Environmental attituted of firewood users in Hungary: contradictions of knowledge and emotions

Bioenergy and rural development: The role of agroforestry in a Tanzanian village economy

Public health surveillance systems suffer from insufficient inclusion of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations. These health surveys have also gravitated to telephone administration because of the rising cost of face-to-face interviewing. Several studies have demonstrated that telephone surveys underrepresent people with low incomes, less educational attainment, and minorities. This study assessed the impact of administration mode upon survey participation in rural AI/AN tribes. Using a modified Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System instrument, the Albuquerque Area Southwest Tribal Epidemiology Center partnered with 3 tribes to administer the survey to a target population of 900 AI/AN adults. Half of the sample was assigned to telephone survey administration and the other half was surveyed in-person by trained community interviewers. Significance testing was performed to assess differences in response rates, demographic characteristics, and costs by survey administration type. Several notable differences between the survey administration modes were observed. In-person administration yielded a higher response rate (68.8%) than the telephone survey (35.7%). Likewise, in-person participants were, on average, younger and had lower household incomes and educational attainment than those who completed the survey via telephone. In-person survey administration was also slightly more cost-effective than telephone administration ($192 vs $211 per completed survey) due to the low response rate of telephone administration. The findings from this study have important implications for public health surveillance with rural AI/AN populations, where telephone survey administration is unlikely to yield sufficient coverage of this underserved population. This discovery is particularly disconcerting, given the fact that face-to-face interviewing has largely been replaced by telephone interviewing (and increasingly mobile phones) for public health surveillance in the United States. Without change and innovation, the AI/AN population will continue to lack meaningful health data, further challenging capacity to document and address persistent disparities and inequities witnessed among AI/ANs nationwide.

<span>White root disease is one of the most serious diseases in rubber plantation in Malaysia that originally infects on the root surface of the rubber tree. So, prevention is important compared to treatment. The classification system proposed in the research had the ability of detecting the disease by classifying between healthy rubber trees and white root disease infected rubber trees. 600 samples of latex from healthy rubber trees and white root disease infected rubber trees were taken from the RRIM station in Kota Tinggi, Johor. These samples were measured based on its relative permittivity and capacitance. All of the measurement inputs from the experiment were tested using statistical analysis. These measurement input were then went through the process of classification in ANN to generate the optimized models by using LM and SCG algorithm. There were four optimized models selected from the classification process. The accuracy from the selected most optimized models were greater than 70%. The selected most optimized models were then used to classify between healthy trees and white root infected trees based on single input categories. </span>

Nigeria has the potential to generate 12,522 MW of electricity, but can only dispatch 4000 MW, which is insufficient for a population of over 200 million people as of 2022. Therefore, Nigerians use solid fuels including firewood and charcoal as an alternative to insufficient electricity for domestic use. The consumption of firewood and charcoal in Nigeria is estimated at 23,745,458 tons and 4,828,689 tons, respectively in 2021, by far the most consumed domestic solid fuel sources in Nigeria. Although there are domestic solid fuel alternatives, such as dung, agricultural residues and coal, to firewood and wood charcoal, their sustainable adoption has been slow in Nigeria, indicating that there is insufficient knowledge of domestic solid fuel sources. This requires a review focused on assessing Nigeria’s national sources of solid fuels. This article presents an overview of the sources of domestic solid fuels in Nigeria, an exploration of different types of firewood and charcoal studies, the impact of solid fuels on climate change and the environment, health risks associated with solid fuel and biomass briquettes and pellets as domestic solid fuel alternatives to charcoal and firewood. The continued production and use of firewood and wood charcoal as domestic solid fuel sources encourage deforestation, desertification and greenhouse gas emission, which in turn pose a threat to a sustainable environment and good health. It is necessary to limit the felling of trees for firewood and charcoal production to curtail their negative impacts on the health of users and the environment. This review covered the thermal, mechanical and physical properties of briquette and pellet fuels as substitutions for firewood and charcoal. It was shown that employing briquettes and pellets as a source of solid fuel in the home will lessen the negative impacts that these fuels have on users’ health, the climate and the environment.

