Economical defence of resources structures territorial space use in a cooperative carnivore

Ecologists have long sought to understand space use and mechanisms underlying patterns observed in nature. We developed an optimality landscape and mechanistic territory model to understand mechanisms driving space use and compared model predictions to empirical reality. We demonstrate our approach using grey wolves ( Canis lupus ). In the model, simulated animals selected territories to economically acquire resources by selecting patches with greatest value, accounting for benefits, costs and trade-offs of defending and using space on the optimality landscape. Our approach successfully predicted and explained first- and second-order space use of wolves, including the population's distribution, territories of individual packs, and influences of prey density, competitor density, human-caused mortality risk and seasonality. It accomplished this using simple behavioural rules and limited data to inform the optimality landscape. Results contribute evidence that economical territory selection is a mechanistic bridge between space use and animal distribution on the landscape. This approach and resulting gains in knowledge enable predicting effects of a wide range of environmental conditions, contributing to both basic ecological understanding of natural systems and conservation. We expect this approach will demonstrate applicability across diverse habitats and species, and that its foundation can help continue to advance understanding of spatial behaviour.

The type individuation problem

Lockean justifi cations of intellectual property postulate the appropriation of immaterial entities, in various contexts called types, patterns, designs, or technologies. It is widely believed that the ownership of such entities gives the owner a right to control their physical embodiments and prohibit imitation. For the prohibition to be meaningful, a condition identifying forbidden objects must be formulated. It must cover not only objects which are identical to some original artifact or its exact, ideal description, but also those which are only similar. This requires systematic answers to three questions: (1) which material structures and which of their subsets should be compared? (2) which of their characteristics should be compared? (3) how to combine these characteristics into a decision rule for token identification? There is no underlying empirical reality that could be independently consulted by individuals in order to incontestably answer these questions. Meanwhile constant evolution in technology and arts requires addressing them repeatedly. Consequently, intellectual property regimes must rely on political institutions incessantly dictating the scope of prohibition, and hence they cannot originate or exist in a prelegal state of nature.

Epistemological and Metaphysical Development in Advaita Vedanta

Gaudapada, the grand teacher of Sankara, admits the transcendental reality only. Duality is mere illusion. Gaudapada leads us from gross reality to subtle reality. In meditation also there is a gradual unfolding of subtlety. Sankara deals with both Advaita metaphysics and epistemology. According to him, the source of cognition (pramana is a mental mode (antahkaranavrtti). It removes the ignorance of the object. Brahmakara antahkaranavrtti is the final mental mode. In Advaita epistemology there is a gradual unfolding of mental mode. Sankara advocates three levels of reality- the transcendental reality, empirical reality and apparent reality. All objects, Sankara holds, are real in their own levels of existence. His philosophy teaches us the gradual unfolding of reality.

Javanese Cultural Heritage Building (Case Study: Joglo House)

For centuries East Java is one of the tribes in Indonesia that has a unique cultural treasure. This culture has been passed down from generation to generation since the days of the kingdom. Model approach in this research is leading to a descriptive qualitative ethnographic, in which the empirical reality a result, demanding researchers go directly to the location of the study, to be able to live up to their tradition, and the symptoms of everyday life that is full of social phenomena local culture. The relation between construction is a structure which is strongly influenced by the manifestation process mythology and cosmology Java). This means that the traditional Javanese house is not just a place to shelter (practical function), but also understood as a manifestation of the ideals and outlook on life or a symbolic function. In this case the traditional Javanese houses are not only placed as an autonomous element, a separate stand alone, but being seen in context, particularly relevant to the context of allied Javanese cosmology that underlie the view that the Javanese philosophy of life.

The Sometimes Context-Specific Habituation: Theoretical Challenges to Associative Accounts

A substantial corpus of experimental research indicates that in many species, long-term habituation appears to depend on context–stimulus associations. Some authors have recently emphasized that this type of outcome supports Wagner’s priming theory, which affirms that responding is diminished when the eliciting stimulus is predicted by the context where the animal encountered that stimulus in the past. Although we agree with both the empirical reality of the phenomenon as well as the principled adequacy of the theory, we think that the available evidence is more provocative than conclusive and that there are a few nontrivial empirical and theoretical issues that need to be worked out by researchers in the future. In this paper, we comment on these issues within the framework of a quantitative version of priming theory, the SOP model.

Falling between the cracks of the governing systems: Risk and uncertainty in pastoralism in northern Norway

Rapid and interacting change pose increasing threat to livelihoods and food production, and pastoralists in Nordland, northern Norway are at cross-roads both economically and culturally. Some of these changes are localized and pertain to changing weather and grazing conditions caused by climate change and land fragmentation. Others, driven by national management policies and governance specifically related to predators are poorly adjusted for the different and localized contexts. The pastoralists are inherently adaptive and have a long history of responding well to variable changing conditions. This is now changing with the continued increasing pressures from many directions. Central government systematically ignores pastoralists’ traditional knowledge and enforce narrow sector policies to be implemented at regional and local level. We address the effect of how institutional, physical and societal constraints challenge pastoralists’ prospects for sustainable adaptation. Our results show how pastoralists’ livelihoods become compromised and potentially threatened because they are forced to respond in ways that they know are counter-productive in the long run.Adaptation outcomes are affected by different approaches and epistemologies that are situated across scale and context in terms of regional and national regulations versus local empirical reality among the pastoral communities. This study concludes that radical change is needed towards a more holistic governance where multiple knowledge systems are integrated to ensure sustainable adaptation at all levels. This study is based on extensive and long-term field work among reindeer herders and sheep farmers in Nordland, through a collaborative process of knowledge co-production.

