Human Communities Research Articles

Identifying plants for priority conservation in Samar Island Natural Park forests (the Philippines) over limestone using a localized conservation priority index

The escalating degradation of ecosystems and the consequent reduction in critical services essential for human communities are global concerns. This study aimed to identify top-priority plants for conservation using a localized conservation priority index (LCPI), customized for the locality. The LCPI, a point scoring method, ranked 50 evaluated species based on criteria such as harvesting risk, economic and cultural use, species distribution, and frequency value. Thirteen species were classified as high priority, requiring stringent harvesting regulations, while the remaining 37 were designated at a medium priority level, allowing specific quotas for harvesting. Notably, all 13 high-priority species exhibited higher harvesting risks. These include Caryota rumphiana Mart., Aquilaria cumingiana (Decne.) Ridl., Cycas riuminiana Regel, Dracaena angustifolia (Medik.) Roxb., Oncosperma tigillarium (Jack) Ridl., Oreocnide rubescens (Blume) Miq., Kleinhovia hospita L., Diospyros blancoi A.DC., Codiaeum sp., Gymnostoma rumphianum (Miq.) L.A.S.Johnson, Caryota cumingii Lodd. ex Mart., Artocarpus rubrovenius Warb., and Palaquium sp. Local communities engage in harvesting all parts of certain plant species. Following the identification of priority plants, geotagging was employed to enhance targeted in situ conservation efforts, providing valuable guidance for local leaders in initiating localized conservation of threatened biodiversity.

A Study from the Mitigation of the Depression to Upsurging of Well-being and Happiness with Reference to Vedic Psychology

Today the Psychology has become a profound way of self-improvement along with wide ranging benefits of enhancing wellbeing and happiness. It is evident that relationship of mind to matter has scientific experimental methodology. In order to understand the relationship or methodology we are referring here Vedic sciences or Vedic Psychology. For the cure and healing of mental health issues such as stress, anxiety and depression with the help of prodigious tools and techniques. Traditional Indian knowledge systems has enormous storehouse of scientific knowledge, such as vedas, Puranas, Yoga Sutras and spiritual Psychology. Vedic Psychology is an ancient knowledge of theoretical and practical transformation which transforms human awareness to higher states of consciousness. Vedic Psychology is a ‘consciousness’ based approach which has unique methods and techniques to mitigate depression and upsurging of well being and happiness. It shows us the path of evolution where gradual process of practicing glides the human towards integrity and peace. Several studies shows where Vedic Psychology exercises and demonstrated therapeutic effectiveness with the help of meditations to control anxiety and depression. Vedic knowledge plays vital role for a holistic development of human awareness. References from the vedas where The non – changing and ever changing aspect of vedas together form the totality of life called ‘Brahman’. This is the symbol of totality of cosmos. Which means each individual being is an expression of ultimate unity and is composed of all levels of nature. This paper takes a leap from the psychological to the metaphysical, epistemological and ethical plane to explain the validity and concepts of Vedic Psychology. The several techniques for monitoring internal consciousness leads to the concepts of identity and existence. Where Vedic Hymns or Mantras used to establish the power of truth seen and heard in the consciousness. It explains how the supreme creative hymns inherits the rhythmic vibration of energy in the light of the creative consciousness of the supreme. The concept of Brahman and Aatman in the Upanishads leads to the absolute truth. Upanishads which are called the ‘ends of the Vedas’ has given the most strongest and spiritual philosophy in the form of Vedanta. Which teaches the person to know the authenticity of oneself. Vedas guides us to live according to the natural cosmic law (Rta) and Upanishads guides to overcome the negative thoughts and powers. The individual core spirit is termed as Aatman which is different from the physical state of oneself. In the writings of vedas it has mentioned that Aatman transforms itself into the Cosmic soul or self. In the process of awakening of the self where experience and reason are common tools characterised by the separation of objects observed and the observer. Vedic Psychology emphasis on the deeper systematic first person approach. In mainstream modern science consciousness is defined as the ability to be aware of a separate object of experience. Vedic Psychology is indeed helpful for the whole community of humans to rise from the mental disorders such as grief, pain, stress, anxiety and depression to reach out of it towards serenity of well being, happiness and peace.

