Human Society Research Articles

Analyzing Neuroarchitecture to Enhance User Experience in Sacred Spaces

This paper explores the analysis of neuroarchitecture principles to enhance the user experience in sacred spaces, aiming to deepen spiritual engagement, emotional resonance, and overall well-being. Sacred paces play a pivotal role in human societies, serving as places for worship, contemplation, and community gathering. By integrating insights from neuroscience into architectural design, it is possible to optimize spatial layouts, sensory stimuli, and environmental factors to foster a deeper sense of connection, tranquility, and spiritual fulfillment. Through a multidisciplinary approach encompassing neuroscience, architecture, and environmental psychology, this research examines the impact of architectural elements on neural processes and subjective experiences within sacred environments. Case studies of sacred spaces from diverse cultural and religious traditions are analyzed to elucidate effective design strategies and best practices. The effectiveness of neuroarchitecture principles in enhancing the user experience and promoting a sense of connection, reverence, and transcendence in sacred environments is assessed through empirical studies and user feedback. The findings highlight the potential of neuroarchitecture to enrich the design of sacred spaces, offering insights that contribute to the creation of environments that inspire awe, foster contemplation, and deepen the human spirit.

Beef on dairy: A case study of sustainable animal protein production

Human society has evolved over thousands of years, but in the last 35 years we have gained access to multiple advanced tech­nologies that can change how animal protein is produced. As members of society, we all have a responsibility to ourselves, our families, our neighbors, our friends and our fellow citizens to utilize the available technologies to provide a sustainable fu­ture. The word “sustainability” has been used freely by many, but I believe that it truly has only two meanings in our industry. For the producers of animal protein, it is the economic sustain­ability of the farmer producers. For the consumers of animal proteins, it is the production of that protein in a manner that derives in a highly nutritious product that is produced in an en­vironmentally friendly system.

Elephants, Ecological Grief, and Art Therapy

Climate change is a well-documented challenge for human societies where human actions have spurred global warming leading to climate breakdown. Ecological disasters are already affecting the mental health of many people, and this is escalating. By painting elephants, I address ambiguous loss and demonstrate the power of art therapy to inform grief work and ecological grief as humanity’s shared trauma. Seen through the lens of elephants, one realizes the many connections between elephant and human societies, including ancestral memories, experience of attachment and trauma, and capacities to heal. Maintaining a consistent art practice helps one make sense of the senseless and deal with grief as an act of resilience, self-and-planetary care, and ethics, thereby having implications for art therapists.

Rethinking Insecurity and Scoping Security Threat in Nigeria: Looking Ahead

Early in the 2000s, Boko Haram emerged with an Islamisation agenda concentrating mostly on Nigeria the largest African economy. There is empirical evidence suggesting that the government of Nigeria has not successfully warded off this group’s hostility. Yet there are gaps in security threats and extant literature. This study therefore examined the instability and anomic conditions resulting from this insurgency using the document analysis method and the Containment Theory employed as the theoretical framework. The analysis showed that there is no clear reason why the Nigerian military has failed to contain the Boko Haram insurgency given the army’s undoubted gallantry after excelling in several international peacekeeping assignments. It was recommended that public programs for enlightenment through community engagement and transparency would influence positively the government’s efforts to contain these terrorist activities. Given the complex nature of terrorism, there is a need for robust empirical studies that have to be done before any meaningful policy implementation can be considered. This study will amplify the international awareness of violent extremist activities in this most populated African nation. It will significantly provide the Nigerian government, human rights groups, researchers, civil society, policymakers, and public and private security agents with more knowledge to understand these terrorists better. Keywords: Nigeria, Threat, Peace, Security, Boko Haram

Exploring Elements of Style in the Poem 'Drought': Unraveling the Layers of Meaning

The poem "Drought" encapsulates the devastating impact of a prolonged dry spell on both the natural world and human society. Through vivid imagery, figurative language, and poignant diction, the poem portrays the bleak realities and emotional turmoil brought about by the absence of rain. The analysis explores the poem's elements of style, including its use of diction, figurative language, imagery, and syntax, to convey themes of despair, suffering, and resilience. Furthermore, from an epistemological perspective, the poem invites reflection on how knowledge is acquired and understood about the effects of drought, highlighting the complexities of human experience and the limitations of our understanding in the face of natural phenomena. Overall, "Drought" serves as a poignant exploration of the profound impact of environmental disasters and the enduring resilience of the human spirit.

