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This paper argues that the new generation of community based natural resources management (CBNRM) should involve the arts, and particularly the community arts, to better enable success in engaging communities in land rehabilitation and ecological sustainability. The paper is based on insights gained from a five-year research project which examined the role of the arts in affecting environmental behaviour. About 200 informant interviews were undertaken, and eight case studies were analysed to provide qualitative and quantitative data. The case studies presented in this paper show that a culture of landcare is gradually evolving and there is a general overlap, and perhaps even convergence, between the community arts and community environmental initiatives such as Landcare. There are now many community arts events that have an environmental focus, and increasingly CBNRM is using the arts to encourage greater community involvement in the issues and to provide an artistic voice of those involved in CBNRM.

The 150 years since Maxwell's formulation of the field equations, Lorentz's formulation of his force law, and Einstein's formulation of special relativity have seen electrodynamics emerge as one of the most fundamental elements of scientific and technical progress in the 20th and 21st centuries. Beginning with the analysis and demonstration of Hertzian waves, these fundamental contributions have launched a series of recurring cycles of discovery and application, in which each new discovery has been exploited to support new applications, which in turn have facilitated additional new discoveries and so on, revolutionizing in the process major elements of our economy with yet more to come through the research now in progress. It is the purpose of this article to relate my recollections of the invention and development of the free electron laser (FEL) within the context of the pervasive influence of the science and technology of electrodynamics in the 20th century.

The South East Physics network (SEPnet) is a collaboration among nine universities in the South East of England, working together to deliver excellence in physics. By sharing resources, we are able to add much more value to our departments, students, and subject than we could achieve individually. Our core ambitions include ensuring the sustainability of physics in our region, enhancing the employability of our students, delivering advanced training, securing the pipeline of future students, opening up new research opportunities and breaking down barriers to improve the accessibility of physics for everyone. We believe that SEPnet provides a tried and tested model that could be rolled out by others to improve the academic excellence of other disciplines in different regions.

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are instrumental in enabling the economic empowerment of women. We examine the efficiency and performance of 84 Indian MFIs from 2016 to 2018 using a two-stage double bootstrap approach. Our results show that MFIs with increased outreach and actively target female borrowers achieve higher efficiency. Furthermore, we find larger MFIs and higher leverage intensity to be positively associated with efficiency. Government policies should be encouraged to support current MFIs to grow larger, actively target female borrowers and increase outreach to the poor to support India’s financial inclusion agenda and facilitate the economic empowerment of women whist revitalizing less efficient MFIs.

Numerous studies in the microfinance context have been observed to employ the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique for the estimation of efficiency and/or productivity at the organizational level. This chapter aims to synthesize the existing DEA literature in the microfinance context to provide an overview of the methodological development over the past two decades and identify future research directions. To this end, literature data spanning the period 2006–2022 have been gathered from the Scopus database, and after filtering them based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 70 research articles relevant to this topic were considered for the study. With respect to methodological development, although most of the studies relied on the classical DEA, a recent trend revealed that studies are also employing various forms of network DEA (NDEA) techniques that integrate complex and multiple stages of the production process to help capture the diverse objectives of microfinance institutions. Furthermore, most studies utilize either regional or global data in their analysis of efficiency/productivity, with only a few exceptions. Lastly, bibliometric processing software (e.g., VOSViewer) is utilized for the identification of influential authors, institutions, networking, and countries. The study identifies important prospects for future research.

A multi-year project with funding from many sources was led by physicists who recruited world-class experts in producing a state-of-the-art planetarium show about dark matter. It has found worldwide success and even won an award. It has been translated into many languages and is showing on all five continents.

Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) provides an example of large-scale rural microfinance banking services that are financially sustainable due to its commercial banking and capital self-sufficiency principles. BRI is also exceptional in the outreach of its microfinance services, with its 8.539 microoutlets in almost all sub-districts throughout Indonesia providing simple and flexible microfinance banking products that in 2015 served 43 million microsavers and 7.85 million microborrowers nationwide. This chapter gives a historical overview of BRI and its successful transformation from government-reliant towards commercial and capital self-sufficiency microfinance banking without overlooking its main mission in catering the rural poor population. The chapter shows how a well-managed microfinance banking system can weather economic crises and help the rural poor cope with economic shocks. The chapter also highlights some implications for the microfinance institutions, BRI in particular, as well as the government as the policy maker.

The Extreme Energy Events (EEE) project aims to study extended air showers from high energy cosmic rays and extreme energy events by detecting the muon component of the shower. To achieve this goal, a network of muon telescopes has been installed in high schools distributed all over Italy. Each muon telescope consists of three large area (80 × 160 cm²) Multigap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPCs). Each MRPC has 24 pickup strips read out at both ends; the hit position along the strip is thus deduced from the time difference. This design offers pointing capability, so that the muon direction can be reconstructed. The project has been conceived by Prof. A. Zichichi in order to rekindle the interest of young people in science and give them a first-hand experience of scientific research.

The 150 years since Maxwell's formulation of the field equations, Lorentz's formulation of his force law, and Einstein's formulation of special relativity have seen electrodynamics emerge as one of the most fundamental elements of scientific and technical progress in the 20th and 21st centuries. Beginning with the analysis and demonstration of Hertzian waves, these fundamental contributions have launched a series of recurring cycles of discovery and application, in which each new discovery has been exploited to support new applications, which in turn have facilitated additional new discoveries and so on, revolutionizing in the process major elements of our economy with yet more to come through the research now in progress. It is the purpose of this article to relate my recollections of the invention and development of the free electron laser (FEL) within the context of the pervasive influence of the science and technology of electrodynamics in the 20th century.