza (linked to potentia) helps clarify these issues in a contemporary context. It turns out that a robust departmentalist equivalent of the notwithstanding clause already exists in the US, as a matter of Hobbesian potestas but not of Spinozist potentia. Another term for the latter is pouvoir constituant. Spinoza’s perspective on political activity further clarifies the in-between nature of the American override capacity: the active or passive character of a multitude is not binary, but is a matter of degree. Without making an institutional recommendation, we note that Spinoza’s understanding of power also allows for dynamic interaction between potentia and potestas: formal authorization can contribute to the expression of direct power. It is, therefore, conceivable that additional codification of the existing American override capacity, either through a joint declaration of Congress and the Presidency or a Constitutional Amendment, can strengthen the effective sovereignty of the American people in relation to the courts.

The multitude of national strategies used against the COVID-19 pandemic makes it necessary to review and synthesize them in order to identify potential gaps and shortcomings, and to help prioritize future control efforts. This systematic mapping review is aimed at identifying the coronavirus pandemic management strategies adopted by France, Tunisia, and Germany during the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak. A set of government websites in addition to the PubMed and Google Scholar databases were searched to identify scientific articles and institutional documents related to the national strategies of the three countries up until July 2020. The references included were mapped and narratively synthesized based on the pillars of the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework of the Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan defined by the World Health Organization. Of the 2765 records screened, 65 documents were included in the study. The analysis of these documents showed that Germany was the first country to implement mass screening of cases and that France was the first country to implement measures to impose general containment at the national level. It also showed that Tunisia was the only country to have imposed the confinement of passengers on repatriation flights in dedicated containment centers and at the expense of the state.

Active ageing can lead to better health outcomes in older people. Examining constraints to outdoor recreation for older people, including outdoor physical activity, may therefore assist with developing strategies for active ageing. Findings are presented from a study seeking to understand the constraints to older peoples’ access to outdoor recreation in Scotland, and this paper aimed to examine the multitude of constraints that discourage or prevent older people from accessing the outdoors and the ways in which these constraints are hierarchical (or not). This paper adopted a qualitative methodology using the hierarchical leisure constraints model (HLCM) as a lens to analyse the data, presenting the data in three vignettes. The paper identified multiple co-occurring constraints and considered these in relation to expectations based on the HLCM. Recognising that constraints to outdoor recreation for older people are multiple, co-occurring and mutually reinforcing may enable more effective solutions to be developed to overcome them.

The practices and behaviours of individuals influences resource consumption at many scales and are shaped by a multitude of psychological, social, and technical factors. This conceptual paper examines the differences between socio-psychological and social practice theories, building on the Chalk and Cheese debate in the literature. Insight is provided into their potential value in understanding resource consumption studies at different scales: the individual, the home, community, and societal. Each theory has its own qualitative and quantitative methods which allude to different conclusions and recommendations for resource consumption initiatives. We review the debate surrounding the application of both theories, adding our voice to the potential for both theories to be used at different scales and for different time periods, along with comments on the interlocking nature of practices. Design and technology changes can lead to quicker changes in behaviour and practices, whereby socio-psychological theories offer insights into changes in mind frame, values, and social norms.

Whakapapa, an indigenous form of genealogy of the Māori people of Aotearoa New Zealand, is a powerful tool for understanding social phenomena. In this paper, the environmental histories of Aotearoa New Zealand are converted to whakapapa/genealogical sequences and kōrero tuku iho/narratives derived from whakapapa, to demonstrate this explanatory power. It is argued that whakapapa is much more than a method for mapping kinship relationships. Whakapapa enables vast amounts of information to be collated and analysed, to reveal a multitude of narratives. It also facilitates a critique of indigenous rights issues, revealing Māori agendas for environmental management. Therefore, the whakapapa sequences and narratives created as part of this paper provide an understanding that is not restricted to the grand narrative or the past as whakapapa is never-ending, dynamic, fluid and future-focused.

