Search Results (53)

Diploid Vaccinium fuscatum is a wild blueberry species with a low chilling requirement, an evergreen growth habit, and soil adaptability to southeast US growing regions. Regardless of its potential to improve the abiotic and biotic resilience of cultivated blueberries, this species has rarely been used for blueberry breeding. One hurdle is the ploidy barrier between diploid V. fuscatum and tetraploid cultivated highbush blueberries. To overcome the ploidy barrier, vegetative shoots micro-propagated from one genotype of V. fuscatum, selected because it grew vigorously in vitro and two southern highbush cultivars, ‘Emerald’ and ‘Rebel,’ were treated with colchicine. While shoot regeneration was severely repressed in ‘Emerald’ and ‘Rebel,’ shoot production from the V. fuscatum clone was not compromised at either 500 µM or 5000 µM colchicine concentrations. Due to the high number of shoots produced in vitro via the V. fuscatum clone shoots of this clone that had an enlarged stem diameter in vitro were subjected to flow cytometer analysis to screen for induced polyploidy. Sixteen synthetic tetraploid V. fuscatum, one synthetic octoploid ‘Emerald,’ and three synthetic octoploid ‘Rebel’ were identified. Growth rates of the polyploid-induced mutants were reduced compared to their respective wildtype controls. The leaf width and length of synthetic tetraploid V. fuscatum and synthetic octoploid ‘Emerald’ was increased compared to the wildtypes, whereas the leaf width and length of synthetic octoploid ‘Rebel’ were reduced compared to the wildtype controls. Significant increases in stem thickness and stomata guard cell length were found in the polyploidy-induced mutant lines compared to the wildtypes. In the meantime, stomata density was reduced in the mutant lines. These morphological changes may improve drought tolerance and photosynthesis in these mutant lines. Synthetic tetraploid V. fuscatum can be used for interspecific hybridization with highbush blueberries to expand the genetic base of cultivated blueberries. Full article

Although the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is well underway and expected to continue in global car markets, most vehicles on the world’s roads will be powered by internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) and fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, possibly well past 2050. Thus, good environmental performance and effective emission control of ICE vehicles will continue to be of paramount importance if the world is to achieve the stated air and climate pollution reduction goals. In this study, we review 228 publications and identify four main issues confronting these objectives: (1) cheating by vehicle manufacturers, (2) tampering by vehicle owners, (3) malfunctioning emission control systems, and (4) inadequate in-service emission programs. With progressively more stringent vehicle emission and fuel quality standards being implemented in all major markets, engine designs and emission control systems have become increasingly complex and sophisticated, creating opportunities for cheating and tampering. This is not a new phenomenon, with the first cases reported in the 1970s and continuing to happen today. Cheating appears not to be restricted to specific manufacturers or vehicle types. Suspicious real-world emissions behavior suggests that the use of defeat devices may be widespread. Defeat devices are primarily a concern with diesel vehicles, where emission control deactivation in real-world driving can lower manufacturing costs, improve fuel economy, reduce engine noise, improve vehicle performance, and extend refill intervals for diesel exhaust fluid, if present. Despite the financial penalties, undesired global attention, damage to brand reputation, a temporary drop in sales and stock value, and forced recalls, cheating may continue. Private vehicle owners resort to tampering to (1) improve performance and fuel efficiency; (2) avoid operating costs, including repairs; (3) increase the resale value of the vehicle (i.e., odometer tampering); or (4) simply to rebel against established norms. Tampering and cheating in the commercial freight sector also mean undercutting law-abiding operators, gaining unfair economic advantage, and posing excess harm to the environment and public health. At the individual vehicle level, the impacts of cheating, tampering, or malfunctioning emission control systems can be substantial. The removal or deactivation of emission control systems increases emissions—for instance, typically 70% (NO_x and EGR), a factor of 3 or more (NO_x and SCR), and a factor of 25–100 (PM and DPF). Our analysis shows significant uncertainty and (geographic) variability regarding the occurrence of cheating and tampering by vehicle owners. The available evidence suggests that fleet-wide impacts of cheating and tampering on emissions are undeniable, substantial, and cannot be ignored. The presence of a relatively small fraction of high-emitters, due to either cheating, tampering, or malfunctioning, causes excess pollution that must be tackled by environmental authorities around the world, in particular in emerging economies, where millions of used ICE vehicles from the US and EU end up. Modernized in-service emission programs designed to efficiently identify and fix large faults are needed to ensure that the benefits of modern vehicle technologies are not lost. Effective programs should address malfunctions, engine problems, incorrect repairs, a lack of servicing and maintenance, poorly retrofitted fuel and emission control systems, the use of improper or low-quality fuels and tampering. Periodic Test and Repair (PTR) is a common in-service program. We estimate that PTR generally reduces emissions by 11% (8–14%), 11% (7–15%), and 4% (−1–10%) for carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), and oxides of nitrogen (NO_x), respectively. This is based on the grand mean effect and the associated 95% confidence interval. PTR effectiveness could be significantly higher, but we find that it critically depends on various design factors, including (1) comprehensive fleet coverage, (2) a suitable test procedure, (3) compliance and enforcement, (4) proper technician training, (5) quality control and quality assurance, (6) periodic program evaluation, and (7) minimization of waivers and exemptions. Now that both particulate matter (PM, i.e., DPF) and NO_x (i.e., SCR) emission controls are common in all modern new diesel vehicles, and commonly the focus of cheating and tampering, robust measurement approaches for assessing in-use emissions performance are urgently needed to modernize PTR programs. To increase (cost) effectiveness, a modern approach could include screening methods, such as remote sensing and plume chasing. We conclude this study with recommendations and suggestions for future improvements and research, listing a range of potential solutions for the issues identified in new and in-service vehicles. Full article

