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This article clears a path for employing the affirmative way of interpreting Kant's general theory of religion as a guidepost for twenty-first century religious practitioners. Before attempting such an employment, I correct several misconceptions regarding the affirmative way of interpreting Kant's theory that, if adopted as mainstream, would risk weakening its universal applicability. With this purpose in mind, I consider and respond to a misplaced criticism of my interpretation of Kant's theory of grace, advanced by Douglas McGaughey in 2013. I then assess the current state of a debate that has arisen between several key affirmative interpreters, concerning Kant's reference to the two "experiments" that guide the argument in his Religion. I give special attention to Lawrence Pasternack's 2017 attempt to "dismantle" this whole line of interpretation as one that "may very well not be worth our time." After identifying several serious flaws in Pasternack's argument, I conclude by backing a better alternative developed by Brandon Love. By clearing away two very different sorts of potential roadblocks that could stand in the way of a reader of Kant gaining a fair understanding of the affirmative approach to interpreting his theory of religion, these arguments prepare the way for a concluding attempt to catch a glimpse of how Kant's theory of religious judgment (especially his four guidelines for designing the constitution of a church), if adopted widely by practitioners of various historical religions, could benefit the fractured world we find ourselves in, a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several issues regarding the systematics and taxonomy of the Neotropical deer tribe Odocoileini, an assemblage of 18 recognized living species currently allocated into 7 genera, remain unclear. The few available phylogenetic analyses indicate that some genera are not monophyletic and that species richness in the group is underestimated. One genus that presents both problems are the stocky and short-legged dwarf deer, Pudu. As currently understood, it includes 2 species, the Northern pudu, Pudu mephistophiles from Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia; and the Southern pudu, P. puda , from southern Chile and nearby Argentina. Here, by means of qualitative and quantitative morphologic analysis and the assessment of genetic variation, we showed that 2 distinct species are encompassed by the current concept of P. mephistophiles. The typical form distributes north of the Huancabamba Depression from northernmost Peru to the north (Ecuador and Colombia), while the other distributes south of the Huancabamba Depression and is a Peruvian endemic. As no name is available for the last one, we describe and name it here. This is the first living cervid species described in the 21st century and the first from the New World in over 60 years. Additionally, as the Southern Pudu (the type species of Pudu) is not sister to the 2 northern pudu species, we revalidate the genus Pudella to allocate the latter 2 species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reliquary of Saint Hermión martyr arrived in the villa of Lagos in 1791. Since then, it has both been object of devotion –capable of granting miracles and “favors”– and given its name to the children of the families of Lagos. Between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it also established itself as a cultural object, source of legends, evocative of memory and an important reason for tourists to visit the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of eugenics took an exclusionary and abusive turn in the first decades of the twentieth century, when prominent lawyers, scientists and first-wave feminists championed the cause. Indiana's 1907 eugenicist ruling was adopted by thirty-two states, and consequently forced sterilizations were performed on whomever lawmakers considered unworthy of bearing children. The most notorious case of sterilization, Buck v. Bell, was performed on Carrie Buck, a victim of rape. K. D. Alden's novel, A Mother's Promise (2021), is a fictional rendering of the story, which depicts the fractures of American legal and social structures. By drawing Ruth-Ann Riley's portrait, Buck's fictional counterpart, it convincingly exposes America's restrictive practices. This paper aims at exploring, through a feminist perspective, Riley's struggle against overbearing eugenicist practices, performed by pseudo-scientists and lawyers who utilized eugenics to promote their professional and economic interests. Additionally, based on Foucault's theory of power-knowledge relations, the paper demonstrates how, within this context, power and knowledge sustain each other. Finally, it relates the ethical issues concerning misogynistic practices and objectifying women's bodies that were at stake one hundred years ago to twenty-first-century feminist discourse with respect to the #MeToo movement and the overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the third decade of the 21st century, digitization and artificial intelligence, global events, challenges from authoritarian states, and difficulties of particular democracies to function properly confront democracy with a new series of challenges and opportunities that will force it to reinvent itself. The last decades have produced an accelerating flow of ideas for new forms of democracy. We survey a long period in the quest for such new forms and point to next inventions for such forms. We suggest to experiment with new ways for democracy to extend the choice of democratic processes that can be implemented in real-life situations, with the beneficial side-effect that democracy might remain the only sustainable structure for self-governing societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"After Darwin: Literature, Theory, and Criticism in the Twenty-First Century" is a collection of essays that explore the ongoing relevance of Darwin's work in the present day. The essays cover a range of topics, including Darwin's influence on animal ethics, the relationship between Darwinian thought and issues of race and gender, and the ethical implications of Darwin's ideas. The collection highlights the complexity and variety of Darwin's work and its potential to address contemporary challenges. While the essays could benefit from more dialogue and overlap, the book provides valuable insights into the evolving significance of Darwin's work. In "Thoreau's Axe: Distraction and Discipline in American Culture," Caleb Smith examines the challenges of attention and distraction in nineteenth-century America. The book explores how weak attention was seen as a problem and required reeducation and moral reform. Smith analyzes excerpts from various writers, including Thoreau, Poe, Whitman, Melville, and Douglass, to understand their perspectives on attention and distraction. The book offers usable resources to understand and articulate the challenges of our own distracted age. It will appeal to literary historians, cultural critics, and those interested in the cognitive challenges of the nineteenth century. [Extracted from the article]