Diagnosis of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management of Peru

The marine-coastal zone is the region where marine and terrestrial elements come together, featuring complex ecological systems and human communities. The Integrated Coastal Management (icm) is a participatory process for the sustainable management of these areas, taking into consideration ecological, social, cultural, and economic aspects. The objective of this publication is to assess Peru’s icm, using the methodology proposed by Barragán (2003, 2005 y 2014), to evaluate administrative and legal elements at the three levels of government in coastal areas. Keywords: Marine-coastal zone, Integrated Coastal Management, Peru.

Категориальный анализ феномена музея: пространство и время

Introduction. The museum provides society with the opportunity for special interaction with space and time for the purposes of acquiring knowledge and the most complete assimilation of codes existing in culture and society. Theoretical analysis. Society’s perception of space and time in the museum will be examined and analyzed from the perspective of myth, which makes it possible to identify archetypal ideas of humanity that developed in ancient times and have largely not lost their influence on modern culture and society. The methods of institutionalizing the activities of society, which originated in the past, passed from one era to another in a transformed form, while retaining some characteristic features and at the same time acquiring new ones that became necessary for existence in a different sociocultural context. One of these characteristic features is the idea that space and time in a museum have profane and sacred dimensions. Conclusion. Space and time in the museum are a mirror not only of mythical motifs, but also of the dominant developments of the modern world. These fundamental principles concentrate all the most significant features inherent in human communities for the purpose of their further transmission to society.

A Survey on Cultural Awareness Cultivation in Senior High School

The National English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School (2017 edition 2020 revised) points out the cultural awareness, as one of the key competence, can help students form international vision and cross-cultural communication ability, and foster a sense of human community with a shared future. But in the actual teaching process, English teachers often ignore the cultivation of student's cultural awareness and the level of students’ cultural awareness is not qualified. This essay aims to find out the current situation of high school students’ cultural awareness. The research question is what is the current situation of students’ cultural awareness in senior high school. In order to answer this question, the researcher did a survey in a senior high school in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in China. Based on the discussion of the survey result, the researcher gives some suggestions to English teachers.

Uticaj društva na transformaciju porodice / The Influence of Society on the Transformation of the Family

The family is the oldest form of social organization. From its creation until today, it has gone through numerous stages of its transformation. Its changes are conditioned by social development and their material and social assumptions. Family values are based on cultural and religious values, values of human community and human reproduction. At different stages of social development, the family occupied different functions and had different roles. They are conditioned by the degree of social democratization as well as the exercise of rights and freedoms that the systems enable their citizens, i.e. members of family communities achieve. The significant social

