Environment Education for Ecosystem Conservation

Conservation of natural resources through sustainable ecosystem management and development is the key to our secured future. The management of ecosystem involves inventorying and monitoring, and applying integrated technologies, methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches for its conservation. Hence, now it is even more critical than ever before for the humans to be environmentally literate. To realise this vision, both ecological and environmental education must become a fundamental part of the education system at all levels of education. Currently, it is even more critical than ever before for the humankind as a whole to have a clear understanding of environmental concerns and to follow sustainable development practices. The degradation of our environment is linked to continuing problems of pollution, loss of forest, solid waste disposal, and issues related to economic productivity and national as well as ecological security. Environmental management has gained momentum in the recent years with the initiatives focussing on managing environmental hazards and preventing possible disasters. Environmental issues make better sense, when one can understand them in the context of one’s own cognitive sphere. Environmental education focusing on real-world contexts and issues often begins close to home, encouraging learners to understand and forge connections with their immediate surroundings. The awareness, knowledge, and skills needed for these local connections and understandings provide a base for moving out into larger systems, broader issues, and a more sophisticated comprehension of causes, connections, and consequences. Environmental Education Programme at CES in collaboration with Karnataka Environment Research Foundation (KERF) referred as ‘Know your Ecosystem’ focuses on the importance of investigating the ecosystems within the context of human influences, incorporating an examination of ecology, economics, culture, political structure, and social equity as well as natural processes and systems. The ultimate goal of environment education is to develop an environmentally literate public. It needs to address the connection between our conception and practice of education and our relationship as human cultures to life-sustaining ecological systems. For each environmental issue there are many perspectives and much uncertainty. Environmental education cultivates the ability to recognise uncertainty, envision alternative scenarios, and adapt to changing conditions and information. These knowledge, skills, and mindset translate into a citizenry who is better equipped to address its common problems and take advantage of opportunities, whether environmental concerns are involved or not.

Environment Education for Ecosystem Conservation

Conservation of natural resources through sustainable ecosystem management and development is the key to our secured future. The management of ecosystem involves inventorying and monitoring, and applying integrated technologies, methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches for its conservation. Hence, now it is even more critical than ever before for the humans to be environmentally literate. To realise this vision, both ecological and environmental education must become a fundamental part of the education system at all levels of education. Currently, it is even more critical than ever before for the humankind as a whole to have a clear understanding of environmental concerns and to follow sustainable development practices. The degradation of our environment is linked to continuing problems of pollution, loss of forest, solid waste disposal, and issues related to economic productivity and national as well as ecological security. Environmental management has gained momentum in the recent years with the initiatives focussing on managing environmental hazards and preventing possible disasters. Environmental issues make better sense, when one can understand them in the context of one’s own cognitive sphere. Environmental education focusing on real-world contexts and issues often begins close to home, encouraging learners to understand and forge connections with their immediate surroundings. The awareness, knowledge, and skills needed for these local connections and understandings provide a base for moving out into larger systems, broader issues, and a more sophisticated comprehension of causes, connections, and consequences. Environmental Education Programme at CES in collaboration with Karnataka Environment Research Foundation (KERF) referred as ‘Know your Ecosystem’ focuses on the importance of investigating the ecosystems within the context of human influences, incorporating an examination of ecology, economics, culture, political structure, and social equity as well as natural processes and systems. The ultimate goal of environment education is to develop an environmentally literate public. It needs to address the connection between our conception and practice of education and our relationship as human cultures to life-sustaining ecological systems. For each environmental issue there are many perspectives and much uncertainty. Environmental education cultivates the ability to recognise uncertainty, envision alternative scenarios, and adapt to changing conditions and information. These knowledge, skills, and mindset translate into a citizenry who is better equipped to address its common problems and take advantage of opportunities, whether environmental concerns are involved or not.

A Kinematic Theory for Planar Hoberman and Other Novel Foldable Mechanisms

In this paper, we present a kinematic theory for Hoberman and other similar foldable linkages. By recognizing that the building blocks of such linkages can be modeled as planar linkages, different classes of possible solutions are systematically obtained including some novel arrangements. Criteria for foldability are arrived by analyzing the algebraic locus of the coupler curve of a PRRP linkage. They help explain generalized Hoberman and other mechanisms reported in the literature. New properties of such mechanisms including the extent of foldability, shape-preservation of the inner and outer profiles, multi-segmented assemblies and heterogeneous circumferential arrangements are derived. The design equations derived here make the conception of even complex planar radially foldable mechanisms systematic and easy. Representative examples are presented to illustrate the usage of the design equations and the kinematic theory.

