Impact of disposable mask microplastics pollution on the aquatic environment and microalgae growth.

The COVID-19 pandemic has mandated people to use medical masks to protect the public. However the improper management of disposable mask waste has led to the increase of marine pollution, in terms of water quality, and the decline in aquatic microorganisms. The aim of this research was to investigate the impact of disposable mask waste on fresh water and microalgae biomass quality. Disposable masks (untreated or treated with Enterococcus faecalis) were placed in 10-L glass reactors containing fresh water or water containing algal Chlorella sp. and its growth supplements (Chlorella medium) (four 10-L reactors in total) and kept in controlled conditions for 3 months. Water and biomass yield quality were evaluated using water quality analysis, spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and proximate lipid and protein analysis. Disposable masks, incubated in either fresh water or Chlorella medium, affected several water quality parameters such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), dissolved oxygen (DO), and pH. Microplastic identification revealed that some fibers were present in the water following a 100-day treatment process. Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis was used to determine the change in important, organic functional groups and highlighted the disappearance of a peak at 1530 cm-1 corresponding to the primary protein (C-N) and the appearance of new peaks at 1651 cm-1 and 1270 cm-1 corresponding to methyl alcohol (CH2OH) and ketone (C = O), respectively. This indicated the detrimental effect of disposable mask fragmentation on the biomass quality. The SEM investigation has shown a damage to the surface membrane of Chlorella sp. cells. Altogether, disposable masks decreased the water quality and damaged microalgae by inhibiting their growth. Therefore, the disposable mask contaminated by various microbes, after being used by a human, may be one of the most dangerous hazards to the environment.

Scaling and Sustaining Facilitated Telemedicine to Expand Treatment Access Among Underserved Populations: A Qualitative Study.

Background: Opioid treatment programs are an essential component of the management of opioid use disorder (OUD). They have also been proposed as "medical homes" to expand health care access for underserved populations. We utilized telemedicine as a method to increase access for hepatitis C virus (HCV) care among people with OUD. Methods: We interviewed 30 staff and 15 administrators regarding the integration of facilitated telemedicine for HCV into opioid treatment programs. Participants provided feedback and insight for sustaining and scaling facilitated telemedicine for people with OUD. We utilized hermeneutic phenomenology to develop themes related to telemedicine sustainability in opioid treatment programs. Results: Three themes emerged on sustaining the facilitated telemedicine model: (1) Telemedicine as a Technical Innovation in Opioid Treatment Programs, (2) Technology Transcending Space and Time, and (3) COVID-19 Disrupting the Status Quo. Participants identified skilled staff, ongoing training, technology infrastructure and support, and an effective marketing campaign as key to maintaining the facilitated telemedicine model. Participants highlighted the study-supported case manager's role in managing the technology to transcend temporal and geographical challenges for HCV treatment access for people with OUD. COVID-19 fueled changes in health care delivery, including facilitated telemedicine, to expand the opioid treatment program's mission as a medical home for people with OUD. Conclusions: Opioid treatment programs can sustain facilitated telemedicine to increase health care access for underserved populations. COVID-19-induced disruptions promoted innovation and policy changes recognizing telemedicine's role in expanding health care access to underserved populations. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02933970.

Sustainable urban mobility: Flexible bus service network design in the post-pandemic era.

The excessive traffic congestion in vehicles lowers the service quality of urban bus system, reduces the social distance of bus passengers, and thus, increases the spread speed of epidemics, such as coronavirus disease. In the post-pandemic era, it is one of the main concerns for the transportation agency to provide a sustainable urban bus service to balance the travel convenience in accessibility and the travel safety in social distance for bus passengers, which essentially reduces the in-vehicle passenger congestion or smooths the boarding-alighting unbalance of passengers. Incorporating the route choice behavior of passengers, this paper proposes a sustainable service network design strategy by selecting one subset of the stops to maximize the total passenger-distance (person × kilometers) with exogenously given loading factor and stop-spacing level, which can be captured by constrained non-linear programming model. The loading factor directly determines the in-vehicle social distance, and the stop-spacing level can efficiently reduce the ridership with short journey distance. Therefore, the sustainable service network design can be used to help the government minimize the spread of the virus while guaranteeing the service quality of transport patterns in the post-pandemic era. A real-world case study is adopted to illustrate the validity of the proposed scheme and model.

COVID-19 debunks the myth of socially sustainable supply chain: A case of the clothing industry in South Asian countries.

