Private Nature Research Articles

A past–present–future lens of environmental change: blending applied paleoecology and participatory system dynamics modeling at a conservation site in the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa

Landscapes are social–ecological systems (SESs) that produce ecosystem services, which change over time in response to environmental, biotic, and social drivers. Failure to consider this variability, and the feedbacks that can stabilize or destabilize systems, can have consequences for sustainable ecosystem services provision. This study applies a conceptual meta-framework, past–present–future lens, to interpret changes in land cover and ecosystem services within the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) of South Africa. Paleoecology (fossil pollen, spores, and charcoal) and participatory system dynamics modeling were used to explore long-term variability in provisioning ecosystem services (plant biodiversity) and the drivers of this variability (fire and herbivory) at Elandsberg Private Nature Reserve (Elandsberg PNR). From ca. 1800s, the paleoecological record suggests that environmental changes, particularly a transition to unpalatable Elytropappus-dominated vegetation, were driven by grazing and that an ecological threshold was crossed in ca. 1950s due to agricultural intensification. Participatory system dynamics was used to identify feedbacks in the dynamic SES structure. The ecological model replicates the paleoecological results and, furthermore, suggests that in the future, returning the system to within historical ranges variability may require sustained reductions in both grazing and fire over decades. This innovative approach blends paleoecology and participatory system dynamics to provide an evidence-based understanding of temporal variability and feedbacks for policymakers and land-use managers to inform sustainable land management.

Napoleonské vojny vo vzťahu k Prešporku očami vinohradníckej rodiny

The Napoleonic Wars of 1805 and 1809 also affected life in the territory of today’s Slovakia. A decisive role was played by Pressburg (Prešporok), today’s Bratislava. One of the valuable sources of information about the events of these years is the German-language chronicle “Kleines Protigol vom Jahre 1800 an”, which belonged to the family of the Pressburg winemaker Johann Georg Luntzer. In addition to records of a private nature, it included descriptions of historically significant events taking place in Pressburg during the first decade of the 19th century. Indepen dent researchers published selected parts of the chronicle as transcripts between 1895 and 1925. The transcripts are not identical; they differ in form and, in some cases, in content. The present paper is an annotated Slovak translation of those parts of the chronicle concerning the events of 1805 and 1809 in relation to Pressburg. The translation is based on the first transcription of the chronicle, in the footnotes supplemented by information found only in the second transcription of the chronicle. The more substantial discrepancies between both transcriptions are also pointed out. Currently, it is unknown whether the chronicle still exists or where it is located.

ԸՆԴԵՐՔՕԳՏԱԳՈՐԾՄԱՆ ՀԱՐԱԲԵՐՈՒԹՅՈՒՆՆԵՐԻ ԻՐԱՎԱԿԱՆ ԿԱՐԳԱՎՈՐՄԱՆ ՈՐՈՇ ԱՌԱՆՁՆԱՀԱՏԿՈՒԹՅՈՒՆՆԵՐ / SOME FEATURES OF LEGAL REGULATION OF SUBSOIL USE

The purpose of this article is to study and analyze the place of subsoil use law in the legal system of the Republic of Armenia, the features of legal regulation of subsoil use relations and the composition of main subjects of subsoil use relations. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the legislation regulating the sphere of subsoil use law in the Republic of Armenia needs systemic reforms, as evidenced by the adoption by the Government of The Mineral Sector Development Strategy of Armenia. Despite this, a systematic and comprehensive study of the legal nature of relations in the field of subsoil use has not been conducted in the domestic literature to date: only certain issues of a private nature in this area have been studied. In the course of the study, the task was set to study and analyze the history of the development of subsoil use law in various legal systems, the place of subsoil use law in the legal system of the Republic of Armenia, the specifics of regulation and the composition of subjects involved in subsoil use relations. This work's methodological basis consists of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, deduction) and special (dogmatic, comparative legal) methods. Based on the research conducted within the framework of this work, the author concluded that the subsoil use law is an independent branch of the RA legal system, and the RA Subsoil Code is subject to reforms in terms of sectoral principles guaranteeing the protection of the interests of the subsoil user and legal norms ensuring their application. Additionally, the community should be considered as a subject of subsoil use law.

