Interdisciplinary Paper Research Articles

Latter-Day Saint Roots in the American Forest: Joseph Smith’s Restoration Visions in Their Environmental Context

On 6 April 1830 Joseph Smith Jr. legally established what he claimed to be the restored Church of Jesus Christ that had existed previously during the New Testament times. This bold claim was bolstered by stories of angelic visitations in the hemlock–northern hardwood forest of New York and Pennsylvania by biblical and nonbiblical figures alike. In one of Smith’s supernatural encounters he claims that immediately prior to his theophany the Devil tried to intercede and prevent his communion with God. Thus, Smith and his followers have embraced a complex worldview concerning the nineteenth-century American forest, host to both the Divine and the Devil. The nineteenth-century American forest was complicated by its dangerous elements, its economic opportunities, and the sublime quality popularized in landscape paintings. Forests existed as environments that were equal in their ability to leave one desolate, well-provisioned, or inspired. Navigating these sometimes paradoxical views, Joseph Smith’s stories of otherworldly visitations in forest settings have resonated with many people seeking understanding in a confusing world. The founding story of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and artistic depictions thereof demonstrate an evolving view of the American forest. The American forest is a malleable, liminal space in which Latter-day Saints have continually combined elements of faith and memory to create a unique faith tradition with roots in a transformative place in American society. This interdisciplinary paper examines the physical appearance of the hemlock–northern hardwood forest, the socioeconomic climate, shifting sentimental values, and the philosophical ideas popularized by transcendentalists and the Hudson River School of painters that provided the scaffolding for this resilient religious movement’s origin story.

Domestic Trauma: Textile Responses to Confinement, Coercion and Control

One result of the public health quarantine measures resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic has been an increase in the incidence of domestic abuse against women. This practice-based interdisciplinary research paper considers the domestic trauma resulting from confinement, coercion and control within the home and textile responses to it. It aims to highlight these domestic concerns, challenge attitudes about coercive control and provoke discussion. Contemporary research into domestic abuse is combined with examples of domestic coercion and control described in literature and textile. Many women, both in life and literature, have used textiles as an alternative form of discourse to describe coercion and control in the home. As first-wave feminist Olive Schreiner shrewdly noted about women traumatized by domesticity “What has she but her needle?”. Textiles such as Elizabeth Parker’s sampler recording her domestic abuse are discussed, as well as contemporary responses by survivors and artists. As well as recording coercive control, textiles can also be used as an alternative form of discourse in the healing process. The paper ends on an encouraging note discussing textile initiatives that assist victims of domestic trauma.

Are electric vehicles getting too big and heavy? Modelling future vehicle journeying demand on a decarbonized US electricity grid

In the US a complete transition to electric vehicles (EVs) would increase demand for carbon-free electricity by around 30% if the future fleet has the same average size, weight and horsepower as current EVs. However, these dimensions for today's EVs are substantially lower than for conventional vehicles, so as EVs replace them, EV's average size, weight and horsepower are likely to increase substantially. Further, major automakers are introducing a new class of very large, powerful “super”-EVs of up to 1000 horsepower. These factors will lead to higher demand for carbon-free electricity. This interdisciplinary paper first examines the social pressure for increasing EV size and power. It then uses data from the 255 EVs tested by the US EPA in 2011–2021, to estimate the effect of increased weight and horsepower on EVs' electricity consumption. It finds that each 1% increase in weight leads to an increase in electricity consumption of about 1%. The transition to EVs could therefore increase electricity consumption by 35% or more and compromise the transition to a decarbonized electricity grid. Policymakers need to plan for a larger decarbonised grid, disincentivise production of large, heavy EVs and promote positive social discourse on the value of smaller, lighter vehicles.