The recent outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has exposed the fragility of the clothing supply chain operating in South Asian countries. Millions of workers have become jobless and are staring at an uncertain future. The purpose of this research is to understand the reasons behind the lack of social sustainability in the clothing supply chain operating in South Asian countries and to suggest ways for an appropriate redressal. Interviews with experts have revealed that the dominant power of some brands in the clothing supply chain is the primary reason. Unauthorised subcontracting of clothing manufacturing and the use of contract labour are also responsible for violations in the 'code of conducts' of social compliance. Post COVID-19, a sustainable sourcing model that incorporates disruption risk sharing contracts between the brands and suppliers should be adopted. Unauthorised subcontracting of clothing manufacturing by the suppliers must be prohibited. Supplier selection and the order allocation policies of the brands should also be tuned to facilitate social security of workers. The participation of NGOs and labour unions should be encouraged so that community development initiatives reach the grassroots level.

Sustainable strategy for online physical education teaching using ResNet34 and big data.

Since the global COVID-19 outbreak in the spring of 2020, online instruction has replaced traditional classroom instruction as the main method of educating students. Teaching physical education online can be challenging, as it may be difficult to teach students certain movements, accurate student mobility, and appropriate exercise assignments. This paper proposed an online teaching support system with sustainable development features that utilize several large data sets. The system is based on the deep learning image recognition algorithm ResNet34, which can analyze and correct student actions in real-time for gymnastics, dance, basketball, and other sports. By combining the attention mechanism module with the original ResNet34, the detection precision of the system can be enhanced. The sustainability of the system is evident from the fact that the data set can be expanded in response to the emergence of new sports categories and can be kept current in real-time. According to experiments, the target identification accuracy of the proposed system, which combines ResNet34 and the attention mechanism, is higher than that of several other methods currently in use. The proposed techniques outperform the original ResNet34 in terms of accuracy, precision, and recall by 4.1%, 2.8%, and 3.6%, respectively. The suggested approach significantly improves student action correction in virtual sports instruction.

Kidney Health and Care: Current Status, Challenges, and Developments.

The concept of chronic kidney disease (CKD) originated in the 2000s, and an estimated 850 million patients are currently suffering from health threats from different degrees of CKD. However, it is unclear whether the existing CKD care systems are optimal for improving patient prognosis and outcomes, so this review summarizes the burden, existing care models, effectiveness, challenges, and developments of CKD care. Even under the general care principles, there are still significant gaps in our understanding of the causes of CKD, prevention or care resources, and care burdens between countries worldwide. Receiving care from multidisciplinary teams rather than only a nephrologist shows potential profits in comprehensive and preferable outcomes. In addition, we propose a novel CKD care structure that combines modern technologies, biosensors, longitudinal data visualization, machine learning algorithms, and mobile care. The novel care structure could simultaneously change the care process, significantly reduce human contact, and make the vulnerable population less likely to be exposed to infectious diseases such as COVID-19. The information offered should be beneficial, allowing us to rethink future CKD care models and applications to reach the goals of health equality and sustainability.

Economically viable flower drying techniques to sustain flower industry amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Imposing lockdown amid COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected flower cultivation and their trades. Flower plants are very sensitive to the harvesting, and any unexpected delay may cause great loss (~ 50-60%) to the farmers. In 2018-2019, the worth of total production of floriculture products was ~ Rs 571.38 crore. During lockdown, the availability of human laborers and restricted transport has disrupted the supply of flowers to the market. Hence, some alternative options are suggested here for the farmers, for example, conversion of decorative flowers (e.g., anthurium, China aster, globe amaranthus, sweet-william, anemone, sea lavender, etc.) and inflorescence (e.g., Michaelmas daisy, zinnia, statice, ferns, aspidistra, eucalyptus, magnolia, etc.) can also be into value-added products through drying and dehydration technologies. Many dehydration methods such as hot air oven, solar drying, press drying, freeze-drying, embedded drying, glycerine drying, and microwave oven drying polyester drying can be used for flower drying at room temperature (~ 25 °C). These floral and foliage dehydration techniques are quite simple, which can also be operated by unskilled persons. Moreover, it will generate self-employment for the youth and women along with increased revenue than selling fresh flowers. In this review, different techniques of flower drying have been discussed in detail along with the influencing factors, efficiency, economic feasibility, flower waste management and sustainability. Further, it has also been suggested how these techniques could be useful for farmers, researchers, and traders to create value-added products? Hence, the present paper could be very interesting for the flower growers, retailers, students, as well as floricultural scientists who are involved in flower production worldwide.

