Mother Nature Research Articles

The CARE System in Its Importance in Dealing with Today's Crises1.

The CARE system is a gift from Mother Nature, we have it in our biological heritage; it enables us humans-as a basic gift-to help each other in a large, life-serving context, and thus also to counterbalance destruction. It is about a basic human ability, linked to typical behaviour, but also about a basic human need for connectedness. In this paper, I would like to show how the CARE system can be activated as a collective attitude. The CARE system is strengthened by positive emotions. We are currently being affected by many crises and this triggers fear. How can we deal with this better? Fear is countered with hope and the associated positive emotions such as joy, awe, kama muta and others. These emotions and feelings can be consciously encouraged and placed alongside the feelings of fear. But also, when we share the feelings of grief with each other, it triggers an attitude of CARE. We can grieve together for the various experiences of loss that we go through-but we can also imagine together how we envisage a future that is worth living for everyone. An attitude in the sense of CARING has been practised in friendship for thousands of years. It would therefore be possible to move away from an attitude of competing and outdoing, to an attitude not only of recognition, care, and solidarity in human interaction, but also in our connection with nature.

Unlawful acts against the rights of nature and environmental impact

The evolution of mankind, driven by developments in society, science, and technology, has had a significant impact on Mother Earth or nature, resulting in serious effects on the environment, ecosystems, and biodiversity. This research critically analyses illicit acts that violate the rights of nature and assesses their environmental impact. To achieve this, we employed an approach that incorporates inductive, dogmatic, historical-logical, and descriptive legal methods through a non-experimental design. The research results show a concerning lack of respect for the rights of nature in Ecuador. Furthermore, the inadequate control of illegal acts, including the endorsement of deforestation and the illegal and irresponsible extraction of natural resources, are causing a substantial negative impact on the environment, ecosystems, flora, and fauna.

The infrasonic choir: Decoding songs to inform decisions

The world around us is continuously evolving due to the actions of Mother Nature and anthropogenic activities, which impacts the decisions made on how we interact with the environment. Many of these changes are observable by listening to the infrasonic choir around us everyday. The voices of the infrasound choir include a wide variety of both natural (e.g., surf and volcanic activity) and man-made ( e.g., explosions and infrastructure) sources. Understanding how to exploit the infrasonic song to make sense of the environment in near-real-time is the focus of ongoing research. An example of this is listening to infrastructure (bridges and dams) for insights into structural health, which can be utilized to prioritize limited resources after a natural disaster (hurricane or earthquake). This presentation explores operationalizing this capability, such as how to monitor source rich urban spaces, re-envisioning sensing in these environments with the development of lightweight/low-cost sensors and mobile arrays, and developing detection, classification, and localization methods for near-real-time processing. When successful, continuous monitoring of the infrasonic choir can provide a method for understanding the environment to inform decisions. Permission to publish was granted by the Director, Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center.

Queens of hearts: Exploring the lived experiences of mothers caring for infants with complex congenital heart disease in Sri Lanka.

This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of eight Sri Lankan mothers of infants with complex congenital heart disease (CCHD) using semi-structured interviews. Four themes were generated as: illness perception, communication with medical staff, challenges faced, and coping mechanisms. These provided insight into the multi-faceted nature of mothers' experiences, importance of medical-caregiver communications and their need for psychosocial services. The findings enhance the limited knowledge of South-Asian primary CCHD caregiver experiences and will help in improving psychosocial support services in Sri Lanka.

A Framework to Design Appliances for the Circular Economy Scenario

Should the appliances change to adapt to new conditions in the current scenario of a compromised environmental situation? The human needs to cook food, wash dishes and do laundry are the same, but society and our relationship with mother nature have changed radically. Although many contributions to the design for sustainability, the changes in the design sector and the market are not always visible. This paper is part of a research project on the design of appliances for the circular economy scenario and intends to understand Is there the need to re-design the current one, design new ones, or invent something else? How to decide? Are we considering all the aspects? The problem was tackled using a systemic design approach. The result is a framework that contains the data collected by the research steps, maps all the implications that the design of appliances in the circular economy scenario should consider in the process, and visualises the complexity of the topic.

