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Plants and trees make our cities more attractive and provide many ecosystem services but some of these also cost society harm in the form of pollen allergy. According to an estimate, 60-70 percent of the trees in Islamabad are of Paper mulberry. Thirty percent of the people are affected each year from pollen allergy in Islamabad. This study evaluated age and gender-wise effects of Pollen Allergy on health followed by proposing options for Paper Mulberry as an alternative. The economic and environmental costs and benefits of Paper mulberry and its alternative plants were also quantified. The annual benefits and costs of Paper Mulberry and its alternative plants were estimated through “The National Tree Benefits Calculator”. Descriptive statistics along with expert opinion method was used for the analysis of the data. The pollen allergy affects children more as compared to other age groups and more on female as compared to male. Urban respondents were affected more by pollen allergy as compared to rural respondents. Most of the respondents were found affected in the month of March. The average monthly health expenditures of the respondents from pollen as Rs. 879. Pine Rexburg and Kachnar are viable alternatives for Paper Mulberry from both economic and environmental viewpoints. Based on the findings it is concluded that Pine Rexburg and Kachnar are the best alternative for Paper Mulberry in Islamabad. The Capital Development Authority should replace Paper Mulberry with Pine Rexburg and Kachnar in the city. Besides, Government should arrange awareness program especially in the pollen month (March) and should provide free of cost treatment and preventives for the pollen patients.

Based on the analysis of written sources and results of field investigations, this article will take the custom of burning votive paper in northern Vietnam as an example to decode the motivation, origin, formation, and development of the custom of burning paper and its relationship with the economic, social, and cultural dynamics and national policies. Key words: votive paper; the custom of burning votive paper; Vietnamese; Northern Vietnam.

Currently there are 34 universities in Ethiopia which enrolled hundreds of thousands of students which generated large volume of waste paper a year. Therefore, this article has an objective of assessing the socio-economic and environmental impacts of poor paper management at higher education institutions of Ethiopia with a particular focus on Hawassa University. The findings of the study revealed that a large volume of paper is consumed for different academic purposes. Due to the poor management of paper consumption as well as poor waste management practices, the university faced socio-economic and environmental problems. By 2015/16 academic year a total of 94,025 reams of paper were used at Hawassa University. This has created a large volume of waste paper at offices, which resulted in unpleasant working environment. Incineration is the only means of waste paper disposal, which created environmental pollution and health risks to the university community. Moreover, the university also lost a significant amount of money which would have been gained from selling to paper recycling industries.

Societal transitions involve multiple actors, changes in institutions, values and technologies, and interactions across multiple sectors and scales. Given this complexity, this paper takes on the view that the societal transitions research field would benefit from the further maturation and broader uptake of modelling approaches. This paper shows how modelling can enhance the understanding of and support stakeholders to steer societal transitions. It discusses the benefits modelling provides for studying large societal systems and elaborates on different ways models can be used for transitions studies. Two model applications are presented in some detail to illustrate the benefits. Then, limitations of modelling societal transitions are discussed, which leads to an agenda for future activities: (1) better cooperation in the development of dynamic models, (2) stronger interaction with other transition scholars and stakeholders, and (3) use of additional modelling approaches that we think are relevant to and largely unexplored in transitions studies.

Using monthly all-cause death tolls for Denmark, Sweden and Finland from January 1946 (and Norway from January 2000) to June 2020, I estimate the stock of vulnerable elderly with a high mortality risk – “dry tinder” – in each country primo each month from January 1960 to April 2020. My calculations show that the stock of “dry tinder” in Sweden was very large compared to other Nordic countries going into the COVID-19-pandemic early April and large even in a historical perspective. The results are robust to different specifications of the expected mortality and the “dry tinder”-stock. My results show that a large share of the excess mortality in Sweden in April 2020 may be partially explained by a vulnerable, elderly population due to very mild flu seasons in 18/19 and 19/20 as well as very few deaths during the 2019 summer compared to earlier years and compared to other Nordic countries. My results illustrate – and I cannot stress this enough – that plain coincidences may be important when understanding the COVID-19-death toll in a country compared to national lockdown policies.

Researchers from around the world gathered at The Morton Arboretum (Lisle, Illinois, U.S.) in September 2011 to share their experiences and knowledge on the topic of urban tree growth and longevity. A roundtable discussion was held at the end of the second day’s program, during which attendees discussed the state of current research in these areas and identified needs for future research. Four distinct subgroups were identified within the broader topic of urban tree growth and longevity: tree production; site design and tree selection; tree and site management; and the need for descriptive studies. Throughout the discussion, it became clear that there must be greater collaboration among researchers investigating tree growth, increased investment in long-term studies, the development of a clearing house for information, and the fostering of productive partnerships between the governmental, industry, and academic sectors. To strengthen the impact of urban tree growth research on the tree care industry, results and conclusions must be summarized and distributed through suitable means for a variety of audiences, which might include federal, state, and local governments; property owners and consumers; nurseries and growers; tree care and other green industry professionals; and urban planners, civil engineers, and landscape architects. To this end, the Urban Tree Growth & Longevity Working Group has been established to support communication between researchers and professional practitioners, enrich scientific exchange, and enhance the quality, productivity, and timeliness of research on tree growth, longevity, and mortality.

The present study was conducted in Bikaner district of Rajasthan. For selection of rural and urban respondents, two panchayat samities i.e . Bikaner and Nokha for rural and two zones i.e. east and west for urban was selected. The women above 50 years of age was selected from each village and each ward. A sample of 240 respondents comprising 120 respondents from rural area and 120 respondents from urban area were selected randomly. Further sixty literate women (30 rural + 30 urban) were selected for the effectiveness of e-booklet. The study was conducted in the four major aspect i.e. documentation of indigenous knowledge regarding home practices, expert opinion regarding documentation indigenous practices, development and standardization of e-booklet and field test of developed e-booklet. Findings shows that indigenous knowledge regarding food practices the majority of respondents were engaged in drying of clusterbeans (89.58%) in vegetable group (95.83%) were from rural area and (83.33%) were from urban area, prepared the pickle of green chilli by all rural and urban respondents with use of oil and condiments and the majority (70.83%) of urban respondents prepared Amla murabba and nimbusharbat with the use of sugar. All these practices considered logically correct by all expert. The developed e-booklet on indigenous knowledge was standardized on the basis of quality parameter was perceived quite high in terms of its content, format found reliable and applicable in the field. The readability and comprehension was also found high.

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(1998). The White Paper and the rural poor. Development Southern Africa: Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 307-311.