‘Turf is nu eenmaal een vruchtbaar terrein voor de fantasie’

‘After all peat is a fertile soil for the imagination’. The literary representation of bog and peat cutting in Dutch literature, 1909-1940 Novels about peat lands and turf-cutting were immensely popular in the Netherlands during the first decades of the twentieth century. This article traces recurring narratives and tropes in four such novels written by H.H.J.Maas, Antoon Coolen, Anne de Vries, and Theun de Vries, illustrating the ambivalent role that peat lands play in these texts. They function as sites of communality, future opportunity, and disorder on the one hand, and as places of exploitation and alienation on the other. These four novels do not downright reject the introduction of industrial innovations, but some among them are critical of the class divisions that may result. Others seem to acknowledge the hard labour that turf production involves, but do not criticize the social status of the peat-cutters.

Pengembangan Masyarakat berbasis Aset sebagai Upaya Pemberdayaan Masyarakat melalui Sektor Wisata Kebugaran di Indonesia

Pengembangan wisata kebugaran di Indonesia haruslah menjadi prioritas utama pasca keterpurukan pariwisata ketika pandemi COVID-19 berlangsung. Berbekal pada potensi masa depan yang menggiurkan baik pada ranah global maupun domestik, sektor wisata kebugaran di Indonesia dapat menjadi kekuatan perekonomian negara. Namun, dengan adanya potensi yang gemilang juga diperlukan kondisi masyarakat yang matang guna mengelola potensi yang ada. Tulisan yang ditulis dengan metode kajian literatur secara naratif ini berusaha menganalisis pengembangan masyarakat berbasis aset atau Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) sebagai pendekatan yang tepat bagi pemberdayaan masyarakat tersebut. Kemudian hasil analisis menunjukkan potensi masa depan wisata kebugaran Indonesia, langkah-langkah pengembangan ABCD, hingga tantangan pemberdayaan masyarakat yang ada. Tulisan ini kemudian menyimpulkan bahwa ABCD dinilai sebagai pendekatan yang tepat bagi pemberdayaan masyarakat guna pengembangan wisata kebugaran di Indonesia. Kata kunci: Pengembangan Masyarakat berbasis Aset , Pemberdayaan Masyarakat, Wisata Kebugaran. The development of wisata kebugaran in Indonesia must be the first priority after the loss of the tourism sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the future opportunity both in the global and domestic spheres, the health tourism sector in Indonesia can become the strength of the country’s economy. An advanced community condition is also needed to manage the existing opportunity. This paper, written using narrative literature review, attempts to analyze Asset- Based Community Development (ABCD) as the right approach for community empowerment. Then the results of the analysis show the future opportunity of Indonesian wellness tourism the steps for developing ABCD, and the challenges of community empowerment that exist. This paper then concludes that ABCD is considered the right approach for community empowerment for the development of health tourism in Indonesia. Keywords: Asset-Based Community Development, Community Development, Wellness Tourism.

Cosine Similarity Measure of Interval Valued Bipolar Neutrosophic Hesitant Fuzzy Set and Their Applications to Multi-Attribute Decision-Making Process

Cosine similarity measure plays a significant role in various fields. Literature consultation confirms that the theory of cosine similarity measure has received a great interest and attention from the researchers in the world. The concept of Interval Valued Bipolar Neutrosophic Hesitant Fuzzy Sets (IVBNHFS) is recently presented and very interesting. Every element in IVBNHFS is characterized by six independent membership functions (three positive and three negative). There is no investigation on the Cosine Similarity Measure (CSM) of IVBNHFS. In this study, we firstly define a CSM and a weighted CSM between two IVBNHFS and their applications to Multi-Attribute Decision Making (MADM) process in the Interval Valued Bipolar Neutrosophic Hesitant Fuzzy (IVBNHF) setting. And, we establish some properties of CSM and a weighted CSM. We use this strategy to find out the best alternative in MADM case. Then, the new approach to clarify MADM problems in IVBNHF setting is presented in algorithmic form. And, we solve an illustrative case of MADM to demonstrate the effectiveness, workability, and appropriateness of the proposed approach. Finally, the main conclusion and future opportunity of research paper are overviewed and compiled.

