bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Prospects for the Protection of the Stone Heritage of the Małopolska Vistula River Gorge
Authors: Bobrowska Alicja , Jagoda Ewa , Domonik Andrzej , Łukasiak Dominik , Gajek Grzegorz
Published: September 2024

The aim of this research is to present the abiotic geological environment, morphology and the need to protect geoenvironment and the possibilities of using the geoheritage of mining districts of the region located between Zawichost and Puławy city, within the Geopark. The Geopark is the best example of scientific and educational presentation of Mesozoic and Cenozoic outcrops along the Vistula gorge. The Cretaceous sediments (Middle Albian to Maastrichtian) are especially significant, they are unique on the European scale, showing a record of the evolution of the sea basin - from the Middle Cretaceous transgression and its disappearance at the end of the Cretaceous. The landscape and geomorphological values ​​constituting the heritage of the region are extremely important. An additional circumstance conducive to the creation of the Geopark is the fact that in the area covered by the project, areas of geological heritage protection have been operating for many years and tourist traditions date back to the 18th century.
Definition of characteristic subsidence parameters. A case study in the Catalan potassium basin
Authors: Sidki-Rius Nor , Bascompta Marc , Sanmiquel Lluís , Yubero Maria Teresa
Published: September 2024

Subsidence is one of the main environmental impacts of underground mining worldwide. Besides, the increasing complexity of underground mining due to greater depths and interaction with inhabited and environmentally sensitive areas can lead to challenges that may threaten the viability of mining due to phenomena such as subsidence. This research aims to increase the knowledge about surface subsidence due to underground mining, characterising the main factors that rule mining subsidence utilising an actual mine that extracts potash. The calculation methodology was based on 74 sections of the subsidence basin, using GPS measurements and the InSAR technique, with data collected over twelve nonconsecutive years from 1995 to 2021. Thus, three different active areas and one residual area were determined. Average boundary angles and their average distances of influence for the active regions have also been determined. Furthermore, using the least squares method, the subsidence basin curve was defined using a Gaussian function. The algorithm that governs the subsidence process has been successfully calculated, allowing the approximation of the deformation of any point within an area of interest. The novelty of this paper is twofold: the results obtained provide a detailed subsidence behaviour and a prediction model of the case study. Furthermore, the methodology implemented can be applied to other subsidence basins with mines in their area of influence. Hence improving the surface mining area’s safety levels and managing the environmental impacts.
Validating a Short-Form Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire Among Chinese Early Adolescents
Authors: Hu Hui , Lyu Renhui , Dai Xiaolu , Lu Shuang
Published: September 2024

Objectives

While an increasing number of mindfulness-based interventions have shown promising effects in improving child and youth well-being, mindfulness research remains challenged by using valid multifaceted measurements to operationalize the complicated concept of mindfulness across cultural contexts. This study examines the psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the short-form Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) in Chinese nonclinical early adolescents.

Method

Participants were 551 Chinese early adolescents (mean age = 10.38 ± 0.80, 41.38% girls). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) were conducted to test factor structure and dimensionality of the short-form FFMQ. Measurement invariance was tested by gender and grade. Internal consistency and convergent validity were assessed.

Results

Our results support the validity of a three-factor, 15-item version of the FFMQ (FFMQ-15) that includes Attention (4 items from the original Actaware subscale, 1 item from the Describe subscale), Observe (4 items from the Observe subscale, 1 item from the Nonreact subscale), and Internal Awareness (3 items from the Nonjudge subscale, 2 items from the Describe subscale). Cronbach’s α for the FFMQ-15 total score was 0.82, and McDonald’s ω was 0.86 (subscales: α = 0.66 to 0.79, ω = 0.71 to 0.82). FFMQ-15 showed acceptable measurement invariance across gender and grade. These findings support the internal consistency and validity of FFMQ-15 among Chinese early adolescents.

Conclusions

This study validates a short-version FFMQ among Chinese early adolescents. Our findings warrant further cross-cultural research of adolescents’ understanding of mindfulness facets.

Preregistration

This study is not preregistered.
The selection traits of mite non-reproduction (MNR) and Varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH) show high variance in subsequent generations and require intensive time investment to evaluate
Authors: Sprau Lina , Gessler Birgit , Liebsch Melanie , Traynor Kirsten , Rosenkranz Peter , Hasselmann Martin
Published: September 2024