Bible Journaling as a Spiritual Aid in Addiction Recovery

Bible Journaling is a trend of the past decade whereby readers make creative, visual interventions in their Bibles, using coloured pens and pencils, watercolours, stickers and stencils, highlighting texts of particular resonance. Journaling, in its more conventional written forms, has long been recognised as a pathway to spiritual development. Significantly, Bible journaling is almost exclusively practiced by women and has a high level of interpersonal interaction attached to it, through open and mutual sharing of these creations, through various online social media fora. Gleaned from the sharing of women who journal for spiritual support, this article examines the role Bible journaling plays in aiding recovery from drug addiction. Multimodal analysis is a methodological approach that provides a structured semiotic framework in which to closely examine every feature of a creation such as a journaled page of a Bible, to examine how the journaler has made meaning of a text through their interventions on the page. Appreciating every mark, choice and placement of image, colour, typography as a motivated sign revealing the interest of the creator, the sign-maker, a detailed multimodal analysis is conducted of one page of a recovered drug-user’s journaled Bible. As shall be demonstrated, profound insights into the appropriation of sacred texts for the spiritual life of a recovering addict can be gleaned in this process. Bible journaling reveals itself to be a highly valuable spiritual practice for those in addiction recovery. This interdisciplinary paper uniquely brings a methodological approach from the field of semiotics to the field of spirituality. Both the methodological approach and the subject of sacred text journaling may be of particular interest to spiritual directors, across many religions with a foundational sacred text, as a means whereby adherents can engage with a text in a deep, contemplative and creative practice that is personally, spiritually sustaining and motivating during a difficult phase of life.

The Khandaq Shapur: Defense, Irrigation, Boundary, Frontier

Khandaq Shapur has been named one of the great barriers of the ancient world, but very little is known about the monumental-scale linear feature. This interdisciplinary paper brings together archaeologists and historians to present (1) an updated history of the Khandaq Shapur drawing upon a wider range of sources, including Arabic scholarly sources, and (2) a modern map of the Khandaq Shapur produced from a ground truthed remote sensing using historic Corona satellite imagery from the 1960s and imagery available in Google Earth. This new map of the Khandaq Shapur’s ground truthed location is compared to the known locations of Sasanian sites from previous archaeological surveys to contextualise the Khandaq Shapur within the wider archaeological landscape. Together, the landscape archaeology and historical evidence provide a comprehensive picture of this unique feature: shedding light not only on its precise location, but also its nature (what was it?) and how it was used over time.

European position paper on the management of patients with patent foramen ovale. Part II - Decompression sickness, migraine, arterial deoxygenation syndromes and select high-risk clinical conditions.

Patent foramen ovale (PFO) is implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of medical conditions but to date only one official position paper related to left circulation thromboembolism has been published. This interdisciplinary paper, prepared with the involvement of eight European scientific societies, reviews the available evidence and proposes a rationale for decision making for other PFO-related clinical conditions. In order to guarantee a strict evidence-based process, we used a modified grading of recommendations, assessment, development, and evaluation (GRADE) methodology. A critical qualitative and quantitative evaluation of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures was performed, including assessment of the risk/benefit ratio. The level of evidence and the strength of the position statements were weighed and graded according to predefined scales. Despite being based on limited and observational or low-certainty randomised data, a number of position statements were made to frame PFO management in different clinical settings, along with suggestions for new research avenues. This interdisciplinary position paper, recognising the low or very low certainty of existing evidence, provides the first approach to several PFO-related clinical scenarios beyond left circulation thromboembolism and strongly stresses the need for fresh high-quality evidence on these topics.

Interdisciplinary research to understand the energy transition in a carbon-constrained world

In fact, this motivation is essentially interdisciplinary, as it needs knowledge about energy systems, climate change, the technical and economic aspects of coal power sector and policy design.When publishing the interdisciplinary paper, besides the scientific contribution for the academic community, what we are concerned about is its impact on the real world. Specifically, we hope the key message in the interdisciplinary paper can reach the relevant stakeholders and policy makers, so that our research may help to solve the problems in the real world directly.

Improving companies' impacts on sustainable development: A nexus approach to the SDGS

AbstractCompanies play a decisive role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, most of the world's sustainable development challenges are interconnected and systemic in their nature. How can companies ensure that their strategies effectively contribute to sustainable development? This interdisciplinary paper draws from the social‐ecological systems, corporate sustainability, and sustainability sciences literatures, in order to introduce a nexus approach to corporate sustainability. A nexus approach induces companies to assess and manage their positive and negative interactions with the SDGs—which may arise directly and indirectly—in an integrated manner. Instead of treating SDGs as isolated silos, a nexus approach aims to advance multiple SDGs simultaneously (creating “co‐benefits”) while reducing the risk that contributions to one SDG undermine progress on another (avoiding “trade‐offs”). Through managing the interactions between the SDGs, a nexus approach to corporate sustainability enables companies to improve their societal and environmental impacts. This nexus approach is a step towards developing a theory of sustainability management that helps companies improve their impacts on sustainable development. Such systemic corporate sustainability strategies are sorely needed to drive progress towards achieving the SDGs and to safeguard companies from “SDG‐washing.”

