Climate change and ESG factors in instability period: Indian and Russian experience

Introduction. The article deals with the problem of application of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria for investment and reporting principles in India and Russia as well as with sustainable development and climate change implementation policies within these countries. Methods. The research methods used by the authors in this work include the methodology of statistical analysis, forecasting, comparison, methods of assembling materials and research results. Analysis. Sustainable growth results from a compromise between long-term development priorities founded on carbon neutral economy, global introduction of carbon footprint emission taxes, on rapid digitalization of all areas of activity in society, and impact of greenhouse gases emissions. The authors compare incorporation of ESG principles in Indian and Russian business policies aimed at fighting climate change impact for sustainability. Results. The article concludes that despite the changing situation in the global economy, companies continue to expand their rationale for ESG taking into consideration the increase in the importance of public initiatives and good governance. Moreover, the implementation of many initiatives in this area helped businesses respond more flexibly to new challenges, while increasing sustainability

Real human touch: performer-facilitated touch enhances presence and embodiment in immersive performance

Despite being an embodied medium, virtual reality (VR) prioritizes vision and sound over the other senses. While touch has been demonstrated to foster a sense of presence and embodiment, most haptic research in VR focuses on uncanny vibration motors or limited experiences of touch with simple props. Meanwhile, immersive performances such as Eve 3.0 incorporate performer- facilitated touch in novel ways to evoke a complete and social experience of human touch in VR. In response, we conducted a mixed-methods study to investigate the experience of performer-facilitated touch in a 360 video segment from the immersive performance Eve 3.0. Using a 3×2 factorial design, we compared touch from a diary prop and performer in festival and laboratory settings. We found that performer-facilitated touch increased realistic behaviours and questionnaire measures of social presence, embodiment, and tactile realism. The setting also had a significant effect with festival participants demonstrating significantly more behaviours indicating presence, particularly in the no-touch condition. Participant descriptions reveal that in addition to touch, a rich narrative and vivid visuals of social interaction were just as important in immersing participants in the experience and making them feel present. We find that participant experiences are a co-creation situated at the intersection of artefact and context that require a willing suspension of disbelief. The authentic setting and performance artefact afforded a deep understanding of the rich and complex experience of human touch in immersive performance

After Kosovo: a political science symposium - perspectives from Southern Italy

"Im Mai 1999 veranstalteten eine Gruppe von Forschern und Kursteilnehmern des Arbeitsbereiches Politik- und Sozialwissenschaften sowie einige Kollegen aus anderen Ländern zum dritten Mal ein Symposium im malerischen Dorf Positano (Süditalien). Auf der Tagesordnung beim diesjährigen Treffen stand das für einen Politikwissenschaftler vorrangige Thema jener Wochen: die militärischen, politischen und kulturellen Geschehnisse im Kosovo. Die Teilnehmer überdachten 15 Fragen hinsichtlich der Kosovo-Krise, oder genauer, die Konsequenzen jener Geschehnisse für die politische Wissenschaft. Das Ziel dieses Beitrages ist es, die spontanen Gedanken zu diesen Fragen aufzuzeichnen. Trotz unterschiedlicher Meinungen und Erklärungsansätze gelang es den Teilnehmern, die wesentlichen Konsequenzen aus diesem Konflikt, der viel mehr war als eine Balkan-Krise, herauszuarbeiten. So muß die politische Rolle der deutschen und russischen Akteure neu überdacht werden. Das Möglichkeit militärischer Missionen und die Option für westlichen Gesellschaften, einen Krieg zu führen, müssen neu bewertet werden. Sowohl der sogenannte neue internationale Auftrag als auch die veränderte Rolle der UNO sowie das westfälische Prinzip der Staatensouveränität müssen neu diskutiert werden. Der vielleicht interessanteste Aspekt ist die Frage nach der politischen Improvisation sowie die Frage nach virtuellen Politiken und das Fehlen einer politischen Agenda." (Textauszug)"In May 1999, a group of researchers and students from the Department of Political and Social Sciences and some colleagues from other countries got together for the third time in the picturesque Campanian village of Positano. The context of this year's meeting, the public discussions made it unavoidable to take up the most urgent subject for political scientists in those weeks: the military, political and cultural events in and around Kosovo. The participants got some 15 questions regarding the Kosovo crisis or rather, more exactly, regarding possible consequences of the events for political science. The aim of this paper, however, was to preserve the spontaneous character of the original inputs. While stressing different aspects and advancing various explanations, most participants of Horizons 1999 agreed in a remarkable way on some fundamental consequences of this conflict which was much more than a Balkan crisis. German and Russian actors' role and impact have to be reassessed. The future potential of military missions and the capability of Western societies to wage war must be re-evaluated. The so-called new international order -or disorder- is to be discussed, as well as the changing role of the UN and the Westphalian principle of sovereignty. The possibly most interesting aspects may be related to the questions of adhocism, virtual politics and missing agendas, possibly leading towards a new conception of agency." (extract

