Culture of legal techniques: key dominants in the modern Russian legal system

The article is dedicated to the conceptual and specific analysis of the emergence of the culture of legal techniques under the conditions of a new technological form. The identification and analysis of key types of culture of legal techniques, allows to show their specificity following typological groups. Its systemic unity, which has its specificities, can be considered as the second dominant of the culture of legal techniques. The article further offers a primary doctrinal definition of the concept of culture of legal techniques based on the identified dominant characteristics and manifestations of the culture of legal techniques, studied in the context of the search for ways of effective functioning of the system of power and powerless principles in the Russian legal system. This phenomenon is in the formation stage. The authors have used dialectical, historical-political, formal-legal, and comparative-legal methods. It is concluded that a promising systematic understanding of the essence and meaning of the culture of legal techniques will help to improve the legal culture as a whole and thus increase the effectiveness of the law in modern society.

To Be, to Do, to Share: The Triple-Loop of Water Governance to Improve Urban Water Resilience—Testing the Benidorm’ Experience, Spain

Peri-urban interfaces tend to ensure water supply relying on their surrounding’ resources, generating water disputes when asking for collaboration. The urban-rural matrix of the Marina Baja county in southern Spain is characterized by inland irrigation and coastal tourism development, being the most water-intensive activities in Benidorm. This contribution addresses the following research question: Can a better and systematic understanding of stakeholders’ behavior and interactions increase water resilience in urban-rural interfaces? Data were collected from semi-structured interviews and questionnaires to 19 key stakeholders representing government officials, water managers, and the agricultural, tourism, and environmental sectors. Data were analyzed following the SAA and using MaxQDA® Analytics Pro 2020. A triple-loop analysis on water governance has been developed and applied to synthesize stakeholders’ behavior when addressing urban water resilience to face climate change impacts: relevance and representativeness (to be), recognition and assessment (to do), and collaboration (to share). Results highlighted how Benidorm’s urban water resilience is conditioned by four main learnings from stakeholders’ perception and interaction: (1) ‘feeling represented’ is related to stakeholders’ capacity to negotiate decisions, (2) lack of political will and Benidorm’s leading role increase stakeholders’ feelings of underrepresentation, motivating power imbalance, (3) stakeholders’ actions are less valued than stakeholders’ roles and functions, and (4) agreements are benefited by predisposition (willingness), but also by the compatibility of discourses (affinity) and the technical-management facilities (viability).

From Surface to Subsurface: Diversity, Composition, and Abundance of Sessile and Endolithic Bacterial, Archaeal, and Eukaryotic Communities in Sand, Clay and Rock Substrates in the Laurentians (Quebec, Canada)

Microbial communities play an important role in shallow terrestrial subsurface ecosystems. Most studies of this habitat have focused on planktonic communities that are found in the groundwater of aquifer systems and only target specific microbial groups. Therefore, a systematic understanding of the processes that govern the assembly of endolithic and sessile communities is still missing. This study aims to understand the effect of depth and biotic factors on these communities, to better unravel their origins and to compare their composition with the communities detected in groundwater. To do so, we collected samples from two profiles (~0–50 m) in aquifer sites in the Laurentians (Quebec, Canada), performed DNA extractions and Illumina sequencing. The results suggest that changes in geological material characteristics with depth represent a strong ecological and phylogenetical filter for most archaeal and bacterial communities. Additionally, the vertical movement of water from the surface plays a major role in shallow subsurface microbial assembly processes. Furthermore, biotic interactions between bacteria and eukaryotes were mostly positive which may indicate cooperative or mutualistic potential associations, such as cross-feeding and/or syntrophic relationships in the terrestrial subsurface. Our results also point toward the importance of sampling both the geological formation and groundwater when it comes to studying its overall microbiology.

The Role of the Environmental Sphere in Factors Affecting Performance and in Performance Dimensions in the Utility Sector: A Literature Review

Considering the environmental impacts of utility activities and the lack of literature systematic understanding of the different factors affecting utility performance with a specific consideration of the environmental sphere, this article tries to bridge this gap conducting a literature review on factors affecting utility performance. An aspect of novelty of the paper is represented by the clusterization of literature (also useful for future studies) that considers the environmental sphere both among factors of influence and as performance dimensions. The analysis conducts to conclude that both as influencing factors and as performance dimensions, the environmental role should be more widely and deeply investigated by literature. The research highlights some managerial implications: the appointment of managers should consider their “green skills” as factor influencing performance of the utilities; the need to develop managerial tools to make the decision-making process effective and efficient also in the environmental sphere.

A Systematic Review of Video Games for Second Language Acquisition

This study overviews contemporary studies on the use of video games for second language acquisition within the past ten years spanning the development of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and its connections to SLA, definitions of video games, empirical studies on the facilitative roles played by video games for second language (L2) learning and utilizing massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) for language learning. The purpose of this chapter is to help the readers obtain a systematic understanding of the development and application of video games in second language education. Findings of this study suggests that players are able to acquire L2 knowledge while playing video games. It also suggests that future research should focus more on the actual integration of video games into language instruction.

