Life cycle assessment was used to evaluate the environmental impacts of phytoplanktonic biofuels as possible sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels. Three scenarios were examined for converting planktonic biomass into higher-value commodities and energy streams using the alga Scenedesmus sp. and the cyanobacterium Arthrospira sp. as the species of interest. The first scenario (Sc-1) involved the production of biodiesel and glycerol from the planktonic biomass. In the second scenario (Sc-2), biodiesel and glycerol were generated from the planktonic biomass, and biogas was produced from the residual biomass. The process also involved using a catalyst derived from snail shells for biodiesel production. The third scenario (Sc-3) was similar to Sc-2 but converted CO2 from the biogas upgrading to methanol, which was then used in synthesizing biodiesel. The results indicated that Sc-2 and Sc-3 had a reduced potential (up to 60 % less) for damaging human health compared to Sc-1. Sc-2 and Sc-3 had up to 61 % less environmental impact than Sc-1. Sc-2 and Sc-3 reduced the total cumulative exergy demand by up to 44 % compared to Sc-1. In conclusion, producing chemicals and utilities within the biorefinery could significantly improve environmental sustainability, reduce waste, and diversify revenue streams.
Paracyrba wanlessi is a southeast Asian jumping spider (Salticidae) that lives in the hollow internodes of fallen bamboo and preys on the larvae, pupae and adults of mosquitoes. In contrast to Evarcha culicivora, an East African salticid that is also known for actively targeting mosquitoes as preferred prey, there was no evidence of P. wanlessi choosing mosquitoes on the basis of species, sex or diet. However, our findings show that P. wanlessi chooses mosquitoes significantly more often than a variety of other prey types, regardless of whether the prey are in or away from water, and regardless of whether the mosquitoes are adults or juveniles. Moreover, a preference for mosquito larvae, pupae and adults is expressed regardless of whether test spiders are maintained on a diet of terrestrial or aquatic prey and regardless of whether the diet includes or excludes mosquitoes. Congruence of an environmental factor (in water versus away from water) with prey type (aquatic versus terrestrial mosquitoes) appeared to be important and yet, even when the prey were in the incongruent environment, P. wanlessi continued to choose mosquitoes more often than other prey.
The presence of pathogenic Leptospira spp. in the environment poses threats to human health. The aim of this study was to detect and characterize Leptospira spp. from environmental samples. A total of 144 samples comprised of 72 soil and 72 water samples were collected from markets and recreational areas in a north-eastern state in Malaysia. Samples were cultured on Ellinghausen and McCullough modified by Johnson and Harris media. Leptospires were positive in 22.9% (n = 33) of the isolates. Based on partial sequences of 16S rRNA, a pathogenic leptospire, Leptospira alstonii (n = 1/33), was identified in 3% of the isolates followed by intermediate leptospire (L. wolffii, n = 1/33, and L. licerasiae, n = 7/33) and nonpathogenic leptospire, L. meyeri (n = 22/33) in 24.2% and 66.7%, respectively. This study demonstrates the presence of a clinically significant pathogenic L. alstonii in the environments which could pose health risks to the occupants and visitors.
Environmental enrichment (EE) is an environmental paradigm encompassing sensory, cognitive, and physical stimulation at a heightened level. Previous studies have reported the beneficial effects of EE in the brain, particularly in the hippocampus. EE improves cognitive function as well as ameliorates depressive and anxiety-like behaviors, making it a potentially effective neuroprotective strategy against neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we summarize the current evidence for EE as a neuroprotective strategy as well as the potential molecular pathways that can explain the effects of EE from a biochemical perspective using animal models. The effectiveness of EE in enhancing brain activity against neurodegeneration is explored with a view to differences present in early and late life EE exposure, with its potential application in human being discussed. We discuss EE as one of the non pharmacological approaches in preventing or delaying the onset of AD for future research.
