Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 252-272
Author(s):  
Belden C. Lane
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Interspecies Communication ◽  
Annie Dillard ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Ecological Responsibility ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Great Conversation

The conclusion deals with four pressing questions raised by the book—scientific, philosophical, theological, and ethical. Is this notion of a Great Conversation simply a fanciful idea or is it a truth whose time has come? How do we widen our skills in listening and responding to the “others”? How do we conceive of God as playing a role in this conversation? And given the current ecological crisis, what are the ethical implications of all this? Forest biologists like Suzanne Simard, Peter Wohlleben, and Robin Wall Kimmerer have done exciting work in researching the communicative capacities of trees. Creative efforts at interspecies communication in general have been pursued by Celia Deane-Drummond, Luther Burbank, Jim Nollman, and Buck Brannaman. Those who have explored God’s wild and creative relationship to nature include Annie Dillard, Wlater Kasper, and John Haught. Joanna Macy and Elizabeth Johnson emphasize the importance of our listening to the rest of the natural world as a starting point in the exercise of ecological responsibility.

scholarly journals The 'Future Internet' and crime: Towards a criminology of the Internet of Things

Crimen ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-271
Author(s):  
Sanja Milivojević ◽  
Elizabeth Radulski
Keyword(s):  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Radio Frequency Identification ◽  
Future Internet ◽  
Natural World ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Future ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
Smart Things ◽  
The Internet Of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to revolutionise the way we live and communicate, and the manner in which we engage with our social and natural world. In the IoT, objects such as household items, vending machines and cars have the ability to sense and share data with other things, via wireless, Bluetooth, or Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology. "Smart things" have the capability to control their performance, as well as our experiences and decisions. In this exploratory paper, we overview recent developments in the IoT technology, and their relevance for criminology. Our aim is to partially fill the gap in the literature, by flagging emerging issues criminologists and social scientists ought to engage with in the future. The focus is exclusively on the IoT while other advances, such as facial recognition technology, are only lightly touched upon. This paper, thus, serves as a starting point in the conversation, as we invite scholars to join us in forecasting-if not preventing-the unwanted consequences of the "future Internet".

scholarly journals The Second Christ, Saint Francis of Assisi and ecological consciousness

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik Viviers
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Good News ◽  
Empirical Science ◽  
Ecological Consciousness ◽  
Attitudes And Knowledge ◽  
Saint Francis ◽  
Intuitive Sense ◽  
Francis Of Assisi

Even though the life stories of Jesus and the so-called second Christ, Francis of Assisi, incline to the fantastical, their value for a modern ecological consciousness is defendable. Behind Francis� personification of nature and his mystical experiences of nature lie an intuitive sense of interconnectedness and interdependence, of being fully part of the natural web of life (confirmed by empirical science). The same is true of the immanence of Jesus. Religious figures like Francis and Jesus can provide a sound moral attitude towards caring for the natural world, but attitudes need to be informed by scientific knowledge to act ecologically correct. A partnership between attitudes and knowledge hopefully contains good news for a sustainable �green� planet.Intradisciplinary and/or�interdisciplinary�implications: Ecological hermeneutics (part of liberation theology or hermeneutics) challenges traditional theologies� often anthropocentric bias in the intra-disciplinary arena. It respects the interconnectedness or interdependence of human and non-human life, including the non-organic, empirically substantiated by natural science. This shared realisation allows for a fruitful inter-disciplinary discourse with science to address the global ecological crisis.

scholarly journals RadImageNet: A Large-scale Radiologic Dataset for Enhancing Deep Learning Transfer Learning Research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Yang ◽  
Xueyan Mei ◽  
Philip Robson ◽  
Brett Marinelli ◽  
Mingqian Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Medical Imaging ◽  
Transfer Learning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Medical Images ◽  
Bone Age ◽  
Natural World ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Size Diversity

Abstract Most current medical imaging Artificial Intelligence (AI) relies upon transfer learning using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) created using ImageNet, a large database of natural world images, including cats, dogs, and vehicles. Size, diversity, and similarity of the source data determine the success of the transfer learning on the target data. ImageNet is large and diverse, but there is a significant dissimilarity between its natural world images and medical images, leading Cheplygina to pose the question, “Why do we still use images of cats to help Artificial Intelligence interpret CAT scans?”. We present an equally large and diversified database, RadImageNet, consisting of 5 million annotated medical images consisting of CT, MRI, and ultrasound of musculoskeletal, neurologic, oncologic, gastrointestinal, endocrine, and pulmonary pathologies over 450,000 patients. The database is unprecedented in scale and breadth in the medical imaging field, constituting a more appropriate basis for medical imaging transfer learning applications. We found that RadImageNet transfer learning outperformed ImageNet in multiple independent applications, including improvements for bone age prediction from hand and wrist x-rays by 1.75 months (p<0.0001), pneumonia detection in ICU chest x-rays by 0.85% (p<0.0001), ACL tear detection on MRI by 10.72% (p<0.0001), SARS-CoV-2 detection on chest CT by 0.25% (p<0.0001) and hemorrhage detection on head CT by 0.13% (p<0.0001). The results indicate that our pre-trained models that are open-sourced on public domains will be a better starting point for transfer learning in radiologic imaging AI applications, including applications involving medical imaging modalities or anatomies not included in the RadImageNet database.

