Добірка наукової літератури з теми "Giant forest hog"

The suitability of land for C. konishii was evaluated using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, which included multiple criteria, such as elevation, soil, climate, and vegetation characteristics. 120 different sites of C. konishii were studied and the model approximations were verified by a confusion matrix. The subsistence of C. konishii was mainly affected by topographic features (elevation, slope) and soil (soil texture) conditions. 15 variables were selected for the ecological analysis and construction of the land suitability map. They were combined into four main groups for weights approximation. The weights obtained by AHP were calculated as follows: topographic features (65%), soil (21.3%), climate conditions (7.4%), and vegetation type (6.3%). The total area with the highest suitability was estimated at 4, 6, 2 and 8% of the province area in Son La, Ha Giang, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, respectively. The suitable areas for planting were located in Mai Son, Muong La, Moc Chau, Sop Cop districts of Son La province; Hoang Su Phi, Xin Man districts of Ha Giang province; Muong Lat district of Thanh Hoa province; Que Phong, Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Con Cuong districts of Nghe An province. Nghe An province has the largest suitable area for planting. The estimated AHP accuracy was 91.6%, which indicates that the approach is reliable for forestry management. The current study will provide a ground to the local population for the selection of suitable lands, ensuring the sustainability of natural resources, sustainable use and quality forest production.

Agarwood and agarwood essential oils are commodities with great commercial value. In Vietnam, the agarwood industry has been growing, with more than 10,000 ha of forest land reserved for the cultivation of Aquilaria crassna, an agarwood-producing tree. The aim of this study was to present a hydrodistillation process to recover agarwood essential oil and to compare chemical compositions of agarwood samples harvested from various locations in Vietnam. Three agarwood samples representing products from A. crassna trees cultivated in the provinces of Bac Giang and Khanh Hoa, and on the Phu Quoc island (Kien Giang province) of Vietnam were subjected to hydrodistillation, resulting in essential oil yields of 0.32%, 0.27%, and 0.25% (w/w), respectively. Using GC–MS analysis, a total of 44 volatile compounds were identified in the obtained oils. Most of the constituents were oxygenated sesquiterpenes and had been previously found in other agarwood oil samples. Notable compounds of other chemical classes were aromatics and fatty acids. The three oil samples showed a common volatile profile, which is characterized by the dominance of eremophilane, agarofurans, and eudesmane sesquiterpenes, while vetispirane and guaiane sesquiterpenes were found in smaller quantities. Desired compounds, such as neopetasane (7.47–8.29%), dihydrokaranone (2.63–3.59%), β-agarofuran (3.04–6.18%), and agarospirol (2.98–3.42%), were present in substantial quantities, suggesting that the essential oils could be commercialized as fragrant materials of high value.

Polysaccharide has attracted great attentions for its benefits to human health. Polysaccharide from natural sources have diverse anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant and wound healing activities. Polysaccharide is not only valuable in medicine, also widely used in foodstuffs such as gel thickening or emulsifying agents, emulsifiers, fillers. Recently there has been an increase in the demand for polysaccharides, so research into new sources of polysaccharide with plant-based bio-activity is essential. Pseuderanthemum crenulatum (Wall. ex Lindl.) Radlk belong to genus of Pseuderanthemum. Common names (Vietnamese): Xuân hoa răng. This species is native in the forests of Vietnam. The polysaccharide content in P. crenulatum leaves was (7.47 ± 0.6) % in dry weight. The appropriate polysaccharide extraction conditions were determined: material/ water ratio (1g/25ml), extracted temperature of 60°C, extraction time 12 hours. The polysaccharide composition was purified by TCA 10%, with a purity of (55.6 ± 1.19) %. Trong những năm gần đây, polysaccharide là nhóm hợp chất rất được các nhà khoa học trên thế giới quan tâm do các tác dụng quan trọng của chúng về tăng cường miễn dịch, kháng viêm, làm lành vết thương, chống ung thư… Polysaccharide không những có giá trị trong Y học mà còn được sử dụng rộng rãi trong thực phẩm như các chất tạo độ đặc hay tạo gel, chất làm bền nhũ tương, chất độn… Hiện nay, nhu cầu sử dụng polysaccharide từ thực vật ngày càng gia tăng nên việc điều tra, khai thác nguồn polysaccharide mới có hoạt tính sinh học là rất cần thiết. Pseuderanthemum crenulatum (Wall. ex Lindl.) Radlk thuộc chi Pseuderanthemum sp, tên thông thường là cây Xuân hoa răng, là cây mọc tự nhiên trong rừng Việt nam. Trong nghiên cứu này, chúng tôi đã tách chiết, xác định hàm lượng và tinh sạch sơ bộ polysaccharide từ lá cây Pseuderanthemum crenulatum. Hàm lượng polysaccharide trong lá cây Xuân hoa răng đạt (7.47 ± 0.6) % trọng lượng khô. Các điều kiện chiết rút polysaccharide thích hợp đã được xác định: nhiệt độ chiết rút 60°C, tỷ lệ nguyên liệu/nước (1g mẫu khô/25ml nước), thời gian chiết rút 12 giờ. Chế phẩm polysaccharide đã được tinh sạch bằng TCA 10%, có độ sạch đạt (55.6 ± 1.19)%.

Hệ thống quản lý học tập (Learning Management System, hay còn gọi là LMS) được xem là một công cụ hữu ích giúp hỗ trợ quá trình dạy học trực tuyến, đặc biệt là ở các cơ sở giáo dục đại hoc. Bài báo trình bày các kết quả nghiên cứu nhằm tìm hiểu về thực trạng sử dụng LMS trong dạy học trực tuyến tại Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ, Đại học Huế. Một khảo sát đã được tiến hành với sự tham gia của 14 giảng viên và 130 sinh viên Khoa Tiếng Anh để tìm hiểu việc sử dụng và ý kiến đánh giá của họ đối với LMS trong thời gian phải học trực tuyến vì giãn cách xã hội. Kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy, giữa giảng viên và sinh viên có sự tương đồng trong thói quen truy cập vào LMS xét về tần suất, thời gian và việc sử dụng ứng dụng di động. Tuy nhiên, có sự khác nhau rõ ràng về các hoạt động trên LMS mà giảng viên và sinh viên thường xuyên sử dụng trong quá trình dạy học trực tuyến. Giữa giảng viên cũng có sự khác nhau nhất định trong quá trình sử dụng LMS khi so sánh dựa trên kinh nghiệm giảng dạy và chuyên môn giảng dạy, trong khi đó không có sự khác biệt rõ ràng nào giữa sinh viên với nhau. Ngoài ra, cả giảng viên và sinh viên nhìn chung đều hài lòng về hầu hết các khía cạnh của LMS bao gồm giao diện, chức năng, cách tổ chức sắp xếp khóa học v.v. Tuy nhiên, cả giảng viên và sinh viên đều chưa đánh giá cao tốc độ xử lý thông tin cũng như tính ổn định của LMS.

Cunninghamia konishii Hayata is a rare and endangered plant species that plays a relevant role in ecological andcommercial systems of natural forests in Vietnam. In this research, we evaluated the potential geographic distribution ofC. konishii under current and future climatic conditions in Northern Vietnam using the ecological niche modelling approachbased on the largest available database of occurrence records for this species. C. konishii is mainly distributed inthe northern part of Vietnam at altitudes above 1000 m where the slopes range between 12 and 25 degrees, particularlyin special-use and protected forest. The optimal distribution area of C. konishii requires specific climatic conditions: anannual precipitation around 1200 mm, precipitation of the warmest quarter ranging from 600 to 800 mm, a precipitationseasonality of 90 to100 mm, an annual mean temperature ranging from 12°C to 19°C, and a temperature seasonalityranging from 300 to 350. Additionally, the species requires specific soil groups: humic acrisols, ferralic acrisols, andyellow-red humic soils. Considering these requirements, the results of our research show that the suitable regions for thegrowth of C. konishii are found in the provinces of Ha Giang, Son La, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An, covering a total area of1509.56 km2. However, analyzing the results under the Community Climate System Model version 4 (CCSM4) model, itis possible to observe that the area will decline to 504.39 km2 by 2090 according to RCP 2.6 scenario, to 406.25 km2 inthe RCP 4.5 scenario, and to 47.62 km2 in the RCP 8.5 scenario. The findings of this present research may be applied toseveral additional studies such as identifying current and future locations to establish conservation areas for C. konishii.

From the past up to now, Balanophora sp. has been used by the Dao as a valuable remedyfor bones and joints such as back pain, paralysis of limbs, sexual improvement, strengthening ... Thisprecious medicinal plant grows and develops well in marble forests, at an altitude of over 1500 meters above sea level, found most in some northern mountainous areas such as Yen Bai, Lao Cai, Cao Bang, Hoa Binh, Ha Giang, Son. La…. In this research, we described and systemized data on morphology,microscopy characteristics of Vietnamese Balanophora sp. . The obtained results show that the Balanophora sp. in Cao Bang province, scientifically named Balanophora indica (Arnott) Griff, belongs to the Balanophoraceae, which have built a relatively complete data set on anatomy andmicro-anatomy characteristics of roots, leaves, whole-plant medicinal powder. The results of this study contribute to completing the monographs of the Balanophora indica (Arnott) Griff in the Vietnamese Pharmacopoeia. Keywords Balanophora sp.; balanophoraceae; morphological; microscopy. References [1] Ministry of Health. Vietnam Pharmacopoeia V, 2017, PL12.18 (in Vietnamese).[2] P.H. Hộ. All Illustrated Flora of Vietnam J. Tre, Ho Chi Minh (2003) 140 (in Vietnamese),[3] D.H. Bich, Medicinal Plants and Animals in Vietnam Science and Technics Publishing House, National Institue of Medicinal Materials 1 (2002) 555 (in Vietnamese),[4] X. Wang, Z. Liu, W. Qiao, R. Cheng, B. Liu and G. Shel, Phytochemicals and biological studies of plants from the genus Balanophora, Chemistry Central Journal (2012) 6-79.

