A detailed sedimentological study and facies analysis of the Permian age, uppermost succession of the Kubang Pasu Formation in Perlis was conducted in order to reconstruct the palaeo-depositional environment. Four stratigraphic sections of the uppermost Kubang Pasu Formation were logged at Bukit Chondong and Bukit Tungku Lembu, Perlis. The sections were divided into facies based on lithology and sedimentary structures. Large scale patterns in the form of facies associations and facies successions were also identified. The uppermost Kubang Pasu Formation can be divided into several coarsening upward facies successions. Each facies succession grades upward from an offshore facies association (FA1) composed of bioturbated mudstone and minor thin sandstone, into a distal lower shoreface facies association (FA 2) composed primarily of mudstone interbedded with hummocky cross-stratified sandstone (HCS) and finally a proximal lower shoreface facies association (FA 3) composed of amalgamated hummocky cross-stratified sandstone beds. The facies succession is interpreted as representing a wave- and storm-influenced coastal depositional environment. The gradual transition from siliciclastics to carbonates is probably related to post rift thermal subsidence and tectonic quiescence due to separation of Sibumasu from Gondwana during the Permian.
This exploratory qualitative study investigates older adults' unmet needs in the age-friendly city of Ipoh, Malaysia. Seventeen participants were interviewed, including ten older adults residing in Ipoh City for at least six months, four carers, and three professional key informants. Interviews were conducted using semi-structured questions based on the WHO Age-Friendly Cities Framework. A 5P framework for active ageing based on the ecological ageing model was adapted for data analysis. The 5P framework consists of domains of person (micro), process (meso), place (macro), policymaking (macro), and prime, which allows for the dissection of older adults' unmet needs in planning for multilevel approaches, which were employed for analysis. Person: the personal needs requiring improvement included digital divide disparity, inadequate family support, and restricted sports activities attributed to physical limitations. Process: There were fewer social activities and a lack of low-cost and easily accessible venues for seniors. Economic challenges include expensive private healthcare services, variation in the quality of care in older residential care facilities, and limited savings for retirement. Place issues include unequal distribution of exercise equipment, public open spaces, the need for more conducive parking for seniors, and a place for social activities. Difficulties assessing public transportation, digitalized services, and unaffordable e-hailing services are common among seniors. Housing issues for seniors include a lack of barrier-free housing design and unaffordable housing. Policymaking: Insufficient private sector commitment to improving services to older adults, lack of policy governance on the quality of nursing homes, and insufficient multidisciplinary governance collaboration. Prime: Health promotion for preventing age-related illness is required to preserve health in old age, and full-time family caregivers' psychological well-being is often overlooked.
Matched MeSH terms: Environment; Social Environment*
Kemahiran pemikiran kritikal adalah satu kemahiran yang penting bagi para jururawat membuat keputusan klinikal yang lebih baik untuk memberi jagarawatan yang selamat. Seseorang mesti mempunyai kecenderungan awal untuk berfikir kritis bagi pembangunan kemahiran pemikiran kritikal. Pembentukan kecenderungan pemikiran kritis disokong oleh harga diri yang mencukupi. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengukur tahap kecenderungan pemikiran kritis dan harga diri di kalangan pelajar ijazah sarjana muda kejururawatan di sebuah universiti awam Malaysia. Kajian keratan rentas ini telah dijalankan di universiti melibatkan 99 orang pelajar. Data dikumpul dengan responden menjawab sendiri borang soal selidik. Data yang diperolehi kemudiannya dianalisa secara kuantitatif. Sejumlah 97% pelajar kejururawatan mempunyai tahap yang tinggi untuk mempunyai kecenderungan pemikiran kritis. Hampir 3/4 daripada pelajar kejururawatan mempunyai tahap sederhana bagi tanggapan harga diri (74.7%). Kecenderungan pemikiran kritis didapati signifikan berkait dengan tanggapan harga diri (rho = 0.203, p
The use of agro-biowaste compost fertilizers in agriculture is beneficial from technical, financial, and environmental perspectives. Nevertheless, the physical, mechanical, and agronomical attributes of agro-biowaste compost fertilizers should be engineered to reduce their storage, handling, and utilization costs and environmental impacts. Pelletizing and drying are promising techniques to achieve these goals. In the present work, the effects of process parameters, including compost particle size/moisture content, pelletizing compression ratio, and drying air temperature/velocity, were investigated on the density, specific crushing energy, and moisture diffusion of agro-biowaste compost pellet. The Taguchi technique was applied to understand the effects of independent parameters on the output responses, while the optimal pellet properties were found using the iterative thresholding method. The soil and plant (sweet basil) response to the optimal biocompost pellet was experimentally evaluated. The farm application of the optimal pellet was also compared with the untreated agro-biowaste compost using the life cycle