Ethical challenges in the bioanthropological and biomedical investigation of Sicilian mummies-Past experience and future pathways.

This article presents a multidisciplinary approach adopted in the Sicily mummy project, highlighting unique challenges and major ethical concerns inherent to the scientific study, conservation, and presentation of these mummies. Recognizing mummies as a distinct category of human remains, this paper argues for the development and application of specialized guidelines that address the intricate balance between scientific inquiry and respect for the cultural, religious, and mortuary practices that characterize the cultural context, in this case of Sicily. Through a transparent and collaborative dialogue among all stakeholders-including curators, clergy, scientists, and government officials-the project ensures the preservation of the mummies' dignity within their sacred spaces. The critical role of biological anthropologists is emphasized, alongside the contributions of clinical radiologists, pathologists, and qualified restorers, in constructing a comprehensive understanding of the mummies' biocultural significance. The paper advocates for a bioarchaeological strategy that advances scientific knowledge while safeguarding the mummies and respecting living communities. Additionally, we call for ethical rigor in scholarly publications and suggest future actions to protect this invaluable heritage. This approach not only preserves the dignity and integrity of the mummified remains but also enriches our understanding of past human societies.

“You are going to commit suicide”: The coloniality of power/gender and [not] belonging in Bessie Head’s <i>A Question of Power</i>

Bessie Head’s novel A Question of Power interrogates exploitative power structures and advocates the birthing of new humane societies. Rather than creating a singular norm of existence in her characters, Head advocates multiple ways of existence or a creation of many worlds. In the spirit of imagining a pluriverse, this article argues that the character Elizabeth, as a decolonial being, works towards creating an ordinary world where everyone belongs. Nonetheless, the world of “everyone” and “everything” is not one of inclusion into existing hierarchical power structures, but an attempt to challenge them. In creating this world of belonging Head shows the complexities of becoming a decolonial being because the process of “becoming” includes suffering and fragmentation. This process is not “normal”, “conventional” or “sane” because in writing her decolonial subject, all is blurred and broken. Yet mentally, the normal and the abnormal are completely blended. Essentially, I argue that in this novel Head suggests that to de-colonise power one must go through pain and intense personal suffering, in a continuous process of becoming.

Exploring attributes of global CCS projects and the key factors to their accomplishment based on the CCUS project database

In recent decades, the serious excessive level of carbon emissions has become the worthiest of human consideration to alleviate the problem. The negative impacts of carbon emissions on human beings involve a variety of aspects, such as sea level rise, deforestation, air pollution, global warming, etc. Any one of these issues could cause serious negative impacts on human society. In a large number of relevant studies, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) programs are considered to be the most promising and effective approach. The carbon produced during production is captured and transported to rock formations deep underground where it is centrally stored. There are nearly 300 CCS plants in operation around the world that demonstrate the feasibility of such projects. However, one relevant question is whether the project is costly and has barriers to deploy at a scale. We gathered a comprehensive list of large-scale CCS projects globally by utilizing the CCUS Projects Database. We then conducted a comparative analysis of these projects across various categories of project status, ensuring comparability by standardizing cost and extraction figures for each project. We found that the cost of Capture and Storage Projects is the highest, followed by just Capture Projects and just Storage Projects. These plants predominantly exist in developed regions: the U.S. hosts the most, then Europe, parts of Australia, with fewer plants scattered globally. Based on detailed project-specific information, we found that that the two most common reasons for suspended or closed plants are high costs without sufficient financial support and the impact of government agencies permissions and regulation. As such, improvement in the capital market and more policy support would be crucial for the deployment and operation of Carbon Capture and Storage projects.