IntroductionAustralia is at a particular point in its history where there is a noticeable diaspora of artists and creative practitioners away from the major capitals of Sydney and Melbourne (in particular), driven in no small part by ballooning house prices of the last eight years. This has meant big changes for some regional spaces, and in turn, for the face of Australian cultural life. Regional cultural precincts are forming with tourist flows, funding attention and cultural economies. Likewise, there appears to be growing consciousness in the ‘art centres’ of Melbourne and Sydney of interesting and relevant activities outside their limits. This research draws on my experience as an art practitioner, curator and social researcher in one such region (Castlemaine in Central Victoria), and particularly from a recent interview series I have conducted in collaboration with art space in that region, Wide Open Road Art. In this, 23 regional and city-based artists were asked about the social, economic and local conditions that can and have supported their art practices. Drawing from these conversations and Bourdieu’s ideas around cultural production, the article suggests that authentic, diverse, interesting and disruptive creative practices in Australian cultural life involve the increasingly pressing need for security while existing outside the modern imperative of high consumption; of finding alternative ways to live well while entering into the shared space of cultural production. Indeed, it is argued that often it is the capacity to defy key economic paradigms, for example of ‘rational (economic) self-interest’, that allows creative life to flourish (Bourdieu Field; Ley “Artists”). While regional spaces present new opportunities for this, there are pitfalls and nuances worth exploring.Changes in Regional AustraliaAustralia has long been an urbanising nation. Since Federation our cities have increased from a third to now constituting two-thirds of the country’s total population (Gray and Lawrence 6; ABS), making us one of the most urbanised countries in the world. Indeed, as machines replaced manual labour on farms; as Australia’s manufacturing industry began its decline; and as young people in particular left the country for city universities (Gray and Lawrence), the post-war industrial-economic boom drove this widespread demographic and economic shift. In the 1980s closures of regional town facilities like banks, schools and hospitals propelled widespread belief that regional Australia was in crisis and would be increasingly difficult to sustain (Rentschler, Bridson, and Evans; Gray and Lawrence 2; Barr et al.; ABS). However, the late 1990s and early 21st century saw a turnaround that has been referred to by some as the rise of the ‘sea change’. That is, widespread renewed interest and idealisation of not just coastal areas but anywhere outside the city (Murphy). It was a simultaneous pursuit of “a small ‘a’ alternative lifestyle” and escape from rising living costs in urban areas, especially for the unemployed, single parents and those with disabilities (Murphy). This renewed interest has been sustained. The latest wave, or series of waves, have coincided with the post-GFC house price spike, of cheap credit and lenient lending designed to stimulate the economy. This initiative in part led to Sydney and Melbourne median dwelling prices rising by up to 114% in eight years (Scutt 2017), which alone had a huge influence on who was able to afford to live in city areas and who was not. Rapid population increases and diminished social networks and familial support are also considered drivers that sent a wave of people (a million since 2011) towards the outer fringes of the cities and to ‘commuter belt’ country towns (Docherty; Murphy). While the underprivileged are clearly most disadvantaged in what has actually been a global development process (see Jayne on this, and on the city as a consumer itself), artists and creatives are also a unique category who haven’t fared well with hyper-urbanisation (Ley “Artists”). Despite the class privilege that often accompanies such a career choice, the economic disadvantage art professions often involve has seen a diaspora of artists moving to regional areas, particularly those in the hinterlands around and train lines to major centres. We see the recent ‘rise of a regional bohemia’ (Regional Australia Institute): towns like Toowoomba, Byron Bay, Surf Coast, Gold Coast-Tweed, Kangaroo Valley, Wollongong, Warburton, Bendigo, Tooyday, New Norfolk, and countless more being re-identified as arts towns and precincts. In Australia in 2016–17, 1 in 6 professional artists, and 1 in 4 visual artists, were living in a regional town (Throsby and Petetskaya). Creative arts in regional Australia makes up a quarter of the nation’s creative output and is a $2.8 billion industry; and our regions particularly draw in creative practitioners in their prime productive years (aged 24 to 44) (Regional Australia Institute).WORA Conservation SeriesIn 2018 artist and curator Helen Mathwin and myself received a local shire grant to record a conversation series with 23 artists who were based in the Central Goldfields region of Victoria as well as further afield, but who had a connection to the regional arts space we run, WideOpenRoadArt (WORA). In videoed, in-depth, approximately hour-long, semi-structured interviews conducted throughout 2018, we spoke to artists (16 women and 7 men) about the relocation phenomenon we were witnessing in our own growing arts town. Most were interviewed in WORA’s roving art float, but we seized any ad hoc opportunity we had to have genuine discussions with people. Focal points were around sustainability of practice and the social conditions that supported artists’ professional pursuits. This included accessing an arts community, circles of cultural production, and the ‘art centre’; the capacity to exhibit; but also, social factors such as affordable housing and the ability to live on a low-income while having dependants; and so on. The conversations were rich with lived experiences and insights on these issues.Financial ImperativesIn line with the discussion above, the most prominent factor we noticed in the interviews was the inescapable importance of being able to live cheaply. The consistent message that all of the interviewees, both regional- and city-based, conveyed was that a career in art-making required an important independence from the need to earn a substantial income. One interviewee commented: “I do run my art as a business, I have an ABN […] it makes a healthy loss! I don’t think I’ve ever made a profit […].” Another put it: “now that I’m in [this] town and I have a house and stuff I do feel like there is maybe a bit more security around those daily things that will hopefully give me space to [make artworks].”Much has been said on the pervasive inability to monetise art careers, notably Bourdieu’s observations that art exists on an interdependent field of cultural capital, determining for itself an autonomous conception of value separate to economics (Bourdieu, Field 39). This is somewhat similar to the idea of art as a sacred phenomenon irreducible to dollar terms (Abbing 38; see also Benjamin’s “aura”; “The Work of Art”). Art’s difficult relationship with commodification is part of its heroism that Benjamin described (Benjamin Charles Baudelaire 79), its potential to sanctify mainstream society by staying separate to the lowly aspirations of commerce (Ley “Artists” 2529). However, it is understood, artists still need to attain professional education and capacities, yet they remain at the bottom of the income ladder not only professionally, but in the case of visual artists, they remain at the bottom of the creative income hierarchies as well. Further to this, within visual arts, only a tiny proportion achieve financially backed success (Menger 277). “Artistic labour markets are characterised by high risk of failure, excess supply of recruits, low artistic income level, skewed income distribution and multiple jobholding” (Mangset, Torvik Heian, Kleppe, and Løyland; Menger). Mangset et al. point to ideas that have long surrounded the “charismatic artist myth,” of a quasi-metaphysical calling to be an artist that can lead one to overlook the profession’s vast pitfalls in terms of economic sustainability. One interviewee described it as follows: “From a very young age I wanted to be an artist […] so there’s never been a time that I’ve thought that’s not what I’m doing.” A 1% rule seems widely acknowledged in how the profession manages the financial winners against those who miss out; the tiny proportion of megastar artists versus a vast struggling remainder.As even successful artists often dip below the poverty line between paid engagements, housing costs can make the difference between being able to live in an area and not (Turnbull and Whitford). One artist described:[the reason we moved here from Melbourne] was financial, yes definitely. We wouldn’t have been able to purchase a property […] in Melbourne, we would not have been able to live in place that we wanted to live, and to do what we wanted to do […]. It was never an option for us to get a big mortgage.Another said:It partly came about as a financial practicality to move out here. My partner […] wanted to be in the bush, but I was resistant at first, we were in Melbourne but we just couldn’t afford Melbourne in the end, we had an apartment, we had a studio. My partner was a cabinet maker then. You know, just every month all our money went to rent and we just couldn’t manage anymore. So we thought, well maybe if we come out to the bush […] It was just by a happy accident that we found a property […] that we could afford, that was off-grid so it cut the bills down for us [...] that had a little studio and already had a little cottage on there that we could rent that out to get money.For a prominent artist we spoke to this issue was starkly reflected. Despite large exhibitions at some of the highest profile galleries in regional Victoria, the commissions offered for these shows were so insubstantial that the artist and their family had to take on staggering sums of personal debt to execute the ambitious and critically acclaimed shows. Another very successful artist we interviewed who had shown widely at ‘A-list’ international arts institutions and received several substantial grants, spoke of their dismay and pessimism at the idea of financial survival. For all artists we spoke to, pursuing their arts practice was in constant tension with economic imperatives, and their lives had all been shaped by the need to make shrewd decisions to continue practising. There were two artists out of the 23 we interviewed who considered their artwork able to provide full-time income, although this still relied on living costs remaining extremely low. “We are very lucky to have bought a very cheap property [in the country] that I can [also] have my workshop on, so I’m not paying for two properties in Melbourne […] So that certainly takes a fair bit of pressure off financially.” Their co-interviewee described this as “pretty luxurious!” Notably, the two who thought they could live off their art practices were both men, mid-career, whose works were large, spectacular festival items, which alongside the artists’ skill and hard work was also a factor in the type of remuneration received.Decongested LivingBeyond more affordable real estate and rental spaces, life outside our cities offers other benefits that have particular relevance to creative practitioners. Opera and festival director Lindy Hume described her move to the NSW South Coast in terms of space to think and be creative. “The abundance of time, space and silence makes living in places like [Hume’s town] ideal for creating new work” (Brown). And certainly, this was a theme that arose frequently in our interviews. Many of our regionally based artists were in part choosing the de-pressurised space of non-metro areas, and also seeking an embedded, daily connection to nature for themselves, their art-making process and their families. In one interview this was described as “dreamtime”. “Some of my more creative moments are out walking in the forest with the dog, that sort of semi-daydreamy thing where your mind is taken away by the place you’re in.”Creative HubsAll of our regional interviewees mentioned the value of the local community, as a general exchange, social support and like-minded connection, but also specifically of an arts community. Whether a tree change by choice or a more reactive move, the diaspora of artists, among others, has led to a type of rural renaissance in certain popular areas. Creative hubs located around the country, often in close proximity to the urban centres, are creating tremendous opportunities to network with other talented people doing interesting things, living in close proximity and often open to cross-fertilisation. One said: “[Castlemaine] is the best place in Australia, it has this insane cultural richness in a tiny town, you can’t go out and not meet people on the street […] For someone who has not had community in their life that is so gorgeous.” Another said:[Being an artist here] is kind of easy! Lots of people around to connect—with […] other artists but also creatively minded people [...] So it means you can just bump into someone from down the street and have an amazing conversation in five minutes about some amazing thing! […] There’s a concentration here that works.With these hubs, regional spaces are entering into a new relevance in the sphere of cultural production. They are generating unique and interesting local creative scenes for people to live amongst or visit, and generating strong local arts economies, tourist economies, and funding opportunities (Rentschler, Bridson, and Evans). Victoria in particular has burgeoned, with tourist flows to its regions increasing 13 per cent in 5 years and generating tourism worth $10 billion (Tourism Victoria). Victoria’s Greater Bendigo is Australia’s most popularly searched tourist destination on Trip Advisor, with tourism increasing 52% in 10 years (Boland). Simultaneously, funding flows have increased to regional zones, as governments seek to promote development outside Australia’s urban centres and are confident in the arts as a key strategy in boosting health, economies and overall wellbeing (see Rentschler, Bridson, and Evans; see also the 2018 Regional Centre for Culture initiative, Boland). The regions are also an increasingly relevant participant in national cultural life (Turnbull and Whitford; Mitchell; Simpson; Woodhead). Opportunities for an openness to productive exchange between regional and metropolitan sites appear to be growing, with regional festivals and art events gaining importance and unique attributes in the consciousness of the arts ‘centre’ (see for example Fairley; Simpson; Farrelly; Woodhead).Difficulties of Regional LocationDespite this, our interviews still brought to light the difficulties and barriers experienced living as a regional artist. For some, living in regional Victoria was an accepted set-back in their ambitions, something to be concealed and counteracted with education in reputable metropolitan art schools or city-based jobs. For others there was difficulty accessing a sympathetic arts community—although arts towns had vibrant cultures, certain types of creativity were preferred (often craft-based and more community-oriented). Practitioners who were active in maintaining their links to a metropolitan art scene voiced more difficulty in fitting in and successfully exhibiting their (often more conceptual or boundary-pushing) work in regional locations.The Gentrification ProblemThe other increasingly obvious issue in the revivification of some non-metropolitan areas is that they can and are already showing signs of being victims of their own success. That is, some regional arts precincts are attracting so many new residents that they are ceasing to be the low-cost, hospitable environments for artists they once were. Geographer David Ley has given attention to this particular pattern of gentrification that trails behind artists (Ley “Artists”). Ley draws from Florida’s ideas of late capitalism’s ascendency of creativity over the brute utilitarianism of the industrial era. This has got to the point that artists and creative professionals have an increasing capacity to shape and generate value in areas of life that were previous overlooked, especially with built environments (2529). Now more than ever, there is the “urbane middle-class” pursuing ‘the swirling milieu of artists, bohemians and immigrants” (Florida) as they create new, desirable landscapes with the “refuse of society” (Benjamin Charles Baudelaire 79; Ley New Middle Class). With Australia’s historic shifts in affordability in our major cities, this pattern that Ley identified in urban built environments can be seen across our states and regions as well.But with gentrification comes increased costs of living, as housing, shops and infrastructure all alter for an affluent consumer-resident. This diminishes what Bourdieu describes as “the suspension and removal of economic necessity” fundamental to the avant-garde (Bourdieu Distinction 54). That is to say, its relief from heavy pressure to materially survive is arguably critical to the reflexive, imaginative, and truly new offerings that art can provide. And as argued earlier, there seems an inbuilt economic irrationality in artmaking as a vocation—of dedicating one’s energy, time and resources to a pursuit that is notoriously impoverishing. But this irrationality may at the same time be critical to setting forth new ideas, perspectives, reflections and disruptions of taken-for-granted social assumptions, and why art is so indispensable in the first place (Bourdieu Field 39; Ley New Middle Class 2531; Weber on irrationality and the Enlightenment Project; also Adorno’s the ‘primitive’ in art). Australia’s cities, like those of most developed nations, increasingly demand we busy ourselves with the high-consumption of modern life that makes certain activities that sit outside this almost impossible. As gentrification unfolds from the metropolis to the regions, Australia faces a new level of far-reaching social inequality that has real consequences for who is able to participate in art-making, where these people can live, and ultimately what kind of diversity of ideas and voices participate in the generation of our national cultural life. ConclusionThe revival of some of Australia’s more popular regional towns has brought new life to some regional areas, particularly in reshaping their identities as cultural hubs worth experiencing, living amongst or supporting their development. Our interviews brought to life the significant benefits artists have experienced in relocating to country towns, whether by choice or necessity, as well as some setbacks. It was clear that economics played a major role in the demographic shift that took place in the area being examined; more specifically, that the general reorientation of social life towards consumption activities are having dramatic spatial consequences that we are currently seeing transform our major centres. The ability of art and creative practices to breathe new life into forgotten and devalued ideas and spaces is a foundational attribute but one that also creates a gentrification problem. Indeed, this is possibly the key drawback to the revivification of certain regional areas, alongside other prejudices and clashes between metro and regional cultures. It is argued that the transformative and redemptive actions art can perform need to involve the modern irrationality of not being transfixed by matters of economic materialism, so as to sit outside taken-for-granted value structures. This emphasises the importance of equality and open access in our spaces and landscapes if we are to pursue a vibrant, diverse and progressive national cultural sphere.ReferencesAbbing, Hans. Why Artists Are Poor: The Exceptional Economy of the Arts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam UP, 2002.Adorno, Theodor. Aesthetic Theory. London: Routledge, 1983.Australian Bureau of Statistics. “Population Growth: Capital City Growth and Development.” 4102.0—Australian Social Trends. 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Setting the Mood Weirdly, everything feels the same. There’s absolutely no distinction for me between news, work, walking, gaming, Netflix, rock collecting, scrolling, messaging. I don’t know how this happened, but everything has simply blurred together. There’s a dreadful and yet soothing sameness to it, scrolling through images on Instagram, scrolling Netflix, walking the dog, scrolling the news, time scrolling by as I watch face after face appear or disappear on my screen, all saying something, yet saying nothing. Is this the rhythm of crisis in a slow apocalypse? Really, would it be possible for humans to just bore themselves into oblivion? Because in the middle of a pandemic, boredom feels in my body the same as doom ... just another swell that passes, like my chest as it rises and falls with my breath. This opening anecdote comes from combining narratives in two studies we conducted online during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: a global study, Massive and Microscopic Sensemaking: Autoethnographic Accounts of Lived Experience in Times of Global Trauma; and an Australian project, The Shut-In Worker: Working from Home and Digitally-Enabled Labour Practices. The Shut-In Worker project aimed to investigate the thoughts, beliefs, and experiences of Australian knowledge workers working from home during lockdown. From June to October 2020, we recruited twelve households across two Australian states. While the sample included households with diverse incomes and living arrangements—from metropolitan single person apartment dwellers to regional families in free standing households—the majority were relatively privileged. The households included in this study were predominantly Anglo-Australian and highly educated. Critically, unlike many during COVID-19, these householders had maintained their salaried work. Participating households took part in an initial interview via Zoom or Microsoft Teams during which they took us on workplace tours, showing us where and how the domestic had been requisitioned for salaried labour. Householders subsequently kept digital diaries of their working days ahead of follow up interviews in which we got them to reflect on their past few weeks working from home with reference to the textual and photographic diaries they had shared with us. In contrast to the tight geographic focus of The Shut-In Worker project and its fairly conventional methodology, the Massive and Microscopic Sensemaking project was envisaged as a global project and driven by an experimental participant-led approach. Involving more than 150 people from 26 countries during 2020, the project was grounded in autoethnography practice and critical pedagogy. Over 21 days, we offered self-guided prompts for ourselves and the other participants—a wide range of creative practitioners, scholar activists, and researchers—to explore their own lived experience. Participants with varying degrees of experience with qualitative methods and/or autoethnography started working with the research questions we had posed in our call; some independently, some in collaboration. The autoethnographic lens used in our study encouraged contributors to document their experience from and through their bodies, their situated daily routines, and their relations with embedded, embodied, and ubiquitous digital technologies. The lens enabled deep exploration and evocation of many of the complexities, profound paradoxes, fears, and hopes that characterise the human and machinic entanglements that bring us together and separate the planetary “us” in this moment (Markham et al. 2020). In this essay we draw on anecdotes and