201 research outputs found
Ecological and mystical spirituality from an interfaith perspective
Get PDFMore than ten years ago, the Club of Rome published its much discussed report The First
Global Revolution which stressed that our world possesses a promising opportunity, one
unlikely to be provided again, to shape a new understanding and new attitudes towards the
world as a whole. Whilst contemporary societies are much confused about morals and
ethics, whilst we experience much social, educational, personal and environmental chaos,
the Club of Rome report argued that it is essential for humanity to respond to this unique
opportunity for a global revolution and find the wisdom needed to deal with it in the right
way. But how can we find such wisdom? How can we deal with our personal, social and
ecological predicaments? Traditionally, religions have fostered wisdom and morality, have
shaped individuals and groups, yet their teachings have shown few outward signs of success
because their loftiest ideals have rarely been put fully into practice.
For the Club of Rome to appeal to inherited wisdom was a momentous step; it was an
appeal to our global religious and philosophical heritage, but also to the task of analysing the
powers of spirituality for contemporary society and culture, and to discern the different
cultural and historical expressions of spirituality whilst assessing their significance for
contemporary ecological thinking and concerns. More recently, the American ecological
thinker Thomas Berry, much shaped by his deep knowledge of American native traditions, of
eastern religions, and the work of the French thinker Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, also spoke
about the need to draw on the resources of wisdom in his seminal book The Great Work.
Our Way into the Future. The great work, which is the work of all the people, is “to create a
mutually enhancing mode of human dwelling on the planet Earth”. Thomas Berry speaks of
the need to rediscover the spiritual sense of the universe and the need “to reinvent the
human”. To create a viable earth community, to develop the new world vision required for
building a viable human future, the politics, education and financial arrangements around
the globe – or governance, universities and corporations – need fundamental restructuring.
This task is impossible to achieve if humankind does not creatively draw on what Berry calls
the “four wisdoms”: 1. the wisdom of the classical traditions, that is to say the wisdom of
traditional religions and philosophies; 2. the wisdom of native peoples; 3. the wisdom of
women; 4. the much more recent and newer wisdom of science.
This is a profound insight, for we have so far little explored the spiritual resources of science
and nature. The convergence of traditional spiritual perspectives of a religious consciousness
with some of the spiritual insights that modern science yields is a truly exciting development
for human consciousness and community.
So how can we relate ecology, spirituality and our global religious heritage
Najas flexilis (Hydrocharitaceae) in Alaska : a reassessment
Get PDFAuthor Posting. © New England Botanical Club, 2015. This article is posted here by permission of New England Botanical Club for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Rhorora 117 (2015): 354-370, doi:10.3119/15-03.Fifteen Najas flexilis collections were made in Alaska during the summer of 2012, with 13 of the stations representing either new or formerly undocumented localities for this imperiled Alaskan species. These field collections characterize the Alaskan habitats of N. flexilis as shallow water sites (<1.5 m) with sand-dominated substrates (71% of sites) and have documented an additional 28 species associates (a 300% increase). However, the additional collections have not extended the elevational, latitudinal, or longitudinal extent of N. flexilis from the limits indicated by previous Alaskan collections. Najas flexilis remains rare in Alaska as evidenced by a low specimen recovery rate (10%) from potentially suitable sites, and a total of only 12 geographically distinct localities known across the entire state. The new collections have furnished valuable study material for morphological and genetic analyses, which have confirmed the identity of Alaskan populations as N. flexilis, rather than N. canadensis, a recently identified, cryptic, allotetraploid derivative. A synthesis of information indicates that N. flexilis is indigenous to Alaska, where it originated via past (versus recent) migrations from other North American rather than Old World populations.Portions of this work were funded by National Science Foundation grant DEB-0841658 to D.H.L
Population-based outreach versus care as usual to prevent suicide attempt: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
Get PDFThe Reinvention of Vouchers for a Color-Blind Era:A Racial Orders Account
