From Environmental Liability to Community Asset

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Allan Comp
Keyword(s):  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Real World ◽  
Public History ◽  
Environmental Liabilities ◽  
Environmental Challenges ◽  
Community Assets ◽  
Interdisciplinary Work ◽  
Complex Problems ◽  
Environmental Liability

This chapter explores linking economic redevelopment with a recognition of regional legacy. It provided an opportunity to apply public history to real-world needs and to do something with history on a larger scale and led to the work discussed here. “AMD&ART” is now both the name of a park in Vintondale, Pennsylvania, and the name of an idea, a commitment to interdisciplinary work in the service of community aspirations to address environmental challenges. As an idea, AMD&ART is a lasting antidote to the complex problems of coal country that is, and in fact must be, cultural and environmental; only a place-based multidisciplinary solution that starts with good history has the power to transform environmental liabilities into community assets that engage a broad spectrum of support.

scholarly journals Competences for Solving Complex Problems: A Cross-Sectional Survey on Higher Education for Sustainability Learning and Transdisciplinarity

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 6016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filippina Risopoulos-Pichler ◽  
Fedor Daghofer ◽  
Gerald Steiner
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Continuing Education ◽  
Real World ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Complex Problems

Successfully coping with complex, real-world challenges, such as those related to sustainable development and the resilience of coupled human–environment systems, calls increasingly for adapted forms of education and extended competences. Hence, we argue that, beyond knowledge and expertise in professional domains, additionally, personal, systemic, creative, and sociocultural competences are required to meet such challenges. Herefor, institutions of higher and continuing education play a crucial role. In this paper, universities as institutions of higher education are critically considered in relation to delivering education for sustainable development by raising awareness and providing the necessary competences to cope with complex problems such as sustainable development through effective forms of higher and continuing education as well as training. Research on attitudes and perceptions regarding sustainable development and the perceived need for comprehensive competences required to deal with such complex problems is still lacking. Our study provides a first attempt to elucidate core aspects of these attitudes, perceptions, and competences aiming to contribute to future, more tailored education approaches. We discuss the outcomes of a survey on sustainability in teaching and learning conducted at four Austrian universities. The analyzed sample comprised 3200 students as the recipients of, and 498 lecturers as the providers of, sustainability education in various academic disciplines at four distinct Austrian universities. Applying a questionnaire-based investigation of self-reported sustainability-related perceptions, attitudes, and competences and conducting factor analysis and cluster analysis, five sustainability types were identified that revealed a type of specific core awareness of sustainability and the perception of required competences related to sustainable development. The results presented are positioned to build a basis for further investigation that goes beyond the self-reported assessments to enable a comparison with sustainability-related, real-world problem-solving performance.

scholarly journals A Survey on Meta-heuristic Algorithms for Global Optimization Problems

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-60
Author(s):  
Abdel Nasser H. Zaied ◽  
Mahmoud Ismail ◽  
Salwa El-Sayed ◽  
◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Optimization ◽  
Real World ◽  
Heuristic Algorithms ◽  
Optimization Problems ◽  
Optimization Algorithms ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Complex Problems ◽  
First Choice ◽  
Important Field ◽  
Real World Problems

Optimization is a more important field of research. With increasing the complexity of real-world problems, the more efficient and reliable optimization algorithms vital. Traditional methods are unable to solve these problems so, the first choice for solving these problems becomes meta-heuristic algorithms. Meta-heuristic algorithms proved their ability to solve more complex problems and giving more satisfying results. In this paper, we introduce the more popular meta-heuristic algorithms and their applications in addition to providing the more recent references for these algorithms.

scholarly journals A Smart Microcontroller Architecture for the Internet of Things

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 1821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenyu Wu ◽  
Kai Qiu ◽  
Jianguo Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Real World ◽  
Simulation Experiment ◽  
Cloud Model ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Complex Problems ◽  
Logic Control ◽  
The Internet Of Things ◽  
Embedded Intelligence

The interoperations of endpoint devices are generally achieved by gateways in Internet of Things (IoT) systems. However, the gateways mainly focus on networking communication, which is lack of data logic control capabilities. The microcontrollers with embedded intelligence could work as an intermediate device to help the interconnections of the endpoint devices. Moreover, they could help control the endpoint devices. In this paper, a microcontroller architecture with intelligent and scalable characteristics is proposed. The intelligence means that the microcontroller could control the target endpoint devices by its logical circuits, and the scalability means that the microcontroller architecture could be easily extended to deal with more complex problems. Two real world industrial implementations of the proposed architecture are introduced. The implementations show that the microcontroller is important to provide the intelligent services to users in IoT systems. Furthermore, a simulation experiment based on the cloud model is designed to evaluate the proposed method. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed architecture.