Environmental sustainability is a key target to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, achieving these targets needs tools to pave the way for achieving SDGs and COP28 targets. Therefore, the primary objective of the present study is to examine the significance of clean energy, research and development spending, technological innovation, income, and human capital in achieving environmental sustainability in the USA from 1990 to 2022. The study employed time series econometric methods to estimate the empirical results. The study confirmed the long-run cointegrating relationship among CO2 emissions, human capital, income, R&D, technological innovation, and clean energy. The results are statistically significant in the short run except for R&D expenditures. In the long run, the study found that income and human capital contribute to further aggravating the environment via increasing CO2 emissions. However, R&D expenditures, technological innovation, and clean energy help to promote environmental sustainability by limiting carbon emissions. The study recommends investment in technological innovation, clean energy, and increasing R&D expenditures to achieve environmental sustainability in the USA.
The effective treatment of waste to be used as a resource in future has a major role in achieving environmental sustainability and moving towards circular economy. The current research is aimed to provide in-depth detail regarding prominent trends and research themes, evolution, future research orientation, main characteristics, and mapping of research publications on waste management, technological innovation in circular economy domain from the year 2000 to 2021. Different analyses including text mining and bibliometric and content analyses were applied to answer the research question and provide the details on aforementioned variables. From the bibliometric analyses, a total of 1118 articles were drawn out from the Scopus database to conceptualize the core body of research. As a result, the following themes were identified: electronic waste, circular economy transition, plastic waste, bio-based waste management, lifecycle assessment, and ecological impacts, and construction and demolition waste management. The highlighted features, future research orientation, and prominent research perspective can provide guideline for future research to enrich the literature through conducting studies on provided research directions and help lead waste management and technological innovation policymakers, professionals, and practitioners in moving towards circular transition.
Estimating the asymmetrical influence of foreign direct investment is the primary goal of the current study. In addition, further controlled variables affect environmental degradation in OIC nations. Due to this, current research employs the asymmetric (NPARDL) approach and the data period from 1980 to 2021 to estimate about viability of the EKC (environmental Kuznets curve) theory. The study utilized greenhouse gas (GHG) including emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4), and ecological footprint as substantial parameters of environmental quality. A nonlinear link between foreign direct investments, trade openness, economic growth, urbanization, energy consumption, and environmental pollution with CO2, N2O, CH4, and ecological footprint in the OIC nations is confirmed by the study's outcomes, which however reveals inconsistent results. Furthermore, the results also show that wrong conclusions might result from disregarding intrinsic nonlinearities. The study's conclusions provide the most important recommendations for decision-makers.
The connection between ecological footprint and economic complexity has significant implications for environmental sustainability regarding the policy. Additionally, institutional quality is crucial in ensuring environmental sustainability and moderating the link between economic complexity and ecological footprint. The task of achieving sustainable environmental development and preventing further degradation of the environment poses a formidable challenge to policymakers. This study delves into the significance of technology innovation and renewable energy in creating a more sustainable environment. Recognizing the need for a more critical review, this research establishes the dynamic linkage between ecological footprint, renewable energy consumption, and technological innovation, especially in conjunction with a moderating component, particularly institutional quality, in G20 countries from 1990 to 2021. We employ advanced panel approaches to address panel data analysis concerns, such as cross-sectional dependence, slope heterogeneity, unit root, cointegration test and CS-ARDL. The long-term estimator indicates that renewable energy and technological innovation negatively but significantly impact the ecological footprint. Whilst economic growth, FDI, and urbanization have shown a positive and significant impact on ecological footprint; institutional quality negatively moderates the relationship between ecological footprint, renewable energy, and technological innovation in the G20 countries. Further evidence from the Dumitrescu-Hurlin Granger causality test shows that efforts to expand access to renewable energy, technological advancements, and economic growth will significantly affect environmental impacts. Based on our results, it is imperative to introduce more favorable legislation and encourage technological advancements in the field of renewable energy if we want to achieve our sustainable development objectives.