scholarly journals Leaving a Trail - Revealing heritage in a rural landscape

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Maria Rodgers
Keyword(s):  
Landscape Architecture ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Rural Landscape ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Rural Landscapes ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Tourist Resource ◽  
Starting Point

<p>‘Leaving a Trail – revealing heritage in a rural landscape’ investigates how landscape architecture can reveal heritage and connect Māori and Pākehā to the land and to the past in rural Aotearoa New Zealand. Our rural landscapes contain rich and varied stories, which, if interpreted and made stronger by being linked together, have the potential to create cultural and recreational assets as well as tourist drawcards.   A starting point for this research based in South Wairarapa was the six sites identified by the Wairarapa Moana Management Team as sites for development. The first design ‘hunch’ remained the touchstone of the project. With the six Wairarapa Moana Wetlands Park sites forming an ‘inner necklace’ the aim of this project became creating an ‘outer necklace’ of revealed heritage sites, a heritage trail.   This thesis was inspired by the depth of Māori connection to the land. Māori consider the natural world is able to ‘speak’ to humans. The method chosen for this design research is based on landscape architect Christophe Girot’s ‘Four Trace Concepts in Landscape Architecture’. Girot is interested in methods and techniques that expand landscape projects beyond the amelioration of sites towards the reactivation of the cultural dimensions of sites. As part of this research is to enable connection with the cultural dimensions of sites, or to ‘hear the site speak’, his method was chosen as a starting point. It was adapted and shaped by previous experience and the experience of this research to form a new method, ‘Four Listening Acts in Landscape Architecture’. Through such methods landscape architects can grow their relationship with the land and so better design with the land and for the landscape and its people.  After research, the sites were chosen and grouped into four major routes, Māori, Pākehā settlement, natural system and military, so as to appeal to people with a variety of interests. Of the twenty six trail sites most are already marked and eleven are unmarked. Research into how to reveal these unmarked sites saw three different approaches used. Sites with spaces had their essence intensified to become places. Other sites had objects designed for them directly related to the landscape. The significance of the rest is shown with numbered markers. These three different methods of revealing a site’s significance are threaded together into a series, a necklace, creating a trail that contributes a cultural, recreational and tourist resource to South Wairarapa.</p>

Separation and Unity: Zen Koan in Environmental Theory and Education

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
David Chang
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Western Culture ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Sensory Experience ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Ecological Ethics ◽  
Pedagogical Innovation ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Environmental Educators

Abstract The ecological crisis has been traced to a rupture in the human-nature relationship, which sees the natural world as inert materials that serve human utility. This prevailing sense of separation is thoroughly embedded in Western culture through engrained metaphors that reinforce a view of the Earth as a subject of human mastery. To counter the disjuncture between humans and nature, some theorists have suggested a unitive view of nature, while others have argued for more expansive forms of identification that engender a more responsive ecological ethics. Despite these efforts, the human-nature dichotomy remains a perennial issue of debate, especially for environmental educators who strive to cultivate a more harmonious relationship with the earth. This article examines the Zen Koan (case or example) as a pedagogical innovation that hones the learner’s ability to entertain opposing propositions. Humans are both united with and separate from nature at the same time. The Koan encourages an epistemological fluidity and openness to ambiguity that can enrich and deepen inquiry. In the context of environmental education, this contemplative approach to investigation can complement immersive pedagogies that enjoin somatic and sensory experience in explorations of the natural world.