The Loving Space: Motherhood and the Natural Sublime in Contemporary Floral painting

The unconditional love of a mother is spacious. The paper discusses how the connection between a flower and the love of a mother’s generosity is as limitless as Mother Nature. Drawing on the natural sublime, a reflection on motherhood becomes a series of large scale paintings of flowers. Rarely is the sublime referred to the greatness or inspirational characteristics or values of human beings through the intimate bonds of relationships. Principles of the sublime deliberates that transcendence, or the act of overcoming oneself arises when the limited ego bows down in awe when confronted by immense nature, by mountains or a thundering rapid. Equally, motherhood holds overreaching power which carries through generations like a river flower through time. Mother, are no less compared to the greatness of nature.

Walking‐with/worlding‐with in a global pandemic: A story of mothering in motion

AbstractThis paper addresses how walking‐with an infant makes mothering worlds legible. Employing the active verb ‘worlding’, it illustrates how walking‐with contributes to the emergent, embodied and relational nature of mothering as a story in motion and how we make sense of becoming a mother. The walking in this study takes place in and through (sub)urban landscapes, and how we negotiate our maternal bodies through these spaces, at a very particular moment in time (COVID‐19 lockdowns), is imbricated in our worldings. Walking‐with is used to not only explain the interembodiment of mother and child but also the wider milieu of ‘withs’ to demonstrate the corporeal and relational experience of walking. Walking‐with a baby, particularly with a postpartum body, is hard work, messy and unpredictable, yet that is not to say the analysis leads to a negative perspective. When walking‐with a baby is understood as ‘worlding‐with’ we can develop a more affirmative understanding of mothering. By using creative analytical practice a walking‐with story was developed drawing on data collected from walking mothers and autoethnography of my own walking‐with experiences. The story makes it possible to develop a legibility that captures the contradictory experiences of mothering in motion. Creative analytical practice highlights that storying, walking and mothering is never a complete.

A Study on the Potential of Sand Liquefaction Hazard at Chukai Sentral, Terengganu Using Plaxis 2D

An earthquake is classified as a natural disaster of mother nature. Sometimes, it cannot be predicted when it will occur and difficult to estimate the striking force values and the period of incident. The effect of the earthquake may catastrophic if the magnitude is more than 6 Richter. It had been proved by previous event, an earthquake could cause a huge impact towards the soil condition especially when the saturated soil is soft or loose since the propagation of shear wave and compression could induced the soil liquefaction and gave an effect towards excess pore pressure and effective stress of the soil that may affect the stability of infrastructure such as dam, embankment, and bridge. This study was conducted to analyse the horizontal displacement of soil due to earthquake and to evaluate the possibility of liquefaction at Chukai Sentral, Kemaman, Terengganu, Malaysia. The study was conducted using Plaxis-2D software based on Mohr-Coulomb soil model at magnitude of 5.4 Richter. The Mohr-Coulomb model was selected as its failure occurs when the shear stress acting on the soil reaches a critical value and the shear strength is related to the effective stress acting on it. The analysis was concentrated on the mesh deformation and horizontal displacement. The result shows the mesh deformation and horizontal displacement obtained in the boreholes not more than 6 mm. It is considered as a small deformation and will not trigger to the potential of liquefaction to that area. It can be concluded that the earthquake magnitude of 5.4 Richter is unable to disturb the natural resistance of the soil and structure due to their stiff layer proportion.