What are the lessons from COVID-19 for creating healthy, sustainable, resilient future cities?

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives and the economy, reminding the global community of the devastating health and economic impacts of uncontrolled infectious disease. It has affected how and where people live, work, shop, and play, and exposed our cities' vulnerabilities, leading to calls for a health lens to be applied in designing, approving, and evaluating city plans. Socioeconomic, spatial and health inequities have been amplified, particularly for those living in inadequate or poorly designed housing, neighbourhoods, and cities. Hence, city mayors have committed to 'build back better' with all daily living amenities within a 15-min walking or cycling trip. Designed well, these cities have the potential to be healthier, more sustainable, equitable, and resilient. Yet their delivery requires a rethink of city planning. Drawing on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, we argue that to reduce the risk of future pandemics, we must mitigate climate change, limit urban expansion, and use nature-based solutions to protect natural habitats and biodiversity. We then explore how healthy, sustainable, and resilient 15-minute cities could be planned to reduce emissions and ensure our cities are more resilient in the event of future crises. Given that higher density housing underpins the success of 15-minute cities, we also examine how to create more resilient housing stock, through well-implemented health-supportive apartment design standards. Finally, we argue that to achieve all this, cross-sector leadership and investment will be vital.

Measuring economic crises impact transitioning to a circular economy.

Increasing global concern about climate change and the circular economy have successfully established itselves in international and national policies over the last decade, with the aim of reshaping the production and consumer behavior. The circular economy is one of the core pillars of European Union policy and its success depends on the energy efficiency, reducing production costs, and maintaining employment levels by ensuring continuous strong economic independency of the region. While crises are unavoidable and continue to appear, this paper aims to project the impact of any crisis on sustainability transitions using data analysis of the Global Financial crisis from 2008 to 2009 and discuss how the success of the circular economy implementation and environmental policies could be affected. The paper notes that the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 had a short-term positive impact on environmental degradation and that economic interests overshadowed environmental goals. Due to the recent events of the ongoing Russia and Ukraine war, COVID-19 societal and industrial behavior has shifted from sustainable to linear and has taken a step backward in reducing environmental pollution and achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Analysis of already present data and the context of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, reviewing of COVID-19 impact on the global economy, health sector, and environmental policies allows us to predict the consequences, as it relates to the future of circular economy policy. Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at (10.1007/s10668-023-03367-x).

Characteristics of urban park recreation and health during early COVID-19 by on-site survey in Beijing.

The positive health effects of green space have received increasing attention, however, on-site surveys and city-level research to reveal the relationship between urban park recreation and urbanite health in metropolitan areas during a post-pandemic period are lacking. We conducted an on-site survey using a questionnaire with 225 respondents from 22 urban parks distributed across the metropolitan area of Beijing during the early COVID-19 eased period with another 1346 respondents in 2021 to make verification. We identified factors that could influence public perceptions of park quality and human health (i.e., physical, mental, and social health) and revealed gender differences in perceptions of park characteristics. The correspondence pattern of perceived urban park quality with social health is distinct from that of physical and mental health. Due to the strict social distancing policy in early COVID-19 period, urban parks in different levels of urbanization environment could exert varied health effects.

Intervention effects and long-term changes in physical activity and cardiometabolic outcomes among children at risk of noncommunicable diseases in South Africa: a cluster-randomized controlled trial and follow-up analysis.

Introduction: Risk factors for noncommunicable diseases such as insufficient physical activity (PA), overweight or hypertension are becoming increasingly predominant among children globally. While school-based interventions are promising preventive strategies, evidence of their long-term effectiveness, especially among vulnerable populations, is scarce. We aim to assess the short-term effects of the physical and health KaziKidz intervention on cardiometabolic risk factors and the long-term, pre-and post-COVID-19 pandemic changes thereof in high-risk children from marginalized communities. Methods: The intervention was tested in a cluster-randomized controlled trial between January and October 2019 in eight primary schools near Gqeberha, South Africa. Children with overweight, elevated blood pressure, pre-diabetes, and/or borderline dyslipidemia were identified and re-assessed 2 years post-intervention. Study outcomes included accelerometry-measured PA (MVPA), body mass index (BMI), mean arterial pressure (MAP), glucose (HbA1c), and lipid levels (TC to HDL ratio). We conducted mixed regression analyses to assess intervention effects by cardiometabolic risk profile, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests to evaluate longitudinal changes in the high-risk subpopulation. Results: We found a significant intervention effect on MVPA during school hours for physically inactive children, and among active as well as inactive girls. In contrast, the intervention lowered HbA1c and TC to HDL ratio only in children with glucose or lipid values within the norm, respectively. At follow-up, the intervention effects were not maintained in at-risk children, who showed a decline in MVPA, and an increase in BMI-for-age, MAP, HbA1c and TC to HDL ratio. Conclusion: We conclude that schools are key settings in which to promote PA and improve health; however, structural changes are necessary to ensure that effective interventions reach marginalized school populations and achieve sustainable impact.

