This article delves into the collaborative work of the interspecies dance collective, Mapped to the Closest Address (MaCA), focusing on our living archival practice and exploration of choreography with other-than-human persons. Through encounters with various species and environments, MaCA seeks to shift anthropocentric perspectives, interrogate their orientation towards modernity and coloniality, and question their understanding/administration/entanglement/devotion of, with, and to nature. The collective's journey, from a digital residency during the COVID-19 pandemic to site research, installations, and performance at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2022, is documented and analyzed. The collective's collaborative process involves relinquishing control to allow for the emergence of disobedient movements and the exploration of choreography from the perspective of other-than-human persons. This includes encounters with kudzu vines and mountains, weaving their movements and patterns into performances and installations. The article discusses the immersive performance "Turn Off the House Lights," in which MaCA integrates stories from local communities with gestures inspired by the landscape. Through our living archival practice, MaCA aims to transmit a collective memory of interactions among organisms and environments and highlight the interconnectedness of humans and the other creatures of the Earth. The article reflects on the significance of choreography beyond human-centric notions, emphasizing the emergent forms of ecological performance and the dissolution of boundaries between human and non-human realms. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives including dance, visual art, and theatre, MaCA's work exemplifies a cross-disciplinary approach to expressing the choreography of other-than-human persons. This approach not only presents audiences with immersive experiences but also responds to the future ecosystem through artistic exploration. Ultimately, MaCA's living archival practices contribute to awareness of the collective lives of other-than-human persons and offer insights into navigating our enmeshment with the natural world.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is one of the best-known global expert organizations. Its main objective is to supply policymakers with policy-relevant recent scientific information about climate change. The way in which the IPCC is obtaining this information is called an assessment. But assessments can be performed in a wide variety of ways. An important step, then, in understanding what this important organization does and why, is to figure out what characterizes the particular type of assessment it performs. The main objective of this paper is to contribute to the literature dedicated to understanding the work of IPCC by outlining the characteristics of the IPCC's assessment style and providing an in-depth analysis of the factors that have contributed to its development. As it will be argued here, understanding the climate-scientific-specific obstacles that had to be overcome by the IPCC in the process of pursuing its objectives is crucial for understanding why the IPCC is performing the type of assessment that it does and also for understanding some of the most important controversies associated with it.
The conventional approach to environmental governance, based on institutions, regulations, and interventions, has failed to stop the current ecological catastrophe. I suggest a radical alternative: Ritual as the core mode of 'nature-based governance' (NBG) that enacts deep and comprehensive reciprocity between people and nature. NBG grounds governance mechanisms in embodied more-than-human practices with normative force. I build on theories of embodiment to suggest a general concept of ritual that is inspired by but generalizes over Indigenous thought and is informed by East Asian ideas about ritual as the pivot of social order. Further, the embodiment framework recognises ritual as a kind of action humans and non-humans share as living beings. Therefore, rituals can be harnessed in workable governance mechanisms to create and sustain communities of multi-species cohabitation. I distinguish between two basic types of reciprocity corresponding to two types of governance: Disembodied reciprocity enacted by conventional human-only governance schemes and embodied reciprocity enacted by NBG. Embodied reciprocity creates relationality of people and nature. Equipped with these theoretical insights, I suggest practical applications in the context of NBG of Nature-based solutions, discussing three stylized models. These are the formation of urban multi-species communities in urban gardening and urban forests, the commoning of ecosystem services of animal populations in wildfire protection, and reconceptualizing eco-compensation as a reciprocal ritual of gift-giving.
In this essay, I focus on the politics and impacts of naming, especially in the social and human sciences, and more specifically on studies that focus on subordinated or discriminated groups. Through this essay, I argue that naming conventions are some of the most important - and dangerous - tools and acts that researchers have at their disposal and, thus, should be employed with the utmost care. Considering the ongoing discussions - both inside and outside of academia - around the terms "consensual non-monogamies" and "ethical non-monogamies", this essay proposes a novel solution to help create less morally-slanted, and overreaching, hypernyms, or umbrella terms. Here, I provide a rationale for using "explicitness" as a fundamental concept on which to build new classificatory hypernymic terminology. The terminology proposed is equally applicable (and applied) to both monogamies and non-monogamies, and is tripartite: Explicit, Implicit, and Covert. In addition to the terminological proposal, I include in this essay a series of intended limitations and constraints to its usage, its interoperability with other systems, objections to (and responses to) the usage of this system, and advantages of this novel classificatory system, as well as an outline of how this proposal might be improved upon.
A two-level hierarchical framework for early-stage sustainability assessment (FESSA) amongst a set of alternatives applicable from the earliest stages of process or product development is introduced, and its use in combination with an improved method weighted-sum method multi-criteria decision analysis (WSM-MCDA) in the presence of uncertainty is presented through application to a case study based upon a real-world decision scenario from speciality polymer manufacture. The approach taken addresses the challenge faced by those responsible for innovation management in the manufacturing process industries to make simultaneously timely and rational decisions early in the innovation cycle when knowledge gaps and uncertainty about the options tend to be at their highest. The Computed Uncertainty Range Evaluations (CURE) WSM-MCDA method provides better discrimination than the existing Multiple Attribute Range Evaluations (MARE) method without the computational burden of generating heuristic outcome distributions via Monte-Carlo simulation.