Understanding AWE: Can a Virtual Journey, Inspired by the Overview Effect, Lead to an Increased Sense of Interconnectedness?

Immersive technology, such as virtual reality, provides us with novel opportunities to create and explore affective experiences with a transformative potential mediated through awe. The profound emotion of awe, that is experienced in response to witnessing vastness and creates the need for accommodation that can lead to restructuring of one\u27s worldview and an increased feeling of connectedness. An iconic example of the powers of awe is observed in astronauts who develop instant social consciousness and strong pro-environmental values in response to the overwhelming beauty of Earth observed from space. Here on Earth, awe can also be experienced in response to observing vast natural phenomenon or even sometimes in response to some forms of art, presenting vast beauty to its audience. Can virtual reality provide a new powerful tool for reliably inducing such experiences? What are some unique potentials of this emerging medium? This paper describes the evaluation of an immersive installation “AWE”—Awe-inspiring Wellness Environment. The results indicate that the experience of being in “AWE” can elicit some components of awe emotion and induce minor cognitive shifts in participant\u27s worldview similar to the Overview Effect, while this experience also has its own attributes that might be unique to this specific medium. Comparing the results of this exploratory study to other virtual environments designed to elicit Overview Effect provides insights on the relationship between design features and participant\u27s experience. The qualitative results highlight the importance of perceived safety, personal background and familiarity with the environment, and the induction of a small visceral fear reaction as a part of the emotional arc of the virtual journey—as some of the key contributers to the affective experience of the immersive installation. Even though the observed components of awe and a few indications of cognitive shift support the potential of Virtual Reality as a transformative medium, many more iterations of the design and research tools are required before we can achieve and fully explore a profound awe-inspiring transformative experience mediated through immersive technologies

Space—A Virtual Frontier: How to Design and Evaluate a Virtual Reality Experience of the Overview Effect

A select small group of people have an amazing opportunity to see the Earth from a unique perspective—from space. The effect this experience has on an individual has been described as extraordinary and profound, consisting of a cognitive shift in worldview that leads to a deeper understanding of the fragility and vulnerability of our planet, and an increased feeling of connectedness. This experience, termed the “Overview Effect,” has been reported by many space-travelers. Its key outcome—an enhanced feeling of interconnectedness—contributes to both one’s well-being and the sense of responsibility for the Earth. If this profoundly positive experience could be made accessible to more people than just space-travelers, this might ultimately contribute to a healthier and more caring society, where more individuals deeply feel the interconnection of all living beings and responsibility for our collective future. Given virtual reality (VR) technology’s potential to induce experiences affecting an immersant in a similar way as a real experience, we see an opportunity to leverage this technology to attempt to elicit the Overview Effect as a virtual experience. Through a virtual installation, the experience could be made accessible to people around the world, and for researchers to study this otherwise rare phenomenon. This article builds the case for VR as a tool for inducing and studying the Overview Effect. It reviews the psychological research on the Overview Effect and awe, and proposes guidelines for: (1) the design of VR experiences to elicit an Overview Effect and (2) evaluation methods for assessing if, or to what degree, the experience was achieved. Finally, we discuss existing implementations of the Overview Effect in VR. Thus, we are making an applied contribution in the form of design guidelines, and contributions to knowledge in the form of a review of research related to the Overview Effect. We invite researchers and VR creators to utilize and expand on the guidelines proposed in this paper to design transformative VR experiences that induce positive change, and promote a feeling of connectedness and care for each other, and our Spaceship Earth