The issue of environmental protection and nature conservation has gained global importance, and its solution requires not only scientific and technological efforts but also the education of an environmentally conscious and active young generation. Children’s literature serves as an effective means for this task. The article analyzes the eco-pedagogical potential of contemporary Ukrainian children’s literature through the prism of young eco-rebels. These characters inspire readers with their emotional power, eco-centric worldview, and bold resistance to environmental injustice. They contribute to the formation of ecological values in readers through emotional impact. Based on the ecocritical interpretation and typological comparison of Ghosts of Black Oak Wood by Bachynskyi and Taming of Kychera by Polyanko, we observe that the components of representation of the ecological topic are problematic eco-situation; behavior models, young eco-rebels’ actions and deeds; and eco-initiatives. The article further presents the results of ecocritical dialogues on environmental topics with 26 readers aged 14–15 (Ukraine). The methodology included interactive tools (e.g., Padlet) and surveys, which revealed that literary engagement promoted critical thinking, empathy, and personal eco-involvement. The findings confirm that children’s literature, when integrated with dialogic and participatory teaching methods, can serve as a powerful tool for shaping environmental literacy and civic responsibility in youth. Full article

This article draws on political theology to provide a history of sovereignty (law-generating power) and legality (law-maintaining power) across an overlooked early modern trilogy of historical events. (1) The Kingdom of Kongo voluntarily adopted Catholicism in the late 1400s and early 1500s. Catholicism became a core part of its political identity and a major way through which Kongo resisted Portuguese exploitation and enslavement. However, Kongo’s compromises with Portuguese power gave rise to a heretical movement that triggered conflict, reforms, and mass enslavement and deportation. Some of those deported found themselves in South Carolina. (2) Deportees may have been part of a ditch-cutting crew at Stono that led the largest slave uprising in England’s mainland American colonies. Their Rebellion has many Kongolese characteristics and may have partly been a Kongolese Catholic response to English Protestantism. This is especially so because the rebels apparently meant to reach sanctuary in Spanish Florida. (3) Escapees from enslavement by Protestant rivals inspired Spain to offer freedom to fugitive slaves who converted to Catholicism. While Florida had a racial hierarchy and practiced slavery, its versions of these was somewhat milder due to religious and legal influences. Free Black people, especially escapees from the English, proved loyal subjects and militiamen—and Spain reciprocated with protection and inclusion. Chronicling sovereignty and legality across these three episodes is important for telling the history of how early Americans found the heart they needed to make their world less heartless. Full article