assessment approach to investigate the potential environmental impact mitigation of the pelletizing and drying processes. Generally, the compost moisture content was the most influential factor on the density and specific crushing energy of the dried pellet, while the moisture diffusion of the wet pellet during the drying process was significantly influenced by the pelletizing compression ratio. The density, specific crushing energy, and moisture diffusion of agro-biowaste compost pellet at the optimal conditions were 1242.49 kg/m3, 0.5054 MJ/t, and 8.2 × 10-8 m2/s, respectively. The optimal biocompost pellet could release 80% of its nitrogen content evenly over 98 days, while this value was 28 days for the chemical urea fertilizer. Besides, the optimal pellet could significantly improve the agronomical attributes of the sweet basil plant compared with the untreated biocompost. The applied strategy could collectively mitigate the weighted environmental impact of farm application of the agro-biowaste compost by more than 63%. This reduction could be attributed to the fact that the pelletizing-drying processes could avoid methane emissions from the untreated agro-biowaste compost during the farm application. Overall, pelletizing-drying of the agro-biowaste compost could be regarded as a promising strategy to improve the environmental and agronomical performance of farm application of organic biofertilizers.
Remanufacturing of used-products is becoming an important activity in many production companies. This paper reviews key remanufacturing process, highlights eight unique characteristics of remanufacturing process environment and proposes a generic conceptual remanufacturing process model that considers the presence and interactions of these eight features. The generic conceptual model could be modified to suit remanufacturing process of any given used products to be remanufactured. Future research can modify the generic remanufacturing model to suit used automotive parts remanufacturing with unique characteristics and apply simulation technique to model and analyse the corresponding remanufacturing process.
Researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers are having to deal with the negative impact of body image concerns in populations globally. One cost-effective way of promoting healthier body image outcomes is through exposure to natural environments. A growing body of research has shown that spending time in, interacting with, and even just looking at natural environments can promote healthier body image outcomes. In this narrative review, I consider the different forms of evidence documenting an association between nature exposure and body image (i.e., cross-sectional and mediational, experimental and quasi-experimental, comparative, prospective, experience sampling, and qualitative research). Beyond this, I shine a critical light on the available evidence, highlighting concerns with methodological (i.e., who research has focused on and what types of natural environments have been considered), psychometric (i.e., how body image and nature exposure are measured), and conceptual issues (how the association is explained). I conclude that, although there are issues affecting the way the existing body of research is to be understood, there are reasons to be hopeful that nature exposure can be leveraged to promote healthier body image outcomes in diverse populations.
Environmental protection is critical to maintain ecosystem services essential for human well-being. It is important to be able to rank countries by their environmental impact so that poor performers as well as policy 'models' can be identified. We provide novel metrics of country-specific environmental impact ranks - one proportional to total resource availability per country and an absolute (total) measure of impact - that explicitly avoid incorporating confounding human health or economic indicators. Our rankings are based on natural forest loss, habitat conversion, marine captures, fertilizer use, water pollution, carbon emissions and species threat, although many other variables were excluded due to a lack of country-specific data. Of 228 countries considered, 179 (proportional) and 171 (absolute) had sufficient data for correlations. The proportional index ranked Singapore, Korea, Qatar, Kuwait, Japan, Thailand, Bahrain, Malaysia, Philippines and Netherlands as having the highest proportional environmental impact, whereas Brazil, USA, China, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, India, Russia, Australia and Peru had the highest absolute impact (i.e., total resource use, emissions and species threatened). Proportional and absolute environmental impact ranks were correlated, with mainly Asian countries having both high proportional and absolute impact. Despite weak concordance among the drivers of environmental impact, countries often perform poorly for different reasons. We found no evidence to support the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis of a non-linear relationship between impact and per capita wealth, although there was a weak reduction in environmental impact as per capita wealth increases. Using structural equation models to account for cross-correlation, we found that increasing wealth was the most important driver of environmental impact. Our results show that the global community not only has to encourage better environmental performance in less-developed countries, especially those in Asia, there is also a requirement to focus on the development of environmentally friendly practices in wealthier countries.
