Search

This paper considers a twelve-year period (2008-2019) and examines to what extent conference presentations and journal publications from three leading literacy and language professional organizations addressed the topic of climate change. Despite it being perhaps the most significant "mega-problem" of the 21st century (Martin, 2007), findings from this study demonstrate that climate change was largely invisible across the thousands of presentations and publications in this data set. It is time literacy and language educators and corresponding professional associations reckon with this troubling reality.

Rare earth elements (REEs) are widely distributed in low concentrations in all parts of the biosphere. REEs are not at all rare, their concentration in the earth’s crust is close to 0.015%. REEs include the elements scandium, yttrium and the lanthanides from lanthanum to lutetium. REEs show similar physical and chemical properties. Today REEs are applied in industries and technologies, in agriculture as microfertilizers and feed additives and they are also used in medicine. REEs are dispersed especially as accessory minerals in pegmatites, granites and associated metamorphic volcanic rocks. Out of more than 250 kinds of minerals containing REEs, only bastnaesite and monazite are of economic importance. Their concentration in the soil varies widely and depends on their presence in parental materials, soil texture, organic matter content, pedogenetic processes and anthropogenic activities. REEs are found in small concentrations in surface stagnant and flowing waters as well as in underground waters. They are found in water in both suspended and dissolved form. REEs enter the atmosphere from various sources, largely owing to human activities. The majority of REEs in the atmosphere are carried by microscopic particles. The uptake and consequently accumulation of REEs in plants are affected by numerous biotic factors, such as plant species and genotype, and abiotic factors such as their concentration in the soil and some chemical and physical soil characteristics. They can enter plants via both root and foliage tissues. There are plant species called hyperaccumulators that are able to accumulate significant amounts of REEs without adverse consequences. RREs are not biogenic for higher plants or for other living organisms, but can influence their life processes. Experi­ments show that REEs can be beneficial for growth, yield and biochemical composition of cultivated plants. They can also alleviate some ecological stress in plants. It is not clear enough how they affect human and animal health. The wide-spread application of REEs in different industries as well as in agriculture lead to a constant increase of the concentrations of these elements in the environment. Therefore, studies on the uptake, accumulation, dis­tribution of REEs in cultivated plant species and their entrance into the food chain as well as their stimulating or toxic effect on living organisms, can be very significant in the future.

This paper examines the Confucian concept of learning, or xue ([character omitted]), from the perspective of ecological humanism. Through a comparative interpretation, this paper attempts to disclose the significance of Confucian xue conceived as a practice of aesthetic appreciation and creativity, emphasizing in particular its function within an eco-centric worldview. The author reviews the relevant concepts of ecological humanism as expressed in the ideas of John Dewey and Thomas Alexander, then applies these as a theoretical framework for interpreting xue and its related concepts and practices as they appear in the Confucian text the Lunyu ([characters omitted] ). It is argued that xue is a process of developing and expressing virtuosity and artistry in the "arts of life," and that its practice was understood as a direct participation in the creative development of nature. The significance of such a concept of learning for contemporary educational philosophy is discussed in conclusion.

The aim of this study was to investigate the properties of concrete with waste paper ash (WPA) as cement replacing material. The chemical composition of WPA was reported, and Portland cement was partially replaced with 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% of WPA to explore its effect on both fresh and hardened properties of C—25 concrete. The result of this study indicated that the chemical compositions of WPA were not classified as Pozzolanic material. Setting times of blended cement paste with WPA were lengthened and its consistency was also increased. The cement paste with replacement up to 10% showed a normal consistency within the standard range. The workability of concrete was tested immediately after preparing the concrete mix, whereas the compressive strength was tested after 7 and 28 days of curing. The results indicated that the workability of concrete containing WPA decreases as the WPA content increases. This study also revealed that there is a significant improvement in the compressive strength of concrete. Replacement of ordinary Portland cement by WPA up to 10% results in better compressive strength than that of the control mix. An improvement of 5.6% & 1.2% was observed, respectively, when compared with the 28-day compressive strength of the control mix. But the compressive strength decreases as the WPA replacement increases over 10%. Maximum compressive strength of 37.89 MPa was obtained for concrete containing 5% of WPA.

