United Nations Sustainable Goals Research Articles

The United Nations (UN) at Crossroads in 2022: An Assessment of ‘Geopolitical Tensions’ in International Relations (IR)

Purpose: This paper is an alarming assessment of the keynote address and remarks at the opening of the 77th General Assembly of the United Nations Organization (UN) by the Secretary-General to world leaders. The alarm is that the world, from small to big, powerful to the less powerful are “gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction,” and are not ready or willing to tackle the challenges that threaten humanity’s future – and the planet’s. “Our world is in peril – and paralyzed,” the Secretary-General Antonio Gutiérrez laments. Do these remarks collaborate with the daily multiplying effects of the Russia-Ukrainian war; the climate emergencies and devastating weather conditions around the world; the dire financial situation amidst poverty in developing countries and the setbacks in the UN Sustainable goals for 2030? Methodology: The basic problem facing research today and to anyone who tries to understand contemporary world politics is that there is so much material to look at; such as, which things matter and which do not. For instance, where on earth would you start if you wanted to explain the most important political processes: How, for example, would you explain the recent failure of climate change negotiations at the UN, amidst Africa’s position? How will one theorize ‘Brexit’ from the EU or the ‘gridlock in ‘colossal global dysfunction’, where nations meeting at the United Nations cannot agree on challenges threatening humanity’s future? This research employs a qualitative approach involving the collection and analysing of primary and secondary documents; as well as non-numerical data (e.g., text, video, or audio) to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences of plenaries of the UN; particularly, why this particular one - (the 77th Session) was alarming. Findings: For the first time in UN’s history, the international communities are undermining the work of the UN Security Council; of international law, peoples trust in democratic institutions, and most forms of international cooperation. There is ample evidence from the research findings that there is “a divergence between developed and developing countries; between North and South; between the privileged and that, the world becoming more dangerous by the day. In short, the world “is at the root of geopolitical tensions and the increasing lack of trust among countries, which is poisoning every area of global cooperation from vaccines to rid communicable diseases; sanctions to stop wars around the world; measures to reduce global temperature, and the need to reduce trade barriers for the benefit of particularly, developing countries in Africa. Unique contribution to theory, policy and practice: In IR theory, all nations work to increase their own power and not their opponents’. The nations that are able to manage and horde power most efficiently thrive; as they can easily eclipse the achievements of less powerful nations. In policy and practice, the UN is torn apart by gridlock within the plenary of the UN, as well as the Security Council, international institutions with powers to resolve international conflicts and misunderstandings are either paralyzed by division or have become undemocratic. The UN must therefore reform or be paralyzed by these colossal dysfunctions.

Towards the search for a sustainable destination: a gender perspective

Although gender and sustainability have been topics of discussion in international discourse since 1980, little has been done to connect the two. While one of the United Nations Sustainable Goals UNSDGs (5) places a strong emphasis on gender equality, the sustainable tourism paradigm fails to examine it from a social perspective. This paper examines the relationships between gender, religion and tourism and makes the case for the creation of travel destinations that uphold gender equity. The research employs narrative interviews conducted with Muslim women while travelling in the UK to explore how their travel experiences are influenced by their gender and religion. This is a field work study based on in-depth interviews with 21 participants who shared their behaviour, perceptions and feelings related to their trip. The results demonstrate that gender and religion influence the views and experiences of female Muslim tourists in the UK and indicate qualities that female Muslim tourists may seek in a destination that are consistent with their Muslim identity. The results also point to some positive and transformative learning that endured after the trip.

Effect of collated fly ash, GGBS and silica fume on index and engineering properties of expansive clays as a sustainable landfill liner

