Search results for: environmental movements

Authors: Pradip Kumar Das

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Phenomenal growth of population and industry exploits the environment in varied ways. Consequently, the greenhouse effect and other allied problems are threatening mankind the world over. Protection and up gradation of environment have, therefore, become the prime necessity all of mankind for the sustainable development of environment. People in humbler walks of life including the corporate citizens have become aware of the impacts of environmental pollution. Governments of various nations have entered the picture with laws and regulations to correct and cure the effects of present and past violations of environmental practices and to obstruct future violations of good environmental disciplines. In this perspective, environmental audit directs verification and validation to ensure that the various environmental laws are complied with and adequate care has been taken towards environmental protection and preservation. The discipline of environmental audit has experienced expressive development throughout the world. It examines the positive and negative effects of the activities of an enterprise on environment and provides an in-depth study of the company processes any growth in realizing long-term strategic goals. Environmental audit helps corporations assess its achievement, correct deficiencies and reduce risk to the health and improving safety. Environmental audit being a strong management tool should be administered by industry for its own self-assessment. Developed countries all over the globe have gone ahead in environment quantification; but unfortunately, there is a lack of awareness about pollution and environmental hazards among the common people in India. In the light of this situation, the conceptual analysis of this study is concerned with the rationale of environmental audit on the industry and the society as a whole and highlights the emerging dimensions in the auditing theory and practices. A modest attempt has been made to throw light on the recent development in environmental audit in developing nations like India and the problems associated with the implementation of environmental audit. The conceptual study also reflects that despite different obstacles, environmental audit is becoming an increasing aspect within the corporate sectors in India and lastly, conclusions along with suggestions have been offered to improve the current scenario.

Keywords: environmental audit, environmental hazards, environmental laws, environmental protection, environmental preservation

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Authors: Reiko Yamamoto

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This paper reports on how synchrony occurs between children and their teacher, and what prevents or facilitates synchrony. The aim of the experiment conducted in this study was to precisely analyze their movements and synchrony and reveal the process of synchrony in a real-world classroom. Specifically, the experiment was conducted for around 20 minutes during an English as a foreign language (EFL) lesson. The participants were 11 fourth-grade school children and their classroom teacher in a public elementary school in Japan. Previous researchers assert that synchrony causes the state of flow in a class. For checking the level of flow, Short Flow State Scale (SFSS) was adopted. The experimental procedure had four steps: 1) The teacher read aloud the first half of an English storybook to the children. Both the teacher and the children were at their own desks. 2) The children were subjected to an SFSS check. 3) The teacher read aloud the remaining half of the storybook to the children. She made the children remove their desks before reading. 4) The children were again subjected to an SFSS check. The movements of all participants were recorded with a video camera. From the movement analysis, it was found that the children synchronized better with the teacher in Step 3 than in Step 1, and that the teacher’s movement became free and outstanding without a desk. This implies that the desk acted as a barrier between the children and the teacher. Removal of this barrier resulted in the children’s reactions becoming synchronized with those of the teacher. The SFSS results proved that the children experienced more flow without a barrier than with a barrier. Apparently, synchrony is what caused flow or social emotions in the classroom. The main conclusion is that synchrony leads to cognitive outcomes such as children’s academic performance in EFL learning.

Keywords: engagement in a class, English as a foreign language (EFL) learning, interactional synchrony, social emotions

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Authors: G. Stamatopoulou, M. Symeonaki, C. Michalopoulou

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In this work, we study the intergenerational social mobility in Greece, in order to provide up-to-date evidence on the changes in the mobility patterns throughout the years. An analysis for both men and women aged between 25-64 years old is carried out. Three main research objectives are addressed. First, we aim to examine the relationship between the socio-economic status of parents and their children. Secondly, we investigate the evolution of the mobility patterns between different birth cohorts. Finally, the role of education is explored in shaping the mobility patterns. For the analysis, we draw data on both parental and individuals' social outcomes from different national databases. The social class of origins and destination is measured according to the European Socio-Economic Classification (ESeC), while the respondents' educational attainment is coded into categories based on the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). Applying the Markov transition probability theory, and a range of measures and models, this work focuses on the magnitude and the direction of the movements that take place in the Greek labour market, as well as the level of social fluidity. Three-way mobility tables are presented, where the transition probabilities between the classes of destination and origins are calculated for different cohorts. Additionally, a range of absolute and relative mobility rates, as well as distance measures, are presented. The study covers a large time span beginning in 1940 until 1995, shedding light on the effects of the national institutional processes on the social movements of individuals. Given the evidence on the mobility patterns of the most recent birth cohorts, we also investigate the possible effects of the 2008 economic crisis.