The honey bee ectoparasite Varroa destructor is the main cause of honey bee colony losses worldwide. Over the last decades, several projects have focused on improving the robustness of Apis mellifera against this parasitic mite. Selection traits, such as mite non-reproduction (MNR) and Varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH), are favored selection factors in Varroa resistance projects. VSH is a trait where adult honey bees remove the Varroa-infested brood. During this process, the female mites are arrested in their reproductive cycle leading to a reduction of the Varroa population within the bee colony. From 2019 to 2022, 1402 queens were instrumentally inseminated with single or multiple drones in a breeding program. Colonies headed by these queens were established annually, and the MNR and VSH levels were analyzed. VSH was evaluated in response to cells artificially infested with Varroa, and colonies with high VSH values were used to generate our selected VSH stock. Despite crossing high VSH drones and queens, we measured a remarkable heterogeneity of MNR and VSH in the next generation(s), most likely due to the well-described, high recombination rate in the honey bee genome. When assessed multiple times in the same colony, great variance between measurements was observed. Detailed evaluations of daughter colonies are thus required if selection programs want to breed colonies with reliable VSH traits. This constant need to evaluate all offspring to ensure the desirable resistance traits are present results in high workloads and great expenses in selection programs. Furthermore, such large-scale breeding programs are inefficient due to high fluctuations between measurements and generations, indicating we need to develop new approaches and improved methods for assessing Varroa resistance.
Expanding horizons of iminosugars as broad-spectrum anti-virals: mechanism, efficacy and novel developments
Authors: Liu Qiantong , Liu Yanyun , Liu Tingting , Fan Jinbao , Xia Zanxian , Zhou Yingjun , Deng Xu
Published: September 2024

Iminosugars, a class of polyhydroxylated cyclic alkaloids with intriguing properties, hold promising therapeutic potentials against a broad spectrum of enveloped viruses, including DENV, HCV, HIV, and influenza viruses. Mechanistically, iminosugars act as the competitive inhibitors of host endoplasmic reticular α-glucosidases I and II to  disrupt the proper folding of viral nascent glycoproteins, which thereby exerts antiviral effects. Remarkably, the glycoproteins of many enveloped viruses are significantly more dependent on the calnexin pathway of the protein folding than most host glycoproteins. Therefore, extensive interests and efforts have been devoted to exploit iminosugars as broad-spectrum antiviral agents. This review provides the summary and insights into the recent advancements in the development of novel iminosugars as effective and selective antiviral agents against a variety of enveloped viruses, as well as the understandings of their antiviral mechanisms.

Graphical Abstract
A new human opisthorchiasis outbreak in central Italy: a never-ending story
Authors: Papalini Chiara , Gómez-Morales Maria Angeles , Mercuri Alessandra , Stolaj Elisa , Brancaleoni Maria Grazia , Fusco Moffa Igino , Lo Vaglio Giovanni , Ludovisi Alessandra , Marucci Gianluca , Francisci Daniela
Published: September 2024

Purpose

Opisthorchis felineus is a trematode causing a foodborne infection transmitted by raw freshwater fish belonging to Cyprinidae family. Human outbreaks in Italy dated back to 2003–2011 and involved lakes of Central Italy. The aim of this study is to report epidemiological and clinical characteristics of the human opisthorchiasis outbreak occurred in Central Italy in 2022 comparing it with previous events.

Methods

We report cases diagnosed from June to December 2022 in Perugia hospital thanks to serological and molecular tests and direct examination of feces.

Results

Sixty-seven individuals were traced back by epidemiological investigation. Forty-seven received a diagnosis of opisthorchiasis, of which 45 were confirmed cases and two were considered as probable cases. These 47 individuals attended a Trasimeno lakeshore restaurant in May 2022. All but 20 presented symptoms, mostly fever. Sixteen (15 confirmed and 1 probable) cases required hospitalization. Feces examination revealed Opisthorchis spp. eggs in 35/45 (78%) confirmed cases. Thirty individuals underwent to serology and molecular stool test: 5 (16.7%) results positive to the former, 1 (3.3%) to the latter while 4 (13.3%) to both. Laboratory tests, available in 28 patients, showed eosinophilia in 82.1%, increase of alanine aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyl transferase and alkaline phosphatase in 64.3%, 75% and 67.9%, respectively. Because of pharmacy shortage of praziquantel, 22 patients were treated with albendazole, of which 13 failed clearing the parasite.

Conclusion

Opisthorchiasis still represents a challenging diagnosis, in particular for asymptomatic patients. Albendazole may lead to treatment failure. Control measures in known endemic areas should be implemented.

Trial registration

number 27,498/23/ON, approved by Ethical Committee of Umbrian Region in 09.13.2023.
Lie 2-groups from loop group extensions
Authors: Ludewig Matthias , Waldorf Konrad
Published: September 2024

We give a very simple construction of the string 2-group as a strict Fréchet Lie 2-group. The corresponding crossed module is defined using the conjugation action of the loop group on its central extension, which drastically simplifies several constructions previously given in the literature. More generally, we construct strict 2-group extensions for a Lie group from a central extension of its based loop group, under the assumption that this central extension is disjoint commutative. We show in particular that this condition is automatic in the case that the Lie group is semisimple and simply connected.
Der Einfluss von empowerment-orientierter Führung und der Unternehmenskultur auf das umweltorientierte Verhalten von Beschäftigten in Unternehmen
Authors: Stamer Katja
Published: September 2024

Dieser Beitrag untersucht zunächst, inwiefern Beschäftigte die umweltorientierte strategische Ausrichtung und die damit verbundenen Bewertungskennzahlen im eigenen Unternehmen kennen. Weiter wird überprüft, ob eine umweltorientierte Unternehmenskultur sowie ein empowerment-orientierter Führungsstil das umweltorientierte Verhalten von Beschäftigten in Unternehmen beeinflussen. Auf Basis eines querschnittlichen Untersuchungsdesigns und einer Stichprobe von Befragten (N = 290) aus deutschen Industrieunternehmen werden dafür deskriptive Analysen durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Beschäftigten ohne Führungsfunktion oftmals Kenntnisse über die umweltorientierte strategische Ausrichtung, den davon abgeleiteten Maßnahmen und den damit verbundenen Kennzahlen fehlen. Dennoch hat das Erleben einer umweltorientierten Kultur und der Einfluss eines empowerment-orientierten Führungsstils einen positiven Einfluss auf das umweltorientierte Verhalten der Beschäftigten.