The effect of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as fly ash (FA), GGBS and silica fume (SF) on the geotechnical index and engineering properties of expansive clays (EC) are studied in this research work. This manuscript aims to determine the workability (consistency limits (CL)), swellability (free swell index (FSI)), compaction properties, strength characteristics (UCS) and hydraulic conductivity (HC) of varied eighteen mix proportions of FA-EC (P-series), FA-GGBS-EC (Q-series) and FA-GGBS-SF-EC (R-series) are experimentally studied as a bottom liner in landfills. From the test results, CL and FSI significantly decreased in P, Q and R series, this is due to the effect of flocculation, a process that increases the average particle size of mix blends and also depletion of the double-diffusive layer thickness of EC by promoting the Ca2+ ions in the pore water from SCMs. The compaction parameters such as optimum moisture content decreased in all the series, due to the higher flocculation of mixes. However, maximum dry unit weight increased in Q and R and decreased in the P series. The UCS values increased with an increase in optimum SCMs quantities and with curing intervals tested at 0, 7, 14 and 28 days. The higher UCS value is attained at 40 %FA with EC (i.e. P2), 60 %FA-GGBS with EC (i.e. Q3) and 60 %FA-GGBS-SF with EC (i.e. R3) in R-series which confirmed to be optimum due to the loss of cementation action/reduced cohesion in the matrix. In the case of HC, P2, Q3 and R3 mixes are confirmed to be optimum and fall under the criterion standards of landfill liner as per USEPA recommendation. Overall, this work proves to be a novelty and shows the feasibility of various collated SCMs blended with EC as landfill liner material, furthermore, these mixes are optimized to combine with EC to create a sustainable landfill liner that fits with the United Nations sustainable goals of 2030

Road Safety for All Road Users – Current Situation and Perspectives for 2030

Abstract This article presents a brief overview of Romania’s road infrastructure and road safety situation in general, and outlines perspectives for reducing the number of lives lost in road crashes by 2030. Romania’s road fatality rate per 100,000 population has improved overall from a 2008 high of around 15 to the current 2020 value of 8,5. However, despite a 30,8% reduction in road deaths during the past decade, Romania’s total annual number of road deaths has remained at an average of around 1890 fatalities per annum over this period, and compared to the EU average of 36,7%, Romania is positioned among the worst performing countries in the European Union (EU) in recent years in terms of road safety. A World Bank road safety management capacity review performed in 2016 found a series of factors to be contributing to this high number of road deaths, such as inadequate political commitment to effective actions to reduce road fatalities, fragmented government road safety activities across a number of regulatory entities, speed limits set at levels that exceed internationally accepted survivable limits, weak traffic law enforcement including a lack of speed enforcement cameras resulting in a failure of drivers to comply with speed limits, and a lack of structured programs to implement human error tolerant road infrastructure constructed according to Safe System principles. A series of recommendations from the capacity review were adopted since 2016, although much remains to improve road safety in Romania, especially in light of the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 and the United Nations Sustainable Goals.

Feasibility assessment of remanufacturing waste sheet steel into angle mesh steel

AbstractAs a better alternative to the energy‐intensive process of recycling waste sheet steel (WSS) from the exterior components of end‐of‐life vehicles to produce new steel, the feasibility of remanufacturing WSS into angle mesh steel (AMS) for construction applications is evaluated. A remanufacturing unit with a capacity of 1278 m2/day of WSS (30,000 vehicle/year) was evaluated using a triple‐bottom‐line sustainability analysis of the technological, economic, and environmental feasibilities by hybrid defuzzification–curve‐fitting, solid‐waste recoverability management, and weighting methods. Based on the remanufacturing productivity, an economic feasibility index was calculated considering the sales potential and profit, while the energy and CO2 emission savings were used to evaluate the environmental feasibility. The technical feasibility considered machine parameters and topological properties of the WSS. The Volkswagen Passat has the best remanufacturability of 200 analysed vehicle models. Remanufacturability indexes of 0.61 and 0.86 were calculated, giving remanufacturing efficiencies of 58%–82%. All feasibility indexes exceed literature thresholds, indicating that the proposed remanufacturing process is a sustainable business strategy and contributes to the United Nations Sustainability Goals of climate action; responsible consumption and production; no poverty; and industry, innovation, and infrastructure.