Анализ перспектив развития методических подходов к оценке эффективности муниципального управления

Introduction. Ensuring stability and a high level of rates of socio-economic development of the country and growth in citizens’ quality of life, the authorities operate under conditions of limited resources. This requires improvement of management efficiency and qualitatively formulated indicators for assessing the effectiveness of the authorities’ activities. One of the reasons for the difficulty in formulating indicators is the identification of state and municipal governance. The purpose of the study is to separate the effectiveness of municipal governance from the effectiveness of public administration. Methods. Within the framework of the research on the basis of the method of interpretation and system approach the following analysis was applied: scientific publications, normative legal acts, statistical data. Scientific novelty of the study. The concept of a new method of assessing the effectiveness of municipal governance is proposed. Results. The works of Russian and foreign scientists were considered to identify approaches to assessing the effectiveness of state and municipal governance. Domestic and foreign methods of efficiency assessment have been studied. Regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation regulating the efficiency assessment of state and local government bodies were analyzed in order to compare the efficiency assessment indicators. The concept of a new method of assessing the effectiveness of municipal governance by compiling a universal list of indicators has been proposed. Conclusions. One of the two approaches to assessing the efficiency of state and municipal governance is generalizing - the assessment of municipal governance efficiency is carried out similarly to the assessment of public administration efficiency. The second approach is differentiating - the assessment of the effectiveness of municipal governance differs from the assessment of the effectiveness of public administration, while taking into account the impossibility of full autonomy. There are a number of common shortcomings in the methods of assessing the efficiency of government performance: the current indicators do not allow to unambiguously assess the result of government performance; the indicators for assessing the efficiency of municipal government are of a private nature.

Оценка и типы ее репрезентации в хакасских пословицах и поговорках

Assessment holds a significant position in contemporary linguistic research. Nevertheless, the assessment category has not yet been specifically studied in the context of Khakass language paremic expressions. This study categorizes the different forms of assessment found in Khakass proverbs and sayings. A range of sources was used, including a collection of Khakass proverbs, sayings, a Khakass-Russian dictionary, folklore, and artistic texts. The analysis has demonstrated a substantial prevalence of proverbs and sayings carrying evaluative meanings of a private nature, encompassing ethical, aesthetic, mental-psychological, teleological, and utilitarian evaluations. Assessment is expressed as a desire for a certain norm, a pattern of behavior. By means of private assessments, a selection is made between concepts of good and evil, morality and immorality, and the like. Understanding the evaluative semantics of proverbs and sayings in the Khakass language contributes to a deeper understanding of the national characteristics of the ethnic group. The ethical negative assessment is predominantly conveyed in the proverbial fund of the Khakass language, taking the form of moral teachings and prohibitions. The distinctive characteristics of aesthetic assessment involve drawing figurative parallels between the beauty of a Khakass woman and the sun and the moon and recognizing the beauty of a man through his moral resilience. The assessments found in the Khakass paremiological fund encompass both universal and ethnocultural values that depict the Khakass worldview. The investigation of Khakass paremiology presents further opportunities to uncover the characteristics of normative meanings and their overall evaluative connotations.

Enhancing Resilience through Emotional Intelligence in Religious Communities for Crime Prevention Post-COVID-19

The aftermath of COVID-19 has wrought significant emotional distress, exacerbating the incidence of emotionally motivated crimes, particularly within families. This phenomenon presents a substantial challenge to the South African Police Service (SAPS), especially due to the private nature of these crimes. In response, this study investigates whether the religious community in the Mamelodi policing area can leverage emotional intelligence (EI) to foster resilience and aid in crime prevention. We employed a quantitative approach, utilizing non-probability sampling to survey 104 adult Christians in Mamelodi. Participants provided informed consent. The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form (TEIQue-SF) was used for assessment, covering four EI variables: emotionality, self-control, sociability, and well-being. The findings reveal a high level of EI, with scores of 74.06% for emotionality, 68.41% for self-control, 59.26% for sociability, and an impressive 86.84% for well-being, culminating in an overall EI score of 72.14%. These results suggest that Mamelodi's churches are effective community-based entities capable of collaborating with SAPS to prevent emotionally driven crimes, through resilience-building rooted in EI competencies. This research contributes to the South African academic discourse by intersecting psychology, policing, and community studies, particularly focusing on a township population often living below the poverty line and with limited EI awareness.