The maritime sector plays a crucial role in global trade and economics. The competitive and rapidly growing sector requires a highly trained workforce with specific skills, especially for the twenty-first-century revolutions. Since, industry 4.0 entails the modernisation of work, which is likely to impact individuals' required skills, especially for seafarers in the foreseeable future. Furthermore, discussions on future maritime operations competencies frequently emphasize technology as a prerequisite for seafarers' ability to adapt to change. The paper seeks to explore seafarers' required skills, especially for the twenty-first century, using the modified Delphi method and Best Worst Method (BWM), which is a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) technique. Ten skills have been identified from the derived outcomes, divided into two segments: hard skills and soft skills. Technical and theoretical knowledge has been identified as the most influential hard skill, and communication skill as the most critical soft skill. The study will benefit seafarers and organisations related to training and hiring seafarers for making their decisions on the training and hiring process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inherent biases in numerical simulation models of global climate models (GCMs) reduce the scope for accurately assessing future droughts under multimodel ensemble. The aim of this research is to increase the efficiency of multimodel ensembles. Consequently, this paper introduces a two-way hybrid weighting scheme for ensembling multiple GCMs. The proposed weighting scheme enhances the coherence of the multimodel ensemble of climate model simulations with real observed data and minimizes the impact of non-identical seasonal behavior in climate simulations within the multimodel ensemble. In the application, we consider precipitation data from 18 GCMs of CMIP6 from the Tibet Plateau region. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, we compared the proposed ensemble data with simple model averaged (SMA) ensemble using the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r), root mean squared error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE). Furthermore, we assessed the future characteristics of various drought categories using the steady-state probabilities of a Markov Chain. Small values of errors metircs and high correlation indicate that the proposed hybrid weighting scheme exhibits better performance than the SMA. Under the proposed index, the long term probabilities of various drought classe show variations across different time scales of drought. These results provide perspectives on how the the long term probabilities of various drought categories evolve over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 21st century in Latin America began with a widespread shift to the left politically, a phenomenon called the 'pink tide'. Following a period of right‐wing re‐ascendancy, left wing governments are again gaining traction across the continent. This article analyses the end of the last pink tide via a dialogue between the post‐extractivism and degrowth literature by examining Bolivia, Ecuador, and Brazil. This is done through a look at the impacts of both economic growth as a normative policy aim and extractivism as the engine to produce this growth on political developments in these countries. In the tradition of Gramsci this is interpreted as a hegemonic force, recast here as growth‐through‐extraction, that serves to perpetuate the interests of wealthy classes despite political changes. This article concludes with a brief analysis of how academic debates and political processes have moved on since Escobar 2015 and what this might mean for the new left‐wing governments of Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly three decades ago, Gramling and Freudenburg (1996) urged that greater attention be given to middle‐range efforts in environmental sociology. In this article, I will argue that since Gramling and Freudenburg offered their advice, there has been a critical mass of work in environmental sociology undertaken from the perspective of middle‐range theory, but this has been undervalued in our never‐ending odyssey in search for grand theory. To illustrate this, I review sociological enquiry into risk and risk communication. To make a case of my own for a middle‐range sociology appropriate to the second quartile of the 21st century, I advocate the development of a "sociology of environmental morality" (see Farrell, 2015; Hannigan forthcoming, 2024; Stock, 2020) to be pursued via a middle‐range perspective. I conclude by outlining two strategies for pursuing a middle‐range sociology of environmental morality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persian poetry has profoundly affected all periods of Persian literature and the literature of other countries as well. It is a fundamental vehicle for expressing Persian culture and political opinion. This paper presents a corpus of Persian literary text mainly focusing on poetry, covering the ninth to twenty-first century annotated for century and style, with additional partial annotation of rhetorical figures. Our resource is the largest and the most diverse corpus available in Persian literary text, with a particularly broad temporal scope. This allows us to conduct several computational experiments to analyze poetic styles, authors and time periods, as well as context shifts over time, for which we rely both on supervised models and on Persian poetry-specific heuristics. The corpus, the tools, and experiments described in this paper can be used not only for digital humanities studies of Persian literature but also for processing Persian texts in general, as well as in other broader cross-linguistic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the early 21st century, the Carpathian Basin was recognised as one of the world's most important migratory area for the Common Crane, but it is not completely clear, what was its status during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Between 