Understanding stand structure and height-diameter relationship of trees provides very useful information to establish appropriate countermeasures for sustainable management of endangered forests. Populus euphratica, a dominant tree species along the Tarim River watershed, plays an irreplaceable role in the sustainable development of regional ecology, economy and society. However, as the result of climate changes and human activities, the natural riparian ecosystems within the whole river basin were degraded enormously, particularly in the lower reaches of the river where about 320 km of the riparian forests were either highly degraded or dead. In this study, we presented one of the main criteria for the assessment of vitality of P. euphratica forests by estimating the defoliation level, and analyzed forest structure and determined the height-diameter (height means the height of a tree and diameter means the diameter at breast height (DBH) of a tree) relationship of trees in different vitality classes (i.e. healthy, good, medium, senesced, dying, dead and fallen). Trees classified as healthy and good accounted for approximately 40% of all sample trees, while slightly and highly degraded trees took up nearly 60% of total sample trees. The values of TH (tree height) and DBH ranged from 0–19 m and 0–125 cm, respectively. Trees more than 15 m in TH and 60 cm in DBH appeared sporadically. Trees in different vitality classes had different distribution patterns. Healthy trees were mainly composed more of relatively younger trees than of degraded tress. The height-diameter relationships differed greatly among tress in different vitality classes, with the coefficients ranging from 0.1653 to 0.6942. Correlation coefficients of TH and DBH in healthy and good trees were higher than those in trees of other vitality classes. The correlation between TH and DBH decreased with the decline of tree vitality. Our results suggested that it might be able to differentiate degraded P. euphratica trees from healthy trees by determining the height-diameter correlation coefficient, and the coefficient would be a new parameter for detecting degradation and assessing sustainable management of floodplain forests in arid regions. In addition, tree vitality should be taken into account to make an accurate height-diameter model for tree height prediction.

RESUMO A lenha vem sendo substituída ao longo dos anos por novas formas de energia, como o gás liquefeito de petróleo (GLP) e a eletricidade. Porém, esse combustível ainda representa uma fração significativa da matriz energética brasileira, muito embora as pesquisas referentes ao seu uso ainda sejam limitadas e regionais. O objetivo deste estudo foi realizar um levantamento da produção, consumo e características da lenha usada com a finalidade de cocção. De acordo com os resultados, em 2016, 26,5% da lenha produzida no Brasil foram empregados com fins residenciais, ou seja, em torno de 2x107 toneladas. A lenha é proveniente tanto da silvicultura, sendo o Paraná o maior produtor, quanto do extrativismo, sendo a Bahia a maior produtora. O estado que apresenta maior dependência desse combustível para a cocção é o Pará, enquanto o Rio de Janeiro, praticamente, não a usa para esse fim. O consumo per capita varia muito de uma região a outra do país. Com base nos dados de 2016, foi estimado um consumo de 1,7 kg/pessoa/dia. No entanto, estudos in loco mostraram variação de 0,7 a 8,5 kg/pessoa/dia. O levantamento aponta que uma parte considerável da lenha é proveniente de matas nativas que têm reflexos no desmatamento de uma dada região. A pouca disponibilidade de dados e a variação entre eles impede uma avaliação mais precisa do uso deste combustível no país e suas implicações para a saúde das florestas. A implantação de políticas públicas deveria ser prioridade do governo, pois o uso da lenha de forma inadequada afeta o manejo da vegetação nativa, além de ser uma questão socioambiental, econômica e de saúde pública.

Hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’), like other complex social and environmental issues, is a controversy about science which raises educational questions about how best to prepare young people to understand, respond to and, where necessary, act (or not) in response. It raises political questions. We present a state-of-the-art review of research literature on fracking and education using systematic strategies, with a view to finding out how it is framed in educational situations and how politics enters the science classroom. This serves as an illustrative case of how contested scientific and technological interventions with implications for the environment and society are treated in school science. The review is supplemented by interviews with 10 teachers of science and engineering working in schools or colleges near sites of operational exploratory fracking. We find that the research literature on teaching hydraulic fracturing is sparse, with only 25 studies relating to teaching and learning about fracking. Few studies (n = 7) relate to high school education. Where it features in science education, fracking is used as a context for interdisciplinarity and critical thinking, and lends itself to approaches using discussion, dialogue and modelling. Outcomes from fracking education range include knowledge gains and critical thinking. Teachers interviewed tended not to see a place for fracking in the curriculum or in the classroom and were averse to including politics in upper high school science education. Our analysis suggests depoliticization through absence of this specific complex environmental issue from the public (education) sphere, reinforced by the desire for ‘balance’ in high school science education and instrumental approaches to science education which prioritize assessed learning outcomes. Dealing with complex social and environmental issues such as hydraulic fracturing in the years of compulsory science schooling is necessary because scientific knowledge is necessary but not sufficient to prepare young people for the critical scientific literacy required to meet sustainable development goals. There is a need to assess and respond to the educational needs of local communities affected by industrial interventions such as fracking. These findings are likely to be relatable to other issues where there are local and global consequences of action or inaction and where the environment and health are pitted against economic and energy demands.

The authors examined the independent associations of educational attainment and ethnicity with behavioral risk factors for cardiovascular disease using data from the 1989 baseline survey for the New York State Healthy Heart Program. This telephone survey used the Centers for Disease Control Behavioral Risk Factor Survey interview instrument and was conducted in eight communities (total population, approximately 1.24 million people) in New York State. The response rate was 65.5% (n = 4,179); 3,606 subjects aged 20-64 years with self-described ethnicity of white (n = 1,935), black (n = 1,035), or Hispanic (n = 636) and of known educational status were retained in the analysis. After adjustment for age, sex, and ethnicity, significant associations were found between educational attainment and smoking, lack of regular exercise, overweight, diet atherogenicity, and knowledge about blood pressure and cholesterol. After adjustment for age, sex, and educational attainment, associations were found between ethnicity and most of these same variables. Blacks and Hispanics generally had less favorable risk factor profiles. These data indicate that the differences in cardiovascular disease risk profiles between whites and blacks or Hispanics cannot be fully explained by underlying differences in educational attainment. The differing patterns of risk factor distribution by educational attainment within ethnic groups have implications for the segmentation of risk reduction programs.

To analyze the associations between educational attainment and major cardiovascular disease risk factors in the Murcia Region (Southern Spain). During 1992 we conducted a survey by interview, with multi-stage random sampling, representative of the general adult population. We calculated odds ratios (OR) and trends by logistic regression as a measure of the association between educational levels and cardiovascular risk factors, taking the university level as the reference category. A total of 1514 men and 1577 women aged between 18 and 65 years was included in the study. Rate of response to the questionnaire was 61%. Seventy-eight percent of the respondents provided a blood sample. A telephone survey on a representative sample of non-respondents (n = 347), showed no statistical differences in the level of studies. We asked for educational level (highest schooling qualification completed), and according to the WHO MONICA protocol we measured: blood pressure, cigarette smoking, height, weight and total cholesterol, triglycerides and HDL-cholesterol. We also obtained the leisure-time physical activity by a validated questionnaire. In a context of a low level of schooling, mainly among the older age groups, the prevalence of risk factors except smoking in women is higher in the lower educational levels. Systolic blood pressure tends slightly to increase as schooling level decreases (both genders, p<0.02). Conversely, serum total cholesterol and triglycerides decrease with higher level of schooling in men. The high levels of HDL-cholesterol observed in all educational groups show no trend in both genders. Arterial hypertension in men and women and overweight in women tend to decrease with higher educational attainment. Moreover, higher level of education is associated with vigorous physical exercise in both genders and cigarette smoking in women. We observed the strongest significant magnitude association in nonschooling with hypertension in men (OR: 1.82; 95% CI: 1.15, 2.89), in women (OR: 2.39; 95% CI: 1.05, 5.44), and with overweight in women (OR: 3.22; 95% CI: 1.97, 5.27), meaning that compared to people at the university level, people without schooling showed two to three times higher prevalence of hypertension and overweight (only women). Also non-schooling obtained the lowest significant association with protective physical exercise for coronary heart disease in men (OR: 0.32; 95% CI: 0.18, 0.56) and in women (OR: 0.31; 95% CI: 0.15, 0.62) pointing out that people at the university level of education had three times the prevalence of vigorous physical activity than their non schoolarized counterparts. After adjusting for environmental factors, in our adult general population, educational attainment is inversely associated with arterial hypertension in both genders and with overweight in women, and directly associated with cigarette smoking in women and with leisure-time physical activity in both genders.

Excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a major risk factor for skin cancer, yet sun protection behaviors vary widely across different populations. This study examines the association between sun protection behaviors and educational attainment among Brazilian adults. A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the Brazilian Surveillance System for Risk and Protective Factors for Chronic Diseases by Telephone Survey (Vigitel) from 2007 to 2010. Sun protection behaviors were assessed based on self-reported habitual avoidance of sun exposure, use of sunscreen, hats/umbrellas, and protective clothing. Educational attainment was analyzed as the main explanatory variable, along with other sociodemographic and behavioral factors. Poisson regression models with robust variance estimation were used to identify factors associated with sun protection practices. Nearly half of the population reported not using any form of sun protection, with prevalence ranging from 45.9% (2007) to 52.5% (2010). Sunscreen was the most commonly used method (38.2% in 2010), followed by hats or umbrellas (7.2%), those who do not usually expose themselves to the sun (3.7%), and 1.2% reporting combined use of appropriate clothing. Women, older individuals, and those with higher educational attainment were more likely to use sun protection. Higher education was associated with greater sunscreen use, but less sun avoidance and protective clothing (PRs: 2.63, 0.71, and 0.70, respectively). This study demonstrates that educational attainment is a determinant of sun protection behaviors among Brazilian adults. Individuals with higher education are significantly more likely to use sunscreen, while those with lower education levels report greater use of physical barriers or avoidance of sun exposure.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-025-17680-0.

Under Canada's Employment Insurance system, parents are entitled to receive up to 50weeks of parental leave at 55% of salary. Despite this national policy, women with higher education are more likely to delay childbearing. This analysis aimed to assess the association between workplace support, educational attainment and the timing of first births. Women who had recently given birth to their first live-born infant and lived in Alberta, Canada, were randomly selected to participate in a telephone survey. Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between workplace support, educational attainment and timing of first pregnancy. Among 835 women with a planned pregnancy, 26% agreed that support or lack of support for pregnant women at their workplace affected their decision about when to begin their family. After controlling for age and income, women who had completed a post-graduate degree were three times (OR 3.39, 95% CI 1.69-6.81) more likely to indicate that support or lack of support for pregnant women in their workplace affected their childbearing decisions. In spite of national policies, and the potential risks associated with delayed childbearing, workplace support impacts timing of pregnancy, particularly for highly educated women.

Effective communication about complex environmental issues: Perceived quality of information about carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) depends on stakeholder collaboration

This article explores whether public attitudes vary between environmental issues. We focus on climate change caused by global warming, and compare it with other environmental issues. We find significant differences in the attitude toward climate change vis-à-vis other environmental issues between respondents’ educational attainments and between politician partisanships. We argue that the relative complexity of the climate issue compared to other environmental problems may be a reason for this variation, and stress the importance of political views in shaping an attitude toward complex issues. This finding implies the importance of nonscientific factors in raising awareness of a complex environmental issue such as climate change.

Gene flow from planted common ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) stands to old-growth forests – implications for conservation and use of genetic resources affected by ash dieback

The concentrations of 13 trace elements were determined in the needles and wood of a closely grouped stand of lodgepole pine infected with blue stain disease. Over 100 samples each of needles and wood from both healthy and diseased trees were analyzed to assess possible correlation between metal levels and degree of infection. Statistical analysis showed no difference in the concentrations of essential trace elements in the wood at the 95% confidence level. Differences were observed at this confidence level in the needles, however, for calcium, iron, zinc, and chromium, calcium being lower and the other three elements higher in the diseased trees. Levels of aluminum, iron, manganese, and calcium in the needles increase 20–30% per year in both diseased and healthy trees.