Diverse functions of restriction-modification systems in addition to cellular defense

Restriction-modification (R-M) systems are ubiquitous and are often considered primitive immune systems in bacteria. Their diversity and prevalence across the prokaryotic kingdom are an indication of their success as a defense mechanism against invading genomes. However, their cellular defense function does not adequately explain the basis for their immaculate specificity in sequence recognition and nonuniform distribution, ranging from none to too many, in diverse species. The present review deals with new developments which provide insights into the roles of these enzymes in other aspects of cellular function. In this review, emphasis is placed on novel hypotheses and various findings that have not yet been dealt with in a critical review. Emerging studies indicate their role in various cellular processes other than host defense, virulence, and even controlling the rate of evolution of the organism. We also discuss how R-M systems could have successfully evolved and be involved in additional cellular portfolios, thereby increasing the relative fitness of their hosts in the population.

Vaccination for pregnant women: Need to address

Pregnancy is a critically important state for any women in her life time. Administration of a vaccine to a pregnant woman is not a routine event and it is generally preferred to administer vaccines either prior to conception or in the postpartum period. Currently vaccination with inactivated vaccines are recommended due to potential risk to mother and fetus with live vaccines. Multiple factors determine the administration of the vaccines for example age, life style, medical conditions (e.g., asthma, diabetes etc.), type and location of travel and status of previous vaccination. If pregnant woman is exposed to these vaccines or if pregnancy occurs soon after vaccination, the women should be counselled regarding the risks to the fetus and vaccination should not be a reason to consider termination of pregnancy. Further research in vaccination among pregnancy is warranted for the safety of the pregnant women and their newborn for a healthy living and better life.

Time-Frequency Analysis of Nonlinear Systems: The Skeleton Linear Model and the Skeleton Curves

The joint time-frequency analysis method is adopted to study the nonlinear behavior varying with the instantaneous response for a class of S.D.O.F nonlinear system. A time-frequency masking operator, together with the conception of effective time-frequency region of the asymptotic signal are defined here. Based on these mathematical foundations, a so-called skeleton linear model (SLM) is constructed which has similar nonlinear characteristics with the nonlinear system. Two skeleton curves are deduced which can indicate the stiffness and damping in the nonlinear system. The relationship between the SLM and the nonlinear system, both parameters and solutions, is clarified. Based on this work a new identification technique of nonlinear systems using the nonstationary vibration data will be proposed through time-frequency filtering technique and wavelet transform in the following paper.

La relación entre imputación y responsabilidad

Resumen: El autor analiza los conceptos de imputación y responsabilidad penales, y las realidades jurídicas y antrópicas a las que dichas nociones se refieren desde dos perspectivas principales: una, teórica, y otra, la historia del pensamiento. La investigación está precedida por una breve introducción semántica. El marco teórico es una concepción realista del derecho, subalternada a la antropología (psicología) filosófica, y más específicamente, al concepto del hombre como persona.

La caridad como amor de amistad

Resumen: En este artículo queremos explicar un aspecto de la concepción tomista de la caridad. Verla como amor de amistad. Para ello, primero vamos a investigar la teoría aristotélica de la amistad, como la expone en la Ética a Eudemo y la Ética a Nicómaco. Recurrimos a Aristóteles, ya que es la culminación griega acerca de la reflexión sobre la amistad. Santo Tomás se servirá de la noción aristotélica de la amistad, para explicar la caridad como amor de amistad. Explica que la caridad permite vivir una amistad intensa con Dios y con el prójimo. El acto propio de la caridad, así como sus efectos interiores y exteriores, se entienden más plenamente al captarlos como otros tantos actos de amistad

Alcance y límites de la potencia humana

Resumen: La visión sobre el modo de ser del hombre condiciona, de un modo u otro, su actuar en el mundo. En general, es éste un punto de partida compartido por las distintas corrientes filosóficas al momento de dar respuesta al ejercicio del potencial humano, si bien pueden distanciarse drásticamente al sustentar el pasaje ser-obrar. En este sentido, entre las formas más alejadas entre sí cabe reparar, por una parte, en una concepción que recurre a la justificación de una metafísica realista que reconoce la dialéctica de la participación y, por otra, en una concepción que se declara anti-metafísica al disolver el ser en su negación, en la nada, para exaltar la voluntad de poder del hombre. Si bien este trabajo se desarrollará en el marco de la primera concepción, desde el estudio de la causación del acto de ser en Tomás de Aquino, habré de recurrir a la segunda concepción, en particular al nihilismo nietzscheano, solamente como planteo del estado de la cuestión, buscando remover críticamente una objeción recurrente en la historia del pensamiento sobre el alcance y límites de la operación humana.