A review on water-saving agriculture in Europe

This paper aims to analyze the research on the current situation of water-saving agriculture development in Europe. Water-saving agriculture in Europe started early, governments and farmers in various countries have a strong awareness of water-saving in agriculture and have achieved certain results. Due to the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of up-to-date field research, the complexity of various agricultural disciplines and categories, and the lack of information sharing, the current cognition of recent progress in the development of water-saving agriculture in Europe is not comprehensive enough. This paper selects four representative European countries: Spain, Germany, Italy, and Denmark as the research objects. Based on the existing research of Chinese and Western scholars, this paper analyzes and studies the current situation of water-saving agriculture in Europe. It has far-reaching significance for other countries in the world to have further development in water-saving agriculture and to protect water resources.

Rethinking the External Space of Japanese Public Libraries from the Perspective of Urban Sustainability in a Post-Pandemic Era

In the post-pandemic era, cities are facing new demands and challenges. Both telecommuting and dense development require communities to provide more public space to meet people's psychological and physical needs. The insufficient space currently left in the city calls for stock development. The Japanese public libraries affected by COVID-19 are part of this stock. We aimed to determine and propose strategies for using the external space of libraries to enhance the sustainability of cities. Ultimately, we expect to achieve a synergy between public libraries and cities in terms of sustainability. We found that the most dominant element in the exterior space of Japanese public libraries is parking lots, which have the potential to be flexibly utilized in the post-pandemic era. We also summarized the current patterns of external space for public libraries in Japan. Finally, we proposed six strategies to enhance the sustainability of libraries and cities. These strategies can simultaneously enhance the sustainability of cities and public libraries from multiple perspectives, especially in the post-pandemic era. Our proposal will not only help to build or renew public libraries in the future, but also fills a gap in the urban perspective of Japanese public libraries and their external spaces.

A roadmap for triggering the convergence of global ESG disclosure standards: lessons from the IFRS foundation and stakeholder engagement

PurposeMotivated by the growing and urgent demands for a unified set of internationally accepted, and high-quality environmental, social and governance (hereafter ESG) disclosure standards, this exploratory study aims to propose a roadmap for setting out the proper technical groundwork for global ESG disclosure standards. Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory study is conducted to gain initial understanding and insights into establishing a worldwide set of standards for reporting on sustainability, as this topic has not been extensively studied. This study examines the viewpoints of various stakeholders, including sustainability practitioners, academics and organizations focused on ESG issues, to generate knowledge that is more solid than knowledge produced when one group of stakeholders work alone. FindingsThe results revealed that there is an ongoing and incompatible debate regarding several conceptual and practical challenges for setting a unified set of ESG disclosure standards. Practical implicationsThe study results provide multidimensional insights for regulatory parties and standard-setters to develop a high-quality package of global ESG reporting standards. This, in turn, enables different groups of stakeholders to understand the firm's impact on the environment, society and economy. Originality/valueResearch into this timely and relevant global issue is considered an appealing area of study and deserves significant attention. Thereby, working on this topic merits remarkable attention. Furthermore, this exploratory article provides valuable and informative suggestions for creating a unified and high-quality set of internationally accepted sustainability reporting standards.

Does Esg Rating Affect Stock Performance of Indian Companies? An Empirical Study

Purpose: The study tries to investigate the influence of the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) ratings on the stock performance of Indian companies. It further compares the stock performance of those companies that are ESG leaders with Design/Methodology/Approach: The current paper is retrieving the ESG data from a third party to look at the impact of the ESG ratings on the performance of Indian stocks. This is the first study to use a calendar-time approach to assess the impact of 621 ESG rating changes on the stock returns of Indian companies from 2017 to 2022. Findings: The study finds that while an improvement in ESG rating has resulted in statistically significant but unpredictably positive abnormal returns of approximately 0.7% per month, a decline in rating is detrimental to stock performance, resulting in statistically significant monthly risk-adjusted returns of nearly -1.7% on average. Originality/Value: This is one of the primary studies that has investigated the outcome of specialized ESG ratings (improved and declining) on the stock return performance of companies in India.