Keywords: cohort analysis, education, Greece, intergenerational mobility, social class

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Authors: Abuzer Akgün, Ümit Duruk

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This study was carried out in a period of four weeks thanks to voluntarily participation of twenty eight pre-service teachers enrolled diverse departments in Faculty of Education. The purpose of the study was to point out how pre-service teachers views on environmental education were affected by field trips. Prior to data collection, four open-ended questions were prepared and administered to all pre-service teachers in the working group. Data gathered at first and final week of the field trip were compared in a qualitative approach using content analysis. In conclusion, it is obvious that most of the participants don’t feel themselves quiet enough about environmental education and state this reason as a providing justification to participate voluntarily in the study. In the secondary school teaching context, they mostly emphasize on the vital importance of the environmental awareness level of the pupils in the schools. They also seem to think that they get a detailed knowledge of environmental education and claim that they will use this knowledge in order to bring up next generations in their professional career as teachers. Lastly, they state that observing the deteriorating materials directly in their own settings, might be more effective as regards improving environmental awareness.

Keywords: science education, environmental education, environmental issues, field trip method

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Authors: Naiara de Almeida Rios

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The environmental education, from Tbilisi, is signaled as an important instrument for conservation and environmental management. However, the social, economic, political and environmental aspects of each place require an environmental management that corresponds to the reality to which they are inserted, as well as environmental education practices. The city of Belém, the capital of the State of Pará, is one of the most important cities in the Amazon Region, and its vast water dimension requires that its watersheds take a careful look at their socio-environmental management. The Estrada Nova Hydrographic Basin is considered as one of the most critical river basins in the city due to flooding, lack of basic sanitation and degradation of water bodies. In this context, environmental education is understood as one of the necessary conditions to reduce environmental degradation. Environmental education presents itself as an instrument of social transformation and conservation of natural resources (especially water resources), where thinking about the sustainability of natural resources is moving towards dialogue on the importance of building an environmental awareness. The commitment that environmental education proposes covers all spheres of society, since the main objective of the same is the transformation of thought and attitudes from the understanding of reality. Therefore, to analyze how the government is managing the basin, as well as the environmental education practices developed in it, is fundamental, so that government can be charged with improvements for the population and for the natural environment. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the influence of environmental education actions developed by local public authorities in the management of the Estrada Nova Hydrographic Basin, Belém/PA. For the accomplishment of this study, some methodological procedures will be used, like documentary analysis, bibliographical survey and fieldwork. If the multivariate statistical method is used to analyze the results obtained in the field. Unfortunately, public policies in the area of ​environmental education in Belém are still moving in short steps, since government interests have had very little dialogue with the socio-environmental problems that affect the Estrada Nova Hydrographic Basin. Both formal and informal environmental education has been poorly developed, hampering the continuous process proposed by water resources management.

Keywords: environmental education, environmental management, hydrographic basin, water resources

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Authors: Olakunle Felix Adekunle

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In the recent years several non-tariff provisions have been regarded as means holding back transboundary environmental damages. Affected countries have then increasingly come up with trade policies to compensate for or to In recent years, several non‐tariff trade provisions have been regarded as means of holding back transboundary environmental damages. Affected countries have then increasingly come up with trade policies to compensate for or to enforce the adoption of environmental policies elsewhere. These non‐tariff trade constraints are claimed to threaten the freedom of trading across nations, as well as the harmonization sought towards the distribution of income and policy measures. Therefore the ‘greening’ of world trade issues essentially ranges over whether there ought or ought not to be a trade‐off between trade and environmental policies. The impacts of free trade and environmental policies on major economic variables (such as trade flows, balances of trade, resource allocation, output, consumption and welfare) are thus studied here, and so is the EKC hypothesis, when such variables are played against the resulting emission levels. The policy response is seen as a political game, played here by two representative parties named North and South. Whether their policy choices, simulated by four scenarios, are right or wrong depends on their policy goals, split into economic and environmental ones.

Keywords: environmental, policies, strategies, constraint

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Authors: Massimiliano Nastri

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The study examines the façade systems according to the constitutive and typological characters, as well as the functional and applicative requirements such as the expressive, constructive, and interactive criteria towards the environmental, perceptive, and energy conditions. The envelope systems are understood as instruments of mediation, interchange, and dynamic interaction between environmental conditions. The façades are observed for the sustainable concept of eco-efficient envelopes, selective and multi-purpose filters, adaptable and adjustable according to the environmental performance.

Keywords: typologies of façades, environmental and energy sustainability, interaction and perceptive mediation, technical skins

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Authors: Md. Kamal Uddin

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Bangladesh is trying to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Environmental Education (EE) is very vital to reaching the agenda of SDGs. However, a lack of environmental awareness and gaps in theoretical knowledge and its practices still exists in Bangladesh. Therefore, this research aims to understand the students’ perceptions of whether and how their behaviour is environment-friendly to achieve SDGs. It also addresses teachers’ perceptions of what are the shortcomings of environmental education in Bangladesh. It uses the qualitative and quantitative techniques of data collection and analysis based on in-depth interviews, surveys among different categories of participants and classroom observation. The paper finds that the level of EE and students’ awareness of the environment is inadequate. Some teachers believe that the EE is not better in Bangladesh due to the absence of practical learning of EE, lack of the motivations and actions, institutional weakness, inadequate policies, poor implementation, and cultural and traditional beliefs. Thus, this paper argues that Bangladeshi EE is not adequate to change the behaviour of the students towards the environment, which makes it difficult for the country to ensure SD. Thus, this research suggests that there is a need to revise the environmental education policy to change the behaviour and structure of the country for sustainable development.

