Community Properties Research Articles

La vocación del encuentro. Reflexiones sobre la dimensión ética del don de sí mismo a los otros, desde una perspectiva filosófica personalista y dialógica

This article seeks to reflect on the concept of vocation, understood as a personal and original project that needs to be experienced also in the encounter with others. To do this, first, we discuss what is meant by vocation from a personal and dialogical philosophical perspective.Then, the foundations are developed that allow to understand the link between vocation and encounter with others, being such: freedom; love understood as manifestation of the giving who is; the understanding of the notion of otherness as ethical and ontological listening that awakens in the subject the esteem for himself by his responsible response to others, and; the care of the you, which denotes the relational essence of the human condition.Subsequently, the experience of vocation is detailed in a community dimension which occurs due to an original experience of loneliness that pushes the person to overcome it. This impulse is due to the person’s desire to live the so-called good life and to his or her understanding of vulnerability, which invites him or her to depend on others to alleviate it.Finally, we reflect on the importance of the moment understood as a misunderstanding in which time and eternity touch each other, that short circuit between the two immeasurable extremes, that it allows a confrontation with its constitutive difference and also offers the opportunity to settle as an ethical possibility, an opportunity to be fruitful by giving to the other, offering of a personal vocation that requires meeting those close to them, helping them to live the originality of their existence by recognizing them as neighbors.

Years matter: the role of memory and place attachment in remote Nordic areas facing natural hazards

Remembrance, commemoration, and specific dates play an important role in many societies and cultures. They can be about positively connotated events with societal impacts, such as reunifications or the gaining of independence, but also disastrous or other devastating events on a national or international scale. In disaster risk areas, there are various ways such events are addressed. While for some communities they are an active part of the local history and the living memory, other communities tend to neglect or disregard such events. By applying a classification system, building on the ideas of Assmann (2011) and Halbwachs (1992), we identify active and passive forms of remembering in five case study areas in the Nordic countries. We investigate the possible positive and negative outcomes of the collective and cultural memory and how they relate to place attachment as well as capacity building. An example of positive outcomes is an even closer-knit community, exhibiting place-protective behavior, that learns from past events and is better prepared for future disasters. A negative example at the local scale is willful blindness and the neglect of any risk. However, the society outside an affected settlement is also important in the creation and manifestation of the collective and cultural memory: stigmatization and ascription can be negative side effects. Small and remote communities may be recognized by society at large for only one point in time—a year and a disaster—thus sidelining the positive attributes of such communities.

Properties of Biofilm Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Communities in a Representative Hypereutrophic Urban River

ABSTRACT Biofilms play an important role in nutrient and food web dynamics of shallow aquatic ecosystems. Multiple prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms within biofilms interact with each other to shape the community structure and their functional attributes. However, there is no clear understanding of varied patterns of biofilm prokaryotic versus eukaryotic microbial abundances, diversities and communities, which limit our understanding of how biofilm communities and functions in hypereutrophic urban river ecosystems are changing. To elucidate the properties of biofilm communities and controls on biofilm communities in a hypereutrophic urban river, we conducted a one‐year study to investigate the seasonal and water‐depth variations on the abundance/biomass, diversity and structure of biofilm prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities. The structure and dynamics of biofilm prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities were determined by high‐throughput sequencing based on the 16S and 18S rRNA gene. Sequencing revealed that Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota and Cyanobacteria were the three dominant phyla in biofilm prokaryotic communities, and Rotifera, Chlorophyta, Annelida and Bacillariophyta were the four dominant phyla in biofilm eukaryotic communities. Biofilm bacterial abundance depended mainly on the water temperature, whereas biofilm algal biomass correlated with rotifer grazing and light levels. Prokaryotic communities had higher species richness and diversity than eukaryotic communities. Species richness and diversity displayed significant seasonal variations with minima for prokaryotic communities in winter and eukaryotic communities in summer, which were linked to water temperature and rotifer grazing, respectively. Variations in biofilm prokaryotic and eukaryotic community composition were mainly related to ammonia concentration and water temperature, respectively. The co‐occurrence network analysis suggested that rotifer grazing could considerably decrease the complexity of the biofilm network in summer, and the algal groups, especially for Chlorophyta and Bacillariophyta, were the key to the formation of stable biofilm networks. There were significant differences in seasonal and water‐depth heterogeneity of biofilm prokaryotic and eukaryotic community composition. Our findings indicate that variations in water temperature, light level, rotifer grazing and nutrients (especially ammonia) appreciably contribute to changes in the abundance, diversity and composition of biofilm prokaryotic versus eukaryotic communities in the hypereutrophic urban river. These findings increase our understanding of biofilm community characteristics in hypereutrophic urban rivers and provide insights for water pollution remediation strategies.

