Search Results (21)

Italy supplies about one-seventh of the European Union’s total glass production, and the sector’s sizeable resource demands make it a linchpin of national industrial strategy. With growing environmental regulations and the push for resource efficiency, Material Flow Accounting has become essential for companies to stay compliant and advance sustainability. The investigation concentrates on Italy’s glass industry to clarify its material requirements, ecological footprint, and overall sustainability performance. STAN software v2, combined with an Economy-Wide Material Flow Accounting (EW-MFA) framework, models the national economy as a single integrated input–output system. By tracking each material stream from initial extraction to end-of-life, the analysis delivers a cradle-to-grave picture of the sector’s environmental impacts. During the 2021 production year, Italy’s glass makers drew on a total of 10.5 million tonnes (Mt) of material inputs, supplied 76% (7.9 Mt) from domestic quarries, and 24% (2.6 Mt) via imports. Outbound trade in finished glass removed 1.0 Mt, leaving 9.5 Mt recorded as Domestic Material Consumption (DMC). Within that balance, 6.6 Mt (63%) was locked into long-lived stock, whereas 2.9 Mt (28%) left the system as waste streams and airborne releases, including roughly 2.1 Mt of CO₂. At present, the post-consumer cult substitutes only one-third of the furnace batch, signalling considerable scope for improved circularity. When benchmarked against EU-27 aggregates for 2021, Italy registers a NAS/DMI ratio of 0.63 (EU median 0.55) and a DPO/DMI ratio of 0.28 (EU 0.31), indicating a higher share of material retained in stock and slightly lower waste generated per ton of input. A detailed analysis of glass production identifies critical stages, environmental challenges, and areas for improvement. Quantitative data on material use, waste generation, and recycling rates reveal the industry’s environmental footprint. The findings emphasise Economy-Wide Material Flow Accounting’s value in evaluating and improving sustainability efforts, offering insights for policymakers and industry leaders to drive resource efficiency and sustainable resource management. Results help scholars and policymakers in the analysis of the Italian glass industry context, supporting in the data gathering, while also in the use of this methodology for other sectors. Full article

Kraków is a unique city on the map of Europe. As early as 1978, it was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of the first 12 sites in the world. It has been a member of the Organization of World Heritage Cities since 1995. The city’s cultural heritage also consists of its religious heritage, including the heritage associated with people who lived in Kraków over the centuries and whom the Catholic Church has recognized as saints or blessed. So far, 23 people closely associated with Kraków have been declared blessed or saints by the Church. Their cult has resulted in the establishment of more than 20 worship centres in Kraków, with two international sanctuaries among them. The legacy of the saints is also the ideas and values they professed, which became evident in the activities they performed. The aim of this article is to present the cultural heritage of these saints, with particular emphasis on their intangible dimension, especially related to the social activity of the saints in the city. This article is based on an analysis of numerous materials devoted to the saints and the cult centres associated with them. Full article

Background: In the contemporary world, a cult of perfection is being created, and deviations from such an ideal image are becoming socially unacceptable. A particular situation arises when a defect or symptoms of a disease appear on the skin, which, in the case of people suffering from psoriasis, are a source of stress, dissatisfaction with the disease, and a reduction in quality of life. The aim of this study was to assess whether the quality of life related to the occurrence of psoriasis and the level of acceptance of the disease affect coping strategies in stressful situations. Methods: The study involved 111 people with common psoriasis (46.8% women and 53.2% men). Inclusion criteria were as follows: a diagnosis of common psoriasis for at least 0.5 years, no other types of psoriasis, no mental illnesses, and an informed consent of the respondent to participate in the study. In order to compile the research input, a proprietary questionnaire was used along with the following standardised tools: the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), the Acceptance of Illness Scale (AIS), and the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS). Results: The duration of the disease in the studied population varied and ranged from 0.5 years to over 50 years. Most respondents showed relatively low DLQI scores, with an average value of 10.8 points. In stressful situations (CISS), the respondents primarily used a strategy based on rational thinking (Task-oriented coping), with approximately 54 points on average; followed by an avoidant style (Avoidance-oriented coping), with approximately 50 points on average; and least often an emotional style (Emotion-oriented coping), with approximately 46 points on average. The average level of disease acceptance (AIS) in the studied group equalled approximately 26 points. Conclusions: Psoriatic lesions on the torso caused less rational behaviour in stressful situations (a decrease in the Task-oriented coping) in women but had the opposite result in men, whereas psoriatic lesions on the head stimulated the use of Task-oriented coping in women but had the opposite result in men. The higher the acceptance of the disease (AIS) presented by the respondents, the less often they used an emotional strategy (Emotion-oriented coping) in stressful situations. The higher the quality of life (DLQI) was, the lower the values of Emotion-oriented coping were noted. Full article

