Letters to the Editor

Hervé Le Bras: The Nature of Demography

Although much has been written about the challenges of big data, there has been little reflection on the historicity of such debates and what we can learn from it. With this in mind, the aim of this article is to situate the epistemological debates over big data in geography historically. We focus on the three most relevant topics in current discussions around big data that have significant historical resonance, namely its methodological challenges, its scientific value, and its positionality. We conclude by arguing that understanding the historical resonance of current big data debates is helpful to find new ways to question its epistemological consequences.

This essay aims to comparatively discuss the differences and similarities between the ideas on difference and identity put forth by two prominent Western thinkers of contemporary theories: Gilles Deleuze, a French philosopher, and Theodore Adorno, a German philosopher. Rather than a purely philosophical comparative study, this research focuses specifically on the comparison of both thinkers’ discussions of Kafka’s works. Adorno has been regarded as the philosopher of negativity, while Deleuze is seen as the philosopher of positivity and life. Although both philosophers perceive the world differently, they both strive to deconstruct Western ideas of identity in order to revive the concept of ‘difference.’ Identity and difference have been topics of extensive philosophical discussion and hold relevance in contemporary areas such as community, politics, and ethics. The essay begins by presenting the thoughts of Hegel and Heidegger on difference and identity, before delving into Adorno’s deconstruction of these ideas and his exploration of negativity as a means to disrupt identity. In comparison to Adorno, Deleuze develops the notion of difference itself as a pathway to the realm of becoming. The latter half of the essay compares both thinkers’ discussions of Kafka’s world: Adorno’s analysis of the Kafkaesque in light of non-identity, and Deleuze’s examination of minor literature and the concept of the line of flight.

This Month in Adult Urology

This article merely refers to some fundamental theses developed by the author already in his book Ethics of Liberation: In the Age of Globalization and Exclusion (Durham: Duke University Press, 2013). The strategy of the argument takes the following path: First, it begins with some reflections by Paul Ricoeur about universal civilization and its particular cultures; second, it summarizes a non-eurocentric historical perspective that is pertinent to the Modern Globalizing System; third, it describes the asymmetrical location of the "participants" which resulted from the violent process of inclusion in the World System; forth, it points out to certain aspects through which one can see ethical and critical demands within the horizon of globalization; fifth, in conclusion the author suggests some relevant topics for future discussions.

Chapter 1 begins laying a foundation for classical statistical mechanics with a discussion of relevant topics in classical mechanics. The chapter begins with a discussion of Newton’s laws of motion and the concept of a phase space and builds up to the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of classical mechanics and the Legendre transform relation that connects them. The action integral is introduced, and its stationarity is shown to lead to the Euler-Lagrange equations of motion. It is shown how mechanical constraints can be incorporated into the action integral and Euler-Lagrange equations via Lagrange multipliers, and analytical forms of Lagrange multipliers are derived using Gauss’ principle of least constraint. The chapter concludes with a discusion of rigid-body motion in terms of Euler angles and quaternions followed by a brief discussion of non-Hamiltonian equations of motion and the types of problems they describe. Throughout the chapter, concepts are illustrated with analytically solvable examples.

The process of industrial modernization was characterized by fundamental changes in the interaction of socioeconomic systems with their natural environment. This paper reflects on this transformation process from an ecologically informed perspective, focusing on the interrelation of local populations, their specific mode of production, and the (agro-) ecosystem. Four Austrian villages in different agro-ecological zones serve as case studies for a comparative analysis of different types of farming systems and changes in these systems over time from the early nineteenth century to the present. The paper presents empirical results and aims at contributing to the discussion of relevant topics in human ecology and environmental history. Focusing on the changing significance of livestock in agricultural production systems, it addresses issues including the relation of population density to intensity of land use; soil fertility and nutrient management; the sustainability of preindustrial agriculture; and the gradual opening of locally closed cycles during industrialization and its effect on the landscape.

People talk all the time about how much they hate meetings, how they have too many meetings, how the meetings they attend are all badly run with no outcomes, and so on. You know what I'm talking about—and face it, we've all said those things before. Worse yet, as PMs we create those crappy meetings! Today companies go to great lengths to teach all of us how to have effective meetings, but we just don't play that way. When was the last time you were in a meeting that resulted in decisions and actionable data? How about a meeting with a good agenda? I'm not talking about a static list of bullets like "status update" here, but relevant discussion topics with clear outcomes. I'm betting that it's been a while, and I'd also bet that you run some of these mind-sucking meetings.

Aggression is a common topic in sport psychology courses. Research has revealed a gender difference in the acceptance of aggressive behavior during sport competition. This article presents a classroom activity to demonstrate that difference. Participants were given descriptions of behaviors from six sport competition situations and were asked to judge those behaviors as acceptable or unacceptable. Males in three psychology classes endorsed significantly more aggressive acts than did females. A number of relevant discussion topics are suggested.

Presents letters sent to the editor regarding previous articles from this publication or other relevant topics of discussion.

Presents letters sent to the editor regarding previous articles from this publication or other relevant topics of discussion.