Customary Laws and Land: Changes in Landholding System of the Karbis in Assam, India

The purpose of this study is to look into the evolving trends in the landholding system of the Karbi tribe in Assam, India, as well as the nature of the customary laws that govern their land. This study challenged the Western notion of land ownership, which frequently promotes individual ownership and private ownership. The present study supported the idea of tribes’ customary rights over land management and communal property. Qualitative data were collected through field observations and oral interviews. This study employed content and discourse analysis methods to interpret the materials gathered. This research can be summarized by arguing that, with changing dynamics, the relationship is becoming clearer as survival dependency transitions from shifting cultivation to settled agriculture. Hill tribes have yet to gain legal entitlement to property in many regions, despite farming it for decades under communal ownership. The rise of private land rights is creating a situation in which more educated members of the society are abusing customary laws for personal gain. The landholding systems of the tribes in India, particularly the hill tribes of Assam, have been overlooked in studies for many decades. These overlooked research findings will contribute to the current knowledge and understanding of land management systems.

Mapuche Worldview, Territory, and Language: Narratives of Mapuche Speakers and Elders

This article addresses the relationship between worldview, territory, and language among the Mapuche people. Our research aims to explore, through the voices of Mapuche elders, the sociocultural, political, and territorial knowledge that guides the teaching and transmission of Mapuzugun to new generations. In alignment with the proposed objective, we have adopted a socio-critical approach to explore Mapuche identity through the territorial and communal dimensions that underpin linguistic revitalization. The findings reveal that the elders possess a vast source of knowledge, serving as primary cultural bearers through epistemology centered on the unity of language and territory.

Recurrent Heatwaves Slow Down the Recovery of a Phytoplankton Community.

Heatwaves (HWs) are predicted to increase in frequency and severity due to climate change. Yet, there is limited information about how ecological resilience of aquatic communities is going to be impacted by recurrent HWs. Here, we used data from an outdoor freshwater mesocosm experiment where a semi-natural phytoplankton community was exposed to three subsequent HWs. The data were used to test two different hypotheses regarding community and ecosystem responses to recurrent perturbations: critical slowing down and rescue. Slowing down would determine a reduction in resilience and eventually a community or ecosystem collapse, whereas rescue would increase community or ecosystem resilience and maintain stable community and ecosystem properties. The results of our experiment showed evidence for critical slowing down, but not for community or ecosystem rescue. The recovery capacity of phytoplankton biomass and dissolved oxygen gradually decreased after the first two HWs and sharply declined after the third one. The decline in these community and ecosystem properties were linked to a significant compositional turnover in the phytoplankton community. Although we did not find evidence for a transition into an alternative stable state, our results provide insights into how the overall resilience of a phytoplankton community may decline in the presence of recurrent heatwaves. Thus, we highlight the importance of monitoring the slowing down of recovery of aquatic communities experiencing repeated exposure to severe perturbations.