The field we call Islamic studies has a long history that could be said to date from the 8th and 9th centuries in the Middle East when Muslim scholars, including Quran exegetes, hadith compilers, jurists and historians, began to systematically write about the teachings of Islam. What many refer to as classical Islamic studies continues today in Muslim-majority countries and has been an academic field of study in Western universities since the 16th century. In more recent decades, Islamic studies has been joined by Muslim studies. While the former tends to focus on the formative Islamic texts, documents and literature, such as the Quran, hadith and a multitude of classical writings on Islam, the latter tends to be more anthropological and sociological in its focus on Muslim communities and societies. In both respects, Australian universities are relative newcomers. While the University of Melbourne has offered Islamic studies since the latter half of the 20th century, most of the handful of Australian universities engaged in Islamic and Muslim studies today only began researching and teaching in these fields in the past two decades. As such, Australia has a relatively small but growing number of scholars that contribute to these fields. The aim of this Special Issue is to showcase some of the important research currently being undertaken in Islamic and Muslim studies by Australian academics.

The modern financial world has seen a significant rise in the use of cryptocurrencies in recent years, partly due to the convincing lure of anonymity promised by these schemes. Bitcoin, despite being considered as the most widespread among all, is claimed to have significant lapses in relation to its anonymity. Unfortunately, studies have shown that many cryptocurrency transactions can be traced back to their corresponding participants through the analysis of publicly available data, to which the cryptographic community has responded by proposing new constructions with improved anonymity claims. Nevertheless, the absence of a common metric for evaluating the level of anonymity achieved by these schemes has led to numerous disparate ad hoc anonymity definitions, making comparisons difficult. The multitude of these notions also hints at the surprising complexity of the overall anonymity landscape. In this study, we introduce such a common framework to evaluate the nature and extent of anonymity in (crypto) currencies and distributed transaction systems, thereby enabling one to make meaningful comparisons irrespective of their implementation. Accordingly, our work lays the foundation for formalizing security models and terminology across a wide range of anonymity notions referenced in the literature, while showing how “anonymity” itself is a surprisingly nuanced concept, as opposed to existing claims that are drawn upon at a higher level, thus missing out on the elemental factors underpinning anonymity.

Internet, new technologies and social networks have changed the consumption and dissemination of information. The world is witnessing the proliferation of so-called false news, especially since the beginning of 2020, when COVID-19 became the main issue on the global agenda. Alleged government actions, remedies, advice, etc., are the cause of a multitude of messages that are often false. Through surveys (1115 responses were obtained) and a review of the literature, we explore how the proliferation of COVID-19’s false news affects and impacts public opinion in Spain. We also examine how citizens are being informed about the pandemic, identify the main channels of communication used and discover the impact of misinformation. The main conclusions are that, in Spain, citizens are interested in information related to the coronavirus, but there is a lack of media credibility and reliability, the social networks and instant messaging are considered the channels that transmit the greatest amount of false news.

The modern approach to realization of large, expensive projects with long payback periods in various sectors of infrastructure often involves combining the financial resources of public authorities and the private sector through a public&ndash, private partnership (PPP) mechanism. The PPP mechanism has a high potential for attracting investments and facilitating other conditions necessary for the project. At the same time, the project participants need a third-party coordination platform that is objective and able to organize their dialog on equal terms. The authors of this article, for these purposes, consider the capabilities of digital platforms (DP). Digital platforms are able to unite many project participants in a single information field and provide them with the necessary services. Given the potential multitude of participants in such a system, there arises the question of meeting their basic needs to create mutually beneficial conditions during the implementation of projects. Thus, there is a need for flexible DPs. Flexibility can be achieved by using systems engineering (SE) approaches during the design of the DP. The practice of interaction with stakeholders in the framework of systems engineering allows the determination of the basic needs and areas of activity of the participants. The results of this practice will form the basis for the functional and physical design of the future DPs.