Indigenous Tribals - The Vanguards of Environment – A Close Study of the Oscar-Winning Documentary: The Elephant Whisperers

The creative and destructive both the powers lie in the womb of Mother-Nature. None other than the Mother Nature has the power to withstand the onslaughts of industrialization, capitalism, corporate world etc. The Mother-Nature belongs to each one of us. We all are the part and parcel- the children of the Planet. But the vice-versa action of using and giving to the Mother-Earth is apparently and powerfully visible in the life-style, culture and devotion of Indigenous Tribal folks of India’s various regions. The proposed research article is an effort to bring into focus the Oscar winning Documentary – The Elephant Whisperers. The research paper aims to explore the perspectives of indigenous tribal people in the conservation of ecology, selflessly devoted to save animals who form the essential backbone of our environment. The short film raises the larger issue around Asian elephants losing their habitat due to climate change and human encroachment. Capturing the cultural diversity awareness, bounteous Mother-Nature of the tiny region of South India, and the sense of responsibility towards the environmental concerns raise the significant sentiment of respecting indigenous tribal folks, animals, and our bio-life. Thus, the research paper is an attempt to signify the documentary as a mouthpiece to highlight the space we share with animals and the tribal wisdom.

‘Mother(Nature) knows best’ – hijacking nature-designed transcriptional programs for enhancing stress resistance and protein production in Yarrowia lipolytica; presentation of YaliFunTome database

BackgroundIn the era of rationally designed synthetic biology, heterologous metabolites production, and other counter-nature engineering of cellular metabolism, we took a step back and recalled that ‘Mother(-Nature) knows best’. While still aiming at synthetic, non-natural outcomes of generating an ‘over-production phenotype’ we dug into the pre-designed transcriptional programs evolved in our host organism—Yarrowia lipolytica, hoping that some of these fine-tuned orchestrated programs could be hijacked and used. Having an interest in the practical outcomes of the research, we targeted industrially-relevant functionalities—stress resistance and enhanced synthesis of proteins, and gauged them over extensive experimental design’s completion.ResultsTechnically, the problem was addressed by screening a broad library of over 120 Y. lipolytica strains under 72 combinations of variables through a carefully pre-optimized high-throughput cultivation protocol, which enabled actual phenotype development. The abundance of the transcription program elicitors—transcription factors (TFs), was secured by their overexpression, while challenging the strains with the multitude of conditions was inflicted to impact their activation stratus. The data were subjected to mathematical modeling to increase their informativeness.The amount of the gathered data prompted us to present them in the form of a searchable catalog – the YaliFunTome database (https://sparrow.up.poznan.pl/tsdatabase/)—to facilitate the withdrawal of biological sense from numerical data. We succeeded in the identification of TFs that act as omni-boosters of protein synthesis, enhance resistance to limited oxygen availability, and improve protein synthesis capacity under inorganic nitrogen provision.ConclusionsAll potential users are invited to browse YaliFunTome in the search for homologous TFs and the TF-driven phenotypes of interest.

Concept of “Go Green” in O.V. Vijayan’s the Legends of Khasak: Growing Consciousness towards Mother Nature

In recent years, the global “Go Green” movement has garnered significant attention, serving as a universal call to embrace sustainable living and prioritize environmental conservation. Drawing inspiration from Vijayan's literary masterpiece, this study explores the parallels between the ecological challenges faced by the fictional world of Khasak and the urgent issues confronting our planet today. The Legends of Khasak intricately examines the intricate relationship between its characters and nature, offering a lens through which we can understand the intricate interplay between human actions and the environment. This paper posits that the “Go Green” movement, with its focus on sustainable practices, conservation, and the safeguarding of Mother Nature, resonates deeply with the themes presented in Vijayan's work. The Present Paper aims to explore the Concept of Go Green in O.V. Vijayan’s The Legends of Khasak in the backdrop of growing consciousness towards Mother Nature. Keywords: humanity, crises, suffering, nature, environment, pollution

Mother Nature, Lady Justice: Ecofeminism and Judicial Decision-Making

Mother Nature, Lady Justice: Ecofeminism and Judicial Decision-Making

Educating for wisdom, love, and eco-cosmic Ubuntu: Toward an equitable planet

This article discusses the formidable challenges facing humanity, including wars, conflicts, climate change, species extinction, social divisiveness, and moral breakdown. The article critiques that contemporary education has fallen short in providing effective solutions to address these challenges, often directing learners to seek external answers while neglecting their inner wisdom. Self discovery and fostering a profound connection not only with ourselves but also with one another and Mother Nature would lead to peace and stewardship of the Earth. The article explores how we can harness the transformative power of love and compassion through contemplative practices deeply rooted in world wisdom traditions. These practices enable us to nurture the vital life force that sustains people, nature, and the entire universe. By cultivating our life energy and virtues, we expand our awareness to connect with all beings and existence and expand our capacity to drive social change.

