Search Results (1,173)

In this study, I analyze how reflections on the “one” appear in different cultures. Thoughts on the “one” in several worldviews show similarities but also dissimilarities that should not be neglected. More specifically, I juxtapose Arthur Green’s neo-mystic “oneness” with Anantanand Rambachan’s Hindu view on the one and the many and with Thich Nhat Hanh’s insights on inter-being and on “one” and “many” as mere mental constructs. I clarify what each of these three thinkers means by “one” in, respectively, their Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist thoughts. Full article

This article offers a Thomistic evaluation of Richard J. Pendergast, SJ’s The Cosmic Hierarchy: The Universe and Its Many Irreducible Levels, situating his integrative cosmology within the ongoing dialog between Christian theology and the natural sciences. Pendergast’s attempt to synthesize Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics, process philosophy, and modern physics exemplifies both the promise and the perils of constructing a unified worldview that embraces the theology of creation, teleology, and metaphysical realism. This analysis commends his defense of the intelligibility of nature and the legitimacy of final causality. It also identifies areas where his speculative adoption of process categories departs from Thomistic principles and raises theological difficulties. Engaging questions of creation theology, metaphysics, and epistemology, the paper demonstrates how a Thomistic framework provides critical criteria for assessing integrative cosmologies informed by contemporary science. Full article

This paper reports on how one initial teacher education (ITE) programme has worked to support culturally responsive and sustaining teaching (CREST) practice for its student teachers. In Aotearoa New Zealand, we are required by law to include as much of the language and customs of Māori (the Indigenous population) as reasonable in our school policies and practices. The issue becomes that most of us did not grow up in Te Ao Māori (the Māori worldview) to be able to authentically include this in our practice. Therefore, ITE programmes need to prepare future teachers to be able to meet the requirements of biculturalism and authentic inclusion of Māori. The ITE programme in this paper has explicitly included communicative language teaching (CLT) aspects within a noho marae (an overnight stay on a marae with associated aspects of Te Ao Māori) that are then expected to be included by our student teachers, specifically for this paper, in their science education assessment. This paper reports on how a cohort of student teachers has been able to embed CREST practices in their teaching. This paper concludes with recommendations to better ensure the inclusion of CREST practices in ITE and subsequent teaching practice. Full article

What determines whether the public favors anthropocentric or biocentric signage in urban contexts? We conceptualize signage not only as a communicative device but also as a governance instrument that encodes environmental values into urban spaces. We study a city-level case of human–wildlife coexistence involving wild boars in Mount Carmel and Nesher (Israel) using a public opinion survey of residents (N = 405) and an operationalization that combines open-ended coding of the proposed sign content with structured items on sign design preferences. Analyses (correlations and regression models with mediation and moderation tests) indicate that higher perceived harm is associated with stronger anthropocentric preferences; this relationship is partly transmitted via support for local environmental morality policies and is conditioned by political ideology. These findings collectively show that socio-cultural stability, perceived harm, and political worldview jointly shape whether residents endorse signage that emphasizes human safety or ecological coexistence. Design choices also align with the spectrum: biocentric preferences co-occur with instructional/informational content, softer color palettes, family-oriented iconography, and humorous tones. By empirically operationalizing signage preference and linking it to socio-cultural and political drivers, this study clarifies how “design governance” can shape human–wildlife interactions. By demonstrating how governance instruments such as signage reflect deeper social, environmental, and political dynamics, this study advances our theoretical understanding of “design governance” and its role in urban sustainability. We discuss practical implications for municipalities seeking to foster coexistence through clear, behaviorally informed signage. Full article

Knowledge gaps in the context of agriculture contribute to mistrust and negative worldviews of the animal agriculture sector. The purpose of this quasi-experimental survey study was to quantify the perceived connection of participants to food production, assess their understanding, knowledge, and perceptions of animal agriculture (AA) and food production (FP), and determine predictors that may have contributed to their knowledge and perceptions of animal food production. The convenience sample for this study was a southeastern land grant institution, n = 265. An Animal Agricultural Knowledge and Perceptions Questionnaire and a Food Familiarity Index Questionnaire were included in the electronic survey. The study reported that nearly 50% of the participants showed negative perceptions of animal agriculture (p < 0.05) regardless of the food familiarity scores. Natural and self-identified demographic characteristics impacted the knowledge and perceptions of AA including gender, ethnicity, dietary preference, perceived connection to FP, and affiliation with the College of Agriculture (p < 0.05). By identifying topics and ideas that are of great concern and little understanding, future perceptions and purchase intentions can be improved. Additional research should replicate the findings with broader question pools and other demographic groups to identify areas that need improvement in agriculture communication efforts designed to dispel misinformation. Full article