Dimensions of a Satisfactory Communication from A Viewpoint of Iranian Older Adults: A Qualitative Study

Dimensions of a Satisfactory Communication from A Viewpoint of Iranian Older Adults: A Qualitative Study

Disease suppression is driven by microbial community properties at fine taxonomic scales

AbstractThe soil microbiome provides essential services in agroecosystems that can increase plant health and productivity, such as disease suppression and growth promotion. A small number of microbial groups have been proposed as main players behind disease suppression, but the complete picture of the underlying mechanisms remains unclear for both functions in many soil systems. Here, we investigated broad and fine‐scale microbial community features for their contributions to disease suppression and growth promotion for potato plants. In a greenhouse study, we grew potato plants in pots sharing a common background soil and inoculated with living soil microbial communities with or without a separate inoculation with Streptomyces scabiei, the causal agent of potato common scab disease. The suppression of common scab and growth promotion abilities of a variety of soil microbial communities were estimated and related to quantitative patterns in microbial community structure. We found that suppression of common scab was mostly driven by fine‐scale microbial community features, especially the diversity within the Actinomycetota phylum. Even though opposing components of microbial community structure might be related to the two functions, disease suppression did not cause a negative trade‐off in growth promotion. This suggests high functional redundancy in growth promotion. It may be possible to improve the multi‐functionality of soil microbial communities by engineering the communities toward optimized disease suppression and growth promotion ability.

Ecological Scaling of Temporal Fluctuations with Bacterial Abundance in Gut Microbiota Depends on Functional Properties of Individual Microbial Species and Bacterial Communities.

Macroecological relationships that describe various statistical associations between species' abundances, their spatial, and temporal variability are among the most general laws in ecology and biology. One of the most commonly observed relationships is a power-law scaling between means and variances of temporal species abundances, known in ecology as Taylor's law. Taylor's law has been observed across many ecosystems, from diverse plant and animal ecosystems to complex microbial communities. While many mathematical models have been proposed to explain the potential origins of Taylor's law, what determines its scaling exponents across species and ecosystems is not understood. Here, we use temporal trajectories of human and baboon gut microbiota to analyze the relationship between functional properties of individual bacterial species and microbial communities with the scaling of species-specific and community-level Taylor's law. The species Taylor law characterizes - for each individual species - the relationship between the species' temporal abundance means and temporal abundance variances across host organisms. On the other hand, community-level Taylor's law characterizes - in each host organism - the scaling across multiple species between their temporal abundance means and temporal abundance variances. For community Taylor's law, we find that the power law scaling is strongly associated with the microbiota abundance of certain nutrient-degrading enzymes in the gut. Notably, our results demonstrate that the availability of enzymes metabolizing starch glycogen significantly increases Taylor's law scaling. We also find that species Taylor's law depends on the individual species' functional properties. Specifically, we observe lower Taylor's law scaling for species with larger metabolic networks, for species that are able to grow on a larger number of carbon sources, and for species with particular metabolic functions, such as glutamine and folate metabolism. Overall, our study reveals that Taylor's law scaling is strongly associated with the functional capabilities of bacterial communities and individual microbial species' biosynthetic properties, which are likely related to their ecological roles in the gut microbiota.

Analysis of Business Actors’ Satisfaction with BPOM’s One Stop Service in the Registration of Herbal Medicines, Health Supplements, and Cosmetics

The One Stop Service provided by the Indonesian Food and Drug Authority is designed to streamline the registration procedures for herbal medicines, cosmetics, and health supplements. This service is essential for improving efficiency, accessibility, and user satisfaction; however, empirical evaluations of user satisfaction remain limited. Previous studies highlight that service quality, communication, and responsiveness are key factors influencing satisfaction, but specific research on BPOM’s OSS is scarce. This study aims to evaluate user satisfaction levels, identify key determining factors, and provide recommendations for improving the service. A quantitative approach was employed, collecting data through questionnaires from participants who engaged in the service, both offline and online. The results indicate that most respondents were satisfied, particularly with processing time, ease of access, and staff responsiveness. However, areas requiring improvement include the development of digital features, more equitable service distribution, and enhanced transparency in communication. This study offers novelty by emphasizing the importance of a holistic approach that incorporates dimensions of communication, privacy, and inclusivity.

Oral Communication Skills of the Students of Osias Colleges, Inc.