1897 and 1916, a total of 1487 field observation data were published in the journal Aquila from the Carpathian Basin. Our work analysed the timing of the spring migration, how it differed between years and geographical regions, and how the temperature and geographical variables reported above influenced the timing of the migration. The results show that the migration routes of the species have changed significantly over the last century. During the study period, the migration concentrated in the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin, and was particularly rare in the Great Hungarian Plain. There was on average a two-week difference in the timing of migration between the western and eastern parts and between different years. The start and peak of migration were weeks later than today, and this change is mainly due to the effects of climate change. Geographical factors did not influence the migration of the species, whereas higher air temperatures advanced the timing of the migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurodegenerative diseases (ND) pose significant challenges for biomedicine in the twenty-first century, particularly considering the global demographic ageing and the subsequent increase in their prevalence. Characterized as progressive, chronic and debilitating, they often result in higher mortality rates compared with the general population. Research agendas and biomedical technologies are shaped by power relations, ultimately affecting patient wellbeing and care. Drawing on the concepts of bio- and necropolitics, introduced by philosophers Foucault and Mbembe, respectively, this perspective examines the interplay between the territoriality and governmentality around demographic ageing, ND and death, focussing on knowledge production as a dispositif of power by highlighting the marginal role that the phenomenon of mortality plays in the ND research landscape. We propose a shift into acknowledging the coloniality of knowledge and embracing its situatedness to attain knowledge 'from death', understood as an epistemic position from which novel approaches and practices could emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coming attraction film trailer has successfully maintained its prominent role within film promotion for over a hundred years. This article explores the shifting historical status of the trailer within the film industry and how industry trade press reported on its development and widespread adoption. Across this period these publications worked to delineate the discursive borders within which trailer debate occurred: from attacks on the trailer's usefulness to related claims of accuracy and fidelity. Exploring the creation of this discourse challenges the idea that the increasingly negative tone around the film trailer in the twenty first century is a uniquely modern phenomenon. The article argues that these initial industry strategies need to be understood in relation to key cultural and industrial concerns around commerce and artistry, critical cultural gatekeeping, and broader interests in forecasting. By focusing on a largely overlooked element of the classical Hollywood system, we demonstrate how trailers existed in a disputed space within that system: a crucial promotional tool but also a creatively potent film text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Warming in southern California during the 21st century is unprecedented in the instrumental record. To place this warming in a multi-century historical context, we analyzed tree ring data sampled from Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) and sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana) collected from minimally disturbed, old-growth high-elevation forests within Mt. San Jacinto State Park California, USA. Based on a calibration/verification period of 1960–2020 between earlywood radial growth and California Climate Division 6 climate data, we reconstructed annual (November–October) minimum temperature (Tmin) from 1658 to 2020. During the 61-year calibration/verification period, instrumental Tmin increased (r = 0.69, p < 0.01) and was positively associated with annual radial growth (r = 0.71, p < 0.01). Using regime shift analysis, we found that the 363-year reconstruction revealed Tmin stability until 1958 and then decreased until 1980, followed by the two warmest regimes (1981–2007, 2008–2020) on record. The last 13-year period was 0.77 °C warmer than the multi-century average with nine of the ten warmest years in the reconstruction recorded. These results suggest that 21st century warming in southern California is unique in the context of the past four centuries, indicating the rarity of exceptional warmth captured in the tree ring record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Greenland Ice Sheet contributed 10.6 mm to global sea level rise between 1992 and 2018, and it is projected to be the largest glacial contributor to sea level rise by 2100. Here we assess the relative importance of two major sources of uncertainty in 21st century ice loss projections: (1) the choice of sliding law and (2) the surface mass balance (SMB) forecast. Specifically, we used the ice flow model Úa to conduct an ensemble of runs for 48 combinations of sliding law and SMB forecast for three major Greenland outlet glaciers (Kangerlussuaq (KG), Humboldt (HU) and Petermann (PG) glaciers) with differing characteristics and evaluated how the sensitivity to these factors varied between the study glaciers. Overall, our results show that SMB forecasts were responsible for 4.45 mm of the variability in sea level rise by 2100 compared with 0.33 mm sea level equivalent (SLE) due to sliding law. HU had the largest absolute contribution to sea level rise and the largest range (2.16–7.96 mm SLE), followed by PG (0.84–5.42 mm SLE), and these glaciers showed similar patterns of ice loss across the SMB forecasts and sliding laws. KG had the lowest range and absolute values (- 0.60 to 3.45 mm SLE) of sea level rise, and the magnitude of mass loss by SMB forecast differed markedly between HU and PG. Our results highlight SMB forecasts as a key focus for improving estimates of Greenland's contribution to 21st century sea level rise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the future of language learning in a technology-driven world. It emphasizes the importance of human teachers in guiding learners' understanding of technology and highlights the challenges and opportunities of online language teaching. The article argues against the complete replacement of face-to-face teaching with digital resources and suggests task-based language teaching as an effective methodology. It also emphasizes the importance of fostering a sense of community in online language courses. The article promotes the integration of technology and second language pragmatics in language learning to enhance linguistic proficiency, cultural understanding, and empathy. It also highlights the value of virtual exchanges in promoting cross-cultural practice and breaking down stereotypes. Overall, technology has the potential to revolutionize language learning and prepare students for success in a globalized world. [Extracted from the article]