There is a growing interest in examining alterations in telomere length as a reliable biomarker of general health, as well as a marker for predicting later morbidity and mortality. Substantial evidence shows that telomere length is associated with aging; telomere shortening acts as a “counting mechanism” that drives replicative senescence by limiting the mitotic potential of normal (but not malignant) cells. In this Correspondence, we attempt to answer the question of why recently published papers about telomere length alterations increase our uncertainty rather than reduce it. This discussion includes three major research areas regarding telomere length: environmental stressors, aging, and life span. Our review suggests that activation of telomerase activity due to stressors in space might be a double-edged sword with both favorable and unfavorable consequences. The selection of an effect’s consequence must clearly elucidate the experimental conditions as well as associated stressors. In this Correspondence, we attempt to answer the question of why recently published papers about telomere length alterations increase our uncertainty rather than reduce it. The selection of an effect’s consequence must clearly elucidate the experimental conditions as well as associated stressors. Both positive and negative consequences must be clearly addressed in order to bolster the conclusions, as well as identify future research directions.

The aim of this study was to investigate the properties of concrete with waste paper ash (WPA) as cement replacing material. The chemical composition of WPA was reported, and Portland cement was partially replaced with 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% of WPA to explore its effect on both fresh and hardened properties of C—25 concrete. The result of this study indicated that the chemical compositions of WPA were not classified as Pozzolanic material. Setting times of blended cement paste with WPA were lengthened and its consistency was also increased. The cement paste with replacement up to 10% showed a normal consistency within the standard range. The workability of concrete was tested immediately after preparing the concrete mix, whereas the compressive strength was tested after 7 and 28 days of curing. The results indicated that the workability of concrete containing WPA decreases as the WPA content increases. This study also revealed that there is a significant improvement in the compressive strength of concrete. Replacement of ordinary Portland cement by WPA up to 10% results in better compressive strength than that of the control mix. An improvement of 5.6% & 1.2% was observed, respectively, when compared with the 28-day compressive strength of the control mix. But the compressive strength decreases as the WPA replacement increases over 10%. Maximum compressive strength of 37.89 MPa was obtained for concrete containing 5% of WPA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land cover dynamics is a challenging and vigorous process that associates natural and human systems that have undeviating effects on atmosphere, water and soil which lead to many environmental problems worldwide. Urbanization is one of a major land cover change that is highly correlated with many environmental problems that need emphasis. This paper aimed to review and present level and effect of land use land cover changes, urbanization, factors affecting land cover change and application of geographic information system & remote sensing in monitoring land cover changes. Over the past 300 years, about 1.2 million kilometer square of forests and 5.6 million kilometer square of pasture and rangeland were replaced by other uses worldwide, while cultivated land increased by 12 million km2. In 1950, only 30 percent of the world population lived in urban settings, the fraction raised to 55% by 2018. This led to about roughly 60% of the ecosystem services are being destroyed or used in unsustainable ways worldwide. Population expansion, change of technology, high land value, corruption, lack of awareness, migration of people and political pressure are among major driving force of land cover changes. Geo-informatics technology specially GIS and Remote Sensing is found to be an excellent tool for study of land cover change that enables observation across large area of earth’s surface with low cost, better efficient and high accuracy. Therefore monitoring, analyzing and evaluation of land cover dynamics with the help of geo-informatics is decisive for improved management & characterizing land cover alteration processes, and determining its environmental consequences.

