Habits Of Citizens Research Articles

Bike Rental System

facing the growth of urban mobility in the city of Sfax and the problems of traffic, congestion and pollution, the development of active transportation has become an unavoidable solution. In this context, a study on the promotion of the bike use at Sfax City is launched for the first time. The study is based on a survey done with a sample of 500 citizens. The first part of this work is addressed to know the traveling habits of citizens in order to better understand the state of the current use of the bike at Sfax. The second part is dedicated for the identification of factors influencing the choice of bike’s rental through LOGIT model. Keywords— Shared transportation, sustainable urban mobility, active transportation, bike rental system, LOGIT model

E-Inclusion of Vulnerable Groups

An ageing population is a global problem that carries with it significant implications for the economy and society. The older population makes nearly a third of the population. In the last thirty years, public policy has been finding solutions to alleviate the economic and social problems that arise as a result of the aging of nations. A present in which the digitalization of all domains of life is the primary theme for profitability and consistency of economic entities imposes new standards of behaviour and habits of citizens. This particularly affects the elderly population, which is expected to be e-inclusive in the digital society and economy, which often makes it difficult to use digital services, whether public or commercial. The results of the analysis of public policies for the period from 1990 to 2020 show that of all four key constructs of the General Theoretical Conceptual Model for e-inclusion (“Access”, “Usage”, “Empowerment” and “Impact on the quality of life”), the most represented constructs are “Usage” and “Impact on the quality of life”. What is somewhat worrisome is that in the observed period, a very small percentage (19%) of public policies included the connection of all four key constructs, and that public policies were related to vulnerable population groups, such as the elderly population. The results related to the institutions that most encouraged the e-inclusion of especially vulnerable groups in their strategies are the European Commission, the OECD and the European Parliament. It is precisely e-inclusion that is a necessary prerequisite for independence, active involvement in society and for improving the quality of life, especially for vulnerable groups of the population. All stakeholders should be aware of this, because otherwise, if digital transformation is carried out without e-inclusion of all groups, especially vulnerable groups, those who are already empowered are additionally strengthened, and those who could benefit the most from digital transformation benefits, “vulnerable groups” remain somewhere on the sidelines and continue to be underpowered and neglected.

Assessing the Correlation between Citizen Science and Carbon Footprint: Introduction of COMPAIR’s CO2 Calculator

The citizen’s carbon footprint is affected by various factors, but mostly by electricity consumption, daily transportation, travelling habits, as well as municipal solid waste management, a critical factor that is not frequently incorporated in carbon footprint estimations. This paper proposes a new carbon footprint calculator, the Carbon Footprint Simulation Dashboard—COMPAIR’s CO2 calculator. The CO2 calculator employs Citizen Science (CS) information in order to assist citizens in understanding and comparing how future carbon emissions will be modified in accordance with changes in their daily routines. The calculator offers several statistics, e.g., the country’s average carbon footprint and comparisons between EU members with respect to sectors that shape it, along with several recommendations for those domains where carbon footprint is significantly higher than the desired limits. The novelty of this tool is the integration of waste management strategies as a dimension of the total CO2 calculation. In this framework, the study presents the development of the Carbon Footprint Simulation Dashboard while two different waste management scenarios are applied with different citizen behaviours on recycling and composting. The applications highlighted the consumption in buildings that account for almost 50% of the total CO2 emissions, while the crucial role of transportation is also a key parameter. The different waste management scenarios showed a correlation between the CO2 footprint and the overall consumption/disposal habits of citizens. In the case of advanced recycling and composting, waste management accounted for up to 7% of the CO2 emissions, and this highlights the significance of behavioural choices.