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a shift to remote instruction in educational institutions worldwide, relying heavily on technology like Zoom. While these platforms allowed for interaction and integration of web content, they weakened students' sense of belonging. As schools return to face-to-face instruction, questions arise about effectively incorporating technology. There is a perception that digital tutorials and AI programs have made personal language instruction obsolete, leading to a decline in language enrollments. Language educators must articulate the value of language study, understand technology's limitations, and guide critical engagement with it. The text discusses the use of online translation tools and generative AI systems in language learning, highlighting their limitations and potential harm. It explores theoretical frameworks for second language acquisition and emphasizes the importance of understanding how technology mediates language use and learning. The text also discusses the role of human teachers in the digital age, incorporating technology into teaching practice while considering learning goals and available resources. It concludes by emphasizing the significance of human teachers in guiding students' language development and engaging them in language research. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines the development of British football clubs' supporters' clubs in Ireland. While it has been previously established that this interest was at times linked to domestic and European success, and the fielding of Irish players, this article examines how these supporters' clubs facilitated travel to and from matches and how British clubs in turn nurtured this interest. How Irish supporters experienced major stadium disasters at Ibrox in 1971, Heysel in 1985 and Hillsborough in 1989 is examined. How these tragedies were marked in Ireland will also be assessed. At times, crowd safety issues involving British clubs' supporters in Ireland were also noticeable, and how these were dealt with by Irish authorities will also be discussed. By the 1990s, a wider range of British supporters' clubs were available to those in Ireland, although interest in Liverpool, Manchester United and Glasgow Celtic still remained highest in the early twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, coalitions of activists, artists, scholars, and community members have created archives composed of material related to social movements past and present with increasing frequency. These grassroots archives raise questions about the potential role of archives as generative spaces for democratizing history. This article explores this potential and the attendant challenges through a case study on an effort to preserve the memory of activism in São Paulo's urban peripheries during Brazil's civil-military dictatorship (1964–85)—an effort in which the author took part amid the rise of the far-right president and former dictatorship supporter Jair Bolsonaro. The postdictatorship culture of censorship and an ever-changing city relentlessly militated against the permanence of memory, not least through the destruction of physical archives and reference points in the urban landscape. The effort to organize and digitize precarious materials unfolded amid a larger campaign by activists to create an archive as part of a new university in the periphery. In this article, the author reflects on his experience working with communities through grassroots archiving to preserve at-risk historical sources, enhance local capacity, and broaden the practice of history beyond the academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text is a review of the book "Deterrence in the 21st Century: Statecraft in the Information Age," edited by Eric Ouellet, Madeleine D'Agata, and Keith Stewart. The review discusses the importance of deterrence in the 21st century, particularly for smaller states like the Baltic states. It highlights the need for effective communication and information delivery in deterring powerful nations with different cultural backgrounds. The book contains academic essays that address various aspects of deterrence, with some chapters focusing on practical applications and others aimed at improving research methodologies. The review suggests that the book is a valuable resource for military planners and political leaders, but notes that it does not offer practical solutions or original ideas. It also mentions that the book's focus on Western perspectives may limit its applicability to regions with different cultural and linguistic factors. Overall, the review recommends the book as a valuable contribution to military libraries and research centers. [Extracted from the article]

The advent of critical bibliography has seen critical theory put to work to reappraise the field's foundations, methods, and practices in response, in part, to categories of oppression. Recent advances in feminist, Black, trans, and Indigenous bibliographies are changing our conceptions of what bibliography is and should be. In this article we make the case for queer approaches to bibliography. Drawing on the intertwined relationship between sexuality and textuality, and between queer theory and literature, we survey the vernacular bibliographical practices of "ordinary" queer readers. We then consider the scope for a critical queer bibliography which intersects with other critical bibliographies, discuss the depth, range, and potential of the field in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and outline the prospects for a rapidly emerging subdiscipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a subject which became increasingly visible starting with the second decade of the 21st century: the relationship between design and crafts. Following the work hypotheses adopted, a question appears to be natural: are the traditional crafts able to inspire a trend in the evolution of contemporary Romanian design? Several design actions that highlight the opening up and the interest of the designers