"Lingua receptiva": ekolingwistyczne ujęcie słowiańskich kontaktów międzyjęzykowych w przestrzeni pogranicza (przypadek polsko-czeski)

Lingua receptiva: An Ecolinguistic Approach to Slavic Inter-Language Contacts in a Borderland Area (a Polish-Czech Case)Ecolinguistics has dealt with inter-language contacts ever since its beginnings as an independent linguistic discipline in the 1970s. However, it has not gained much interest among Slavic studies scholars in Poland. The aim of this article is to present the ecolinguistic concept of research on Slavic inter-language contacts on the example of Polish and Czech using the notion lingua receptiva. The proposed concept of integrated research on language ecology in the Polish-Czech borderland covers three dimensions of the language ecosystem: natural, social and cognitive. Research on the natural ecology of the language revolves around its interrelationships with the surrounding natural environment and can relate to topography, fauna and flora, etc. This research considers the potential of the natural and the anthropogenic environment in relation to the language (and vice versa). In the sociological observation of the language ecology, attention is paid to social and cultural conditions shaping the relationships between communicating individuals and the nature of the communities that are constituted or maintained as a result of these contacts. Cognitive language ecology, in turn, includes the cognitive skills and competences of users, especially those that enable flexible adaptation in a particular environment. A different methodology has been developed for each dimension: from sociolinguistic quantitative approaches based on surveys, to pragmalinguistic experiments designed to observe the shape of sender-recipient relations in inter-language receptive communication. These methodologies are presented together with the preliminary results of research which make it possible to state that lingua receptiva is the nucleus of inclusive multilingualism, breaking the paradigm of monolingualism and blurring the borders between languages in the pursuit of mutual understanding. Lingua receptiva: ekolingwistyczne ujęcie słowiańskich kontaktów międzyjęzykowych w przestrzeni pogranicza (przypadek polsko-czeski)Ekolingwistyka jako samodzielna dyscyplina językoznawcza, która ukonstytuowała się w latach 70. XX wieku, od początku zajmowała się kontaktami międzyjęzykowymi. Jednakże wśród slawistów w Polsce nie zyskała większego zainteresowania. Celem tekstu jest przedstawienie ekolingwistycznej koncepcji badań słowiańskich kontaktów międzyjęzykowych na przykładzie polsko-czeskim z wykorzystaniem pojęcia lingua receptiva. Proponowana koncepcja zintegrowanych badań nad ekologią języka na polsko-czeskim pograniczu obejmuje trzy wymiary ekosystemu języka: naturalny, społeczny i poznawczy. Badania nad naturalną ekologią języka oscylują wokół jego wzajemnych związków z otaczającym środowiskiem naturalnym i mogą odnosić się do topografii, fauny i flory itd. Pod uwagę bierze się w nich potencjał środowiska naturalnego i otoczenia antropogenicznego w relacji do języka (i odwrotnie). W obserwacji socjologicznej ekologii języka zwraca się uwagę na uwarunkowania społeczne i kulturowe kształtujące relacje między komunikującymi się jednostkami oraz charakter wspólnot, które są konstytuowane lub podtrzymywane w wyniku tych kontaktów. Kognitywna ekologia języka obejmuje z kolei zdolności poznawcze i kompetencje użytkowników, zwłaszcza te, które pozwalają elastycznie adaptować się w określonym środowisku. Dla każdego wymiaru została wypracowana inna metodologia: od socjolingwistycznych ujęć ilościowych opartych na badaniach ankietowych do eksperymentów pragmalingwistycznych służących obserwacji ukształtowania nadawczo-odbiorczego w międzyjęzykowej komunikacji receptywnej. Zostanie ona przedstawiona wraz ze wstępnymi wynikami badań, które pozwalają stwierdzić, że lingua receptiva stanowi jądro multilingwizmu inkluzywnego przełamującego paradygmat jednojęzyczności i zacierającego granice języków w dążeniu do wzajemnego zrozumienia.

