Natural Representation Research Articles

Forest-Based Health Practices: Social Representations of Nature and Favorable Environmental Characteristics

Forest frequentation is associated with benefits for human health, warranting the importance of forest-based health practices. These practices can be classified into four categories: connection with nature (e.g., Shinrin-Yoku, yoga, and meditation); sports, outdoor, and adventure activities; Indigenous health practices on the land; and professional consultations in a natural environment. The aim of this research was to better understand the social representations of the forest supporting these practices and the environmental characteristics that are favorable to them, as well as to examine the effects of these practices on the forests. We interviewed 28 forest-based health practitioners in Quebec and conducted four participant observation activities. Data analysis led us to five forest representations: an entity in its own self, an unfamiliar area, a place of attachment, a land at the heart of Indigenous cultures, and a tool to improve health. The results showed that favorable environmental characteristics varied according to the type of health practice. The presence of water (e.g., drinking water, lakes, and rivers) is favorable to all forest-based health practices and access to nature seems to be an issue for many practitioners. We also found that forest-based health practices were leaving traces in the forest and attempting to redefine the place of humans in nature.

მოქმედებს თუ არა გველის შხამი სოციალისტურ რეალიზმზე?

In 1927, philosopher Serge Danelia published an article of criticism “Vazha-Pshavela and Georgian Nation,” in which he discussed the poet Vazha-Pshavela’s conception and representation of nature. Among the topics discussed in this article, Danelia’s interpretation of the poem “Snake Eater” is of particular interest to us. To answer a question of why the snake poison did not work on the protagonist Mindia as soon as he ate snake meat, he offers the explaination that the meat was boiled and so the effect of poison was slowed down. This interpretation, of course, strikes us as excessively realistic. Where did this attitude come from? How much does Danelia’s account reflect the tendency of social realism of that time? Danelia thought that Vazha-Pshavela represented nature as an endless circle, as opposed to the historical process, which moves in the direction of progress. Further, for Vazha, nature is not to be measured by the good and evil of the events that occur in nature, but by its beauty. In Vazha’s understanding, this beauty is woven into the fabric of nature itself and exists independent of human judgment. This conception of a transcendentally beautiful, ahistorical nature, Danelia claims, belongs to an Eastern, paganistic worldview, which he poses as an anthithesis to the Western, Christian conception of “history.” This criticism can be explained by dialectical materialism. According to the scholar, Vazha’s representation of nature in “The Snake Eater” is fundamentally realist. The only reality that exists for the poet is indepentent nature. However, he criticizes, the poem also mixes a folktale into the realistic framework. Therefore, two different motifs, paganism and Christianity, are mixed in the work, which he regards as illogical; this destroys the any consistency in the poem’s plot line or framework. According to this argument, he rejected the poem and regarded it as a “weak” work. This is an inadequate and unsuccessful reading, even giving credit to the value of his dialectical materialist analysis of Vazha’s conception of nature. Danelia’s criticism shows a forced application of the conventions of realism to “The Snake Eater”  supposedly, as demanded by the period  and, from this point of view, ignores or denies the magical element in the poem. However, today the concept of materialism again attracts our attention under the name of “new mate­rialism.” While his evaluation of the poem is flawed, a part of Danelia’s ar­gu­ment, in which he criticised the critic K’it’a Abashidze’s understanding of Vazha-Pshavela as a symbolist poet, is convincing and invites more careful discussion.

Harmonic flow-field representations of quantum bits and gates

We describe a general procedure for mapping arbitrary n-qubit states to two-dimensional (2D) vector fields. The mappings use complex rational function representations of individual qubits, producing classical vector field configurations that can be interpreted in terms of 2D inviscid fluid flows or electric fields. Elementary qubits are identified with localized defects in 2D harmonic vector fields, and multiqubit states find natural field representations via complex superpositions of vector field products. In particular, separable states appear as highly symmetric flow configurations, making them both dynamically and visually distinct from entangled states. The resulting real-space representations of entangled qubit states enable an intuitive visualization of their transformations under quantum logic operations. We demonstrate this for the quantum Fourier transform and the period finding process underlying Shor's algorithm, along with other quantum algorithms. Due to its generic construction, the mapping procedure suggests the possibility of extending concepts such as entanglement or entanglement entropy to classical continuum systems, and thus may help guide new experimental approaches to information storage and nonstandard computation. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Relational representation: Speaking with and not about Nature