Objective: The European Health Data Space (EHDS) shapes the digital transformation of healthcare in Europe. The EHDS regulation will also accelerate the use of health data for research, innovation, policy-making, and regulatory activities for secondary use of data (known as EHDS2). The Integration of heterogeneous Data and Evidence towards Regulatory and HTA Acceptance (IDERHA) project builds one of the first pan-European health data spaces in alignment with the EHDS2 requirements, addressing lung cancer as a pilot.
Methods: In this study, we conducted a comprehensive review of the EHDS regulation, technical requirements for EHDS2, and related projects. We also explored the results of the Joint Action Towards the European Health Data Space (TEHDAS) to identify the framework of IDERHA's alignment with EHDS2. We also conducted an internal webinar and an external workshop with EHDS experts to share expertise on the EHDS requirements and challenges.
Results: We identified the lessons learned from the existing projects and the minimum-set of requirements for aligning IDERHA infrastructure with EHDS2, including user journey, concepts, terminologies, and standards. The IDERHA framework (i.e., platform architecture, standardization approaches, documentation, etc.) is being developed accordingly.
Discussion: The IDERHA's alignment plan with EHDS2 necessitates the implementation of three categories of standardization for: data discoverability: Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT-AP), enabling semantics interoperability: Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP), and health data exchange (DICOM and FHIR). The main challenge is that some standards are still being refined, e.g., the extension of the DCAT-AP (HealthDCAT-AP). Additionally, extensions to the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) OMOP Common Data Model (CDM) to represent the patient-generated health data are still needed. Finally, proper mapping between standards (FHIR/OMOP) is a prerequisite for proper data exchange.
Conclusions: The IDERHA's plan and our collaboration with other EHDS initiatives/projects are critical in advancing the implementation of EHDS2.
Background: This article analyses mass accommodation facilities to examine the development of Czech tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021.
Methods: The questionnaire survey was carried out in March 2021 in mass accommodation facilities. 131 responses were received from hotels and guesthouses throughout Czechia, which represents a return rate of 20%. Data were processed using Pearson's chi-square test to determine the effect of changes in facility type and category, quality, location, and primary focus before the outbreak of the pandemic. A statistical analysis of data on overnight stays was also used with data from the public database of the Czech Statistical Office.
Results: The study confirmed the increasing importance of domestic tourism and the greater sensitivity of destinations dependent on foreign tourists. Future strategies should be associated with destination rather than corporate management. The challenges are linked to the strengthening of environmentally friendly and sustainable tourism. To what extent the post-covid situation will return to the original model and to what extent it will at least partially reflect the changes that took place during the crisis period is a question for future research.
Conclusions: Moving from operational to strategic measures would be advisable.
Background: This research delves into the critical aspects of identity management, access control, and authorization practices within the domains of public and private universities. Identity management involves the meticulous management and control of user identities, encompassing the establishment and maintenance of user profiles, role assignments, and access privileges. Access control is the practice of defining and enforcing policies that govern who can access an IT system or application and which resources they can interact with. Authorization, meanwhile, determines the specific actions and privileges granted to users based on their roles and permissions.
Methods: To understand the variances in identity management and access control approaches, we conducted a comparative analysis between public and private universities. Our investigation scrutinized the user populations with access to university systems, the enforcement of access limitations, authentication methods, and password policies. Additionally, we examined the nuances of authorization processes, levels of authorization, access approval authorities, user status and role changes, unique user account management, account deletion procedures, user authentication methods, password complexity and expiration policies, password storage methods, and session termination policies.
Results: This study revealed that both public and private universities prioritize these security measures, with a common categorization of these processes. Nevertheless, there exist disparities, such as the inclusion of contractors and vendors in the user population at private universities, the manual deletion of user accounts in private institutions, and variations in password policies and storage methods. Private universities tend to enforce stricter password policies, employ more secure password storage methods, and implement automatic session termination features.
Conclusions: This research provides valuable insights into the practices and approaches adopted by public and private universities to safeguard their digital environments. The findings serve as a valuable resource for enhancing identity management, access control, and authorization protocols, enabling institutions to fortify their cybersecurity defenses in an ever-evolving threat landscape.
This standard operating procedure (SOP) describes an ion chromatography (IC) procedure for the major cations and anions in hydrothermal fluids. Hydrothermal fluids are aqueous solutions with a wide range of temperature, salinity, pH and ion species that can be used by microbial metabolism as electron donors and electron acceptors. Due to the high variability of the environmental physical-chemical parameters in these samples, we have developed this protocol taking into account the special features of the matrices analyzed. An Eco IC Metrohm system equipped with a conductivity detector was used. Calibration curves are linear in the 0.1 to 10 mg/L concentration range for cations Ca 2+, Na +, K +, Mg 2+, NH 4 + and anions Cl -, Br -, NO 3 -, NO 2 -, SO 4 2- , PO 4 3-.