The aim of this paper is to highlight Tribes’ efforts to Indigenize their child welfare systems through the instrument of Tribal law. Since its founding, the United States has strategically focused on Native children in its efforts to assimilate Native Peoples. By the mid-twentieth century, federal and state governments removed nearly one in four Native children from their homes—and permanently placed most in non-Native care. In 1978, Congress recognized Tribes’ inherent authority to protect their children through the Indian Child Welfare Act. Tribal nations responded by creating their own child welfare laws and programs, but at least initially, most were not predicated on their respective Tribes’ cultures, values, and worldviews. This article considers the more recent shift among Tribal nations toward Indigenization of their child welfare systems and points to examples of this shift found in Tribal law. It reviews statements of purpose within the codes, which lay the groundwork for culturally infused child protection; statements about “best interests,” which communicate Tribal concepts about the foundations of children’s wellbeing; and definitions of “family,” which can vary greatly from western views. Reflection on these changes yields several lessons for U.S.-based Tribal nations in their ongoing efforts to promote their own visions of child wellbeing and, more generally, for other governments whose responsibilities include improving child welfare. Full article

Aratus’ poem Phaenomena, and particularly its second part commonly known as Diosemeia (Signs from Zeus), offers a compelling blend of poetic narrative and proto-scientific observation. Composed in the 3rd century B.C., the work reflects the Hellenistic interest in systematizing knowledge of the natural world through both literary and empirical means. Within its verses, meteorological phenomena such as clouds, rain, hail, winds, and atmospheric changes are not merely described but interpreted through a cosmological lens that reflects the worldview of the era. Aratus Solensis employs a poetic language that transforms everyday weather into a meaningful sequence of signs tied to divine order and celestial cycles providing in that way a kind of classified weather prognostics. Full article

The extraction of ocean wave wavelengths from optical imagery via Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) exhibits significant potential for Wave-Derived Bathymetry (WDB). However, in practical applications, this method frequently produces anomalously large wavelength estimates. To date, there has been insufficient exploration into the mechanisms underlying image spectral leakage to low wavenumbers and its suppression strategies. This study investigates three plausible mechanisms contributing to spectral leakage in optical images and proposes a subimage-based preprocessing framework: prior to executing two-dimensional FFT, the remote sensing subimages employed for wavelength inversion undergo three sequential steps: (1) truncation of distorted pixel values using a Gaussian mixture model; (2) application of a polynomial detrending surface; (3) incorporation of a two-dimensional Hann window. Subsequently, the dominant wavenumber peak is localized in the power spectrum and converted to wavelength values. Water depth is then inverted using the linear dispersion equation, combined with wave periods derived from ERA5. Taking 2 m-resolution WorldView-2 imagery of Sanya Bay, China as a case study, 1024 m subimages are utilized, with validation conducted against chart-sounding data. Results demonstrate that the proportion of subimages with anomalous wavelengths is reduced from 18.9% to 3.3% (in contrast to 14.0%, 7.8%, and 16.6% when the three preprocessing steps are applied individually). Within the 0–20 m depth range, the water depth retrieval accuracy achieves a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 1.79 m; for the 20–40 m range, the MAE is 6.38 m. A sensitivity analysis of subimage sizes (512/1024/2048 m) reveals that the 1024 m subimage offers an optimal balance between accuracy and coverage. However, residual anomalous wavelengths persist in near-shore subimages, and errors still increase with increasing water depth. This method is both concise and effective, rendering it suitable for application in shallow-water WDB scenarios. Full article