High-frequency climate forcing causes prolonged cold periods in the Holocene

Understanding climate variability across interannual to centennial timescales is critical, as it encompasses the natural range of climate fluctuations that early human agricultural societies had to adapt to. Deviations from the long-term mean climate are often associated with both societal collapse and periods of prosperity and expansion. Here, we show that contrary to what global paleoproxy reconstructions suggest, the mid to late-Holocene was not a period of climate stability. We use mid- to late-Holocene Earth System Model simulations, forced by state-of-the-art reconstructions of external climate forcing to show that eleven long-lasting cold periods occurred in the Northern Hemisphere during the past 8000 years. These periods correlate with enhanced volcanic activity, where the clustering of volcanic eruptions induced a prolonged cooling effect through gradual ocean-sea ice feedback. These findings challenge the prevailing notion of the Holocene as a period characterized by climate stability, as portrayed in multi-proxy climate reconstructions. Instead, our simulations provide an improved representation of amplitude and timing of temperature variations on sub-centennial timescales.

Comparative Effect of Aerobic and Yogic Exercises on the Selected Physical, Physiological and Academic Performance of Non-Participants of Sports at Secondary School Level

Physical activity has a direct effect on well-being and health. To be fit and healthy we need to be physically active. Regular physical activity can help protect us from serious diseases like obesity and mental illness among children. The recent study reveals that 60% of the school going children suffers obese. Physical exercise, particularly continuous aerobic exercises such as running, cycling and swimming, has many cognitive benefits and effects on the brain include increases in neurotransmitter levels, improved oxygen and nutrient delivery. The effects of exercise on memory have important implications for improving children's academic performance, maintaining mental abilities among children Riding bicycle regularly is one of the best ways to tackle the health problems associated with a sedentary lifestyle. Physical fitness and health are the integral part of human life. Fitness and wellness of person are correlated to each other. In fitness body proportion and composition are important parameters and which has roles relevance with health related fitness. Maintenance of physical fitness is needed of the day in human society. In this age of stress and tension, low level of fitness leads towards, the exposure of degenerative and psychosomatic disorders including other in effective suffering. A lot of people live with fitness myths, having their own concepts and theories of fitness and health when it comes to fitness there are many that believe strongly in the dictum 'ignorance is bliss'

Early warning signals of the termination of the African Humid Period(s)

The transition from a humid green Sahara to today’s hyperarid conditions in northern Africa ~5.5 thousand years ago shows the dramatic environmental change to which human societies were exposed and had to adapt to. In this work, we show that in the 620,000-year environmental record from the Chew Bahir basin in the southern Ethiopian Rift, with its decadal resolution, this one thousand year long transition is particularly well documented, along with 20–80 year long droughts, recurring every ~160 years, as possible early warnings. Together with events of extreme wetness at the end of the transition, these droughts form a pronounced climate “flickering”, which can be simulated in climate models and is also present in earlier climate transitions in the Chew Bahir environmental record, indicating that transitions with flickering are characteristic of this region.

Earthquake “doublets” – case studies for Kresna-Kroupnik (Bulgaria-M7.8) and Gaziantep–Kahramanmaraş (Turkey-M7.8)

The devastating earthquakes (M7.8 and M7.5) on 6th February 2023 demonstrate the power of the nature and weakness and fragility of the human society. Affecting more than 20 million people in Turkey, the death poll reaches about 60 000 deaths and about three times more injured, 120 000 buildings destroyed and more than 60 billion economical losses in Turkey and Syria. This tremendous seismic event at the same time gave the possibility to study and extract the lessons learned and to prevent heavy consequences when next similar event occurred. Following the context of the specific behavior of the seismic process this event can be attributed to the terminology using the word “doubles” of such a combination of two very strong earthquakes occurred in close space and time window – near Gaziantep and Kahramanmaraş. The two strong earthquakes of 6th February demonstrated all peculiarities of the seismic process and its geophysical, seismological and social consequences. The similar effects have been observed also in 1904 in Bulgaria. On 4th of April, 1904 two very strong earthquakes (M7.2 and M7.8) occurred in a very close time and space domain. These seismic events can also be classified as a “doublet”. So the comparative analysis of such strong earthquakes can help to understand better the seismic process and the following risks for the population, infrastructure and the affected countries as a whole. This paper is targeted to the comparison of the case studies to the seismic doublets in Bulgaria and Turkey and their peculiarities with a focus on the seismic process, destructions, negative social consequences and the specifics if they exist and to extract knowledge which can be useful for the prevention of all possible negatives. The results obtained suggest that similar seismic events might have very different geophysical, seismological and social consequences due to the resilience and environmental peculiarities of the specifically affected sites.