Keywords: environmental education, sustainable development, environmental practice, environmental behaviour, Bangladesh

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Authors: Jean Pierre Ribeiro Daquila

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This paper aims to analyze the use of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences as a tool to facilitate students’ learning. This theory, proposed by the American psychologist and educator Howard Gardner, was first established in 1983 and advocates that human beings possess eight intelligence and not only one, as defended by psychologists prior to his theory. These intelligence are bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, musical, linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. This paper will focus on bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. Spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences are sensed by athletes, dancers, and others who use their bodies in ways that exceed normal abilities. These are intelligences that are closely related. A quarterback or a ballet dancer needs to have both an awareness of body motions and abilities as well as a sense of the space involved in the action. Nevertheless, there are many reasons which make classical ballet dance more integrated with other intelligences. Ballet dancers make it look effortless as they move across the stage, from the lifts to the toe points; therefore, there is acting both in the performance of the repertoire and in hiding the pain or physical stress. The ballet dancer has to have great mathematical intelligence to perform a fast allegro; for instance, each movement has to be executed in a specific millisecond. Flamenco dancers need to rely as well on their mathematic abilities, as the footwork requires the ability to make half, two, three, four or even six movements in just one beat. However, the precision of the arm movements is freer than in ballet dance; for this reason, ballet dancers need to be more holistically aware of their movements; therefore, our experiment will test whether this greater attention required by ballet dancers makes them acquire better results in the training sessions when compared to flamenco dancers. An experiment will be carried out in this study by training ballet dancers through dance (four years of experience dancing minimum – experimental group 1); a group of flamenco dancers (four years of experience dancing minimum – experimental group 2). Both experimental groups will be trained in two different domains – phonetics and chemistry – to examine whether there is a significant improvement in these areas compared to the control group (a group of regular students who will receive the same training through a traditional method). However, this paper will focus on phonetic training. Experimental group 1 will be trained with the aid of classical music plus bodily work. Experimental group 2 will be trained with flamenco rhythm and kinesthetic work. We would like to highlight that this study takes dance as an example of a possible area of strength; nonetheless, other types of arts can and should be used to support students, such as drama, creative writing, music and others. The main aim of this work is to suggest that other intelligences, in the case of this study, bodily-kinesthetic, can be used to help improve pronunciation.

Keywords: multiple intelligences, pronunciation, effective pronunciation trainings, short drills, musical intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence

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Authors: Moustafa Osman

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The paper describes and analyses different good practice examples of protective levels, and initiatives actions (“framework conditions”) and encourages the uptake of environmental management systems (EMSs) to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Most of industries tend to take EMS as tools leading towards sustainability planning. The application of these tools has numerous environmental obligations that neither suggests decision nor recommends what a company should achieve ultimately. These set up clearly defined criteria to evaluate environmental protective action (EEPA) into sustainability indicators. The physical integration will evaluate how to incorporate traditional knowledge into baseline information, preparing impact prediction, and planning mitigation measures in monitoring conditions. Thereby efforts between the government, industry and community led protective action to concern with present needs for future generations, meeting the goal of sustainable development. The paper discusses how to set out distinct aspects of sustainable indicators and reflects inputs, outputs, and modes of impact on the environment.

Keywords: environmental management, sustainability, indicators, protective action

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Authors: Marula Tsagkari

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Greece finds itself in challenging times, facing a severe economic slowdown since 2009. Despite the fact that Greece is in the epicenter of the global interest, to the best of our knowledge there is no extend research on how the crisis has affected the Greek environment (directly and indirectly), the past years. Thus, the present study aims to fill the aforementioned research gap by examining a number of environmental indicators related with air emissions, waste, water and energy. Our results indicate that the crisis affected the Greek environment in both positive and negative ways. For Greece, the main challenge is to recover from the present economic recession as soon as possible, but not at any cost to the environment. In this context, this research unfolds the interrelation between the economic and the environmental crisis and suggests a sustainable restructuring of the Greek economy.

Keywords: Greece, economic crisis, environmental policy, environmental indicators

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Authors: Youcef Lakhdar Hamina

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In order to tame the ecological damage specificity, it is imperative to assert the procedural and objective liability aspect, which leads us to analyse current trends based on the development of preventive civil liability based on the precautionary principle. Our research focuses on the instruments of the environment protection in urban areas based on two complementary aspects appearing contradictory and refer directly to the institutional dimensions: - The preventive aspect: considered as a main objective of the environmental policy which highlights the different legal mechanisms for the environment protection by highlighting the role of administration in its implementation (environmental planning, tax incentives, modes of participation of all actors, etc.). - The healing-repressive aspect: considered as an approach for the identification of ecological damage and the forms of reparation (spatial and temporal-responsibility) to the impossibility of predicting with rigor and precision, the appearance of ecological damage, which cannot be avoided.