narratives from both studies that speak to the “Zoom experience” during COVID-19. That is, we use Zoom as a socio-technical pivot point to think about how the experience of liminality—of being on/off screen and ambiently in between—is operating to shift both our micro practices and macro structures as we experience and struggle within the rupture, “event”, and conjuncture that marks the global pandemic. What we will see is that many of those narratives depict disjointed, blurry, or confusing experiences, atmospheres, and affects. These liminal experiences are entangled in complex ways with the distinctive forms of commercial infrastructure and software that scaffold video conferencing platforms such as Zoom. Part of what is both enabling and troubling about the key proprietary platforms that increasingly host “public” participation and conversation online (and that came to play a dominant role during COVID19) in the context of what Tarleton Gillespie calls “the internet of platforms” is a sense of the hidden logics behind such platforms. The constant sense of potential dis/connection—with home computers becoming ambient portals to external others—also saw a wider experience of boundarylessness evoked by participants. Across our studies there was a sense of a complete breakdown between many pre-existing boundaries (or at least dotted lines) around work, school, play, leisure and fitness, public and media engagement, and home life. At the same time, the vocabulary of confinement and lockdown emerged from the imposition of physical boundaries or distancing between the self and others, between home and the outside world. During the “connected confinement” of COVID-19, study participants commonly expressed an affective sensation of dysphoria, with this new state of in betweenness or disorientation on and off screen, in and out of Zoom meetings, that characterises the COVID-19 experience seen by many as a temporary, unpleasant disruption to sociality as usual. Our contention is that, as disturbing as many of our experiences are and have been during lockdown, there is an important, ethically and politically generative dimension to our global experiences of liminality, and we should hold on to this state of de-normalisation. Much ink has been spilled on the generalised, global experience of videoconferencing during the COVID-19 pandemic. A line of argument within this commentary speaks to the mental challenge and exhaustion—or zoom fatigue as it is now popularly termed—that many have been experiencing in attempting to work, learn, and live collectively via interactive screen technologies. We suggest zoom fatigue stands in for a much larger set of global social challenges—a complex conjuncture of microscopic ruptures, decisions within many critical junctures or turning points, and slow shifts in how we see and make sense of the world around us. If culture is habit writ large, what should we make of the new habits we are building, or the revelations that our prior ways of being in the world might not suit our present planetary needs, and maybe never did? Thus, we counter the current dominant narrative that people, regions, and countries should move on, pivot, or do whatever else it takes to transition to a “new normal”. Instead, drawing on the work of Haraway and others interested in more than human, post-anthropocenic thinking about the future, this essay contends that—on a dying planet facing major global challenges—we need to be embracing liminality and “staying with the trouble” if we are to hope to work together to imagine and create better worlds. This is not necessarily an easy step but we explore liminality and the affective components of Zoom fatigue here to challenge the assumption that stability and certainty is what we now need as a global community. If the comfort experienced by a chosen few in pre-COVID-19 times was bought at the cost of many “others” (human and more than human), how can we use the discomfort of liminality to imagine global futures that have radically transformative possibilities? On Liminality Because liminality is deeply affective and experienced both individually and collectively, it is a difficult feeling or state to put into words, much less generalised terms. It marks the uncanny or unstable experience of existing between. Being in a liminal state is marked by a profound disruption of one’s sense of self, one’s phenomenological being in the world, and in relation to others. Zoom, in and of itself, provokes a liminal experience. As this participant says: Zoom is so disorienting. I mean this literally; in that I cannot find a solid orientation toward other people. What’s worse is that I realize everyone has a different view, so we can’t even be sure of what other people might be seeing on their screen. In a real room this would not be an issue at all. The concept of liminality originally came out of attempts to capture the sense of flux and transition, rather than stasis, that shapes culture and community, exemplified during rites of passage. First developed in the early twentieth century by ethnographer and folklorist Arnold van Gennep, it was later taken up and expanded upon by British anthropologist Victor Turner. Turner, best known for his work on cultural rituals and rites of passage, describes liminality as the sense of “in betweenness” experienced as one moves from one status (say that of a child) to another (formal recognition of adulthood). For Turner, community life and the formation of societies more broadly involves periods of transition, threshold moments in which both structures and anti-structures become apparent. Bringing liminality into the contemporary digital moment, Zizi Papacharissi discusses the concept in collective terms as pertaining to the affective states of networked publics, particularly visible in the development of new social and political formations through wide scale social media responses to the Arab Spring. Liminality in this context describes the “not yet”, a state of “pre-emergence” or “emergence” of unformed potentiality. In this usage, Papacharissi builds on Turner’s description of liminality as “a realm of pure possibility whence novel configurations of ideas and relations may arise” (97). The pandemic has sparked another moment of liminality. Here, we conceptualise liminality as a continuous dialectical process of being pushed and pulled in various directions, which does not necessarily resolve into a stable state or position. Shifting one’s entire lifeworld into and onto computer screens and the micro screens of Zoom, as experienced by many around the world, collapses the usual functioning norms that maintain some degree of distinction between the social, intimate, political, and work spheres of everyday life. But this shift also creates new boundaries and new rules of engagement. As a result, people in our studies often talked about experiencing competing realities about “where” they are, and/or a feeling of being tugged by contradictory or competing forces that, because they cannot be easily resolved, keep us in an unsettled, uncomfortable state of being in the world. Here the dysphoric experiences associated not just with digital liminality but with the broader COVID-19 epidemiological-socio-political conjuncture are illustrated by Sianne Ngai’s work on the politics of affect and “ugly feelings” in the context of capitalism’s relentlessly affirmative culture. Rather than dismissing the vague feelings of unease that, for many of us, go hand in hand with late modern life, Ngai suggests that such generalised and dispersed affective states are important markers of and guides to the big social and cultural problems of our time—the injustices, inequalities, and alienating effects of late capitalism. While critical attention tends to be paid to more powerful emotions such as anger and fear, Ngai argues that softer and more nebulous forms of negative affect—from envy and anxiety to paranoia—can tell us much about the structures, institutions, and practices that frame social action. These enabling and constraining processes occur at different and intersecting levels. At the micro level of the screen interface, jarring experiences can set us to wondering about where we are (on or off screen, in place and space), how we appear to others, and whether or not we should showcase and highlight our “presence”. We have been struck by how people in our studies expressed the sense of being handled or managed by the interfaces of Zoom or Microsoft Teams, which frame people in grid layouts, yet can shift and alter these frames in unanticipated ways. I hate Zoom. Everything about it. Sometimes I see a giant person, shoved to the front of the meeting in “speaker view” to appear larger than anyone else on the screen. People constantly appear and disappear, popping in and out. Sometimes, Zoom just rearranges people seemingly randomly. People commonly experience themselves or others being resized, frozen, or “glitched”, muted, accidentally unmuted, suddenly disconnected, or relegated to the second or third “page” of attendees. Those of us who attend many meetings as a part of work or education may enjoy the anonymity of appearing at a meeting without our faces or bodies, only appearing to others as a nearly blank square or circle, perhaps with a notation of our name and whether or not we are muted. Being on the third page of participants means we are out of sight, for better or worse. For some, being less visible is a choice, even a tactic. For others, it is not a choice, but based on lack of access to a fast or stable Internet connection. The experience and impact of these micro elements of presence within the digital moment differs, depending on where you appear to others in the interface, how much power you have over the shape or flow of the interaction or interface settings, or what your role is. Moving beyond the experience of the interface and turning to the middle range between micro and macro worlds, participants speak of attempting to manage blurred or completely collapsed boundaries between “here” and “there”. Being neither completely at work or school nor completely at home means finding new ways of negotiating the intimate and the formal, the domestic and the public. This delineation is for many not a matter of carving out specific times or spaces for each, but rather a process of shifting back and forth between makeshift boundaries that may be temporal or spatial, depending on various aspects of one’s situation. Many of us most likely could see the traces of this continuous shifting back and forth via what Susan Leigh Star called “boundary objects”. While she may not have intended this concept in such concrete terms, we could see these literally, in the often humorous but significantly disruptive introduction of various domestic actants during school or work, such as pets, children, partners, laundry baskets, beds, distinctive home decor, ambient noise, etc. Other trends highlight the difficulty of maintaining zones of work and school when these overlap with the rest of the physical household. One might place Post-it Notes on the kitchen wall saying “I’m in a Zoom meeting so don’t come into the living room” or blur one’s screen background to obscure one’s domestic location. These are all strategies of maintaining ontological security in an otherwise chaotic process of being both here and there, and neither here nor there. Yet even with these strategies, there is a constant dialectical liminality at play. In none of these examples do participants feel like they are either at home or at work; instead, they are constantly shifting in between, trying to balance, or straddling physical and virtual, public and private, in terms of social “roles” and “locations”. These negotiations highlight the “ongoingness” of and the labour involved in maintaining some semblance of balance within what is inherently an unbalanced dialectical process. Participants talked about and showed in their diaries and pictures developed for the research projects the ways they act through, work with, or sometimes just try to ignore these opposing states. The rise of home-based videoconferencing and associated boundary management practices have also highlighted what has been marginalised or forgotten and conversely, prioritised or valorised in prior sociotechnical assemblages that were simply taken for granted. Take for example the everyday practices of being in a work versus domestic lifeworld; deciding how to handle the labor of cleaning cups and dishes used by the “employees” and “students” in the family throughout the day, the tasks of enforcing school attendance by children attending classes in the family home etc. This increased consciousness—at both a household and more public level—of a previously often invisible and feminised care economy speaks to larger questions raised by the lockdown experience. At the same time as people in our studies were negotiating the glitches of screen presence and the weird boundarylessness of home-leisure-domestic-school-work life, many expressed an awareness of a troubling bigger picture. First, we had just the COVID lockdowns, you know, that time where many of us were seemingly “all together” in this, at home watching Tiger King, putting neighborly messages in our windows, or sharing sourdough recipes on social media. Then Black Lives Matters movements happened. Suddenly attention is shifted to the fact that we’re not all in this together. In Melbourne, people in social housing towers got abruptly locked down without even the chance to go to the store for food first, and yet somehow the wealthy or celebrity types are not under this heavy surveillance; they can just skip the mandatory quarantine. ... We can’t just go on with things as usual ... there are so many considerations now. Narratives like these suggest that while 2020 might have begun with the pandemic, the year raised multiple other issues. As many things have been destabilised, the nature or practice of everyday life is shifting under our feet. Around the world, people are learning how to remain more distanced from each other, and the rhythms of temporal and geographic movement are adapting to an era of the pandemic. Simultaneously, many people talk about an endlessly arriving (but never quite here) moment when things will be back to normal, implying not only that this feeling of uncertainty will fade, but also that the zone of comfort is in what was known and experienced previously, rather than in a state of something radically different. This sentiment is strong despite the general agreement that “we will never [be able to] go back to how it was, but [must] proceed to some ‘new normal’”. Still, as the participant above suggests, the pandemic has also offered a much broader challenge to wider, taken-for-granted social, political, and economic structures that underpin late capitalist nations in particular. The question then becomes: How do we imagine “moving on” from the pandemic, while learning from the disruptive yet critical moment it has offered us as a global community? Learning from Liminality I don’t want us to go back to “normal”, if that means we are just all commuting in our carbon spitting cars to work and back or traveling endlessly and without a care for the planet. COVID has made my life better. Not having to drive an hour each way to work every day—that’s a massive benefit. While it’s been a struggle, the tradeoff is spending more time with loved ones—it’s a better quality of life, we have to rethink the place of work. I can’t believe how much more I’ve been involved in huge discussions about politics and society and the planet. None of this would have been on my radar pre-COVID. What would it mean then to live with as well as learn from the reflexive sense of being and experience associated with the dis-comforts of living on and off screen, a Zoom liminality, if you will? These statements from participants speak precisely to the budding consciousness of new potential ways of being in a post-COVID-19 world. They come from a place of discomfort and represent dialectic tensions that perhaps should not be shrugged off or too easily resolved. Indeed, how might we consider this as the preferred state, rather than being simply a “rite of passage” that implies some pathway toward more stable identities and structured ways of being? The varied concepts of “becoming”, “not quite yet”, “boundary work”, or “staying with the trouble”, elaborated by Karen Barad, Andrew Pickering, Susan Leigh Star, and Donna Haraway respectively, all point to ways of being, acting, and thinking through and with liminality. All these thinkers are linked by their championing of murky and mangled conceptions of experience and more than human relations. Challenging notions of the bounded individual of rational humanism, these post-human scholars offer an often-uncomfortable picture of being in and through multiplicity, of modes of agency born out of a slippage between the one and the many. While, as we noted above, this experience of in betweenness and entanglement is often linked to emotions we perceive as negative, “ugly feelings”, for Barad et al., such liminal moments offer fundamentally productive and experimental modalities that enable possibilities for new configurations of being and doing the social in the anthropocene. Further, liminality as a concept potentially becomes radically progressive when it is seen as both critically appraising the constructed and conventional nature of prior patterns of living and offering a range of reflexive alternatives. People in our studies spoke of the pandemic moment as offering tantalizing glimpses of what kinder, more caring, and egalitarian futures might look like. At the same time, many were also surprised by (and skeptical of) the banality and randomness of the rise of commercial platforms like Zoom as a “choice” for being with others in this current lifeworld, emerging as it did as an ad hoc, quick solution that met the demands of the moment. Zoom fatigue then also suggests a discomfort about somehow being expected to fully incorporate proprietary platforms like Zoom and their algorithmic logics as a core way of living and being in the post-COVID-19 world. In this sense the fact that a specific platform has become a branded eponym for the experience of online public communicative fatigue is telling indeed. The unease around the centrality of video conferencing to everyday life during COVID-19 can in part be seen as a marker of anxieties about the growing role of decentralized, private platforms in “replacing or merging with public infrastructure, [thereby] creating new social effects” (Lee). Further, jokes and off-hand comments by study participants about their messy domestic interiors being publicized via social media or their boss monitoring when they are on and offline speak to larger concerns around surveillance and privacy in online spaces, particularly communicative environments where unregulated private platforms rather than public infrastructures are becoming the default norm. But just as people are both accepting of and troubled by a growing sense of inevitability about Zoom, we also saw them experimenting with a range of other ways of being with others, from online cocktail parties to experimenting with more playful and creative apps and platforms. What these participants have shown us is the need to “stay with the trouble” or remain in this liminal space as long as possible. While we do not have the space to discuss this possibility in this short provocation, Haraway sees this experimental mode of being as involving multiple actants, human and nonhuman, and as constituting important work in terms of speculating and figuring with various “what if” scenarios to generate new possible futures. As Haraway puts it, this process of speculative figuring is one of giving and receiving patterns, dropping threads, and so mostly failing but sometimes finding something that works, something consequential and maybe even beautiful, that wasn’t there before, of relaying connections that matter, of telling stories in hand upon hand, digit upon digit, attachment site upon attachment site, to craft conditions for flourishing in terran worlding. This struggle of course takes us far beyond decisions about Zoom, specifically. This deliberately troubling liminality is a process of recognizing old habits, building new ones, doing the hard work of reconsidering broader social formations in a future that promises more trouble. Governments, institutions, corporate entities, and even social movements like Transition Towns or #BuildBackBetter all seem to be calling for getting out of this liminal zone, whether this is to “bounce back” by returning to hyper-consumerist, wasteful, profit-driven modes of life or the opposite, to “bounce forward” to radically rethink globalization and build intensely localized personal and social formations. Perhaps a third alternative is to embrace this very transitional experience itself and consider whether life on a troubled, perhaps dying planet might require our discomfort, unease, and in-betweenness, including acknowledging and sometimes embracing “glitches” and failures (Nunes). Transitionality, or more broadly liminality, has the potential to enhance our understanding of who and what “we” are, or perhaps more crucially who “we” might become, by encompassing a kind of dialectic in relation to the experiences of others, both intimate and distant. As many critical commentators before us have suggested, this necessarily involves working in conjunction with a rich ecology of planetary agents from First People’s actors and knowledge systems--a range of social agents who already know what it is to be liminal to landscapes and other species--through and with the enabling affordances of digital technologies. This is an important, and exhausting, process of change. And perhaps this trouble is something to hang on to as long as possible, as it preoccupies us with wondering about what is happening in the lines between our faces, the lines of the technologies underpinning our interactions, the taken for granted structures on and off screen that have been visibilized. We are fatigued, not by the time we spend online, although there is that, too, but by the recognition that the world is changing. References Barad, Karen. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Duke UP, 2006. Gillespie, Tarleton. Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions That Shape Social Media. Yale UP 2018. Haraway, Donna J. “SF: Science Fiction, Speculative Fabulation, String Figures, So Far.” Ada New Media 3 (2013). <http://adanewmedia.org/2013/11/issue3-haraway>. Lee, Ashlin. “In the Shadow of Platforms: Challenges and Opportunities for the Shadow of Hierarchy in the Age of Platforms and Datafication.” M/C Journal 24.2 (2021). <http://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.2750>. Markham, Annette N., et al. “Massive and Microscopic Sensemaking during COVID-19 Times.” Qualitative Inquiry Oct. 2020. <https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800420962477>. Ngai, Sianne. Ugly Feelings. Harvard UP, 2005. Nunes, Mark. Error, Glitch, Noise and Jam in New Media Cultures. Bloomsbury, 2012. Papacharissi, Zizi. Affective Publics: Sentiment, Technology, and Politics. Oxford UP, 2015. Pickering, Andrew. “The Mangle of Practice: Agency and Emergence in the Sociology of Science.” American Journal of Sociology 99.3 (1993): 559-89. Star, Susan Leigh. “The Structure of Ill-Structured Solutions: Boundary Objects and Heterogeneous Distributed Problem Solving.” Readings in Distributed Artificial Intelligence. Eds. Les Gasser and Michael N. Huhns. Kaufman, 1989. 37-54. Turner, Victor. “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage.” The Forests of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Cornell UP, 1967. 93-111. Turner, Victor. “Liminality and Communitas”. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago: Al<line Publishing, 1969. 94-113, 125-30.