“It has changed my life”: unconditional cash transfers and personalized infant feeding support- a feasibility intervention trial among women living with HIV in western Kenya

BackgroundThe syndemic effects of poverty, food insecurity and living with HIV are recognized as global health priorities, including through the United Nations Sustainability Goals 1, 2 and 3. Today, women and girls account for 63% of all new HIV infections in eastern and southern Africa, including Kenya. Pregnant and postpartum women living with HIV in this setting face unique challenges including increased financial insecurity as women leave the work force to care for their newborn infants. This contributes to poverty, food scarcity and stress.MethodsTo address financial insecurity, improve infant feeding and reduce stress among mothers living with HIV in this setting, we developed a multilevel intervention, Supporting Healthy Mothers, consisting of 10 monthly unconditional cash transfers (10,000 KES, ~$75 USD/month) and personalized infant feeding support from pregnancy to 7 months postpartum. We conducted a non-randomized feasibility trial of this intervention among women engaged in HIV care in Kisumu, Kenya. From February 23, 2022 to March 23, 2022, we enrolled a total of 40 women who were 20–35 weeks pregnant—20 women to the intervention group at a public clinic, and 20 women to the control group at a similar clinic. Our aim was to assess feasibility, acceptability, and the potential impact of the intervention on food security, infant feeding and maternal mental health.ResultsAnalyzing data from all 40 participants, we found a significant reduction in food insecurity scores from baseline for the intervention group when compared to the control group at 6 weeks and 6 months postpartum (p = 0.0008 and p < 0.0001, respectively). Qualitative exit interviews with intervention group participants confirmed women felt more financially secure and had newly acquired practical knowledge and skills related to infant feeding. Women found the two intervention components highly acceptable and described an overall positive impact on wellbeing.ConclusionsThe Supporting Healthy Mothers intervention has potential to positively impact women across the perinatal period and beyond by increasing financial security and supporting women to overcome infant feeding challenges and should be assessed in larger trials.Trial registrationSupporting Healthy Mothers was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov Protocol Registration and Results System, initially published on February 1, 2022. ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT05219552 Protocol ID: K23MH116807.

A multi-criteria design framework for sustainable electric vehicles stations

The world is facing severe climate threats due to continuous increases in greenhouse gas emissions. Around one-fifth of global emissions are produced by the transport sector alone. Electric vehicles, as a potential replacement for conventional vehicles, can reduce global emissions. Pakistan is among the few countries severely affected by climate change impact. Therefore, Pakistan announced a national policy to increase the electric vehicles market share, calling for the development of electric vehicles charging stations nationwide. This work addresses this urgency by investigating renewable-based electric vehicles charging and hydrogen fueling stations (ECHFS). Seven possible ECHFS configurations are introduced. Then, a four-level sustainable design framework is developed, with the help of pre-feasibility analysis, HOMER optimization tool, and a multi-criteria decision-making method, to identify the most optimal ECHFS configuration. Solar PV with biogas generator configuration emerged as an optimal ECHFS, which is cost-effective (0.475 $/kWh cost of energy and 3.62 $/kg cost of hydrogen), reliable (unmet electric and hydrogen loads are 0.14 % and 0 %), eco-friendly (reduced 942 tons CO2 annually), and socio-politically acceptable. Sensitivity analysis showed that the optimal system is economically sensitive to simultaneously increasing charging and hydrogen fueling demands. The breakeven distance is estimated to be 59.6 km compared to the grid. The outcome of this work contributes to United Nations sustainability goals 7a, 8, 11, 13, and 13.2 and holds the potential to aid the sustainable development of ECHFS infrastructure.

Preliminary bibliometrics of plant-derived health foods over the last decade in the Scopus database

