Geoprocessing and Landscape Ecology for Assessment Fragmentation and Connectivity of the Habitats of the Microregion of Ceres, Goiás (Brazil)

This study aimed to map and evaluate the evolution of habitat fragmentation between 2009 and 2018, using the Microregion of Ceres (Goiás) as a sample reference, using principles of Landscape Ecology. The methodology comprised the mapping of the fragments in the two years analyzed, using the OLI/Landsat 8 sensor, using scenes 222/70 and 222/71. The SPRING 5.2 software was used, where the supervised classification was performed, applying the semi-automatic process. The computational algorithm applied to classify the scenes was Maxver, which classifies pixel by pixel and groups the information of each one into homogeneous regions. After extracting the fragments of native vegetation, the methodology proposed by Juvanhol et al. (2011), in which the fragments were grouped into classes: Very Small (MP) ≤5 hectares; Small (P) ≥5.01 and ≤10 hectares; Medium (M) ≥10.01 and ≤100 hectares and Large (G) ≥100.01 hectares. For the analysis based on metrics in Landscape Ecology, the ArcGis 9.2 Patch Analyst extension was used. The results showed the expansion of vegetation cover areas in the study area, concentrated on tops of hills, APP and legal reserves. However, they pointed out intense fragmentation of native vegetation, which hinders the performance of fragments as habitats. It is considered that, from the contemporary problem of degradation of natural environments to the detriment of economic development, studies like this are necessary in order to identify existing environmental problems and propose strategies to minimize and mitigate ecological imbalances.

Twenty-First-Century Virtue

This chapter identifies the growing difficulty of making ethical decisions—choices that aim at the “good life”—in our present human condition, one in which the unpredictable, complex, and destabilizing effects of emerging technologies on a global scale make the shape of the human future increasingly opaque and hard to fathom. The chapter suggests that this twenty-first-century challenge for ethics, which we can identify as a state of acute technosocial opacity, is best addressed from a particular philosophical tradition: virtue ethics. It argues that the classical traditions of Aristotelian, Confucian, and Buddhist virtue ethics offer us more resources for managing this contemporary problem than do other, more modern moral theories. The chapter concludes that only the cultivation of distinctly technomoral virtues will preserve humanity’s chances to live well with emerging technologies, and flourish in an increasingly opaque future.

Power, Freedom and Obedience in Foucault and La Boétie: Voluntary Servitude as the Problem of Government

I investigate the contemporary problem of obedience through an exploration of Michel Foucault and Étienne de La Boétie, showing how the former drew on the latter’s concept of voluntary servitude as a way of thinking through the paradoxical relationship between power, freedom and subjectivity. My argument is that Foucault’s theory of government as the ‘conduct of conduct’ may be understood as a reflection on the question of voluntary servitude. My aim here is twofold. First, it is to show that obedience is an ethical and political problem just as relevant today as it was in La Boétie’s time. Secondly, it is to suggest that voluntary servitude should be interpreted in an emancipatory way, as a problematic that reveals the ontological primacy of freedom and the fragility and instability of power. ‘Voluntary inservitude’ is something that can be expressed in acts of civil disobedience, and alternate modes of ethical conduct and association.

History and State Coercion in the Arab Spring

In this chapter, the author proposes the need to study the colonial and postcolonial nexus of coercion in Arab states in order to explore how the coercive apparatus in the region was tied to a colonial formation, through postcolonial configurations of states. In doing so, the author argues against the dominance of presentism and methodological nationalism in the study of Arab states. While focusing on the cases of Egypt, Syria, Libya, and Yemen, the author demonstrates that one cannot understand the role coercion played in the Arab Spring and its trajectory or the new wave of repression after the Arab Spring as an insulated contemporary problem. The author interrogates the existence of paramilitary groups and the entanglements of coercion with regional and international postcolonial politics. The analysis reveals that understanding the central problems related to the coercive apparatus of Arab states necessitates situating them within their foundation—that is, within the colonial and postcolonial contexts out of which they emerged.

Skilled play : positioning the player at the centre of the digital game

This thesis argues that a focus on the player and the skill sets required to play video games - a player-skill perspective - provides a productive framework from which to examine and address many contemporary 'problem areas' within game studies. Familiarity, social performativity, and material mastery form three crucial, interlocking junctures where skill and mastery are framed as essential components for undertanding games. The game controller is positioned as a 'gatekeeper' between player and game; a precluding factor in engaging with the medium. Participant responses from original qualitative research, which places a primacy on female voices, are framed within a gaming climate of historically increasing complexification of game genres and material components, and point to several trends in how women can (and do) contend with gendered technology.

Skilled play : positioning the player at the centre of the digital game

This thesis argues that a focus on the player and the skill sets required to play video games - a player-skill perspective - provides a productive framework from which to examine and address many contemporary 'problem areas' within game studies. Familiarity, social performativity, and material mastery form three crucial, interlocking junctures where skill and mastery are framed as essential components for undertanding games. The game controller is positioned as a 'gatekeeper' between player and game; a precluding factor in engaging with the medium. Participant responses from original qualitative research, which places a primacy on female voices, are framed within a gaming climate of historically increasing complexification of game genres and material components, and point to several trends in how women can (and do) contend with gendered technology.

What about the teacher?

Given that I have been a teacher of one kind or another for practically all of my working life, starting as a high school English teacher before moving into TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages), I would like to suggest (in all modesty, of course!) that I am in a good position to understand the stresses of the job. In this position paper, I would like to try to explain the background to the issues of teacher stress, to identify contemporary problem areas, to suggest some possible ways to address the problems, and also to explain why tackling teacher stress is so important – both for teachers themselves, and also for the other stakeholders, especially the learners. Although this article draws essentially on the experience of language teachers and related literature, many of the issues described could apply to teachers of any subject at any level anywhere, a point that will be taken up again when suggesting areas for further research.

Protection of Professional Rights of Attorneys in the Russian Federation: An Attorney without the Attorney Status

Professional rights protection of a lawyer is a contemporary problem that affects the interests of both a lawyer and his entire legal community. The article is based on the current legislation study and raises the issue of combating individuals who use such concepts as «lawyer», «law office» and other similar terms when advertising their activities and in its implementation. The author of the article notes the negative consequences of these terms dishonest use for the entire legal community and proposes a solution to this problem.

Protection of Professional Rights of Attorneys in the Russian Federation: An Attorney without the Attorney Status

Professional rights protection of a lawyer is a contemporary problem that affects the interests of both a lawyer and his entire legal community. The article is based on the current legislation study and raises the issue of combating individuals who use such concepts as «lawyer», «law office» and other similar terms when advertising their activities and in its implementation. The author of the article notes the negative consequences of these terms dishonest use for the entire legal community and proposes a solution to this problem.