Patients’ Perception of Praying: A One-Week Intervention Study at a Naturopathy Centre

A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the perceived transformations experienced by patients engaged in naturopathic treatments following their participation in prayer sessions. 50 patients undergoing routine inpatient care at a private Nature Cure Hospital in India were administered a questionnaire before and after engaging in prayer sessions. The analysis highlighted pivotal post-prayer attributes such as Cultivation of a Positive Attitude (84%), Heightened Optimism regarding recovery (100%), Sustained Sense of Well-being for durations spanning 2-3 hours (48%) and over 4 hours (48%), along with a lasting Optimism concerning prospects (100%). Additionally, 38.8 percent reported engagement in community prayer sessions during their inpatient stay. These effects promise to augment self-perception, overall efficacy, and emotional resonance, potentially contributing to ameliorated health outcomes and a better quality of life for inpatients across diverse medical settings.

Privacy of documents – documents of privacy. Remarks on personal sources in historical and archival studies

The authors set themselves the goal of indicating the places in the archival holdings where texts of a private nature are present. They used the ego-documentary theory developed in European science since the midtwentieth century. It makes us pay attention to narrative sources (diaries, journals, memoires, correspondence) in the first place. It also allows you to extract privacy from official sources in which a person is forced to tell the story of his life, express his individuality and identity. Court testimony is of particular importance in this context. It is an important component of the archival holdings, and at the same time the source basis for many fundamental scientific works on the history of the mentality of all social groups, including those marginalized. They notice untapped sources such as CVs (biographies) attached to official files or petitions submitted by private individuals to the authorities. They draw attention to the fact that all archival entities, such as fonds, collections or archive holdings, may be self-documentary in nature. This applies to private archives, but to some extent also official ones. It is a difficult problem to capture the private character of archives in the archival description. The authors indicate the usefulness of creating source and archival studies characteristics of classes of archival sources in terms of the possibility of ego-documentary research.

The “European Yellowstone”: Entrepreneurs of the Wilderness and Transnational Elites in the Romanian Carpathians

AbstractCarpathia—dubbed the “European Yellowstone”—is a private nature conservation project in Romania. Its establishment activates a critical linkage between entrepreneurs of the wilderness and transnational conservation elites. We indicate the contribution of entrepreneurialism to the expansion and adaptation of neoliberal conservation and reveal how biographical contingencies are involved in the making of conservation projects. At the same time, the focus on transnationalism reveals how local projects are designed, scaled‐up, and connected to global neoliberal conservation networks. Carpathia reveals the adaptability of neoliberal conservation and its expansion into the Eastern European peripheries through transnational elites. Its establishment illustrates how private conservation projects become essential sites for securing privileged access to nature in times of global ecological crises and uncovers the varieties of the global geographies of capitalist conservation.

Reciprocity principle and private property rights in land: Coasean world is neither neoclassical nor capitalist

The “Coase theorem” states that in a zero-transaction cost neoclassical world society’s wealth is not affected by the allocation of liabilities rules. The “theorem” rests upon two fundamental premises: the first concerns Coase’s view of mutual causation of harm, namely the reciprocity principle, and the second refers to his understanding of private property as a bundle of use rights. However, when these two premises are specifically applied in cases of trespass to land, not only portray a blur picture of private property, but they also contradict the very nature of rights over property. Specifically, I am arguing that these two premises undermine the centrality of exclusion rights to the institution of land property, hence violate the de jure basis of these rights, as well their private nature. This is turn implies that Coasean world is a world where the prevalent idea of mutual causation of harm creates idiosyncratic and partial rather than standardized de jure private property rights in land. As such, this Coasean version of the world fundamentally breaks from the neoclassical view of the capitalist world, where the security and exercise of private property rights in land is a sine qua non condition for the working of the economic system.