Polyethylene bags (known as Nylon bags in Nigeria) are a common household name on the lips of everyone in Nigeria. Its versatile purposes, convenience, durability, flexibility and affordability has earned it as a part of day to day life necessity. People continue to devise countless ways Polyethylene bags can be utilised and be of immense benefit to them. This has placed a huge demand on the production of polyethylene bags. However, due to its chemical structure, Polyethylene bags do not bio-degrade readily, which led to accumulation of waste Polyethylene bags in the environment. This accumulation does not only deteriorate the aesthetic panorama but also has an indirect negative impact on health, as individual health cannot be separated from their environment. Unfortunately, majority do not understand the implications, and the concerned agencies are nonchalant to threat posed by accumulation of Polyethylene bags in the environment. Therefore, this paper seeks to reveal the imminent environmental consequences of accumulation of polyethylene waste bags in Nigeria and the way out.

The devastating global health impacts of climate change are becoming more apparent and more frequent. Health care systems are increasingly burdened by the response to these impacts. Paradoxically, as they respond to the negative health effects of climate change, these same resource intense health care systems are contributing to further climate change. Organizations and academics have issued a call to action for health care workers to mitigate climate change and promote environmental sustainability. Nurses are an integral part of health care systems but have been delayed in answering this call. In this paper we argue that nurses are particularly well suited to mitigating climate change in health care systems because their existing role is central to patient care, and as a result they interface with other health care providers and have developed proficiency in articulation work.

The cancerous process is result of disturbed cell function. This is due to the accumulation of many genetic and epigenetic changes within the cell, expressed in the accumulation of chromosomal or molecular aberrations, which leads to genetic instability. It is difficult to assess the validity of individual aetiological factors, but it can be concluded that interaction of various risk factors has the largest contribution to the cancer development. Environmental, exogenous and endogenous factors as well as individual factors, including genetic predisposition contribute to the development of cancer. Epidemiological research on the development of malignant tumors has focused over the years on the determinants of environmental and genetic factors of cancer incidence and mortality rate. According to current state of knowledge, 80–90% of malignant tumors are caused by external environmental factors (carcinogens). Epidemiological studies have proved that the main factors responsible for the development of malignant neoplasia among humans are environmental factors arising from human behaviour. It has been confirmed that smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, diet, and reproductive behaviour are important for the development of malignant neoplasia in the human population. According to the World Health Organization, in 2020 we may expect about 10 million deaths, including 7–8 million in the developing countries, while this number in the developed countries will not change and will be 2–3 million. The aim this study was systematization of knowledge concerning the risk factors of malignant tumours and supplementing them with the latest research results.

In this study, a microstrip patch antenna design with a U-shaped patch and a paper-based substrate is presented. Metallic parts such as the patch, ground plane and microstrip line feed are designed in aluminum. Utilization of recyclable paper and aluminum yields a sustainable and environmentally friendly design. The dual-band antenna operates between 1.950-2.125 GHz and 2.650-2.825 GHz with a bandwidth of 0.175 GHz for both frequency ranges. It is suitable for multipoint distribution systems (2.076-2.111 GHz) and WiMAX application (2.700--2.800 GHz). Monopolar radiation patterns are obtained for the operation frequencies of both frequency ranges. Maximum gain values are 5.009 dBi and 5.413 dBi for the operation frequencies of multipoint distribution systems and WiMAX application, respectively. While the antenna can be used indoors and outdoors, radome design is not considered in the structure. No parasitic elements or slots are included in the antenna. All simulations are carried out by using ANSYS HFSS software package. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The critical risk from airborne infectious diseases, bio-weapons, and harmful bacteria is currently the highest it has ever been in human history. The requirement for monitoring airborne pathogens has gradually increased to defend against bioterrorism or prevent pandemics, especially via simple and low-cost platforms which can be applied in resource-limited settings. Here, we developed a paper-based airborne bacteria collection and DNA extraction kit suitable for simple application with minimal instruments. Airborne sample collection and DNA extraction for PCR analysis were integrated in the paper kit. We created an easy-to-use paper-based air monitoring system using 3D printing technology combined with an air pump. The operation time of the entire process, comprising air sampling, bacterial cell lysis, purification and concentration of DNA, and elution of the DNA analyte, was within 20 min. All the investigations and optimum settings were tested in a custom-designed closed cabinet system. In the fabricated cabinet system, the paper kit operated effectively at a temperature of 25–35 °C and 30–70% relative humidity for air containing 10–106 CFU Staphylococcus aureus. This paper kit could be applied for simple, rapid, and cost-effective airborne pathogen monitoring.