Feeding Indigenous Aotearoa better

ABSTRACT How Aotearoa imagines our food futures – the role food plays in our lives, our cultures, our economy, our media representations, our marketing campaigns – will depend on the available vocabulary we have for thinking about food and its value to society. The diverse realities of Māori offer important perspectives on how we might imagine and participate in our nation’s food futures. This article provides an overview of our recent Kaupapa Māori research project Kai Atua: food stories for hope and wellbeing which explains how food is part of an Indigenous woven universe made up of human communities, ngā Atua (deities), economic and social forces and the natural world. We argue that this interconnected approach to food offers pathways of hope for whānau and communities who seek to disconnect from our current broken food system and we shine a light on existing successful small-scale food growing practices within Indigenous Aotearoa that contribute to greater wellbeing for both tangata and whenua. Glossary of Māori terms: Aotearoa: Māori name for New Zealand; awa: rivers; Atua: deity; hakari: feast; hapū: to be pregnant, subtribe; hauora: wellbeing; hautapu: to feed the stars: a ceremony that takes place in mid-winter; He Wakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tīreni: the Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand; Hineahuone: deity of soil; Hua Parakore: Māori organics; iwi: tribe, bones; kai: food; Kai Atua: pure, pesticide-free food; kai hau kai: a practice of reciprocal obligation including the exchange of treasured foods; kaitiaki: guardian, protector, steward; karakia: prayer; kaupapa Māori: Māori principles and ideas which act as a base for action; kōhanga: language nests; kōrero: speak, speech, address; kotahitanga: unity; kupu: word, saying, utterance; kūmara: sweet potato; kura: school; māhika kai: wild foods (Kāi Tahu dialect); māhinga kai: wild foods; mahi māra: gardening work; mana: power, authority, ownership or, status; manaakitanga: caring and sharing; Māori: Indigenous people of Aotearoa; mana whenua: the authority of a tribe or hapū over specific lands and territories; manuhiri: visitors, guests; marae: a sacred and communal place that serves cultural and social purposes in Māori societies; marae kaiwhakahaere: marae manager; māramatanga: dawning understanding; māra kai: garden; Matariki: the cluster of stars that marks the beginning of the new year in the Māori lunar calendar; mātauranga Māori: Māori epistemology/knowledge; mātauraka Māori: Māori epistemology/knowledge (Kāi Tahu dialect); mauri: life principle, life force, vital essence; moana: oceans; moemoeā: dreams, aspirations; mokopuna: grandchild, grandchildren, descendant; ngāhere: forests; oneone: soil; oranga: health, wellbeing, vitality; ngā atua: the dieties (plural); noa: common; Papatūānuku: Earth Mother, partner to Ranginui; pūrākau: an ancient form of storytelling that helps create shared meaning and cultural identity; rangatahi: younger generation; Rangatira: chief/chieftainess; Ranginui: Sky Father, partner to Papatūānuku; rīwai: potato; rongoā: remedy, medicine; tāngata whenua: people born of the land; taonga: treasure, anything prized; taonga tuku iho: treasures handed down by ancestors; tapu: sacred, restricted, set apart; tau iwi: non-Māori people of Aotearoa; tauutuutu: reciprocity; te ao Māori: the diverse Māori world; te reo Māori: Māori language; te ao tūroa: the natural world that contains and surrounds us: Te Ao Wairua: spiritual worlds; tiaki: guardian, steward; tikanga Māori: Māori ontology/practices or Māori governance and intellectual protocols; tikaka Māori: Māori ontology/practices or Māori governance and intellectual protocols (Kāi Tahu dialect); tinana: body; tino rangatiratanga: self-determination, sovereignty, autonomy, self-government, domination, rule, control, power; Tipu-ā-nuku: a star the kūmara is associated with; Te Tiriti o Waitangi 1840: the Māori version of the Treaty of Waitangi; tūpuna: ancestors; uri: descendants: utu: balance, reciprocity; uwhi: yam; wairua: spirit; wānanga: Māori tertiary institute; waka: boat; whakapapa: genealogy, to place in layers; whakatauki: proverb, significant saying; whānau: to be born, family group; whanaunga: relatives; whanaungatanga: relationship, kinship, sense of family connection; whenua: placenta, ground, land.

Пам’ять у лінгвістичному і соціокультурному вимірах

The article explores the linguistic characteristics of the concept of memory as one of the key cultural concepts among other meaningful ones — person, life, language, word. The starting point was the position that memory is a psychological category that is verbalized in different ways by linguistic means, models synonymous series, mental image forms. It is noted that the word-concept memory correlates with the words consciousness, memory, imagination, mind, knowledge through the prism of individual and collective experience of the past, and acts as a tool for evaluating human existence. In a comparative aspect, the semantics of the Ukrainian verb to remember and the Czech zapomnět, as well as the related nouns nezabudka and pomněnka, are considered. Verbs, having at first glance a similar grammatical structure, are characterized by antonymic meanings in modern literary languages. The factors that led the original semantic feature of the root pomn- (memor- [пам’ят-]) — «to remember» — to develop to the opposite meaning in the Czech verb zapomnět «to forget / not to remember something» are analyzed. It was noted that under the influence of other Slavic languages, the parallel use in the XVI–XVII c. in the Ukrainian language, two words — «пам’ятати / помнити» — led to the fact that the word to remember displaced the word to remember from usage. The semantics of ʽmemory’ in the interpretation of figurative means — metaphors and phraseology, which show signs of high semantic stability, reproducibility in the language from memory, and thus have the status of collective memories. The evidence presented in the article shows that the conceptual field of memory is structured by concepts that are relevant both for the individual and for the whole human community in a particular time dimension and have a high axiological potential.