This article is about how Elsa, a young Sámi girl in Ann-Helén Laestadius’ Stolen, learns to resist hate crimes that seek to sever her roots in traditional Indigenous herding practices. The nine-year old Elsa witnesses the killing of her personal reindeer and is threatened into a decade-long silence by the killer. There are more attacks which we read as the violent enforcement of western linear time on traditional seasonal herding cycles. The novel charts Elsa’s coming-of-age as a rebel able to seek retribution not just for herself and her reindeer but also to fight for a vital future for her culture. We read Stolen together with “revolutionary theory” to show how imposed settler temporality is harmful to sustainable modes of living. We emphasise a range of eco-activist responses to the novel, among them rebel reading itself as one of several forms of political engagement available for the eco-rebel. We consider teaching Stolen at secondary school level focusing on how readers can practice risk-taking engagement with a text while learning “how to read our world now” in solidarity with Elsa’s struggle for her people’s survival within an ecologically and socially just future for all. Ultimately, Elsa’s emergent rebellion suggests forms of activism based on a commitment to ancestry, especially its future. Full article

Eco-rebels can provide readers a role model that encourages sustainable thinking and action in everyday life. The protagonists in ecological children’s and young adult literature (CYL) are mostly ignorant at the beginning. They learn as the story progresses and develop into environmentally conscious individuals who are taken seriously and actively committed to protecting their environment. This article would like to present a linguistic method for analyzing how readers are guided in ecological CYL, allowing them to follow and understand the protagonist’s change towards becoming an eco-rebel. This study hypothesizes that the development of an ecological identity, although an individual evolution in the story, is a pattern of ecological CYL. The possibilities for identification that a text offers its reader must be considered as crucial for the experiences gained within the fiction framework to influence real consciousness and development processes. In this context, Bamberg’s identity dilemmatic spaces are used for the analysis, allowing the construction of identity in storytelling to be made tangible. These identity dilemmatic spaces have been expanded to include linguistic categories. The construction of the figure of the eco-rebel can thus be analyzed according to different linguistically based or narrative-based aspects like speech markings or the development of an agenda. Full article

Resource conflicts constitute a major global issue in areas rich in natural resources. The modeling of factors influencing natural resource conflicts (NRCs), including environmental, health, socio-economic, political, and legal aspects, presents a significant challenge compounded by inadequate data. Quantitative research frequently emphasizes large-scale conflicts. This study presents a novel multilevel approach, SEFLAME-CM—Spatially Explicit Fuzzy Logic-Adapted Model for Conflict Management—for advancing understanding of the relationship between NRCs and drivers under territorial and rebel-based typologies at a community level. SEFLAME-CM is hypothesized to yield a more robust positive correlation between the risk of NRCs and the interacting conflict drivers, provided that the conflict drivers and input variables remain the same. Local knowledge from stakeholders is integrated into spatial decision-making tools to advance sustainable peace initiatives. We compared our model with spatial multi-criteria evaluation for conflict management (SMCE-CM) and spatial statistics. The results from the Moran’s I scatter plots of the overall conflicts of the SEFLAME-CM and SMCE-CM models exhibit substantial values of 0.99 and 0.98, respectively. Territorial resource violence due to environmental drivers increases coast-wards, more than that stemming from rebellion. Weighing fuzzy rules and conflict drivers enables equal comparison. Environmental variables, including proximity to arable land, mangrove ecosystems, polluted water, and oil infrastructures are key factors in NRCs. Conversely, socio-economic and political factors seem to be of lesser importance, contradicting prior research conclusions. In Third World nations, local communities emphasize food security and access to environmental services over local political matters amid competition for resources. The synergistic integration of fuzzy logic analysis and community perception to address sustainable peace while simultaneously connecting environmental and socio-economic factors is SEFLAME-CM’s contribution. This underscores the importance of a holistic approach to resource conflicts in communities and the dissemination of knowledge among specialists and local stakeholders in the sustainable management of resource disputes. The findings can inform national policies and international efforts in addressing the intricate underlying challenges while emphasizing the knowledge and needs of impacted communities. SEFLAME-CM, with improvements, proficiently illustrates the capacity to model intricate real-world issues. Full article