What do prospective parents know about family welfare incentives? Evidence from Hungary and the United States

ABSTRACT Countries facing population decline have increasingly turned to family welfare incentives to encourage higher fertility. Quantitative analyses have revealed mixed evidence that these policies are effective. However, it remains unknown how much individuals know about their countries' family welfare policies. The extent of men’s welfare knowledge in particular remains unexamined. Relying on 26 interviews with prospective parents in Hungary (N = 11) and the US (N = 15), this study examines what knowledge prospective parents have of family welfare policies in two distinct welfare contexts: Hungary, where certain individuals are heavily rewarded for having three or more children, and the US, where individuals do not receive significant financial support for having any number of children. Findings from this study demonstrate how policy knowledge is shaped by the public versus private nature of the welfare state. This study also reveals how policy measures can shape the gendered division of labor years before a child is born – a fruitful area for future research.

Making It Magical

Making It Magical

Evolving shared value, sustainability and the leadership challenge: Grootbos Private Nature Reserve

Learning outcomes The learning outcomes of this study are to assess the shared value model and elaborate on new multi-stakeholder approaches to business, where the stakeholders include the founders, investors, partners, employees, clients and the surrounding community; to consider the synergies between community development, environmental stewardship, sustainable business practices and the long-term health of organisations and communities, considering these as the new fundamentals of business; to examine the interconnectedness of vision, strategy, purpose and leadership in creating and evolving the shared value model; to explore the relationship between shared value practices and collective well-being, and a specific reference to nurturing transformative experiences through nature, personal development and community upliftment is made; and to assess Grootbos’ ability to translate their purpose and value proposition into a strategy and sustainable vision with a possibility of Grootbos achieving global impact through its evolving model, beyond the founder. Case overview/synopsis This case study explores the evolution of Grootbos Private Nature Reserve and Foundation, a luxury hospitality lodge and award-winning ecotourism destination, from humble beginnings in the Western Cape of South Africa to a global example of conservation, community, commerce sustainability and transformative experiences. The establishing of Grootbos and its growth and widespread recognition can be attributed to the vision and inspirational leadership of its founder, Michael Lutzeyer. Although much success has been achieved in conservation, community upliftment and individual development of community members within their region, Lutzeyer’s and ultimately, Grootbos’ vision extended well beyond South Africa and aspired to elevate their floral kingdom and model of development and conservation to a global platform of awareness. Although a shared value vision and strategy had transformed the business, placing Grootbos as a leader in transforming their industry and sparking an evolution in the shared value model itself through the interjection of transformative experiences, the larger question remained: How can Grootbos extend the impact, towards people and planetary well-being, beyond the scope of their individual place-based business and their industry? And in terms of the dilemma Lutzeyer and the management team at Grootbos faced: How will this vision and global ambition continue through succession, beyond Luzeyer’s personal drive at the helm? Complexity academic level Experienced leaders within a graduate degree program, executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) or executive education in the areas of leadership development, strategy, shared value and international business. Supplementary material Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS4: Environmental management.

Reproductive endocrinology, morphological traits, and sexual selection in a population of wild South African giraffes

Sex steroids are pervasive in mammals and evolutionarily conserved, but differences in the nuances of endocrine profiles characterize distinct species. Two sex steroids, testosterone and progesterone, feature prominently in the life history of mammalian taxa, but neither one has been analyzed from wild giraffes. Our study was designed to address this gap in knowledge by examining how these sex steroids are related to biological features and giraffe life history. We conducted the research at Rooipoort Nature Reserve a 44,000 ha private nature reserve in South Africa on a population of South African giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa). Eleven adult giraffe cows and seven adult bulls were immobilized and various biological samples and morphological measurements were obtained. We analyzed both testosterone and progesterone using Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromotography – Tandem Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). We found that non-pregnant females had lower progesterone concentrations than pregnant females and that those in the last trimester of pregnancy showed a slight drop in progesterone, as well as an increase in testosterone. Among males, chronological age was correlated with testicle size, testosterone concentrations, and ossicone volume. We propose that the progesterone decline functions partly to accelerate resumption of ovulation because giraffes become pregnant while lactating, and that the testosterone elevation provides an endocrine mileu for female defense of neonatal calves, given that lion predation is a major threat to calf survival. We suggest that male reproductive strategies are mediated by the age-related impacts of testosterone on growth in both body mass and ossicone volume as a consequence of sexual selection. We conclude by noting that the robust and solid ossicones of male giraffes function in mate competition as wedges that are used to topple opponents by raising their legs and placing them in an off-balanced position that can seriously injure them when falling to the ground.