During the last decade, research has brought forth a large amount of studies that investigated driving automation from a human factor perspective. Due to the multitude of possibilities for the study design with regard to the investigated constructs, data collection methods, and evaluated parameters, at present, the pool of findings is heterogeneous and nontransparent. This literature review applied a structured approach, where five reviewers investigated n = 161 scientific papers of relevant journals and conferences focusing on driving automation between 2010 and 2018. The aim was to present an overview of the status quo of existing methodological approaches and investigated constructs to help scientists in conducting research with established methods and advanced study setups. Results show that most studies focused on safety aspects, followed by trust and acceptance, which were mainly collected through self-report measures. Driving/Take-Over performance also marked a significant portion of the published papers, however, a wide range of different parameters were investigated by researchers. Based on our insights, we propose a set of recommendations for future studies. Amongst others, this includes validation of existing results on real roads, studying long-term effects on trust and acceptance (and of course other constructs), or triangulation of self-reported and behavioral data. We furthermore emphasize the need to establish a standardized set of parameters for recurring use cases to increase comparability. To assure a holistic contemplation of automated driving, we moreover encourage researchers to investigate other constructs that go beyond safety.

The lack of internet access in most rural areas has become a challenge worldwide. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted trends such as teleworking and e-commerce, meaning an opportunity for the local economy of these areas, but with serious difficulties in carrying it out. This paper aims to detect this lack of internet in inland areas of the region of Valencia through local actors, in order to identify clear priorities and real needs through an explorative and replicable approach based on agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC). The main findings suggest that there are different patterns in the rural internet access related to adequate infrastructure and planned actions by local councils. In this way, a multitude of contextual elements have emerged that influence the importance of efficient access to the internet in rural areas. It is essential to know the real needs and demands of the population before implementing plans and programs that may not be relevant for the actors involved in territorial development.

When American metaphysical religion appears onstage, it most often manifests in the subject matter and dramaturgies of experimental theater. In the artistic ferment of the 1960s and 1970s counterculture, theater-makers looked both to alternative dramaturgies and alternative religions to create radical works of political, social, and spiritual transformation. While the ritual experiments of European avant-garde artists like Artaud and Grotowski informed their work, American theater-makers also found inspiration in the dramas of Gertrude Stein, and many of these companies (the Living Theatre and the Wooster Group, most notably) either staged her work or claimed a direct influence (like Richard Foreman). Stein herself, though not a practitioner of metaphysical religion, spent formative years in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at Radcliffe under the tutelage of William James. Cambridge, at the turn of the twentieth century, was a hotbed of spiritualism, theosophy, alternative healing modalities, and James, in addition to running the psychology lab in which Stein studied, ran a multitude of investigations on extrasensory and paranormal phenomena. This article traces a web of associations connecting Ralph Waldo Emerson, Transcendentalism, and liberal Protestantism to Gertrude Stein and landscape dramaturgy to the midcentury avant-garde, the countercultural religious seeking of the 1960s and 1970s, and the Off-Off-Broadway movement.

Mieke Bal&rsquo, s concept of &ldquo, migratory aesthetics&rdquo, and the observation by Saloni Mathur and Anne Ring Peterson that &ldquo, traditional notions of location, origin and authenticity seem obsolete and in urgent need of reconsideration&rdquo, perfectly encompass the phrase &ldquo, Jewish art&rdquo, and within that difficult-to-define subject, Israeli art (which, among other things, is not always &ldquo, Jewish&rdquo, ). As Hava Aldouby has noted, Israeli art presents a unique inflection of the global condition of mobility&mdash, which in fact contributes to the problem of easily defining the category of &ldquo, Israeli art&rdquo, Nothing could be more appropriate to the discussion of Israeli art, or to the larger definitional problem of &ldquo, than to explore it through Nicolas Bourriaud&rsquo, s botanical metaphor of the &ldquo, radicant&rdquo, and thus the notion of &ldquo, radicant art&rdquo, The important distinction that Bourriaud offers between radical and radicant plants&mdash, whereby the former type depends upon a central root, deep-seated in a single nourishing soil site, whereas the latter is an &ldquo, organism that grows its roots and adds new ones as it advances&hellip, &rdquo, with &ldquo, &hellip, a multitude of simultaneous or successive enrootings&rdquo, &mdash, is a condition that may be understood for both Israeli and Jewish art, past and present: Aldouby&rsquo, s notion that the image of the Wandering Jew offers the archetypal radicant, informs both the &ldquo, altermodernity&rdquo, concept and Israeli art.