High-resolution remote sensing imagery offers detailed spatial and semantic insights into the Earth’s surface, yet its classification remains hindered by the limited availability of labeled data, primarily due to the substantial expense and time required for manual annotation. To overcome this challenge, we propose a hybrid semi-supervised tri-training framework that integrates traditional classification methods with a lightweight convolutional neural network. By combining heterogeneous learners with complementary strengths, the framework iteratively assigns pseudo-labels to unlabeled samples and collaboratively refines model performance in a co-training manner. Additionally, a landscape-metric-guided relearning module is introduced to incorporate spatial configuration and land cover composition, further enhancing the framework’s representational capacity and classification robustness. Experiments were conducted on four high-resolution multispectral datasets (QuickBird (QB), WorldView-2 (WV-2), GeoEye-1 (GE-1), and ZY-3) covering diverse land-cover types and spatial resolutions. The results demonstrate that the proposed method surpasses state-of-the-art baselines by 1.5–10% while generating more spatially coherent classification maps. Full article

Pansharpening fuses multispectral (MS) and panchromatic (PAN) remote sensing images to generate outputs with high spatial resolution and spectral fidelity. Nevertheless, conventional methods relying primarily on convolutional neural networks or unimodal fusion strategies frequently fail to bridge the sensor modality gap between MS and PAN data. Consequently, spectral distortion and spatial degradation often occur, limiting high-precision downstream applications. To address these issues, this work proposes a Hybrid Spectral–Structural Transformer Network (HSSTN) that enhances multi-level collaboration through comprehensive modelling of spectral–structural feature complementarity. Specifically, the HSSTN implements a three-tier fusion framework. First, an asymmetric dual-stream feature extractor employs a residual block with channel attention (RBCA) in the MS branch to strengthen spectral representation, while a Transformer architecture in the PAN branch extracts high-frequency spatial details, thereby reducing modality discrepancy at the input stage. Subsequently, a target-driven hierarchical fusion network utilises progressive crossmodal attention across scales, ranging from local textures to multi-scale structures, to enable efficient spectral–structural aggregation. Finally, a novel collaborative optimisation loss function preserves spectral integrity while enhancing structural details. Comprehensive experiments conducted on QuickBird, GaoFen-2, and WorldView-3 datasets demonstrate that HSSTN outperforms existing methods in both quantitative metrics and visual quality. Consequently, the resulting images exhibit sharper details and fewer spectral artefacts, showcasing significant advantages in high-fidelity remote sensing image fusion. Full article

Researchers observed that even if one’s environmental concern was high, people would delegate others to take responsibility for climate change mitigation and undertake sustainable actions. In this study, we explored how citizens of different countries in Central Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East perceived responsibility for mitigating and reducing climate change consequences of various collective and individual agents. Also, we asked about the role of cultural values, environmental worldviews, and beliefs in the intractability of climate change in the prediction of the responsibility distribution. The total sample consisted of n = 1267 participants from Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan. We created the list of 11 collective and individual entities as accountable for mitigation and sustainable activities. We used the Collindex scale to measure collectivistic and individualistic values, the NEP scale to measure anthropocentric and ecocentric worldviews, and two questions concerning the intractability beliefs. Results showed that participants attributed more responsibility to collective agents than to individuals across countries. The predictors’ patterns indicated that ecocentric worldviews consistently increased perceived responsibility of both collective and individual actors, whereas anthropocentrism reduced the attribution of collectives’ responsibility. Collectivistic values appeared to foster greater expectations of individuals. Also, differences between national samples were observed. Full article

The theological rendering of economics in the Bahá’í Faith—particularly from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—advocated progressive taxation, a strong welfare state, the abolition of trusts, and the redistribution of wealth. These orientations directly diverge from “neoliberal” economic theory, especially as articulated by Frederick Hayek: concerns that social justice exacerbates poverty and claims that progressive taxation is “discrimination.” Despite these seemingly antithetical orientations, there has been a slow and tentative, if not uneasy, meeting of Bahá’í and neoliberal ideals in global organizations and scholarship. Through a comparative analysis of the writings of both ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Friedrich Hayek, I first illuminate the fundamental disagreements on economy and society between Bahá’í theology and neoliberalism. Second, I cover recent scholarship on the moralization of markets and the sacralization of financial actors in order to contextualize the historical and contemporary unions of theology and economy. Third, I outline how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s theological vision and Hayek’s neoliberal theories accrete around four mutual worldviews, which can tempt hermeneutic deemphases of the fundamental divergences in Bahá’í and neoliberal logics: (1) the duality of human nature, (2) the limits of materialist reason, (3) the apotheosis of the market and self-love, and (4) sacrificial submission to transcendent authority. Full article

