Search results for "destruction"

Immersive Virtual Reality in Experiential Learning : A Value Co-creation and Co-destruction Approach

2023

Immersive Virtual Reality (later VR) has its potential in enabling learning experiences. Several studies adopt experiential learning as a key concept to understand the outcomes of VR. This study consists of two parts – the first part conducts a systematic literature review on VR experiential learning and suggests seven main dimensions for the concept identified by the existing literature: engagement, sociability, contextual information, physical sensation, interactivity, cognitions, and presence. The second part adopts a value co-creation and co-destruction approach to empirically test the construction underlying VR experiential learning. The findings indicate 33 value co-creation and 19 va…

Exploring land snails’ response to habitat characteristics and their potential as bioindicators of riparian forest quality

2021

Abstract Riparian ecosystems are crucial for landscape-level biodiversity, especially in highly anthropic and agricultural areas. Although the low mobility of snails reduces their dispersal capacity and makes them vulnerable to habitat degradation, they are less commonly used as indicators. We evaluated the potential of land snails as bioindicators of riparian forest quality in central European riparian forests by surveying snail communities in relation to habitat characteristics that characterize its quality. Habitat characteristics were found to affect both snail abundance and species richness. The abundance of snail species increased with the forest continuity, forest width and abundance…

Grasslands and Shrublands of Kazakhstan and Middle Asia

2020

Abstract Kazakhstan and Middle Asia comprise 4 million km2 of plains, uplands and tall mountain ranges in the core of the Eurasian continent. The region's semi-arid climate, grazing pressure by wild and domestic ungulates, and long pastoral tradition, have given rise to a variety of open habitat types and a distinct flora and fauna. Grasslands and shrublands are a natural and dominant vegetation type in the forest-steppe and steppe zone of northern and central Kazakhstan, as part of the Eurasian grassland biome. In Middle Asia, grasslands and shrublands are widespread habitat types in the Tian Shan, Pamir-Alai and Pamir—mountain systems that have been recently acknowledged as a global biodi…

Environmental mitigation hierarchy and biodiversity offsets revisited through habitat connectivity modelling.

2020

International audience; Biodiversity loss is accelerating because of unceasing human activity and land clearing for development projects (urbanisation, transport infrastructure, mining and quarrying …). Environmental policy-makers and managers in different countries worldwide have proposed the mitigation hierarchy to ensure the goal of “no net loss (NNL) of biodiversity” and have included this principle in environmental impact assessment processes. However, spatial configuration is hardly ever taken into account in the mitigation hierarchy even though it would greatly benefit from recent developments in habitat connectivity modelling incorporating landscape graphs. Meanwhile, national, Euro…

Intentional Destruction of Cultural Heritage of Mankind as a War Crime and the Effectiveness of the Current Legal Framework

The role of ICT and high-growth firms : micro-level evidence on job creation and productivity growth

2016

Tässä tutkielmassa analysoidaan kasvuyritysten sekä tieto- ja viestintäteknologian (ICT) kontribuutioita työpaikkojen luomiseen ja työn tuottavuuteen. Suomen talouden kehitys on ollut heikkoa viimeisen vuosikymmenen ajan globaalista finanssikriisistä johtuen. Työttömyys on noussut korkealle tasolle ja työn tuottavuuden kasvu hidastunut, ja lopulta pysähtynyt. Lisäksi on keskusteltu siitä, syntyykö Suomeen uusia työpaikkoja. Tässä tutkielmassa pyritään tarjoamaan empiiriseen tutkimukseen perustuvaa tietoa Suomen talouskasvun lähteistä. Tutkielmassa esitetään kasvuteorian lisäksi kasvuyrittäjyyteen liittyvää teoriataustaa sekä aiempaa kirjallisuutta. Lisäksi esitellään yrityksen elinkaareen l…

Density Decline in a Mediterranean Seahorse Population: Natural Fluctuations or New Emerging Threats?

2021

Illegal wildlife trade is considered one of the most serious threats to biodiversity worldwide, along with habitat loss/degradation and overfishing of wild stocks. Seahorses are considered at high risk as these fish represent an important component of traditional Chinese medicine but are also sold as curios and ornamental fish. On a worldwide level, illegal trade is controlled by numerous laws and regulations, but it seems to continue by assuming more dynamic routes. In the Mediterranean Sea, Hippocampus guttulatus formed one of the largest populations at Mar Piccolo di Taranto in South-Eastern Italy. During the routine monitoring of this population in 2016, a dramatic density decrease was …

Aquatic Macrophytes Occurrence in Mediterranean Farm Ponds: Preliminary Investigations in North-Western Sicily (Italy)

2021

Mediterranean wetlands are severely affected by habitat degradation and related loss of biodiversity. In this scenario, the wide number of artificial farm ponds can play a significant role in the biodiversity conservation of aquatic flora. In the present contribution we show the preliminary results of a study on Mediterranean farm ponds of north-western Sicily (Italy), aimed to investigating the environmental factors linked to the occurrence of submerged macrophytes (vascular plants and charophytes). We studied the aquatic flora of 30 ponds and determined the chemical and isotopic composition of their water bodies on a subset of the most representative 10 sites. Results show that (1) farm p…

Attacking cultural property to destroy a community: heritage destruction as a crime against humanity and genocide

2020

Cultural heritage, if considered in a multilevel dimension, represents the essence of a population. Attacks against tangible cultural heritage can amount to persecution or ethnic cleansing if committed with a discriminatory intent. For their nature, such attacks are often accompanied by destruction of intangible cultural heritage targeting the language, the traditions and the uses of a people. They cause, alongside tremendous losses of something unique and irreplaceable, psychological damages to the communities linked to them. An episode of cultural cleansing like the removal of communities by eradicating their cultural presence on a land encompasses also deliberate attacks against cultural…

Value Co-Creation and Co-Destruction in an IS Artifact: Contradictions of Geocaching

2016

In this paper we study how value co-creation and value co-destruction are present in an IS artifact. We apply the concept of contradiction (structural tension) to study an IS artifact, geocaching. Based on the analysis of interview data and discussion forum postings, we identified the following contradictions: i) introducing secret society to outsiders, ii) geocaching by breaking its rules, iii) experiencing nature while consuming it, iv) building community occurs with competition. These contradictions show that value co-creation and co-destruction interacts in this IS artifact. Based on the results, we propose that IS research should adopt the concepts of value co-creation and co-destructi…