The study employed a descriptive design to gather baseline data on respondents' oral communication skills in English. The results revealed that the majority of respondents were female, aged 19-24, who primarily spoke Tagalog and Ilokano at home, and were mainly in their second and third years of study. Utilizing a 5-point Likert scale for assessment, the findings indicated that respondents were rated as "good" across various dimensions of oral communication, including audience engagement, context, transactional and interper-sonal skills, medium of exchange, and paralinguistics. This overall rating suggests that while their skills are adequate, there is consid-erable potential for improvement to enhance their competitiveness in the job market.As a result, the study underscored the need for a program aimed at strengthening students' oral communication skills in English, with an intervention proposed for review and implementation in the upcoming academic year. Recommendations for program heads and school administrators included incorporating these findings into curriculum evaluations and policy development. Regular curriculum mapping is essential to ensure that course objectives align with the enhancement of students' English oral communication skills. Addi-tionally, it is recommended that training programs focused on im-proving these skills be made available, and that language teachers engage in professional development seminars to refine their in-structional techniques. Furthermore, increasing the number of in-teractive classroom activities is advised to further cultivate stu-dents' oral communication abilities in English.

Measures to address challenges of communal property associations in South Africa: The case of Elandskloof, Western Cape province

Measures to address challenges of communal property associations in South Africa: The case of Elandskloof, Western Cape province

The Impact of Communication on Sexual Response: A Summary of Findings

This paper examines how sexual communication impacts both sexual desire and sexual satisfaction. The purpose is to assist clinicians in understanding how these components of human sexuality interrelate so that they may use these findings to inform their clinical practice and improve outcomes for clients. Key dimensions of effective sexual communication are explored, and how those dimensions interact with experiences of sexual desire and sexual satisfaction. Consideration is given to the additional factors of relationship satisfaction and non-sexual communication and how these may mediate the relationship between sexual communication, desire, and satisfaction. The need for further research in this area outside of heterosexual and monogamous relationships is emphasized. Implications for practice highlight the importance of clinicians being able to screen for sexual communication skills in their clients, and upskill accordingly, particularly when issues of sexual desire and satisfaction are present, to enhance clinical outcomes.

Optimizing Smart Community Development: Strategies for “Full Sharing, Multi-Adaptation, and Micro-Services”

In line with the Ministry of Civil Affairs and eight other departments’ Guiding Opinions on Advancing Smart Community Development, the smart community represents a novel concept in community management. By leveraging the Internet and Internet of Things (IoT), along with physical platforms such as artificial intelligence, community property management, and public rental housing, smart communities create a neuron-like information collection network platform, mapped across streets, neighborhoods, buildings, and households. This platform, centered on residents, provides secure, efficient, and convenient smart services, fulfills residents’ comprehensive living and developmental needs. This paper aims to explore the principles of “full sharing, multi-adaptation, and micro-services” in smart community construction. By incorporating key technologies like 5G’s eMMB, uRLLC, and mMTC, along with network slicing and video recognition, it proposes the development of a convenient and efficient smart community. Such an approach seeks to accelerate harmonious community building and foster social advancement.

The Logos of the Communicating Silence

The following thesis is an attempt to establish the communicative dimensions of silence. In it I put forward a thesis in the spirit of Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue and Max Scheler's phenomenology of emotion , according to which true dialogue does not convey specific content, but modes of existence born of the experience of presence. This kind of normative transmission of existence makes communication a communion. Underlying tacit communication are various forms of affection , through which emotionality becomes one of the main dimensions of communicating silence.

An International Exploratory Study: Business Perspectives of Experts in Medical Physics, Condensed Matter Physics and Radiation Oncology

