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Geography is a discipline rooted in the idea of 'earth writing', yet until recently human geographers had left the study of the very matter of the earth – the soil beneath our feet – to natural scientists. If human geographers – amongst other humanities scholars – have begun to address human-soil relationships there is a need to attend to meanings invested in and generated by being with the soil. This paper attempts to address this by analysing the relationship with the soil by those who made their living by tilling and tending it, rural agricultural workers, those who laboured on (and in) the soil. Specifically, it focuses on the 'long 19th century', the period at the start of which when labourers remained the largest occupational sector but when agricultural 'improvement', industrialisation and rapid urbanisation were challenging human-soil entanglements. Drawing upon novels, poetry and biographical writing, this paper plots three key ways in which the relationship between rural workers and the soil was figured: as the link to the past; as inheritance, the promise of the future; and through the affective nature of tilling. In so thinking about these multi-layered meanings, the paper shows not only the value of excavating past human-environmental entanglements but also the need to adopt a cultural geographical methodology and sensibility. In sum, it is shown that soil was a crucible not just of life but of meaning in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Our objective is to achieve the societal implementation of the Circular Economy Program for Automobile Carbon Fibers. This involves recycling carbon fibers sourced from carbon fiber reinforced plastics/carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastics (CFRP/CFRTP) discarded from automobiles and reintegrating them into the manufacturing processes of automobiles. Although, the existing carbon fiber recycling technology recycles the carbon fiber into a finely chopped state; it is not the original continuous carbon fiber product. A novel recycling technology is elucidated herein, referred to as the electrolytic sulfuric acid method (ESAM). The ESAM recycles carbon fibers by decomposing only the resin component of CFRP/CFRTP into CO2 and water using oxidative active species generated by electrolytic sulfuric acid. This method can (1) be applied to all resins, (2) maintains strength of the recycled carbon fibers, and (3) regenerates continuous carbon fibers. Moreover, it is the only technology applicable to CFRP pressure tanks. The successful recycling of continuous carbon fiber from pressure tanks has been achieved, enabling the production of new tanks and unidirectional CFRTP tape. This technology recycles the original continuous carbon fiber product, thus enabling a "close" resource circulation cycle. We have not yet confirmed the number of times recycling can be performed. However, according to the method described in this paper, the recycling process can yield continuous carbon fibers without a decrease in physical properties. Therefore, theoretically, it becomes possible to recycle indefinitely and revert the fibers to their original state, provided that the strength reduction during product use is not a significant consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous-led activism against proposed oil pipelines has relied heavily on social media, as in the #NoDAPL campaign against the Dakota Access Pipeline. This paper explores affective engagement in online activism, including the Standing Rock 'check-in' campaign on Facebook. Moving beyond dichotomous understandings of embodied vs digital activism, Cannupa Hanska Luger's Mirror Shields Project employs digital media in order to support direct action at Standing Rock. Patricia Clough draws a direct link between affect and technoscientific understandings of the body in her concept of biomediated bodies. This helps explain how physical and digital activism are linked: the digital and the physical cannot be understood as independent of each other, since online engagement always has an embodied aspect as well. Luger's Mirror Shields Project functions as a form of alterlife, in resistance to biopower, recognizing historical and ongoing harms while also creating new possibilities for resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings from an investigation of nature-based practices, from the perspectives of 10 academics/educators from six nations. Participants engaged in a focus group exploring the prevalence and inclusion of nature in social work practice and education. While the study focused on individual members' experiences and perspectives, the findings highlight important context-specific factors for including nature within social work to reconnect humans with nature for health, well-being, healing, and justice. An Integrative Environmental Model for social work is proposed to assist future practice and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the catalogue of environment-related publications in Urban Studies, this paper identifies and reviews 12 thought-provoking articles that have addressed the issue of climate changes and cities from complementary perspectives. It argues that to advance a holistic understanding of urban environmental issues it is necessary to embrace a broad multi-disciplinary approach, particularly as moving towards low carbon urban living will require integrated social, political and technical adaptation processes. Ultimately, the paper advances a forward-looking research agenda that extends beyond consideration of how to improve urban environmental performance to include evaluation of how urban consumers, firms and local government endeavour to achieve sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of neoliberal environmentalism was to unleash the market to protect the environment; but as it turns out, things are getting worse on our way to catastrophe. Despite persistent failures, neoliberal environmentalism remains prevalent—and apparently without alternative. This paper directs focus on an often-overlooked dimension of this apparent stasis: the nexus of self and society in advanced capitalism, as shown in the linkage between neoliberal environmentalism and the autonomous ecoconsumer. Marcuse's concept of repressive desublimation is engaged to better understand how environmentalist desire is currently being thwarted in ways that inhibit movement toward socioecological emancipation. The paper provides an illustrative example of desublimated environmentalist desire in the current recycling crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances two arguments about environmental problems. First, it interrogates the strength and limitations of empiricist accounts of problems and issues offered by actor-network theory. Drawing on the work of C.S. Peirce, it considers how emerging environmental problems often lead to abductive inferences about the existence of hidden causes that may or may not have caused the problem to emerge. The analysis of environmental problems should be empiricist in so far as it is sceptical of the claims of those who know in advance what the problem is, but it should also be alert to processes and things that are not readily traceable or perceived. Secondly, the paper's contention is that environmental problems almost invariably involve an encounter between unlike or disparate materials or processes. In such circumstances, the challenge is to develop a form of inquiry that is alert to both the specificity of such encounters and to the specificity of the political situations in which they come to matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the challenges that bedevil the regulation of plastic pollution in Cameroon. Drawing on existing primary and secondary data, the paper argues that although there is an enabling legal environment for regulating plastic pollution in Cameroon, such an enabling environment disappointingly is not comprehensive and holistic to effectively combat plastic pollution owing to some pertinent reasons. Because of such reasons, the paper finds that the legal environment is timid and lends little support for effectively combating plastic pollution in Cameroon as land and marine plastics litter is continually on a hike. After demonstrating that the current legal efforts are timid and are not fit to address the current plastic pollution crisis and its associated harms, the paper recommends some key measures and pathways to effectively tackle the problem with a major one being the dire need for a comprehensive legislation that addresses plastics and the plastic pollution crisis in a holistic manner and that such legislation must be contingent on a similar global legally binding agreement that enjoins all countries to adopt, implement and enforce national plastics and plastic pollution legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a tripartite framework of transportation, transformation and translation to conceptualise the circulation, mutation and impacts of mobile policies as translocal, socio-material networks. Drawing on material from semi-structured interviews, participant observation and documents it considers the value of this framework by examining the mobility of the sustainability agenda of the Winter Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi, Russia. The paper shows how sustainability policies were packaged and mobilised to flow to Russia (transportation), how ineffective governance arrangements, a lack of institutional controls and time pressure altered them (transformation) and how the results fell far short of initial bid commitments (translation). As such, it sheds light onto the multiple immobilities and mutations that come with the attempts to mobilise policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper discusses the need for wider reform of UK chemicals policy following exit of the UK from the EU, focusing on chemical flame retardants as an example. Exposure to these chemicals presents a range of human environmental health issues and reveals important limitations in the UK's approach to reconciling fire safety with environmental and public health protections. Key strategic issues that would advance evidence-informed policy in this area are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the concepts of metabolism and metabolic rift as a framework, this paper examines carbon geoengineering technologies as a solution to climate change and explores if it is possible to mend an ecological metabolic rift without fundamental changes in the social metabolic order. Carbon geoengineering technologies have become a key component of scenarios to limit the extent of global warming and are being discussed as a means to sequester carbon and, therefore, mend the carbon cycle. However, most applications of carbon geoengineering thus far do not result in net negative emissions. Strategies to make operations profitable result in neutral or positive, rather than negative, emissions. While these strategies have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations, the current social order constrains their use and effectiveness. Instead of being applied as part of the solution to climate change, carbon geoengineering is being strategically promoted by the fossil fuel industry in ways that serve to reproduce and maintain the current social order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This mini-review reports curbing waste shells (i.e. seashells, eggshells, snail shells, etc.), environmental health issues and liabilities by using them as material for heterogenous catalysts, blended cement manufacture, concrete aggregate, ceramics and plastics additives, biofilter medium and biomedical applications. The traditional materials used in the manufacture of these products could be relatively cheap; however, there are considerable environmental issues (i.e., ecological damage, disruption of eco-system and air contamination) as well as intense energy consumption associated with the exploitation of depleting natural resources. Waste shells are a renewable and cheap alternative, and will simultaneously decrease manufacturing cost while reducing their burden on the environment. This paper emphasizes environmental sustainability by summarizing articles published on various applications of waste shell-derived biomaterials. The properties of waste shell-derived biomaterials are presented and discussed. The materials' properties suggest they are similar to limestone and their biological–natural origin and the high calcium carbonate content with a trace amount of other mineral elements makes them highly favorable for cement production, heterogenous catalysts and hydroxyapatite manufacture for biomedical and wastewater treatment applications. The purpose of this work is to offer new perspectives and direction for future research on waste shell-derived biomaterials while existing areas of applications demanding scale up are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A circular approach to the way in which we manage the resources consumed and produced in cities – materials, energy, water and land – will significantly reduce the consumption of finite resources globally. It will also help to address urban problems