Keywords: environmental law, environmental taxes, environmental damage, eco responsibility, precautionary principle, environmental management

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Authors: Ammar Alrefaei

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The COVID-19 pandemic changed human life. The vast majority of the COVID effect was on the healthcare sector, but its impact on the global economy cannot be denied. In the field of environment, the pandemic may have a more significant impact on the environment than all environmental activity and policies of recent years. The pandemic consequences for the environment may be far more unpredictable than one might assume. In view of this, it is imperative for legislators from different states to be prepared to apply adequate measures to counteract such consequences. This article aimed to examine the obstacles to implementing effective environmental policies after the COVID-19 pandemic using different examples from different countries. Also, how adopting new initiatives, such as the Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative, can help policymakers and legislators adopt new laws and policies. In addition, this paper reviewed the developing dangers to environmental protection after the pandemic and analyzed the major challenges to instrument active environmental policies during COVID-19 and in the world after COVID.

Keywords: environmental policy, environment law, green initiative, COVID 19

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Authors: Yan Chen, Hongbing Li, Ruirui Zhai

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Innovation driven and innovation in the process of new-type urbanization is a major strategic choice for the introduction of foreign capital and the process of economic development. This research investigates the effect of urbanization, FDI and environmental regulations on innovation performance of enterprises, based on Chinese Industrial Statistics Database of 2004 to 2007 and data at province-level. It is found that the FDI from U.S. and environmental regulations will hinder the creativity of Chinese industry through reducing the R&D of them. However, the FDI from U.S. enhances the ability of domestic enterprises to attain “compensation from innovation” following the environmental regulations. Meanwhile, we confirm that environmental regulation can contribute to the innovation spillover of FDI from U.S. Furthermore, the channel of effect is discussed. In addition, FDI from EU and Japan are further examined. Unlike the FDI from U.S., the FDI from EU and Japan both have the positive innovation spillover effect, but through the same channel referred above which exist in FDI. Further analysis based on "innovation-driven effect" of urbanization is developed, and it is found that urbanization has an innovation-driven effect on environmental regulation and FDI spillover. The regulation of FDI from the United States and the European Union outperforms the FDI from Japan at a restrained degree.

Keywords: environmental regulations, FDI, innovation-driven, innovation performance

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Authors: Rehab Mahmoud El Sayed, Toka Fahmy Nasr, Dalia M. Rasmi

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Environmental psychology studies the interaction between the user and the environment. This field is crucial in understanding how the built environment affects human behaviour, moods and feelings. Studying and understanding the aspects and influences of environmental psychology is a crucial key to investigating how the design can influence human behaviour to be environmentally friendly. This is known as pro-environmental behaviour where human actions are sustainable and impacts the environment positively. Accordingly, this paper aims to explore the impact of built environment design on environmental psychology to foster pro-environmental behaviour in university campus open spaces. In order to achieve this, an exploratory research method was conducted where a detailed study of the influences of environmental psychology was done and clarified its elements. Moreover, investigating the impact of design elements on human psychology took place. Besides, an empirical study of the outdoor spaces of the British University in Egypt occurred and a survey for students and staff was distributed. The research concluded that the four main psychological aspects are mostly influenced by the following design elements colours, lighting and thermal comfort respectively. Additionally, focusing on these design elements in the design process will create a sustainable environment. As a consequence, the pro-environmental behaviour of the user will be fostered.

Keywords: environmental psychology, pro-environmental behavior, sustainable environment, psychological influences

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Authors: Evangelos Kaisar, Anika Tabassum, Taraneh Ardalan, Majed Al-Ghandour

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The economy of any country is dependent on its ability to accommodate the movement and delivery of goods. The demand for goods movement and services increases truck traffic on highways and inside the cities. The livability of most cities is directly affected by the congestion and environmental impacts of trucks, which are the backbone of the urban freight system. Better operation of heavy vehicles on highways and arterials could lead to the network’s efficiency and reliability. In many cases, roundabouts can respond better than at-level intersections to enable traffic operations with increased safety for both cars and heavy vehicles. Recently emerged, the concept of turbo-roundabout is a viable alternative to the two-lane roundabout aiming to improve traffic efficiency. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the operation and performance level of an at-grade intersection, a conventional two-lane roundabout, and a basic turbo roundabout for freight movements. To analyze and evaluate the performances of the signalized intersections and the roundabouts, micro simulation models were developed PTV VISSIM. The networks chosen for this analysis in this study are to experiment and evaluate changes in the performance of the movement of vehicles with different geometric and flow scenarios. There are several scenarios that were examined when attempting to assess the impacts of various geometric designs on vehicle movements. The overall traffic efficiency depends on the geometric layout of the intersections, which consists of traffic congestion rate, hourly volume, frequency of heavy vehicles, type of road, and the ratio of major-street versus side-street traffic. The traffic performance was determined by evaluating the delay time, number of stops, and queue length of each intersection for varying truck percentages. The results indicate that turbo-roundabouts can replace signalized intersections and two-lane roundabouts only when the traffic demand is low, even with high truck volume. More specifically, it is clear that two-lane roundabouts are seen to have shorter queue lengths compared to signalized intersections and turbo-roundabouts. For instance, considering the scenario where the volume is highest, and the truck movement and left turn movement are maximum, the signalized intersection has 3 times, and the turbo-roundabout has 5 times longer queue length than a two-lane roundabout in major roads. Similarly, on minor roads, signalized intersections and turbo-roundabouts have 11 times longer queue lengths than two-lane roundabouts for the same scenario. As explained from all the developed scenarios, while the traffic demand lowers, the queue lengths of turbo-roundabouts shorten. This proves that turbo roundabouts perform well for low and medium traffic demand. The results indicate that turbo-roundabouts can replace signalized intersections and two-lane roundabouts only when the traffic demand is low, even with high truck volume. Finally, this study provides recommendations on the conditions under which different intersections perform better than each other.