Objectives: To explore latest technology adoption barriers and enablers and to discover job satisfaction motivators in Medical Physics (Med Phys) Including Radiation Oncology (RO) and Condensed Matter Physics (CMP). To measure quantitatively the value dimensions of Medical Physics multi-disciplinary team at occupational level by studying the business perspectives of Experts. To analyse the visibility of medical device manufacturers and their products on social media and to see which innovative technologies experts like to adopt and why? Finally, to explore Communication styles of leaders and to identify existence of transformational leadership traits among leaders. Methods: A Cross-sectional survey was carried out to understand the business perspectives of the experts in the fields of Med Phys, Condensed Matter Physics and Radiation Oncology. 200 Experts were contacted via a Social Media Platform through purposive sampling. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: 21 experts responded to the E-Survey. Statistical results identified various technology adoption and Implementation enablers and barriers as well as numerous strong, moderate and Poor motivators of Job satisfaction. Most of study participants perceived themselves and/or their leaders expressive, supportive, precise, assured, argumentative and verbally non aggressive in terms of communication styles. Majority of study participants has given strong importance to Occupational cultural value dimensions of Control, Knowledge, Support and Communication both in terms of mean scores and frequency (Percentages). Varian and Elekta as well as their product lines were well recognized by majority of study participants. Survey participants learned about medical device manufacturers through various channels. Data analysis has shown that the study participants are interested in adopting 19 innovative technologies. Conclusions: The present study achieved all of its objectives and explored many business and management related concepts. The study has added to not only non-existent body of evidence in terms of exploring the cultural value dimensions of Medical Physics and communication styles practised by the experts but also contributed to growing body of evidence that supports the use of transformational leadership traits by most experts, identified job motivation factors and latest technology adoption enablers and barriers. The study confirms the sub-optimal use of social media platforms by medical device manufacturers and summarizes top desirable Innovative technologies. Present study was conducted in 2022 as part of PhD in Medical Management.

Spanish Translation, Adaptation and Psychometric Analysis of a Short Version of the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale in Chilean Public Workers.

Chile has been facing socio-cognitive, affective and cultural tensions and changes due to the constant increase of the migrant population in Chile over the last two decades. This means that local public policy workers must interact and achieve effective communication with migrant users living in their territories. Intercultural sensitivity is understood as the affective dimension of intercultural communication. This dimension facilitates the awareness that people differ in their behaviors, perceptions and feelings during intercultural communication processes, promoting acceptance and respect towards these differences. The aim of this paper was to analyze the factor structure, psychometric properties and invariance of the Intercultural Sensitivity scale (Chen & Starosta, 2000) in a sample of Chilean workers. The sample consists of 337 workers from five municipalities in two regions of Chile. The sample has a mean age of 42.8years (SD = 10.4), and 62.9% report being female. To determine the factor structure, an unweighted least squares (ULS) parameter estimation method was used, which is recommended for relatively small sample sizes, as is the case in this study. The overall structure of the original scale, although showing adequate indicators in a confirmatory factor analysis, presented serious conflicts in the covariance matrix used. Therefore, the 5-factor structure seen in other studies is disconfirmed. Because of this, it was decided to construct an abbreviated version, but reducing the limitations encountered during the validation process. The final result is a 4-dimensional structure, corresponding to four of the original dimensions, with a total of 13 items. The goodness-of-fit indices (CFI, TLI, RMSEA and SRMR) had optimal levels. The Manifest and Subtle Prejudice scale was used for its divergent validity, presenting all the dimensions of the instrument, and its total score, inverse and significant correlations with manifest prejudice, subtle prejudice, and total prejudice, as expected.

Contribution of pectin-degrading bacteria to the quality of cigar fermentation: an analysis based on microbial communities and physicochemical components.