RUMAH PERSPEKTIF AL-QUR’AN (STUDI TERM AL-BAIT, AL-MASKAN, AL-MA’WA DAN AL-DAR DENGAN METODE SEMANTIK ENSIKLOPEDIK)

This study reveals verses about the house with the aim of finding the concept of the house from the perspective of the Qur’an. The mention of the word house in the Qur’an is mentioned in various ways, namely al-bait, al-maskan, al-ma’wa and al-dar. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the home is the focus of all activities. The whole concept of the house from the perspective of the Qur’an is very necessary to maximize the function of the house according to the instructions of the Qur’an. The method used in this study is the thematic method, namely the method of interpreting the Qur’an which seeks to explain the verses of the Qur’an by referring to a particular subject so that it can produce a more systematic understanding. The thematic method was chosen because it was considered more appropriate to comprehensively build the Qur’anic concept on a particular theme. In revealing certain meanings, this research uses a semantic approach. The semantic approach is used to understand reality through language correctly, while at the same time linking meaning to the fact of using language in a situational context. This study concludes that house ownership in the Qur’an is attributed to Allah swt., to humans and to animals. While the function of the house in the Qur’an is mentioned as a place to live, a place of worship, a prison for adulterers and as a place to get security. Manners related to the house in the Qur’an have special details. The Qur’an regulates the etiquette of visiting both in an inhabited house and an uninhabited house. In particular, the Qur’an also regulates the etiquette of visiting the house of the Prophet Muhammad, and regulates eating etiquette at the house of close relatives. Penelitian ini mengungkap ayat-ayat tentang rumah dengan tujuan untuk menemukan konsep rumah perspektif al-Qur’an. Penyebutan kata rumah dalam al-Qur’an disebutkan dalam berbagai macam, yaitu al-bait, al-maskan, al-ma’wa dan al-dar. Pada masa pandemi Covid-19, rumah menjadi tumpuan segala kegiatan. Konsep utuh tentang rumah perspektif al-Qur’an sangat diperlukan untuk memaksimalkan fungsi rumah sesuai petunjuk al-Qur’an. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode tematik yaitu metode penafsiran al-Qur’an yang berusaha menjelaskan ayat-ayat al-Qur’an dengan mengacu pada satu pokok bahasan tertentu sehingga dapat menghasilkan pemahaman yang lebih sistematis. Metode tematik dipilih karena dinilai lebih tepat untuk membangun konsep al-Qur’an tentang tema tertentu secara komprehensif. Dalam mengungkap makna tertentu, penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan semantik. Pendekatan semantik digunakan untuk memahami realitas lewat bahasa secara benar, sekaligus mengaitkan makna dengan fakta pemakaian bahasa dalam konteks situasional. Penelitian ini menyimpulkan bahwa kepemilikan rumah dalam al-Qur’an dinisbahkan pada Allah swt., pada manusia dan pada binatang. Sedangkan fungsi rumah dalam al-Qur’an disebutkan sebagai tempat tinggal, tempat peribadatan, tempat penjara bagi wanita penzina serta sebagai tempat memperoleh keamanan. Tata krama terkait rumah dalam al-Qur’an memiliki perincian yang khusus. Al-Qur’an mengatur tata krama bertamu baik dalam rumah yang berpenghuni maupun rumah yang tidak berpenghuni. Secara khusus al-Qur’an juga mengatur tata krama bertamu di rumah Nabi Muhammad saw., serta mengatur tata krama makan di rumah karib kerabat.

Unravelling the mechanisms linking cultural ecosystem services and human wellbeing

Ecosystems contribute significantly to human wellbeing through the provision of ecosystem services. Despite the growing literature on cultural ecosystem services (CES), there is a lack of systematic understanding of how they are linked with human wellbeing. Here we conduct a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature to identify the mechanisms and pathways underpinning the linkages between different CES and constituents of human wellbeing. Furthermore we identify their complex associations through Latent Class Analysis, Multiple Correspondence Analysis, and different visualisation tools. Overall we identify 16 major mechanisms linking CES and human wellbeing, via 70 distinct pathways. Beyond that we find five major assemblages of pathways featuring consistent associations among mechanisms mediating CES and human wellbeing. We critically discuss the main research trends and gaps, and propose future directions for research and practice in order to leverage the potential of CES for human wellbeing, and sustainability more broadly.

System approach to research processes of technological adjustment of machine and tractor units

A substantive interpretation of the main categories of the system approach is formulated in relation to the semantics of the operation of mobile agricultural units from the standpoint of ensuring the technological reliability of the production of field mechanized work by improving the methods and means of measuring control of the state of machine and tractor units and evaluating the parameters of functional diagnostics under shift time conditions. A structural diagram of the systemic image of the production of field mechanized work is proposed, which makes it possible to clarify the hierarchical levels of movement of concepts in the field of managing the state of a complex technical system during the operation period, to highlight the object of research and establish its system elements and connections with the operating environment. The business logic of the implementation of the basic operations of the system of technological adjustment of machine-tractor units to ensure the quality of the technological operation when used for its intended purpose is presented. The theoretical significance of the work is associated with the development of a systematic understanding of the main objects of the processes of machine use in agriculture. The applied and practical significance of the work is confirmed by new technical solutions implemented in projects and organizational and technical documents of an industry scale. The results of the work can be useful both for researchers of the processes of machine-use in agriculture, and for practitioners-subjects of small and medium-sized agribusiness, as well as in organizing the transfer of knowledge of the agro-engineering direction to specialists in agricultural production.