concerning crafts shows an affirmative response. Designers and design organizations give consistence to the subject and seem to prefigure the evolution of Romanian design in the near future. The relationship between design and crafts is able to articulate in its meaning also the vernacular sense. Romanian designers who created objects together with specialized craftspeople may have a confirmation of the value of their work in the similarity with a contemporary Japanese approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social scientists have argued that good communication around risks in climate hazards requires information to be presented in a user-relevant way, allowing people to better understand the factors controlling those risks. We present a potentially useful way of doing this by explaining future UK winter precipitation in terms of changes in the frequency, and associated average rainfall, of local pressure patterns that people are familiar with through their use in daily weather forecasts. We apply this approach to a perturbed parameter ensemble (PPE) of coupled HadGEM3-GC3.05 simulations of the RCP8.5 emissions scenario, which formed part of the UK Climate Projections in 2018. The enhanced winter precipitation by 2050–99 is largely due to an increased tendency towards westerly and south-westerly conditions at the expense of northerly/easterly conditions. Daily precipitation is generally more intense, most notably for the south-westerlies. In turn, we show that the changes in the frequency of the pressure patterns are consistent with changes in larger scale drivers of winter circulation and our understanding of how they relate to each other; this should build user confidence in the projections. Across the PPE, these changes in pressure patterns are largely driven by changes in the strength of the stratospheric polar vortex; for most members the vortex strengthens over the twenty-first century, some beyond the CMIP6 range. The PPE only explores a fraction of the CMIP6 range of tropical amplification, another key driver. These two factors explain why the PPE is skewed towards exploring the more westerly side of the CMIP6 range, so that the PPE's description of UK winter precipitation changes does not provide a full picture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite ongoing climate change and warming, extreme cold events still negatively affect human society. Since cold air incursions are related to specific circulation patterns, the main aims of this study are (1) to validate how well current EURO-CORDEX regional climate models (RCMs) reproduce these synoptic links and (2) to assess possible future changes in atmospheric circulation conducive to cold events. Using anomalies of daily minimum temperature, we define cold days (CDs) in central Europe and analyse their characteristics over the historical (1979−2020) and future (2070−2099) periods. We classify wintertime atmospheric circulation by applying a novel technique based on Sammon mapping to the state-of-the-art ERA5 reanalysis output. We discover that circulation types (CT) conducive to CDs are characterised by easterly advection and/or clear-sky anticyclonic conditions. While the RCM ensemble generally reproduces these synoptic links relatively well, we observe biases in the occurrence of CDs in individual simulations. These biases can be attributed to inadequately reproduced frequencies of CTs conducive to CDs (primarily propagating from driving data), as well as to deviations in the conduciveness within these CTs (primarily originating in the RCMs). Interestingly, two competing trends are identified for the end of the twenty-first century: (1) most RCMs project an increased frequency of CTs conducive to CDs, suggesting more frequent CDs, while (2) the same CTs are projected to warm faster compared to their counterparts, suggesting weaker CDs. The interplay between these opposing trends contributes to the overall uncertainty surrounding the recurrence and severity of future winter extremes in central Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in extreme precipitation in Northeast China (NEC), a climate-sensitive region, remain unclear with respect to future warming due to regionally unique geographic factors. This study examines how regional extreme precipitation may adapt to future climate change. Using statistical downscaling and the CMIP6 multi-model ensemble, we investigate the possible changes in future extreme precipitation for NEC under different warming scenarios and the influencing factors. The results indicate that extreme precipitation events, under different definitions, exhibit a gradual enhancement trend and are more pronounced for the more extreme precipitation definitions. However, in projections of the late twenty-first century, under the Scenario Model Intercomparison Project (2015–2100) Shared Socioeconomic Path (SSP)2–4.5 scenario, the growth of extreme precipitation events plateaued as warming slowed. The response of extreme precipitation to temperature changes under SSP2-4.5 (SSP5-8.5) was approximately linear, with average response rates of 7.29%/°C (6.71%/°C) and 16.84%/°C (17.33%/°C) for number of days with daily precipitation exceeding 20 mm and annual total precipitation of days exceeding the 99th percentile threshold, respectively. The distribution of these indices was more concentrated under SSP5-8.5 scenario. Variations in the spatial distribution of extreme precipitation were significantly correlated with vertical velocity at 500 hPa and were influenced by moisture availability. The predicted increase in extreme precipitation was greater in humid and mountainous regions and precipitation changes were most pronounced at higher latitudes. Our results suggest that future temperatures may increase the risk of extreme precipitation in NEC, posing a challenge for adaptation to changes in precipitation extremes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 21st century, transparent flexible sensors (TFSs) have been widely employed in abundant fields, such as smart glasses, intelligent watches, robots, electronic skin, especially biomedicine. Presently, various materials have been developed, such as metal‐based, carbon‐based, conductive polymer‐based, and ionic liquid‐based (IL‐based) materials. Compared with the first three materials, IL, as a novel material, with the tendency of green chemistry development, has a high application prospect in TFSs. Based on this, this paper mainly discusses recent advances in TFSs based on ILs, with special emphasis on the role of ILs and the factors influencing transparency as well as electricity. The current