Research on the Path of Higher Vocational Talent Training in the New Era under the Background of Artificial Intelligence

With the advent of the era of artificial intelligence, it is difficult to rely on standardized education, and the development of The Times puts forward new requirements for talent training. The talents trained by higher vocational education in the new era should have the characteristics of growth mentality and high consciousness learning, human-machine symbiotic thinking and AI penetration skills, pioneering spirit and the ability to "break boundaries", the creative ability and practical wisdom, the combination of humanistic spirit and science and technology, human community thinking and cross-cultural action. Therefore, it is proposed that higher vocational education should focus on the target object of talent training in higher vocational colleges in the intelligent era, build a digital twin Sunac platform, form a new technology base, and develop new skills with the integration of industry and education certification. We are committed to cultivating the fertile soil for the growth of talents, and enabling the continuous emergence of high-quality skilled talents in the new era.

Genomics of a novel ecological phase shift: the case of a ‘weedy’ Montipora coral in Ulithi, Micronesia

Local and global ecological stressors are leading to increased documentation of phase shifts in coral reefs from healthy stony corals to macrophytes. In more rare cases, phase shifts result in sponge, zoantharian or other dominant species. In Ulithi Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia, we have documented an unusual phase shift from reefs with a diverse stony coral assemblage to reefs dominated by a single species of stony coral: Montipora sp.—a coral-to-coral phase shift. This monospecific type of reef lowers fish diversity and biomass, impacting both ecological integrity, and livelihoods of reef-dependent human communities. In this study, we used a genomic approach to characterize such a reef. We assembled a de-novo reference genome and used RAD seq data with thousands of SNPs to determine if different reefs result from sexual or asexual reproduction, if weedy Montipora fragments are transported between islands by human activities, and if there is evidence of natural selection on specific genotypes, thus favoring spreading success. We found that sexual reproduction is predominant in the focal species, that there is no evidence of human-mediated spread, and that some genomic regions might be under selection. While such results eliminate a number of spreading hypotheses, more precise dispersal maps will be important to determine the tempo and mode of ‘invasion’ of Montipora in Ulithi Atoll. This study shows that selection and adaptation may be contributing to the success of a stony coral (e.g., Phase shift). While a stony coral may be successful in a disturbed environment, it does not necessarily provide the type of habitat that is conducive to high fish biomass and coral diversity. These results serve as a cautionary tale for restoration efforts that focus on single species coral resilience rather than ecosystem function.

Analysis of social perception and field verification as a route to evaluation of environmental liabilities in Colombia: Case study Cesar (Colombia)

The extractive sector is positioned as one of the most polluting activities, contributing considerably to the environmental liabilities (EL) generation, especially in countries with a significant dependence on mining resources exploitation, such as Latin America. Colombia represents a good approximation to this scenario, mainly due to the convergence between high biodiversity and mineral deposits (first producer of emeralds worldwide, and first and second in coal and gold for Latin America). In Colombia, the economic valuation and the classification of EL have been proposed as tools to manage Els. However, a process of valuation and classification that includes a pluralistic approach is essential to obtain a better understanding of the implications of the EL in the territories, and with it, the validation of the management mechanisms. A case study of environmental liabilities for coal mining is shown, through which the sufficiency and assertiveness of the classification and economic valuation of liabilities developed by Rodríguez-Zapata and Ruiz-Agudelo (2021) is analyzed. The evaluated EL typologies were considered as an adequate tool to support the operationalization of EL focused on its management, however, due to the null capacity to detect the mismatch between a legal/administrative declaration of remediation of damages and a real remediation, this is considered insufficient to prioritize the degree of EL management and with this its urgency for intervention. In relation to the revision to the economic valuation, the reported amount of US$ 2.4 billion seems to be underestimating the costs of the ELs, mainly due to the magnitude of the human and natural communities on which each of these falls.