Interdisciplinary Teaching Reform of Financial Engineering Majors Based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process in the Post-Pandemic Era

In the post-epidemic era, the labor market has become increasingly complex, making it even more crucial to incorporate sustainability into employment demand. As we enter the post-pandemic era, a globalization trend has become more apparent. It is crucial to modernize employability through educational reform in order to assist employees in enhancing their professional skills. This study began by analyzing the importance of financial engineering practice instruction and graduate employability in the post-epidemic era. Second, the study proposed the content and a plan for inter-disciplinary teaching reform to address talent cultivation needs based on labor market requirements. Third, a face-to-face survey and interview were conducted with students affected by changes in teaching, and the results were analyzed and summarized. On this basis, the impact of education reform was evaluated using both the expert scoring method and the analytic hierarchy approach. The results indicated that the suggested financial engineering teaching reform program improved the school's discipline strength, enrollment rate, employment rate, and competition awards, especially discipline strength. This research can be used to inform the teaching of financial engineering majors in various countries, assist job candidates in enhancing their professional skills, and build a formidable talent pool for the labor market.

The Use of AI in Managing Big Data Analysis Demands: Status and Future updates Directions

In the modern age, the context of health, energy, environment, climate crisis, and global Covid-19 pandemic, managing Big Data demands via Sustainable Development Goals and disease mitigation supported by Artificial Intelligence, present significant challenges for a given territory or national boundaries' policies, legal systems, energy infrastructure, societal cohesion, internal and external national security. We look at policy, technical, and legal applications alongside ramifications of relevant policies and practices to highlight key challenges from a global and societal context. This review contributes to developing further awareness of the complexity and demands on policy and technology. In the long term due to these significant changes, inferences of multifaceted policy and data acquisition could present additional compounding challenges regarding civil liberties, data privacy law, and equitable health outcomes, whilst implementing continually evolving policies, practices, and techniques that can weaken infrastructure and present cyber-attack vulnerabilities. As a consequence of local, regional, and international paradigm shifts, Blockchain and Smart Contracts are suggested as part of a solution in providing data protection, transparency, and validity with transactional data to enable further trust between private and public sectors during times of crisis and technological transition processes. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Student Perspective of Online Pedagogy Post COVID-19. A Missed Opportunity?

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed education and caused unprecedented disruptions. These changes may disappear once the schools resume face-to-face classes in full force. Likewise, a positive change may not be necessarily what we want in education. This may be due to the existence of digital divide among students which cannot be ignored. During the COVID-19 pandemic, OneNote Class Notebook is used as an interactive digital whiteboard and has been evident as one of the best alternatives to the traditional whiteboard in the teaching and learning process. In this study, we aim to analyze students' perceptions of OneNote Class Notebook and the level of their continuous intention to use OneNote Class Notebook as an interactive digital whiteboard to replace the traditional whiteboard when school reopens with face-to-face lessons in the classroom in full force. The findings show that the students perceived that OneNote Class Notebook is indeed a useful tool to be used for calculus learning. But, it cannot be perceived as suitability to continue to be used during post COVID-19 period, when school reopens with physical classes in full force. In this regard, it reminds educators of the importance of rethinking education in the new normal post COVID-19 era from the perspective of curriculum studies. © 2023 IEEE.

Applying blockchain technology to ensure compliance with sustainability standards in the PPE multi-tier supply chain

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, urgent surging demand for healthcare products such as personal protective equipment (PPE) has caused significant challenges for multi-tier supply chain management. Although a given firm may predominantly focus on an arms-length solution by targeting the first-tier supplier, the firm can still struggle with extended multi-tier suppliers it cannot choose which use unsustainable practices. One key goal is compliance across various dimensions with production, environmental and labour standards across the multi-tier supply chain, a goal that blockchain technology can be applied to manage. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this research develops a system architecture of blockchain-based multi-tier sustainable supply chain management in the PPE industry designed to identify and coordinate standards in production and social and environmental sustainability in multi-tier PPE supply chains. The architecture was validated by theoretical basis, expert opinions and technical solutions. We conclude with managerial implications for implementing blockchain technology to advance sustainable multi-tier supply chain practices.