Caring for the World

2011 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 164-185
Author(s):  
Vincent Blok ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Will ◽  
The One

In the twentieth century, the concept of the will appears in bad daylight. Martin Heideg-ger for instance criticizes the will as a movement of reducing otherness to sameness, dif-ference to identity. Since his diagnosis of the will, the releasement from a wilful manner of thinking and the exploration of the possibility of non-willing has become a prevalent issue in contemporary philosophy. This article questions whether this quietism is still possible in our times, were we are confronted with climate change and the future of mankind is fundamentally threatened. On the one hand, the human will to 'master‘ and 'exploit‘ the natural world can be seen as the root of the ecological crisis, as Heidegger observed. On the other hand, its current urgency forces us to evaluate the releasement of the will in contemporary philosophy. Because also Heidegger himself attempted to develop a proper concept of the will in the onset of the thirties, we start our inquiry with Heidegger‘s phenomenology of the will in the thirties. Although Heidegger was very critical about the concept of the will later on, we are not inclined to reject the concept of the will as he did eventually. In this article we show that Heidegger's criticism of the will is not phenomenologically motivated, and we will develop a proper post-Heideggerian concept of willing. Finally the question will be answerd whether this proper concept of willing can help us to find a solution for the ecological crisis.

ANTHROPOLOGY AT WAR. HISTORY AND PRESENT TIME OF INVOLVEMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN MILITARY CONFLICTS

2012 ◽  
Vol 163 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-132
Author(s):  
Michał KOWALSKI
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
History Of Anthropology ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Us Army ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Us ◽  
War Effort

The US Army officially decided to mobilize anthropologists for the project of the Human Terrain System for counterinsurgency war. Since 2007 the US Department of Defense have been employing social scientists in combat brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan. This decision provoked widespread criticism of the project in the anthropological community. The intense discussion about turning anthropology into a military tool also provokes wider public debate concerning the ethics and current role of anthropology. Various examples taken from the history of anthropology show that more than half of American anthropologists were using their professional skills to advance the war effort during World War II.In this paper the author refers to the discussion connected with the engagement of anthropologists in recent and past wars. He provides examples of such involvement relevant to World War I and II as well as to the time of the Cold War. He shows the ways in which anthropologists were used in military and intelligence operations. The author of the article refers to the famous Franz Boas’s statement from 1919 as the starting point for all the further discussions related to the ethical questions of the engagement of anthropologists in wars. The author considers how the engagement in those wars changed anthropology itself and its Code of Ethics. He points out the ethical implications of such engagement, especially for field relations. Keeping those historical examples of social scientists’ war involvement in mind, the author claims that any application of anthropology in war activities can pose danger to anthropologists and the whole dis-cipline as well.

“Green” Reproduction, Resource Conservation, and Ecological Responsibility

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-172
Author(s):  
Cristina Richie
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Ecological Responsibility ◽  
Biblical Principles ◽  
Developed World ◽  
The Impact

This paper will draw on Catholic resources to examine the impact of population and consumption vis-à-vis reproduction in the developed world as it relates to theological/ moral obligations to the earth. By examining both natural and artificial means of procreation, an assessment of “green” reproduction can be made. I will explore contraception as an option for limiting natural procreation, and the avoidance of assisted reproductive technologies [ARTs] as a way of preventive artificial reproduction. However, both family size and carbon footprint must be scrutinized for ecologically sound consumer practices in accordance with biblical principles to ensure the global magnitude of the ecological crisis is examined; therefore the role of consumption that stems from procreation will also be discussed. The paper will conclude by envisioning alternative parenting options as they relate to ecological practices, and I will assert that all things considered, on the continuum of ecologically oriented reproductive choices, non-biological parenting and thereby a reduction in procreation and consumerist practices is the most ethical and ecological solution to the environmental crisis that surely escalates with each birth.

scholarly journals Tackling ethical issues in health technology assessment: A proposed framework

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Burls ◽  
Lorraine Caron ◽  
Ghislaine Cleret de Langavant ◽  
Wybo Dondorp ◽  
Christa Harstall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Methodological Approaches

Objectives: Values are intrinsic to the use of health technology assessments (HTAs) in health policy, but neglecting value assumptions in HTA makes their results appear more robust or normatively neutral than may be the case. Results of a 2003 survey by the International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment (INAHTA) revealed the existence of disparate methods for making values and ethical issues explicit when conducting HTA.Methods: An Ethics Working Group, with representation from sixteen agencies, was established to develop a framework for addressing ethical issues in HTA. Using an iterative approach, with email exchanges and face-to-face workshops, a report on Handling Ethical Issues was produced.Results: This study describes the development process and the agreed upon framework for reflexive ethical analysis that aims to uncover and explore the ethical implications of technologies through an integrated, context-sensitive approach and situates the proposed framework within previous work in the development of ethics analysis in HTA.Conclusions: It is important that methodological approaches to address ethical reflection in HTA be integrative and context sensitive. The question-based approach described and recommended here is meant to elicit this type of reflection in a way that can be used by HTA agencies. The questions proposed are considered only as a starting point for handling ethics issues, but their use would represent a significant improvement over much of the existing practice.

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