The urgency of adapting urban areas to the increasing impacts of climate change has prompted the scientific community to seek new approaches in partnership with public entities and civil society organizations. In Malaysia, Penang Island has developed a nature-based urban climate adaptation program (PNBCAP) seeking to increase urban resilience, reduce urban heat and flooding, strengthening social resilience, and build institutional capacity. The project includes a strong knowledge transfer component focused on encouraging other cities in the country to develop and implement adaptation policies, projects, and initiatives. This research develops a model adopting the most efficient processes to accelerate the transfer of knowledge to promote urban adaptation based on the PNBCAP. The methodology is developed based on a review of literature focused on innovation systems and change theories. The integration of success strategies in adaptation contributes to informing the creation of solutions around the alliance of local, state, and national government agencies, scientific institutions, and civil society organizations, in a new framework designated the Malaysian Adaptation Sharing Hub (MASH). MASH is structured in 3-steps and will function as an accelerator for the implementation of urban climate adaptation policies, with the target of creating 2 new adaptation-related policies to be adopted annually by each city member, based on knowledge gathered in the PNBCAP. It is concluded that, to speed up urban adaptation, it is necessary to reinforce and promote the sharing of knowledge resulting from or associated with pilot projects.
Biomimicry is increasingly being used to drive sustainable constructional development in recent years. By emulating the designs and processes of nature, biomimicry offers a wealth of opportunities to create innovative and environmentally friendly solutions. Biomimicry in industrial development: versatile applications, advantages in construction. The text emphasizes the contribution of bio-mimetic technologies to sustainability and resilience in structural design, material selection, energy efficiency, and sensor technology. Aside from addressing technical constraints and ethical concerns, we address challenges and limitations associated with adopting biomimicry. A quantitative research approach is implemented, and respondents from the construction industry rank biomimicry principles as the optimal approach to enhance sustainability in the industry. Demographic and descriptive analyses are underway. By working together, sharing knowledge, and innovating responsibly, we suggest approaches to tackle these obstacles and fully leverage the transformative power of biomimicry in promoting sustainable construction industry practices. In an evolving global environment, biomimicry reduces environmental impact and enhances efficiency, resilience, and competitiveness in construction industries.
Clustering technics, like k-means and its extended version, fuzzy c-means clustering (FCM) are useful tools for identifying typical behaviours based on various attitudes and responses to well-formulated questionnaires, such as among forensic populations. As more or less standard questionnaires for analyzing aggressive attitudes do exist in the literature, the application of these clustering methods seems to be rather straightforward. Especially, fuzzy clustering may lead to new recognitions, as human behaviour and communication are full of uncertainties, which often do not have a probabilistic nature. In this paper, the cluster analysis of a closed forensic (inmate) population will be presented. The goal of this study was by applying fuzzy c-means clustering to facilitate the wider possibilities of analysis of aggressive behaviour which is treated as a heterogeneous construct resulting in two main phenotypes, premeditated and impulsive aggression. Understanding motives of aggression helps reconstruct possible events, sequences of events and scenarios related to a certain crime, and ultimately, to prevent further crimes from happening.
The employees in academic sector had to face an abrupt change due to Covid-19 pandemic and transformation of education into online and remote learning. This has led to virtual work intensity as an aftermath that negatively influences employees’ job satisfaction. In addition, due to remote working conditions, the lines between work and life had been dimmed and thus, the current situation is important to be addressed for wellbeing of academic staff. This research specifically aims to examine impact of virtual work intensity on job satisfaction among university staff. Furthermore, mediating effect of organizational support and work-life balance on the aforementioned relationship are analyzed to better understand the underlying effects. Through PLS-SEM and using a questionnaire survey, a total of 183 data were collected from teachers and administrative staff of two universities. The results show that virtual work intensity can hinder job satisfaction, while organizational support and work-life balance can improve job satisfaction of academic employees. This is due to the fact that support, and balance act against work intensity that diminishes wellbeing of individuals. This implies the vital role of organizations (e.g., human resource department) in providing support for their staff, and creating an environment, where academic staff can have a better work-life balance, leading to higher rates of job satisfaction as an important factor for psychological wellbeing.
This article aims to present an analysis of the evolution and contributions developed and integrated into the corpus of Earth Jurisprudence from practice in seven (7) South American countries where 135 records were found between 2005 and 2023. The case study was carried out using the methodological approach of the qualitative approach, the hermeneutic method, and the documentary review technique. The unit of analysis was based on the recognition of rights to nature, the data and information organized according to legal/political provisions, the state, the actor that initiated the action, and the ecological actor involved. Among the most outstanding findings, it is evident that a large number of records are concentrated in Ecuador and Colombia. The first correlates with the constitutionalization of the rights of nature and coincides with the second as they have been part of the stream known as new Latin American constitutionalism. In addition, a notable jurisprudential development recognizes nature as a subject of rights and declares it a victim of the armed conflict. Bolivia, which also joined this emerging denomination, has a different tendency than it had in its beginnings, not as the two countries mentioned above have done. Brazil stands out for its considerable increase in such legislative recognition. Argentina has a stronger emphasis on animal law. Peru has an incipient contribution to some regulatory implementation. Finally, Chile, the most laggard, tries it with a new constitution that recognizes these rights without having the approval at the ballot box. It is concluded the need to elevate the rights of nature and animals to constitutional status, claiming indigenous and ancestral cosmogonies regionally since it includes a legal stability that would facilitate the work of judicial and legislative actors and decision-makers for developing public policies, which would contribute to the practical development of the new Latin American constitutionalism and the Earth Jurisprudence.
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