Keywords: At-grade intersection, simulation, turbo-roundabout, two-lane roundabout

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Authors: Ashok K. Gupta

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Over the past few decades, since the bio-engineering revolution, autologous cell therapy (ACT) has become a rapidly evolving field. Currently, this form of therapy has broad applications in modern medicine and plastic surgery, ranging from the treatment/improvement of wound healing to life-saving operations. A study was conducted on 50 patients having to disfigure, and deform post burn scars and was treated by injection of extracted, refined adipose tissue grafts with their unique stem cell properties. To compare the outcome, a control of 20 such patients was treated with conventional skin or soft-tissue flaps or skin grafting, and a control of 10 was treated with more advanced microsurgical techniques such as Pre-fabricated flaps/pre laminated flaps / free flaps. Assessment of fat volume and survival post- follow up period was done by radiological aid, using MRI and clinically (Survival of the autograft and objective parameters for scar elasticity were evaluated skin elasticity parameters 3 to 9 months postoperatively). Recently, an enzyme that is involved in collagen crosslinking in fibrotic tissue, lysyl hydroxylase (LH2), was identified. This enzyme is normally active in bone and cartilage but hardly in the skin. It has been found that this enzyme is highly expressed in scar tissue and subcutaneous fat; this is in contrast to the dermis, where the enzyme is hardly expressed. Adipose tissue-derived stem cell injections are an effective method in the treatment of various extensive post-burn scar deformities that makes it possible to re-create the lost sub-dermal tissue for improvement in the function of involved joint movements.

Keywords: adipose tissue-derived stem cell injections, treatment of various extensive post-burn scar deformities, re-create the lost sub-dermal tissue, improvement in function of involved joint movements

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Authors: Hafiz M. Inamullah, Altaf Ullah

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Environmental degradation is a serious issue that has adverse impacts on the human population locally, regionally, and globally. There is a dire need to adopt an environmentally friendly lifestyle to minimize further environmental degradation. One of the mediums through which environmentally friendly attitudes and behavior may be inculcated is through school education. The purpose of this study was to investigate environmental activities organized in High Schools of District Peshawar. The population for this study was comprised of 77 Headmasters of the High Schools in District Peshawar. A sample of 65 Headmasters was selected randomly from the above-mentioned population. One questionnaire was developed from the relevant literature for the Headmasters and was self-administered by the researcher. The collected data was entered into Excel and was analyzed and interpreted through SPSS 20 using the frequencies and percentages, and the Chi-square test was applied. The results indicated that most high schools had never organized environmental activities for secondary-level students. It was suggested that the high schools might organize various environmental activities such as plantations, park visits, debate competitions, environmental clubs, and drawing competitions.

Keywords: proinvirmenlaism, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, secondary level, Peshawar

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Authors: Mylena McCoggle, Shyra Wilson, Andrea Rivera, Rocio Alba-Flores

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This work introduces the use of EMGs (electromyography) from muscle sensors to develop an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for pattern recognition to control a small unmanned aerial vehicle. The objective of this endeavor exhibits interfacing drone applications beyond manual control directly. MyoWare Muscle sensor contains three EMG electrodes (dual and single type) used to collect signals from the posterior (extensor) and anterior (flexor) forearm and the bicep. Collection of raw voltages from each sensor were connected to an Arduino Uno and a data processing algorithm was developed with the purpose of interpreting the voltage signals given when performing flexing, resting, and motion of the arm. Each sensor collected eight values over a two-second period for the duration of one minute, per assessment. During each two-second interval, the movements were alternating between a resting reference class and an active motion class, resulting in controlling the motion of the drone with left and right movements. This paper further investigated adding up to three sensors to differentiate between hand gestures to control the principal motions of the drone (left, right, up, and land). The hand gestures chosen to execute these movements were: a resting position, a thumbs up, a hand swipe right motion, and a flexing position. The MATLAB software was utilized to collect, process, and analyze the signals from the sensors. The protocol (machine learning tool) was used to classify the hand gestures. To generate the input vector to the ANN, the mean, root means squared, and standard deviation was processed for every two-second interval of the hand gestures. The neuromuscular information was then trained using an artificial neural network with one hidden layer of 10 neurons to categorize the four targets, one for each hand gesture. Once the machine learning training was completed, the resulting network interpreted the processed inputs and returned the probabilities of each class. Based on the resultant probability of the application process, once an output was greater or equal to 80% of matching a specific target class, the drone would perform the motion expected. Afterward, each movement was sent from the computer to the drone through a Wi-Fi network connection. These procedures have been successfully tested and integrated into trial flights, where the drone has responded successfully in real-time to predefined command inputs with the machine learning algorithm through the MyoWare sensor interface. The full paper will describe in detail the database of the hand gestures, the details of the ANN architecture, and confusion matrices results.