Studying the behaviors and habits of individuals in order to find the most appropriate preventive strategies for the Saudi society

Background and Aims: Preventive interventions require comprehensive policies that combine several dimensions: health, economic, and social, and above all, educational and cultural. The effectiveness of these preventive measures lies in the extent to which measures are applied at the individual and collective level in order to enhance the health culture and build an integrated hospital system. In this context, the education sector plays a major role in implementing preventive habits in a world where disease is spreading greatly and very quickly. In addition to emerging infectious diseases, future health challenges also relate to chronic diseases: cardiovascular diseases, cancers, accident consequences and their risk factors, and these factors are mostly related to the lifestyle and behavior of individuals. The aim of research in health sciences is to expand knowledge of health challenges and to improve and evaluate health policies and practices. This research paper aims to identify the types of prevention strategies based on studying the behaviors and habits of citizens of the Saudi society in order to find the most appropriate prevention strategies for the Kingdom. The research also aims to identify challenges within the health care system in the Kingdom with a focus on primary health care services, and analyze the interrelated factors in order to propose remedial reforms to further strengthen and improve the health care system. This study aims to improve the quality of individuals’ health and reduce the costs of care and hospitalization. This study also seeks to define strategies that can be considered to achieve the two goals (improving the quality of individuals’ health and reducing the costs of care and hospitalization). Methods: To understand the phenomenon of health awareness and to explain the behavior of participants by exploring their natural environment and their interaction with each other and to identify appropriate prevention strategies against diseases and epidemics, an empirical approach is adopted that focuses on studying the habits of individuals. The study was conducted using the inductive method, which included a survey of a sample of (764) individuals representing the entire population of the Kingdom. The questionnaire was distributed on various social networks, and the sample was chosen by simple random drawing in a probabilistic manner in which the probability of leaving the sample is equal to all members of the community. The survey was conducted during June 2021. Results: The conclusion is that the two hypotheses of the study are correct because preventive. The pilot study showed two main groups of variables. The first group represents the individual prevention measures and the second group the collective prevention measures. These two types are actually complementary. The conclusion is that the two measures of the study are correct because preventive measures should be individual initiatives but also that the health system should be guided by national and local actions. With regard to the Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin test (KMO), which is a general measure of partial correlation between study variables, it is equal to 0.761, which indicates an average validity. According to the Bartlett test, the hypothesis H0 must be rejected (the test result must be equal to or less than 0.05 in our case the value is 0.00). Therefore, the search for components is justified. Conclusion: All of these measures have one goal: to reduce the costs of care, also called the costs of non-prevention, because the cost of implementing these measures is much lower than the cost of care or hospitalization in the event of complications, the principle is simple, and that is to implement preventive strategies that are based first and foremost on educating individuals.

The Effect of Public Healthcare Expenditure on the Reduction in Mortality Rates Caused by Unhealthy Habits among the Population.

The health systems of developed countries aim to reduce the mortality rates of their populations. To this end, they must fight against the unhealthy habits of citizens, such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and sedentarism, since these result in a large number of deaths each year. Our research aims to analyze whether an increase in health resources influences the number of deaths caused by the unhealthy habits of the population. To achieve this objective, a sample containing key indicators of the Spanish health system was analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method. The results show how increasing public health spending and, thus, the resources allocated to healthcare can curb the adverse effects of the population's unhealthy habits. These results have important implications for theory and practice, demonstrating the need for adequate investment in the healthcare system to reduce mortality among the population.

Perspectives for sustainable consumption: An exploratory study of the discourses and practices of Cordoba's citizens (Argentina)

This paper addresses some of the perceptions, beliefs, and experiences related to sustainable consumption habits of citizens of Córdoba (Argentina). We focus on three main areas of consumption: food, housing, and mobility. The study examines the discourses of 59 citizens in seven focus groups with seven to nine persons each. Six groups combine age ranges (18-29, 30-49, and 50-70 years old), socioeconomic status (high-medium and low-medium), and gender. A seventh group is composed of citizens who participate actively in environmental organisations with a mix of ages, SES and genders. We conduct a content analysis using ATLAS.ti software. The results of this study indicate that the participants in general have difficulty spontaneously associating their consumption practices with environmental problems. Three results are prominent: First, the role of meat consumption for sustainability is almost unnoticed by most participants; this is noteworthy given the overconsumption of meat in Argentina. Second, we find little knowledge about water-saving appliances while a high rate of individual water consumption in Córdoba is in fact alarming. Third, respondents do not consider environmental aspects when choosing their everyday modes of mobility. Based on these initial findings, we sketch the research and data needed to advance knowledge of sustainable consumption in Argentina and Latin America from a psychological and other behavioural science perspectives, as well as implications for policies aiming to address environmental degradation.