The Conceptual Foundations of China’s Promotion of the Idea of “a Community of a Shared Future for Mankind”

Due to the increasing influence of the People’s Republic of China in world politics against the background of the transformation of the global world order, the concept of the “Community of the Common Destiny for Mankind”, which defines the main vector of modern Chinese foreign policy and diplomacy, is gaining recognition and attracting increasing attention from the global community. Aimed at maintaining good neighborliness between countries and promoting global development, this concept reflects the aspirations of not only modern Chinese politicians, but also the ideas of traditional Chinese philosophical thought, as well as cosmopolitanism and Marxism, developing and updating them. Thus, in this study, the author traces and analyzes the theoretical foundations for promoting the concept of a “Community of the Common Destiny for Mankind”: reveals elements of Chinese traditional culture, the theme of the “human community” in Western philosophy, the conceptual syncretism of foreign policy thought of the previous generations of Chinese leaders and the “theory of relations” - the cornerstone of the Chinese school of international relations.

Genotyping of ticks: first molecular report of Hyalomma asiaticum and molecular detection of tick-borne bacteria in ticks and blood from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Multiple ticks (Acari: Ixodoidea) carrying Rickettsiales bacteria have significant importance for both human and animal health. Thus, the purpose of this work was to genetically analyze tick species and their associated Rickettsiales bacteria in animal hosts. In order to achieve these objectives, various animals (including camels, cattle, goats, sheep, dogs, and mice) were inspected in four districts (Mardan, Peshawar, Kohat, and Karak) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to collect ticks, while blood samples were collected from all the symptomatic and asymptomatic cattle in all four districts. A total of 234 ticks were obtained from 86 out of 143 (60.14%) host animals, which were morphologically identified as Rhipicephalus turanicus, Rhipicephalus microplus, Haemaphysalis cornupunctata, and Hyalomma asiaticum. Among these, their representative ticks (126/234, 53.85%) were processed for molecular confirmation using cytochrome c oxidase (cox1) gene. Obtained cox1 sequences of four different tick species showed 99.72%-100% maximum identity with their corresponding species reported from Pakistan, China, India, and Kazakhstan and clustered phylogenetically. This study presented the first genetic report of Hy. asiaticum ticks in Pakistan. Moreover, genetically confirmed tick species were molecularly analyzed by PCR for detection of Rickettsiales DNA using partial fragments of 16S rDNA, 190-kDa outer membrane protein A (ompA), and 120-kDa outer membrane protein B (ompB) genes. In addition, blood samples were analyzed to identify Rickettsiales bacteria using the aforementioned genes. Rickettsiales bacteria were found in 24/126 (19.05%) ticks and 4/16 (25.00%) in symptomatic cattle's blood. The obtained ompA and ompB sequences from Hy. asiaticum ticks showed 99.73%-99.87% with Candidatus Rickettsia shennongii and unidentified Rickettsia sp., whereas the obtained 16S rDNA sequences from cattle's blood and ticks (Hae. cornupunctata) showed 99.67% highest identity with Anaplasma phagocytophilum. The 16S rDNA sequence of Rickettsiales DNA from Rh. turanicus ticks showed 100% identity with Ehrlichia canis and unidentified Ehrlichia sp. Obtained sequences of Rickettsiales bacteria were grouped along with their respective species in phylogenetic trees, which were previously reported in Greece, Cuba, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, South Korea, and China (mainland and Taiwan). This extensive study explores the wide range of damaging ticks and their corresponding tick-borne bacteria in the area, suggesting a possible danger to both livestock and human communities.