The transnational movement to recognise the rights of Nature continues to fuel experimentation by a growing number of jurisdictions in legal form, content, powers, and governance arrangements. In this paper, we focus on the mechanisms through which Nature is represented in various ways. There is enormous diversity in representational arrangements, but there is no clarity on precisely who should be representing Nature, or how Nature can be represented in human spaces, or even what the intent of this representation is (or should be). We describe a spectrum of representation that ranges from speaking about, to speaking for, to speaking with the natural entity. We develop a model of relational representation that shows the power of speaking with Nature to not only develop relations between the representatives and the natural entity, but also to enable a broader dialogue of knowledges with a wider pool of participants. By examining four case studies (the Mar Menor in Spain, the Río Atrato in Colombia, the Birrarung/Yarra River in Australia and Te Awa Tupua/Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand), we show how these diverse representational models are moving towards the relational end of the spectrum, and identify the challenges and opportunities of relational representation of Nature.

Logics for at most countable first-order structures

Abstract In this paper we present two extensions of $\omega $-logic with infinitary inference rules, denoted $Arch$-$\omega $-logic and $non$-$Arch$-$\omega $-logic. We provide the corresponding Hilbert-style axiomatizations and prove their strong completeness with respect to countable Archimedean and non-Archimedean fields, respectively. Through several examples we illustrate a natural representation of various weight functions within the proposed framework and applications to non-monotonic reasoning and neuro-symbolic computing.

The high-dimensional structure of natural image representations varies systematically across visual cortex

The high-dimensional structure of natural image representations varies systematically across visual cortex

Public space and everyday heritage: An inquiry into children's and adults' perception

This paper examines how the spatial environment and the activities within these spaces contribute to their social value in turn informing the concept of everyday heritage within urban public spaces. We develop a novel methodological framework that combines visual representation and narrative analysis to provide insights into how the physical, emotional and perceptual dimensions of a public open space translate into associative social values. By including both adults and children in our study, we capture a comprehensive range of perceptions, highlighting the diverse ways in which different user groups give meaning to everyday heritage. Children and their guardians showed agreement on natural elements and personal representations, but differed on the garden's spatial layout and activities. While they shared values like childhood memories and family time, children prioritized play, forming new friendships, and connecting with nature, whereas parents emphasized children's happiness and personal space. Notably, both groups indicate that childhood – both lived and remembered – is that which gives this public urban space its everyday heritage status. The findings advocate for an expanded understanding of urban public spaces, recognizing the significance of everyday heritage in shaping collective cultural identity.

Fast supervoxel segmentation of connectivity median simulation based on Manhattan distance

Supervoxels provide a more natural and compact 3D point cloud representation, which is a fundamental problem in point cloud processing and has attracted extensive attention from many scholars. At present, although the supervoxel segmentation has achieved significant results, the processing efficiency still restricts its further processing in the face of large-scale point cloud processing. Therefore, this paper proposes a new supervoxel segmentation method for point clouds to achieve fast supervoxel over-segmentation of large-scale point clouds while maintaining good boundaries and accuracy. Firstly, the supervoxel segmentation is formulated as a subset selection problem. With the idea of greedy strategy, the interval quick sorting and region growing methods is designed to realize the rapid merging of subsets in the iterative process. Secondly, the Manhattan distance metric and the seed point median simulation method are proposed to enhance the precision of iterative optimization and improve the efficiency of point cloud supervoxel segmentation. Experimental results show that, compared with state-of-the-art supervoxel segmentation method, the proposed method achieves the best results under UE, GCE, BR and other indicators, while reducing the running time of the algorithm by 10.6% to 28.3%.