Recent Progress on Immunotherapy for Breast Cancer: Tumor Microenvironment, Nanotechnology and More

Immunotherapy is a major emerging treatment for breast cancer (BC). However, not all breast cancer patients derive benefit from immunotherapy. Predictive biomarkers of immunotherapy, such as tumor mutation burden and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, are promising to stratify the patients with BC and optimize the therapeutic effect. Various targets of the immune response pathway have also been explored to expand the modalities of immunotherapy. The use of nanotechnology for the imaging of predictive biomarkers and the combination with other therapeutic modalities presents a number of advantages for the immunotherapy of BC. In this review, we summary the emerging therapeutic modalities of immunotherapy, present prominent examples of immunotherapy in BC, and discuss the future opportunity of nanotechnology in the immunotherapy of BC.

Learning objectives and environments: How do they affect students’ motivation in English language learning?

This study aims to unravel what foremost students learning objectives and expected learning environment as well as to investigate how these two aspects might affect learning motivation. Both quantitative and qualitative research approaches were applied, and the data were collected from questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaire was distributed to 122 students, and the interview session covered eight students. Data from the questionnaire showed that 64.5% of students responded to ‘always’ for future job opportunities, 43.4% for understanding journals, 36.9 for scholarly needs, 36.9% for English as a prestigious language, around 36.2% for becoming a lecturer, 29% for going abroad, and 28.1% for parents’ suggestion. Regarding the learning environments, it was discovered that 67.7% of students responded as ‘strongly agreed’ for teachers should be friendly, 52.9% for opportunities to express opinions, 52.5% for various teaching activities materials, and about 41% for the use of L1 (Indonesian language) in teaching. Moreover, the study showed that learning objectives affect motivation because English was believed for a better future opportunity, for academic requirements such as understanding journals, and for passing standardized test regulation. It was furthermore considered as prestigious and valued for the economy, learned to know its interesting cultures, deemed an attractive language through teachers’ modeling, opened more overseas opportunities as to it is an international language, and parents saw it as a ‘blessing’ to learn. The study also explained that learning environments were influenced by teachers’ personality, teaching methods and materials, and an expectation of a ubiquitous language.

Be the First Investor to Eat Crabs in North Korea: Tips for Bilateral Investment Treaties

As the last economic frontier in Northeast Asia, North Korea is a promising land but at the same time a risky land for foreign investment. The ‘dual-track’ policy of advancing both the political stability and economic development promoted by the present leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, has prompted the outside world to speculate that he is determined to gradually open the doors to the economy of North Korea to attract foreign investment as initial capital to mobilise domestic economic growth. By conducting a systemic and comparative analysis of the existing bilateral investment treaties (BIT s) signed by North Korea in the Kim Jong-il era, this article has put forward eight tips that can better prepare those daredevils who are interested in seizing the future opportunity to invest in North Korea in the present Kim Jong-un era. It is predicted that denuclearisation will bring a new era for North Korean BIT s.

Manganese-based advanced nanoparticles for biomedical applications: future opportunity and challenges

The present review article provides the insight of an overall survey on the recent advancements of manganese nanomaterials for biomedical nanotechnology and other fields.

Deep eutectic solvents as non-traditionally multifunctional media for the desulfurization process of fuel oil

This review summarizes the physicochemical properties of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) and their applications for the desulfurization processes of fuel oil. Moreover, current challenges and future opportunity are discussed.

An Artificial Intelligence Solution for Electricity Procurement in Forward Markets

Retailers and major consumers of electricity generally purchase an important percentage of their estimated electricity needs years ahead in the forward market. This long-term electricity procurement task consists of determining when to buy electricity so that the resulting energy cost is minimised, and the forecast consumption is covered. In this scientific article, the focus is set on a yearly base load product from the Belgian forward market, named calendar (CAL), which is tradable up to three years ahead of the delivery period. This research paper introduces a novel algorithm providing recommendations to either buy electricity now or wait for a future opportunity based on the history of CAL prices. This algorithm relies on deep learning forecasting techniques and on an indicator quantifying the deviation from a perfectly uniform reference procurement policy. On average, the proposed approach surpasses the benchmark procurement policies considered and achieves a reduction in costs of 1.65% with respect to the perfectly uniform reference procurement policy achieving the mean electricity price. Moreover, in addition to automating the complex electricity procurement task, this algorithm demonstrates more consistent results throughout the years. Eventually, the generality of the solution presented makes it well suited for solving other commodity procurement problems.