Islamization: A Sociological Approach

"Islamisation: A Sociological Approach" intricately explores the processes of cultivating an Islamic society. It delves into the interplay between individual and systemic transformations, aligning with Islamic doctrines. The meticulous examination includes integrating Islamic principles into societal frameworks, exploring social psychology, human soul cognition, schema control, behavioral modifications, community dynamics, and emotional management. The discourse spans foundational Islamisation aspects to constructing persuasive models, emphasizing the need for narratives resonating across the Islamic realm. The treatise addresses fostering uniformity in Islamic governance, focusing on human motivation, informational conformity, and aligning Islamic values with modern technologies. Contemplating the future trajectory, it juxtaposes scientific advancements with philosophical reflections, acknowledging challenges posed by conflicting secular liberal ideologies. The text highlights social media and educational initiatives' pivotal roles in nurturing close-knit Muslim community relationships. In conclusion, it underscores the necessity of managing cognitive schemas and mitigating extreme psychological reactance in Islamic societies, advocating for a harmonious blend of punitive measures and core Islamic values, contributing significantly to the discourse on contemporary Islamisation.

Early-Stage Disease Prediction from Various Symptoms Using Machine Learning Models

Development and exploration of several Data analytics techniques in various real-time applications (e.g., Industry, Healthcare Neuroscience) in various domains have led to exploitation of it to extract paramount features from datasets. Following the introduction of new computer technology, the health sector had a significant transformation that compelled it to produce more medical data, which gave rise to a number of new disciplines of study. Quite a few initiatives are made to deal with the medical data and how its usage can be helpful to humans. This inspired academics and other institutions to use techniques like data analytics, its types, machine learning and different algorithms, to extract practical information and aid in decision-making. The healthcare data can be used to develop a health prediction system that can improve a person's health. Based on the dataset provided, making accurate predictions in early disease prediction benefits the human community.

Detecting climate‐related shifts in lakes: A review of the use of satellite Earth Observation

AbstractClimate change exerts a profound impact on lakes, eliciting responses that range from gradual to abrupt transitions. When reaching critical tipping points, the established lake dynamics stand to undergo substantial modifications, setting off a chain reaction that reverberates through the entire ecosystem. This lake shift ripples into related ecosystem services and even influences the well‐being of human communities. Despite the importance of lake shifts, we lack a systematic overview of their occurrence, mainly due to the lack of systematic data at the global scale. We reviewed the literature focusing on climate‐related lake shifts and assessed how satellite Earth Observation (EO) has contributed to the research topic, and what we can unlock from this novel data. Our results show that EO data are used in only 9% of studies on lake shifts, although this fraction has increased since 2012. EO data is most commonly used to assess shifts in surface extent, ice coverage, or phytoplankton phenology. These variables are directly observable and the spatio‐temporal resolution of EO satellites is of great advantage. But lake shifts can also be identified indirectly from EO data, as in the example of the vertical mixing of lake water, which can be described on the basis of surface patterns. In all possible applications, we expect increasing use of EO satellites in the future, including the development of early warning systems that promise to provide timely alerts regarding impending lake shifts, thus serving as a vanguard against abrupt alterations that could ripple through interconnected ecosystem services.

Fandom meets artificial intelligence: Rethinking participatory culture as human–community–machine interactions

Fandom as an interpretive community is the frontier for rich insights into the multi-layered interactions and practices between individual users, communities and intelligent machines. To understand the challenges and opportunities Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents to contemporary media and culture, we discuss how fans engage with AI, as fandom provides meaningful insights into interactions between individual technology users, the collective and machines. We propose rethinking participatory culture as human–community–machine interactions to understand the wider implications of AI to society and culture. We outline three emerging phenomena and potential consequences of fans’ engagement with AI: (1) fan labour made (un)easy, (2) parasocial interactions (un)familiarised and (3) realities (un)settled. Our conceptualisation transcends existing computer science research, which assumes technology users as isolated individuals and also fan studies, which largely focus on text-audience relationships and tend to take digital technologies for granted as the preconditions of fans’ creative and playful practices.