Praktische Relevanz Aktuell schreitet die Energiewende in Deutschland zu langsam voran, um die Klimaziele für 2045 – definiert im Generationenvertrag – zu erreichen. Deutsche Unternehmen sind maßgeblich an der Erreichung der Klimaziele beteiligt, und Beschäftigte haben mit ihrem Verhalten einen großen Einfluss auf die Erreichung der Unternehmensziele. Deshalb ist es von großer Bedeutung zu erfahren, welche innerbetrieblichen Faktoren wichtig und einzusetzen sind, um das umweltorientierte Verhalten der Beschäftigten erfolgreich zu fördern. Dabei liegt in dieser Untersuchung der Schwerpunkt auf der umweltorientierten Strategie, der Unternehmenskultur und dem empowerment-orientierten Führungsstil, um aus den Ergebnissen entsprechende Handlungsfelder für Führungskräfte und Personalverantwortliche in den Unternehmen abzuleiten.
Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) and the Family Caregivers’ Burden: A Qualitative Study
Authors: Savarese Giulia , Carpinelli Luna , Russo Claudio , Stornaiuolo Giovanna , Luisi Ettore , Pellegrino Francesca , Mollo Monica , Barone Paolo , Pellecchia Maria Teresa
Published: September 2024

Multiple systemic atrophy (MSA) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, also characterized by autonomic failure in varying degrees of severity. Caregivers are central to the care and support of people with MSA. This paper aims to investigate and discuss: (a) the most common emotions and reactions among caregivers of MSA patients and how these affect their psychological well-being, (b) the change in caregivers’ quality of life during the progression of the patient’s disease, (c) what are the specific experiences and challenges related to communicating with patients, (d) new strategies and pathways of psychological and social support for caregivers. Sixteen caregivers (mean age 49.63; 75%F) of MSA patients were interviewed through a semi-structured protocol based on two open-ended questions. Through the qualitative analysis, six dominant clusters were identified: cognitive aspects (1), social roles (2), aspects of the patient’s illness (3), practical aspects of patient management (4), emotional-behavioral aspects of the caregiver (5), and acceptance and accompaniment (6). Caregivers of MSA patients report the difficulty of caring for their patients, not only from a physical/organizational point of view but especially from an emotional point of view, suggesting that caregivers are burdened by the expected future effects of neurological disease in general.
Evaluating fine tuned deep learning models for real-time earthquake damage assessment with drone-based images
Authors: Kizilay Furkan , Narman Mina R. , Song Hwapyeong , Narman Husnu S. , Cosgun Cumhur , Alzarrad Ammar
Published: September 2024

Earthquakes pose a significant threat to life and property worldwide. Rapid and accurate assessment of earthquake damage is crucial for effective disaster response efforts. This study investigates the feasibility of employing deep learning models for damage detection using drone imagery. We explore the adaptation of models like VGG16 for object detection through transfer learning and compare their performance to established object detection architectures like YOLOv8 (You Only Look Once) and Detectron2. Our evaluation, based on various metrics including mAP, mAP50, and recall, demonstrates the superior performance of YOLOv8 in detecting damaged buildings within drone imagery, particularly for cases with moderate bounding box overlap. This finding suggests its potential suitability for real-world applications due to the balance between accuracy and efficiency. Furthermore, to enhance real-world feasibility, we explore two strategies for enabling the simultaneous operation of multiple deep learning models for video processing: frame splitting and threading. In addition, we optimize model size and computational complexity to facilitate real-time processing on resource-constrained platforms, such as drones. This work contributes to the field of earthquake damage detection by (1) demonstrating the effectiveness of deep learning models, including adapted architectures, for damage detection from drone imagery, (2) highlighting the importance of evaluation metrics like mAP50 for tasks with moderate bounding box overlap requirements, and (3) proposing methods for ensemble model processing and model optimization to enhance real-world feasibility. The potential for real-time damage assessment using drone-based deep learning models offers significant advantages for disaster response by enabling rapid information gathering to support resource allocation, rescue efforts, and recovery operations in the aftermath of earthquakes.
An Anthropologist Fails to Become a Fish: Multispecies Sensing in the Anthropocene
Authors: Buttacavoli Matthew
Published: September 2024