As fossil-based energy sources become more depleted and with renewable-energy technologies still in a very early stage of development, the utilization of highly abundant methane as a transitional solution for current energy demands is highly important despite difficulties in transport and storage. Technologies enabling the conversion of methane to liquid/condensable energy carriers that can be easily transported and integrated into the existing chemical infrastructures are therefore essential. Although there commercially exists a two-step gas-to-liquid process involving syngas production, a novel route of methane conversion that can circumvent the high-cost production of syngas should be developed. Among all of the conceptually possible methods for converting methane to methanol, methane hydroxylation (CH4 + 1/2O2 → CH3OH) at low temperature seems to be the most viable since it provides a direct route of conversion and allows a much lower operational cost. However, it is hampered by the fact that the complete oxidation to CO2 is thermodynamically more favored. To overcome this, an effective catalyst that is able to "mildly" oxidize methane and stabilize the resultant methyl radical toward methanol formation is required. Particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO) and copper-exchanged zeolites are two catalysts known to hydroxylate methane into methanol at low temperature with high selectivity. Having been studied for more than 30 years, these copper-cored catalysts are still relevant topics of discussion since the actual structure of the active sites has not been agreed upon, and thus, the reaction mechanism and factors influencing their reactivity and productivity are yet to be understood. Density functional theory (DFT) has provided us with a powerful computational tool for accomplishing these tasks. This Account presents an overview of the recent progress in the computational elucidation of the catalytic mechanism of methane hydroxylation by mono-, di-, and trinuclear copper sites in pMMO and Cu-exchanged zeolites as well as its correlations to the influencing factors that must be controlled to achieve higher reactivity. First, we briefly introduce the catalytic mechanism of a bare CuO+ cation as the simplest copper-oxo system in methane hydroxylation. The system is then extended to the copper-oxo species in pMMO and zeolites, and the radical and nonradical mechanisms are examined. Investigations of the reactivities of mononuclear and dinuclear copper-oxo species in the pMMO active site suggest that the bis(μ-oxo)CuIICuIII, (μ-oxo)(μ-hydroxo)CuIICuIII, and CuIIIO species are important for the catalytic activity of pMMO. In the case of Cu-exchanged zeolites, as the mono(μ-oxo)CuIICuII and tris(μ-oxo)CuIICuIIICuIII active sites have been fully characterized in experiments, here we discuss the effects of zeolite structures on the geometry and reactivity of the active sites.

Presents letters sent to the editor regarding previous articles from this publication or other relevant topics of discussion.

Problem setting. In modern conditions special consideration is attracted to the global discussion related to the nature and unshadowing of cryptocurrencies. One of the most relevant topics for discussion in the cryptocurrency space is the future legal regulation of this sphere and the necessity of tight control of financial institutions in the cryptocurrency trading. Nowadays on the territory of Ukraine the legal regulation of the cryptocurrency sphere remains unresolved, effective legislative changes have not been adopted yet. However, some consensus has already been reached on the territory of the European Union in the field of the legal regulation of cryptocurrencies reformation, which causes unconditional interest for Ukrainian scientists and businesses. Based on the stated above, the purpose of the article is to analyze the legal regulation of cryptocurrency unshadowing in the European Union in order to identify the most effective mechanisms for its adaptation into the domestic legal framework. Analysis of recent researches and publications. Some aspects of the legal regulation of the domestic legislation reformation in the sphere of cryptocurrencies have become the subject of scientific research of such authors as Burkovskaya A. V., Varnavsky A. V., Vasilevskaya L. Yu., Kravchenko L. M., Kud A. A., Kucheryavenko N. P., Lizunova A. N., Lunkin T. I., Perebinis M. G., Smychok E. N., and others. At the same time, comprehensive studies of the European Union legislation innovations in the sphere of the cryptocurrency unshadowing and the impact of the reformed legal EU regulation on national legislation of Ukraine is not carried out, that fact actualizes the theme of the article and further research and development. Article’s main body. European leaders today have reached the consensus on the issue that innovative technologies, which are the basis of cryptocurrencies, have the potential to increase the efficiency of the financial system and the economy as a whole, both at the national level and across the European Union. At the same time, European experts have not yet formed a unified approach to the nature and legal status of virtual currency. Scientists argue that increasingly virtual (fiat) currencies are used to finance terrorism through transaction anonymity, so the European Union introduces additional monitoring of virtual currencies and transactions, legalized in Directive (EU) 2018/843, which was analyzed in the article. Repeated attempts to legalize digital assets in Ukraine were made by the legislator, however, none of the bills has been adopted and so far the only regulatory act that would resolve the issues of the cryptocurrencies’ legalization and effective measures to unshadow them have not been adopted, which, in turn, requires the intensification of the legislators’ activities, given the rapid development of cryptocurrencies and innovations. Conclusions and prospects for development. The study showed multivariate interpretations of the legal text of the Directive (EU) 2018/843 by member-countries, as well as the presence of a hidden control regime that goes beyond the needs of the document. At the same time, the Directive (EU) 2018/843 is intended to become an effective regulator of legal relations in the sphere of cryptocurrencies and requires its gradual implementation in the legislation of Ukraine in order to fulfill the international legal obligations of our state.

Presents letters sent to the editor regarding previous articles from this publication or other relevant topics of discussion.