The Global Biosphere and Its Metaphysical Underpinnings: Ecumenical Alternatives in Animism and Astrobiology

The term biosphere designates the “zone of life” on Earth. Outside this sphere, everything becomes “alien.” In this view of things, which I take to be canonical in the modern West, terrestrial life and biosphere overlap more or less neatly. Yet this idea of an almost perfect convergence is not the only view possible. This study presents two anthropological cases which demonstrate, a contrario, that the modern tendency to envisage the biosphere as “our home environment” or as “our familiar world” is in many ways a historical accident. Other ecumenical possibilities (by which I refer to the ancient Greek notion of the “inhabited world,” the oikumene) are by no means unthinkable. Examining the ecumenical originality of two communities that at first sight seem unrelated – Chachi indigenous people in Ecuador and scientists involved in the search for extraterrestrial life – will allow us to cast new light on the metaphysical underpinnings of the modern biosphere concept.

Temporal Accident Trends of Bus Rapid Transit Line 1 in Mexico City

The chapter presents the results of historical accident data on BRT L1 that have occurred in Mexico City from 2015-2020. Some of the key findings were the following: 1) A total of 1,769 accidents have occurred in the period of analysis (2015-2020); the most critical years in terms of the frequency of accident occurrence have been 2016 (27%) and 2019 (21.2%), and as expected, the least critical year was 2020 (7.1%). 2) The most critical seasons of the year have been the following: spring (27.1%) and summer (26.5%); the less critical seasons were winter (23.2%) and autumn (23.1%). 3) The results also highlighted that accident occurrence decreases sharply at the weekends (15.8%). The main conclusion of the analysis is that 64% of accidents occurred during peak hours causing traffic congestion and negative effects on health and to the environment. More research is needed to incorporate data from 2014 to 2020 for the case of the other six existing BRT lines. Further, some relevant statistical significance tests on the data are needed.

Analysis of a Historical Accident in a Spanish Coal Mine

There has been a long history of coal mine accidents and these, usually, involve serious injuries, fatalities, and the destruction of facilities. In the seventies, an explosion killed 28 miners in a Spanish coal mine. This paper gives insight into the main factors of the accident by means of the causation mode, using two well-known alternatives: (1) the method from the Spanish Instituto Nacional de Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo (INSST), where the causes and circumstances of the accident are classified into immediate causes and basic causes, and (2) the Feyer and Williamson method, where the classification is done using precursor events and contributing factors. The analysis identifies the lessons to be learned from the disaster. Both methods have given very similar results, verifying the goodness of the analysis. Methane emissions due to a variation in the exploitation method, the electrical installation, and a lack of safety procedures and training were the main causes of the accident. These findings explain the real causes of this accident and can be very valuable for the prevention of future accidents.

Comparison Analysis between Real Accident Locations and Simulated Risk Areas in An Urban Road Network

Recently, many researchers have employed a microsimulation technique to study the chain of interactions among vehicles, which generates an accident occurrence in some circumstances. This new approach to studying road safety is named traffic conflict technique. The aim of this paper is to assess how the microscopic simulation is a useful tool to identify potentially unsafe vehicle interactions and how high-risk locations identified by a microsimulation technique are similar to the ones identified by using historical accident data. Results show that high-risk locations identified by the simulation framework are superimposable to those identified by using the historical accident database. In particular, the statistical analysis employed based on Pearson’s correlation demonstrates a significative correspondence between a risk rate defined with simulation and an accident rate determined by the observed accidents dataset.

Pengaruh Konflik Politik Terhadap Studi Hadis Pasca Perang Shiffin

This paper attempts to explain the phenomenon of hadith studies during the Ṣiffīn war. In the history of Islamic civilization, conflict is always there, one factor that raises conflict is political associated with leadership issue. Even the first conflict occurred in Islam had it after the Prophet Muhammad died. This factor influenced relatively to the study of hadith. Islamic history has experienced "bitter notes" since many wars deployed many companions of the Prophet (ṣaḥābah). They, who are considered fair in the Hadith narration, seemed to have desire to rule, and for the sake of power, they were willing to fight each other. Despite various reasons of religious importance and doctrines, this historical accident has affected to even our recent study of the source. This was renewed after the occurrence of the al-fitnah kubrā, which culminated in the battle of Ṣiffīn between 'Alī bin Abū Ṭālib and Mu'āwiyah ibn Abū Sufyān in 37 AH. Atleast after this war, the study of hadith experienced quite rapid development with the emergence of various kinds of the sect, group or current flow in Islam.

Macro Risk: A Versatile and Universal Strategy for Measuring the Overall Safety of Hazardous Industrial Installations in China

In this work, macro risk is used to describe the overall safety of a group of hazards that are congeneric in a certain area, which can effectively help safety supervisors with goal setting and decision-making in China. To demonstrate this, the article proposes a calculation method to quantitatively study the macro risk of hazardous industrial installations. The method simultaneously considers the probability and consequences of accidents as the two core elements of risk, and the consequences cover losses with various dimensions. Assisted by related probability theory and binomial distribution, we analyzed historical accident statistics in detail to reveal hidden laws. To explore how to normalize the dimension of varied losses, the number of person-years was introduced as a loss equivalent to set up a method of conversion between loss of life and economic loss. The calculation method, which manifests a versatile and universal strategy of macro risk, was thus established. The value of the macro risk obtained possesses chronergy. Based on chronergy, two applications in China are further discussed, indicating this method is indeed feasible and practical for safety supervision. Specifically, it can help reasonably allocate regulatory resources by comparing macro risks of the same types of installations in various jurisdictions. In addition, it is conducive to a scientific determination of regulatory direction through the comparison of macro risks of various types of installations in the same jurisdiction.