How well do we know how non-humans experience environmental stressors and how do we communicate that knowledge as educators? This paper addresses these questions by way of an auto-ethnographic account of the author’s experience of attempting to listen to the Great Barrier Reef, off the Queensland coast. Through a series of methodological failures and roadblocks, this paper discusses the difficulties in understanding non-human sensory worlds. Following the auto-ethnographic account, the paper explores how anthropological pedagogies can contribute to environmental education of non-human experiences more broadly. The paper uses anthropological pedagogy to draw an analogy between ethnocentrism/cultural relativism and anthropocentrism/ecocentrism. Utilising practices of “third place” then demonstrates how the latter terms of these relationships are correctives to the former terms rather than oppositions. This paper concludes by suggesting ways in which the lessons learned can be applied to environmental education. It recommends creating a third space environmental curriculum which defamiliarises human experience and creates a zone of contact between humans and non-humans. The use of mediating technologies and artistic practice in conjunction with scientific education is recommended to maintain a critical perspective of human knowledge and biological limitations in creating experiential relationships with the environment.
Digital Technology in Outdoor and Environmental Education: Affects, Assemblages and Curriculum-Making
Authors: Lynch Jonathan , Thomas Herbert
Published: September 2024

Researchers across outdoor and environmental education (OEE) are drawing on relational ontologies to break down dualisms, human-centric thinking and challenge neoliberal education that focusses on outcomes and achievements. Digital technology has been seen as problematic in OEE because of its distracting qualities within notions of authentic outdoor experiences. Re-conceptualising digital technology as something learners are entangled with — rejecting a dualistic position — offers a nuanced way of understanding how digital technology could be harnessed for OEE. This research presents speculative findings from a new materialist inspired project on how teachers considered video-making and the more-than-human in OEE. Working with assemblage theory and attention to affect, we portray ways assemblages of video-making and the more-than-human can shape OEE in new ways. Implications for educators in how they might assemble OEE with technology are suggested.
Collective Voice without Collective Bargaining: Pandemic Induced Wage Theft Claims and Worker Responses in Apparel Supply Chains
Authors: Kumarage Achalie
Published: September 2024

Concentrated corporate power and failures to manage the distribution of risk mean that workers bear the heaviest burden in globalised apparel supply chains. Law and associated normative frameworks seek to strengthen collective worker voice and other worker rights to tip the scales of unequal bargaining power to benefit the workers. However, some of the traditional tools of labour law such as unionising and collective bargaining have weakened over the years and exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a conceptual framework based on regulatory theory, feminist insights, and semi-autonomous social fields, this article examines the law-practice gap for regulating just wages within the apparel supply chain, responses, and how workers fight wage theft and carve out pathways to demand just wage standards. Drawing from the case of Sri Lanka, the article discusses how alternative forms of worker voice seek to fill in the implementation gaps. The findings of this study demonstrate worker initiatives to shape the regulation of just wages and how networked labour activism, especially by women workers, prompts to re-imagine structures of actor accountability on wage rights.
Disparities in the Representation of Sex, Race and Ethnicity in Tension-Type Headache Clinical Trials
Authors: Tao Brendan , Tsai Chia-Chen , Marzoughi Sina , Kalo Carmen , Lo Jaden , Ebadi Arya , Lagman-Bartolome Ana Marissa , Khosa Faisal
Published: September 2024

While tension-type headache (TTH) is the most common primary headache disorder, its effect according to sex, race and ethnicity remains unclear. We investigated disparities in sex, racial and ethnic representation in TTH clinical trials with comparison to global disease burdens. In this cross-sectional analysis, TTH clinical trials had female overrepresentation and racial and ethnic minority underrepresentation, which may affect understanding of the impact of TTH on different populations and personalized treatment development. Trial enrollment that is diverse and reflective of global disease burdens is crucial for improving study generalizability, understanding of diverse clinical presentations, and ensuring healthcare equity.
Quelques mythes à propos du système vocalique de l'arabe du Caire
Authors: Fathi Radwa
Published: September 2024

Depuis Spitta-Bey (1880), une littérature riche et détaillée décrit invariablement l'inventaire vocalique de surface de l'arabe du Caire comme incluant des voyelles moyennes brèves, [e] et [o]. Une nouvelle ère s'ouvre un siècle plus tard avec l'apparition soudaine d'un consensus massif sur l'idée que les voyelles moyennes brèves ne sont pas attestées en arabe cairote. Une différence d'une telle nature et d'une telle ampleur a nécessairement des conséquences sur l'analyse du système phonologique. Certaines de ces conséquences sont mises en évidence dans le présent article. Il est montré que le déni de la présence de [e] et [o] dans la langue conduit mécaniquement à inférer l'existence de processus phonologiques fictifs, et qu'une description de la réalité impose la reconnaissance de ces voyelles. La littérature pertinente est passée en revue, des tests originaux permettant de vérifier cette affirmation sont proposés, ainsi que le témoignage de mesures instrumentales.
El Pueblo Tribal Afrodescendiente Chileno en el proceso constituyente, 2019–2022: De la exclusión al reconocimiento limitado
Authors: Mardones Marshall Antonia , Amigo Dürre Ricardo , Cortés Silva Carolina
Published: September 2024

