Search Results (55)

Accurate assessments of aboveground biomass (AGB) stocks and their changes in extensive Miombo forests are challenging due to the lack of site-specific allometric equations (AEs). Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) is a non-destructive method that enables the calibration of AEs and has recently been validated by the IPCC guidelines for carbon accounting within the REDD+ framework. TLS surveys were carried out in five non-contiguous 1-ha plots in two study sites in the wet Miombo forest of Katanga, in the Democratic Republic Congo. Local wood densities (WD) were determined from wood cores taken from 619 trees on the sites. After a careful checking of Quantitative Structure Models (QSMs) output, the individual volumes of 213 trees derived from TLS data processing were converted to AGB using WD. Four AEs were calibrated using different predictors, and all presented strong performance metrics (e.g., R² ranging from 90 to 93%), low relative bias and relative individual mean error (11.73 to 16.34%). Multivariate analyses performed on plot floristic and structural data showed a strong contrast in terms of composition and structure between sites and between plots within sites. Even though the whole variability of the biome has not been sampled, we were thus able to confirm the transposability of results within the wet Miombo forests through two cross-validation approaches. The AGB predictions obtained with our best AE were also compared with AEs found in the literature. Overall, an underestimation of tree AGB varying from −35.04 to −19.97% was observed when AEs from the literature were used for predicting AGB in the Miombo of Katanga. Full article

This study explores the Bonaventurian synthesis of the human being as imago et similitudo Dei, highlighting its anthropological and existential implications. Against the backdrop of contemporary reductionist approaches that fragment the understanding of the human person, Bonaventure offers a holistic vision that integrates intellectual, affective, and volitional dimensions within a Christocentric and Trinitarian framework. Through a systematic analysis of Bonaventure’s primary texts—particularly the Itinerarium mentis in Deum and the Collationes in Hexaëmeron—and supported by critical scholarship, the article argues that human fulfillment transcends the limits of pure rationality and culminates in the unitive act of love with God. The study identifies two central principles of what Lázaro Pulido calls “Christian Socratism”: (1) human life as a journey to the Father’s house, and (2) the configuration of the soul, in wisdom and love, as a dwelling place of God. By situating the moral and spiritual life within the logic of divine attraction, Bonaventure overcomes both Aristotelian intellectualism and postmodern individualism. Ultimately, his thought presents happiness not as self-realization but as conformity with Christ crucified, revealing a path where suffering acquires meaning and the human vocation to love finds its ultimate horizon in the Trinity. Full article

Background: One of the major challenges for children and adolescents with sickle cell disease (SCD) is academic performance. Objectives: Our study aimed to evaluate the academic performance of children and adolescents with SCD in Benin and compare it to the academic performance of their healthy siblings and paediatric comparisons. Furthermore, we aimed to explore the associations between socio-demographic factors, clinical characteristics, and depressive symptoms, and the academic performance of children and adolescents with SCD. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional study that used convenient sampling. Academic scores were collected during the 2021–2022 academic year. Patients with SCD and paediatric comparisons were recruited during routine hospital consultations. The Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI-S) tool was used to assess depressive symptoms. We compared academic performance scores (ranging from 0 to 20) using independent t-tests and explored associations through linear regression analyses. Results: This study included 209 participants: 100 patients with SCD (aged 6 to 17 years), 46 siblings, and 63 paediatric comparisons. The academic performance of patients with SCD (mean academic score = 13.29) was similar to that of the combined comparison group (mean academic score = 12.8, p = 0.196). Younger patients showed poorer academic performance (coef = −0.169, p = 0.019), and depressive symptoms (‘pessimism’, ‘self-hate’, ‘lack of friends’, and ‘fatigue’) were associated with poorer academic performance as well. Patients with SCD who were treated in Benin performed academically as well as their healthy siblings and peers. Conclusions: Children and adolescents with SCD performed on par academically with their healthy siblings and peers. While overall depressive symptoms were not significantly associated with academic performance, certain symptoms were more common among lower-performing students and should therefore be explored in greater detail. Full article

Scholarly discussion on Bonaventure’s Christology has tended to favor its Trinitarian, historical, and epistemological dimensions. Of note is Bonaventure’s notion of Christ as medium metaphysicum: the very depth and center of history according to knowing, learning, and mystical desire. What is perhaps less considered with respect to these topics, but nevertheless evident in contemporary scholarship, is the extent to which Bonaventure’s Christological structure informs an essential relation between creation and glorification. This essay explores these topics with attention to contemporary Bonaventure scholarship to offer insights on the ongoing importance of Bonaventure’s Christology for posterity, especially as it relates to a Bonaventurian theology of creation. Full article