including resource security, waste disposal, greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, heating, drought and flooding. Taking a circular approach can also tackle many other socio-economic problems afflicting cities, for example, providing access to affordable accommodation, expanding and diversifying the economic base, building more engaged and collaborative communities in cities. Thus it has great potential to improve our urban living environments. To date, the industrial ecologists and economists have tended to dominate the circularity debate, focusing on closed-loop industrial systems and circular economy (circular businesses and systems of provision). In this paper I investigate why the current state-of-the-art conceptualisation for circular economy (RESOLVE) is inadequate when applied to a city. Through this critique and a broader review of the literature I identify the principles and components which are lacking from the circular economy (CE) conceptualisation when applied to a city. I then use this to develop my own definition and conceptualisation of a circular approach to urban resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of the present study was to explore the associations between the economic, political, sociocultural and physical environments in kindergartens, along with the frequency and variety of vegetables served, and the amount of vegetables eaten. Method: The BRA Study collected data through two paper-based questionnaires answered by the kindergarten leader and pedagogical leader of each selected kindergarten, and a five-day vegetable diary from kindergartens (n = 73) in Vestfold and Buskerud Counties, Norway. The questionnaires assessed environmental factors, and the frequency and variety of vegetables served. The non-parametric Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to explore the associations between factors in the kindergarten environments and vegetables served and eaten. Results: Kindergartens that included expenditures for food and beverages in the parental fees served a larger variety of vegetables (p = 0.046). A higher frequency of served vegetables (p = 0.014) and a larger amount (p = 0.027) of vegetables eaten were found in kindergartens where parents paid a monthly fee of 251 NOK or more. Similarly, the amount of vegetables eaten was higher (p = 0.017) in kindergartens where the employees paid a monthly fee to eat at work. Furthermore, a larger amount (p = 0.046) of vegetables was eaten in kindergartens that had written guidelines for food and beverages that were offered. Conclusions: This study indicates that the economic environment in a kindergarten seems to be positively associated with the vegetables served and eaten there. This is of high relevance for public health policy as vegetable consumption is an important factor in reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that ‘the Anthropocene’ is a deeply depoliticizing notion. This de-politicization unfolds through the creation of a set of narratives, what we refer to as ‘AnthropoScenes’, which broadly share the effect of off-staging certain voices and forms of acting. Our notion of the Anthropo-obScene is our tactic to both attest to and undermine the depoliticizing stories of ‘the Anthropocene’. We first examine how various AnthropoScenes, while internally fractured and heterogeneous, ranging from geo-engineering and earth system science to more-than-human and object-oriented ontologies, place things and beings, human and non-human, within a particular relational straitjacket that does not allow for a remainder or constitutive outside. This risks deepening an immunological biopolitical fantasy that promises adaptive and resilient terraforming, an earth system management of sorts that permits life as we know it to continue for some, while turning into a necropolitics for others. Second, we develop a post-foundational political perspective in relation to our dramatically changing socio-ecological situation. This perspective understands the political in terms of performance and, in an Arendtian manner, re-opens the political as forms of public-acting in common that subtracts from or exceeds what is gestured to hold socio-ecological constellations together. We conclude that what is off-staged and rendered obscene in ‘the AnthropoScenes’ carries precisely the possibility of a return of the political. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the Shanghai 2010 World Expo to show how spectacle serves a governing function of the Chinese developmental state. I introduce soil exegesis as a method to excavate sedimented power relations of spectacle, undergirding the expo’s presentation. This approach investigates how spectacle is a state-territorializing project and pedagogical venture that relies on and denies the state socialist-era’s waste, to produce a ‘new nature’ and perform socio-technical management of crisis and crowds. Dynamic rearrangement of soil quality and composition facilitated the urban redevelopment zone of sustainable futures, while interactive-technocratic environments inserted visitor bodies into expo surveillance systems and infrastructure without reference to the embedded political ecology of the mass event within Shanghai and beyond. The article concludes by considering ethical legacies of the event and the ways ‘sustainable spectacle’ operates through waste administration and environmental performance that ‘greenwash’ the socialist past and obstruct other governing arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does it mean to read Stuart Hall from South Africa, in relation to South Africa, and with South Africa in mind? This paper engages 'what's left of the debate' between Marxism and postcolonialism as politico-theoretical projects by refusing the opposition of compartmentalized scholarly fields, and by positing a conjunctural postcolonial-postsocialist praxis necessary for interpreting contemporary South Africa (as elsewhere.) Drawing on Hall's notion of 'moments' as both spatial and temporal, and assembled in the work of representation, I draw together insights from three moments in Hall's work: his foundational essay for the apartheid predicament, 'Race, Articulation and Societies Structured in Dominance'; the collectively written Policing the Crisis and particularly its remarkable conclusion which speaks to the criminalization of poor people's struggles; and his later thoughts on 'the end of innocence' with respect to coalitional Black politics. Reflecting on aspects of my research on 20th-century Durban, I suggest why these three moments must be seen in relation to each other, as a constellation that