El estatuto de la persona humana como centro del actual debate justificatorio de los derechos fundamentales y sus consecuencias

Resumen: El presente artículo aborda el tema del estatuto de la persona humana desde distintas concepciones: 1) la concepción política del constructivismo contractualista de Rawls; 2) la concepción relacional de la hermenéutica de Kauffmann; 3) la concepción ontológica del iusnaturalismo clásico de Hervada. Una vez analizadas las distintas concepciones aborda cómo se aplica al caso del embrión humano y cuáles son las consecuencias éticas y jurídicas de cada una de estas posiciones.

Incidencia de la constitución matrimonial en la consecución del bien común

Resumen: La consideración de un determinado modelo matrimonial como socialmente valioso, aquel estable y constituido entre un varón y una mujer, se fundamenta en su incidencia en la consecución del bien común. Los datos empíricos demuestran los efectos beneficiosos que este modelo tiene en adultos casados y, especialmente, en los niños criados por sus padres biológicos unidos en matrimonio armonioso, además de su insustituible importancia como garante y promotor de la renovación demográfica. La ley desempeña un rol pedagógico y ejemplar preponderante en la preservación y fomento de esta concepción matrimonial socialmente preferible. El debilitamiento de este modelo matrimonial es atribuido a algunos factores que han incidido en su desestructuración, destacando la impronta de las ideologías de la desvinculación y de género. La necesidad de promover políticas públicas que tiendan a la recuperación del matrimonio estable entre un varón y una mujer resulta imperiosa para el logro del bien común y la consecuente plenitud integral de los miembros de la sociedad.

El pensamiento filosófico-jurídico de Juan Alfredo Casaubón

Resumen: En el presente trabajo se estudia y analiza el pensamiento iusfilosófico de Juan Alfredo Casaubón, unos de los autores iusnaturalistas más significativo de la Argentina en el siglo XX. Heredero de la tradición clásica que conocerá en los famosos Cursos de Cultura Católica y, posteriormente, en la Pontificia Universidad Católica Santa María de los Buenos Aires, de la cual será uno de sus profesores fundadores. Abogado, docente, juez, investigador, padre y esposo. Su pensamiento, si bien se puede encuadrar en la Tradición Central de Occidente, tendrá diversas particularidades que le darán a su pensamiento una nueva impronta a la filosofía jurídica. Se ha tratado de sintetizar el pensamiento casaubiano en diez tesis principales que reflejan en su estricta medida todo el corpus de este filósofo argentino. Previo al desarrollo iusfilosófico del autor, se ha tratado de encuadrar su posición filosófica general y, luego, jurídica, a través de su concepción iusnaturalista. Por último, se hará un pequeño homenaje a este gran pensador en el marco de la filosofía argentina del siglo XX.

Bioética personalista y familia

En este trabajo se aborda la visión del hombre como persona humana y el respeto que se le debe como tal desde el inicio de su vida en la concepción hasta su fin natural. Los atentados que pueden y podrán cometerse contra la vida constituyen otros tantos atentados también contra la institución familiar, lugar natural del nacimiento y desarrollo de la vida de un nuevo ser humano. El respeto por el hombre en cuanto persona es una de las exigencias que no admiten discusión; de ella dependen la dignidad y también el bienestar y la subsistencia de la Humanidad.

Las Sergas de Esplandián como trans-formación amadisiana

Integran este número de la revista ponencias presentadas en Studia Hispanica Medievalia VIII: Actas de las IX Jornadas Internacionales de Literatura Española Medieval, 2008, y de Homenaje al Quinto Centenario de Amadis de Gaula

La causalidad del Motor inmóvil según Aristóteles

Riassunto: Contro l’interpretazione tradizionale, l’articolo sostiene che il Motore immobile per Aristotele non è causa finale del movimento del cielo, ma ne è piuttosto la causa efficiente, come risulta da Metaph. XII 6. Il Motore immobile è causa finale solo nel senso che egli è fine della sua stessa atitività, come è provato dal fatto che questa è piacere (Metaph. XII 7). L’interpretazione tradizionale, secondo la quale il cielo si muove per amore del Motore immobile, cercando di imitare la sua immobilità per mezzo del moto circolare, deriva dal tentativo di conciliare il pensiero di Aristotele con la concezione platonica dell’imitazione della realtà intelligibile da parte della realtà sensibile. Il motore immobile è fine dell’uomo solo nel senso che è oggetto della conoscenza in cui consiste la felicità umana (Eth. Eud. VIII 3).