challenges and opportunities for each type of sensors based on IL are also studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dataisation of life, of society, in the 21st century has become an indisputable reality, reaching also the algorithmisation of Justice. The challenges and risks are enormous and the outlook is complex. We are witnessing an ever-increasing “hybridisation” of Justice: machines and humans interact, algorithms assist legal operators, systems are created to complement the decisions of judges, prosecutors, lawyers, notaries, etc., although, increasingly, we are moving towards the progressive replacement of human beings in Justice by machines, by robots. The dilemma of the Justice is present. We must avoid imbalance, inequalities, the digital divide, the reduction of guarantees, the conversion of Justice into cold statistical-mathematical data, which perverts the human model of Justice; a model with shortcomings but which has been built on the basis of respect for rights and guarantees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By transcending the boundaries of the science of archaeology, uncovering new conceptions of the world, providing answers to complex prehistoric questions, expanding our understanding of civilizations, and grasping the language of symbols, Marija Gimbutas opened the gates of eternity for the cultures of the Neolithic Bronze Age as a distinct whole of a world and its visions. By identifying "Old Europe" as an ideal era, Gimbutas introduced this cultural reality ancl thus shed light on an extraordinary period in prehistoric Europe. The time of 6500 BC - the start of the feminine era - remains for the present day an inspiration for change and a foundation for value priorities, as a form of peaceful, tranquil, egalitarian, and nature-honoring coexistence. Marija Gimbutas' ideas swept the world and became the basis for ever new ideas, insights, and creative projects. Her pertinent and meaningful insights, scientific hypotheses, and discoveries of symbols have ensured her relevance today. Digital and traditional media in the twenty-first century - the Internet, virtual space and social media, television and film, press and publishing, and the visual arts - continue to develop tile Lithuanian-American archaeologist's ideas, continuing the interactive power of wisdom and impact, meaning and discovery, that is inherent in the thoughts, ideas, and work of Marija Gimbutas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Treball Social is the property of Col·legi Oficial de TreballSocial de Catalunya 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.)

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Canopy openings are increasing in Europe's forests, yet the contributions of anthropogenic and ecological agents of disturbance to this increase remain debated. Here we attribute the root cause of all stand-replacing canopy disturbances identified for Europe in the period 1986–2020 from Landsat data (417,000 km²), distinguishing between planned and unplanned canopy openings (i.e., disturbance by human land use versus by wind, bark beetles, and wildfire). We show that canopy openings by humans dominate the European forest disturbance regime, accounting for 82% of the area disturbed. Both planned and unplanned canopy openings increased in the early 21st century (+24% and +30% relative to the late 20th century). Their changes are linked, with simultaneous increases in planned and unplanned canopy openings on 68% of Europe's forest area. We conclude that an important direction for tackling disturbance change in policy and management is to break the link between planned and unplanned canopy openings in Europe's forests. Forest canopy openings may be caused by planned human intervention or by drivers such as fire, wind disturbance and pest outbreaks. Here, the authors present a high-resolution map and attribution analysis showing that planned and unplanned canopy openings often co-occur in European forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democratic erosion in the EU's Central and Eastern European (CEE) member states has confounded EU policy-makers. In this paper, we investigate the assumptions behind the climate of optimism about CEE democratization that prevailed in EU decision-making before and after the 5th and 6th enlargements, and the extent to which political science participated in this intellectual climate. Based on a qualitative analysis of EU decision-making in the early twenty-first century and a quantitative analysis of 500 randomly sampled papers published between 2000 and 2015, we find that both policy makers and the most influential research in political science shared a bias towards optimism structured by common assumptions: A procedural understanding of democracy, a rational institutionalist belief in the EU's capacity to bring these procedures about with the use of incentives and the related assumption that sociocultural dimensions of democracy would eventually follow institutions. We argue that these common assumptions help to explain both the EU's failure to pre-empt and respond proportionately to democratic erosion, and the failure of our discipline to check that optimism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the future of the Western-led liberal international order? This paper makes four arguments. First, over the last two centuries, liberal democracies have pioneered a tradition of international order building, the essential impulse of which has been to create an environment—a sort of cooperative ecosystem—in which liberal states can manage interdependence, protect their values and interests, and aggregate capabilities to defend against threats and challenges to their global position and way of life. Second, liberal democracies have used institutions as tools and mechanisms to respond to dangers and opportunities in the global system, focused on the problems of anarchy, hierarchy, interdependence, liberal openness, and geopolitical vulnerability. Third, the most dramatic forms of liberal order building have occurred after major wars, when liberal democracies found themselves in war and geopolitical competition with rival and threatening illiberal great powers. Finally, liberal internationalism and the liberal project still have a future in that they offer cooperative solutions the core problems of twenty-first century world order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

Copyright of MEMLEKET: Politics & Administration / Siyaset Yönetim is the property of Local Governments Research, Assistance & Education Association 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.)