Urbanization has provided experimental settings for testing the interactive relationship between genetic background and changes in lifestyle and dietary patterns. The concept of gene-environment interaction was described by epidemic of obesity along with urbanization. Genome-wide association has identified several genes such as melanocortin-4 receptor that associates with environmental influences of obesity. Gene environment (GxE) interaction refers to modification by an environmental factor of the effect of a genetic variant on a phenotypic trait. GxE interactions can serve to modulate the adverse effects of a risk allele, or can exacerbate the genotype-phenotype relationship and increase risk.
Although faced with historical and ongoing hardships, many indigenous communities in Southeast Asia have managed to survive and thrive. The identification of factors that assist these communities in coping with the challenges experienced would help enhance their overall psychological well-being and resilience. The current review outlines types of protective factors for the indigenous communities in Southeast Asia focusing on the cultural, family and community elements linked to their psychological well-being. Four themes of protective factors were identified strong connection to the land and the environment, embracing cultural norms and traditions, passing down and keeping indigenous knowledge across generations, and emphasis on community and social cohesion. Findings suggest that the value of interconnectedness serves as an overarching theme that forms the worldview of the indigenous communities in Southeast Asia. Interconnectedness was important to the indigenous peoples as they considered themselves to be extensions of their family, community, ancestors, future descendants, the land and to all living things and creations that reside on their lands. Future intervention attempts to promote resilience among these communities should take these factors into account, and pay closer attention to community-level factors that seem to have a profound impact on the indigenous construction of resilience.
Matched MeSH terms: Environment; Social Environment*
Promoting age-friendly environment is one of the appropriate approaches to support quality of life toward ageing populations. However, the information regarding age-friendly environments in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Plus Three countries is still limited. This study aimed to survey the perceived age-friendly environments among ASEAN Plus Three older populations. This study employed cross-sectional quantitative research using multistage cluster sampling to select a sample of older adults in the capital cities of Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand. The final sample was composed of 2171 older adults aged 55 years and over, including 140 Japanese, 510 Thai, 537 Malaysian, 487 Myanmarese, and 497 Vietnamese older adults. Data collection was conducted using a quantitative questionnaire with 20 items of perceived age-friendly environments with the rating scale based on the World Health Organization (WHO) standard. The score from the 20 items were analyzed and examined high-risk groups of "bad perception level" age-friendly environments using ordinal logistic regression. The research indicated the five highest inadequacies of age-friendly environments including: (1) participating in an emergency-response training session or drill which addressed the needs of older residents; (2) enrolling in any form of education or training, either formal or non-formal in any subject; (3) having opportunities for paid employment; (4) involvement in decision making about important political, economic and social issues in the community; and (5) having personal care or assistance needs met in the older adult's home setting by government/private care services. Information regarding the inadequacy of age-friendliness by region was evidenced to guide policy makers in providing the right interventions towards older adults' needs.
Matched MeSH terms: Environment*; Social Environment
This study examines the impact of economic growth, corruption, health, and poverty on environmental degradation for three countries from ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand using annual data over the period of 1994-2014. The relationship between environmental degradation (pollution) by carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and economic growth is examined along with some other variables, namely health expenditure, poverty, agriculture value added growth, industrial value added growth, and corruption. The ordinary least squares (OLS) method is applied as an analytical technique for parameter estimation. The empirical results reveal that almost all variables are statistically significant at the 5% level of significance, whereby test rejects the null hypotheses of non-cointegration, indicating that all variables play an important role in affecting the environment across countries. Empirical results also indicate that economic growth has significant positive impact, while health expenditures show significantly negative impact on the environment. Corruption has significant positive effect on environment in the case of Malaysia; while in the case of Indonesia and Thailand, it has insignificant results. However, for the individual analysis across countries, the regression estimate suggests that economic growth has a significant positive relationship with environment for Indonesia, while it is found insignificantly negative and positive in the case of Malaysia and Thailand, respectively, during the period under the study. Empirical findings of the study suggest that policy-makers require to make technological-friendly environment sequentially to surmount unregulated pollution, steady population transfers from rural areas to urban areas are also important, and poverty alleviation and better health provision can also help to improve the environment.