A preliminary report on the exploration of salivary bacterial diversity by the multiplex SNaPshot assay

Salivary bacterial community composition is associated with the host’s internal and environmental factors, which have potential applications in forensic practice. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing is the most commonly used strategy for detecting salivary bacterial diversity; however, its platforms are not compatible with capillary electrophoresis (CE) platforms commonly used for forensic applications. Therefore, we attempted to detect the salivary bacterial diversity using a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) assay. Salivary bacterial diversity varies among diverse geographic locations, making it a potential supplementary biomarker for forensic geographic sourcing. To evaluate the performance of the multiplex SNaPshot assay, saliva samples from three geographic locations in China were analyzed using the multiplex SNaPshot assay and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We screened SNPs from two high-relative-abundance salivary genera (Streptococcus and Veillonella) to construct a multiplex SNaPshot system that can be used on the CE platform. The stability and sensitivity of the multiplex SNaPshot system were also tested. A random forest classification model was used to classify samples from different regions to explore the ability of salivary bacteria to discriminate between geographic sources. Six bacterial SNPs were screened and a multiplex SNaPshot system was constructed. The stability results showed that the typing of salivary stains that were placed indoors for different days was not affected in this study. Two-thirds of mocked salivary stain samples showed more than 90% of typing results obtained for salivary stain samples with an input of 0.1 µl saliva. The results of principal coordinate analysis based on salivary bacterial diversity showed significant differences between samples from the three different geographic locations. The accuracy of the random forest classification was 66.67% based on the multiplex SNaPshot assay and 83.33% based on the 16S rRNA gene sequencing. In conclusion, this is the first attempt to detect salivary bacterial diversity using a multiplex SNaPshot bacterial SNP assay. The geographic difference in human salivary bacterial community composition was significant, as revealed by the multiplex SNaPshot assay; however, its performance in discriminating geographic sources was lower than that of 16S rRNA gene sequencing. This strategy based on bacterial SNP loci may favor the detection of human bacterial diversity in common forensic laboratories but requires further exploration in larger sample sizes and more bacterial SNP loci.

Embodied knowledge and communities of knowledge to cohabit the Earth

To address the great challenges facing humanity, humans need to feel united as inhabitants of the Earth, to feel that their future is tied to the future of all living beings, and that the universe contains all levels and all relationships that encompass its parts. To achieve this requires widening knowledge of the interconnection and interdependence that govern the world on all scales, accessing an individual and collective understanding that impacts not only the rational dimension but also the emotional and embodied dimensions. This article addresses the theme of embodied knowledge and awareness/consciousness as a key for individuals and the human community to develop the sensory and emotional perception of being part of a greater whole, of relationship as an ontological condition, and of interconnectedness and interdependence as the basis of life and the universe. Embodied knowledge is capable of nourishing aspiration and being nourished by it. Aspiration is needed to guide and to sustain action, and at a point in history like the current time, it is necessary for humanity to feel “in the flesh” that it is in relationship with and a part of a greater whole, to become a peaceful, equitable, sustainable community, in harmony with the Earth.

Advances in understanding bat infection dynamics across biological scales.

Over the past two decades, research on bat-associated microbes such as viruses, bacteria and fungi has dramatically increased. Here, we synthesize themes from a conference symposium focused on advances in the research of bats and their microbes, including physiological, immunological, ecological and epidemiological research that has improved our understanding of bat infection dynamics at multiple biological scales. We first present metrics for measuring individual bat responses to infection and challenges associated with using these metrics. We next discuss infection dynamics within bat populations of the same species, before introducing complexities that arise in multi-species communities of bats, humans and/or livestock. Finally, we outline critical gaps and opportunities for future interdisciplinary work on topics involving bats and their microbes.