This article posits that a fictional eco-rebel might be not just a human (child or young adult), but also a plant, revolting against the destruction of its dwelling place. The argument is furthered by way of a literary analysis of arboreal agency in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, building on perspectives from critical plant studies. Departing from a closer look at the etymological roots of the term “eco-rebel”, the article highlights previous work on plants in Tolkien’s epic, with an emphasis on trees, before engaging in close reading and analysis of three instances of arboreal hostility and rebellion in The Lord of the Rings. Ultimately, the article argues that Tolkien has created a novel kind of eco-rebel, with a basis in his acknowledgement of plant agency. Full article

This article focuses intently on three pieces of civil war research and how they interact with each other to improve our understanding of the dynamic nature of warring actors. Patrick Regan’s book, entitled Sixteen Million One, delves into the conditions under which civil wars emerge by focusing intently on why individual actors take up arms to form a rebel faction. Research by Olson Lounsbery and Cook illuminates the challenge of these actors operating in a cohesive manner when they are faced with decisions to negotiate, while additional research by Olson Lounsbery presents the conditions under which previously splintered factions would once again unite. Each piece is presented through a systemist graphic approach. Doing so helps demonstrate how they interact with one another to improve our knowledge in the field of civil war studies. The article concludes with lessons learned through the application of systemism. Full article

In colonial Yucatán, Mexico, the owners of plantation-like estates known as haciendas conscripted saints and cows to expropriate land from Indigenous Maya farming communities. In this paper, I trace the role of hacienda saints by framing them as an introduced or adventive species, capable of forming both mutualistic and invasive interspecies relationships in their new habitat. I examine the introduction of saints to the region by Franciscans, early attempts by Maya people to build anticolonial coalitions with saints and cows, the participation of hacienda saints in extractivist ranching practices, and the ultimate reclaiming and possible naturalization of saints by Maya rebels. This paper extends conceptualizations of the plantation—as both a site of species extinction and a site of interspecies collaboration—to include Catholic saints, so as to interrogate the dynamic role of supernatural entities in deep and ongoing histories of extractivism. Full article

In the envisioned 6G internet of things (IoT), visible light communication (VLC) has emerged as one promising candidate to mitigate the frequency spectrum crisis. However, when working as the access point, VLC has to be connected with the backbone network via other wire communication solutions. Typically, power line communication (PLC) is viewed as an excellent match to VLC, which is capable of providing both a power supply and backbone network connection. Generally, the integration of PLC and VLC is taken into consideration for the above hybrid system for channel characteristics analysis. However, almost all current works focus on hybrid PLC and VLC, based on a conventional Lambertian optical beam configuration, and fail to address the applications of hybrid PLC and VLC based on distinct optical beam configurations. To address this issue, in this paper, the channel characteristics of hybrid PLC and VLC, based on distinct optical beam configurations, are explored and illustrated. Numerical results show that, for a central position of the receiver, compared with an achievable rate of about 194 Mbps for hybrid PLC and VLC with a baseline Lambertian optical beam configuration, the counterparts of a hybrid channel based on Rebel and NSPW optical beams are about 173.4 Mbps and 222.4 Mbps. Moreover, the effect of azimuth rotation is constructed and estimated for hybrid PLC and VLC, adopting a typical rotating asymmetric beam configuration. Full article