A growing interest in the medicinal values of foods can be assessed by the rapidity of research publications on foods that exert health benefits. Many foods that are of health benefit to humans, irrespective of their origin (plants, animals) and subjected level of processing (fermentation, cooking, warming, freezing, vacuum-packaging), are variously designated in scientific literature based on their biofunction. Plant-based foods’ application vagaries, momentum, and research orientation regarding their health functionality awareness are scarcely studied by bibliometrics from a global perspective. Therefore, a bibliometric search was performed on the Scopus database from 2011 (January) to 2021 (April) using a range of search keys covering reports of conceptualized consumable plant-derived foods with health-promoting potential. A total of 362,309 documents on medicinal foods of plant origin were obtained from the database. The data were obtained in comma-separated values (CSV) format and analyzed with Microsoft Excel tools. Of the total documents from the Scopus database on the study, 8.01% (29,036) were contributed by African researchers. Comparatively, lead contributors (global; Africa) by group disciplines include biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology (118,896; 8,236); pharmacology, toxicology, and pharmaceutics (104,530; 8,581); agricultural and biological sciences (99,053; 9,610), respectively. Similarly, lead contributors by country include China (73,977), India (44,898), USA (44,582), and Nigeria (4,680). This observation shows a higher research propensity towards plant-derived medicinal foods in populous nations due to factors like dietary culture, an increase in vegan and health-nutrition enthusiast populations, and the emergent concerns with the therapeutic use of synthetic pharmaceuticals. The analyzed results gave insights into the research orientation of plant-based foods that promote human health on a global stage and provide future research directions. Knowledge of the various application of plant-based foods may potentiate the United Nations Sustainable Goals initiative on responsible consumption (SDG 12), and health and wellbeing (SDG 3) among the global population. Key words: medicinal plants, health food, nutraceuticals, dietetics, indexation, health, bibliometrics

Recommendations to align higher education teaching with the UN sustainability goals – A scoping survey

Global challenges such as climate change, limited resources, and an ever-growing world population demonstrate a perceptible impact on the lives of people around the globe. To tackle the arising issues and to enable peace and prosperity in the future, the United Nations (UN) have defined 17 interlinked sustainable development goals. A major facilitator to achieve these goals is considered through education. Consequently, higher education institutes have started to align their curricula with sustainable development. Yet, lesser attention has been paid to teaching methods themselves. Hence, in this paper, a scoping survey is performed on how higher education teaching can be inspired by the UN sustainable development goals, specifically, by a summarized subset of 7 goals: (1) Tackle Poverty, (2) Enable Good Health and Well-Being, (3) Establish Quality Education, (4) Reduce Inequalities, (5) Embrace Environmental Sustainability, (6) Foster Innovation, and (7) Establish Partnerships. Overall, the discussed recommendations show a promising potential towards having a positive impact on higher education, yet, also unveil conflicts between different goals. Nevertheless, this paper could provide an orientation to critically reflect on current means of higher education teaching.

Comparative analysis of school-based wash facilities, implications on children behaviours and health coupled with a policy framework for enhancing cognitive learning in children

United Nations Sustainable Goals. 06 emphasis on unbiased and even access of water and basicwater sanitation and health sciences (WASH) facilities but, relentless reality is polar oppositewhere a stellar portion especially children are devoid of necessity facilities, especially inPakistan. The most vulnerable group i-e children deprived of WASH facilities. The mainobjective of the study was, a WASH survey was conducted in two school settings i.e., Mehranand Sindh primary schools, using 100 forms comprising 21 Closed-ended questions directlylinked with WASH facilities. The response was gathered from both boys and girls to maintainequity. Survey questionnaires are drafted as per international guild lines. The survey focusedmainly on four dimensions: Handwashing, toilet, drinking water facilities, and Hygienepractice showing average (%) responses of boys to girls as 17.4:20.3, 29:14.6, 33.6:21, and20.6:25.8, respectively showed the condition of mentioned dimensions improved in MehranSchool rather than that of Sindh School. Bacteria were observed in water samples under aFluorescence microscope that confirmed the presence of various bacteria species namely:Shigella, Escherichia coli, Vibrio, Salmonella, Cryptosporidium, Staphylococcus spp.Conclusively, there is a dire need to upgrade the WASH policy parallel to current scenario andneed of society to lessen the severity of the problems, especially children facing in developingcountry like Pakistan.

