This study investigates the awareness of environmentally friendly (green) dentistry practices among dental students and faculty at Ajman University in the United Arab Emirates. The primary objective is to assess their understanding and application of eco-friendly dental practices, including waste management, energy conservation, and sustainable material usage. Using a descriptive cross-sectional design, an online survey was administered to 231 randomly selected participants. The results show that although awareness of green dentistry has increased, its practical implementation remains limited. Specialists displayed the highest levels of knowledge and practice, while general practitioners demonstrated the least. Male participants showed greater experience and expertise compared to females, and the age group of 30–39 exhibited the highest levels of knowledge and practice, although age was not found to significantly affect awareness or usage. The findings highlight the need for enhanced education and encouragement of green dentistry to protect the environment and promote sustainable dental practices.
The whole world is in a fuel crisis nearly approaching exhaustion, with climate change knocking at our doorsteps. In the fight against global warming, one of the principle components that demands technocratic attention is Transportation, not just as a significant contributor to atmospheric emissions but from a much broader perspective of environmental sustainability.
From the traditional technocratic aspect of transport planning, our epiphany comes in the form of Land Use integrated sustainable transport policy in which Singapore has been a pioneer, and has led the way for both developed and developing nations in terms of mobility management. We intend to investigate Singapore’s Transport policy timeline delving into the past, present and future, with a case by case analysis for varying dimensions in the present scenario through selective benchmarking against contemporary cities like Hong Kong, London and New York. The discussions will include themes of modal split, land use policy, vehicular ownership, emission policy, parking policy, safety and road traffic management to name a few. A visualization of Singapore’s future in transportation particularly from the perspective of automated vehicles in conjunction with last mile solutions is also detailed.
Over the past 50 years, urban planning documents have been drawn up in sub-Saharan African cities without any convincing results. The study of secondary towns in Chad shows that these planning documents have been hampered by natural and man-made factors. The aim of this study is to determine the factors hindering the implementation of planning documents in the town of Pala in Chad. To carry out the study, a methodological approach (using quantitative and qualitative data) based on a questionnaire and interview survey was deployed for data collection. With a sample of 300 households surveyed, the main conclusions of the study show that all the factors identified, such as water erosion with a rate of 17.7 T/Ha/year, expose the town to various risks. Demographics, on the other hand, represent a lesser and therefore acceptable challenge. As far as exogenous factors are concerned, the level of education of the head of household is a determining factor in the implementation and acceptance of urban planning documents in Pala. Confirmatory factor analysis and the Chi2 test revealed that consideration of stakeholders’ needs and their inclusion in the process of drawing up these documents are factors that significantly influence their implementation. In contrast, age, gender and other variables did not reveal any significant anomalies in our analyses. Consequently, future efforts to implement Pala’s planning documents must be based on community participation and awareness of the acceptance of these documents, which are necessary in a process of decentralization and urban planning.
Presented article takes a study done by researchers Davari & Strutton in the US in 2014 and replicated the same approach and methodology in evaluating how green marketing mix elements (product, price, promotion, place) influence brand associations, grand loyalty, perceived brand quality, and brand trust, in the context of retail chain stores in Czechia. The reason for this is the fact that the issue of reconciling pro-environmental beliefs of consumers with their real behavior is still topical. Businesses need to be careful with their green claims and focus on authentic green marketing in order to attract and retain the trust of environmentally conscious consumers in the long term. The research employs quantitative data analysis, drawing data from the survey, which was run online for five weeks and collected 4700 responses. The respondents are people who live in Czechia and have shopped in one of five stores at least during the last month. The reason for focusing on the Czechia is primarily the fact that green marketing is basically only on the rise here, while greenwashing still remains a significant problem. Six hypothesis were formulated, and linear regression analysis was used to test them. Key findings of the research revealed that green products and promotions positively influence brand associations and perceived brand quality, while green promotions significantly enhance brand loyalty and trust. Additionally, there was observed influence of consumers´ environmental concerns and consideration of future consequences significantly moderating the relationship between green marketing and brand equity. The findings provide insight for businesses to integrate green marketing strategies to increase brand trust, loyalty, and perceived quality while environmentally conscious consumers.
Despite the apparent agreement today on the concept of sustainability, the means to achieve it holistically are still controversial. “Just sustainability” concept has recently gained traction, casting doubt on whether sustainability can be attained under capitalism. On the social level, many recent urban studies have been concerned with the concept of social justice and the distribution of resources and wealth as a means to achieving socially equitable sustainability. In this regard, a few questions are brought up: can social sustainability be achieved under capitalism? Are Islamic built environments a viable alternative? Many contemporary studies have described Islamic built environments as sustainable and strived for defining their sustainability criteria. However, they mostly focused on the built environment’s physical environmental aspects without relating them to the socio-economic spheres. Using the concepts of power and rights as key analytical tools, the paper examines a few capitalist utopian reform approaches and compares them in terms of their ability to achieve just sustainability with Islamic built environments. Several examples from primary Islamic history books will be used to examine Islamic built environments. It is concluded that Islamic built environments have attained the just sustainability that contemporary reform approaches sought to accomplish.
The quest for quality postgraduate research productivity through education is on the increase. However, in the context of the African society, governance structures and policies seem to be impacting on the quality level of the provided education. Hence, this conceptual study explored the roles of governance structures and policies in enhancing and ensuring quality postgraduate education programmers in African institutions of higher learning. To this end, various relevant literature was reviewed. The findings showed amongst others that governance structures and policies affect the quality of education provided. Meanwhile, other factors such as curriculum, foreign influence, lack of resources, training, amongst others contribute to the quality of education provided. The study concludes that there is need for the current structures of governance and the designed and implemented policies for postgraduate education to be reviewed and adjusted towards ensuring the desired transformation.
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