America's Public Philosopher: Essays on Social Justice, Economics, Education, and the Future of Democracy

America's Public Philosopher: Essays on Social Justice, Economics, Education, and the Future of Democracy

Performance Evaluation of Yolov4 and Yolov4- Tiny for Real-time Face-mask Detection on Mobile Devices

The viral outbreak of COVID-19 that started in the year 2019, radically changed our everyday life, with a detrimental impact on the simple, daily habits of citizens. In many countries around the world, the usage of mask is necessary as a protection measure against covid-19. Every service, organization, various stores, schools, universities, hospitals, companies and many other places, which are attended by hundreds of people every day, make the use of a mask necessary to enter them. This fact requires the control of the persons when they enter the respective spaces to determine if they are wearing a mask when entering the area. In this research we compared performance on YOLOv4 and the Tiny-YOLOv4 algorithm on images, recorded video, and real time video. In the next step we will implement the YOLOv4 TFlite and Tiny YOLOv4 TFlite model for mobile applications using the Android Studio platform. On the proposed dataset YOLOv4 achieved 92.91% mAP and training took around 2 hours for 1000 iterations. On the other hand, YOLOv4-tiny achieved 74.75% mAP and training took less than half an hour for 1000 iterations. For further improvement we convert YOLOv4 and YOLOv4-tiny to YOLOv4 TFlite and YOLOv4-tiny TFlite respectively. After this step we compare YOLOv4 TFlite and YOLOv4-tiny TFlite model performance on mobile device. YOLOv4 TFlite achieved 96.92% accuracy on real time video at 5017ms and YOLOv4-tiny 74.72% accuracy on real time video at 491ms.

A Win-Win Scheme for Improving the Environmental Sustainability of University Commuters’ Mobility and Getting Environmental Credits

European Union Member States are called upon to meet internationally proposed environmental goals. This study is based, in particular, on the recommendation of the European Union (EU), which encourages Member States to pursue effective policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions, including through appropriate changes in the behavioral habits of citizens. In this respect, among the main sectors involved, transport and mobility should certainly be mentioned. National institutions should be adequately involved in order to achieve the objectives set; in this regard, universities must certainly be considered for their educational value. These latter, for instance, could commit to improving the environmental performance of the mobility of their commuter students (to a not insignificant extent), since commuting modes are often the cause of high CO2 emissions; indeed, they still largely involve the use of internal combustion engines based on fossil fuels. In this paper, the effectiveness of a smartphone-app-based method to encourage commuter students to adopt more sustainable transport modes is evaluated. In more detail, starting from a statistical analysis of the status quo of mobility habits of a sample of students at the University of Palermo (Italy), an improvement of current habits toward a more sustainable path is encouraged through a new application (specifically created for this purpose) installed on students’ smartphones. Then, the daily and annual distances traveled by commuters with the new mobility modes are calculated, and the resulting savings in energy and CO2 emissions are estimated. Finally, it is proposed that the reduced emissions could be converted into energy-efficiency credits that the University could use to enter the emission trading system (ETS), here contextualized within the Italian “TEE” (“Energy Efficiency Credits”) scheme, while the benefits for students participating in the program could consist of reduced fees and free access to university services. The results obtained show the feasibility of the proposal. This approach can be considered a useful model that could be adopted by any other public institutions—not only universities—to facilitate their path toward decarbonization.