‘The Tomb of the Mili Mongga lives up to its magnificent billing’ DAILY TELEGRAPH - A fossil expedition becomes a thrilling search for a mythical beast deep in the Indonesian forest – and a fascinating look at how fossils, folklore, and biodiversity converge. A tale of exciting scientific discovery, The Tomb of the Mili Mongga tells the story of Samuel Turvey's expeditions to the island of Sumba in eastern Indonesia. While there, he discovers an entire recently extinct mammal fauna from the island’s fossil record, revealing how islands support some of the world’s most remarkable biodiversity, and why many of these unique endemic species are threatened with extinction or have already been lost. But as the story unfolds, an unexpected narrative emerges – Sumba’s Indigenous communities tell of a mysterious wildman called the 'mili mongga', a giant yeti-like beast that supposedly lives in the island’s remote forests. What is behind the stories of the mili mongga? Is there a link between this enigmatic entity and the fossils that Sam is looking for? And what did he discover when he finally found the tomb of a mili mongga? Combining evolution, anthropology, travel writing and cryptozoology, The Tomb of the Mili Mongga explores the relationship between biodiversity and culture, what reality means from different cultural perspectives, and how folklore, fossils and conservation can be linked together in surprising ways.

Samuel Barber (1910–1981) was one of the most important and honored American composers of the twentieth century. Writing in a great variety of musical forms—symphonies, concertos, operas, vocal music, chamber music—he infused his works with poetic lyricism and gave tonal language and forms new vitality. His rich legacy includes such famous compositions as the Adagio for Strings, the orchestral song Knoxville: Summer of 1915, three concertos, and his two operas, the Pulitzer Prize–winning Vanessa and Antony and Cleopatra, a commissioned work that opened the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in New York. Generously documented by letters, sketchbooks, original musical manuscripts, and interviews with friends, colleagues, and performers with whom he worked, this book covers Barber’s entire career and all of his compositions. The biographical material on Barber is closely interspersed with a discussion of his music, displaying Barber’s creative processes at work from his early student compositions to his mature masterpieces. The book also provides the social context in which this major composer grew: his education; how he built his career; the evolving musical tastes of American audiences; his relationship with Gian Carlo Menotti and such musical giants as Serge Koussevitzky, Arturo Toscanini, Vladimir Horowitz; and the role of radio in the promotion of his music. A testament to the significance of neo-Romanticism, Samuel Barber stands as a model biography of an important American musical figure.