In the United States of America, an analysis of enrollment statistics to institutions of higher education, those pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, as well as those pursuing medical education show a paralleled ethnic stratification. Based upon such stratification, Native Americans consistently rank amongst the lowest demographic groups to enroll in and pursue higher education, STEM or medical education. A perturbed history of the First Nations people in the establishment of the United States of America laid the foundation for a multitude of factors contributing to current trends in health, living, and academic pursuits amongst First Nation’s people. This paper aims to explore the factors underlying the lack of Native American enrollment in higher education, careers in STEM and medicine. An investigation was conducted following a broad literature review relevant to the topic, and articles were critically appraised using the Search, Appraisal, Synthesis of Analysis (SALSA) framework as well as the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR). Findings from such studies indicate that the Native American communities face a unique set of social circumstances rooted in a historical context, with several unmet basic needs of living required for integration, access, and pursuit of higher education.

This article provides a comprehensive review of theory and research on the individual-level predictors of household energy usage. Drawing on literature from across the social sciences, we examine two broad categories of variables that have been identified as potentially important for explaining variability in energy consumption and conservation: socio-demographic factors (e.g., income, employment status, dwelling type/size, home ownership, household size, stage of family life cycle) and psychological factors (e.g., beliefs and attitudes, motives and intentions, perceived behavioral control, cost-benefit appraisals, personal and social norms). Despite an expanding literature, we find that empirical evidence of the impact of these variables has been far from consistent and conclusive to date. Such inconsistency poses challenges for drawing generalizable conclusions, and underscores the complexity of consumer behavior in this domain. In this article, we propose that a multitude of factors—whether directly, indirectly, or in interaction—influence how householders consume and conserve energy. Theory, research and practice can be greatly advanced by understanding what these factors are, and how, when, where, why and for whom they operate. We conclude by outlining some important practical implications for policymakers and directions for future research.

The objective of this paper is to examine the Pauline understanding of conscience, with the view of gaining an inspiration from it for the contemporary discussion on the foundations of the Christian ethics. The meaning Paul attaches to it depends on the context (mainly in Rom and 1 and 2 Cor), ranging from the personal to the communal one. Conscience holds the secrets of human hearts, evaluates concrete circumstances, and discerns right from wrong. It enjoys special relationship with the Holy Spirit, who gives it credibility. Paul’s teaching on conscience extends beyond the personal to the communal. One of the most important inspirations we can draw from him is the one concerning the proper relationship between various members of the ecclesia: those appointed to hold authority, and those supposed to submit to it. How should we balance the communal demands and personal freedom of every baptized member of the community? What is common and what is personal? Despite a multitude of cultural differences and real-life problems in the world of Saint Paul and our own, a careful lecture of his writings may stimulate our debates on the foundations of Christian ethics in a positive way and ensure that they do remain the theological ones.

Complex adaptive systems consist of a multitude of agents from whose individual adaptation efforts the adaptive behavior of the system as a whole emerges. In this paper it will be argued that capitalism is a complex adaptive system. Except for its particular mode of production many of its features are typical for such a system. A case in point is the way in which economic growth emerges as a collective outcome of individual adaptation strategies. The complex adaptive systems perspective offers a particular explanation for why the successive extension of the bounds of existing production possibilities is unsteady and rather wasteful in capitalism. Moreover, the strategies by which the agents try to adapt to crises – many of which imply some form of innovations – do not necessarily contribute to a re-emergence of new growth impulses. It is shown that the empirical record of economic growth in the most developed economies indeed reveals a trend of declining growth rates. This seems to suggest that successfully creating new economic growth through innovative strategies is the more difficult, the more prosperous an economy becomes. The paper discusses what can be conjectured to be the cause of this development and what to do about it.