This article explores Maurice Blondel’s (1861–1949) later notion of the “cycloid” of thought, particularly as this helps us to understand his earlier work L’Action (1893). The aim is to demonstrate how Blondel incorporates aspects of the Christian faith, particularly the Eucharist, into his philosophy without abrogating his “method of immanence”. In particular, the article shows how Blondel saw attention to the Christian spirit as essential to the development of a metaphysics that attends both to finite actions and to the action of God, actus purus. Full article

Humanistic Buddhism is one of the mainstreams of modern Buddhism, with special emphasis on the humanistic dimension. With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Humanistic Buddhism is also at an important stage of modernization and transformation, thus facing a continuous negotiation between religious values and technological innovations. This paper first argues that AI is technically beneficial to the propagation of Buddhism by citing several cases in which AI technology has been used in Buddhism. Then, by comparing Master Hsing Yun’s Buddhist ethics to “Posthuman” ethics, it points out that the theories of Humanistic Buddhism share similarities with AI and Posthuman ethics. Among them, Master Hsing Yun’s theory of “the nature of insentient beings” provides an important theoretical reference for the question of “whether AI can become a Buddha”. From the technical and ethical dimensions, it points out that the interaction between Humanistic Buddhism and AI can promote original uses or implementations of AI technology. However, it should also be noted that compared to the cases of “Artificial Narrow Intelligence”discussed in the paper, the “Strong AI” could lead to much more ethical crises. It is also likely to cause the cult of science and technology, and thus subvert the humanistic tradition of Buddhism with a new instrumental rationality. In addition, there are some potential pitfalls that Humanistic Buddhism may encounter when using AI. Hence, while it is necessary to encourage the use of technologies such as AI in contemporary Buddhism, it is also important for Buddhism to keep a critical distance from digital technologies. Full article

Religious tourism is a significant and growing field of tourism that overlaps with cultural tourism. It has the potential to improve the quality of life of those who live in places of faith or along routes of spiritual interest. Religious tourism involves a complex interplay of spiritual and economic motivations. Effective religious tourism management requires respect for spiritual values, partnerships, local engagement, and quality assessment. Devotional practices have evolved from medieval spiritual care to communal expressions and periodic rituals. This paper specifically analysed the characteristics of the Marian cult and pilgrimage flows to places of Marian faith. It examined their value potential from a religious and cultural perspective and their role as a particular attractor of experiential and quality tourism generated by the territorial context. The area of reference is the region of Puglia, which has often played the role of cultural bridge with the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean in the past. The second part of the paper focuses on the proposed itinerary along the Appian Way in its final route between Puglia and Basilicata. Marian shrines were sometimes the cause and sometimes the evidence of the cultural and economic poles that characterised the medieval and modern variants of this ancient road route. The study outlines a serial path that integrates the usual settlement or infrastructural levels of territorial knowledge with the Marian theme, which was analysed diachronically. An operational track in the contemporary territorial dimension emerged from the correlation of both the stratigraphic reading of the landscape and the interpretation of material and immaterial cultural heritage. This track aims to aggregate and promote the sustainable rediscovery of those places, which are largely cut off from the routes of mass tourism, in adherence to the most recent European and local cultural and landscape guidelines. Full article

In this article, I investigate the relationship between religion and art in the work of Walter Benjamin. I demonstrate how this relation is embedded in Benjamin’s understanding of a dialectic of secularization, which has recently been examined by Sigrid Weigel and Daniel Weidner. Within this context, I focus on the “expressionless” and its relation to the holy in Benjamin’s thought. I follow different applications of the expressionless in Benjamin’s texts from different periods and analyze their overall significance. My thesis is that the expressionless is a specifically aesthetic category that can rescue the difference between the holy and the profane, granting both spheres their own rights and thereby resisting any sacralization of art in an aesthetic cult. Therefore, with reference to the holy and to the expressionless, one can claim with Benjamin that a religious perspective on art in a secular context is of irreplaceable value, while the expressionless simultaneously safeguards the autonomy of art. Full article

The spirit-writing (fuluan 扶鸞 or fuji 扶乩) movement was a response to modern crises in the domain of Chinese popular religion. From the nineteenth century, spirit-writing cults sprang up throughout China and became a national religious trend. These cults were centered around moral reform promoted through spirit-writing and aimed to reorient traditional values. This article focuses on how the Chinese conceptualized modern crises as jie 劫 by means of spirit-writing, expounded crises in the local context, and reacted to these ideas and crises in their religious and social practices. In the Chaozhou region, the movement arose in the context of disasters, political chaos, and the transmission of foreign culture and religions from the late nineteenth century. Chaozhou spirit-writing cults discoursed on the concept of jie as their doctrinal foundation and endeavored to save the world by receiving moral revelations from deities. They regarded doing good deeds as a way of cultivation and urged people to perform good deeds to avert disasters. Through the planchette, they expounded the meaning of good deeds and enriched their crisis theories in their religious practice. The movement demonstrated the initiative of popular religion, interpreting and reacting to modern crises by using traditional soteriological notions and practices. Full article