This research work demonstrates compositional engineering of an organic-inorganic hybrid nano-composites for modifying absolute threshold of humidity sensors. Vanadyl-2,9,16,23-tetraphenoxy-29H,31H-phthalocyanine (VOPcPhO), an organic semiconductor, doped with Titanium-dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2NPs) has been employed to fabricate humidity sensors. The morphology of the VOPcPhO:TiO2nano-composite films has been analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The sensors have been examined over a wide range of relative humidity i.e. 20-99% RH. The sensor with TiO2(90nm) shows reduced sensitivity-threshold and improved linearity. The VOPcPhO:TiO2(90nm) nano-composite film is comprised of uniformly distributed voids which makes the surface more favorable for adsorption of moisture content from environment. The VOPcPhO:TiO2nano-composite based sensor demonstrates remarkable improvement in the sensing parameter when equated with VOPcPhO sensors.
Food production is a major driver of global environmental change and the overshoot of planetary sustainability boundaries. Greater affluence in developing nations and human population growth are also increasing demand for all foods, and for animal proteins in particular. Consequently, a growing body of literature calls for the sustainable intensification of food production, broadly defined as "producing more using less". Most assessments of the potential for sustainable intensification rely on only one or two indicators, meaning that ecological trade-offs among impact categories that occur as production intensifies may remain unaccounted for. The present study addresses this limitation using life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify six local and global environmental consequences of intensifying aquaculture production in Bangladesh. Production data are from a unique survey of 2,678 farms, and results show multidirectional associations between the intensification of aquaculture production and its environmental impacts. Intensification (measured in material and economic output per unit primary area farmed) is positively correlated with acidification, eutrophication, and ecotoxicological impacts in aquatic ecosystems; negatively correlated with freshwater consumption; and indifferent with regard to global warming and land occupation. As production intensifies, the geographical locations of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, acidifying emissions, freshwater consumption, and land occupation shift from the immediate vicinity of the farm to more geographically dispersed telecoupled locations across the globe. Simple changes in fish farming technology and management practices that could help make the global transition to more intensive forms of aquaculture be more sustainable are identified.
Introduction: Physical inactivity has been recognised as the fourth leading risk factor for mortality worldwide. Individuals who are physically inactive have an increased risk of 20% to 30% of dying prematurely. Individuals who fulfil the minimum recommendations of physical activity can reduce the development of Non-Communicable Diseases. In 2015, 33.5% of Malaysian adults were reported to be physically inactive. Various factors were found to be associated with physical activity participation and these factors need to be explored. Methods: A cross-sectional study using proportionate simple random sampling was conducted. A total of 310 health staff were sampled according to the proportion from five divisions and data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. IBM SPSS version 22.0 were used to analyse the data. Predictors for physical activity were also determined. Results: The response rate was 97.7% (303 out of 310). The prevalence of physical inactivity among respondents was 37.6%. The predictors for physical inactivity were smoker/ex-smoker (aOR=2.308, p=0.027), certificate/diploma education (aOR=2.135, p=0.008), personal barrier (aOR=1.055, p=0.017) and social environment barrier (aOR=1.106, p =0.025). Conclusion: People that have a higher possibility of being physically inactive were those with certificate or diploma education and smokers or ex-smokers. Those with personal barriers and social environment barriers likewise have higher probability of being physically inactive. Thus, appropriate health interventions should be developed by taking these factors into consideration to promote physical activity among the health staff.