Property rights & the perceived health contribution of public open space in Hong Kong

This interdisciplinary paper, informed by property rights economics, urban planning, facility management, and medical science, as well as the study of the quality of life, (a) presents a typology of Hong Kong open space transformation in terms of property rights; and (b) a small scale indicative survey with a sample that was > 1% of the workforce of the constituency. The authors argue with the help the findings of the survey that the government, as a major provider and regulator, should be able to assign a higher priority to, or enact better designs and plans for usable open spaces to contribute to better public health. This would counterbalance the focus on the indoor environment and health after the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 and articulate with the issues of property rights and social justice in open space provision.

Influences of Climate Change on Tourism Development in Small Pacific Island States

Tourism-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are a central driver of anthropogenic climate change. At the same time, climate change has both direct and indirect impacts on tourism, varying from damages of tourist assets due to extreme weather events, to losses of biodiversity. Small island developing states (SIDS) heavily depend on international tourism as a source of revenue and income. Therefore, much could be gained by assessing the vulnerability of the SIDS tourism sector and by identifying measures that may assist these islands in their sustainable adaptation efforts. Against this background, this interdisciplinary paper provides a review of tourism development and the implications of its emissions on the global climate, linked with observed and projected influences of climate change in the Pacific region, to explain the growing vulnerability of the overall sector, with a particular focus on SIDS tourism. A description of the effects of COVID-19 on international tourism and its consequences for SIDS complement the analysis. Case studies of two Pacific islands present some evidence of current climate impacts, underscoring the multiple risks small island nations and their tourism sectors face. The paper concludes by stating that some measures may be prioritized by decision-makers, so as to increase the resilience of a transforming tourism sector in SIDS.

COVID-19, A New World Order, Vaccine Safety, Effectiveness and Our Human Rights

This inter-disciplinary paper examines the claims in some secular and religious circles around the world that some global elite have the agenda of foisting a New World Order on the global populace and examines the louder claims, since 2020, that COVID-19 is a man-made pandemic aimed at achieving this aim. The globalists are said to be bent on fostering One World Government, One World Economy and One World Religion on the populace. COVID-19, its second or third wave, attendant lockdowns and restrictions on business activities and religious gatherings are said to be pre-mediated and orchestrated behind the scene to achieve what has since been described by the public and private sectors as “the New Normal.” The World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations, communists, desperate leftist Western politicians, billionaire investors, big pharmaceutical companies, big media organisations and compromised scientists have been fingered as the New World Order desperadoes. It is alleged that the new waves of the pandemic and the recent predictions of yet a worse pandemic by the WHO and by a prominent globalist are a confirmation that they are desperate to further pursue and achieve their New World Order aim. Such measures as lockdowns, use of facemask, COVID-19 vaccines and restrictions on business activities and religious gatherings are said to be among their tools for achieving a great reset, mind control, social conditioning and/or further damage to the physical, psychological and spiritual health of the people. Those measures as well as the still unsettled or controversial safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines are analysed in this paper vis-à-vis the relevant fundamental rights of the people. The growing trend of making the COVID-19 vaccination certificate a requisite to travel overseas or access some public places locally is also examined, more so as this is tantamount to making the COVID-19 vaccination mandatory, not necessarily by law but by policy and not necessarily directly but indirectly. This paper examines whether such measures are in harmony with such fundamental rights as the right to the grant of informed consent, right to personal dignity, right to privacy, freedom of movement and freedom of religion guaranteed by both the municipal law of the nations and the international human rights regime. With the use of indirect, circumstantial and documentary types of evidence available, the paper finds out that the alleged plot to maintain “the New Normal” and foist a New World Order is neither baseless nor unreasonable. To overcome the pandemic and beyond the vaccines which the new variants of the disease may defy, the need to allow the COVID-19 responses to wear human face and comply with human rights, use of the combination of hydroxychloroquine, zinc and azythromycin in the early stage of the disease, exposure to sunlight and eating of certain immunity-boosting fruits and vegetables are recommended. The need for African countries to have a deliberate and purposeful homegrown strategies for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic is also recommended, especially now that it has been established that the pandemic has socio-demographic and cultural dimensions.