Common Agricultural Policy in Latvia: Sustainability Assessment

Sustainability has become an increasingly important factor in policymaking and investment planning due to environmental, economic, and social concerns. To achieve sustainable development objectives, decision-makers must implement policies encouraging environmentally responsible activities such as enacting laws and regulations, investing in green infrastructure, and encouraging research of new technologies. Furthermore, sustainable investments are essential for the environment and socio-economic development, as they can create jobs, improve livelihoods, and reduce poverty rates.European Union (EU) and its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is one of oldest and major policies of block. € 387 billion in funding has been allocated to the CAP for the period from 2021 to 2027, or roughly 30 % of EU budget for the period. Latvian national plan for the period 2021–2027 is € 2.5 billion.It is necessary to find correlation between financing and sustainability and how to assess CAP sustainability. Therefore, a study researching the connection between the funds available under European Union’s CAP (Latvian case study) and United Nations sustainability goals is performed using quantitative analysis to evaluate how it promotes implementation of sustainability goals. The research has found that approximately 15 % of CAP will be dedicated to environmental sustainability, while 85 % will be dedicated to social sustainability. Only very few targets are not falling under any UN sustainability goal.The most spread and financially supported UN goal is ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’ (65 %), followed by goal ‘Climate action’ (15 %).To mitigate the harm to the environment, vertical targets and directions become more environmentally related over years, and specific and proactively available financing tend to be more focused on the environment.The study shows that CAP is sustainable from the UN sustainability perspective. CAP is a dominantly social and business-related program (85 % of activities and financing). From total activities, 15 % are environmentally related. Further research is needed on what would be the best social and environmental division. Results show that policies sustainability can be analysed and quantified using UN Sustainability goals. Research results can be used to analyse other national CAPs in EU.

United Nations Sustainable Goals: Global to Local Need of the Hour

United Nations Sustainable Goals: Global to Local Need of the Hour

Mapping rill soil erosion in agricultural fields with UAV‐borne remote sensing data

AbstractSoil erosion by water is a main form of land degradation worldwide. The problem has been addressed, among others, in the United Nations Sustainability Goals. However, for mitigation of erosion consequences and adequate management of affected areas, reliable information on the magnitude and spatial patterns of erosion is needed. Although such need is often addressed by erosion modelling, precise erosion monitoring is necessary for the calibration and validation of erosion models and to study erosion patterns in landscapes. Conventional methods for quantification of rill erosion are based on labour‐intensive field measurements. In contrast, remote sensing techniques promise fast, non‐invasive, systematic and larger‐scale surveying. Thus, the main objective of this study was to develop and evaluate automated and transferable methodologies for mapping the spatial extent of erosion rills from a single acquisition of remote sensing data. Data collected by an uncrewed aerial vehicle was used to deliver a highly detailed digital elevation model (DEM) of the analysed area. Rills were classified by two methods with different settings. One approach was based on a series of decision rules applied on DEM‐derived geomorphological terrain attributes. The second approach utilized the random forest machine learning algorithm. The methods were tested on three agricultural fields representing different erosion patterns and vegetation covers. Our study showed that the proposed methods can ensure recognition of rills with accuracies between 80 and 90% depending on rill characteristics. In some cases, however, the methods were sensitive to very small rill incisions and to similar geometry of rills to other features. Additionally, their performance was influenced by the vegetation structure and cover. Besides these challenges, the introduced approach was capable of mapping rills fully automatically at the field scale and can, therefore, support a fast and flexible assessment of erosion magnitudes.

Partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide: enhanced oil recovery applications, oil-field produced water pollution, and possible solutions.

Polymers, such as partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM), are widely used in oil fields to enhance or improve the recovery of crude oil from the reservoirs. It works by increasing the viscosity of the injected water, thus improving its mobility and oil recovery. However, during such enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations, it also produces a huge quantity of water alongside oil. Depending on the age and the stage of the oil reserve, the oil field produces ~ 7–10 times more water than oil. Such water contains various types of toxic components, such as traces of crude oil, heavy metals, and different types of chemicals (used during EOR operations such as HPAM). Thus, a huge quantity of HPAM containing produced water generated worldwide requires proper treatment and usage. The possible toxicity of HPAM is still ambiguous, but its natural decomposition product, acrylamide, threatens humans’ health and ecological environments. Therefore, the main challenge is the removal or degradation of HPAM in an environmentally safe manner from the produced water before proper disposal. Several chemical and thermal techniques are employed for the removal of HPAM, but they are not so environmentally friendly and somewhat expensive. Among different types of treatments, biodegradation with the aid of individual or mixed microbes (as biofilms) is touted to be an efficient and environmentally friendly way to solve the problem without harmful side effects. Many researchers have explored and reported the potential of such bioremediation technology with a variable removal efficiency of HPAM from the oil field produced water, both in lab scale and field scale studies. The current review is in line with United Nations Sustainability Goals, related to water security–UNSDG 6. It highlights the scale of such HPAM-based EOR applications, the challenge of produced water treatment, current possible solutions, and future possibilities to reuse such treated water sources for other applications.