Pulp and paper industry produces massive amounts of sludge from wastewater treatment, which constitute an enormous environmental challenge. A possible management option is the conversion of sludge into carbon-based adsorbents to be applied in water remediation. For such utilization it is important to investigate if sludge is a consistent raw material originating reproducible final materials (either over time or from different manufacturing processes), which is the main goal of this work. For that purpose, different primary (PS) and biological sludge (BS) batches from two factories with different operation modes were sampled and subjected to pyrolysis (P materials) and to pyrolysis followed by acid washing (PW materials). All the materials were characterized by proximate analysis, total organic carbon (TOC) and inorganic carbon (IC), attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and N 2 adsorption isotherms (specific surface area ( S BET )and porosity determination). Sludge from the two factories proved to have distinct physicochemical properties, mainly in what concerns IC. After pyrolysis, the washing step was essential to reduce IC and to considerably increase S BET , yet with high impact in the final production yield. Among the materials here produced, PW materials from PS were those having the highest S BET values (387–488 m 2 g −1 ). Overall, it was found that precursors from different factories might originate final materials with distinct characteristics, being essential to take into account this source of variability when considering paper mill sludge as a raw material. Nevertheless, for PS, low variability was found between batches, which points out to the reliability of such residues to be used as precursors of carbon adsorbents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to assess the energy-, environmental-, and climate change literacy among primary and middle school students in selected cities of Ethiopia. This survey study was conducted in primary and middle schools found in six cities and involved a total of 1589 students. The finding indicate that the participants of the study had a very good awareness about principles underlying generation and use of energy but performed much poorly in items related to awareness about impacts of climate change. The paper also concluded that students' views about issues related to generation and use of energy cannot be considered as favorable. On the other hand, the results on practices related to energy use and environmental protection reveal that participants reported pro-energy and environmental practice. Interestingly, the practice of participants doesn't seem to align with the generally unfavorable attitude towards energy generation and climate change. Therefore, it is advised that primary and middle schools offer a thorough education on energy and environmental education because these levels of instruction have a special role to play in raising awareness of and developing skills and attitudes related to environmental and climate change education.

Achieving food-system sustainability is a multidimensional challenge. In China, a doubling of crop production since 1990 has compromised other dimensions of sustainability 1,2 . Although the country is promoting various interventions to enhance production efficiency and reduce environmental impacts 3 , there is little understanding of whether crop switching can achieve more sustainable cropping systems and whether coordinated action is needed to avoid tradeoffs. Here we combine high-resolution data on crop-specific yields, harvested areas, environmental footprints and farmer incomes to first quantify the current state of crop-production sustainability. Under varying levels of inter-ministerial and central coordination, we perform spatial optimizations that redistribute crops to meet a suite of agricultural sustainable development targets. With a siloed approach-in which each government ministry seeks to improve a single sustainability outcome in isolation-crop switching could realize large individual benefits but produce tradeoffs for other dimensions and between regions. In cases of central coordination-in which tradeoffs are prevented-we find marked co-benefits for environmental-impact reductions (blue water (-4.5% to -18.5%), green water (-4.4% to -9.5%), greenhouse gases (GHGs) (-1.7% to -7.7%), fertilizers (-5.2% to -10.9%), pesticides (-4.3% to -10.8%)) and increased farmer incomes (+2.9% to +7.5%). These outcomes of centrally coordinated crop switching can contribute substantially (23-40% across dimensions) towards China's 2030 agricultural sustainable development targets and potentially produce global resource savings. This integrated approach can inform feasible targeted agricultural interventions that achieve sustainability co-benefits across several dimensions., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