Fearsome Game, Popular Meat, Symbolic Wealth: Human-Pig Relations in Pre-Islamic Java

Abstract The Indonesian island of Java has been at the center of the world’s oldest interactions between humans and pigs. This article scrutinizes the complexities of human-pig relations through premodern texts. Philology remains uncommon in studying the past of nonhuman animals, yet its insights are highly relevant. Old Javanese poems and inscriptions differentiate two species: the Javan warty pig and the Eurasian wild pig. Both influenced human societies, including in the realm of religion, class, and gender. The textual record further reveals that pigs were regularly hunted and consumed by elites and commoners alike, and also played a role in rituals. Full domestication can be dated to the eleventh century and apparently coincided with urbanization and growing population density. By that time, pigs had come to symbolize wealth, as seen from Java’s unique piggybanks. Yet wild populations of pigs persisted and their aggression and fighting skills were both feared and respected.

Unleashing insights from Toronto Humane Society’s urgent care fostering program: a community case report

The Urgent Care (UC) fostering program at the Toronto Humane Society (THS) supports individuals experiencing crisis situations (housing instability, fleeing interpersonal violence, or undergoing healthcare treatments), by providing a no-cost fostering service for their animal(s). All applications to THS’s UC program between January 1, 2020 and October 1, 2022 and all successful admissions to the program during this period were included in this study. There were 358 admissions of 328 unique animals, from 244 families. Seventy-four percent (n = 265) of admitted animals were reunited with their owner. The highest rates of reunion at the end of the program were linked to dogs, requests in support of people fleeing interpersonal violence, consistent or frequent communication with the client, and not requiring veterinary or behavioral care/training beyond standard levels. THS’s UC program presents an inexpensive and effective way to help support people undergoing temporary crises, preserving the human–animal bond, which may help them heal in the aftermath of these crises, and prevent the needless relinquishment of animals to shelters. Through writing this report, opportunities have been identified for improving the program to better serve our community, and details have been provided that might help other organizations operating or planning to launch a similar program.

Narrative strategies of transrealism: the interplay of satire, fantasy, and science in American dystopian fiction

ABSTRACT The rise of transrealism in the second half of the twentieth century embellished the literary landscape in America with a new mode of expression that offered new understanding of time, space, identity, and social values and norms. This study situates the American novelist Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano within this literary context to map out the qualities that distinguish it as a transrealistic fiction. We argue that through innovative coalescence of fantasy and realism, this postmodern novel provides a satirical commentary against the incongruities of the contemporary American society. To analyse the novel, we employ Rudy Rucker’s theorisations of the movement that delineates the transrealist manifesto as a union of realism, fantasy, and science-fiction. The findings reveal that through a satirical representation of the current advancements in technology and their inevitably negative impact on human life and society, the novel provides a dystopian picture of modern life in America. This apocalyptic sentiment is reinforced through a creative convergence of the surreal features of science-fiction, the tropes of naturalistic realism, and the elements of satire that together help to accentuate the deficiencies and ironies of the modern American society as well as the rampant misuse of technology by both individuals and authorities.

Self-Development in Islam: Ways and Methods

The development concept is a broad and widely understood term and philosophy. Its active presence is ever-present in the multidimensional process of life cycle. The continuous process of development leads to the pinnacle of development. The development of the material side of man is visible and recognized, likewise, the development of its immaterial aspect (souls) is essential. A person is composed of body and soul. Balanced development of both sides of the human being gives recognition to a complete and fulfilled human being. The soul is the main director of the body. The effectiveness and success of his material development depends to a large extent on the development of the soul. The best of creation is seated in the best seat of mankind through the proper development of the soul. Philosophy and principles that play an important role in the development of the soul, it will undoubtedly be identified as a role model for building a developed and ideal human society for generations to come.

