The St. Peter Sandstone of the American Midwest is presented today in textbooks as a simple and unproblematic example of “layer-cake geology.” The thesis of this paper is that the very simplicity of St. Peter Sandstone has made it challenging to characterize. In widely separated states, the sandstone appeared under different names. Several theories about how it formed began to circulate. The story of the St. Peter is not only the story of the assemblage of a stratigraphic unit over a vast area during three centuries, but also the role the study of the provenance of this unit played in the development of sedimentology in the early twentieth century, research that was made all the more challenging by its “simple” mineralogy. Indeed, the St. Peter has been controversial since it was first described.

This study aims to examine and challenge the impact of local government policy governance on the oil palm plantation sector in Riau Province, Indonesia. It was discovered that 1,628 million hectares of illegal oil palm plantations are located within forest areas. Plantation area and crop harvest areas are declining due to the increase in damaged old plants, low productivity of plantation crops, inadequate facilities and infrastructure conditions, low technology application, plantation business licensing, limited downstream plantation industry and marketing, assistance in changing the attitudes, behavior, and skills of farmers. The methodology used was exploratory qualitative to explore this topic, and the determination of research topics was conducted using Biblioshiny application analysis. Then, the data was analyzed using Nvivo 12 Plus software. The results of this study discovered that the policy governance of the oil palm plantation sector as a leading commodity in Riau Province, Indonesia, is influenced by three dimensions: firstly, the actor dimension; secondly, the structural dimension; and third, the empirical dimension of governance. This research contributes as a knowledge reference to oil palm plantations.

In response to the challenges of climate change, this study explores the use of moringa pod powder as reinforcement in the manufacture of compressed earth bricks to promote sustainable building materials. The objective is to evaluate the impact of African locust bean pod powder on the mechanical properties of the bricks. Two types of soils from Togo were characterized according to geotechnical standards. Mixtures containing 8% African locust bean pod powder at various particle sizes (0.08 mm, 2 mm, and between 2 and 5 mm) were formulated and tested for compression and tensile strength. The results show that the addition of African locust bean pod reduces the mechanical strength of the bricks compared to the control sample without pods, with strengths ranging from 0.697 to 0.767 MPa, compared to 0.967 to 1.060 MPa for the control. However, the best performances for the mixtures were obtained with a fineness of less than 2 mm. This decrease in performance is attributed to several factors, including inadequate water content and suboptimal preparation and compaction methods. Optimizing formulation parameters is necessary to maximize the effectiveness of African locust bean pods. This work highlights the valorization of agro-industrial waste, paving the way for a better understanding of bio-based materials and future research for sustainable construction.

This study intends to explore the idea of a vocational village strategy to foster sustainable rural development. Vocational villages, offering targeted skills training and economic opportunities, present a compelling soft approach to rural development, addressing the need for sustainable livelihoods and community empowerment. Drawing upon the collaborative governance (the penta-helix model); underpinning the social capital perspective; and highlighting the economic, institutional, cultural, environmental, technological, and institutional dimensions of sustainable development, a vocational village strategy is expected to level up village capacities and facilitate modernization. The research was narratively developed through a qualitative methodology using primary and secondary data sources. Primary empirical data was employed to analyze vocational village practices in Panggungharjo Village, Yogyakarta, Indonesia as a representative example. The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) framework provided secondary data to present comparative literature on vocational village development. The findings determined a four-staged vocational village model includes initiation, training, business development, and independence. The success of this model is contingent upon political, bureaucratic, and sociocultural factors (social capital), as well as the effective collaboration of government, academia, industry, and community (penta-helix). This research contributes to the urgency of vocational village practices and models as a viable strategy for achieving equitable and sustainable rural development.

Global CO₂ emissions pose a serious threat of climate change for high-growth countries, requiring increased efforts to preserve the environment and meet growing economic needs through the use of renewable energies. This research significantly enhances the current literature by filling a void and differentiating between short-term and long-term impacts across economic growth, renewable energy consumption, energy intensity, and CO₂ emissions in BRIC countries from 2002 to 2019. In contrast to approaches that analyze global effects, this study’s focus on short and long-term effects offers a more dependable insight into energy and environmental research. The empirical results confirmed that the effect of economic growth on CO₂ emissions is positive both in the short and long term. Moreover, the effect of energy consumption is negative in the short term and positive in the long term. The effect of energy intensity is positive in the short term and negative in the long term. Accordingly, policy recommendations must be adopted to ensure that these economies respond to the notion of sustainable development and the relationship with the environment. BRIC countries must strengthen their industries in the long term in favor of the use of renewable energies by introducing innovation and technology. These economies face the challenge of a transition to renewable energy sources by creating a new energy and industrial sector environment that is more environmentally friendly atmosphere.

Gender inequality is a structural social problem, associated with history, culture, education, religion and politics, this difficulty occurs in all social institutions due to the heterogeneity of the structure in the sexual division of labor, socioeconomic inequality, inclusion and inequity in participation in the public space between men and women. Public policies and attitudes towards gender equality in Peruvian university students were analyzed according to socio-academic variables. A descriptive-comparative study, with a quantitative approach, and not experimental cross-sectional, involved 776 university students from a public and a private university in Peru, intentionally selected. Adaptive attitudes (57.9%) were found to tend to be sexist; Likewise, in the study dimensions, the same trend was found in the sociocultural and relational levels, while in the personal dimension students develop sexist attitudes (62.4%). It is concluded, attitudes towards gender equality are sexist reproduction that is influenced by the sociocultural environment of the family, this situation occurs to a greater extent in men, while female students present attitudes of equality in greater intensity to seek equity in the distribution of roles.