points, through the legacies of the Black Radical Tradition, to as yet unnamed postcolonial-postsocialist Marxisms of the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental protection is presumed to damper economic growth and media accounts of resource extraction often portray trade-offs between jobs and the environment. However, there is limited evidence that environmental protection universally costs jobs and heavily polluting industries provide few jobs in comparison to environmental impacts. Therefore, how has media discourse contributed to the taken-for-granted division between the economy and the environment? This paper uses the Keystone XL pipeline controversy as a case of the symbolical conflict between supporters of growth and conservation to explore the role of ideology and power in media discourse. I use frame analysis of newspaper articles to explore the representations of labor and the environment and how hegemonic ideology legitimizes resource extraction. My analysis reveals binary framing that constructed the pipeline as a political controversy over the trade-off between the environment and the economy, which made conflict between workers and environmentalists sensible, and silenced alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the interconnections and interrelations between food, waste, people and state during a series of survival crises in the famines of 1921–3, 1932–3 and 1946–7 in Soviet Ukraine. Owing to grain and food requisitions, the collectivization of agriculture and rationing, as part of the state's growing control over the flow of economic resources from the 1920s to the 1940s, discarded food acquired particular importance for people's survival during these times of extremes. Focusing on both individual and institutional levels of waste production and regulation, this study explores the role of food waste in the survival practices of the starving and traces the development of their individual resourcefulness and interconnectedness with wider social and natural environments. The article explores different types of food waste, including husks, leftover food, carrion and spoiled and rotten food and the spaces of its collection. By 'following' the traces of waste in urban and rural landscapes, including, among others, dumpsters, slaughterhouses, cattle cemeteries and railway stations, the article brings into focus the critical changes in human–food, human–waste and human–nature relationships in times of extremes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 2022, a scientific breakthrough in fusion energy resulted in widespread media attention with a focus on fusion as a key strategy to mitigate climate change. In this article, we draw from Herbert Marcuse's work on technological rationality to examine fusion technology in this context. We explore if fusion is seen as a way to master nature, if it protects current power relations, and if a focus on fusion might detract attention and resources from alternatives. Illustrating technological rationality, much attention is being given to the potential achievement of fusion energy, it is being championed by already powerful economic actors, and despite that it is unlikely to be ready in time to support necessary climate mitigation, it may be detracting support for more effective and just strategies that already exist. In this context, framing fusion as a solution to climate change represents what Marcuse calls 'one-dimensional thinking'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biology and politics have always been permeable to one another, trading metaphors back and forth. This is nowhere more blatant than when people claim to talk about ‘the planet’ as a whole. James Lovelock’s concept of Gaia has often been interpreted as a godlike figure. By reviewing in some detail a critical assessment of Lovelock’s Gaia by one scientist, Toby Tyrrell, the paper tries to map out why it is so difficult for natural as well as social scientists not to confuse Gaia with some sort of Providence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical studies of globalization seek to unmask how this stage of capitalist history reshapes patterns of uneven development around the world. While globalization can reproduce long-standing patterns of North–South unequal exchange, in this paper, I focus on how capital mobility and competition contribute to uneven development. Drawing primarily on Neil Smith’s theory of uneven development, I offer a theoretical discussion of how capital’s capacity to seesaw from place to place in its search for higher profits—and the spatial competition between places that this capacity triggers—constitutes a source of unevenness. Regions, nations, and localities adapt to capital’s seesaw by offering, among others, cheaper labor and lower environmental regulation costs. While this can work for a time, advantages are either eroded by the unfolding contradictions of capitalism or competed away by the emergence of new areas. In the last section, I offer a tentative illustration of this argument with a brief examination of pollution havens and Special Economic Zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the focus of cyber conflict has been on interstate conflict. This article focuses on two interrelated questions in the important but neglected area of cyber contentious politics. First, how does the public feel about the use of different eco tactics including cyber-based tactics carried out by activists involved in the radical environmental movement, a movement that uses protest and sabotage in service of environmental causes? Second, how do anti-technology sentiment and concerns about climate change influence support for different eco tactics? To answer these questions, we conduct a survey and survey experiment on a nationally diverse sample of Americans. We find that Americans are less supportive of certain eco tactics, particularly those that involve property destruction or physical sabotage compared to cyber-based tactics. We further show that anti-technology sentiment and perceived threat from climate change are correlated with increased support for eco direct actions. Using a survey experiment we show that cyber direct actions that result in sabotage are viewed as more acceptable than kinetic actions even though they both result in the same level of destruction. Finally, we include qualitative data from interviews with activists to better understand the strategy and role that new technology and tactics play in the broader radical environmental movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Urban India generates about 42 million tonnes of municipal