Evaluation of the environmental security of industrial regions: Evidence from the Kemerovo Oblast

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-492
Author(s):  
E.A. Radionova ◽  
E.V. Slesarenko
Keyword(s):  
Water Contamination ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Environmental Security ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Environmental System ◽  
Environmental Challenges ◽  
Industrial Enterprises ◽  
Environmental Situation ◽  
Environmental Liability ◽  
The Social

Subject. The article studies the technological footprint of mining enterprises on the region's environmental system, especially in the vicinity of their location. Objectives. The research evaluates the technological footprint of coal mining enterprises on the region's environmental system, substantiates the continuing reporting and statistical monitoring of environmental indicators. We also analyze the ratio of current indicators to thresholds and identify menacing environmental trends. Methods. The research involves the method of environmental security assessment by pollution and water contamination. We also apply methods of statistical observation, consolidation and grouping of statistical materials, absolute and relative statistical values, analytical and synthetic methods. Results. The article describes the environmental specifics of the industrially advanced region with the predominance of the mining industry. We conducted the environmental monitoring by air and water contamination and point out the main environmental challenges and disparity of the region's environmental and economic well-being. We captured the correlation of the industrial development level, use of natural resources, environmental situation, finance of natural protection activities and public health. The article presents our recommendations for improving the environmental situation. Conclusions. The governmental involvement is not enough to eliminate the environmental challenges if there are no effective set of environmental standards in the region. The region's environmental situation cannot be improved if the social and environmental liability of most coal business owners and management is raised. It is necessary to tighten the governmental control and increase the social and environmental liability of industrial enterprises for their operations.

The Sage of Freedom: An Interview with John Hope Franklin

2007 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-54
Author(s):  
RAY ARSENAULT ◽  
JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Public History ◽  
School Desegregation ◽  
Advisory Board ◽  
Southern History ◽  
Board Of Education ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Education School ◽  
Conducting Research

John Hope Franklin, one of the world's most distinguished and influential historians, has been a strong advocate and avid practitioner of public history since the late 1940s. Augmenting and extending his work as a pioneer in the fields of African-American and Southern history, he has been involved in a broad spectrum of public history projects, ranging from his international activities with the Fulbright Commission to his work with Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal and Educational Defense Fund in conducting research that helped bring about the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision. More recently, during the late 1990s he chaired President Bill Clinton's National Advisory Board on Race, convening a series of high-profile hearings in various parts of the nation. Today, at age 92, he still maintains an exhausting schedule of public addresses related to history, freedom, and democracy.

scholarly journals Environmental Liability Estimates and Equity Value of Oil Firms in Nigeria

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-33
Author(s):  
Gospel J. Chukwu ◽  
Hwerien Rosemary Idamoyibo ◽  
Monday M. Akunna
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Environmental Restoration ◽  
Environmental Liabilities ◽  
Environmental Liability ◽  
Equity Value ◽  
Analysis Technique ◽  
Oil And Gas Firms ◽  
Polluting Firms

The purpose of this study is to examine whether decommissioning and environmental restoration estimates affect equity valuation of oil firms in Nigeria. The study also examined whether changes in these environmental liability estimates are value relevant in Nigeria. The study analysed data from four listed oil firms that estimated and reported decommissioning liabilities in their annual reports from 2012 to 2018, using regression analysis technique. Findings indicate that investors in Nigeria’s oil and gas firms negatively value environmental liability estimates. This finding is possibly because Nigerian investors view these estimates as representing the extent to which the firm will damage the environment. Given the adverse effect of environmental degradation in Nigeria, investors are wary of any indication of environmental violation. However, changes in decommissioning and restoration estimates are not associated with variations in the market value of oil firms in Nigeria, probably due to lack of investors’ sophistication in appreciating the basis for these changes. Further, some listed oil firms did not provide for environmental liability in their annual reports for the seven years examined, possibly because there is no legal obligation to restore the environment. These findings should motivate environmental regulators in Nigeria to consider laws that will expressly mandate environmental restoration for polluting firms in the country. With such legal requirement, accounting regulators could ensure that oil firms (with facilities that affect the environment) recognise provision for environmental liabilities in their financial statements.

A novel measure for influence nodes across complex networks based on node attraction

2020 ◽  
pp. 2150012
Author(s):  
Bin Wang ◽  
Wanghao Guan ◽  
Yuxuan Sheng ◽  
Jinfang Sheng ◽  
Jinying Dai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Complex Networks ◽  
Real World ◽  
Time Complexity ◽  
New Method ◽  
Complex Structures ◽  
The Real ◽  
Complex Problems ◽  
Influential Nodes

The real-world network is heterogeneous, and it is an important and challenging task to effectively identify the influential nodes in complex networks. Identification of influential nodes is widely used in social, biological, transportation, information and other networks with complex structures to help us solve a variety of complex problems. In recent years, the identification of influence nodes has received a lot of attention, and scholars have proposed various methods based on different practical problems. This paper proposes a new method to identify influential nodes, namely Attraction based on Node and Community (ANC). By considering the attraction of nodes to nodes and nodes to community structure, this method quantifies the attraction of a node, and the attraction of a node is used to represent its influence. To illustrate the effectiveness of ANC, we did extensive experiments on six real-world networks and the results show that the ANC algorithm is superior to the representative algorithms in terms of the accuracy and has lower time complexity as well.

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