El presente artículo aborda los alcances y limitaciones del reconocimiento obtenido por el Pueblo Tribal Afrodescendiente Chileno en el proceso constituyente iniciado en Chile luego de la revuelta social de 2019 y, particularmente, en las deliberaciones de la Convención Constitucional que sesionó entre 2021 y 2022. Además de analizar la presentación y votación de normas relacionadas con el Pueblo Tribal Afrodescendiente, el principal foco está puesto en los discursos de los/as convencionales constituyentes relacionados con dichas normas. Mediante un análisis crítico del discurso, se identifican tres ejes discursivos que enmarcaron el apoyo o rechazo de iniciativas en torno al reconocimiento afrodescendiente, vinculados al significado de la categoría jurídica de “pueblo tribal”, a la cuestión de la preexistencia y a la extranjerización. El artículo concluye con una discusión de las posturas adoptadas por diferentes sectores de la Convención, identificando algunos imaginarios que comportaron límites para la inclusión del pueblo afrochileno en la propuesta constitucional.
Pubertal timing mediates the association between threat adversity and psychopathology
Authors: Shaul Michelle , Whittle Sarah , Silk Timothy J. , Vijayakumar Nandita
Published: September 2024

Background

Exposure to adversity in childhood is a risk factor for lifetime mental health problems. Altered pace of biological aging, as measured through pubertal timing, is one potential explanatory pathway for this risk. This study examined whether pubertal timing mediated the association between adversity (threat and deprivation) and adolescent mental health problems (internalizing and externalizing), and whether this was moderated by sex.

Methods

Aims were examined using the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study, a large community sample from the United States. Data were used from three timepoints across the ages of 9–14 years. Latent scores from confirmatory factor analysis operationalized exposure to threat and deprivation. Bayesian mixed-effects regression models tested whether pubertal timing in early adolescence mediated the relationship between adversity exposure and later internalizing and externalizing problems. Sex was examined as a potential moderator of this pathway.

Results

Both threat and deprivation were associated with later internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Threat, but not deprivation, was associated with earlier pubertal timing, which mediated the association of threat with internalizing and externalizing problems. Sex differences were only observed in the direct association between adversity and internalizing problems, but no such differences were present for mediating pathways.

Conclusions

Adversity exposure had similar associations with the pace of biological aging (as indexed by pubertal timing) and mental health problems in males and females. However, the association of adversity on pubertal timing appears to depend on the dimension of adversity experienced, with only threat conferring risk of earlier pubertal timing.
Characteristics associated with progression to probable dementia with Lewy bodies in a cohort with very late-onset psychosis
Authors: Gibson Lucy L , Mueller Christoph , Stewart Robert , Aarsland Dag
Published: September 2024

Background

Very late-onset psychosis (VLOP) is associated with higher rates of dementia but the proportion who develop dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is unknown. We aimed to identify individuals with VLOP who develop dementia and DLB and characterize the risk factors for progression.

Methods

Anonymized data were retrieved from electronic records for individuals with VLOP. Patients developing dementia after psychosis were identified, in addition to those with >2 core features of DLB at the time of dementia or DLB identified by a natural language processing application (NLP-DLB). Demographic factors, Health of the National Outcome Scale (HoNOS) and symptoms at index psychosis were explored as predictors of progression to dementia.

Results

In 1425 patients with VLOP over 4.29 years (mean) follow up, 197 (13.8%) received a subsequent diagnosis of dementia. Of these, 24.4% (n = 48) had >2 core features of DLB and 6% (n = 12) had NLP-DLB. In cox proportional hazard models, older age and cognitive impairment at the time of psychosis were associated with increased risk of incident dementia. Visual hallucinations and 2+ core features of DLB at index psychosis were associated with increased risk of dementia with 2+ symptoms of DLB but not all-cause dementia. Two or more core features of DLB at index psychosis were associated with 81% specificity and 67% sensitivity for incident NLP-DLB.

Conclusions

In patients with VLOP who develop dementia, core features of DLB are common. Visual hallucinations or two core features of DLB in VLOP should prompt clinicians to consider DLB and support further investigation.
Light penetration and topography shape juvenile tree species assemblies in the understory of the tropical Andean cloud forest
Authors: Quevedo-Rojas Ana , Jerez-Rico Mauricio , Fariñas Mario R. , Schwarzkopf Teresa , García-Núñez Carlos
Published: September 2024

The floristic composition of the understory plays a fundamental role in the long-term conservation of the diversity, structure, and function of mountain cloud forests in the Andes. We evaluated the relationship between the understory tree floristic composition of four types of predefined cloud forests and the canopy structure, the light transmitted to the understory, and the effect of topography. Through multivariate analysis, we found an environmental gradient correlated with light penetration into the understory and a gradient associated with the slope and, to a lesser extent, with the elevation. Then, we identified floristically well-differentiated ecological groups in response to environmental conditions; however, the groups only partially coincided with the understory composition of the predefined forests. We found environmental response species groups such as Roupala obovata and Beilschmiedia sulcata that are indicator species of sites with lower light penetration into the understory but with steeper slopes and higher elevation. In comparison, Clusia multiflora and Zanthoxylum quinduense to be the main indicator species from sites with greater light penetration into the understory and lower slope and elevation. These findings support appropriate species selection when implementing restoration strategies in forest landscape restoration plans.
Hans Küng: Theologian with Feelers
Authors: Kerr Fergus
Published: September 2024