Keywords: artificial neural network, biosensors, electromyography, machine learning, MyoWare muscle sensors, Arduino

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Authors: Li-Kai Kuo, Shyh-Hau Wang

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The kinetic trajectory of the median nerve (MN) in the wrist has shown to be capable of being applied to assess the carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), and was found able to be detected by high-frequency ultrasound image via motion tracking technique. Yet, previous study may not quickly perform the measurement due to the use of a single element transducer for ultrasound image scanning. Therefore, previous system is not appropriate for being applied to clinical application. In the present study, B-mode ultrasound images of the wrist corresponding to movements of fingers from flexion to extension were acquired by clinical applicable real-time scanner. The kinetic trajectories of MN were off-line estimated utilizing two dimensional Baysian speckle tracking (TDBST) technique. The experiments were carried out from ten volunteers by ultrasound scanner at 12 MHz frequency. Results verified from phantom experiments have demonstrated that TDBST technique is able to detect the movement of MN based on signals of the past and present information and then to reduce the computational complications associated with the effect of such image quality as the resolution and contrast variations. Moreover, TDBST technique tended to be more accurate than that of the normalized cross correlation tracking (NCCT) technique used in previous study to detect movements of the MN in the wrist. In response to fingers’ flexion movement, the kinetic trajectory of the MN moved toward the ulnar-palmar direction, and then toward the radial-dorsal direction corresponding to the extensional movement. TDBST technique and the employed ultrasound image scanner have verified to be feasible to sensitively detect the kinetic trajectory and displacement of the MN. It thus could be further applied to diagnose CTS clinically and to improve the measurements to assess 3D trajectory of the MN.

Keywords: baysian speckle tracking, carpal tunnel syndrome, median nerve, motion tracking

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Authors: Mohamad Ghozali Hassan, Abdul Aziz Othman, Mohd Azril Ismail

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Adapting quickly to environmental dynamism is essential for an organization to develop outsourcing strategic and management in order to sustain competitive advantage. This research used the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) tool to investigate the factors of environmental dynamism impact on the strategic outsourcing success among electrical and electronic manufacturing industries in outsourcing management. Statistical results confirm that the inclusion of customer demand, technological change, and competition level as a new combination concept of environmental dynamism, has positive effects on outsourcing success. Additionally, this research demonstrates the acceptability of PLS-SEM as a statistical analysis to furnish a better understanding of environmental dynamism in outsourcing management in Malaysia. A practical finding contributes to academics and practitioners in the field of outsourcing management.

Keywords: environmental dynamism, customer demand, technological change, competition level, outsourcing success

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Authors: Majid Bahramian, Kaan Yetilmezsoy

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Environmental performance of residential buildings been a hotspot for the research community, however, the indoor environmental quality significantly overlooked in the literature. The paper is motivated by the understanding of the occupants from the indoor environmental qualities and seeks to find the satisfaction level in two high-rise green-certified residential buildings. Views of more than 250 respondents in each building were solicited on 15 Indoor Environmental Qualities (IEQ) parameters. Findings suggest that occupants are generally satisfied with five critical aspects of IEQ, but some unsatisfaction exists during operation phase. The results also indicate that the green build certification systems for new buildings have some deficiencies which affect the actual environmental performance of green buildings during operation. Some reasons were suggested by the occupants of which the design-focus construction and lack of monitoring after certification were the most critical factors. Among the crucial criteria for environmental performance assessment of green buildings, energy saving, reduction of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions, environmental impacts on neighborhood area, waste reduction and IEQs, were the most critical factors dominating the performance, in a descending order. This study provides valuable information on the performance of IEQ parameters of green building and gives a deeper understanding for stakeholders and companies involved in construction sector with the relevant feedback for their decision-making on current and future projects.