The Western United States is experiencing historic drought, increasing pressure on water management systems. Agricultural production that relies on surface water flows is therefore imperiled, requiring new innovations and partnerships in order to adapt and survive. In Arizona, some agriculture continues to rely on historic, low-tech irrigation infrastructure such as hand-dug open ditches that divert river water to flood fields. These ditch systems are managed through both formal ditch companies and informal associations. To address changing water availability and needs, ditch users regularly "tinker" with water infrastructure, experimenting and making changes beyond the original infrastructure plans. Such changes are informed and driven by local social relationships and realities of the physical infrastructure. These dynamics are critical to understanding the adaptive capacity and flexibility of the water system; however, they are challenging to recognize and record. In this paper, we apply the emerging conceptualization of sociotechnical tinkering to examine the adaptive management of irrigation ditches in the Verde Valley of Arizona. We find evidence that water users frequently tinker with their water delivery and monitoring infrastructure to respond to and anticipate changes in water availability. Viewed through the lens of sociotechnical tinkering, these interactions are understood as the material manifestations of situated practice and actor agency within a water management system. This case study contributes to literature on adaptive environmental management and the hydrosocial cycle., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Researchers have already highlighted the safety and health issues in workplaces. The necessity of these issues and their close relations to the environment have more transparently called for the management control of three critical dimensions of Health, Safety, and the Environment (HSE). Furthermore, following the rapid development of technology and the complexity of the activities tailored to the needs of companies and industries, a set of guidelines called HSE was developed to minimize the damages to human, equipment, and environment. Therefore, today presenting the academic education of HSE management system as a university Major, especially in universities affiliated with the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, like the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences seems necessary. In particular, USWR, besides rendering health, treatment, and rehabilitation services is a provider of the third level of the health system. Therefore, considering the importance of the issue, approximately a quarter century history of USWR establishment, and the fundamental nature of the health and prevention areas, this university attempted to use the comprehensive view of HSE management, to complete its activities in the field of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences. This paper aimed to investigate the necessity of establishing the HSE management Major at the USWR. The investigation was conducted using library review research, field study, community wisdom, and expert knowledge. The obtained data and results suggested that the USWR and its subsidiary centers recognized establishing HSE Major as beneficial in expanding research and science fields in rehabilitation services. It may also help pay more attention to the elderly, disabled, and children, both in terms of occupational hazards, and the general safety and various levels of life. Further in-depth research in these areas can ultimately help improve the wellbeing of all society members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) has become one of the most widespread environmental management instruments. Despite this, EIA is routinely criticized for being ineffective at impacting decision-making. This study compared the EIA systems of Paraná, Brazil and California, United States using the effectiveness dimensions from the EIA literature. This study formats the cases into contextual conditions using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify the necessary or sufficient conditions that cause effective outcomes. These effectiveness outcomes are then ranked by EIA stakeholders via the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to identify stakeholder priorities and to improve stakeholder management. The results show that in Paraná stakeholders identified normative effectiveness as the most important dimension, while stakeholders in California identified this dimension as the second-most important following substantive effectiveness. Public participation was found to be a necessary condition for both substantive and normative effectiveness to occur. Early project definition was found to be sufficient for substantive effectiveness and necessary for normative effectiveness, for which stakeholder coordination was a sufficient condition. This suggests that in order for EIA to influence decision-making and foster sustainable development, greater care needs to be taken to actively engage stakeholders in public participation, with clear roles and project design communicated early on, and a clear role for regulatory authority to promote stakeholder coordination for acceptable outcomes. These findings suggest that some effectiveness dimensions are caused by similar conditions, which could help focus stakeholder management efforts and point to new avenues for future EIA effectiveness research., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper discussed the relationship between language, ecology, and culture, and claimed that the study of linguistic communication as pragmatics should not be confined to the traditional context, but should focus on a broader ecological environment. It analyzed the context of practical communication from the perspective of language ecology beginning with the discussion of the ecological crisis in communication and found that language, like plants and animals in nature, needed the support of the external environment with certain "soil fertility". This paper classified ecological context into two types: internal ecological context (psychological-cognitive context) and external ecological context (natural environment and social environment). Based on this classification, the ecological context of pragmatics was further divided into environment-friendly context, addressee-friendly context, and speaker-friendly ecological context. This paper was an exploratory analysis of language ecology in pragmatics, aiming at helping communicative participants find their ecological niche and adopt appropriate strategies to maintain the ecological balance in pragmatic communication.