The mitigation of climate change and the substitution of fossil energy sources is one of the greatest tasks of our time. Electric mobility is the most promising solution to decarbonize the transport sector. As the market for electric vehicles is quickly gaining momentum, an urgent need for an intelligent integration of the energy and mobility system arises. This integration leads to a multitude of technical, economic and social challenges. Through a validated road-mapping process, the needs for future research, development, standardisation and regulation have been identified and visualised. Recommendations for action for decision-makers in politics and industry have been derived from those innovation needs. In summary, the most promising innovation path is the consequent application of smart and flexible charging concepts as well as an adaption of the regulations and roles in combination with the consequent usage of renewable energies. In five to ten years, also synergies through the exploitation of autonomous electric vehicles will gain momentum.

Currently there is a plethora of research literature which constructs obesity as an alarming new global pandemic associated with a multitude of acute and chronic diseases rooted in lifestyle factors. Although most of these claims related to obesity are well accepted in the research community, some challenges remain. For instance, lifestyle factors only partially explain the risks of developing obesity. In this paper, I advocated for greater caution in interpreting some of the medical claims of obesity due to the epistemological and methodological assumptions that inform certain groups of obesity researchers. While most of the literature has reported lifestyle factors and behavior modification as the major mechanisms to achieving health and wellbeing, a few scholars have raised issues about structural factors.

Every year over 10 million people die of hunger and hunger related diseases. Nearly six million of these are children under the age of five; that is one child’s death approximately every six seconds. Understanding how this still occurs amid the ever increasing social enlightenment of the 21st century—and under the auspices of a vigilant global developmental community—is one of the key challenges of our time. The science of food security aims to address such concerns. By understanding the multiplicity of the phenomenon, practitioners of global multilateral hegemony seek to shape appropriate policy to address these issues. The difficulty however is that the phenomenon is increasingly wrapped up inside an ever growing bundle of societal aspirations including inter-alia under-nutrition, poverty, sustainability, free trade, national self sufficiency, reducing female subjugation and so on. Any solutions therefore, involve fully understanding just what is indeed included, implied, understood or excluded within the food security catchall. Indeed, until such time as consensus can be found that adequately binds the phenomenon within a fixed delineated concept, current efforts to address the multitude of often divergent threads only serves to dilute efforts and confound attempts to once-and-for-all bring these unacceptable figures under control.

Assuming the importance of public space design in the implementation of effective adaptation action towards urban flooding, this paper identifies and systematizes a wide range of flood adaptation measures pertinent to the design of public spaces. It presents findings from both a systematic literature review and an empirical analysis retrieved from concrete public space design precedents. It concludes with the presentation of a conceptual framework that organizes the identified measures in accordance to their main, and secondary, infrastructural strategies. The intention behind the disclosed framework is to aid a multitude of professionals during the initial exploratory phases of public space projects that incorporate flooding adaptation capacities.

As humans increasingly alter the surface geomorphology of the Earth, a multitude of artificial aquatic systems have appeared, both deliberately and accidentally. Human modifications to the hydroscape range from alteration of existing waterbodies to construction of new ones. The extent of these systems makes them important and dynamic components of modern landscapes, but their condition and provisioning of ecosystem services by these systems are underexplored, and likely underestimated. Instead of accepting that artificial ecosystems have intrinsically low values, environmental scientists should determine what combination of factors, including setting, planning and construction, subsequent management and policy, and time, impact the condition of these systems. Scientists, social scientists, and policymakers should more thoroughly evaluate whether current study and management of artificial aquatic systems is based on the actual ecological condition of these systems, or judged differently, due to artificiality, and consider resultant possible changes in goals for these systems. The emerging recognition and study of artificial aquatic systems presents an exciting and important opportunity for science and society.

Recently we have witnessed the worldwide adoption of many different types of innovative technologies, such as crowdsourcing, ridesharing, open and big data, aiming at delivering public services more efficiently and effectively. Among them, ridesharing has received substantial attention from decision-makers around the world. Because of the multitude of currently understood or potentially unknown risks associated with ridesharing (unemployment, insurance, information privacy, and environmental risk), governments in different countries apply different strategies to address such risks. Some governments prohibit the adoption of ridesharing altogether, while other governments promote it. In this article, we address the question of how risks involved in ridesharing are governed over time. We present an in-depth single case study on Singapore and examine how the Singaporean government has addressed risks in ridesharing over time. The Singaporean government has a strong ambition to become an innovation hub, and many innovative technologies have been adopted and promoted to that end. At the same time, decision-makers in Singapore are reputed for their proactive style of social governance. The example of Singapore can be regarded as a revelatory case study, helping us further to explore governance practices in other countries. Keywords: risk; ridesharing; transport; governance; innovative technologies; case study; Singapore