Drawing from decades of research, teaching, and consulting in the fields of marketing and strategy, the author demystifies the forces of market chaos, including technological change, globalization, and consumer behavior, showing readers how to identify those forces that can be turned to their competitive advantage. Featuring dozens of illustrative examples, of both winners and losers, and concluding each chapter with a series of questions designed to help readers apply the book's principles in their own organizations, Samli demonstrates how to detect changes in market conditions early, uncover latent customer needs, create new products and services, and maintain a competitive edge. There is no doubt that the business environment has become increasingly unpredictable. Yesterday's market leaders become tomorrow's has-beens; upstarts take on established giants; customers flock to new technologies while demanding old-fashioned customer service; and, of course, the Internet and the forces of globalization are accelerating the pace of change. Learning how to survive—and thrive—in this environment is of utmost importance for any company that intends to stick around. Drawing from decades of research, teaching, and consulting in the fields of marketing and strategy, the author demystifies these chaotic forces, identifying the pressures on business that create uncertainty, but also the potential for innovation for those who recognize opportunities to strengthen their competitive position. Featuring dozens of illustrative examples of both winners and losers, Samli shows readers how to turn market chaos and uncertainty to their advantage. Concluding each chapter with a series of questions designed to help readers apply the book's principles in their own organizations, Samli demonstrates how to detect changes in market conditions early, uncover latent customer needs, create new products and services, and maintain a competitive edge.