Heart Stroke Prediction Using Federated Learning

Heart attacks in youth have become a common issue, making it crucial to predict the chances of heart stroke in patients. However, the fragmented and private nature of healthcare data presents a significant challenge for producing reliable research results across populations. Federated Learning shows promise in connecting disparate healthcare data sources while also safeguarding privacy. To that end, this research aims to develop a Federated Learning algorithm that addresses the challenges and opportunities in healthcare by utilizing a central server to train a sharing globalized model while retaining sensitive data in local institutions where they originated. This approach is particularly important as electronic health records of diverse patient groups are owned by multiple institutions, making it difficult for hospitals to share such sensitive information. This proposed algorithm will contribute towards the creation of generalizable and efficient analytical techniques for predicting heart stroke risk in patients. This proposed algorithm produced better accuracies compared to traditional machine learning approaches. The study focused on working with numerical data sets and has the potential to contribute towards the creation of generalizable and efficient analytical techniques for predicting heart stroke risk in patients.

A Blockchain-Empowered Federated Learning in Healthcare-Based Cyber Physical Systems

With the rapid development of healthcare-based cyber physical systems (CPSs), more and more healthcare data are collected from clinical institutions or hospitals. Due to the private and fragmented nature, healthcare data is quite suitable to be processed by federated learning (FL) paradigm, where a shared global model is aggregated by a central server while keeping the sensitive healthcare data in local hospitals. However, there are two practical issues: (1) the centralized FL server may not honestly aggregate the final model, and (2) the FL participants lack incentive to contribute their efforts. In this study, we propose a blockchain-empowered FL framework for healthcare-based CPSs. A distributed ledger is maintained by a task agreement committee which is composed by the representators of the hospitals who execute FL tasks. A secure FL task model training-based consensus process is proposed to generate consistent blocks. Furthermore, an contribution point-based incentive mechanism is designed to fairly reward FL participators for contributing their local data. We evaluate the proposed system base on real healthcare data and the numerical results demonstrate its effectiveness in achieving FL model aggregation truthfulness and efficiency in providing incentives for FL participants.

О правовой сущности частных постановлений (определений) суда в современном уголовном судопроизводстве

Issues related to the effectiveness of criminal proceedings in terms of achieving its appointment are among the key issues both in the theory of the criminal procedure and in the law enforcement practice of this area. One of the procedural means of responding to deviations from the requirements of the law is the power of the court provided by the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation (part 4 of article 29) to issue private rulings (determinations) on the basis of revealed violations of the law in the course of criminal proceedings. At the same time, despite the increasing attention in procedural science and law-enforcement practice to these pro-cedural decisions, the issues of procedural-legal nature of private (decisions) court rulings are among the de-batable in the theory of criminal procedural law, which determines the relevance and timeliness of addressing them at the level of scientific research. Within the framework of this study, taking into account the institutional approach and analysis of modern criminal procedure legislation, issues related to the procedural nature and grounds for the decision of private rulings (decisions) of the court are considered. Conclusions are drawn about the exclusivity of the named procedural acts in the system of other court decisions, their special role both in the process of ensuring the effectiveness of criminal proceedings in specific cases, and in the general direc-tion of improving the quality of justice.

