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Higher education (HE), particularly its international mobility element, is one of the sectors that have suffered an immediate and substantial impact by the pandemic. The disruption in international travel and the local restrictions to physical contact has caused disruptions in the academic planning and delivery of higher education worldwide. Many argue that the recent pandemic and the move to online and blended learning delivery will define the future of HE. In this paper, we explore two main themes. Firstly, we explore the pre‐Covid trends in international higher education. Using national and international data from UNESCO, OECD and other sources, we analyse the global developments in international student mobility. Secondly, we focus on the UK to study the position, share and interplay between the international student and transnational education (TNE) markets. We reflect on the findings of our analysis and discuss the pivot to online education and its pedagogical and regulatory implications. The role of sustainability as a central strategic objective for HEIs is examined through the lenses of TNE in generating local impact and promoting the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is one response to the challenges faced by agriculture due to climate change. As with other sustainability transitions, technological innovation is highlighted as playing a critical role, however, the adoption and diffusion of technological innovations in OECD countries is slow. The aim of this paper is to identify key socio-economic barriers, in terms of supply and demand, that inhibit the adoption and diffusion of CSA technological innovations in Europe. To achieve this aim, a theoretical framework is constructed based on a literature review of socio-economic barriers effecting adoption and diffusion. This framework is explored with data from semi-structured interviews with CSA technology providers and members of agricultural supply chains, such as farmers associations and consumer goods producers (the end-users of the technology). Data was collected on the barriers they experienced, with interviews conducted in the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Italy. This data was thematically coded and categorised to identify key barrier typologies. The results demonstrate that barriers exist on both the demand (user) and supply (technology provider) sides. The paper provides recommendations for increasing the adoption and diffusion of CSA technological innovations, as well as implications for the CSA and innovation literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, increasing effort has been made to develop both national and global indices of well-being. Much like earlier sustainability indices directed at questions of economics and environment, well-being metrics seek to chart the quality of life of citizens in order to (1) support administrative decision making and policy formation, (2) encourage consensus building and public participation in defining what's important, (3) educate and advocate, and (4) facilitate research through data collection and analysis. This paper explores a number of indices of well-being, including the Canadian Index of Well-being, the OECD Your Better Life Index, and the Happy Planet Index, to discuss (1) comparative differences and similarities across the indices, (2) how the indices are used currently, and (3) the importance of understanding judgments of well-being based on notions of place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bridging the research-practice gap is an important research focus in continuing care facilities, because the population of older adults (aged 65 years and over) requiring continuing care services is the fastest growing demographic among countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Unlicensed practitioners, known as health care aides, provide the majority of care for residents living in continuing care facilities. However, little research examines how to sustain health care aide behavior change following initial adoption of current research evidence. Methods/design We will conduct a phase III, multicentre, cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) using a stratified 2 × 2 additive factorial design, including an embedded process evaluation, in 24 supportive living facilities within the health zone of Edmonton, AB, Canada. We will determine which combination of frequency and intensity of reminders most effectively sustains the completion of the sit-to-stand activity by health care aides with residents. Frequency refers to how often a reminder is implemented; intensity refers to whether a reminder is social or paper-based. We will compare monthly reminders with reminders implemented every 3 months, and we will compare low intensity, paper-based reminders and high intensity reminders provided by a health care aide peer. Using interviews, questionnaires, and observations, Sustaining Transfers through Affordable Research Translation (START) will evaluate the processes that inhibit or promote the mobility innovation's sustainability among health care aides in daily practice. We will examine how the reminders are implemented and perceived by health care aides and licensed practical nurses, as well as how health care aides providing peer reminders are identified, received by their peers, and supported by their supervisors. Discussion START will connect up-to-date innovation research with the practice of health care aides providing direct care to a growing population of older Albertans. The project's reach extends to both supportive living and long-term care settings. Furthermore, START has the potential to introduce and sustain a broad range of innovations in various care areas, such as dementia care, wound care, and pain management - domains where the uptake and sustainability of innovations also encounter significant challenges. By identifying the optimal frequency and intensity of knowledge translation interventions, we hope to enable continuing care organizations to efficiently integrate care innovations into the day-to-day care of residents. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01746459 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares alternative wealth estimates reported by the World Bank and in the Inclusive Wealth Reports. Although theoretical limitations and shortcomings are widely acknowledged in the literature, the extent to which the alternative approaches to wealth accounting matter empirically is not well known. Comparing the alternative data in levels, shares, growth rates, and monetary sustainability indices derived from them, major differences emerge between OECD and non-OECD countries. For the former, the alternative wealth estimates seem complementary, but only if a key assumption made in the derivation of inclusive wealth is violated. For the latter, the data seem much less useful. For example, depending on which data source is used, for the group of low income countries the share of natural capital in total wealth is either 36.8% or 60.4%, suggesting that extreme care must be taken if the composition of wealth were to be used to inform policy-making. Neither wealth data set provides a ‘definite guide’ to economic sustainability, but a combination of indices derived from both might be useful in a holistic assessment of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenge of realigning the present path of development on a sustainable trajectory concerns all sectors of society, including engineering. To move towards a sustainable practice of engineering, the design process needs to be modified in order for engineers to efficiently tackle the related issues. Such ‘sustainable design processes’ (SDPs) are proposed in the literature. By reviewing the conventional design process and SDP, this paper aims to identify the differences between both approaches. The potential contribution of recent design theories, methods and techniques to sustainable engineering is also briefly discussed. Tasks from existing SDPs are combined with crucial complements into a novel integrated sustainable engineering design process. Instead of representing conventional and sustainable engineering as a dichotomy, this paper places both paradigms on a continuum along which the engineer can position himself and assess his progress. The proposed procedure reveals shades of sustainability along six dimensions: (1) the structure of the design process, (2) the scope of sustainability issues covered, (3) the relevance of the indicators considered, (4) the accuracy of the tools used for evaluation, (5) the potential improvements expected from the alternatives assessed and (6) decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper extrapolatesfuturepaths of genuine savings (GS) by using our integrated assessment model. The results with the base case (BC) indicate that both GSwithoutpopulation change (GS) and GSwithpopulation change (GSn) are almost positive in OECD countries in the twenty-first century (satisfying the necessary but insufficient condition for sustainability); those numbers are projected to be negative in 2100. Asia (ASIA), the Middle East and Africa (MEAF), the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (FSEE), and the world show upward trends for both values, showing negative signs in 2010 and positive signs after 2050 (in ASIA, MEAF, and the world) and in 2100 (in FSEE). The values in Latin America (LAMR) remain negative throughout. We examine additional following three cases: demand reduction (DR), carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction (CR), and population reduction (PR). The GSn results compared to the BC indicate that (1) GSn in DR is similar to that of BC, (2) GSn in PR is slightly higher than that of BC, and (3) GSn in CR is unexpectedly lower than that of BC. This GSn reduction in the CR case derives from the fact that the term for calculating resource depletion (especially resource rent, which equals the difference between price and cost) in GS and GSn increased, leading to a greater term being subtracted from gross savings. The resource price increases with the marginal price of natural gas, given the energy-source shift in reducing CO2emissions, from cheap coal to expensive natural gas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses an aggregate quantity space to decompose the temporal changes in nitrogen use efficiency and cumulative exergy use efficiency into changes of Moorsteen–Bjurek (MB) Total Factor Productivity (TFP) changes and changes in the aggregate nitrogen and cumulative exergy contents. Changes in productivity can be broken into technical change and changes in various efficiency measures such as technical efficiency, scale efficiency and residual mix efficiency. Changes in the aggregate nitrogen and cumulative exergy contents can be driven by changes in the quality of inputs and outputs and changes in the mixes of inputs and outputs. Also with cumulative exergy content analysis, changes in the efficiency in input production can increase or decrease the cumulative exergy transformity of agricultural production. The empirical study in 30 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development from 1990 to 2003 yielded some important findings. The production technology progressed but there were reductions in technical efficiency, scale efficiency and residual mix efficiency levels. This result suggests that the production frontier had shifted up but there existed lags in the responses of member countries to the technological change. Given TFP growth, improvements in nutrient use efficiency and cumulative exergy use efficiency were counteracted by reductions in the changes of the aggregate nitrogen contents ratio and aggregate cumulative exergy contents ratio. The empirical results also confirmed that different combinations of inputs and outputs as well as the quality of inputs and outputs could have more influence on the growth of nutrient and cumulative exergy use efficiency than factors that had driven productivity change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]