The headway of reform in English-speaking Cathohcism owes a great deal to the intrepidity of Fr Hans Küng's publishers. The spectacular popularity of The Council and Reunion, the paperback which made his name, demonstrated his charismatic audacity in bringing out into the open what a vast number of reflective Catholics had long been nervously and fumblingly trying to articulate for themselves. Of course extravagant claims have been made for him: he is not the long-awaited new Aquinas nor the anti-Christ. He is a hardworking theologian with some good ideas, as the only two major studies he has so far written bear witness. The first of these is Rechtfertigung (1957), a confrontation of Karl Barth's doctrine of justification with Catholic teaching; and the second is Strukturen der Kirche (1962), an attempt to situate the papacy with regard to the episcopal college and the general Council inside the mystery of the Church. Neither of these books is yet available in English.
Sentiment or Devotion
Authors: Ginns Reginald
Published: September 2024

August the 23rd of this year marks the centenary of the decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites by which Pius IX instituted the feast of the Sacred Heart as a common feast for the whole Church. His successor Pius XII takes this opportunity to write his latest encyclical letter in order to explain and defend what has become such a popular devotion of the faithful during the past century. But it is a devotion which has had a much longer history than that, as the Pope is at pains to prove; indeed he here maintains that fundamentally it is an ancient and traditional devotion of the faithful, the only thing new about it being the new form it has taken on during the past three centuries owing to the influence of certain holy men and women. It is this new form which gives reason for the apologetic or defensive character of the encyclical.
The Divisions of the Way of the Cross
Authors: Kelly Bernard
Published: September 2024

A natural division of the fourteen stations of the cross lies simply in this: that according to the arrangement usually adopted in churches the first seven stations are a journey out from the sanctuary, the last seven a journey back. The division lies between the second fall arid the meeting with the women of Jerusalem; and it is natural that it should fall there for this reason too, that in the touching sequence of stations four to six Christ has given us, through Mary in the first place and then through Simon and Veronica, all that pertains to our own cross’ bearing in this life: the share of his burden and the likeness to himself bearing it. After that, immediately, he falls for the second time as if emptied of strength by his gift. The seventh station has the nature of a conclusion, but what is concluded is only the first half of the way: its outward journey.
A Christian Yoga
Authors: Régamey P.-R.
Published: September 2024

In men's inheritance, the most famous of the techniques which set free spiritual energy and lead us beyond the limits where we commonly vegetate is clearly yoga. The word indicates a whole world of practices and doctrines in which it is necessary from every point of view to distinguish very diverse tendencies.’ It may even happen that these tendencies are contradictory. The complete ensemble is in fact the heritage of the past five thousand years in an abundant civilization, where some go as far as treaties opposites as the same.

We have now good guides to clear our way in this astonishing complexity. They lead us to recognize as an axis in it, classical yoga, as codified by Patanjali in the fourth or fifth century A.D., unshaken in spite of the diverse interpretations of it and in spite of, the fact that its very nature as a spiritual technique allows it to be adapted to differing persons and differing groups. Yoga is 'mad with innovation'.
Children at Mass
Authors: Haughton Rosemary
Published: September 2024

I once had the good fortune to attend a small chapel for Mass where children were no problem. There were always lots of them, from babies upwards, and they loved to go because they were not restrained, scolded, or made to feel out of place. Toddlers staggered up and down the short aisle, babies climbed on the chairs and cooed, older children watched attentively, moving forward to see more easily what was happening. If a child came too near the priest he was gently moved out the way by a parent or the server, but they often sat on the altar steps, and no one bothered them. The result of all this was that they seldom gave trouble, and if a baby did cry its mother took it outside for a minute without being made to feel that she was a criminal for having brought it at all. Parents could come to Mass together, and the children learnt to love the House of God because they were made to feel at home there.
On the Word of God
Authors: Richards Michael
Published: September 2024

In his book, The High Church Tradition, Canon G. W. O. Addleshaw makes an unfavourable comparison between the scholastic theologians of the Counter-Reformation and the seventeenth century Anglican divines. ‘The theology of the Tridentine divines is embalmed in scientific treatises; the High, Churchmen were content to expound theirs in sermons delivered to ordinary congregations.' Men like Suarez and Bellamine when they wrote as technical theologians, were not, however, trying to do the same sort of thing as the Caroline divines, and the comparison is hardly a valid one. The men' who should be set beside John Donne, Lancelot Andrewes, or Jeremy Taylor are writers, preachers and priests like Bérulle and Olier, Bossuet, Bourdaloue and Fénelon. Dislike of our scholasticism and legalism is one of the commonplaces of the Anglican critique of Rome; we may think that others see over-clearly in us those things on which they lay least stress. We have our great men in the fields which the Church of England has most cultivated, and would like to set them confidently beside theirs in what the Abbé Couturier called émulation spirituelle, that friendly rivalry in the race which we all run for the same prize.
May we Pray for the Unity of the Church
Authors: Dumont C. J.
Published: September 2024