In Malaysian education, an approach to inculcate Environmental Citizenship (EC) comprising positive attitudes and pro-environmental behaviour is to try and improve Sustainable Development (SD) awareness based upon knowledge of the environment, social, cultural, and economic domains. However, will the increase of knowledge of these domains suffice for enhancing EC? The paper discusses a 2019-2020 nationwide survey conducted to determine the EC status and SD awareness. The study had 1976 respondents, and statistical analysis revealed that the overall self-perceived EC and SD awareness levels were high among Malaysians. However, correlational analysis between the EC and the SD knowledge component domains revealed low associations indicating a lack of interconnectedness between the domains. Environmental values, investigated as an exploratory variable in the study, appeared to have a mediating role between the EC and SD awareness component domains. Further analysis using PLS-SEM software revealed that values did play a mediating role. Based on these findings, the paper argues for an emerging model for a missing pedagogical link in transforming Malaysian EC through SD awareness education for pro-environmental behaviour. Implications for an education policy are discussed.

The development trends and research layout of agricultural resources and the environment (ARE) are the focus of global attention. In this study, we compiled a data set of SCI papers published in the ARE field since the 13th Five-Year Plan. Thereafter, the topic extraction model of Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was used to mine the text content so as to explore the research layout of global ARE. The results show that, between 2016 and the time of this study, 31,559 articles were published in the ARE field, exhibiting an overall upward trend. During this time, China and the United States were the main forces in paper publishing. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, and the US Department of Agriculture were the top three publishing institutions. Research institutes in China, the United States, Russia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Australia cooperated closely, and the CAS was at the center of the cooperation network. The clustering results of text topics based on the LDA model show that three topics—namely, the interaction mechanisms of plants, the rhizosphere, and microorganisms; the mechanisms and predictive evaluation of soil landslides or erosion; and the decomposition and interaction response of organic matter in agroforestry ecosystems—have been the hot research areas in this field since 2016. The management and efficient utilization of farmland nutrients, and the technology and mechanisms of agricultural waste resource utilization have become key research directions since 2019. The research layouts of China and the United States in this field were analyzed, and the similarities and differences were compared. In addition, suggestions for the future development of ARE are proposed. This study is of great significance for the overall development trend of ARE, the timely tracking of scientific research hotspots, outlining key research and development directions, and promoting scientific and technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Environment and its ecosystems are affected by various natural and man-made disasters. The environmental management in disasters tries to protect ecosystems, sustain development, reduce disaster risk, and adapt to or decrease the impact of climate change. This study aimed to investigate the impact of disasters on the environment and methods of reducing these effects. Materials and Methods: This review study was conducted by searching PubMed, Google Scholar, Elsevier, UNEP, SID, and Magiran databases using keywords of “environment”, “disasters”, “recovery”, and “lessons learned” from 1999 to 2015. Results: Decrease in surface and groundwater resources, pollution of water resources, deforestation, desertification, soil erosion, air pollution and extinction of animal species are among post-disaster environmental damages. As a result of such changes in the environment and ecosystem, water shortage and drought, loss of vegetation, and food insecurity will ensue. Due to these destructive incidents, the people’s ability to provide necessary resources for living decreases and their very lives are threatened. Consequently, they are forced to immigrate to save their lives. Conclusion: Environmental recovery is one of the effective strategies for achieving sustainable development. In this regard, public and private organizations as well as international ones and people should work together. Responsible organizations, the stakeholders at different levels, and the public must be trained in this area and introduced to the latest international standards. Rules and policies should be reviewed and revised in accordance with today’s needs and international standards.