Progress of porous organic cages in photo/electrocatalytic energy conversion and storage applications

In addressing the challenges and opportunities associated with porous organic cages (POCs), this review aims to bridge the gap between host–guest interactions and prospects of POCs in photo/electrocatalytic energy conversion and storage applications.

SELECTION OF BIOINDICATORS FOR AIR POLLUTION BASED ON PEROXIDASE ACTIVITY OF PLANT SPECIES FOUND IN THE CHEMBUR INDUSTRIAL AREA OF MUMBAI, INDIA -A PRIMARY STEP TO GREEN ZONE ENRICHMENT

Industrialization and population growth are the important factors for the deterioration of air quality in the current scenario. Air pollution monitoring using plants as bioindicators is the best and cheapest way. Oxidative stress induced on plants due to air pollution can be studied using antioxidant peroxidase enzyme activity. The present study aims at the comparative assessment of peroxidase activity of twelve plant species from the Chembur industrial area and less polluted zone of similar ecological conditions for two years. The peroxidase activity was determined using the spectrophotometric method. The observations based on the current investigation revealed a rise in the peroxidase activity of twelve plant species of the industrial zone as compared to the less polluted zone. It may indicate an increase in the resistant capacity of all experimental samples toward the oxidative stress caused due to air pollution. Plant species like Pithecellobium dulce (Roxb.) Benth, Ricinus communis L., Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit., Albizia saman (Jacq.) Merr, Thespesia populnea (L.) Sol. ex. Correa, Polyalthia longifolia (Sonn.) Thwaites, Prosopis juliflora (SW.) DC., Terminalia catappa L. showed higher peroxidase activity values and hence may be used as bioindicators. Thespesia populnea (L.) Sol. ex. Correa, Polyalthia longifolia (Sonn.) Thwaites and Terminalia catappa L. being evergreen plants may be planted in good numbers in the Chembur industrial area. It may act as a primary step to ameliorate the industrial air pollution in the Chembur industrial zone by enhancing the green zone. This kind of investigation with other factors may help us to sustain our mother nature for future generations.

THE IMAGE OF "NATURE" IN WILLIAM WORDSWORTH’S POEM "THE PRELUDE "

It was researched how Nature is presented and what influence it has on the author’s condition and his life position. Wordsworth uses more artistic techniques that create Nature as calm, beautiful, balanced, stable and graceful, which is an undeniable fact of trust and authority. Therefore, the hero turns to Nature every time he needs advice, support, salvation. We can conclude that in “Prelude” the artist of the word conveyed who She is for him. For him, Mother Nature is Wordsworth's teacher, guide, and mentor in life, helping and inspiring the author. However, Nature, like a human being, has many “faces” and states. Nevertheless, the fact that they all come down to two main ones – positive and negative, to what is good and bad, to good and evil, less She always finds a balance by behaving differently in a given situation. Nature, like an elderly, wise person, has seen a lot during its existence, has extensive experience, knows how to act correctly in moments of crisis, control and restore.

Mother nature: Applicability to contemporary attachment styles.

Explore humanity's shifting attachment to the natural world using established attachment theories as a framework. Investigate the analogy between human-nature connection and caregiver-child attachment styles. Draw on indigenous case studies, sociology and anthropology to highlight contemporary repercussions of this 'detachment'. Factors such as rapid population growth and urbanisation have disrupted the secure attachment with nature, which is evidenced in ancient egalitarian societies. These factors can be mapped onto contemporary attachment domains. There is an urgent need to re-establish a secure attachment to nature. This may be a pivotal strategy in addressing both mental health and environmental challenges, particularly in the context of the escalating climate crisis.