This study aims to investigate the effects of pectin-degrading bacteria on the microbial community and physicochemical properties during the fermentation process of cigar tobacco, evaluating its potential in reducing green bitterness and enhancing aroma. By isolating and screening pectin-degrading bacteria, high-throughput sequencing and physicochemical analysis were employed to compare the microbial flora and physicochemical component differences in different treatment groups of cigar tobacco. Furthermore, correlation analysis was performed to examine the relationships between these variables. The results showed that the strains YX-2 and DM-3, isolated from the cigar tobacco variety "Yunxue No. 1," exhibited strong pectin-degrading abilities. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that strain YX-2 is highly homologous to Bacillus flexus, while strain DM-3 is highly homologous to Bacillus siamensis. After fermentation, the addition of strains YX-2 and DM-3 significantly reduced the pectin content in the tobacco leaves, increased the total sugar and reducing sugar content, reduced green bitterness, and markedly enhanced the total aroma components. Notably, DM-3 exhibited outstanding performance in the production of Maillard reaction products. Microbial community analysis showed that the addition of pectin-degrading bacteria significantly increased the diversity of both bacteria and fungi, especially in the TDM3 group, where the relative abundance of Pseudomonas was notably elevated. Correlation analysis revealed that Pseudomonas had a significant positive correlation with both reducing sugar and total sugar, and a significant negative correlation with pectin, indicating its important role in sugar metabolism and pectin degradation. Additionally, fungal genera such as Cercospora were significantly negatively correlated with total sugar and total nitrogen, while Eurotium was closely associated with pectin degradation and reducing sugar accumulation. This study found that the addition of Pectin-degrading bacteria YX-2 and DM-3 significantly optimized the microbial community structure during the cigar tobacco fermentation process and improved the physicochemical properties of the tobacco leaves, with notable effects in reducing green bitterness and enhancing aroma.

Current investigation of neurocognitive functioning in preschool children with cancer: A cross-sectional study from western China.

Cancer and its treatments may cause neurocognitive impairments in preschool children, but there is limited research on the neurocognitive outcomes of this population. This study, which assessed the neurocognitive function of preschool children with cancer and analyzed various influencing factors of neurocognitive functioning, is of significant importance. We aimed to investigate neurocognitive function and related risk factors in preschool children with cancer to inform preventive and intervention strategies. From September 2023 to May 2024, we recruited 100 preschool children with cancer. The Chinese version of the Ages & Stages Questionnaires, the Spence Preschool Anxiety Scale Chinese Version, and the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children were used to collected data. Binary logistic stepwise regression analysis was used to explore the influencing factors of neurocognitive function in preschool children with cancer. 49% of the preschool children with cancer had abnormalities in at least one neurocognitive dimension. The majority of children had abnormalities in gross motor dimension, accounting for 30%, which was related to age and frequency of participation in neurocognitive activities. Communication dimension was related to father's education level, dietary habit, and frequency of participation in activities. Fine motor dimension was associated with age, sex, and father's education level. Problem-solving dimension was associated with age and dietary habit. Personal-social dimension was related to age and radiotherapy. Nearly half of preschool children with cancer experienced neurocognitive impairment. The Chinese version of the Ages & Stages Questionnaires is a simple and effective tool for screening children with possible neurocognitive impairment. It was found that children's neurocognitive function was significantly influenced by family environment, dietary habit, cognitive activities, and cancer treatment. Therefore, it is recommended to strengthen family and social support, and to formulate personalized intervention such as cognitive therapy and dietary adjustment based on children's age and family background, which are important for promoting neurocognitive recovery.

Kadın Sporculara Uygulanan Mobbing Düzeyinin Özgüvenleri Üzerine Etkisi

The goal of this study was to examine the impact of the level of mobbing to which female athletes are exposed on their sporting self-confidence. The sample group, which is believed to be representative of the population, comprises 374 female athletes aged between 18 and 35 years old who are members of clubs affiliated with various federations and reside in Istanbul. The dependent variables of the study are perceptions of mobbing and continuous sport self-confidence. The independent variables encompass age, educational attainment, marital status, the sport in which the participants engage, age, years of nationality, position within the team, and whether the participants are amateurs or professionals. The Continuous Sport Self-Confidence Scale and the Mobbing Scale were employed as measurement instruments. The data obtained were analysed using the SPSS 22 programme and were subjected to a frequency analysis, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), independent sample t-test, and simple linear regression analysis. It can therefore be concluded that there is a significant correlation between the sport self-confidence levels of the participating athletes and their perceptions of mobbing. The results demonstrated that intra-organisational communication, one of the mobbing levels, is a significant predictor in explaining sport self-confidence. Furthermore, the findings indicated that an increase in sport self-confidence can be predicted by a decrease in the perception of mobbing at the level of intra-organisational communication. It was also revealed that it is possible to enhance sport self-confidence through interventions designed to reduce mobbing in the communication dimension. Keywords: Women, sport, mobbing, self-confidence