Resilient Agile Education for Lifelong Learning Post-Pandemic to Meet the United Nations Sustainability Goals

The World Health Organization officially classified COVID-19 as a pandemic in early March 2020. Extraordinary security measures, health restrictions, and social isolation left hardly any aspect of daily life untouched. One area that underwent major changes was education, whose cornerstones and foundations were challenged as schools and universities around the world were forced to close their doors to prevent the spread of the virus. In this article, the reasons resilience and agility are critical to achieving social justice, human rights, and the United Nations Sustainability goals (SDG) in the post-pandemic era are studied. It is also argued that the role of education needs to be redesigned to be resilient and agile and to ensure lifelong learning. In addition, a post-pandemic quality agenda is the focus of the article. Some of the emerging quality dimensions are empathy, satisfaction, well-being, the social dimensions of learning, and their impact at the nano, micro, meso, and macro levels. This article was prepared as part of a systematic literature review based mainly on official reports from organizations working in this field worldwide. The author selected examples from ongoing discourse and debate about the challenges in this field in addition to examples from the author’s research, experiences, and perspectives. In summary, questions regarding educational landscapes may be the same, but in the context of post-pandemic and resilient agile education for lifelong learning to meet the SDGs and the new social contract for education, the answers to the questions of why, who, when, what, and at what levels will be different. It is time not just to talk, but to act. Each of us can and must commit to the new social contract. It is time to collectively reimagine our futures to include the ecosystem of education in all learning environments, i.e., formal, non-formal, and informal, and to value resilient, agile, seamless, and rhizomatic learning in the context of lifelong learning.

Association between cooking fuels and mild cognitive impairment among older adults from six low- and middle-income countries

There is a small body of evidence suggesting that unclean cooking fuel use may be associated with cognitive decline. However, to date, no study has investigated the association between unclean cooking fuel and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Thus, we investigated the association between cooking fuel type or ventilation type and MCI among adults aged ≥ 65 years using nationally representative datasets from six low- and middle-income countries. Cross-sectional, community-based data from the World Health Organization (WHO) Study on global Ageing and adult health (SAGE) were analyzed. MCI was defined using the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association criteria. Unclean cooking fuel referred to kerosene/paraffin, coal/charcoal, wood, agriculture/crop, animal dung, and shrubs/grass. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess associations. Data on 13,623 individuals were analyzed [mean (SD) age 72.8 (11.0) years; 45.5% males]. Unclean cooking fuel (vs. clean cooking fuel) was associated with a significant 1.48 (95% CI = 1.08–2.03) times higher odds for MCI. Having no chimney or hood for cooking ventilation was also associated with significantly higher odds for MCI (OR = 1.88; 95% CI = 1.25–2.84). Unclean cooking fuel use and lack of chimney or hood for cooking ventilation were associated with higher odds for MCI. Findings support the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Goal 7, which advocates affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all, as this may also help reduce MCI and ultimately dementia.

Awareness of natural breastfeeding milk among mothers and the importance of colostrum within the first hour of birth in India

Children should not suffer from the lack of adequate knowledge or ignorance from their parents. Breastfeeding colostrum is extremely useful for the immunity and growth of the newborn, as it is having been documented to improve neonatal survival, and protective against the infection specific mortality among newborn and mothers. The secondary data presented in this paper was abstracted from well-known search engines performed in March 2022. Search engines like Pubmed and Google scholar. In Pubmed 8 articles were returned and Google scholar 11 articles/ key words related to breastfeeding and colostrum and first hour of birth in India. Includes 19 studies altogether, all papers were done within 2019 to 2022 and published in English. Study result showed several preventive diseases among the children and their mother. Spreading awareness about natural breastfeeding and the importance of colostrum among mothers is the key to successfully contribute towards reduction of child mortality. May be carried forward for public health intervention of further research to better informed information, education and counselling for pregnant women for sustainable future of our children according to the United Nations sustainable goals, no one should be left behind.

