ABSTRACT
Educational institutions play a significant role in the community spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Victoria. Despite a series of social restrictions and preventive measures in educational institutions implemented by the Victorian Government, confirmed cases among people under 20 years of age accounted for more than a quarter of the total infections in the state. In this study, we investigated the risk factors associated with COVID-19 infection within Victoria educational institutions using an incremental deep learning recurrent neural network-gated recurrent unit (RNN-GRU) model. The RNN-GRU model simulation was built based on three risk dimensions: (1) school-related risk factors, (2) student-related community risk factors, and (3) general population risk factors. Our data analysis showed that COVID-19 infection cases among people aged 10-19 years were higher than those aged 0-9 years in the Victorian region in 2020-2022. Within the three dimensions, a significant association was identified between school-initiated contact tracing (0.6110), vaccination policy for students and teachers (0.6100), testing policy (0.6109), and face covering (0.6071) and prevention of COVID-19 infection in educational settings. Furthermore, the study showed that different risk factors have varying degrees of effectiveness in preventing COVID-19 infection for the 0-9 and 10-19 age groups, such as state travel control (0.2743 vs. 0.3390), international travel control (0.2757 vs. 0.3357) and school closure (0.2738 vs. 0.3323), etc. More preventive support is suggested for the younger generation, especially for the 10-19 age group.
ABSTRACT
Tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) across North America are located in communities grappling with the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The pandemic has intensified the stress on many Native communities already struggling with issues of economic sustainability and public health. Yet COVID-19--or "Dikos Nitsaaígíí-19"--has hit the Navajo Nation especially hard. According to CNN, by the late fall of 2020 almost one in 12 people in the Navajo Nation had contracted the virus. This article describes how Diné College in Arizona has responded to the pandemic crisis by focusing on the role of Navajo art and artists in addressing issues of community health and sustainability. In 2018, the college took the step of expanding its arts curriculum to include a four-year Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. In inaugurating the BFA program, the college's School of Arts, Humanities, and English (SAHE) has sought to deepen involvement in documenting and encouraging the practice of both traditional and contemporary Native arts in the Navajo Nation. This goal is based on the value of perpetuating Navajo traditions through communal participation and absorption of the arts. [The article was written with assistance from Theodore Jojola, Michaela Paulette Shirley, Latoya Largo, Kayla Jackson, and Paul Willeto.]
ABSTRACT
While many studies have explored green buildings, there remain many unsolved questions about how to expand this section of the housing market, such as how the capitalization effect of green buildings varies across time and location. This study investigates the price premiums of green buildings in Taipei City, the largest metropolis in Taiwan, to examine how they have changed over time, and assesses the magnitude of the capitalization effects under varying housing price levels. The empirical results indicate that Taipei residents are willing to pay higher prices for houses with green-label certification. The higher the certification level, the higher the price that residents are willing to pay. This study additionally identifies two characteristics of the capitalization effects in this market. The first is that the price premiums vary with the market condition. For example, during housing market downturns (e.g., 2014-2015), building green premiums may be unremarkable or non-existent. The second effect identified is that green buildings tend to exhibit an 'aristocratic trend.' This means that high-priced houses (i.e., houses priced above the 80% quantile) in the high-end label category attract the highest premiums, implying that the willingness to pay for green features tends to only exist among wealthy buyers. The result of this paper provides evidence to explain the heterogeneity of green build premiums. Regarding the specificity of these premiums, this paper provides recommendations for builders and managers.
ABSTRACT
The paper presents the development and application of a hybrid multi-agent system to simulate people’s behavior in educational facilities, to support decisions and strategies related to the post-COVID-19 scenarios. Complex use phenomena as the ones occurring in schools and educational facilities, required mixed, hybrid simulation models where the agent-based component, usually controlling single users/bots, is combined with a process-driven engine that ensures correspondence of the users’ behaviors to the general scenario. In our case, hybridization includes also the direct interaction of the intended users through a virtual reality 3D game, to further increase accuracy and adherence to the reality of the simulated phenomena. This paper also presents the application of the simulation model to a real case study, a school in Italy, where use processes have been simulated and currently under assessment during the school opening. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
This study uses qualitative research methods of text mining to elucidate the potential and prospects for community-based learning opportunities for raising environmental awareness and bringing about healthy behaviour change among university students and local residents. In particular, we focus on the importance of community-based learning in raising environmental awareness and inspiring action to support healthy living and harmony with nature. The three groups were triangulated using semi-structured questionnaires to model the ways in which education for sustainable development (ESD) can contribute to the promotion of environmental education in local communities. In order to collect in-depth data, the authors themselves were present at the study sites and collected textual data based on semi-structured questionnaires in a participatory observation framework, where they had a common experience to understand the observations. Analysis was carried out using NVivo12. The two community learning initiatives studied were in Okayama and Tokyo, which are leading ESD policy areas. The two case studies are both university student-led projects that aim to raise environmental awareness in local communities through environmentally conscious behaviour change and the creation of a foundation for healthy living. This study focuses on "youth" and "community" among the five priority areas proposed in the 2015 ESD report and discusses the potential and prospects for community learning initiatives and the triggering of the nudge effect on environmentally conscious behaviour change and health behaviours. The results of the textual analysis with triangulation show that, while policymakers and teachers and leaders driving the initiative acknowledge the importance of ESD in a comprehensive way, their attention is more focused on the design of specific projects and curricula. In contrast, university students engaged in ESD activities rated the social education facilities (local community centres, community learning centres) as "lively" and "motivating". It was found that there are high expectations for "public living rooms", which are important as a base for learning to promote healthy and sustainable communities and environmentally conscious behaviour change.