This text is a critical interpretation of Walter Benjamin’s theory in the context of the contemporary situation in art and culture. Benjamin’s innovative method of analysis and key concepts in art theory and their simultaneous research and political function are carefully reconstructed. This critical analysis is centered on the main concept of Benjamin’s philosophical aesthetics, the concept of ‘aura’. This analysis shows how Benjamin mixes and replaces the aura of the work of art with the aura of the historical object. Benjamin’s main thesis about the loss of the aura of the work of art in the age of its technical reproducibility is disputed. Technical reproducibility does not take away the aura of the work of art, but separates its aura from the aura of the historical object. Auraticness is inherent in every work insofar as it is a work of art. The aura of the historical object does not disappear in modernity either. With the emergence of historical and aesthetic consciousness, of the historical and art museum, the almost mechanical production of auratic objects began in modernity. As a result of the critical analysis of the concept of “aura”, the main binary oppositions that frame Benjamin’s theory of art—art with aura/art without aura; art with cult value/art without cult value; aestheticization of politics/politicization of art—are questioned. At the end of this text, the key lines of analysis proposed by Benjamin in an attempt to make sense of the radical changes in art since the beginning of the 20th century are used to outline the contemporary situation in art and the changes in perception with which it is associated. Full article

In vitro airway models are increasingly important for pathomechanistic analyses of respiratory diseases. Existing models are limited in their validity by their incomplete cellular complexity. We therefore aimed to generate a more complex and meaningful three-dimensional (3D) airway model. Primary human bronchial epithelial cells (hbEC) were propagated in airway epithelial cell growth (AECG) or PneumaCult ExPlus medium. Generating 3D models, hbEC were airlifted and cultured on a collagen matrix with donor-matched bronchial fibroblasts for 21 days comparing two media (AECG or PneumaCult ALI (PC ALI)). 3D models were characterized by histology and immunofluorescence staining. The epithelial barrier function was quantified by transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) measurements. The presence and function of ciliated epithelium were determined by Western blot and microscopy with high-speed camera. In 2D cultures, an increased number of cytokeratin 14-positive hbEC was present with AECG medium. In 3D models, AECG medium accounted for high proliferation, resulting in hypertrophic epithelium and fluctuating TEER values. Models cultured with PC ALI medium developed a functional ciliated epithelium with a stable epithelial barrier. Here, we established a 3D model with high in vivo–in vitro correlation, which has the potential to close the translational gap for investigations of the human respiratory epithelium in pharmacological, infectiological, and inflammatory research. Full article

Cultural ecosystem services (CESs) are an important part of ecosystem services (ESs). Correctly understanding the supply and demand relationship of CES is the premise of ES sustainable management and helps to improve human well-being. However, the evaluation and mapping of CES supply and demand represents a significant gap in ES research. Using the Shigou Township of Mizhi County in China as an example, in this study, we evaluated CES supply and demand at the village scale. We first considered three aspects of supply potential, accessibility and quality to construct an indicator system of six types of CES supply, including aesthetic (Aest), sense of place (SP), social relations (SR), cultural heritage (Cult), education (Edu) and recreation (Recr) and obtained demand data through a questionnaire. Then, we identified the imbalance in the supply and demand of CES by Z-score standardization based on the quantification of the CES supply and demand. Secondly, bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis was used to identify tradeoffs/synergies on the CES supply side, and chi-square tests were used to identify CES demand differences between stakeholder groups. The results indicated that the supply–demand patterns of CES presented evident spatial differences. The low-supply–high-demand patterns of Aest, SR and Recr accounted for the largest proportions, with values of 33.33%, 33.33% and 30.95%, respectively. The low-supply–low-demand patterns of SP and Cult accounted for the largest proportions, with values of 30.95% and 38.10%, respectively. The low-supply–low-demand pattern of Edu accounted for the smallest proportion (21.43%) and was mainly located in the south of Shigou Township. The southwest, northeast and central areas of Shigou Township were the key regions of tradeoffs/synergies of CES supply. There were significant differences in CES demand for SR, Cult and Edu among stakeholder groups. The results could contribute to optimizing regional ecosystem management and provide effective information for improving the imbalance between the supply and demand of CES. Full article