Introduction: The prevalence of stress among Malaysian police is high in which 38.8% polices have severe stress related to work resources and workplace environment. Psychosocial safety climate is one of the indicators that can be used to avoid psychosocial health problems. Objective: This study was conducted to determine the risk factors of psychosocial safety climate and to measure the effectiveness of a customised safety website in improving the safety climate. Methodology: This study involved 105 police officers who were randomly selected from nine different departments in PDRM Bukit Aman. A survey adapted from previous study was used to determine the psychosocial safety climate levels among respondents. Then, occupational safety website was introduced to the respondents and being used for two weeks. Lastly, post survey was done to see the difference of psychosocial safety climate before and after the use of the website. Results and Discussion: Findings showed that team psychological safety (r=0.381, p= , p=
Acrylamide is a synthetic monomer that has been classified as toxic and carcinogenic apart
from its diverse application in the industry. Its application is in the formation of
polyacrylamide. Polyacrylamide usage is diverse and is found as herbicide formulation, as soil
treatment agent and in water treatment plants. Deaths and sickness due to the accidental
exposure to acrylamide have been reported while chronic toxicity is also a source of the
problem. This review highlighted the toxic effect of acrylamide to various organisms like
human, animal and plant. This review also discusses on the potential use of biological
technologies to remediate acrylamide pollution in the environment and the degradation
pathways these microorganisms utilize to assimilate acrylamide as a nitrogen, carbon or both as
carbon and nitrogen sources.
The lack of understanding of Islamic principles in the design of public spaces has led to
the weakness of the function, aesthetic value and the identity of urban places. The study
seeks to identify the characteristics and elements of the Islamic urban space in
Putrajaya base on publics and expert perception and preference. A questionnaire
survey was conducted with approximately 500 civilians to analyse the public perception
of Putra Square and Astaka Moroco. A photo base interview was carried out with
approximately 100 professionals in the built environment field to evaluate the quality
of Astaka Moroco in comparison to Islamic gardens in the Middle East based on their
perception. The results indicate that the style of the Dataran Putra is the most preferred
by the public compared to the Astaka Morocco. The professionals inform that Astaka
Morocco is not comparable to the quality of Islamic gardens in the Middle East either
in terms of function or aesthetic value due to the lack of understanding of the Islamic gardens elements and principles. In addition, the public liked the Islamic garden style
that reflects the local identity and the functions as public spaces instead of just as an
exhibit or a model. The findings can be a good guide in designing the Islamic public
spaces which are favoured by the public.
The aim of this project was to determine stress levels and to identify the main stressors that contribute to stress among Kolej Poly-Tech Mara (KPTM) nursing students during their clinical placement in order to help them overcome it. Atotal of 324 respondents undergoing training at KPTM participated in this project. The questionnaire consisting of six common stressors with 30 items using a 5-point Likert Scale was used to measure the level of stress among the respondents during their clinical placement. The data collected was examined for normal distribution, and inferential statistics such as correlations were used to seek relationships. The results indicated that the main stressors that contributed to stress among KPTM nursing students were from both environment, along with assignments and workload. There was moderate level of stress among KPTM nursing students during clinical placement and the factor that contributed to stress was due to the the possibility of making an error. Clinical placement is an essential component for nursing student's training. The practice allows nursing students the opportunity to relate the theory into practice during nursing care towards the patients. Findingsfrom this study will provide the nursing educators, clinical instructors with a meaningful understanding of the importance of clinical placement experience.
Radio propagation prediction simulation methods based on deterministic technique such as ray launching is extensively used to accomplish radio channel characterization. However, the superiority of the simulation depends on the number of rays launched and received. This paper presented the indoor three-dimensional (3D) Minimum Ray Launching Maximum Accuracy (MRLMA) technique, which is applicable for an efficient indoor radio wave propagation prediction. Utilizing the novel MRLMA technique in the simulation environment for ray lunching and tracing can drastically reduce the number of rays that need to be traced, and improve the efficiency of ray tracing. Implementation and justification of MRLMA presented in the paper. An indoor office 3D layouts are selected and simulations have been performed using the MRLMA and other reference techniques. Results showed that the indoor 3D MRLMA model is appropriate for wireless communications network systems design and optimization process with respect to efficiency, coverage, number of rays launching, number of rays received by the mobile station, and simulation time.