Growing in Scarcity: Pre-Hispanic Rain-Fed Agriculture in the Semi-Arid and Frost-Prone Andean Altiplano (Bolivia)

Ancient Andean agricultural landscapes have been the subject of a large number of archaeological and agro-ecological studies, which generally refer to regions with favourable environmental conditions or, in the case of arid and semi-arid environments, those with irrigation facilities. The aim of this article is to present and analyse the pre-Hispanic rain-fed farming systems widely represented in two adjacent regions of Bolivia’s arid and cold southern Altiplano. The search for archaeological agricultural areas combined aerial analysis and field surveys. Agro-ecological characterisation was based on historical and ethnographic studies of the region’s present-day populations. Despite their geographical proximity, similar environmental conditions, and same agropastoral way of life, the typology of cultivated areas developed in the southern altiplano differs significantly. Within this same framework of adaptation and resilience, the sectorisation of agricultural systems observed in these two regions reveals a regional productive specialisation that favoured internal exchanges and exchanges with other regions. These differences are related to two models of non-centralised, low-inequality societies—one strongly based on cohesion and the other characterised by greater fragmentation and social conflict—underlining the limits of strict environmental determinism in shaping agricultural landscapes. These results provide new food for thought in the debate on the use and value of rain-fed agricultural practices and more broadly on the diversity of adaptations by human societies in extreme and unstable environmental contexts.

On the geography of deserts

ABSTRACT What is a desert? What is a desert to a geomorphologist, a geoclimatologist, a biogeographer, a geoanthropologist, a cartographer or a geopolitologist? Geography, as a discipline that is as much concerned with terrestrial morphology and climates as it is with ecosystems and human societies, shed light on the various meanings of the term ‘desert’ in different fields of language and knowledge, providing insights into the significance of deserts for our contemporary societies. The ambition of this reflection is to unravel the complexities of deserts and help to grasp what deserts are and what they ‘do’ by encouraging geographers to merge bioclimatic analyses and geo-historical understandings, establishing the geographical discipline as the quintessential science of deserts.

Computational kinematics of dance: distinguishing hip hop genres

Dance plays a vital role in human societies across time and culture, with different communities having invented different systems for artistic expression through movement (genres). Differences between genres can be described by experts in words and movements, but these descriptions can only be appreciated by people with certain background abilities. Existing dance notation schemes could be applied to describe genre-differences, however they fall substantially short of being able to capture the important details of movement across a wide spectrum of genres. Our knowledge and practice around dance would benefit from a general, quantitative and human-understandable method of characterizing meaningful differences between aspects of any dance style; a computational kinematics of dance. Here we introduce and apply a novel system for encoding bodily movement as 17 macroscopic, interpretable features, such as expandedness of the body or the frequency of sharp movements. We use this encoding to analyze Hip Hop Dance genres, in part by building a low-cost machine-learning classifier that distinguishes genre with high accuracy. Our study relies on an open dataset (AIST++) of pose-sequences from dancers instructed to perform one of ten Hip Hop genres, such as Breakdance, Popping, or Krump. For comparison we evaluate moderately experienced human observers at discerning these sequence’s genres from movements alone (38% where chance = 10%). The performance of a baseline, Ridge classifier model was fair (48%) and that of the model resulting from our automated machine learning pipeline was strong (76%). This indicates that the selected features represent important dimensions of movement for the expression of the attitudes, stories, and aesthetic values manifested in these dance forms. Our study offers a new window into significant relations of similarity and difference between the genres studied. Given the rich, complex, and culturally shaped nature of these genres, the interpretability of our features, and the lightweight techniques used, our approach has significant potential for generalization to other movement domains and movement-related applications.

The rising global economic costs of invasive Aedes mosquitoes and Aedes-borne diseases

Invasive Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes transmit viruses such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika, posing a huge public health burden as well as having a less well understood economic impact. We present a comprehensive, global-scale synthesis of studies reporting these economic costs, spanning 166 countries and territories over 45 years. The minimum cumulative reported cost estimate expressed in 2022 US$ was 94.7 billion, although this figure reflects considerable underreporting and underestimation. The analysis suggests a 14-fold increase in costs, with an average annual expenditure of US$ 3.1 billion, and a maximum of US$ 20.3 billion in 2013. Damage and losses were an order of magnitude higher than investment in management, with only a modest portion allocated to prevention. Effective control measures are urgently needed to safeguard global health and well-being, and to reduce the economic burden on human societies. This study fills a critical gap by addressing the increasing economic costs of Aedes and Aedes-borne diseases and offers insights to inform evidence-based policy.