Chinese state-endorsed films have transformed in the past decade. These films make up the “new mainstream”, a genre defined by its ability to match strides with Hollywood commercial cinema. But, what exactly comprises Hollywood’s impact on official Chinese media? How does it manifest onscreen? Exploring the relationship between state-endorsed blockbusters and Hollywood, this article analyzes a pioneer of the “new mainstream”, Wolf Warrior II (2017). This film stands out as the inaugural collaboration between Chinese media conglomerates and Marvel Cinematic Universe directors. From this collaboration emerges the film’s protagonist, Leng Feng, an ex-soldier who saves civilians from rebel forces in Africa. As Leng enacts justice at home and abroad, however, affective portrayals of his feats foreground ambiguity over coherence and unresolvable impulses over a singular agendum. These melodramatic sites of contradiction, I argue, culminate in the film’s own “global superhero vernacular”. Such a vernacular aligns with transnationally circulating serial franchise logics, pushing the film’s connection with Marvel beyond local–global and state–market binaries. Ultimately, my analysis complicates the smooth thread that links together the superhuman individual, nationalist sovereign power, and international order, thereby re-evaluating state-endorsed cinema’s role within Chinese media cultures and social fields. Full article

In The Christian Life, his unfinished volume of Church Dogmatics, Karl Barth describes sport as “a special form of derangement”. Barth identifies sport as a lordless power, an element of society that humans believe they control, but ends up dictating the terms of engagement. Situating his discussion of these powers in his discourse on the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Barth calls on Christians to revolt against these things. Readers may shake their heads at Barth’s rhetoric regarding sport and the labeling of it as ‘lordless power’; however, in situating his remarks on the topic in the Lord’s Prayer, Barth provides a new lens through which Christians might view sport. This paper focuses on Barth’s approach to sport, suggesting that Christians can, through invocation and correspondence, rebel against the lordless power that is sport. It begins by situating Barth’s approach to sport within the context of the sport and Christianity interface, the wider corpus of Barth studies, and his own work. After assessing Barth’s writings on sport, the paper shifts to a discussion of what Barth suggests God does and what we, as humans, are called to do when we pray “Thy kingdom come”. The paper concludes with reflections on how Barth’s approach to sport, rooted in prayer, can affect our understanding of the subject. Full article

According to available biography materials, Fazang had six disciples, namely, Hongguan (宏觀), Wenchao (文超), Zhiguang (智光) of Huayansi in the East Capital (東都華嚴寺), Zongyi (宗一) of He’ensi (荷恩寺), Huiyuan (慧苑) of Jingfasi (靜法寺), and Huiying (慧英) of Jingxingsi (經行寺). Most studies on Fazang’s dharma lineage have only focused on Huiyuan because only Huiyuan’s works on Buddhism are still extant. However, Huiyuan has been criticized because “he rebelled against his master’s doctrines, and then was taken placed by Chengguan (澄觀) who was born a hundred years later 弟子慧苑悉叛其說, 滅后百年而得澄觀”. Therefore, research on Huiyuan is not mainstream either. This has led to a lack of studies on the Huayan School during the time between Fazang and Chengguan. In fact, Wenchao, a disciple of Fazang, authored ten volumes of Zifang Yiwangji (自防遺忘集) and one volume of Huayanjing Guanmai Yiji (華嚴經関脈義記) (hereinafter referred to as Guanmai (関脈)), and Guanjian (関鍵: the number of its volumes is unknown, and its text is most likely to be part of Zifang Yiwangji); Fashen (法詵), a disciple of Huiyuan, wrote Huayanjing Shu(華嚴經疏, thirty-one volumes); Kuaiji Shenxiu (會稽神秀), a disciple of Fashen, wrote the Commentary on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra (Huayanjing Shu (華嚴經疏), thirty volumes) and Miaoli Yuanchengguan (妙理圓成觀, three volumes). However, research on these figures is limited. This paper aims to enrich and supplement the study of the Dharma lineage of Fazang by examining the writings of Wenchao, Fashen, and Kuaiji Shenxiu and the ideas revealed by their manuscripts, which may further contribute to the study of the history of Huayan Buddhism and the history of Buddhist schools. Full article