The most recent Papal documents dealing with the problem of Christian unity are very careful to remind us of what the Catholic doctrine on the subject of the Church and its unity is. The fear is expressed in them, in several places, lest an anxiety to promote Christian unity, commendable doubtless but not sufficiently clear-sighted, should lead in the mind of some to a certain playing down of the essential teaching of the Church in this matter. we have in mind some expressions now current that these documents quite evidently avoid for fear that their use might lead to a dangerous confusion in the minds of their reader. It will be useful, therefore, with a view to securing complete fidelity to the full meaning of these documents, to examine here one of these expressions, order to settle accurately, with exact theological terminology, in what sense and context it may be used, and when, on the contrary, it should not.
A Martyr for Peace
Authors: Stratmann Francis M.
Published: September 2024

Before the first world war, there was in Germany no talk of refusing to serve in war. True, we heard that in England and America there were a few sects that refused war services or military service even during peace time. But they were considered strange people; mentally and morally not quite sound!

During the four years of the first world war, we became more thoughtful. Afterwards there was an upsurge of the anti-war movement, but it was suppressed by the Nazis. The second world war, stretching over five years, was so horrible that probably the majority of all Germans came to appreciate the point ot Conscientious Objection. Indeed, an interior objection, a protest of the moral sense, gripped them. But exteriorly they did not dare to come forward. In fact, their political and military though, the legacy of centuries, held that there were moral objections against open resistance to directives issued by legitimate authority.

As a result, the Germans as a whole not only did not refuse their services in the war unleashed by Hitler, but most of them, even most of the Christians, expressed serious religious doubts, whenever this or that individual consistently and bravely answered ‘no’ to his draft call.
The Flight from God
Authors: Tinsley E. J.
Published: September 2024

The subject of the Bible as a whole is the unique divine drama of the creation, fall, redemption and restoration of man, and in this drama God himself plays the central role as author, actor and producer. The drama is a real one, no mere puppet show manipulated by the author, and this means that all those engaged in it have the freedom to tamper with the author's intentions in the interests of their own vanity and pride. They can seek to be masters of the plot rather than servants of it. But this drama is such that no actor in it can ultimately frustrate the author's intentions. They can, for example, ignore the par which he is playing in his own works, but they cannot ultimately suppress it. Even when the play seems to be getting hopelessly out of hand, the author-producer has the will and the power to engage the most unruly sub-plot for his main design, which remains always evident in each new situation.
The Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate
Authors: Reilly A. J.
Published: September 2024

One of the marks of the living Church is its ability to inspire leaders in every age especially fitted to meet the needs of the age. Never has there been a time when the spiritual soil was so infertile that it was unable to produce valiant men and women to answer the challenge of the world. In the past there was a St Dominic, a St Francis, a St Teresa. In later centuries there were names like Pernet and Hecker and Rice. And these are but a few of the thousands from the time of St Paul to our own day raised by God as leaders in their own particular day and hour.

Against this background of inspired leadership we are inclined to think that our own age, especially the years since the end of the first world war, are barren indeed. We see only spiritual aridity, the noxious weed of materialism run riot.
John Lacy: A Dominican Contemplative
Authors: Griffiths Dom Bede
Published: September 2024

It is not often recognised that members of Orders devoted to such activities as that of preaching were sometimes allowed to shut themselves up in anchorholds and to give themselves entirely to contemplation and to the work of their hands. But this was in fact the case in the later middle ages; and we find a pleasant example of it at the Dominican Priory of Newcastle-on-Tyne at the beginning of the fifteenth century in the person of Brother John Lacy.
Love of Neighbour
Authors: Velarde Ralph
Published: September 2024

The unspoken comment of many of us as we read or hear a parable from the Gospels is ‘This is ideal and good; but very unpractical'. It certainly does not seem to fit in with the world as we know it; our twentieth-century, fast-moving’ commercial world would seem an unsympathetic place for the practice of the Christian virtues. I think the truth really is however that it is all too practical, and in our more sincere moments we know that it is only the Christian virtue which is found in the most unlikely places, which keeps the world in existence at all.

The story of the Good Samaritan is of course a story made up to point a moral: it has its deliberate artistic exaggeration. To begin with our Lord chooses a Samaritan as the hero of his story, because the Samaritans were in the eyes of the Jews highly unpopular neighbours.
Sermon Peeached at the First Mass of Father Jerome Rigby, At St Dominic's, London, On 7th March, 1909
Authors: Jarrett Bede
Published: September 2024

What is a priest? He is a mediator between God and man (Summa III, 22, 1), that is, he stands halfway between God the Creator and man the created, giving the sacred things of God to the people and offering the prayers of the people to God. Says St Paul, ‘Every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices’ (Heb: v. 1). A priest then has duties to God and man, and these duties are duties of love.