This paper challenges the traditional focus on mere competency and charisma in the ever-shifting terrain of leadership, arguing they hold limited power in navigating the complexities of modern environments. While proficiency in one's field and magnetic charm remain valuable, they fall short in fostering collaborative, equitable, and sustainable success. Delving into the limitations of both concepts, the paper unveils a broader tapestry of leadership requisites. Emotional intelligence, the cornerstone of building strong relationships and effectively managing team dynamics, takes center stage. Humility, embracing feedback and empowering others, fosters collaborative decision-making. Authenticity, radiating genuineness and trust, creates a foundation for shared commitment. Finally, ethical behavior, anchored in integrity and stakeholder wellbeing, ensures responsible and impactful leadership. Drawing upon scholarly insights and real-world experiences, the paper advocates for a holistic approach to leadership development, one that cultivates a diverse skillset and ethical behavior, enabling leaders to not only survive but also thrive in the demanding landscape of the 21st century. The paper emphasizes the need for a multifaceted leadership equipped to tackle the dynamic challenges of our time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As some of the greatest natural disasters in the cryosphere, ice avalanches (IAs) seriously threaten lives and cause catastrophic damage to the resource environment, but a comprehensive overview of the state of knowledge on IAs remains lacking. We summarized 63 IAs on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) since the 20th century, of which, over 20 IAs occurred after the 21st century. The distributions of IAs are mainly concentrated in the southeastern and northwestern TP, and the occurrence time of IAs is mostly concentrated from July to September. We highlight recent advances in mechanical properties and genetic mechanisms of IAs and emphasize that temperature, rainfall, and seismicity are the inducing factors. The failure modes of IAs are summarized into 6 categories by examples: slip pulling type, slip toppling type, slip breaking type, water level collapse type, cave roof collapse type, and wedge failure type. Finally, we deliver recommendations concerning the risk assessment and prediction of IAs. The results provide important scientific value for addressing climate change and resisting glacier-related hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization and technological innovation have increased demands on the education system to prepare students for success in an increasingly complex world. This exploratory sequential mixed-methods study created spaces for English language teachers to accentuate their voices with regard to "21st century skills" as recently introduced in the United Arab Emirates educational reform. In addition, it mirrored the encountered challenges while incorporating these skills into current instructional practices within the context of the United Arab Emirates. The study's findings revealed that most English language teachers possess an adequate awareness of 21st century skills and incorporate them into their teaching practices. In addition, qualitative and quantitative data indicated that teachers recognize the importance of practicing 21st century skills to stimulate students' engagement and improve their academic achievement. However, the mixed-methods results revealed that teachers encounter challenges while integrating 21st century skills into daily teaching: lack of necessary knowledge on how to teach specific 21st century skills, lack of time, lack of teacher collegiality, lack of robust professional development workshops, and increased paper accountability. Moreover, external challenges such as school environment, poor parental support, and difficulties in responding effectively to rapid change appeared to hamper the implementation of 21st century skills. Finally, the study suggested implications for curriculum design, pedagogy, and policymaking. For example, the curriculum should be built around learning by design to fuse 21st century skills into its contents; the pedagogy should incorporate multiliteracies and multimodalities for language learners; and policymakers should ensure direct instruction of the 21st century skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the literature, academia is often referred to as a high-demand job regardless of location, with increasing demands often associated with neoliberal policies commencing at the start of the twenty-first century. Simultaneously, academia is an essential job for economic development in that it builds a knowledge base within societies that impacts the employability of the workforce in addition to research revelations. Yet overworking, especially workaholism, is problematic in jobs such as academia given the open-ended nature of the work and a high demand environment. This article examines workaholism in academia through the lenses of institutional, self-determination, conservation of resources, and jobdemands resources (JD-R) theory. In doing so, it presents three propositions explaining workaholism in academia related to micro, meso, and macro factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of human/community-centered design has been a central focus for academics, practitioners, and various stakeholders since the early 1960s; however, a disconnect still exists between commercial development processes and placemaking. This article approaches the concept of placemaking through the nomenclature of American sociologist Ray Oldenburg--referring to spaces as "first," "second," and "third places"--environments for living, working, and socializing, respectively. In this article, we categorize Oldenburg's terminology as "ordinal places" (OPs) for ease of reference. The boundaries between these OPs have become increasingly tenuous over the past three decades, calling for new, innovative methods of placemaking. As a response, this article introduces the "SCAAA Process," an integrated research, spatial development, and design process developed by the global architecture firm SCAAA. The process provides a bridge between siloed zoning processes and human-centered design; furthermore, it serves as a medium between intangible human needs and physical space, finding a way to express society's changing preferences through operational and architectural design. In the discussion of the SCAAA Process, we posit the emergence of a hybrid second and third place in contemporary society, outline the necessary integration of artificial intelligence technology in the design and building processes, and highlight the centrality of circulation and user experience design in successful placemaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The co-occurrence of meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological droughts (multivariate compound droughts) in Switzerland during