Otro lado. An inquiry into the conceptual topology of animism among the Moré (Itene) of the Bolivian Amazonia

This paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork among the Moré (Itene) who, together with Wari’ and Oro Win, are the descendants of the last Chapacura speaking groups in Amazonia. I analyze, hunting story and elderly people stories (los cuentos) where the Moré explicitly conceptualize the notion of “the other side” as the realm of reality inhabited by non-human persons (the Deads, Spirits, Mothers of game, etc.). I focus on some topological aspects of Moré animism, such as conception of surface, boundary, space-time, distance markers, inside/outside distinctions. In conclusion I sketch some possible directions for further research in this topological framework for animism. I hope this paper can contribute to the renewed debate about animism in Amazonia and more broadly to the onto-logical turn in anthropology.

Learning

This chapter presents a framework for learning across boundaries, including concepts of mutuality, interaction, and co-production. It begins with insights on integrative learning in interdisciplinary education, grounded in a shift from content-based to process-based integration, the theory of constructivism, and the concept of reflective equilibrium. After noting parallels with transdisciplinarity, it examines the nature of social learning, anchoring discussion in four theoretical discourses for interdisciplinarity and interprofessionalism (Communities of Practice, Critical-Historical Activity, Complexity Science, and Actor-Network Theory). Turning more specifically to trans-disciplinary work, the chapter examines mechanisms of learning in a communication boundary space, while incorporating concepts of triple-loop learning, reflexivity, convergence, transactivity, and heuristics. Finally, after identifying individual and collective competencies, as well as characteristics of cross-sector expertise, the chapter concludes by drawing insights from case studies across sector boundaries, beginning with a sustainability project in the East India Plateau and followed by healthcare in two hospitals.

BORDER SPACE OF A RESIDENTIAL BUILDING AS AN ELEMENT OF SOCIOPSYCHOLOGICAL COMFORT OF PEOPLE: FEATURES OF FORMATION, CHARACTERISTICS, SIGNS

In this publication, a study of the border space of the city is carried out as a conditional zone of direct contact of various social groups near multi-storey residential buildings. Based on the analysis of domestic and foreign scientific works on this topic, the characteristic features of the terms socially active boundary space and the space of the courtyard are clarified, general and distinctive features of their identification on the territory are highlighted. In accordance with the analysis of scientific works on this topic, the structure of the city's border spaces has been adjusted, which includes the following levels: macrolevel of the placement of border spaces in the city; meso-level geometrical and functional characteristics of boundary spaces; micro-level of the structure of the boundary space in the context of social activity. By analyzing the world and domestic experience of designing socially active boundary spaces, the hierarchy of their structural elements is highlighted. The main types of border spaces of the city are public, private and mixed border spaces. For example, the primary elements of the formation of any boundary space are the building itself, the street space and the inner courtyard space, which can be characterized by functional and geometric indicators. In the structure of the public boundary space, the planning and volumetric-spatial structure of the house and belonging to the transit or communicative component of the street space are distinguished. In a private and mixed boundary space, the second macro-level includes the spatial division of the courtyard into a buffer, transit and communication function. The last hierarchical level of this model is the level of structural elements that provide social activity in boundary spaces. At the planning level of the building, this is an exploited roof, a developed entrance group of elements, a system of the first floors of a residential building outside the main volume. At the level of volumetric-spatial solutions, the social activity of the boundary spaces is provided by interesting solutions of facades, low or medium storeys, the arrangement of loggias and balconies. In private border spaces at this level, such elements are niches and bay windows, terraced facades, and others. This model, due to the presence of many means of increasing social activity in the border spaces of a residential building, allows one to continue research on the allocation of architectural and spatial techniques for the implementation of projects of socially active border spaces of the city.

Science Communication as a Boundary Space: An Interactive Installation about the Social Responsibility of Science

Science communication has traditionally been seen as a means of crossing the boundary of science: moving scientific knowledge into the public. This paper presents an alternative understanding. Drawing upon a particular case of social science communication in the form of an interactive installation about the social responsibility of science, it develops the concept of boundary space where phenomena can simultaneously belong to science and nonscience. In addition, the paper describes how the installation functions as a space for interaction between knowledge communication and knowledge production. The paper argues that we should understand science communication as a social practice, which allows scientists and nonscientists to cooperate in performing science as an important part of society. The aim is to add a new kind of analysis to traditional criticisms of deficit-thinking and popularization by asking what can we say more about science communication if we understand it as part of (rather than separated in time and space from) science as a social activity.