Get PDFHistorically, vouchers, which provide a sum of money to parents for private education, were tools of racist oppression; but in recent decades some advocates claim them as “the civil rights issue of our time.” This article brings an analytic-historical perspective rooted in racial orders to understand how education vouchers have been reincarnated and reinvented since the Jim Crow era. Combining original primary research with statistical analysis, we identify multiple concurrent and consecutive transformations in voucher politics in three arenas of racial policy alliance contestation: expansion of color-blind policy designs, growing legal and political support from a conservative alliance, and a smorgasbord of voucher rationales rooted in color-blind framing. This approach demonstrates that education vouchers have never been racially neutral but served key roles with respect to prevailing racial hierarchies and contests
Fertility Control Options for Management of Free-roaming Horse Populations
Get PDFThe management of free-roaming horses (Equus ferus) and burros (E. asinus) in the United States has been referred to as a “wicked problem” because, although there are population control options, societal values will ultimately determine what is acceptable and what is not. In the United States, free-roaming equids are managed by different types of organizations and agencies, and the landscapes that these animals inhabit vary widely in terms of access, size, topography, climate, natural resources, flora, and fauna. This landscape diversity, coupled with contemporary socioeconomic and political environments, means that adaptive management practices are needed to regulate these free-roaming populations. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) currently manages free-roaming equids on 177 herd management areas in the United States by applying fertility control measures in situ and/or removing horses, which are either adopted by private individuals or sent to long-term holding facilities. The BLM off-range population currently includes \u3e50,000 animals and costs approximately $50 million USD per year to maintain; on-range equid numbers were estimated in March 2022 to be approximately 82,384. On-range populations can grow at 15–20% annually, and current estimates far exceed the designated appropriate management level of 26,715. To reduce population recruitment, managers need better information about effective, long-lasting or permanent fertility control measures. Because mares breed only once a year, fertility control studies take years to complete. Some contraceptive approaches have been studied for decades, and results from various trials can collectively inform future research directions and actions. Employing 1 or more fertility control tools in concert with removals offers the best potential for success. Active, iterative, cooperative, and thoughtful management practices can protect free-roaming horses while simultaneously protecting the habitat. Herein, we review contraceptive vaccines, intrauterine devices, and surgical sterilization options for controlling fertility of free-roaming horses. This review provides managers with a “fertility control toolbox” and guides future research
Linking Indigenous Knowledge and Observed Climate Change Studies
Get PDFWe present indigenous knowledge narratives and explore their connections to documented temperature and other climate changes and observed climate change impact studies. We then propose a framework for enhancing integration of these indigenous narratives of observed climate change with global assessments. Our aim is to contribute to the thoughtful and respectful integration of indigenous knowledge with scientific data and analysis, so that this rich body of knowledge can inform science, and so that indigenous and traditional peoples can use the tools and methods of science for the benefit of their communities if they choose to do so. Enhancing ways of understanding such connections are critical as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment process gets underway
Two speeds of increasing milk feeds for very preterm or very low-birthweight infants : the SIFT RCT
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Observational data suggest that slowly advancing enteral feeds in preterm infants may reduce necrotising enterocolitis but increase late-onset sepsis. The Speed of Increasing milk Feeds Trial (SIFT) compared two rates of feed advancement. OBJECTIVE: To determine if faster (30 ml/kg/day) or slower (18 ml/kg/day) daily feed increments improve survival without moderate or severe disability and other morbidities in very preterm or very low-birthweight infants. DESIGN: This was a multicentre, two-arm, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial. Randomisation was via a web-hosted minimisation algorithm. It was not possible to safely and completely blind caregivers and parents. SETTING: The setting was 55 UK neonatal units, from May 2013 to June 2015. PARTICIPANTS: The participants were infants born at < 32 weeks' gestation or a weight of < 1500 g, who were receiving < 30 ml/kg/day of milk at trial enrolment. INTERVENTIONS: When clinicians were ready to start advancing feed volumes, the infant was randomised to receive daily feed increments of either 30 ml/kg/day or 18 ml/kg/day. In total, 1400 infants were allocated to fast feeds and 1404 infants were allocated to slow feeds. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was survival without moderate or severe neurodevelopmental disability at 24 months of age, corrected for gestational age. The secondary outcomes were mortality; moderate or severe neurodevelopmental disability at 24 months corrected for gestational age; death before discharge home; microbiologically confirmed or clinically suspected late-onset sepsis; necrotising enterocolitis (Bell's stage 2 or 3); time taken to reach full milk feeds (tolerating 150 ml/kg/day for 3 consecutive days); growth from birth to discharge; duration of parenteral feeding; time in intensive care; duration of hospital stay; diagnosis of cerebral palsy by a doctor or other health professional; and individual components of the definition of moderate or severe neurodevelopmental disability. RESULTS: The results showed that survival without moderate or severe neurodevelopmental disability at 24 months occurred in 802 out of 1224 (65.5%) infants allocated to faster increments and 848 out of 1246 (68.1%) infants allocated to slower increments (adjusted risk ratio 0.96, 95% confidence interval 0.92 to 1.01). There was no significant difference between groups in the risk of the individual components of the primary outcome or in the important hospital outcomes: late-onset sepsis (adjusted risk ratio 0.96, 95% confidence interval 0.86 to 1.07) or necrotising enterocolitis (adjusted risk ratio 0.88, 95% confidence interval 0.68 to 1.16). Cost-consequence analysis showed that the faster feed increment rate was less costly but also less effective than the slower rate in terms of achieving the primary outcome, so was therefore found to not be cost-effective. Four unexpected serious adverse events were reported, two in each group. None was assessed as being causally related to the intervention. LIMITATIONS: The study could not be blinded, so care may have been affected by knowledge of allocation. Although well powered for comparisons of all infants, subgroup comparisons were underpowered. CONCLUSIONS: No clear advantage was identified for the important outcomes in very preterm or very low-birthweight infants when milk feeds were advanced in daily volume increments of 30 ml/kg/day or 18 ml/kg/day. In terms of future work, the interaction of different milk types with increments merits further examination, as may different increments in infants at the extremes of gestation or birthweight. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN76463425. FUNDING: This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 24, No. 18. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information
Detection of local recurrent prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy in terms of salvage radiotherapy using dynamic contrast enhanced-MRI without endorectal coil
Get PDFPlio-Pleistocene trends in ice rafted debris on the Lomonosov Ridge
Get PDFAlthough more than 700 sediment cores exist from the Arctic Ocean, the Plio-Pleistocene evolution of the basin and its marginal seas remains virtually unknown. This is largely due the shallow penetration of most of these records, and difficulties associated with deriving chronologies for the recovered material. The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program’s (IODP) Expedition 302 (Arctic Coring Expedition, ACEX) recovered 197 m of Neogene/Quaternary sediment from the circumpolar regions of the Lomonosov Ridge. As detailed analyses of this material emerge, research is beginning to formulate a long-term picture of paleoceanographic changes in the central Arctic Ocean. This paper reviews the ACEX Plio-Pleistocene age model, identifies uncertainties, and addresses ways in which these may be eliminated.
Within the established stratigraphic framework, a notable reduction in the abundance of ice rafted debris (IRD) occurs in the early part of the Pleistocene and persists until Marine Isotope Stage 6 (MIS 6). Therefore, while global oceanographic proxies indicate the gradual growth of terrestrial ice-sheets during this time, IRD delivery to the central Arctic Ocean remained comparatively low and stable. Within the resolution of existing data, the Pleistocene reduction in IRD is synchronous with predicted changes in both the inflow of North Atlantic and Pacific waters, which in modern times are known to exert a strong
influence on sea ice stability
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