Project Earthrise: Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Conference of inVIVO Planetary Health

The “Earthrise” photograph, taken on the 1968 Apollo 8 mission, became one of the most significant images of the 20th Century. It triggered a profound shift in environmental awareness and the potential for human unity—inspiring the first Earth Day in 1970. Taking inspiration from these events 50 years later, we initiated Project Earthrise at our 2020 annual conference of inVIVO Planetary Health. This builds on the emergent concept of planetary health, which provides a shared narrative to integrate rich and diverse approaches from all aspects of society towards shared solutions to global challenges. The acute catastrophe of the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn greater attention to many other interconnected global health, environmental, social, spiritual, and economic problems that have been underappreciated or neglected for decades. This is accelerating opportunities for greater collaborative action, as many groups now focus on the necessity of a “Great Transition”. While ambitious integrative efforts have never been more important, it is imperative to apply these with mutualistic value systems as a compass, as we seek to make wiser choices. Project Earthrise is our contribution to this important process. This underscores the imperative for creative ecological solutions to challenges in all systems, on all scales with advancing global urbanization in the digital age—for personal, environmental, economic and societal health alike. At the same time, our agenda seeks to equally consider our social and spiritual ecology as it does natural ecology. Revisiting the inspiration of “Earthrise”, we welcome diverse perspectives from across all dimensions of the arts and the sciences, to explore novel solutions and new normative values. Building on academic rigor, we seek to place greater value on imagination, kindness and mutualism as we address our greatest challenges, for the health of people, places and planet.

Research on the Regeneration Status and Development Mode of the Landscape of the Third Tier Construction Industry Sites in China under the Background of Urban Renewal

Industrial sites are brownfields left in the process of urban development, which were originally considered as the burden of the city. However, in today’s lack of land resources, industrial sites have become valuable assets of the city. Further excavation and effective use of them is one of the important ways to alleviate the tension of urban land use. The strategy of ecological reconstruction and sustainable design in the landscape of industrial sites is mainly reflected in the minimal intervention in the natural ecology of the site, the use of renewable materials and resources, the retention of native plants, human history and site memory. It makes the ecology of urban industrial site landscape more balanced, enhances the uniqueness and experience of urban industrial site landscape, meets the spiritual and physiological needs of people in the city, and realizes the sharing of industrial site landscape to the public’s natural ecology, land, industrial spirit, history and humanity.

Reservoir host studies of Lloviu virus: first isolation, sequencing and serology in Schreiber's bats in Europe

Filoviruses are prime examples of emerging human pathogens that are transmitted to humans by zoonotic spillover events. Since their initial discovery, filovirus outbreaks have occured with increasing frequency and intensity. There is an urgent need to better understand their enzootic ecology and pathogenic potential, given recent zoonotic virus spillover events including the 2013-2016 West African Ebola virus (EBOV) epidemic. Several novel filoviruses have been discovered with a markedly wider geographic distribution than previously described. One of these novel filoviruses, Lloviu virus (LLOV), was first identified in 2002 in Schreiber's bats (Miniopterus schreibersii) in Spain, Portugal, and southern France. Subsequently, in 2016, LLOV was detected during the passive monitoring of bats in Hungary. Here we report the first isolation of infectious Lloviu virus; from the blood of an asymptomatic Schreiber's bat, subsequently cultivated in the Miniopterus sp. kidney cell line SuBK12-08. We also show that LLOV is able to infect monkey and human cells, suggesting that LLOV might have spillover potential. We performed a multi-year surveillance of LLOV and detected LLOV RNA in both deceased and asymptomatic live animals as well as in coupled ectoparasites from the families Nycteribiidae and Ixodidae. We present data on the natural infection and seropositivity of Schreiber's bats and provide novel LLOV genomic sequence information from a bat host and an arthropod parasite. Our data support the role of bats, specifically Miniopterus schreibersii as natural reservoirs for the LLOV filovirus in Europe. We also suggest that bat-associated parasites might play a role in the natural ecology of filoviruses in temperate climate regions compared to filoviruses in the tropics. These results raise the possibility of cross-species transmission events via bat-human interactions.