Концепт «Смерть» В Українській Народній Казці

The article analyzes the concept of «death» in folklore (fairy tale) text at three levels: 1) as an object (embodied in a concrete character); 2) as a process (implemented through a motive); 3) as a spatial concept (expressed through the locus). 1) Anthropomorphic image of death in folk fairy prose functions in samples of novels. In the Ukrainian folk fairy tale tradition, the character of death is represented only as feminine gender. Unlike the western European tradition of depicting Death in the form of a skeleton with a scythe, in the Ukrainian tale it is an anthropomorphic character without any signs of decomposition (the scythe as its attribute occurs very rarely in the texts). The fairy tale emphasizes on such features of the death character as inevitability, justice, courtesy and nobility. 2) The motive of the death of the protagonist is frequent for a magic types of fairy tale. The motive of dying are mainly concerns protagonists and is realized through the motives of the hero’s journey to the otherworld. It is noteworthy that such a trip is stratified according to the gender principle: the voluntary journey of the hero, connected with the conflict in which the woman is mostly involved, and the forced journey of the heroine, who often does not suspect its true reason - the intention of the antagonist / evil stepmother who wants to see her perish. The motive of the death of the protagonist is predominantly in the enchanting heroic fairy-tales, where it is realized: a) through the swallowing of the hero by a monster, often a fish; b) petrification of the hero as a result of violation of the prohibition of keeping silence made by demonological beings; c) the murder of a hero by a traitor or antagonist (as a rule, with the further resurrection of the protagonist with the help of «healing and living water»). 3) The analysis of the texts confirms the presence of both vertical and horizontal planes with the semantics of the space of death. The horizontal plane does not have any vector (the fairy tale does not emphasize the eastern, western, southern or northern directions of the hero’s movement to the otherworld), but these planes always belong to the boundary space (the most frequent locus is the forest). The vertical plane of the death locus is located in the underground (lower projection of the vertical vector) and the celestial (upper projection of the vertical vector) worlds with the domination of the lower projection.

Reinventing Aerosol Containment Unit for Use in Medical Operating Theatre

The aerosol containment box or intubation box is medical tool invented to help protect healthcare workers from airborne aerosols while performing procedures such as intubation that are close to the mouth of the patient. The current design of the aerosol containment box is used heavily during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the virus being present in airborne aerosol particles from a patient’s breath. However, the current design has been reported to be flawed in its design aspects. Adding ergonomic considerations into the design is expected to provide improved mobility and better usage of medical instruments. The research conducted analyzed how effective the current design in containing the spread of aerosols from the patient. To execute the research, the current design is modelled in a 3D render using SOLIDWORKS 2020 using dimensions to scale. The 3D model is imported into ANSYS 18.2 to conduct an airflow analysis when a patient cough or breathes to analyses the spread of the aerosols from the patient. The patient coughing was simulated using a nozzle with the boundary space of the model based on the size of the intubation box. The key outcome of the project that the present design is not verry effective in containing aerosol spread as there is still airflow of the particles leaving the intubation box into the environment. The improved design of the intubation box prevents flow of the aerosols into the environment by using suction and seals to close of outlets. The data gained from the study of the aerosol spread proves that there is a higher pressure concentration of the aerosols particles on the walls of the outlets in the existing design in the market as compared to the improved design suggested. This data can help better justify the dimensions and criteria needed to further enhance the current design of the aerosol containment box.

First-order evolution equations with dynamic boundary conditions

In this paper, we introduce a general framework to study linear first-order evolution equations on a Banach space X with dynamic boundary conditions, that is with boundary conditions containing time derivatives. Our method is based on the existence of an abstract Dirichlet operator and yields finally to equivalent systems of two simpler independent equations. In particular, we are led to an abstract Cauchy problem governed by an abstract Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator on the boundary space ∂ X . Our approach is illustrated by several examples and various generalizations are indicated. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Semigroup applications everywhere’.