Rhetoric in Poland after 1989. An overview of research directions

This paper is dedicated to the development of rhetoric in Poland after 1989 taking into account adaptation processes at two levels: communication practices and research refl ection. The sociopolitical transformations have enabled an unrestricted development of rhetorical activities, which were impracticable in the former Eastern Bloc countries: advertising and marketing, political debates, civic engagement, academic freedom. The adaptation has taken place at the level of communication habits of citizens and rhetorical practices of rhetoric researchers themselves. The study adopts the descriptive methodology and focuses on several aspects: the process of internal differentiation of rhetorical studies, the infl uence of the American rhetorical criticism on the studies, the rhetorical perspective in linguistic research, media studies, and politics. The paper emphasises the cultural characteristics of Polish rhetorical studies, which draw inspiration from three main sources: 1) Old Polish oratory and its modern analyses from the perspective of literary studies; 2) analyses of the propaganda of the times of the Polish People’s Republic, including the media; 3) modern concepts from the areas of argumentation, rhetorical criticism, discourse analysis, and media studies. The overview shows that, after 1989, rhetorical studies can be described as a self-organising system cre ated by dense intertextual relations, relationship networks, and institutional frameworks rather than as a compilation of sparse individual works.

Towards Eco-Friendly Environment - Influential Factors of Attitude towards Eco-Friendly Dining

Restaurants and dining industry is an important sector in Far East Russia, especially with the dining habits of citizens. If emerged with the fact that restaurants are one of the highest sectors in harming the environment, the eco-friendly dining behavior of customers and food providers becomes essential to protect the environment. The study aims to measure the antecedents of consumers’ intention and actual behavior in choosing restaurants and foods based on eco-friendly consideration in Russia Far East. The most common theories that were used to explore consumers’ evaluation of the sustainable restaurant concept include the theory of planned behavior, stakeholder theory, theory of social identity, and theory of self-congruity. The proposed model for this study includes attitude that depends on environmental beliefs, outcome evaluation, environmental awareness, health awareness, self-identity, social identity, attitude towards eco-friendly products. The population for this research is all the residents who live in the Russian Far East. According to the official Russian statistics, there are around 8.4 million people living in the Russian Far East, distributed among different age groups and the targeted sample size is 385. Data obtained from the survey is analyzed by using the software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 25) and SmartPLS 2.0.

COVID 19: Compliance, Deviances, Social Control and Contagion Risks during the Lockdown. The Results of a Research in Two EU Countries (Italy and Romania)

The pandemic spread caused by the Covid 19 virus and the consequent risk of contagion has recently forced most national governments to adopt drastic measures of social control and containment, such as social distancing, which has led to a significant change in the lives and habits of citizens, which in turn pushed people to adapt to a changed external circumstance. This adaptation, which translates sociologically and substantially into a request for compliance with the prescriptions, had in many cases captured oppositional reactions through individual and group deviant behaviors, which, in addition to breaking the rules of a community, have contributed to the violation of that general principle of “mutual altruism” that should characterize modern societies and increase the viral contagion. The conducted research has explored the risks of contagion from Covid 19 regarding compliant or deviant conducts of behavior with reference to the lockdown requirements in the first half of 2020.

Post Pandemic Indonesian Regional Development Planning, New Normal, New Orientation: The Case of West Java

Corona Virus Diseases (Covid-19) outbreak has impacted almost all aspects of life including regional development planning in Indonesia. The new regional development planning orientation per se adjusts the new habits of citizens in the new normal era which is well-known as the Internet of Things (IoT) lifestyle. This paper elaborates on the post-pandemic development orientation of the West Java Province by answering three problem statements: 1) What is the Government Policy in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic; 2) What is the condition of existing IoT Infrastructure in Regencies and municipalities in West Java Province, and 3) what is the new development orientation of West Java Province based on the existing conditions. By utilizing dataset from the Government’s official website and elaborating relevant articles in scientific journals and news in mass media, it discusses intended issues thematically with a deductive approach. The discussion covers the author’s outlook of the new development orientation on three sectors: 1) education, 2) infrastructure and 3) bureaucratic reform. Policy implications are discussed

Urban agriculture may change food consumption towards low carbon diets

The mitigation of greenhouse gases in the agri-food sector depends on production and consumption patterns. This study focuses on the impact of urban gardening activities on food consumption and the carbon footprint. Changes in the food habits of citizens involved in urban agriculture activities in the city of Madrid were assessed over a five-year period using an online survey. The impact of habit change on the average carbon footprint from food consumption was assessed using a life-cycle approach. The results display a potential reduction of up to 205.1 kg CO2e/year per person (12.1%), which can mainly be achieved with a reduction in animal source foods. The results suggest that urban gardens could be used as social catalysts for pro-environmental behavior and greenhouse gas mitigation in urban areas.