Going beyond sustainability: The diversification benefits of green energy financial products

After the inclusion of Green energy financing in the list of United Nations Sustainability Goals (SDGs) as SDG 7, the role, importance, and visibility of green financial products; all have escalated enormously. This paper assesses the utility of green exchange-traded funds (ETFs), in the investors' portfolios for their dual potential of sustainability and diversification. ETFs provide a unique opportunity to construct practically investible portfolios and have long been used as conduits to facilitate project financing. In this paper, we use distinct ETFs based on dirty (conventional) and clean (green) energy products and companies, bonds, equity, ex-energy commodity, and real estate markets to examine the diversification benefits of green energy for a US-based investor. We construct efficient frontiers under different asset allocations and diversification strategies using the Markowitz MVO framework. Our results show that green energy ETFs provide significant diversification benefits and move the efficient frontier upward. In contrast, the portfolio performance deteriorates with dirty energy funds under different asset allocation and diversification strategies. Overall, we find that owing to their risk-return profile, green energy ETFs can be a rewarding alternative to dirty energy for investors in the global energy market.

The association of cooking fuels with depression and anxiety symptoms among adults aged ≥65 years from low- and middle-income countries

BackgroundWe aimed to investigate associations of unclean cooking fuels with depression and anxiety symptoms in a large sample of adults aged ≥65 years from six low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). MethodsCross-sectional, community-based, nationally representative data from the WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) were analyzed. Unclean cooking fuel referred to kerosene/paraffin, coal/charcoal, wood, agriculture/crop, animal dung, and shrubs/grass. Depression referred to DSM-IV depression based on past 12-month symptoms or receiving depression treatment in the last 12 months. Anxiety symptoms referred to severe/extreme problems with worry or anxiety in the past 30 days. Multivariable logistic regression analysis and meta-analysis were conducted. ResultsData on 14,585 people aged ≥65 years were analyzed [mean (SD) age 72.6 (11.5) years; maximum age 114 years; 55.0% females]. After adjustment for potential confounders, unclean cooking fuel was associated with a significant 2.52 (95%CI = 1.66–3.82) times higher odds for depression with a low level of between-country heterogeneity (I2 = 0.0%). For anxiety symptoms, unclean fuel use was not significantly associated with anxiety symptoms (OR = 1.13; 95%CI = 0.77–1.68; I2 = 0.0%). Limitations1. Cross-sectional design. 2. Self-reported measures. 3. No information about outdoor pollution exposure, personal exposure, and smoke composition of different cooking fuels. ConclusionsUnclean cooking fuel was significantly associated with higher odds for depression, but not anxiety, with little observed variability between settings. Findings from the present study provide further support and call for action in appropriate implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Goal 7, which advocates affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.

Implications of Internet of Things (IoT) on the Education for students with disabilities: A Systematic Literature Review

The world today has greatly been influenced by the advancements in technology, which has resulted to changes across all sectors of life, which includes the education sector. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic as of March 2020 resulted to more ICT integration in most sectors including education, leveraging on emerging technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) (Mircea et al., 2021). IoT refers to the network of interconnected people and devices to the world wide web (www) powered by the internet and is already in use in Education where learning and academic institutions are now incorporating IoT in educational activities, considering the ubiquitous nature of the IoT devices (Kassab et al., 2020a). However, despite the many technological advances, the adoption, and the impact of IoT in education is still in its infancy (Dai et al., 2021). According to the United Nations sustainable goals of 2015, quality education is both Inclusive and equitable, and promotes lifelong learning. Therefore, regardless of the adopted technologies, quality education should be facilitated to all people within the population (Kayhan et al., 2015a). Considering the world population of 15% that is of people living with disabilities according to World Health Organization, this paper therefore is a systematic review of literature for the period 2010 to 2021, on the implications of Internet of Things (IoTs) on the Education for students with disabilities, to highlight benefits, challenges, adopted scenarios, technologies, as well as gaps and notable areas for further research.