First let us look at his duties of love to God. And here I would speak not of the whole of a priest's duty to God. I would put aside for the moment his daily divine office, his prayers and meditations and benedictions, his officiating in the sacraments of baptism, penance and the rest. I wish to limit myself to one single act with which the priesthood is infinitely bound up. I mean of course the Mass. What is the Mass? It is Calvary.
The Cloud of Unknowing
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: September 2024

Just as any person's career becomes more individual and outside species and classes the more developed and specialised he becomes, so in the spiritual life the holier a man becomes the less easily will he fall into any preconceived categories. The first stages of the life of the spirit are easier to follow, just as a man's career begins with his schooling when he learns the same subjects and undergoes the same discipline as all his schoolfellows. When he has left school or university and has begun to live his own life, then he should tend towards uniqueness until, rising in his profession, he has fewer and fewer men with whom he may be identified. So as the soul rises from the schooling of the purgative way and the night of the senses she begins to live the divine life in her own unique way, until passing into the night of the spirit she emerges into the unitive way where only the most general characteristics are shared with others who are yet in the same ‘way'. ‘Star differeth from star’ among the saints as well as among the angels.
The Union of God with the Soul of Man
Authors: Rolle Richard
Published: September 2024

Dear Friend,—Know thou well that the end and the height of perfection lieth in a true union of God with the soul of man in utter love. This end, then, is verily achieved when the powers of the soul are reformed by grace to the dignity and condition of their first state, that is, when the mind is firmly fixed in God and in spiritual things without shifting or wandering away and when the reason is cleared of all worldly and fleshly contemplations or imaginings and of the figures and fantasies of men and is illumined with grace to behold God and spiritual things, and when the will and the affection are purified and cleansed of all fleshly desires, natural and worldly loves, and are inflamed with burning love for the Holy Ghost. But this marvellous union may not be perfectly and continually and wholly reached in this life, by reason of the corruption of the flesh, but only in the joy of heaven. Nevertheless, the nearer that a soul can come to this union in this life, the more perfect that soul is.
The Obstacles of a Scripture Scholar
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: September 2024

Young Harry Pope, we are informed by the author of this lively and fascinating study of the man, did not shine at the Oratory school in athletics, ‘though midway through his school career he came first in the obstacle race'. The shadow of coming events was then already cast; for this man, who as Father Hugh Pope, O.P., became the leading Scripture scholar in England for many years, did in fact in the middle of his career win the obstacle race set by the modernist attack on the Word of God. Fr Mulvey shows how this race was won first interiorly by bringing Father Hugh to the placid yet pungent holiness which all could recognize in the charming fatherly Dominican from the 1920's onwards. It was surely a clear case of divine purification, call it a ‘dark night’ if you will, leading to a peaceful unity and wholeness of life in God. And that race was won, inevitably, before the victory was recognized by the world outside.
The Contemplative Life & Friendship
Authors: Philippe Paul
Published: September 2024

While the active life is the life of the soul acting as the form of the body (that is, the life of the individual as a member of the human race), the contemplative life is the life of the soul in its purely spiritual reality,, the life of the person, the complete being, the ‘whole'. For by definition the ‘whole’ suffices to itself. It has all.

It lacks nothing. The contemplative life is the perfect life: in itself it has neediof no assistance. It can be entirely solitary.

But, it being granted that the human person is a person created, a part of the divine ‘whole'; it being granted also that it has been multiplied by the Creator, are we not going to discover that the nature of the person implies an ‘order’ or organisation, a ‘spiritual society'? It is certainly true that there exists an ‘order’ of persons, and even an order of creatures purely spiritual—the angelic hierarchies. But it is only a question there of a ‘communicatio in forma', an analogical similitude, in the fact that all these creatures possess an intelligence which has for its final perfection the contemplation of God.
The Epiphany of Our Lord
Authors: Tauler John
Published: September 2024

Of how one should seek and find the spiritual nativity in the light of grace, by self-effacement and the suppression of all natural light.

Of the price of sufferings and afflictions, and in particular of the three offerings of the Magi.

Ubi est qui natus est rex Judaeorum ?

'Where is he that is born King of the Jews?'

(Matt: 2, 2.)

We are come indeed to adore him and to offer him our mystical gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. The reasonable soul, by its natural light alone, comes to the knowledge of the existence of God. But what is he? Who is he? Where is he? So many questions to which she gives no answer and of which she ignores the solution. Hence, for the holy and religious soul, arises a loving desire to seek God with ardent solicitude. She wants to know what he is, who is this hidden and unknown Being.

Then, in this laborious searching, suddenly there appears a star, and this is nothing but a ray of heavenly grace, a divine light which seems to say interiorly to the soul: he is born! At the same time this light leads the soul to the place of his birth which no natural light could have pointed out to her. And so we see that all who seek for this nativity by the light of reason alone do not arrive there: they stray and lose their way, they make no progress in virtue.