The core of the digital transition is the representation of all kinds of real-world entities and processes and an increasing number of cognitive processes by digital information and algorithms on computers. These allow for seemingly unlimited storage, operation, retrieval, and transmission capacities that make digital tools economically available for all domains of society and empower human action, particularly combined with real-world interfaces such as displays, robots, sensors, 3D printers, etc. Digital technologies are general-purpose technologies providing unprecedented potential benefits for sustainability. However, they will bring about a multitude of potential unintended side effects, and this demands a transdisciplinary discussion on unwanted societal changes as well as a shift in science from analog to digital modeling and structure. Although social discourse has begun, the topical scope and regional coverage have been limited. Here, we report on an expert roundtable on digital transition held in February 2017 in Tokyo, Japan. Drawing on a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, our discussions highlight the importance of cultural contexts and the need to bridge local and global conversations. Although Japanese experts did mention side effects, their focus was on how to ensure that AI and robots could coexist with humans. Such a perspective is not well appreciated everywhere outside Japan. Stakeholder dialogues have already begun in Japan, but greater efforts are needed to engage a broader collection of experts in addition to stakeholders to broaden the social debate., Sustainability, 9 (12), ISSN:2071-1050

An abstract, quantitative theory which connects elements of information —key ingredients in the cognitive proces—is developed. Seemingly unrelated results are thereby unified. As an indication of this, consider results in classical probabilistic information theory involving information projections and so-called Pythagorean inequalities. This has a certain resemblance to classical results in geometry bearing Pythagoras’ name. By appealing to the abstract theory presented here, you have a common point of reference for these results. In fact, the new theory provides a general framework for the treatment of a multitude of global optimization problems across a range of disciplines such as geometry, statistics and statistical physics. Several applications are given, among them an “explanation” of Tsallis entropy is suggested. For this, as well as for the general development of the abstract underlying theory, emphasis is placed on interpretations and associated philosophical considerations. Technically, game theory is the key tool.

This teaching case addresses the strategic choices of social entrepreneurs, Mie and Ingvild, who founded the ViaVia café in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In their daily management of ViaVia Yogyakarta, Mie and Ingvild put respect for local culture and ideals above short-term profit. They offered good working conditions for staff with opportunities to learn and grow, which resulted in a loyal group of employees who felt a sense of ownership of ViaVia. Furthermore, the organization was involved in a multitude of social, cultural, environmental and humanitarian projects. As a result, ViaVia was regarded as a positive contributor to the local community. In 2013, it secured international recognition for its efforts by receiving the prestigious Wild Asia Responsible Tourism Award. However, Mie and Ingvild wondered whether the support of many projects this current strategy was perhaps spreading their resources too thin, and whether greater impact could be generated with fewer but more focused initiatives. Despite ViaVia’s success as a social enterprise, Mie and Ingvild reviewed the past 20 years of the café’s existence and contemplated the sustainable strategy that they should follow in the years ahead.

One of the beauties of inorganic chemistry is its sheer diversity. Just as chemistry sits at the centre of the sciences, inorganic chemistry sits at the centre of chemistry itself. Inorganic chemists are fortunate in having the entire periodic table at their disposal, providing a palette for the creation of a multitude of rich and diverse compounds and materials from the simplest salts to the most complex of molecular species. It follows that the language of inorganic chemistry can thus be a demanding one, accommodating sub-disciplines with very different perspectives and frames of reference. One could argue that it is the unequivocal breadth of inorganic chemistry that empowers inorganic chemists to work at the interfaces, not just between the traditional Inorganic-Organic-Physical boundaries of the discipline, but in the regions where chemistry borders the other physical and life sciences, engineering and socio-economics. [...]