India is fast overtaking China to become the most populous country on Earth. By mid-century, its 1.7 billion people will live in what is projected to become the world’s second-largest economy after China. While a democracy and an open society compared to China, assertive Hindu nationalism is posing new challenges to India’s democratic freedoms and institutions at a time when illiberal democracies and autocratic leaders are on the rise worldwide. How India’s destiny plays out in the coming decades will matter deeply to a world where the West’s influence in shaping the 21st century will decline as that of these two Asian giants and other emerging economies in Africa and Latin America rise. In India in the 21st Century, Mira Kamdar, a former member of the New York Times Editorial Board and an award-winning author, offers readers an introduction to India today in all its complexity. In a concise question-and-answer format, Kamdar addresses India’s history, including its ancient civilization and kingdoms; its religious plurality; its colonial legacy and independence movement; the political and social structures in place today; its rapidly growing economy and financial system; India’s place in the geopolitical landscape of the 21st century; the challenge to India posed by climate change and dwindling global resources; wealth concentration and stark social inequalities; the rise of big data and robotics; the role of social media and more. She explores India’s contradictions and complications, while celebrating the merging of India’s multicultural landscape and deep artistic and intellectual heritage with the Information Age and the expansion of mass media. With clarity and balance, Kamdar brings her in-depth knowledge of India and eloquent writing style to bear in this focused and incisive addition to Oxford’s highly successful What Everyone Needs to Know® series.

For every business, the choice is stark: Change—or die. At any moment, fully two-thirds of America's companies claim to be in the midst of some type of organizational revamping, though most of these initiatives will fail. What many companies neglect to recognize is that organizational change needs to come from within, no matter how profound the external forces. Positive change requires change agents throughout the organization—those individuals who can translate the strategic vision of leaders into pragmatic behavior. This book identifies the qualities of great change agents and how these skills can be mastered to serve as a catalyst for change throughout the organization. Illustrating these principles through examples from world-class organizations, Dealy and Thomas highlight the five key qualities of great change agents; they: * challenge the status quo; * stoke the fire of creativity; * embrace the necessity of conflict; * manage risk rather than avoid it; and * develop new change agents. Bringing the process of change out of the realm of the analysts and consultants and to the front lines, the authors show you how to thrive in a world that demands nothing less than continuous change. For every business, the choice is stark: Change—or die. At any moment, fully two-thirds of America's companies claim to be in the midst of some type of organizational revamping. We don't need research from the Harvard Business School (even though it has been conducted) to tell us that most of these initiatives will fail. The business landscape is littered with the carcasses of giants who were unable to adapt to change—Digital, Prime, Wang, and Polaroid, to name a few. What many companies fail to recognize is that organizational change needs to come from within, no matter how profound the external forces. Positive change requires change agents throughout the organization—those individuals who can translate the strategic vision of leaders into pragmatic behavior. They will be the early adopters of the new values, actions, and skills required by the company. This book identifies the qualities of great change agents and how these skills can be mastered to serve as a catalyst for change throughout the organization. Illustrating these principles through examples from world-class organizations, Dealy and Thomas demonstrate the techniques for acquiring and executing those skills-and how corporate leaders can encourage and reward this behavior, creating a culture of risk-taking, innovation, and a focus on the future. From seasoned executives to entry-level employees, readers will learn that great change agents: * challenge the status quo; * stoke the fire of creativity; * embrace the necessity of conflict; * manage risk rather than avoid it; and * develop new change agents. Bringing the process of change out of the realm of the analysts and consultants and to the front lines, the authors show you how to thrive in a world that demands nothing less than continuous change.

Performance-Based Assessment for Middle and High School Physical Education is a cutting-edge book that teachers trust for assessing middle school and high school physical education students. Also a highly popular undergraduate text for courses that focus on performance-based assessment, this new third edition features significant additions, enhancements, and updates: • New chapters on effective management and instruction delivery, which make it appropriate for PETE instructors using the book for secondary methods courses • A new chapter on assessments with various instructional models, including Sport Education, Teaching Games for Understanding, Cooperative Learning, Personalized System of Instruction, and Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility • A new chapter on assessing dance (with sample dance units in the web resource) • A new sample unit on ultimate Frisbee in the chapter on invasion games • An expanded section on cognitive assessments, with suggestions for writing tests • Updated content on rubrics Performance-Based Assessment shows readers how to use portfolios to assess fitness, and it offers an example of a portfolio assessment for a high school fitness course. It also guides readers in using skill tests in physical education. Written by two authors with a combined 26 years of experience teaching physical education in public schools, the text discusses various assessment formats, helping PETE students and in-service teachers know both what to assess and how to assess it. Readers learn how to develop culminating and progressive assessments, as well as plan for continuous performance-based assessments and acquire effective teaching strategies for standards-based instruction. All content is aligned with current SHAPE America national standards and is supported by research from educational assessment giants such as Tom Guskey, Richard Stiggins, Dylan William, Robert Marzano, and James Popham. The book is organized into four parts, with part I introducing readers to performance-based assessment issues such as the need for change in the assessment process, how assessments can be used to enhance learning, the various assessment domains and methods, and the use of rubrics in assessments. Part II explores aspects of managing and implementing physical education lessons. In part III, readers learn about the components of performance-based assessment, and in part IV, they delve into issues affecting grading and implementing continuous performance-based assessment. This groundbreaking text explains the theory behind assessment and, through its numerous models, shows how to apply that theory in practice. The text is filled with practical examples, much more so than the typical assessment book. And it is supplemented by a web resource that houses forms, charts, and other material for instructors to use in their performance-based assessments. Class size, skill levels, and time factors can make assessments difficult―but far from impossible. The examples in the book are meant to be modified as needed, with the ideas in the book used as starting points. Teachers can use the material, examples, and tools in this book to create assessments that enhance student learning, providing them feedback to let them know what they have accomplished and how they can work toward goals of greater competence.