Knowledge Management for Sustainable Development in the Era of Continuously Accelerating Technological Revolutions: A Framework and Models

This conceptual, interdisciplinary paper will start by introducing the commencement of a new era in which human society faces continuously accelerating technological revolutions, named the Post Accelerating Data and Knowledge Online Society, or ‘Padkos’ (“food for the journey; prog; provisions for journey”—in Afrikaans) for short. In this context, a conceptual model of sustainable development with a focus on knowledge management and sharing will be proposed. The construct of knowledge management will be unpacked into a new three-layer model with a focus on the knowledge-human and data-machine spheres. Then, each sphere will be discussed with concentration on the learning and decision- making processes, the digital supporting systems and the human actors’ aspects. Moreover, the recombination of new knowledge development and contemporary knowledge management into one amalgamated construct will be proposed. The holistic conceptual model of knowledge management for sustainable development is comprised by time, cybersecurity and two alternative humanistic paradigms (Homo Technologicus and Homo Sustainabiliticus). Two additional particular models are discussed in depth. First, a recently proposed model of quantum organizational decision-making is elaborated. Next, a boundary management and learning process is deliberated. The paper ends with a number of propositions and several implications for the future based on the deliberations in the paper and the models discussed and with conclusions.

Land Tenure Security and Health Nexus: A Conceptual Framework for Navigating the Connections between Land Tenure Security and Health

The rise of urban populations has rendered cities in both developed and developing countries vulnerable to poor health and diseases that are associated with urban living conditions and environments. Therefore, there is a growing consensus that while personal factors are critical in determining health, the urban environment exacerbates or mitigates health outcomes, and as such the solution for improving health outcomes in urban settings can be found in addressing socio-environmental factors that shape urban environments. Land tenure security is a social environmental factor of health that has been understudied by urban geographers despite its obvious role in shaping urban environments, housing conditions, and health. We interpret literature and infer possible pathways through which land tenure security connects to health and propose a land tenure security and health nexus conceptual framework for modeling and investigating the extent of this connection. Based on a narrative review of literature, this inter-disciplinary paper shows that land tenure security can influence health outcomes via four pathways—infrastructure access, environmental justice, psycho-ontological security, and social cohesion. Going forward, a subsequent investigation can focus on developing an index of land tenure security health insults, based on which an empirical investigation of the relationship between land tenure security and health disease is possible.

Agency in Circular City Ecosystems—A Rationalities Perspective

The concept of agency is increasingly used in the literature on sustainability transitions. In this paper, we add to that discussion by arguing that the concept of rationality opens new avenues to theorizing relational agency in transitions toward a circular economy. To this end, we compare rationality conceptions from management (e.g., collaboration and competition) with critical theory perspectives on rationality (e.g., instrumental and communicative rationality). This leads us to develop a typology matrix for describing plural rationalities underpinning relational agency. We illustrate this typology using excerpts from an in-depth case study of an ongoing city-coordinated ecosystem that develops a smart technology-enabled urban area based on the principles of circularity. The first contribution of this interdisciplinary paper is to offer a rational perspective on theorizing the antecedents of relational agency in circular economy transitions, where communicatively rational action enables agency and change. Secondly, our paper contributes to the literature on circular cities through conceptualizing circular transition as simultaneous collaboration and competition. Thirdly, our paper introduces a dyadic perspective on rationality to the literature on coopetition and provides an operating space from which professionals can navigate, depending on the type of coopetitive situation.

Communicating across cultures

The arrival of increasing numbers of refugees and immigrants has caused large increases in multicultural school populations. This interdisciplinary paper describes an ongoing study which began in 2012, discussing the role of the school library in multicultural, multilingual school communities and offering suggestions about how the school library could become a multicultural learning environment. It provides information to help school library staff to look closely at these issues and to provide help and useful suggestions to the entire school community. The prime objective is to help the school community to safely and constructively deal with the dynamics of a multi-cultural society, using the school library as a base. Safe facilitation requires “trained” leaders from the school community. An e-learning program for school librarians is being adapted for this purpose.

European position paper on the management of patients with patent foramen ovale. Part II - Decompression sickness, migraine, arterial deoxygenation syndromes and select high-risk clinical conditions.

Patent foramen ovale (PFO) is implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of medical conditions but to date only one official position paper related to left circulation thromboembolism has been published. This interdisciplinary paper, prepared with the involvement of eight European scientific societies, reviews the available evidence and proposes a rationale for decision making for other PFO-related clinical conditions. In order to guarantee a strict evidence-based process, we used a modified grading of recommendations, assessment, development, and evaluation (GRADE) methodology. A critical qualitative and quantitative evaluation of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures was performed, including assessment of the risk/benefit ratio. The level of evidence and the strength of the position statements were weighed and graded according to predefined scales. Despite being based on limited and observational or low-certainty randomised data, a number of position statements were made to frame PFO management in different clinical settings, along with suggestions for new research avenues. This interdisciplinary position paper, recognising the low or very low certainty of existing evidence, provides the first approach to several PFO-related clinical scenarios beyond left circulation thromboembolism and strongly stresses the need for fresh high-quality evidence on these topics.