Today, the impact of information technologies (IT) on humanity in this artificial intelligence (AI) era is vast, transformative, and remarkable, especially on human beliefs, practices, and truth discovery. Modern IT advancements like AI, particularly generative models, offer unprecedented opportunities to influence human thoughts and to challenge our entrenched worldviews. This paper seeks to study the evolving relationship between humans and non-human agents, such as AI systems, and to examine how generative technologies are reshaping the dynamics of knowledge, authority, and societal interaction, particularly in contexts where technology intersects with deeply held social values. In the study, the broader implications for societal practices and ethical questions will be zoomed in for investigation and discussed in the context of moral value as the focus. The paper also seeks to list out the various generative models developed for AI to reason and think logically, reviewed and evaluated for their potential impacts on humanity and social values. Two main research contributions, namely the (1) Virtue Ethics-Based Character Modeling for Artificial Moral Advisor (AMA) and the (2) Direct Preference Optimization (DPO), have been proposed to align contemporary large language models (LLMs) with moral values. The construction approach of the moral dataset that focused on virtue ethics for training the proposed LLM will be presented and discussed. The implementation of the AI moral character representation will be demonstrated in future research work. Full article

The Surface Extraction by TIN-based Search-space Minimization (SETSM) algorithm provides automatic generation of stereo-photogrammetric Digital Surface Models (DSMs) from single stereopairs of stereoscopic images (i.e., stereopairs), eliminating the need for terrain-dependent parameters. SETSM has been extensively validated through the ArcticDEM and Reference Elevation Models for Antarctica (REMA) DSM mapping projects. To enhance DSM coverage, quality, and accuracy by addressing stereopair occlusions, we expand the capabilities of the SETSM algorithm from single stereopair to multiple-pair matching. Building on SETSM’s essential components, we present a SETSM multiple-pair matching procedure (SETSM MMP) that modifies 3D voxel construction, similarity measurement, and blunder detection, among other components. A novel Three-Dimensional Kernel-based Weighted Height Estimation (3D KWHE) algorithm specialized for SETSM accurately determines optimal heights and reduces surface noise. Additionally, an adaptive pixel-to-pixel matching strategy mitigates the effect of differences in ground sample distance (GSD) between images. Validation using space-borne Worldview-2 and air-borne DMC multiple images over urban landscapes, compared to USGS lidar DSM, confirms improved height accuracy and matching success rates. The results from the DMC air-borne images demonstrate efficient elimination of occlusions. SETSM MMP enables high-quality DSM generation in urban environments while retaining the original, single-stereopair SETSM’s high performance. Full article

The study focuses on the detection of breaking wave crests in the highly dynamic waters of an Antarctic coastal polynya using high-resolution panchromatic satellite imagery. Accurate assessment of whitecap coverage is crucial for improving our understanding of the interactions between wave generation, air–sea heat exchange, and sea ice formation in these complex environments. As open-ocean whitecap detection methods are inadequate in coastal polynyas partially covered with frazil ice, we discuss an approach that exploits specific lighting conditions: the alignment of sunlight with the dominant wind direction and low solar elevation. Under such conditions, steep breaking waves cast pronounced shadows, which are used as the primary indicator of wave crests, particularly in frazil streak zones. The algorithm is optimized to exploit these conditions and minimize false positives along frazil streak boundaries. We applied the algorithm to a WorldView-2 image covering different parts of Terra Nova Bay Polynya (Ross Sea), a dynamic polar coastal zone. This case study demonstrates that the spatial distribution of detected breaking waves is consistent with ice conditions and wind forcing patterns, while also revealing deviations that point to complex wind–wave–ice interactions. Although quantitative validation of satellite-derived whitecaps coverage was not possible due to the lack of in situ data, the method performs reliably under a range of conditions. Limitations of the proposed approach are pointed out and discussed. Finally, the study highlights the risk of misinterpretation of lower-resolution reflectance data in areas where whitecaps and sea ice coexist at subpixel scales. Full article