solid waste per annum. By 2050, 50 per cent of the country’s population is projected to be urban, and the amount of waste will increase substantially. The 12th Schedule of the Constitution of India makes it obligatory for municipal authorities to keep cities and towns clean. Given their wide range of responsibilities, however, dealing with waste in both practical and environmentally sound ways is one of their most significant challenges, and innovative solutions are called for. This paper presents research on solid waste management in the city of Chandigarh, well known in India for its achievements in this regard. It provides an overview of the situation, discussing the strategies adopted and the continued and emerging challenges in waste management, as well as suggesting measures for possible solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to deepen conceptual understanding of workplace well-being in policing, particularly personal resilience. This is a conceptual paper reviewing and discussing contemporary literature with a focus on themes congruent with personal resilience in a police setting. This paper considers well-being in the context of police work in the UK, how resilience factors impact on an individual’s working life and the implications for policing generally.People can be trained to improve their resilience by a host of activities and approaches. These skills can be used to assess their own levels of resilience, and inform how to manage others through a variety of techniques.Some resilience factors are completely out of an individual’s locus of control; but many are not. Organisations can contribute by providing training and creating environments where individuals can practice these approaches as part and parcel of their daily activity, and flourish from doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the study of the ecology of early Holocene, 9000-4000 cal BC, specifically human and faunal dispersal into the Norrland and Dalarna areas of northern Sweden. It has been hypothesised that this region of Sweden was settled by hunter-gatherer groups of Butovo/Veretye ancestry moving in from the eastern taiga zone and at the same time groups from the West Scandinavian coast were moving north following the melting Weichselian ice sheet. Due to the speed of the melting ice these two groups must have encountered each other in the central part of northern Sweden. This article discusses the environment of these two separate groups and the possible consequences of their encounter, informed by results from the zooarchaeological analysis of burnt, radiocarbon dated bones from sites spanning much of Norrland and Dalarna. A compilation of previously dated sites are presented, and also new 14C dates from excavated sites. The northern population preferred to hunt forest game and held on to it for a long time even if sea mammals were available. The southern population, on the other hand, hunted sea mammals and forest game through the whole period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many analysts expect that a decline in natural resources and a rise in resource demand will increase the risk of interstate war in the coming decades. Other researchers reject this expectation. Empirical examinations are mostly qualitative case studies, and the few statistical models center primarily on waters. We argue changing resource levels can provide either an incentive or a disincentive for countries to go to war. The net effects by resource are empirical issues. We offer statistical models for a large sample, including several types of renewable and non-renewable resources, and other variables. We find that resource changes impact interstate war, and the magnitude of their impacts is on par with that of non-resource forces, and the effects of one time resource changes linger. The paper examines implications for the coming decades in light of the United States’ National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends 2030 outlook. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part 2 of these Regulations amends legislation concerning animal health; amending retained direct EU legislation and secondary legislation. Following the UK leaving the EU, the UK will no longer be part of the EU Common Fisheries Policy, it will be an independent coastal state responsible for managing fisheries in the UK's Exclusive Economic Zone. The House of Commons Library Briefing Paper published on 5 September 2019, examines the potential structures of the UK fishing industry in light of no deal Brexit as well as other deal options, as well as examining the other internal community agreements the UK will still be bound to adhere to. On 10 July 2019, the Committee on Climate Change - Adaptation Sub-Committee published its report advising the Government on climate change risks and opportunities for the UK through the UK Climate Change Assessment as well as its first evaluation of the Government's second National Adaptation Programme. [Extracted from the article]

This paper outlines a speculative artistic research project, Orbital Reveries, which develops an alternative representational practice for engaging with satellite sensing. The project appropriates terrestrial satellite imagery and parses it through various algorithmic processes to generate visual-poetic ‘textscapes’. The goal of this exercise is to resituate satellite sensing within other modes of representational knowledge-making, exploring the value of creative speculation and experimental emergence in mapping ecological crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study primarily focuses on green machining, which refers to the environmentally friendly machining of parts without compromising the environment and human health. Green machining, an innovative approach in the manufacturing industry, aims to reduce the environmental impact and promote sustainable practices throughout the machining process. Green machining involves the utilization of methods such as machining, dry machining, high-performance cutting, hybrid machining, and high-speed cutting, along with environmentally friendly lubrication practices. The objective of this research is to investigate the effects of machining Ti6Al4V alloys, a widely used lightweight metal in the aerospace industry known for its challenging machinability. The study specifically examines cutting force, surface roughness, and tool wear under various cutting parameters and tribological conditions. The use of a new lubrication/cooling method was investigated in order to minimize the effects of traditional cutting fluids used in the machining of difficult materials, which