Healthy Cities, New Technologies and Sustainability: A Collaborative Mapping of Informal Sport Activity in the Public Space of Cities as an Innovative Tool for Understanding City Sport Phenomena

Urban public space has become one of the main infrastructures for informal sports in cities. However, despite the high impact of that practice, local records only show the sports activity at the urban spaces specifically designed and regulated for that purpose. More information about where this practice arises and what attributes of urban space promote it would allow the adoption of specific measures in urban and sports policies. This paper proposes a methodology mainly based on the mapping of this informal sport activity and urban places where it appears by local communities and sportspeople. These collaborative maps are supported by the use of geographical information system (GIS) technologies and surveys on local communities. The research establishes a double objective of identifying urban spaces where citizens perform outdoor sports and deepen the knowledge of the physical attributes of public spaces that promote sports and local demands related to public space requirements. This methodology has been tested in the city of Malaga, the European City of Sport 2020, as a reference of a city with a growing outdoors’ sport activity. The main contribution is focused on the use of new tools that offer subjective information: opinions and habits of citizens in relation to sport urban practice. This information—which is difficult to obtain through other resources—should be considered for the design of urban and sports policies according to citizens’ demands.

The Shared Bicycle and Its Network-Internet of Shared Bicycle (IoSB): A Review and Survey.

With the expansion of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in smart cities, the shared bicycle has developed quickly as a new green public transportation mode, and is changing the travel habits of citizens heavily across the world, especially in China. The purpose of the current paper is to provide an inclusive review and survey on shared bicycle besides its benefits, history, brands and comparisons. In addition, it proposes the concept of the Internet of Shared Bicycle (IoSB) for the first time, as far as we know, to find a feasible solution for those technical problems of the shared bicycle. The possible architecture of IoSB in our opinion is presented, as well as most of key IoT technologies, and their capabilities to merge into and apply to the different parts of IoSB are introduced. Meanwhile, some challenges and barriers to IoSB’s implementation are expressed thoroughly too. As far as the advice for overcoming those barriers be concerned, the IoSB’s potential aspects and applications in smart city with respect to technology development in the future provide another valuable further discussion in this paper.

The role of consumer organisations in nutritional education

to gain a better understanding about consumers in order to be able to inform them, improve their protection and promote their responsibility, emphasizing the role of consumer organizations in improving the food literacy of the Spanish population. more than 2,000 families from all the Autonomous Regions of Spain participated in the "Survey on consumer habits 2016", which aimed to better understand the profile of the new Spanish consumer and encourage responsible consumption. We analysed consumer habits, factors that influence purchase and level of information of consumers. some 65% of consumers choose supermarkets as their usual place of purchase; the purchase of fresh products is imposed on the rest. The data reflect dietary habits of citizens are less healthy than recommended and little knowledge about food allergen-free, ecological or transgenic foods. About 75% acknowledge that the economic situation forced them to change partially consumption and food habits. When selecting a product, people value the most quality and price, factors that together with the proximity of the point-of-purchase influence the choice of place of purchase. 71% of consumers say they look for information about products before buying them and find it on labels. They value information on expiration date, ingredients, price, place of origin and nutritional information. Only 71% difference between expiration date and preferential consumption. for a consumer association, nutrition education should not only contemplate the dissemination of information about food and nutrients, but also provide tools to know what to do and how to act to improve nutrition, creating environments that provide good food options and capabilities that allow to individuals, institutions and companies to commit to adopting healthier practices.