Representing states in iterated belief revision

Iterated belief revision requires information about the current beliefs. This information is represented by mathematical structures called doxastic states. Most literature concentrates on how to revise a doxastic state and neglects that it may exponentially grow. This problem is studied for the most common ways of storing a doxastic state. All four of them are able to store every doxastic state, but some do it in less space than others. In particular, the explicit representation (an enumeration of the current beliefs) is the more wasteful on space. The level representation (a sequence of propositional formulae) and the natural representation (a history of natural revisions) are more succinct than it. The lexicographic representation (a history of lexicographic revision) is even more succinct than them.

Tacking over-smoothing: Target-guide progressive dynamic graph learning for 3D skeleton-based human motion prediction

Graph Convolution Network-based (GCN-based) approaches show promising performance on 3D skeleton-based human motion prediction due to its natural graph representation and outstanding ability for spatial–temporal dependencies modeling for human motion. However, the existing GCN-based methods inherently have difficulties in designing deep GCN-based structures for human motion prediction due to the over-smoothing issue. Although the over-smoothing issue has been studied in many scenarios, few attempts focus on this problem in 3D human motion prediction tasks. Therefore, we propose a novel deep GCN architecture termed TPDGN (Target-guide Progressive Dynamic Graph Network) to solve this issue in a motion prediction context. The core of the proposed TPDGN is the progressive dynamic graph leaning block, which is developed to model the dynamic graph pattern. We claim that the key to solving the over-smoothing issue is to reduce the loss of motion features and boost graph representations. Accordingly, we further explore the progressive learning mode by the specific target guidance for the motion prediction task, which aims at learning rich motion dependencies to tackle over-smoothing. Empirical results show that our approach could improve the over-smoothing issue, achieving state-of-the-art results on three public datasets. The codes is available at https://github.com/1111szu/TPDGN.

Dwelling in Active Serenity: Nature in Werner Herzog’s Cinema

Abstract This article puts Werner Herzog’s films in dialogue with Martin Heidegger’s philosophy to answer the question of how to dwell, to be at home with nature. I argue that an apathy–empathy aporia blockades the discussion of the nature–human relationship in Herzog’s cinema, which tends to view his representation of nature as either entirely apathetic to human flourishing or totally identifiable with being human. Both versions of nature fail to do full justice to the nuanced vision of nature in Herzog, especially its dynamics and problematics as a safe place. To address this problem, I will closely read and compare three of his films across his career: Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972), Grizzly Man (2005), and Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010) in the light of Heidegger’s philosophy. Drawing on Heidegger’s thought on dwelling, technology, being-in-the-world, temporality, Gelassenheit, and Care, I move away from the standard paradigm and reinterpret the nature–human relationship in Herzog as a negotiation between the homely and the unhomely in search of an equilibrium I call “active serenity.” Thus, this article is both a film-philosophy experiment with Herzog and Heidegger and a contemplation of the antagonism between humans and nature, which underlines our modern world.

Communication Protocols and QECC From the Perspective of TQFT, Part II: QECCs as Spacetimes

AbstractTopological quantum field theories (TQFTs) provide a general, minimal‐assumption language for describing quantum‐state preparation and measurement. They therefore provide a general language in which to express multi‐agent communication protocols, e.g., local operations, classical communication (LOCC) protocols. In the accompanying Part I, we construct LOCC protocols using TQFT, and show that LOCC protocols induce quantum error‐correcting codes (QECCs) on the agent‐environment boundary. Such QECCs can be regarded as implementing or inducing the emergence of spacetimes on such boundaries. Here connection between inter‐agent communication and spacetime is investigated, by exploiting different realizations of TQFT. The authors delved into TQFTs that support on their boundaries spin‐networks as computational systems: these are known as topological quantum neural networks (TQNNs). TQNNs, which have a natural representation as tensor networks, implement QECC. The HaPPY code is recognized to be a paradigmatic example. How generic QECCs, as bulk‐boundary codes, induce effective spacetimes is then shown. The effective spatial and temporal separations that take place in QECC enables LOCC protocols between spatially separated observers. The implementation of QECCs in BF and Chern‐Simons theories are then considered, and QECC‐induced spacetimes are shown to provide the classical redundancy required for LOCC. Finally, the topological M‐theory is considered as an implementation of QECC in higher spacetime dimensions.