may cause environmental and human health. This way, sustainable green production compatible with the environment has been realized today, where global warming and carbon emissions are rapidly increasing. In addition, it was observed that the factor determining the cutting force was the depth of cut and the feed rate was the most significant factor affecting the surface roughness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important role of garments is to provide adequate comfort. A study was undertaken of the sensory scores for perceived comfort of wool base layer long sleeve knitted T shirts. This paper, the first in a series, describes and evaluates the wearer trial protocol in which untrained female wearers scored tactile, thermal, and moisture-based sensations during a controlled series of activities in a range of controlled climatic environments. Wearer scores were sufficiently consistent, that significant differences in aggregate scores between garments were detected that reflected changes in the fiber type (wool, cashmere, and cotton) and fiber specifications. Prickle and discomfort scores responded to different factors. The importance of choosing appropriate test conditions when assessing garments for particular end uses was highlighted as both the environment and activity affected wearer's perception of garment performance. A novel test feature was the use of a ‘link’ garment common to separate trials. This, combined with the observed absence of an effect due to garment washing, enabled the testing to be expanded so that 38 garments were successfully compared over 30 months in nine trials. Finally while the first trial used 43 wearers to obtain good estimates of absolute comfort levels, it was demonstrated that a reduction to 25 wearers was adequate for later trials with minimal loss in sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010, a substantial body of research has focused on the development of computational tools and analytical frameworks for modeling oil spill events. Much of this work is dedicated to deepening our understanding of the interactions between oil, fragile ecosystems, and the environment, as well as the impacts of oil on human settlements which are vulnerable to spill events. These advances in oil spill modeling and associated analytics have not only increased the efficiency of spill interdiction and mitigation efforts, they have also helped to nurture proactive, versus reactive, response strategies and plans for local and regional stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to provide a progress report on the wide range of computational tools, analytical frameworks, and emerging technologies which are necessary inputs for a complete oil spill modeling package. Specifically, we explore the use of relatively mature tools, such as dedicated spill modeling packages, geographic information systems (GIS), and remote sensing, as well emerging technologies such as aerial and aquatic drones and other in-situ sensing technologies. The integration of these technologies and the advantages associated with using a geographic lens for oil spill modeling are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the interplay between whale watchers' knowledge and interest in protecting the environment on the perceived value and satisfaction of their whale watching experience. Despite an emphasis on examining 1) environmental insights into protecting the environment employed by tourists and tourism stakeholders; and 2) evaluating tourists' perceived value and satisfaction in the literature, it is unknown if whale watchers' knowledge and interest in protecting the environment influences their evaluation of a whale watching experience. To assess the relationships between these constructs, 1024 self-administered surveys were collected on three whale watching vessels within one Australian whale watching destination. Ordinary least square and logit regression determined that whale watchers' interest in protecting the environment and perceived value and satisfaction with their whale watching experience was high. Whale watchers' knowledge of protecting the environment was an insignificant predictor of perceived value and satisfaction. Conversely, whale watchers' interest in protecting the environment was a significant predictor of perceived quality and emotional value. Perceived value mediated whale watchers' interest in protecting the environment and satisfaction. To remain competitive whilst also protecting the environment, tourism stakeholders (e.g. Destination Marketing Organizations, whale watching operators) need to further market whale watching experiences to whale watchers in the targeted segment emphasizing environmental protection appeal. This study has provided several theoretical and practical contributions while future research opportunities are also outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the new theoretical concept of environing media, which is developed to offer critical insight into how processes of mediation affect how we perceive of, manage and use the environment. Building on the insight that the environment has been in a continuous slow process of change that is now escalating due to human impacts, the article sketches a history of how environmental change and mediation are intertwined. Taking the history of agriculture as a case for the theoretical development, it shows how the current digitization of farming and implementation of AI systems in precision agriculture is the last of a long series in which environmental mediation come to play a crucial role in the forging of human–Earth relations. The article thereby shows the complex interplay between knowing and changing the environment as media technologies produce new epistemologies that in turn produce new interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This study examined the barriers and opportunities in Sweden for integrating One Health practices. Sweden's long tradition of working with One Health was used as a case to analyse persistent barriers as well as opportunities. Method: Thirteen semi-structured interviews with experts from the Swedish Veterinary Agency, Food Agency, Public Health Agency, and Environmental Protection Agency were carried out. A thematic content analysis was conducted on the interviews using inductive coding in NVivo. Results: The study revealed that while collaboration is the general aspiration across the Swedish agencies, barriers persist regarding the understanding of One Health, the integration of the environment sector and awareness of the different terminologies employed within the disciplines. There are