The New Republicanism Without Religion?

ABSTRACTThe past decades have witnessed a harvest of new books and articles exploring the modern republican tradition and its relevance for contemporary political theory. Members of this movement present the tradition as an alternative to both political liberalism and communitarianism and offer its unique conception of liberty (“freedom from domination”) as a distinct third option beyond the “positive” and “negative” varieties famously identified by Isaiah Berlin. Yet in recovering this view of liberty, civic republicans have neglected the essential role that religion plays in the modern republican tradition. This omission represents not only a serious deviation from the tradition, but, what is more, it fundamentally weakens civic republicanism’s capacity for theorizing and achieving political liberty at the level of institutional life. In the modern republican tradition, religion has been understood to undergird republican liberty both in terms of shaping the morals, customs, and habits of citizens and in providing normative authority for the value of liberty over domination. In this essay, I offer a counter-narration of the modern republican tradition that gives religion its due and challenges civic republicans to recognize the central role that religion has played, and should continue to play, in theorizing and promoting republican liberty.

‘Someone has to keep shouting’: celebrities as food pedagogues

ABSTRACTIn a recent interview with the British newspaper, The Daily Mail, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver stated that ‘Food is the most basic issue […] it’s about health […] someone has to take responsibility for this. Someone has to keep shouting’. Oliver’s statement reflects his position as a chef, a public pedagogue and, importantly for the purposes of this article, a celebrity. Oliver’s is one of many voices that have entered the public realm to educate the public about the dangers of unhealthy eating. In this article we discuss the work of three celebrities: Jamie Oliver. Sesame Street Workshop’s character Cookie Monster and Australian food celebrity Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Foundation for schools. Whilst acknowledging that these three food pedagogues represent only a few of the voices that seek to intervene in the food consumption habits of citizens in contemporary times, they can be understood as a public pedagogical response fuelled by the obesity epidemic. We argue that whilst on the surface it appears that our three food pedagogues offer benevolently inspired propositions, we understand such posturing as deeply political. Specifically we are interested in examining the educative effects of these messages and their troubling implications for how individuals understand and experience food-related imperatives. We ask readers to consider who is metaphorically ‘shouting’ whilst drawing on various pedagogical forms and devices and we ask who is being ‘shouted’ at, and to what effects. We suggest that these celebrities function as powerful pedagogues who seemingly attempt to offer particular visions of health, consumption and citizenship, and, above all, attempt to cultivate a moral duty to eat well.

Challenges of the Cultural Policies as a Sustainable Development Engine: Example of a Good Policy / City of Pancevo

Abstract Reforming cultural policy in Serbia comes into a focus after year 2000. With delegating jurisdiction on the local cultural systems, because one of the ideas is that local government and experts can recognize needs, potential and capacities for local development more clearly and comprehensively. This work deals with the challenges of cultural policy as initiators of sustainable development, where the City of Pancevo has been selected as an example of a good practice. The first part of the text deals with challenges of cultural policy on national level. When it comes to cultural policy development on the Republic level, one can say that participants in culture in Serbia contribute to improving culture every year. However, for more successful cultural policy it is necessary to approach cultural policy challenges in service of sustainable development. Ranking all challenges leads to a conclusion that it is necessary to solve problems such as financing of the institutions, lack of a strategic thinking and insufficient inter-sector, inter -department and international cooperation. The second part of the text is dedicated to the City of Pancevo, as an example of a good practice in cultural policy and sustainable development domain. During 2013. with the support of the IPA fund cross-border cooperation program, the City of Pancevo accomplished Poles of Culture project. Within that project the Center for Study in Cultural Development conducted a research of cultural needs and habits of citizens of Pancevo, cultural institutions and citizen associations within culture. The third part of the text deals with the research results of cultural needs and habits of Pancevo citizens. They represent guidelines for improving the city cultural policy. The fourth part of the text is dedicated to the cultural policy on the local level and recommendations for cultural policy improvement has been given based on the example of the City of Pancevo.