Intellectual property exhaustion, breeder frustration, and hindered innovation: Reviewing U.S. organic corn seed development

Private-sector dominance of plant breeding consti­tutes the present norm of organic seed genetics research, which has generated concerns in the organic farming community in this era of robust intellectual property protections. Intellectual prop­erty restrictions primarily in the form of certifi­cates, patents, and contractual arrangements are blamed for stifling the innovation of organic seed varieties. To better understand the challenges small-scale and university-based breeders and researchers face in organic corn seed genetic devel­opment, this article provides an overview of intel­lectual property structures surrounding seed inno­vation and sharing. After describing the legal landscape in which organic corn seed research and development occurs, the article details research efforts exploring the veracity of claims that con­tractual arrangements (in the form of seed-sharing agreements between breeders and universities) sti­fle the innovation of organic varieties. In doing so, the article describes the search methodology uti­lized and highlights a critical barrier to research: the closely guarded nature of private contracts that parties are reluctant to reveal. While we were able to identify several data points that highlighted the importance of seed-sharing agreements as a part of the intellectual property regime controlling organ­ics research and breeding, we were unable to obtain contracts or identify disputes over contractual lan­guage to further analyze. Such contractual language only becomes available upon consent and release by individual parties to the contract or by litigation that exposes the contractual language, both of which we attempted to explore and utilize. The article concludes with a discussion of why contrac­tual arrangements in the context of organic corn seed development are an informative piece of the intellectual property puzzle worth exploring, as well as future points of research necessary to yield data substantiating the concerns of stakeholders in the organic seed industry.

Convenience Theory and Cybercrime Opportunity: An Analysis of Online Cyber Offending

ABSTRACT The private nature of business creates opportunities for financial crimes. Convenience theory suggests that opportunity, accompanied by a willingness and motive, explains financial crimes. Newer technologies have created similar private environments, which allow for criminal behavior. For example, cryptocurrencies offer a new way of generating anonymous financial transactions. This paper explores criminal opportunity using cryptocurrency and convenience theory. Specifically, we test each convenience dimension – opportunity, willingness, and motive – using a sample of adults in the United States. We find all three dimensions explain online financial crimes. Opportunity, measured through any purchase of cryptocurrency is related to an increase in financial cybercrimes. Further, when motive is considered as greed or need, a need is more important than greed. The use of cryptocurrency increases certain opportunities for financial crimes. This may partially be attributed to the crimes themselves (e.g. pump-and-dump cryptocurrency schemes) but also to the general opportunity created through cyberspace.

Temporal partitioning and the potential for avoidance behaviour within South African carnivore communities.

Carnivora occupy many ecological niches fundamental to ecosystem functioning. Within this diverse order, carnivore species compete to establish dominance, ensure survival and maintain fitness. Subordinate carnivores must, therefore, adapt their behaviour to coexist with dominant species. One such strategy is the partitioning of temporal activity patterns. We aim to determine interspecific avoidance patterns among sympatric carnivores by examining coexistence along a temporal axis. We compared the temporal activity patterns of 13 carnivore species using multi-seasonal camera trapping data from four protected areas across South Africa: Associated Private Nature Reserves, Madikwe Game Reserve, Mountain Zebra National Park and Tswalu Kalahari Reserve. Interspecific coefficients of overlap in diel and core activity periods were calculated over the study period and during the wet and dry seasons. Furthermore, interspecific spatiotemporal behaviour was examined using time-to-event analyses. Our results showed that complete avoidance of diel activity patterns was rare among South African carnivore species. Most species were predominantly nocturnal and, therefore, diel activity overlap was high, whereas core activity overlap was significantly lower (p < .001). Diel activity overlap was significantly lower during the dry than wet seasons (p = .045). Lastly, evidence of spatiotemporal aggregation revolved around scavenging species. We show the importance of seasonality in the temporal avoidance behaviours of South African carnivores while highlighting the need for fine-scaled behavioural analyses. Overall, we show that the daily activity patterns of most subordinate South African carnivore species are not influenced by top-down forces in the form of competitional suppression and risk exerted by dominant species. If avoidance is required, it is more likely to manifest as fine-scaled avoidance of core activity periods. We suggest that the focus on core activity periods might be a more suitable tool for interspecific temporal partitioning research.