Abstract The media metamorphosis has become a necessity with the evolving times. No industry is immune to the transformative forces of the social, regulatory, economic, and technological forces but in media, it is profoundly changing how content is produced, distributed and consumed. Beset by changes and development on various fronts over several years, the media industry, traditionally comprising the familiar print, and broadcast channels of mass communication, has been undergoing a major transformation, change that appears certain to continue swiftly. The transformation is not restricted to the fusion of new technology into the mediascape but also, the various undergoing experiments to broaden the horizon of the existing conventional methodologies. Thereby, the industry is evolving at the rate of the technology cycle. The chapter maps the historical developments and metamorphosis of media in India from 1780 to 2019. The media evolved with changing the preference of the consumer, developing technology, and media convergence of traditional and digital platforms, the functioning of the media industry has reflected abundance in changes and development over the years. The Indian economy is fast growing and the changing dynamics of the media sector reflect this. The growth of the media sector was aided by positive demographics, growth in incomes, and increasing demand for knowledge, sports, escapism, and news.

This chapter explains the states of matter. It notes how a dipole exists if a positive charge is separated from a negative charge by a distance. The bond's polarity and the shape of the molecule are needed to figure out whether polyatomic molecules have a dipole moment. The molecule's polarizability is in proportion with the induced dipole moment. The chapter also notes that intermolecular forces are forces between molecules that can be classified as dipole-dipole forces, dispersion forces, or hydrogen bonding. The chapter also looks at particles and definitions of solids, liquids, and gases. Finally, it lists the four main types of crystalline solids: simple molecular, giant covalent, ionic, and metallic.

Abstract IT is hard to imagine while strenuously walking in the heart of an equatorial rain forest, gasping for every breath in a stifling humid sauna, how people could have ever adapted to life under these conditions. It is not just the oppressive climate—the tall forest itself is dark, little light reaching the floor from the canopy, and you do not see any animals. It is a complete contrast to the herbivore-rich dry savannahs of tropical Africa. Yet there are many animals here, evident by the loud, continual noise of large cryptic insects and the constant threat of stepping on a deadly king cobra. This was my first impression of the rain forest in Borneo. I was in Borneo on a UNESCO mission to look at a cave in the heart of the rain forest. Each morning I would wake up within a patch of relatively open vegetation, a clearing that housed the headquarters of the Niah National Park, 31 square kilometres of lowland forest situated 16 kilometres from the coast. Here amidst large, colourful butterflies and hornbills I got a reprieve from the claustrophobia of the prison of buttressed giants that made up the forest beyond. There is something in our nature that seems to crave for open landscapes, distant views of the horizon, and patchworks of trees and open spaces. Where we have not had access to these we have created them.

Among the marvellous fossils retrieved from Seymour Island—a thin strip of land near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, is a giant penguin that lived forty million years ago. Called simply ‘Nordenskiöld’s giant penguin’, after one of the great early Antarctic explorers, it is not the kind of animal you would like to meet down a dark alley late at night. Standing at nearly the height of an average man and with a long beak to match, it was much taller than the modern Emperor penguin. Nordenskiöld’s giant penguin was a portent of a cooling climate. Its bones—many of which now reside in the collections of the Natural History Museum in London—have been found within the Eocene mudrocks of Seymour Island. This island holds a special affection for palaeoclimatologists. It was here, in the late nineteenth century, that some of the first Antarctic fossils were found. These give a glimpse of what that continent was like before it became an icy wilderness. Seventy million years ago, wide Cretaceous forests, inhabited by dinosaurs, flourished in Antarctica. Even as little as fifty million years ago, the kinds of tree and shrub that thrive today in Patagonia once covered the hills and slopes of the mountainous Antarctic Peninsula. Their fossilized remains are found in the rocks of Seymour Island. In the summer months the island is warmed by the faint Antarctic sun, its surface melting like a chocolate cake at a picnic. The resulting muddy quagmire is worth persevering with. It yields the most wonderful fossils of ancient plants, among them Auracaria, the warmth-loving monkey-puzzle tree. Antarctic scientists have another, ulterior motive for visiting Seymour Island; those in the know are aware that the Argentine Base at Marambio is famous for its steaks. They are the best on the continent, and everyone hopes to get invited in. How then did Antarctica change from a continent of lush forests to a frozen wasteland? After all, this part of ancient Gondwana had already drifted over the southern polar region during the Cretaceous. Thus, Antarctica is not simply a frozen wasteland because it lies at the Pole.

This chapter describes why the Swedish tax-financed service sector is of interest to other countries. While the Swedish welfare state is among the largest in the rich world, most countries face similar policy trade-offs because of rising demands and demographic challenges. It is a challenge for all democracies to achieve cost efficiency without sacrificing quality and fairness. We introduce the main elements of the Swedish model and explain how major reforms in the last decades have turned the country into a giant laboratory from which others can learn. The extensive use of private for-profit firms in tax-financed service provision might surprise many readers. But it is precisely this combination of social ambitions and market forces that has created unique experiences. The chapter introduces the Swedish development and its underlying forces.

Can herbivores account for the widespread occurrence of open ecosystems? Some suggest that Pleistocene megafauna did so, and large mammal herbivory is still important in some regions today. Exclosure studies have been widely used to test herbivore impacts on trees, but global patterns of the ‘brown world’ are not readily seen from satellites. Areas of mammal consumer dominance occur in cool temperate/boreal regions (e.g. Tibetan montane grasslands) and savannas in Africa, but not in those in Australia or South America. Herbivores vary in their impact on openness of vegetation because of differences in body size, feeding mode, predator avoidance behaviour while plants also differ in their defences and accessibility. Unlike fire, proxies are lacking for how extinct herbivores, even giant sauropods, impacted vegetation. Very few studies deal explicitly with how vertebrate herbivores help create and maintain open ecosystems where climates are suitable for forests, and there is an urgent need to find out more.

While visiting Galápagos, the young Charles Darwin was confused by the similarity of various finches he observed. We now understand that what we see as different finch species are “species before speciation is complete.” The confusion is inherent: many of them remain similar enough to form fertile hybrids. But a robust difference exists between the groups of ground finches and tree finches, raising the question, what prompted the evolution of that clear distinction? The primary habitats for tree finches are tree species of the wonderful Galápagos daisy genus, Scalesia, that dominate the forests of the humid areas of various islands. Did the evolution of daisies into trees influence the evolution of differences between ground and tree finches? For that matter, how did highland trees evolve from lowland shrubby daisies, thus forming the highland habitat for tree finches? Several lines of evidence, including a contemporary interaction analysis of various birds and trees, suggest that the giant daisies of Galápagos and the tree species of Darwin’s finches coevolved.

Elephants are highly generalized herbivores with a wide dietary range encompassing natural vegetation and cultivated crops. Their foraging strategies vary across different temporal and spatial contexts, as well as among distinct social groups. A significant number of elephants in Asia and Africa reside beyond the boundaries of national parks, nature reserves, and protected areas. Consequently, many elephants face elevated risks of mortality or injury while seeking essential nutrients. This chapter provides an overview of the critical role played by dry-zone forests as habitats for elephants. Furthermore, it explores how human-dominated landscapes influence elephant feeding behaviors and foraging strategies, emphasizing the need to enhance our current understanding of these behaviors and their implications for the future.

Should groves of quaking aspen in the National Forests of southwestern Colorado be maintained for those who delight in them, “so vibrant with light and motion, forever restless, always whispering, in tune like ballerinas to the music of the air,” and for ranchers, whose cows perhaps delight in the grass and shade they provide? Or should the trees be sold to Louisiana Pacific, which has figured out how to turn them into a cheaper substitute for plywood, thereby providing jobs in a not-too-prosperous area? Should portions of BLM land in the Mohave Desert be open to motorcycle races that draw thousands of participants, who “really love this sort of thing” and spend a lot of money in local communities? Or should they be withdrawn from off-road use as “critical habitat” for the endangered desert tortoise? Answers to questions like these may add up to one sort of answer to the question, “How should public lands be managed?” Insofar as the uses proposed for different parcels are consistent (so that, for example, silt from a logging operation doesn't destroy a downstream fishery), these answers will constitute a coherent plan of use for public lands. But this is not the kind of answer privatization advocates give. They do not argue directly for some pattern of use, local or global. Instead, they maintain that a system in which resources are private and individuals decide how theirs are to be used is better than one in which the private use of public resources is regulated by collective decisions. That is, they take the question “How should public lands be managed?” to ask not for a giant management plan that specifies the best use of each acre, but for a description of the institutions which best constrain decisions about use. Privatization advocates do propose to judge land-management institutions by results, but not by how closely these results fit some pattern they are prepared to specify in advance. Like politicians who tailor their pitch to their audience, they may suggest to each of various groups—environmentalists, loggers, ranchers, and others—that their interests in public lands will be better served by private management.