Corseto: A Kinesthetic Garment for Designing, Composing for, and Experiencing an Intersubjective Haptic Voice

We present a novel intercorporeal experience - an intersubjective haptic voice. Through an autobiographical design inquiry, based on singing techniques from the classical opera tradition, we created Corsetto, a kinesthetic garment for transferring somatic reminiscents of vocal experience from an expert singer to a listener. We then composed haptic gestures enacted in the Corsetto, emulating upper-body movements of the live singer performing a piece by Morton Feldman named Three Voices. The gestures in the Corsetto added a haptics-based \u27fourth voice\u27 to the immersive opera performance. Finally, we invited audiences who were asked to wear Corsetto during live performances. Afterwards they engaged in micro-phenomenological interviews. The analysis revealed how the Corsetto managed to bridge inner and outer bodily sensations, creating a feeling of a shared intercorporeal experience, dissolving boundaries between listener, singer and performance. We propose that \u27intersubjective haptics\u27 can be a generative medium not only for singing performances, but other possible intersubjective experiences

Urokinase-type Plasminogen Activator (uPA) Promotes Angiogenesis by Attenuating Proline-rich Homeodomain Protein (PRH) Transcription Factor Activity and De-repressing Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) Receptor Expression

Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) regulates angiogenesis and vascular permeability through proteolytic degradation of extracellular matrix and intracellular signaling initiated upon its binding to uPAR/CD87 and other cell surface receptors. Here, we describe an additional mechanism by which uPA regulates angiogenesis. Ex vivo VEGF-induced vascular sprouting from Matrigel-embedded aortic rings isolated from uPA knock-out (uPA(−/−)) mice was impaired compared with vessels emanating from wild-type mice. Endothelial cells isolated from uPA(−/−) mice show less proliferation and migration in response to VEGF than their wild type counterparts or uPA(−/−) endothelial cells in which expression of wild type uPA had been restored. We reported previously that uPA is transported from cell surface receptors to nuclei through a mechanism that requires its kringle domain. Intranuclear uPA modulates gene transcription by binding to a subset of transcription factors. Here we report that wild type single-chain uPA, but not uPA variants incapable of nuclear transport, increases the expression of cell surface VEGF receptor 1 (VEGFR1) and VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2) by translocating to the nuclei of ECs. Intranuclear single-chain uPA binds directly to and interferes with the function of the transcription factor hematopoietically expressed homeodomain protein or proline-rich homeodomain protein (HHEX/PRH), which thereby lose their physiologic capacity to repress the activity of vehgr1 and vegfr2 gene promoters. These studies identify uPA-dependent de-repression of vegfr1 and vegfr2 gene transcription through binding to HHEX/PRH as a novel mechanism by which uPA mediates the pro-angiogenic effects of VEGF and identifies a potential new target for control of pathologic angiogenesis

Cancer-associated fibroblasts require proline synthesis by PYCR1 for the deposition of pro-tumorigenic extracellular matrix

Elevated production of collagen-rich extracellular matrix is a hallmark of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and a central driver of cancer aggressiveness. Here we find that proline, a highly abundant amino acid in collagen proteins, is newly synthesized from glutamine in CAFs to make tumour collagen in breast cancer xenografts. PYCR1 is a key enzyme for proline synthesis and highly expressed in the stroma of breast cancer patients and in CAFs. Reducing PYCR1 levels in CAFs is sufficient to reduce tumour collagen production, tumour growth and metastatic spread in vivo and cancer cell proliferation in vitro. Both collagen and glutamine-derived proline synthesis in CAFs are epigenetically upregulated by increased pyruvate dehydrogenase-derived acetyl-CoA levels. PYCR1 is a cancer cell vulnerability and potential target for therapy; therefore, our work provides evidence that targeting PYCR1 may have the additional benefit of halting the production of a pro-tumorigenic extracellular matrix. Our work unveils new roles for CAF metabolism to support pro-tumorigenic collagen production