Strategic noise mapping provides important information for noise impact assessment and noise abatement. However, producing reliable strategic noise mapping in a dynamic, complex working environment is difficult. This study proposes the implementation of the random walk approach as a new stochastic technique to simulate noise mapping and to predict the noise exposure level in a workplace. A stochastic simulation framework and software, namely RW-eNMS, were developed to facilitate the random walk approach in noise mapping prediction. This framework considers the randomness and complexity of machinery operation and noise emission levels. Also, it assesses the impact of noise on the workers and the surrounding environment. For data validation, three case studies were conducted to check the accuracy of the prediction data and to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of this approach. The results showed high accuracy of prediction results together with a majority of absolute differences of less than 2 dBA; also, the predicted noise doses were mostly in the range of measurement. Therefore, the random walk approach was effective in dealing with environmental noises. It could predict strategic noise mapping to facilitate noise monitoring and noise control in the workplaces.
This study investigates the impact of the aggregate and individual dimensions of environmental performance (EP) on financial performance (FP), based on a dataset covering the travel and tourism industry (airlines, casinos, hotels, and restaurants) across different economic regions over the period 2003-2014. The results reveal that EP positively affects the FP in the hotel industry when aggregate EP is used. When individual dimensions of EP are considered, resource reduction is found to positively (negatively) affect the performance in the hotel (airline) industry, while product innovation positively affects the performance in the restaurant industry. Hence, the trade-off effect seems to be dominant in the airline industry, and the 'heterogeneous resources and reputation-building' hypothesis is evident in both the hotel and restaurant industries. In addition, in general, the findings support the positive moderating effect of slack resources on the relationship between the individual dimensions of EP and FP in the travel and tourism industry, and, hence, are supportive of the slack resources hypothesis. These effects, however, vary depending on the travel and tourism industry under investigation.
The stakeholders' perceptions on the impacts of Urban Heat Island (UHI) are critical for reducing exposure and influencing their response to interventions that are aimed at encouraging a behaviour change. A proper understanding of the UHI impacts on the society, economy and environment is deemed an essential motivating factor for the stakeholders to work towards UHI mitigations in the local context. This study adopted an inductive qualitative approach using Stakeholder Dialogue Sessions (SDSs) to assess the perceived impacts of UHI among various stakeholders, comprising policy makers, academicians, developers and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), in a tropical metropolitan city. The results revealed five themes such as deterioration of public health, acceleration of urban migration patterns and spending time in cooler areas, reduction of workers' productivity, increased energy consumption by the households and deterioration of environmental quality and natural resources that were categorized into social, economic and environmental impacts. Although most of the stakeholders were quite unfamiliar with the term UHI, they still display a good understanding of the potential impacts of UHI due to their posteriori knowledge and ability to rationalize the physical condition of the environment in which they live. The findings provide useful insights and valuable information to the local authorities to tailor necessary actions and educational campaigns to increase UHI awareness among the stakeholders. Being among the earlier studies to use a qualitative approach to attain the aforementioned objective, the findings are crucial to determine the level of understanding of the stakeholders on the impact of UHI. Through this study, the authors have highlighted the gaps and needs for knowledge improvements aimed at behaviour change among the stakeholders.
This study quantitatively investigated the scientific progress of walkability research landscape and its future prospects using bibliometric indicators to highlight the research hotspots. The results accentuated multifaceted nature of walkability research landscape with a strong association towards public health disciplines. Keyword co-occurrence analysis emphasized that majority of the walkability studies centred on the interactions between walking and other three main factors such as built environment attributes, transportation and obesity. Based on the identified research hotspots, a brief state-of-the-art review of walkability studies was presented. Future prospects based on the unexplored research gaps within the hotspots were also discussed. High correlation (r = 0.99, p
Cement is a vital material used in the construction of concrete buildings. World annual cement demand is increasing rapidly along with the improvement in infrastructure development. However, cement manufacturing industries are facing challenges in reducing the environmental impacts of cement production. To resolve this issue, a suitable methodology is crucial to ensure the selected processes are effective and efficient and at the same time environmentally friendly. Different technologies and equipment have potential to produce variations in operational effectiveness, environmental impacts, and manufacturing costs in cement manufacturing industries. Therefore, this work aims to present the sustainability assessment of cement plants by taking into consideration of environmental, social, and economic impacts. Three cement production plants located in Western Indonesian are used as case studies where social impact and environmental impact are evaluated via life cycle assessment (LCA) model. This model is integrated with analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a multi-criteria decision analysis tool in selecting the most sustainable cement manufacturing plant.