Eulerian-Lagrangian Fluid Simulation on Particle Flow Maps

We propose a novel Particle Flow Map (PFM) method to enable accurate long-range advection for incompressible fluid simulation. The foundation of our method is the observation that a particle trajectory generated in a forward simulation naturally embodies a perfect flow map. Centered on this concept, we have developed an Eulerian-Lagrangian framework comprising four essential components: Lagrangian particles for a natural and precise representation of bidirectional flow maps; a dual-scale map representation to accommodate the mapping of various flow quantities; a particle-to-grid interpolation scheme for accurate quantity transfer from particles to grid nodes; and a hybrid impulse-based solver to enforce incompressibility on the grid. The efficacy of PFM has been demonstrated through various simulation scenarios, highlighting the evolution of complex vortical structures and the details of turbulent flows. Notably, compared to NFM, PFM reduces computing time by up to 49 times and memory consumption by up to 41%, while enhancing vorticity preservation as evidenced in various tests like leapfrog, vortex tube, and turbulent flow.

The Representation of Nature in Ibn-Khafaja’s and Wordsworth’s Poetry: A Comparative Stylistic Study of Selected Poems

This study analyzes the depiction of nature in poetry, especially in Ibn-Khafaja’s and Wordsworth’s selected poems. This study is based on New Criticism's conceptual, analytical, and theoretical approaches. New Criticism studies the achievement of the works’ meanings by studying their “interrelationships of sound, texture, structure, rhetoric, and a host of other literary devices” (Bressler, 2011, p. 57). The significance of the study is to provide a parallel comparative study between these two poets whose religions, traditions, languages, and eras are dissimilar. Ibn-Khafaja recognizes his surrounding nature as the ideal and beautiful place where people feel relaxed, hopeful, and pleased. He states that humankind and nature are originally adapted to each other, and people are always fascinated by the beauty of nature. He sees nature as the typical shelter to stay happy and peaceful. He is fascinated by the images of the mountains, horses, birds, and trees. On the other hand, Wordsworth shows nature as a place of happiness, perfectness, and peace. He accentuates the deep relationship between human beings and nature, and how people admire nature in its beautiful images. Wordsworth presents how the fascinating images of nature can affect man’s mood and mind.

An Eco-Translatology Approach to Analyzing the English and Arabic Translations of Pamuk's My Name is Red

The trajectory of translating Pamuk’s literary heritage into more than sixty languages attracts the attention of a number of scholars (e.g. Horta, 2017, EriŞ, 2019). Pamuk’s unique mingling of Eastern and Western cultures makes it significant to scrutinize the dispositions and worldviews of translators. This paper aims at depicting the eco-linguistic cultural plethora of factors that play a role in the translator’s lexico-grammatical decisions. To this end, the English translation of Pamuk’s My Name is Red by Göknar (2001), as well as the Arabic one by Abdulli (2000) are dissected. Lexico-cultural behaviours concomitant to the representation of nature in both target texts are analysed. Results shed light on how eco-translatology can help inform and give insights to modern translation studies.

The inverse of a quantum bilinear form of the oriented braid arrangement

We follow here the results of Varchenko, who assigned to each weighted arrangement \(\mathcal{A}\) of hyperplanes in the \(n\)-dimensional real space a bilinear form, which he called the quantum bilinear form of the arrangement \(\mathcal{A}\). We briefly explain the quantum bilinear form of the oriented braid arrangement in the \(n\)-dimensional real space. The main concern of this paper is to compute the inverse of the matrix of the quantum bilinear form of the oriented braid arrangement in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), \({n\ge 2}\). To solve this problem, in [3] the authors used some special matrices and their factorizations in terms of simpler matrices. So, to simplify some matrix calculations, we first introduce a twisted group algebra \({\mathcal{A}(S_{n})}\) of the symmetric group \(S_{n}\) with coefficients in the polynomial ring in \(n^2\) commutative variables and then use a natural representation of some elements of the algebra \({\mathcal{A}(S_{n})}\) on the generic weight subspaces of the multiparametric quon algebra \({\mathcal{B}}\), which immediately gives the corresponding matrices of the quantum bilinear form.