Sunflower inspired urban city pattern to improve solar energy utilization in low solar radiation countries

Cities consume a huge amount of energy to satisfy people’s necessities. Most of the existing city patterns do not consider passive energy solutions when planning. This study investigates the maximum available sunny areas for the buildings’ surfaces (rooftops and facades) generated in low solar radiation with long shadow length locations. This has been done by studying the orientation and distribution of the residential plots in the different urban panning patterns. For investigative purposes, a city model is planned according to the most common urban planning patterns, which are grid and radial patterns in addition to a newly proposed and novel sunflower urban planning pattern that mimics Mother Nature. The alternating distribution in the sunflower pattern allows the sun to reach every building in this pattern equally. Warsaw was selected as an example of low solar radiation and long shadow length city. The results show that the proposed sunflower pattern outperforms the grid and radial patterns by a percentage of 4% for the available sunny rooftop areas and a percentage of 12% for the available sunny facade areas.

Inorganic Metal Oxides and Multi-Component Nanocomposites Based Photocatalysts for the Superior Degradation of Pollutants from Water

Water is a primary and essential source of every living organism and it is a most precious gift of Mother Nature which helps every living creature to survive. However, this water is highly polluted now-a-days by various unethical activities by human beings. Many industrial units like textile mills, pharmaceutical units, mines, paper mills, dyeing units, sugar industries, leather purifying units, electroplating plants, fine chemical units, oil refineries, etc. produce huge amount waste products in the form of toxic chemicals and pollutants every day and enter the water bodies without proper treatment. Various techniques are available to purify the polluted water by eliminating the toxicity of pollutants; some of them are reverse osmosis, electrode ionization, ion exchange, submicron filtrations, etc. Among all these water treatment procedures, photocatalysis is found to be most versatile, low cost and environmentally benign technique. In this review, a prime focus is given on the performance of different photocatalysts based on ZnO, CuO, NiO, SnO2, MgO, multicomponent metal oxides and composites in degrading and removing unwanted impurities present in polluted water. The importance of using metal oxide based photocatalyts in treating the polluted water is also discussed.

Examining the Role of Aesthetic Experiences in Self-Realization and Self-Transcendence: A Thematic Analysis

Abstract Numerous scholars, philosophers, and experts in aesthetics have underscored the profound significance of a life enriched by the presence of beauty. Consequently, the appreciation of aesthetic experiences is considered pivotal for achieving self-discovery and self-transcendence (Howell et al. 2017). Despite theoretical prominence, limited qualitative research has been conducted on this topic. To address this gap in research, this study’s objective emphasized two questions guiding the inquiry; What is the role of aesthetic encounters in aiding self-realization or individuation? and, how do these experiences foster self-transcendence? A thematic analysis was performed on the online interviews conducted (N=25), and their results revealed seven themes pertaining to self-realization: a) Losing Yourself to Find Yourself; b) Relatability and Self-Reflection in Art; c) Identity as a Collection of Skills; d) Art as a Medium for Self-Expression and Acknowledgment; e) Aesthetic Genres and Taste as Identity; f) Belonging and Social Identity through Art; and g) Personal Interests and Choices in Artistic Consumption. Furthermore, seven themes for the second research question of self-transcendence were also discovered: a) Mother Nature’s Beauty; b) Intense, Passionate, and Overwhelming Experiences of Heightened Consciousness; c) Sacred Symbolism, Archetypal Imagery, and the Collective Unconscious; d) Collective Effervescence, Social Connection, and Shared Meaning; e) The ‘Profound’ Found in the Mundane; f) Feelings of Spiritual Elevation and Wellbeing; and g) Self-Referential Meaning-Making through Art. These findings evidenced the transformative potential of aesthetic experiences, shedding light on the facets of personal growth and meaning that individuals derive from such encounters.