Abstract Búzios is the largest ultra-deep water oil field in the world, located on the Brazilian coast, in the pre-salt polygon. Its development has taken place at an accelerated pace, with more than 60 wells already drilled and 4 FPSO's operating by the end of 2022, and a forecast of 7 more installed up to 2026, and at least 80 more wells till 2030. In this way, well configurations represent a great challenge, requiring technological and technical developments to allow high production flow and maintenance of integrity throughout the field's productive life, estimated in 30 years. Several well configurations, whether in drilling or in completion, were applied with greater or lesser success, bringing objective results in the reduction of time in well construction: from 130 days at the beginning of development to durations of less than 80 days, reducing CAPEX and increasing the rate of return on investment. This work aims to describe the various challenges faced in the design of well projects and construction, whether in drilling or completion, as well as how the geological characteristics of the field influenced the choices and methodologies adopted. In addition, demonstrate how the methodologies contributed to improve the quality of construction and linked to the reduction of time and costs.

Effective use of progenitor cells in orthopaedic tissue engineering will require a thorough understanding of the mechanisms by which forces are transmitted and sensed, and how these change with differentiation. Nesprins are a family of structural proteins that partially localize to the nuclear envelope where they interact with both cytoskeletal and nucleoskeletal proteins [1]. At their C-terminus, nesprins interact through a KASH domain with proteins of the nuclear membrane, including SUN and Lamin A/C [1]. Multiple isoforms of the 4 nesprin genes are produced by alternative transcriptional initiation, translation and splicing. Specifically, nesprin 1 and nesprin 2 giant contain an N-terminal calponin homology domain (CH) that binds to and co-localizes with F-actin [2]. These nesprins are necessary for transmission of stress to the nucleus and are also differentially regulated with myogenesis, neurogenesis and adipogenesis [3,4]. We previously demonstrated that addition of TGF-3 induced nuclear Lamin A/C reorganization and nuclear stiffening in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), along with increased cell contractility and altered accumulation of smaller nesprin isoforms [5,6]. This study sought to determine the importance of contractility in transmission of force to the nucleus and the effect of dynamic loading on the expression of the giant nesprin isoforms.

Abstract Having a robust field development plan (FDP) for mid-size mature oil fields generally poses considerable challenges in the context of the integrational elements of production forecast, operational environment, projects and surface facilities. An integrated FDP combined with data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) has been introduced and deployed in a heavily compartmentalized offshore field of Turkmenistan. An integrated approach through data-centric analytics and AI has been proposed for an optimal FDP. It consists of four aspects: model integration, time-series forecast (TSF) of production, AI-assisted operation-schedule generation, and evaluation and selection of scenarios. Firstly, model integration is performed as bringing together both multi-discipline raw data from field measurement and their interpretations that change non-linearly. Secondly, model integration aids in the application of AI for production forecast. A unique AI technique was built to allow raw data and interpretation. Illustratively, the model is capable of forecasting decline curves matching the history production. Meanwhile, engineers’ production forecast inheriting from simulation, machine learning or type curves is also constructed by understanding how/why human-driven forecasts differ from the measured decline and incorporating those insights. In addition, AI-assisted scheduler efficiently allocates resources for operational activities, considering the well planning nature, intrinsic operation properties, project planning process, surface facilities and expenditures. Resources are thus utilized for optimal schedules. Finally, evaluation and selection of FDP scenarios take place by considering the multidimensional matrix of factors. Multiple scenarios are generated and scored, reacting to the change of factors. AI-powered optimization is availed to recommend the most efficient tradeoffs between production and carbon generation. The implementation of the integrated FDP approach has been successfully applied for the generation of production profiles and operation schedules, which reduces the time by 80% and increasing accuracy by 55%. Production forecast for existing wells and future wells proved to be reliable. It achieved the production targets with proper allocation of schedules, by considering multi-discipline constraints. Through AI-assisted scheduler, different types of rigs were properly assigned to the planned wells, which requires additional rigs based on the outcome. The model was agile to the change and sensitivities of wells requirement, projects uncertainties and cost changes. The optimum FDP scenario was recommended for the business decision, operation guide and execution. This approach represents a novel and innovative means of integrating and optimizing FDP considering complex factors using AI methods. It is efficient in merging raw data and interpretations for model integration. It accommodates changes and uncertainties from multiple aspects and efficiently generates optimum FDP in a few days rather than months for giant fields. It is the first robust tool that unites subsurface properties, reservoir engineering, production, drilling, projects, engineering and finance for the corporate FDP.

China has been a rising power in East Asia for decades. The end of the Cold War and the increasing effects of globalization brought the country in the forefront of attention on the international scene. The economic importance of the East Asian giant cannot be denied. Its economic power has been translating into a powerful tool to upset the balance of power tremendously. China has been expanding its influence around the globe and challenging the status quo more than ever before. The United States, the strongest state in the current international system has to pay attention to the increasingly assertive China. The USA uses several strategies to mitigate the threat China poses to the world order that the USA built. The structural forces of the international system, the Covid-19 pandemic, and American domestic politics make the threat of rising China more challenging. In my paper, I try to identify the balancing strategies of the United States in the 21st century against China. In my opinion, the application of neoclassical realist school of international relations can foreshadow the possible paths of the conflict. The United States of America has to use a wide variety of balancing strategies in order to counter the threat. A heavier reliance on allies is inevitable for the United States if it wants to contain the increasing influence of China around the globe. The USA should increase its hard-, soft-, and asymmetrical balancing methods mixed with smart power strategies to remain on the top of the international system. In my opinion, the showdown between China and the United States of America will be inevitable in the medium term. If the USA uses its position right, the peaceful containment of Chinese ambitions is possible. The successes of the above-mentioned strategies will decide how the competition of these two countries shape the international relations in the coming decades.

Aim/Purpose: This paper addressed the topics of sustainable agronomy, aquaculture, hydroponics and soil monitoring methods that show how to move towards a repairing mode and bioremediation in many locations across the globe. Background: Sixty percent of the world’s major terrestrial ecosystems are being degraded; the human ecological footprint is spreading across the globe. The major human impact on terrestrial ecosystems in the form of depletion of ground water, over grazing of livestock, clearing for agriculture, timber and urban development, soil damage from off road vehicles, hydroelectric dams and reservoirs, and air pollution from urban areas and power plants. The cost to bio remediate is in the trillions. Methodology: AG biotech methodologies and applications Contribution: The paper bridges such gaps and informs about brave entrepreneurs and university and community individuals with innovative ideas and emerging technologies that gain the momentum for funding and monitoring nutrient uptake and toxic removal of harmful chemicals from water, soil, plants and fish for restoration to take place. Such techniques begin to conquer the giant by restoring the wealth to our soils and water, rural and urban farmlands and forests that retain and capture natural capital and ensure that nutrition and value added resources minerals are not lost. Findings: Biomonapp can detect and make recommendations for repairing & making sustainable solutions, many entrepreneurs & academics have pioneered ways to find SUS solutions Recommendations for Practitioners: Read from the articles and books listed in the references of this paper to understand the need for bioremediation. Use Biomonapp to diagnose water, soil & fish problems & find solutions. Attend conferences & seminars about SUS responsibility & phytoremediation Recommendation for Researchers: To investigate the phytoremediation and bioremediation techniques. Applications for Biomonapp for plants, water, soil, & animals to rejuvenate and repair water, soil and urban & rural communities Impact on Society: These ideas give the power back to local people who can learn to enhance their lives not only by foods but the sustainable green jobs that are being created to make sure urban and rural areas truly are sustainable. Future Research: The results of monitoring with biosensors & bio monitoring methods with regards to sustainable bioremediation, renovating, continued SUS responsibility training, continued evidence of repair and protecting natural capital & ecosystem services

Banyuwangi is a highly unique and dyamic locality. Situated in between several ‘giants’ traditionally known as centres of culture and tourism, that is, Bali to the east, larger Java to the west, Borneo to the north, and Alas Purwo forest to the south, Banyuwangi is a hub for culture and metaphysical attention, but has, over the past few decades, become a focus of poltical disourse, in Indonesia. Its cultural and spiritual practices are renowned throughout both Indonesia and Southeast Asia, yet Banyuwangi seems quite content to conceal many of its cosmological practices, its spirituality and connected cultural and language dynamics. Here, a binary constructed by the national government between institutionalized religions (Hinduism, Islam and at times Chritianity) and the liminalized Animism, Kejawen, Ruwatan and the occult, supposedly leading to ‘witch hunts,’ have increased the cultural significance of Banyuwangi. Yet, the construction of this binary has intensifed the Osing community’s affiliation to religious spiritualistic heritage, ultimately encouraging the Osing community to stylize its religious and cultural symbolisms as an extensive set of sequenced annual rituals. The Osing community has spawned a culture of spirituality and religion, which in Geertz’s terms, is highly syncretic, thus reflexively complexifying the symbolisms of the community, and which continue to propagate their religion and heritage, be in internally. These practices materialize through a complex sequence of (approximately) twelve annual festivals, comprising performance and language in the form of dance, food, mantra, prayer, and song. The study employs a theory of frames (see work by Bateson, Goffman) to locate language and visual symbolisms, and to determine how these symbolisms function in context. This study and presentation draw on a several yaer ethnography of Banyuwangi, to provide an insight into the cultural and lingusitic symbolisms of the Osing people in Banyuwangi. The study first documets these sequenced rituals, to develop a map of the symbolic underpinnings of these annually sequenced highly performative rituals. Employing a symbolic interpretive framework, and including discourse analysis of both language and performance, the study utlimately presents that the Osing community continuously, that is, annually, reinvigorates its comples clustering of religious andn cultural symbols, which are layered and are in flux with overlapping narratives, such as heritage, the national poltical and the transnational.