This study investigates how the rise of commission-free FinTech platforms and the introduction of fractional trading (FT) have altered trading behavior and order book dynamics in the NASDAQ equity market. Leveraging high-frequency ITCH data from highly capitalized stocks—AAPL, AMZN, GOOG, and TSLA—we analyze market microstructure changes surrounding the implementation of FT. Our empirical findings show a statistically significant increase in price levels, average tick sizes, and price volatility in the post-FinTech-FT period, alongside elevated price impact factors (PIFs), indicating steeper and less liquid limit order books. These shifts reflect greater participation by non-professional investors with limited order placement precision, contributing to noisier price discovery and heightened intraday risk. The altered liquidity landscape and increased volatility raise important questions about the resilience and informational efficiency of modern equity markets under democratized access. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on retail trading and provide actionable insights for market regulators and exchanges evaluating the design and oversight of evolving trading mechanisms. Full article

The Inferno highlights many categories of sins and varieties of pains yet it has another unifying theme. From the earliest descriptions of Christian monastic discipline to the Benedictine Rule and beyond, “inner death” inspired contemplatives to confront the hell that awaits them if they succumb to pride, give way to sloth (acedia), or lack humility. Scholastic theologians (e.g., Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure) developed the notion, and mendicant preachers brought it to laypeople like Dante Alighieri. Inner death has ironic force in the Inferno because it contradicts the inscription on the gates of hell: “Abandon all hope you who enter”. Yes, one must abandon all hope upon entering hell unless, through the cultivation of inner death, one does so “nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita” (midway in the journey of our life—Singleton), while alive. Here is the irony; here is inner death. If living persons contemplate the consequences in hell of their faults in life, they transcend them and escape. Full article

This article examines the distinctive characteristics of Bonaventure’s interpretation of the experiential-sapiential knowledge of God based on some selected texts from his Commentary on the Sentences and De scientia Christi. In the first part, after having taken stock of the multiple meanings of experience in Bonaventure’s theology, we turn our attention to distinction 35 of the third book of the Commentary on the Sentences, where the Seraphic Doctor uses the phrase “cognitio Dei experimentalis” to describe the experience of God of contemplative and holy people. In the second part, we will examine the sense in which Bonaventure accounts for the experiential dimension of the knowledge of God in Christ’s human soul. Here we will deal with his work De scientia Christi, questions 6 and 7, which discuss the way in which the human soul of Christ knows “per excessum”, the uncreated Wisdom united with Him and the infinite things in the eternal Wisdom. At the end, we will briefly compare the basic claims of both works regarding the experiential knowledge of God made by contemplatives and by Christ. Full article

For some time now, regardless of the still-common paradigm of Barbour’s practice of science–religion relations, proposals have been emerging to develop a theology of science from a Christian perspective. This article begins by discussing three theologies of science as proposed by Michael (Michał) Heller, Christopher B. Kaiser, and Tom McLeish. It then goes on to present the theological vision of the arts and sciences as contained in the work De reductione artium ad theologiam by Bonaventure of Bagnoregio (c. 1221–1274). The aim of this article is to compare the contemporary variants for a theology of science with each other and then compare them with Bonaventure’s theological project. Thus, we analyze this 13th-century thinker’s concepts and their heuristic relevance to the modern theologies of science. Full article

Zoonotic diseases pose a significant global health threat, driven by factors such as globalization, climate change, urbanization, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and intensified human–animal interactions. The increasing interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health underscores the importance of the OH paradigm in addressing zoonotic threats in a globalized world. This review explores the complex epidemiology of zoonotic diseases, the challenges associated with their management, and the necessity for cross-sector collaboration to enhance prevention and control efforts. Key public health strategies, including surveillance systems, infection control measures, and community education programs, play crucial roles in mitigating outbreaks. However, gaps in governance, resource allocation, and interdisciplinary cooperation hinder effective disease management, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). To illustrate the effectiveness of the OH approach, this review highlights successful programs, such as the PREDICT project, Rwanda’s National One Health Program, the EcoHealth Alliance, and the Rabies Elimination Program in the Philippines. These initiatives demonstrate how integrating human, animal, and environmental health efforts can enhance early detection, improve outbreak responses, and reduce public health burdens. Strengthening global health governance, enhancing surveillance infrastructure, regulating antimicrobial use, and investing in research and technological innovations are essential steps toward mitigating zoonotic risks. Ultimately, a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach is vital for addressing the dynamic challenges posed by zoonotic diseases and ensuring global health security in an increasingly interconnected world. Full article

With the recent increase in retail investor participation led by commission-less fintech trading applications and new features like fractional trading, we now have higher volatility and significantly quicker price changes. This makes it hard to make informed trading decisions. Moreover, these effects are exacerbated even further around earnings announcements days. In this paper, we use Nasdaq data feed at a minute frequency and show that there is a significant increase in the slope of the price–volume structure during extended hours (after-hours, or pre-market hours) as compared with the ones observed during regular market times. Our analysis shows that the liquidity is much less during the extended market hours. As such, earnings announcements of stocks during these times have a significantly larger price impact than those stocks that have their earnings announced during regular trading hours. This significant difference can be explained by observing the limit order book structures during these different trading periods. We suggest that the earnings announcements should not be made during extended hours given the significantly lower liquidity and thus, the significantly larger price impact that not only determines the prices for the next trading session but also sets the new “fundamental” price signals for the stocks. Full article

Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) represents a significant advancement in therapeutic medicine, offering unique molecular and cellular characteristics that make it exceptionally suitable for medical applications. The bullet-shaped morphology, RNA genome organization, and cytoplasmic replication strategy provide fundamental advantages for both vaccine development and oncolytic applications. VSV’s interaction with host cells through the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDL-R) and its sophisticated transcriptional regulation mechanisms enables precise control over therapeutic applications. The virus demonstrates remarkable versatility through its rapid replication cycle, robust immune response induction, and natural neurotropism. Recent technological innovations in VSV engineering have led to enhanced safety protocols and improved therapeutic modifications, particularly in cancer treatment. Attenuation strategies have successfully addressed safety concerns while maintaining the therapeutic efficacy of the virus. The molecular and cellular interactions of VSV, particularly its immune modulation capabilities and tumor-selective properties, have proven valuable in the development of targeted therapeutic strategies. This review explores these aspects, while highlighting the continuing evolution of VSV-based therapeutic approaches in precision medicine. Full article

This essay assesses the relevance of Søren Kierkegaard’s non-pseudonymous, edifying writings for considering themes of desire, detachment, and humility within the religious context of Christian spiritual formation. Building on the argument of recent scholars who identify in Kierkegaard’s writings an account of a fundamental desire for God “implanted” in the human being, I explore the influence of this vision on Kierkegaard’s depiction of desire and detachment in his “Discourses on the Lilies and the Birds”. I then turn to how this relates to the perspective of humility that emerges from Kierkegaard’s reflections on the biblical story of “the widow’s mite”. In each case, these edifying writings aim to stir the reader into a process of interrogating faulty self-perceptions based on arbitrary measures of value. I read this mode of communication as able to initiate a “counter-experience”, provoking the reader to reorient her horizon of prior self-valuations so she might come to recognize the hidden significance of things and, ultimately, achieve a more accurate sense of oneself in relation to the authentic source of the self’s desire. Insofar as this reorientation of the self informs the practice of detachment or the development of humility, people might experience this same process in diverse ways. In this respect, the relevance of Kierkegaard’s edifying writings for reflecting on Christian spirituality is not that they provide a thoroughgoing account of detachment or humility that should replace the insights of various spiritual traditions. Rather, I argue that his discourses—when read alongside these traditions—offer a supplemental resource for reflecting on how our positionalities, dispositions, and proximate contexts will inform the divergent ways we might experience the practice of detachment or the manifestation of humility in each new life circumstance. Full article

This essay examines the distinctive features; unchanging basic elements and changing emphases of Bonaventure’s interpretation of the spiritual senses based on four works selected from different periods of his life and considered significant for the subject. In the first chapter, I analyse the relevant passages of Bonaventure’s Commentary on the Book of Sentences; in the second the De reductione artium ad theologiam; in the third the Breviloquium; and in the fourth the Itinerarium mentis in Deum. The objects of investigation are as follows: the correlation between the acts of spiritual senses and their object; the basis of the hierarchical order of spiritual senses; the relationship between spiritual senses; mental excesses and mystical transit; and the relation to Dionysian mystical theology. Full article

With reference to the film Inside Out, we show how Christian eschatology helps us understand the personal experience of grieving loss, generated by capital’s demands for labor hypermobility and its resultant disjunctures in a person’s biography. Inside Out cinematically portrays, in seemingly unremarkable moments, an inbreaking of a redemptive eschatological moment. We organize our case around two eschatological themes, those of judgement and death. The first section links a person’s affective experience, the structures that generate those experiences, and the last things; we make our case using Merleau-Ponty’s account of the intervolved body and Affect Theory’s relationship to Foucauldian power. The second section investigates what becomes of loss and restoration when they are refracted eschatologically, using Guardini’s idea of biographical death, Critical Theory’s conception of the Messianic, and Bonaventure’s conception of the convergence of opposites. We ultimately propose that, seen in the light of the last things, grieving over loss and its opposite, the restoration of what was lost, converge into one and the same thing. A third section will circle back to Inside Out and highlight the contours of the restoration of that which was lost in light of the two eschatological themes above. Full article

This article investigates Dante’s engagement with one of the key and most controversial academic questions of the late Middle Ages: the beatific vision after the general resurrection. This essay focuses on Paradiso 14, where the character of King Solomon explains that the souls’ vision of God will increase after reuniting with their resurrected bodies. After briefly reconstructing the theological debate engaged by Dante’s treatment of the general resurrection, and discussing the prevailing tendencies in the scholarship on Paradiso 14 and the body–soul relationship in the Commedia, this essay provides a new interpretation of this canto from a social and political perspective. It argues that in Dante’s eschatological vision, the resurrected body appears to be essential for the ultimate fulfillment of humanity’s social nature. Full article