legislative challenges and barriers to science to policy translation. Disease outbreak was identified as an opportunity for One Health integration. Conclusions: A One Health strategy needs to be developed at agency level to define One Health and clarify the roles and responsibilities. To overcome practical challenges, experts need to be aware of different terminologies and practices when collaborating. Further prospects for One Health integration include employing policy entrepreneurs to push One Health onto the political agenda. Preparations for disease outbreaks need to focus on reducing barriers to effectively integrate One Health. Experiences of One Health projects must be disseminated, and to raise awareness, education programmes must integrate One Health into curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil spill modeling is fundamental for planning and preparing for, as well as responding to and mitigating, actual spill events. As a result, significant research effort has been directed toward developing analytical approaches for deepening our understanding of spill risk, community vulnerability, oil behavior, spill outcomes, and impacts. The purpose of this paper is to provide a synthesis of the oil spill risk assessment and impact modeling literature, with a focus on the vulnerability of local environmental, ecological, and community systems, as well as the geographic processes associated with modeling spills and transforming these data into a robust and meaningful impact assessments. The results of this progress report reveal a number of methodological and substantive commonalities across the scientific literature. Moreover, the synthesis of this literature should provide researchers with a strong foundation for pursuing future work in this domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the environment is fundamental to humankind's wellbeing, to date, social work has been largely focused on the social, rather than the physical, environment. To map how the broader environment is captured in the profession's foundational documents, an exploratory sequential mixed methods study (QUAL → quan) analysed data from 64 social work codes of ethics. Findings indicate that although the environment is mentioned in the majority of these, there is a continued focus on the social, overlooking to some degree the physical, predominantly the built, environment. A more holistic understanding of the environment would enable social work to better fulfil its commitment to human rights and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article attends to everyday practices in a laboratory of neural genetics that studies olfaction, with the fruit fly as its model organism. Practices in neural genetics exhibit one of the 'post' aspects in post-genomic science – a turn to the environment. To get at how laboratory members engage body-environment continuities, I pay attention to an occasion of designing experimental chambers for an optogenetics study. As practitioners deal with the body's continuities with the world by engaging the spatial character of olfaction, their accounts exhibit qualities of feelings of immediate experience, relatable to C.S. Peirce's phenomenological category of Firstness. While these traces of Firstness inevitably manifest themselves in mixtures with the other two of Peirce's categories – namely, Secondness and Thirdness – noticing them allows for an engagement of the environment that goes beyond action and meaning. I reflect on that environment by considering the involvement of scientists' bodies in life with flies, while not forgetting my inhabitation of the laboratory space. Rather than relying on a cross-mapping of attributes known from the human sphere (intentional states or features of the human body) while managing a measurable space observed from the outside, this is an environment lived from within and with others. I conclude the article by proposing its noticing as an orientation toward ecological preoccupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to visualise the complexity of the determinants of population health and their interactions inspired the development of the rainbow model. In this commentary we chronicle how variations of this model have emerged, including the initial models of Haglund and Svanström (1982), Dahlgren and Whitehead (1991), and the Östgöta model (2014), and we illustrate how these models have been influential in both public health and beyond. All these models have strong Nordic connections and are thus an important Nordic contribution to public health. Further, these models have underpinned and facilitated other examples of Nordic leadership in public health, including practical efforts to address health inequalities and design new health policy approaches. Apart from documenting the emergence of rainbow models and their wide range of contemporary uses, we examine a range of criticisms levelled at these models – including limitations in methodological development and in scope. We propose the time is ripe for an updated generic determinants of health model, one that elucidates and preserves the core value in older models, while recognising the developments that have occurred over the past decades in our understanding of the determinants of health. We conclude with an example of a generic model that fulfills the general purposes of a determinants of health model while maintaining the necessary scope for further adjustments to be made in the future, as well as adjustments to location or context-specific purposes, in education, research, health promotion and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiber reinforced composites have been used in several applications for several years and the market is continuously growing. It is known that the addition of fibers for reinforcing of matrix has advantages, especially the mechanical properties of the composites. Environmental and economic concerns are stimulating new research in the development of sustainable fiber for reinforcing polymer matrix. Particularly attractive are new materials in which a good part is based on natural and renewable resources, hence aggravating the environmental concerns that may result in the depletion and dwindling of wood resources from forest. This assessment report provides detailed world production of natural fiber and the inherent looming danger envisaged if attention is not shifted from its continuous usage. It has been stated that natural fibers are renewable and sustainable, but they are in fact, neither i.e. living plants are renewable and sustainable, from which natural fibers are taken, but not the fibers