Towards Sustainable Habitats in Turkey

Considering the serious environmental and social problems faced during the last few decades and the extensive neglect and devastation of local sources and values, urban development practice cannot be said to be meeting sustainability requirements in most habitats. Urban planning and design are not merely engaged in the visual qualities of urban places but should be recognized as processes through which we consciously shape and manage our habitats with a focus on meeting the requirements of sustainable urbanism. This article firstly explores the logic of sustainable urbanism through a review of its philosophical and practical framework; secondly, it provides a critical assessment of contemporary approaches to sustainable urbanism; and thirdly, it analyses the traditional Turkish (Ottoman) city, which provides valuable clues for sustainable habitats with identity. These evaluations indicate that instead of advocating compactness in all cases, randomly mixing of uses, and promoting car-oriented developments; planners and designers should promote context-sensitive compactness, completeness, and sustainable movement patterns and connectedness. Moreover, rather than relying on standardized urban design guides, practicing ‘green-washed’ architecture and urbanism, creating left-over spaces through planning, and ignoring the peculiarities of the community, practitioners should foster urban identity, promote access to nature and sensitivity to the natural ecology, create sustainable public spaces, and develop social sustainability. These alternative measures are essential for creating sustainability in the urban environment of future habitats.

Towards Sustainable Habitats in Turkey: Challenges and Prospects for the Future

Considering the serious environmental and social problems faced during the last few decades and the extensive neglect and devastation of local sources and values, urban development practice cannot be said to be meeting sustainability requirements in most habitats. Urban planning and design are not merely engaged in the visual qualities of urban places but should be recognized as processes through which we consciously shape and manage our habitats with a focus on meeting the requirements of sustainable urbanism. This article firstly explores the logic of sustainable urbanism through a review of its philosophical and practical framework; secondly, it provides a critical assessment of contemporary approaches to sustainable urbanism; and thirdly, it analyses the traditional Turkish (Ottoman) city, which provides valuable clues for sustainable habitats with identity. These evaluations indicate that instead of advocating compactness in all cases, randomly mixing of uses, and promoting car- oriented developments; planners and designers should promote context-sensitive compactness, completeness, and sustainable movement patterns and connectedness. Moreover, rather than relying on standardized urban design guides, practicing ‘green- washed’ architecture and urbanism, creating left-over spaces through planning, and ignoring the peculiarities of the community, practitioners should foster urban identity, promote access to nature and sensitivity to the natural ecology, create sustainable public spaces, and develop social sustainability. These alternative measures are essential for creating sustainability in the urban environment of future habitats.

Consciously eco-conscious: An eco-conscious re-reading of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s Moon Mountain as young adult literature

A better physical environment is quintessential for a comfortable life; this conscious of environment has been one of the post-world-war effects. The predominance of colonialism is accompanied by exploitation of forest and environment. Since then, land is nothing more than a resource that conferred wealth and materials for the colonizers. The depletion of forest for agriculture and urban development is a historical phenomenon. It is then aggravated by industrial revolution and colonization. The legacies of colonialism have influenced the mindset of the colonized. Recently, the scarcity of the resources and climate change are the rising concerns of the world. This is mainly because of the humans’ insensitivity towards nature and literature plays an effective role in spreading the need for being eco-conscious. This article highlights the role of young adult narratives in spreading social awareness and interprets the classic Indian young adult novel Moon Mountain by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, which has symbolic references offering ecological insights. The journey of the protagonist through the African continent is critiqued to highlight the enfeeble consciousness about the natural ecology of an individual who seizes material development. This study partly brings out how the colonial legacies continues to influence the contemporary environmental challenges, and discusses the literary relationships between nature and youth influence readers’ attitudes towards the contemporary anxieties such as climate change and related environmental crises.