The concept of the “cult of the child” highlights a radical change in child representation. Having been neglected and even disrespected for centuries, children are now valued, and their interests are placed above all others. This change in views of children, reflected in changes in laws, institutions and practices, has also spread to two pillars of our democratic societies, the family and the school, with a number of consequences for parents, teachers and children. The purpose of this article is to (1) describe the changes in thinking that have led to the cult of the child, (2) examine their consequences for children and parents, (3) examine their consequences for students and teachers, and (4) reflect on how to preserve the benefits of these changes while limiting the negative consequences. Full article

The EU H2020 RURITAGE project takes 20 case studies, considered to be Role Models (RMs) of successful heritage-led rural regeneration from Europe, to analyze them and transfer knowledge and learning to a network of Replicators (Rs). To quantify the success of these RURITAGE interventions, a monitoring framework has been developed which includes a range of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and a co-monitoring program. This program takes a bottom-up approach working with key stakeholders to understand their values. The My Cult-Rural Toolkit described in this paper has been designed and developed to support the co-monitoring program. The toolkit includes various methods allowing expert and non-expert engagement with the landscape valuation process through embodied and situated approaches. All the co-monitoring tools share the principle of gathering data through real-time interaction in the place of interest, following principles of the embodied approach to ecosystems’ valuation. The toolkit employs both participatory hands-on workshops (Mini-Landscapes, Object Mapping, and Walking Maps) for in-depth understanding of values attached with landscape, and digital mobile apps (Rate my View App and Landscape Connect App) for exploratory, participatory mapping. This paper describes the toolkit and discusses benefits and limitations of its usage in the context of co-monitoring of cultural and natural heritage (CNH) inspired rural change. Full article

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the possibility to extract, by supercritical fluids, nutraceuticals as polyphenolic compounds, able in the prevention and in the treatment of a series of chronic-degenerative diseases, from plant matrices like the cactus pear. Supercritical fluid technology is an innovative method to extract nutraceuticals from natural matrices. This method offers numerous advantages that include the use of moderate temperatures, solvents with good transport properties (high diffusivity and low viscosity), and cheap and nontoxic fluids. Fresh cladodes from two different wild ecotypes of Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. were extracted both with methanol and with SFE-CO₂ using different samples preparations, to maximize the % yields and the selectivity of extraction of polyphenols. The biggest contents of phenolics, evaluated by Folin-Ciocalteu assay, has been observed with the sample dehydrated of O. ficus-indica cultivar that shows, as well, the best yield % (m/m) of extraction with both methanol and SFE-CO₂. Better results were obtained with the samples of O. ficus-indica cult. (OFI cult.), in spite of the O. ficus-indica s.l. (OFI s.l.); the two different ecotypes of OFI showed dissimilar phytochemicals profile. We noticed that the reduction of both quantity and quality of polyphenols was drastic with the increase of pressure at 250 bar; this shows that high pressures result in a loss of bioactive principles, like polyphenols. By changing the variables of extraction processes with SFE-CO₂ and by varying the preventive treatments of the natural matrices, it was possible to increase the selectivity and the purity of the products. Thus, the optimization of this useful and green technique allowed us to increase the value of the Opuntia cladodes, a by-product very diffused in Calabria, which is an extraordinary source of nutraceuticals. These extracts could be used directly as functional foods or as starting material in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical or cosmetic companies; they are safe and without any solvents traces and it is possible to obtain it in a few hours respect to the conventional extraction that requires longer extraction time. Full article

The international debate on the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage sites consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals has become increasingly important in the implementation of circular economy models for urban policies. The new values that characterize cultural assets, considered the result of a collaborative process, can enhance both manufactured and human capital, and provide the basis for a system of relationships that binds them. Furthermore, the values of historical artistic assets produced by community-based regeneration processes are particularly relevant when they characterize abandoned commons and cult buildings, to which communities attribute an identity and symbolic value. Starting from the definition of the concept of complex social value, we propose a methodological process that combines approaches and techniques typical of deliberative evaluations and collaborative decision-making processes. The aim is to identify the complex value chains generated by adaptive reuse, in which intrinsic values can play a driving role in the regeneration strategies of discarded cultural heritage. The experimentation, tested with the project “San Sebastiano del Monte dei Morti Living Lab” (SSMOLL), activates a creative and cultural Living Lab in the former Morticelli church, in the historic center of Salerno, in southern Italy. The reuse project is part of a more comprehensive process of social innovation and culture-led urban regeneration triggered in Salerno starting from SSMOLL. The partial results of the process show how a co-exploration phase has characterized the cultural characteristic of the living lab and how the co-evaluation of the individual activities orient the possible reuse scenarios. Finally, the results provide a first analysis of the relationship types activated. Full article