Mixed-use developments (MXDs) are a single development project that integrates and interacts with different land uses. Traffic is estimated to be reduced with such development. However, there is no standard procedure is available to estimate the MXD trip generation rates in Malaysia. The Malaysian Trip Generation Manual (MTGM) is the guidelines currently been used to forecast future trips for single land use. If the trip generation rates for multiple land uses are summed as MXD trips, the total trips will be overestimated without considering the internal trip capture. This study aimed to establish an improved method for estimating the MXD trip generation rates. Four MXD observation sites were selected in Klang Valley. Traffic survey counts were conducted considering person-trip, including passengers in vehicles and pedestrians. The results revealed that the MXD trip generation rates with MTGM were higher than actual traffic counts during peak hours. The MXD adjustment factor was established as 0.63, which can be applied by multiplying the MTGM trip generation rates to reduce the generated MXD trips in PCU per hour. This research has formulated a new data collection method by integrating person counts, alongside with new guidelines for pedestrian counts. The findings provide an option to adjust the MXD trips and prevent from overestimating future trips, which may result in overdevelopment and spending on mitigation measures in urban planning and road infrastructure.
Green finance can promote economic transformation and technological innovation and play a key role in solving the ecological environment and energy crisis. This paper constructs a comprehensive ecological livable environment evaluation system based on the provincial panel data in China from 2011 to 2019. At the same time, the panel mediation effect and spatial econometric model are used to test the impact of green finance on the ecological and livable environment. The main research conclusions include the following: (1) green finance has significantly improved China's ecological and livable environment; (2) green finance improves the ecological and livable environment by improving the level of technological innovation; (3) the impact of green finance on the ecological livable environment has regional heterogeneity, and green finance in the central provinces has a better effect on the improvement of the ecological livable environment; and (4) the ecological livable environment among Chinese provinces has a significant positive spatial correlation. Among them, green finance has significantly improved the local ecological livable environment but reduced the ecological livable environment of surrounding provinces. Based on the above conclusions, this paper suggests that the government should pay more attention to green finance and technological innovation and coordinate the development of the ecological livable environment among provinces. The research results provide empirical evidence for better developing green finance and improving the ecological livable environment and also provide certain theoretical guidance for China's coordinated regional development and high-quality economic development.
Evaluation of genotypes to identify high-yielding and stable varieties is crucial for chilli production sustainability and food security. These analyses are essential, particularly when the breeding program aims to select lines with great adaptability and stability. Thirty chilli genotypes were evaluated for yield stability under four soilless planting systems viz; fertigation, HydroStock (commercial hydrogel), BioHydrogel (biodegradable hydrogel), and hydroponic to study the influence of genotype by environment interaction. The research used a split-plot randomized complete block design (RCBD) with two cropping cycles and five replications. The GGE biplot analysis was employed to assess the mean versus stability perspective in explaining the variation in genotypic and genotype-by-environment effects on the yield-related attributes for yield per plant, fruit number, fruit length, and width. Stability analysis denoted genotypes G26 and G30 as the most stable for yield per plant, while G16, G22, and G30 were stable for the number of fruits per plant. Among the four planting systems evaluated, HydroStock and BioHydrogel outperformed the others in yield per plant, demonstrating the highest level of informativeness or discrimination. These findings offer critical insights for future crop breeding programs and the optimization of agricultural practices.
Based on the panel data of 22 inland provinces in China from 2010 to 2020, this study constructs and measures the level of rural ecological environment in China. The impact of the financial performance of green-listed companies on the rural ecological environment and its moderating and threshold effects are analyzed. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) During 2010-2020, China's rural ecological environment shows a trend of "fluctuating-decreasing-rising" with significant regional non-equilibrium characteristics. (2) The financial performance of green-listed companies has a significantly negative impact on rural ecology. This negative impact has a crucial heterogeneous feature, with a more significant negative impact in areas with a higher rural ecological environment index and less substantial performance in regions with a lower rural ecological environment index. (3) There is a significant positive moderating effect of education level and digitalization on the relationship between the financial performance of green-listed companies on the level of rural ecological development. As moderating variables, the digitalization and education level weakens the negative impact of green-listed companies' performance on the ecological environment. The positive impact of the financial performance of green-listed companies on the development level of the rural ecological environment is more vital in areas with higher per capita education levels and digitalization in rural areas. (4) There is a significant threshold effect on the financial performance of green-listed companies on the level of rural ecological development. When the financial performance of green-listed companies exceeds a particular threshold value, the impact of the financial performance of green-listed companies on the development level of the rural ecological environment is significantly positive. Based on the above findings, this paper puts forward corresponding countermeasure suggestions.