Subject(s)
Health Education , Sustainable Development , Adolescent , Curriculum , Humans , Learning , UNESCOABSTRACT
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the role of facility managers in controlling and limiting the spread of the virus among facility occupants is critical. To enable facility managers to design and evaluate the effectiveness of facility operational measures (e.g., limiting room occupancy, staggering schedules), researchers have developed simulation models that can predict the physical distancing behaviors of occupants in a given facility layout and facility operational policies. However, these models do not take into consideration the impacts of spatial and temporal constraints in a facility, which can limit occupants' ability to physical distance. To this end, this study examines whether and how such constraints affect occupants' physical distancing behaviors in the context of K-12 educational facilities, where physical distancing is extremely important. A survey to examine students' physical distancing behaviors in educational facilities was designed and conducted in four educational facilities (n=527). The results indicate that occupants' physical distancing behaviors are significantly affected by crowdedness of space (i.e., spatial constraint) given that spatial density impacts the perceived risk of infection. On the other hand, it appears that time pressure due to limited time to meet occupancy schedules (i.e., temporal constraints) does not much influence physical distancing behaviors. These findings are expected to provide a basis upon which to enhance occupant behavior simulation efforts by deepening our understanding of physical distancing behaviors of children and adolescents in educational facilities. © 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
ABSTRACT
European Union Member States are called upon to meet internationally proposed environmental goals. This study is based, in particular, on the recommendation of the European Union (EU), which encourages Member States to pursue effective policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions, including through appropriate changes in the behavioral habits of citizens. In this respect, among the main sectors involved, transport and mobility should certainly be mentioned. National institutions should be adequately involved in order to achieve the objectives set;in this regard, universities must certainly be considered for their educational value. These latter, for instance, could commit to improving the environmental performance of the mobility of their commuter students (to a not insignificant extent), since commuting modes are often the cause of high CO2 emissions;indeed, they still largely involve the use of internal combustion engines based on fossil fuels. In this paper, the effectiveness of a smartphone-app-based method to encourage commuter students to adopt more sustainable transport modes is evaluated. In more detail, starting from a statistical analysis of the status quo of mobility habits of a sample of students at the University of Palermo (Italy), an improvement of current habits toward a more sustainable path is encouraged through a new application (specifically created for this purpose) installed on students’ smartphones. Then, the daily and annual distances traveled by commuters with the new mobility modes are calculated, and the resulting savings in energy and CO2 emissions are estimated. Finally, it is proposed that the reduced emissions could be converted into energy-efficiency credits that the University could use to enter the emission trading system (ETS), here contextualized within the Italian “TEE” (“Energy Efficiency Credits”) scheme, while the benefits for students participating in the program could consist of reduced fees and free access to university services. The results obtained show the feasibility of the proposal. This approach can be considered a useful model that could be adopted by any other public institutions—not only universities—to facilitate their path toward decarbonization.
ABSTRACT
The study was conducted in Rivers State, South-South, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study, which comprised 168 subjects (44 lecturers and 124 students). Two research questions were posed by the researchers to guide the study. The study used questionnaires to elicit information from respondents. Mean and standard deviation were descriptive statistical tools used to answer the research questions. The findings of the study revealed, amongst others, that many universities in Nigeria lacked digital facilities for quality e-teaching and learning and, again, university lecturers and students required core digital skills for effective e-learning. Based on these findings, it was recommended, amongst others, that the Nigerian government, in collaboration with university authorities, should ensure adequate provision of ICT equipment and facilities in universities for quality e-teaching and learning. Furthermore, adequate ICT training programmes should be set up for the training of lecturers and students in digital technology in order to realise effective e-learning in the Nigerian university system.