Te Papa: A Forum for the World? A Narrative Exploration of a Global Public Sphere

<p>The reinvention of the museum as "forum" within the new museology and the notion of the "public sphere" are inextricably linked. Both concepts have been theoretically scrutinised in museum studies, critical theory, cultural studies and other academic disciplines, but there is a lack of empirical insights into their actual functioning. This thesis offers an empirical interrogation of the "museum forum" idea. It sheds ethnographic light on cross-cultural encounters in a "cosmopolitanised" world illuminating what it means to experience a museological space and how a public sphere is "lived". Drawing on a long-term narrative study of global visitors to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa), this thesis humanises Te Papa as a particular global public sphere, or discursive space. The critical hermeneutic analysis facilitates an understanding of "cross-cultural dialogue" and the "public sphere" as interpretive actions, movements and performances made by cultural actors. By exploring individual experiences instead of totalised abstractions, this study dissects the complexity of cultural worldmaking and politics elucidating "interpretive contests" and their "enunciation". Due to the in-depth empirical insights and their multilayered contextualisation, the "museum forum" evolves from an abstract idea into a concrete discursive world of negotiations. This thesis examines Te Papa as a particular place, space and empirical reality. It interrogates seemingly universal concepts such as "culture" and "politics" producing empirically situated, contextualised and rich theoretical propositions of significance for the human sciences in general as well as critical museum studies in particular.</p>

Te Papa: A Forum for the World? A Narrative Exploration of a Global Public Sphere

<p>The reinvention of the museum as "forum" within the new museology and the notion of the "public sphere" are inextricably linked. Both concepts have been theoretically scrutinised in museum studies, critical theory, cultural studies and other academic disciplines, but there is a lack of empirical insights into their actual functioning. This thesis offers an empirical interrogation of the "museum forum" idea. It sheds ethnographic light on cross-cultural encounters in a "cosmopolitanised" world illuminating what it means to experience a museological space and how a public sphere is "lived". Drawing on a long-term narrative study of global visitors to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa), this thesis humanises Te Papa as a particular global public sphere, or discursive space. The critical hermeneutic analysis facilitates an understanding of "cross-cultural dialogue" and the "public sphere" as interpretive actions, movements and performances made by cultural actors. By exploring individual experiences instead of totalised abstractions, this study dissects the complexity of cultural worldmaking and politics elucidating "interpretive contests" and their "enunciation". Due to the in-depth empirical insights and their multilayered contextualisation, the "museum forum" evolves from an abstract idea into a concrete discursive world of negotiations. This thesis examines Te Papa as a particular place, space and empirical reality. It interrogates seemingly universal concepts such as "culture" and "politics" producing empirically situated, contextualised and rich theoretical propositions of significance for the human sciences in general as well as critical museum studies in particular.</p>

The problem of the philosophical content of the concept of "Economic activity" in the educational and reference literature

Introduction. The structure of the concept of "economic activity", in addition to the specific content related to empirical reality, includes philosophical content related to the scientific picture of the world. Hence the problem arises: in the process of the historical development of economic science, the semantic inertia of past ideas about the world and man, manifested in language constructions, remains in the concept of "economic activity". These changes should be taken into account in the educational process, since the concept of "economic activity" is one of the didactic units. Materials and methods. The research material is reference and educational literature, as well as economic classics (works of Aristotle, etc.). The article uses methods of philosophical analysis, primarily systematic and comparative. The systematic method allows us to identify the determinants of the philosophical content of the concept of "economic activity" associated with the scientific picture of the world. The comparative method allows us to assess the change in the philosophical content of the concept in the course of its historical development, to consider the commensurability of new and traditional meanings. The results of the study. The solution of the problem of the philosophical content of the concept of "economic activity" requires the elimination of the ideological heritage of past epochs, in particular, the ancient one (naturally, taking into account the historical value of this heritage). It is important to modernize the philosophical content of the concept of "economic activity" within the framework of the modern scientific picture of the world. In the latter, the understanding of economic activity is correct as not one of the types, but as one of the aspects of human activity, evaluating this activity from the point of view of value. Discussion and conclusion. The implementation of these theoretical and methodological procedures is expedient. The change of scientific pictures of the world, which occurs in the course of the development of science, leads to significant changes in the philosophical content of the conceptual apparatus of economic science. If these changes are not taken into account in the educational and reference literature, this negatively affects the quality of the economist's training.