Based on material deposited in museum collections, twelve species within Mansonella sensu lato were examined and their descriptions amended. Based on additional morphological details, the erection of the new monotypic subgenus Filyamagutia Bain & Uni for M. (F.) akitensis (Uni, 1983), and the new combination M. (Pseudolitomosa) musasabi (Yamaguti, 1941) Bain & Uni are proposed. A new subspecies, M. (Tetrapetalonema) atelensis amazonae Bain & Guerrero is described and a key to the seven subgenera of Mansonella is provided. Furthermore, the elevation of Sandnema to full genus rank comprising the two species S. digitatum (Chandler, 1929) n. comb. and S. sunci (Sandground, 1933) n. comb., is proposed. Host and geographic records for the species of Mansonella and Sandnema are included.
Kajian berbentuk tinjauan secara deskriptif ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti tahap sikap terhadap pengajaran dan pembelajaran subjek sejarah dalam kalangan murid tingkatan satu. Seramai 128 orang murid tingkatan satu terlibat dalam kajian ini yang ditentukan berdasarkan teknik persampelan bertujuan. Soal selidik yang diadaptasi yang telah disahkan oleh pakar-pakar penilai dan mempunyai nilai kebolehpercayaan yang baik merupakan instrumen kajian ini. Data kajian ini telah dianalisis secara deskriptif melalui perisian IBM SPSS. Dapatan kajian ini menunjukkan bahawa tahap sikap terhadap pengajaran dan pembelajaran subjek sejarah berada pada tahap tinggi, di samping keenamenam konstruknya iaitu kepentingan belajar sejarah, keseronokkan belajar sejarah, kebolehan belajar sejarah, motivasi belajar sejarah, kerisauan belajar sejarah dan pengajaran guru sejarah juga berada pada tahap tinggi. Implikasi kajian ini telah mencadangkan kepada para guru sejarah untuk mengambil langkah-langkah yang strategik bagi memastikan sikap yang lebih positif terhadap proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran subjek sejarah dapat dibentuk dalam kalangan murid.
Obesiti semakin meningkat di seluruh dunia dan secara umumnya ramai wanita mempunyai persepsi yang tidak tepat mengenai berat badan mereka. Tujuan kajian ini dijalankan adalah untuk mengenal pasti kadar obesiti di kalangan wanita mengandung dan dan persepsi mereka tentang berat badan sendiri. Seramai 315 wanita mengandung telah mengambil bahagian dalam kajian ini. Indeks jisim badan (BMI) mereka direkod dan persepsi tentang berat badan mereka dinilai dengan menggunakan soal selidik. Lebih dari separuh peserta (60.6%, n=191) dalam kajian ini didapati mempunyai berat badan yang melebihi paras normal dimana peratusan obes adalah 29.8% (n=94) manakala 30.8% (n=97) mempunyai berat badan yang berlebihan. Analisa kappa (kappa = 0.185 (95% CI, 0.119 hingga 0.258, p
Sesi praktikal konvensional sebelum ini telah dilaporkan kurang berkesan dalam mencapai objektif pembelajaran. Oleh itu “Speedy Biochemistry” diperkenalkan untuk membantu pelajar mengaplikasikan pengetahuan yang telah mereka pelajari di dalam kelas. Teknik ini memupuk semangat kerja berpasukan dan penerapan pengetahuan dalam penyelesaian masalah yang dapat dicapai melalui pembelajaran aktif. Pendekatan pembelajaran aktif telah kian diminati oleh para akademik kerana memberikan lebih banyak faedah kepada pelajar. Sesi “Speedy Biochemistry” telah dijalankan di kalangan pelajar perubatan Tahun 1 di Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia dan maklum balas mereka telah direkodkan. “Speedy Biochemistry” boleh menjadi contoh sesi pembelajaran aktif yang baik dalam meningkatkan minat pelajar perubatan di dalam mata pelajaran Biokimia.