The cancerous process is result of disturbed cell function. This is due to the accumulation of many genetic and epigenetic changes within the cell, expressed in the accumulation of chromosomal or molecular aberrations, which leads to genetic instability. It is difficult to assess the validity of individual aetiological factors, but it can be concluded that interaction of various risk factors has the largest contribution to the cancer development. Environmental, exogenous and endogenous factors as well as individual factors, including genetic predisposition contribute to the development of cancer. Epidemiological research on the development of malignant tumors has focused over the years on the determinants of environmental and genetic factors of cancer incidence and mortality rate. According to current state of knowledge, 80-90% of malignant tumors are caused by external environmental factors (carcinogens). Epidemiological studies have proved that the main factors responsible for the development of malignant neoplasia among humans are environmental factors arising from human behaviour. It has been confirmed that smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, diet, and reproductive behaviour are important for the development of malignant neoplasia in the human population. According to the World Health Organization, in 2020 we may expect about 10 million deaths, including 7-8 million in the developing countries, while this number in the developed countries will not change and will be 2-3 million. The aim this study was systematization of knowledge concerning the risk factors of malignant tumours and supplementing them with the latest research results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning progression research has the capability to connect thinking in the education sciences and geography. Learning progressions provide a map of the various pathways that students take to master a topic. The aim of this paper is to illustrate significant conceptual ties between learning progressions and disciplinary geography. Two construct paradigms overlap to form an entryway between educational and geographic thought: constructivism from education and possibilism within geography. The learning progression method can form a bridge between the two paradigms. Learning progression research in geography depends on being able to answer two questions. First, which geographic concepts should be tracked? Given the ongoing changes in global human-environmental systems, priority could be dedicated to the topics that stimulate synthesis thinking about the human-environment relationship in the Anthropocene, or "Age of Humans." Second, how should geographers track advancement in learning about human-environment concepts? Learning progression research provides a method to document multiple aspects of advancement in student learning. But, geographic learning does not exist solely in the confines of the classroom. Furthermore, school districts vary in the amount and quality of geography that they allow. New understandings would come from a mixed-methods approach that addresses geographic understandings by the lifelong learner in the context of both formal and informal geography education. [This paper was delivered in Washington, DC during the National Center for Research in Geography Education's (NCRGE) 2019 AAG Annual Meeting Symposium on Transformative Research.]

In this review, we synthesise the results of studies that examine how the relationships between public urban nature spaces and wellbeing vary by ethnicity in cities of the Global North. We searched for articles that reported on the relationships between public urban nature spaces, ethnicity and wellbeing. We found 65 articles that met our inclusion criteria. From our review, we found positive and negative relationships between public urban nature spaces, ethnicity and wellbeing in four interrelated domains: integration/relationship building, therapy, safety and capabilities/competency building. The findings of this review inform park management by offering twelve wellbeing pathways to design urban nature spaces that are more inclusive to all residents., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

The long stratigraphic sequence of the Shungura Formation in the Lower Omo Valley documents 3 million years (Ma) of hominin evolution, which, when combined with detailed paleo-depositional environmental data, opens new perspectives for understanding the complex interactions between hominin landscape use and the development of stone tool-mediated activities. Stone tool assemblages produced by Paranthropus aethiopicus and/or a species of early Homo from ~ 2.3 Ma, reflect their ability to deal with the raw material scarce environment of the Lower Omo Valley. It remains to be seen whether this activity can be related to a single, brief occupation event or the expression of an emergent new adaptation. Here we report on the newly investigated site complex of OMO 79, which produced the first evidence for multiple phases of hominin tool-making and use in the Shungura Formation. The development of this long-lasting techno-economic behavior marks a cognitive tipping point around 2.3 Ma in the Lower Omo Valley, evidenced by the adaptability of the early hominins to resource-constrained environments., (© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.)