The ecological outcomes of collaborative governance in large river basins: Who is in the room and does it matter?

Although collaborative governance has been presented as central in environmental management, it does not guarantee sustainable natural resources management. Due to methodological challenges and a lack of robust interdisciplinary data, few studies have linked collaborative processes to ecological outcomes. This paper contributes to that research effort by investigating whether the relative involvement of different interest groups in deliberations matters from an ecological perspective. To that end, this interdisciplinary paper links social and ecological indicators across two large French river basins in a dataset spanning 25 years. We find that the presence of different interest groups - agricultural, industrial and NGOs - during deliberations, is linked to different ecological outcomes. Most notably, the composition of present members does not play the same role depending on the type of pollution source studied (e.g. point and/or diffuse sources).

Breaking News! Making and testing Bronze Age balance scales

This interdisciplinary paper (archaeology, macromolecular chemistry and material science) investigates the production and load-bearing capacities of Bronze Age balance scales.The existence of weighing equipment and practices in Late Bronze Age Europe has been proven beyond doubt. Although hundreds of balance weights from Central and Western Europe have recently been identified in the archaeological record, balance scales are still extremely rare. Consisting of balance beams, suspension cords, scale pans and sometimes metal suspension loops, the only evidence found to date are 18 complete and fragmented balance beams. Made of bone or antler, these balance beams are often perceived as extremely fragile and only able to weigh-out minute loads. This, however, had never been tested. In order to understand exactly how Bronze Age balances were made, of what materials and how much load they could bear, a number of replica balance beams, suspension cords and metal loops were created. The load-bearing capacity was then tested with two standard material sciences testing methods: three-point bending tests and uniaxial tensile testing.

Sustainable Solutions in the Hospitality Industry and Competitiveness Context of “Green Hotels”

This interdisciplinary paper researches the importance of sustainable hotel engineering and organisation of facilities for the purposes of realisation of a sustainable and responsible hospitality facility business. Considered through the interdisciplinary aspect, at the same time, it represents a research goal with the focus on the segment of youth tourists, who, as existing consumers of low-budget expenditure, are turning into DINKY, as well as the segment of conscious adult consumers in the future. The paper, through a questionnaire, researches the perception of the importance of resource management, with the implementation of innovative technologies by youth tourists’ related attitudes and experiences. The methodology is based predominantly on qualitative research methods and includes analysis and conceptual methodology and survey research methods of youth tourists’ attitudes. The quantitative research was processed by using the statistical methodology combined with techniques of creative thinking formation. The results point to the predominance of importance in which over 90% of respondents confirm the importance of sustainable initiatives and resource management with the following rank: food, water, energy, and waste management. Further analysis implies an opposite attitude where only 52.9% of participants would be willing to pay higher prices for sustainable solutions in hotels. The results and recommendations contribute to knowledge and ideas by recognizing competitiveness of hotels, which design and engineer the business system and operations with support of sustainable technologies in an interdisciplinary way. The paper also contributes to the comprehension of combined and successfully communicated economic and marketing values of sustainable innovations supported by digital technologies.

Language policy, ideological clarification and theory of mind

This interdisciplinary paper shows that investigating community language beliefs, as a pillar of language policy research, can be enriched by the principles of theory of mind. The case study is Malaysia where ethnonationalist law and policy elevates the language and culture of the Muslim Malay majority above those of citizens of Chinese and Indian ethnicity, but where a seismic political shift is underway. The re-election of Dr Mahathir Mohammad as prime minister in May 2018, but now standing for Pakatan Harapan, broke decades of rule by the traditionalist United Malays National Organisation. Promises are being made to bring an end to Malaysia’s race-based politics and foster equality. The situation is ripe for producing contentious and politically-embedded talk in the community about Malaysia’s linguistic diversity and ethnonationalist language policy. In that context, this paper analyses how youths from different ethnic groups feel about Malaysia’s societal multilingualism. However, the innovation is in then soliciting and analysing the hypotheses of these same youths about how their own heritage languages, as well as societal multilingualism and language policy, are perceived by the other ethnic groups. As Malaysia embarks on political change, exploring beliefs in these interethnic multidirectional terms reveals fissures and alignments between beliefs that are articulated by different youths and the beliefs that are attributed to them. This methodological approach can support language policy processes and research by more richly investigating language beliefs and ideological positioning from multidirectional vantage points.