Keywords: indoor environmental qualities, green buildings, occupant satisfaction, environmental performance

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Authors: Stefano Zaninotto, Geoffrey Farrugia, Johan Debattista, Jason Gauci

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The need to reduce fuel and noise during taxi operations in the airports with a scenario of constantly increasing air traffic has resulted in an effort by the aerospace industry to move towards electric taxiing. In fact, this is one of the problems that is currently being addressed by SESAR JU and two main solutions are being proposed. With the first solution, electric motors are installed in the main (or nose) landing gear of the aircraft. With the second solution, manned or unmanned electric tow trucks are used to tow aircraft from the gate to the runway (or vice-versa). The presence of the tow trucks results in an increase in vehicle traffic inside the airport. Therefore, it is important to design the system in a way that the workload of Air Traffic Control (ATC) is not increased and the system assists ATC in managing all ground operations. The aim of this work is to develop an electric taxiing system, based on the use of autonomous tow trucks, which optimizes aircraft ground operations while keeping ATC in the loop. This system will consist of two components: an optimization tool and a Graphical User Interface (GUI). The optimization tool will be responsible for determining the optimal path for arriving and departing aircraft; allocating a tow truck to each taxiing aircraft; detecting conflicts between aircraft and/or tow trucks; and proposing solutions to resolve any conflicts. There are two main optimization strategies proposed in the literature. With centralized optimization, a central authority coordinates and makes the decision for all ground movements, in order to find a global optimum. With the second strategy, called decentralized optimization or multi-agent system, the decision authority is distributed among several agents. These agents could be the aircraft, the tow trucks, and taxiway or runway intersections. This approach finds local optima; however, it scales better with the number of ground movements and is more robust to external disturbances (such as taxi delays or unscheduled events). The strategy proposed in this work is a hybrid system combining aspects of these two approaches. The GUI will provide information on the movement and status of each aircraft and tow truck, and alert ATC about any impending conflicts. It will also enable ATC to give taxi clearances and to modify the routes proposed by the system. The complete system will be tested via computer simulation of various taxi scenarios at multiple airports, including Malta International Airport, a major international airport, and a fictitious airport. These tests will involve actual Air Traffic Controllers in order to evaluate the GUI and assess the impact of the system on ATC workload and situation awareness. It is expected that the proposed system will increase the efficiency of taxi operations while reducing their environmental impact. Furthermore, it is envisaged that the system will facilitate various controller tasks and improve ATC situation awareness.

Keywords: air traffic control, electric taxiing, autonomous tow trucks, graphical user interface, ground operations, multi-agent, route optimization

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Authors: Mehak Masood

Abstract:

Education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of people to address environment and development issues. It is also critical for achieving environmental and ethical awareness, values and attitudes, skills and behaviour consistent with sustainable development and for effective public participation in decision-making. In this regard, The British Council Pakistan have conducted a need assessment study conducted during the training sessions with three different groups of educationists belonging to both government and public sectors on the topic of Climate Change and Environmental Education (CCEE). This study aims to review perceptions about climate change and environmental education and analyze its need and importance according to educationists of Pakistan.

Keywords: environmental education, climate change, resilience development, awareness

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Authors: Raif Parlakkaya, Mustafa Nihat Demirci, Mehmet Nuri Salur

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Environmental pollution has detrimental effects on the quality of our life and its scope has reached such an extent that measures are being taken both at the national and international levels to reduce, prevent and mitigate its impact on social, economic and political spheres. Therefore, awareness of environmental problems has been increasing among stakeholders and accordingly among companies. It is seen that corporate reporting is expanding beyond environmental performance. Primary purpose of publishing an environmental report is to provide specific audiences with useful, meaningful information. This paper is intended to analyze the extent and qualification of environmental disclosures of Turkish publicly quoted firms and see how it varies from one sector to another. The data for the study were collected from annual activity reports of companies, listed on the corporate governance index (BIST-XKURY) of Istanbul Stock Exchange. Content analysis was the research methodology used to measure the extent of environmental disclosure. Accordingly, 2015 annual activity reports of companies that carry out business in some particular fields were acquired from Capital Market Board, websites of Public Disclosure Platform and companies’ own websites. These reports were categorized into five main aspects: Environmental policies, environmental management systems, environmental protection and conservation activities, environmental awareness and information on environmental lawsuits. Subsequently, each component was divided into several variables related to what each firm is supposed to disclose about environmental information. In this context, the nature and scope of the information disclosed on each item were assessed according to five different ways (N.I: No Information; G.E.: General Explanations; Q.E.: Qualitative Detailed Explanations; N.E.: Quantitative (numerical) Detailed Explanations; Q.&N.E.: Both Qualitative and Quantitative Explanations).

Keywords: environmental accounting, disclosure, corporate governance, content analysis

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Authors: Calvin Rong, Regina Agassian, Joel Hernandez, Mindy Engle-Friedman

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This study assessed strategies to stimulate engagement with future environmental needs. 32 participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions which involved imagining and drawing: 1) a generic person in current life, 2) one’s self in current life or 3) one’s self in the future. Participants before and after the intervention indicated connectedness to their selves 50 years in the future on an adapted Future Self-Continuity Scale. A significant interaction (p = .03) showed no difference in connectedness into one’s future self in the control group, a decrease in connectedness in those who imagined themselves in the present and an increase in connectedness in those who imagined themselves in the future. Results suggest attention to one’s present life circumstances may interfere with one’s connection with future environmental issues but imagining one’s future life may stimulate actions that result in future environmental protection.