Language and the Moving Body: Directive Actions With the Finnish kato “look” in Nature-Related Activities

The article explores how social interaction is accomplished through intertwined verbal and bodily conduct, focusing on directive actions that include a second-person imperative form of the Finnish verb katsoa “to look,” typically kato. The study draws on video recordings of various outdoor activities in nature, mostly from family interaction with small children, and employs interactional linguistics and conversation analysis as its analytic framework. The directive kato actions in focus are produced (1) as noticings, to initiate a new course of action by directing the recipient to look at and possibly talk about a target that the speaker treats as newsworthy; (2) as showings, to initiate an evaluative course of action by directing the recipient to look at and align with the speaker’s stance toward the target; or (3) as prompts, to contribute to an ongoing course of action by directing the recipient to do something relevant to or with the target. Apart from the use of kato, the actions differ in their design. In noticings, the target is typically named verbally and pointed at through embodied means, but the participants remain at some distance from it (e.g., kato muurahaispesä tuossa “look an anthill there”). In showings, the participant producing the action typically approaches the recipient with the target in hand, so that the naming of the target is not necessary but, by evaluating the target themselves, the shower explicates how the target should be seen (e.g., kato kuinka jättejä “look how giant {ones}”). In prompts, neither the target nor the intended action is named, but the target is typically indicated by embodied means, for example, by the participants’ approaching and pointing at it, and the intended action is inferable from the participants’ prior conduct (e.g., kato tuossa “look there” and pointing at a berry in the participants’ vicinity when berry picking has been established as relevant). By examining these three grammar-body assemblages, the article uncovers regularities in the co-occurrence of multiple modalities and contributes to new understandings of language use in its natural ecology – in co-present social interaction.

Ecological Adaptations of Gut Microbiota Members and Their Consequences for Use as a New Generation of Probiotics

In this review, we link ecological adaptations of different gut microbiota members with their potential for use as a new generation of probiotics. Gut microbiota members differ in their adaptations to survival in aerobic environments. Interestingly, there is an inverse relationship between aerobic survival and abundance or potential for prolonged colonization of the intestinal tract. Facultative anaerobes, aerotolerant Lactobacilli and endospore-forming Firmicutes exhibit high fluctuation, and if such bacteria are to be used as probiotics, they must be continuously administered to mimic their permanent supply from the environment. On the other hand, species not expressing any form of aerobic resistance, such as those from phylum Bacteroidetes, commonly represent host-adapted microbiota members characterized by vertical transmission from mothers to offspring, capable of long-term colonization following a single dose administration. To achieve maximal probiotic efficacy, the mode of their administration should thus reflect their natural ecology.

Modeling the ecology of parasitic plasmids

Plasmids are autonomous genetic elements that can be exchanged between microorganisms via horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Despite the central role they play in antibiotic resistance and modern biotechnology, our understanding of plasmids’ natural ecology is limited. Recent experiments have shown that plasmids can spread even when they are a burden to the cell, suggesting that natural plasmids may exist as parasites. Here, we use mathematical modeling to explore the ecology of such parasitic plasmids. We first develop models of single plasmids and find that a plasmid’s population dynamics and optimal infection strategy are strongly determined by the plasmid’s HGT mechanism. We then analyze models of co-infecting plasmids and show that parasitic plasmids are prone to a “tragedy of the commons” in which runaway plasmid invasion severely reduces host fitness. We propose that this tragedy of the commons is averted by selection between competing populations and demonstrate this effect in a metapopulation model. We derive predicted distributions of unique plasmid types in genomes—comparison to the distribution of plasmids in a collection of 17,725 genomes supports a model of parasitic plasmids with positive plasmid–plasmid interactions that ameliorate plasmid fitness costs or promote the invasion of new plasmids.