Why we need neurodiversity in brain and behavioral sciences

AbstractIn this article, we present the case for the adoption of a neurodiversity paradigm as an essential framework within the brain and behavioral sciences. We challenge the deficit‐focused medical model by advocating for the recognition of neurocognitive variances—including autism, ADHD, dyslexia, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder—as natural representations of human diversity. We call for a shift in research and practice towards valuing neurodivergent individuals' unique strengths and contributions and promoting inclusivity and empathy. In critiquing the tendency to pathologize cognitive differences, we argue for a re‐evaluation of therapeutic goals to reflect a more nuanced understanding of neurodiversity. Highlighting the socio‐ethical implications of therapy‐focused research, we urge an appreciation of the potential for innovation and problem‐solving that neurodivergent individuals bring to society. The conclusion is a call to action for an integrated approach in research, policy, and societal attitudes that affirms neurodiversity, fostering an environment in which all forms of cognitive functioning are celebrated as part of human advancement.

Natures instead of nature—plural perceptions and representations of nature and its challenges for ecological transition: a systematic review of the scientific production

BackgroundRecognizing nature and the environment as sociocultural constructions is critical to enhancing a transformational ecological change. This involves understanding their diverse sociocultural meanings and societal approaches and how these understandings affect equitable ecological transitions. We reviewed empirical studies and essays, categorizing 161 studies into three main categories: opposition, domination, and interdependencies, reflecting varying knowledge, power dynamics, cultures, and contexts. These studies aim to uncover how societies conceptualize, explain, and engage with nature and the environment, shaping society–nature relationships and influencing ecological transitions.ResultsThis study underscores the diverse perceptions and representations of nature, from a controllable resource to an integrated web of life. Three main categories emerged: (i) nature against society, in a logic of opposition; (ii) nature subordinated to society, in a logic of domination, although integrated into society; and (iii) nature united with society, in a logic of interdependence. Thus, this study advocates discussing “natures” as sociocultural constructs, highlighting the plurality of social perceptions and representations, which can inform policies and challenge socio-political and socio-economic systems.ConclusionsThis review may pave the way to, first, give visibility and value that diversity and plurality as an instrument that can enrich policies and defy socio-political and socio-economic systems to change and, second, identify the main drivers and resistances that the implementation of an ecological transformation change may face in different sociocultural contexts.

Visualizing biodiversity on maps

Abstract Maps play a central role in the transfer of knowledge for biodiversity conservation. However, their production and reception contexts have not been sufficiently investigated so far. While critical cartography has demonstrated that maps are not objective representations of nature but are influenced by social conventions, these insights have not been fully reflected in ecological mapping practice. This paper draws on critical map theory and expands it with a critical evaluation of map visualization. By analyzing the design of biodiversity maps, our study demonstrates that the way biodiversity is visualized in maps does not adequately reflect the dynamics and interdependencies of natural systems, nor does it adequately reflect the species-specific needs. It is argued that design-led research provides relevant knowledge about evaluating maps in terms of their functionality as communication tools. This is of central importance if we wish to further develop ecological cartography and make it practicable and effective in its field of application.

Analysis of Ambiguity, Vagueness, Fuzziness, Uncertainty, Possibility and Probability in the Natural Language Semantics with Fuzzy Logic

Understanding the esotericism of human instinct in their daily life conversation is not enough then a mystery now. This is a bundle of ambiguity, vagueness, fuzziness, uncertainty, possibility and probability as a wrap that humans have built around themselves. With the advancement in artificial Intelligence, natural language processing is more capable now to work with real world and performing intelligent analysises. The real world has interactions between natural and artificial intelligent systems. Despite all it, humans retained their superiority over artificial intelligent systems. The fuzzy Logic can play an important computational role in understanding this intelligence gap in clear dimensions. Logical Semantics, Distributional Semantics and Probabilistic Logic are focused on their intention for better natural language semantic representations. But no single semantic representation fulfills all requirements needed for a satisfactory representation. The objective of the present work has two folds. The first one focused on the understanding of fuzzy logic in two dimensions as an intelligence computational technique and another as mathematical modeling of natural language semantics. The second fold illustrates this intelligence gap with real world examples of natural language processing applications such as Google and Microsoft Translator.