growing season is problematic due to limitations in water abstractions from rivers during low-flow periods, while at the same time the need for irrigation is high. We analyse compound droughts for 52 catchments in Switzerland during the extended summer season (May–October) using the transient climate and hydrological scenarios for Switzerland (CH2018 and Hydro-CH2018) for both a scenario with mitigation (representative concentration pathway 2.6 (RCP2.6), 8 model chains) and a scenario without mitigation (RCP8.5, 20 model chains). In the RCP8.5 scenario the number of compound drought days is projected to significantly increase by mid-century across all greater regions of Switzerland. The increased frequency is mainly a result of more frequent events (significant) rather than longer event durations (non-significant). Models generally agree on the sign of change. By 2085, compound drought events are projected to occur in median once per catchment per extended summer season north of the Alps and every 1–2 years south of the Alps. Further, the increases in compound drought days mainly occur between May–October, leading to a shift in the main agricultural production season and a more pronounced seasonality with the highest occurrence probabilities between mid-July and the beginning of October. Coupled to the increase in days and events, significantly more catchments are projected to be affected by compound droughts at the same time. In the RCP2.6 (mitigation) scenario, the increase in the number of compound drought days and events is not significant by the end of the 21st century. In comparison with RCP8.5, the number of compound drought days is reduced by 50 %–55 % north of the Alps and by up to 75 % south of the Alps by the end of the century. This emphasizes the need for coordinated adaptation in combination with mitigation measures taken at an early stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty first century faces unprecedented challenges for the management of global waterways. The Himalayan waterways in Asia are exposed to unpredictable climatic warming together with anthropogenic perturbations caused by population growth, land use change and socio‐economic development. Given the increased public concerns on the Himalayan Mountain development programmes including the hydropower and tourism, there has been a growing need of the use of interdisciplinary scientific approaches to address water resources challenges that the Himalayan region has faced during the 21st century. Ecohydrology is an emerging scientific tool that explores key hydrological processes regulating structure and function of ecosystems, as well as assessing the impact of biological processes on water cycle variables under rapidly changing environment. The International Geosphere‐Biosphere Programme and the International Hydrological Programme hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization have adopted ecohydrology as a sustainable development tool by linking water resources and poverty eradication and ecosystem restoration, irrigation, energy and sanitation. However, ecohydrology tool needs to be reconfigured for sustainable development of rapidly changing Himalayan waterways. Here we propose the advancement of ecohydrology by developing various integrated frameworks of ecology, hydrology, hydraulics and sociology for resilient waterways in the Asian Himalayas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai, Philologia is the property of Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 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.)

Copyright of Revista de Derecho de la Seguridad Social, Laborum is the property of Ediciones Laborum S.L. 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.)

Many world issues are faced and then become challenges of the 21st century. This study aims to define these challenges and how to overcome them as alternative solutions in architecture, with the context of sustainable architecture from an Islamic perspective. The methods used are literature review and logical argumentation. The results show that the challenges of the 21st century in the context of sustainable architecture include fundamental issues, namely nature conservation, related to humanity and technology as specific objectives, and several other objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals. Challenges can be faced by integrating the handling of each aspect, focusing on humans. In the view of Islam, integrated solutions are carried out within the spirituality framework, where humans act as caliphs. Through education, a means of accelerating human knowledge is obtained; through a spiritual approach, humans will think twice about destroying the universe and its contents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Jurídica de Castilla y León is the property of Junta de Castilla y Leon, Direccion de Servicios Juridicos 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 notion of relative uniform convergence of a sequence of functions was introduced and investigated by Moore, followed by E. W. Chittenden in the twentieth century. The concept attracted the researcher at the beginning, of the twenty-first century. Jackson F. H. initiated the concept of the notion of the quantum difference operator. We introduced the quantum difference sequence space m(ɸ, ru,∇p), p ≥ 0 of W.L.C. Sargent type. We examine its various properties such as solidity, convergence-free, completeness, etc. Also, some induction results have been established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information technologies and the entirely new digital world are experiencing significant development in the second and third decades of the twenty-first century. This development has led to the need to realize the concept of legal regulation of cyberspace, especially in the segment of digital identification. Digital identification is necessary to ensure security as well as the protection of personal data. Additionally, digital identification must guarantee the reliability and trust of signatories in the technologies used. The regulations adopted in previous years implied the existence of a PKI infrastructure and the storage of the private key by the signatory. However, the development of technologies and the widespread use of mobile and smart devices have generated the need for remote signing, cloud-based signing, and the creation of digital wallet techniques. It is precisely in this segment that the regulations have been amended. The paper presents EU regulations in this area and the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is particularly emphasized that the use of reliable legally grounded digital identification has not yet begun to be implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that it is necessary to establish practices and systems based on legal regulations that are aligned with the EU, as well as with the legal framework in Bosnia and Herzegovina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]