Keywords: environmental psychology, future priming, climate change, global warming

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Authors: P. Tsarouhas, Ch. Achillas, D. Aidonis, D. Folinas, V. Maslis, N. Moussiopoulos

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Agricultural production is a sector with high socioeconomic significance and key implications on employment and nutritional security. However, the impacts of agrifood production and consumption patterns on the environment are considerable, mainly due to the demand of large inputs of resources. This paper presents a case study of olive oil production in Greece, an important agri-product especially for countries in the Mediterranean basin. Life Cycle Analysis has been used to quantify the environmental performance of olive oil production. All key parameters that are associated with the life cycle of olive oil production are studied and environmental “hotspots” are diagnosed.

Keywords: LCA, olive oil production, environmental impact, case study, Greece

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Authors: Evelyn Lami Ashelo Allu, Fidelis A. Emuze

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This study aims to contribute to the pursuit of environmental sustainability through the built environment practices of design and construction. Activities within the built environment and particularly within the construction industry have a significant role in ensuring environmental sustainability. The adoption of Lean principles and approaches would ensure that project deliverables are sustainable. This is because the processes that integrate lean principles reduce waste, add value to productivity, ensures customer satisfaction and are mindful of future productivity. Additionally, the lean principles for development are sustainable in themselves and thus promotes environmental sustainability. The study encourages further research with other methodologies and recommends the development of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms in order to promote the global concern for environmental sustainability.

Keywords: built environment, construction, design, lean, sustainability

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Authors: Angel Adams

Abstract:

In Australia, the contemporary social construction of hatred against the Islamic community was facilitated through the mainstream media. Australian public figures who have depicted Muslims and Islam not only as potential terrorists but also as incompatible with the country’s values and identities have helped to increase the level of fear against the Islamic community, leading sympathetic far-right movements to shift discussions towards anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim rhetoric. Political opportunities combined with a socially constructed narrative of fear of the ‘other’, introduced during the White Australia Policy of 1901, has allowed extreme and radical far-right movements to justify hate against the contemporary Australian Islamic community. This study aims to answer the following question: How does Australia’s founding provide a fertile environment to the spread of hatred against the contemporary Islamic community? The paper demonstrates that a forged social construct of grievances concerning the Islamic community in Australia has led to a surge in supply of far-right activism to combat what has become a perceived ‘national threat’. In essence, Australia’s history of a fear of the ‘other’ brings challenges to a multicultural society, and can potentially lead to a more unstable socio-political environment where abuse and violence are normalized and more likely to develop. Furthermore, the paper aims to bring a more nuanced understanding of what is considered ‘new far-right’ discourses with shared anti-Islam and anti-Muslim agendas in Australia. The political opportunity structures theory was the mechanism used to determine how new forms of far-right groups have become more mainstream in Australia. Previous studies on far-right groups in Australia have relied on qualitative data, but further empirical research in this area is sorely needed. Above all, this paper clarifies how hatred against minorities can have a negative impact on wider communities and allow a global narrative of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ to erupt from the fringes of society in Australia.

Keywords: Australia, Islamophobia, far-right, nationalism, political opportunity structures, political violence, social construction

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Authors: Mahsa Hadipour Jahromy, Sara Rezaii

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Parkinson’s disease (PD) results primarily from the death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Soon after the discovery of levodopa and its beneficial effects in chronic administration, debilitating involuntary movements observed, termed levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) with poorly understood pathogenesis. Polyphenol-rich compounds, like pomegranate, provided neuroprotection in several animal models of brain diseases. In the present work, we investigated whether pomegranate has preventive effects following 4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced dopaminergic degenerations and the potential to diminish LID in mice. Mice model of PD was induced by MPTP (30 mg/kg daily for five consecutive days). To induce a mice model of LID, valid PD mice were treated with levodopa (50 mg/kg, i.p) for 15 days. Then the effects of chronic co-administration of pomegranate juice (20 ml/kg) with levodopa and continuing for 10 days, evaluated. Behavioural tests were performed in all groups, every other day including: Abnormal involuntary movements (AIMS), forelimb adjusting steps, cylinder, and catatonia tests. Finally, brain tissue sections were prepared to study substantia nigra changes and dopamine neuron density after treatments. With this MPTP regimen, significant movement disorders revealed in AIMS tests and there was a reduction in dopamine striatal density. Levodopa attenuates their loss caused by MPTP, however, in chronic administration, dyskinesia observed in forelimb adjusting step and cylinder tests. Besides, catatonia observed in some cases. Chronic pomegranate co-administration significantly improved LID in both tests and reduced dopaminergic loss in substantia nigra. These data indicate that pomegranate might be a good adjunct for preserving dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra and reducing LID in mice.

Keywords: levodopa-induced dyskinesia, MPTP, Parkinson’s disease, pomegranate

Procedia PDF Downloads 494