themselves. The US market reports that the composite market was 2.7 billion pounds sterling in 2006 and it is estimated to reach 3.3 billion pound sterling by 2012 with a 3.3% annual growth. Natural fiber market in the US experienced a 13% growth rate (275 million kilograms) between 1994 and 2004 and the demand for the natural fibers continues to rise. The average global annual market growth for natural fibers between 2003 and 2007 was 38%, while Europe saw the highest annual growth rate of 48%. This market was estimated at 0.36 million metric ton in 2007 and it is expected to reach 3.45 million metric ton in 2020. Fiber reinforced market is a multibillion dollar business and the natural fiber composites take a fair part of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health research has begun to pay increasing attention to inactivity in its broadest sense as lack of meaningful activity and boredom. Few studies however have taken a critical look at this phenomenon. We explore (in)activity drawing on ethnographic data from observations in an acute stroke unit and post-discharge interviews with stroke survivors and their families. Four themes emerged that explain patients' (in)activity: (i) planned activities; (ii) 'doing nothing', (iii) the material environment of the unit; (iv) interactions with staff. Considering these themes, we seek to problematise received conceptual and methodological approaches to understanding (in)activity. We argue that (in)activity is best conceived not as lack of action or meaning, but as a situated practice encompassing both bodily and mental activities that reflect and reproduce the way in which life is collectively organised within a specific healthcare setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the implications of tourism activities for economic growth and environmental assets, focusing especially on small island countries. The author develops a stylized dynamic economic model in which tourism is the trigger of the incentive mechanism leading to abatement activities and economic growth. The basic idea is that tourists choose the location to visit according to a number of factors (including environmental quality) which are affected by residents' choices. If residents engage in environmental protection activities, it then may be possible for environmentally based tourism economies to reach a smooth development process. The author shows that the (sustainable) balanced growth path is the only viable equilibrium, and along such a path consumption grows while environmental quality rises. Tourists' preferences crucially affect the longrun outcome, since economic and environmental growth rates increase with the green preference and decrease with the grey preference and crowding aversion parameters. Thus, if tourism specialization is to be the pathway to development, green tourism will need to be promoted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The low-pressure steam requirement in the iron and steel production plant is obtained through pressure reduction stations with unrestrained expansion. In this study, the feasibility of obtaining the low-pressure steam that is needed in the plant in a backpressure turbine instead of pressure reduction stations has been studied. In this way, it is foreseen that a significant amount of wasted energy during the unrestrained expansion in pressure reduction stations, can be recovered as shaft work during the expansion process performed in the turbine. The obtained shaft work is planned to be used in the boiler feedwater pump drive. It is aimed to increase the efficiency of the system by the deactivation of boiler feedwater pump electric motors and as well as bringing the energy that is lost during the unrestrained expansion of the superheated steam to the system through the pump drive. The estimated size of energy saving of the system could be reached to 33.74%. The annual size of achievable saving has been determined by approximately 8,094,810 kWh and economically $509,973. The payback period of the estimated $683,079 investment is 1.34 years. A determined amount of saving is also equivalent to the reduction of 7,285,329 kg CO2 emission, annually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Re-evaluating dominant cultural narratives around dying and death is central to new critiques of individualism and human exceptionalism. As conceptual tools for theorizing the end of the individual proliferate, the affective dimensions of this project are often overlooked, especially as they pertain to individual subjects. In contrast, a significant number of iconic queer and feminist thinkers have suffered breast cancer and written memoirs representing the subjective experience of confronting mortality. This article identifies the affective orientations towards one's own mortality as missing from queer and feminist thinking on embodiment in the Anthropocene. As a remedy, the article reads several iconic feminist breast cancer memoirs – Sontag, Lorde, Sedgwick, Jain and Boyer – for their complex representations of affect, in particular fear, in relation to dying and death. Using the affect theory of Silvan Tomkins, this analysis contributes to critiques of cancer culture in medical humanities and of mortality and embodiment in feminist environmental humanities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), created in 1959 to govern the southern continent, is often lauded as an illustration of science's potential to inspire peaceful and rational International Relations. This article critically examines this optimistic view of science's role in international politics by focusing on how science as a global hierarchical structure operated as a gatekeeper to an exclusive Antarctic club. I argue that in the early 20th century, the conduct of science in Antarctica was entwined with global and imperial hierarchies. As what Mattern and Zarakol call a broad hierarchy, science worked both as a civilized marker of international status as well as a social performance that legitimated actors' imperial interests in Antarctica. The 1959 ATS relied on science as an existing broad hierarchy to enable competing states to achieve a functional bargain and 'freeze' sovereignty claims, whilst at the same time institutionalizing and reinforcing the legitimacy of science in maintaining international inequalities. In making this argument, I stress the role of formal international institutions in bridging our analysis of broad and functional hierarchies while also highlighting the importance of scientific hierarchies in constituting the current international order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]