Are lifestyle shifts fuelling the obesity epidemic in urbanised Africans?

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Ojiambo
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Metabolic Pathways ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Energy Supply ◽  
Fat Deposition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Prevalence Rates ◽  
Obesity Epidemic ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Active Lifestyles

Humans evolved for active lifestyles involving hunting–gathering and agriculture. To sustain these energy-intensive lifestyles, diets consisting of energy-dense foods were selected. It can therefore be argued that humans are physiologically adapted for active lifestyles. However, with rapid industrialisation, there has been an upsurge in the usage of labour-saving devices as well as a glut in the supply of energy-dense foods. This mismatch between energy supply and expenditure in modern man may be fuelling the contemporary trends in obesity in urbanised man. On the other hand, recent emerging evidence indicates that air pollution related to motorised transportation in urban areas may be obesogenic by causing alterations in the lipid metabolic pathways, resulting in fat deposition. These lifestyle shifts are drastically different from traditional rural African lifestyles and mirror the different prevalence rates of obesity and related co-morbidities between rural versus urban areas.

Temporal patterns and trends of air pollution over distinct European urban areas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Rodrigues ◽  
Carla Gama ◽  
Ana Ascenso ◽  
Kevin Oliveira ◽  
Sílvia Coelho ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
The Other ◽  
Limit Values ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
Residential Heating ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The City

<p><strong>European cities have made significant progress over the last decades towards a clean air. Despite all this progress, several urban areas are frequently exceeding air quality levels allowed by the European legal standards. The ClairCity project funded by the H2020 program addressed air pollution bringing a key missing factor in the way cities and societies organized themselves and work: citizens at the heart not only of the air pollution issues, but also of the solution, focusing on their behaviour, activities and practices. In this work, the ClairCity European pilot cities and regions (Bristol in the UK, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Sosnowiec in Poland, the Aveiro region in Portugal and the Liguria region around Genoa in Italy</strong><strong>) are studied in terms of air quality for a 10 year period regarding the main atmospheric pollutants over urban areas, namely particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and ozone.</strong></p><p><strong>Therefore, the main objective of this work is to present a comprehensive diagnosis of the air quality and its main emission sources for each case study. The concentrations trends in the different typology of monitoring stations (background, traffic and industrial) were addressed, together with the knowledge of daily, weekly and seasonal pollution patterns to better understand the city specific profiles and to characterise pollutant dynamics and variations in multiple locations. </strong></p><p><strong>Each city/ region faces different issues and causes of air pollution, but all of these case studies have been working on to improve their air quality. In Bristol there have been strong downward trends in many air pollutants, but the levels of NO<sub>2</sub> remain persistently high and of concern, with transport the key contributor. PM on the other hand is not widely monitored in Bristol, but background levels at least are under limit values. Similarly, the main sources of air pollution in Amsterdam are traffic, in particular for NO<sub>2</sub>, and international shipping. Decreasing emissions and concentration levels point to some success of Amsterdam air quality policies in recent years. PM<sub>10</sub> exceedances are a seasonal pollution problem in Ljubljana, with the main particulate matter sources attributed to residential heating, which is still significantly outdated in some parts of the city, where households still heat with burning wood and biomass during winter. The most pressing issue for air quality within Sosnowiec is emissions from residential heating. Particulate matter are the main critical pollutants, linked with the use of inefficient heating systems, together with poor quality fuels, in winter. On the other hand, NO<sub>2</sub> limit values are also exceeded in Sosnowiec, but in comparison to the low-stack emissions, the problem is far smaller. On contrary, air quality in the Aveiro region is relatively good, due to an overall relatively low population density in the region, and an open landscape in a maritime climate. PM<sub>10</sub> and O<sub>3</sub> exceedances do occur occasionally. While, exceedances of NO<sub>2</sub> and O<sub>3</sub> concentrations are still problematic in Liguria region, with road transport, industrial plants and port activities being the main contributors to these problems.</strong></p>

scholarly journals Minimum wages and the fate of Indonesian young workers

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-118
Author(s):  
Izzun Nafiah
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Minimum Wages ◽  
The Other ◽  
Logit Analysis ◽  
Young Workers ◽  
Wage Policy ◽  
Other Hand

Government policies that are directly related to the relationship between workers and companies are determining minimum wages. The effect of this minimum wage becomes more varied for developing countries with large populations such as Indonesia. Young workers have sensitive effect to fluctuation of the minimum wage policy, whereas the percentage of Indonesia young workers is more than 20 percent of the total workforce in 2015-2019. Therefore, the aim of this research is to analyze the effect of minimum wage policies on the status of young workers in Indonesia using quantitative data from the National Labour Force Survey (Sakernas) 2015-2019 with the multinomial logit analysis method. The results of this study are an increase in the minimum wage decreases the probability of young workers to have status as paid workers in the covered sector. In urban areas, an increase in the minimum wage increases the probability of young male workers being unemployed and decreases the probability being self-employed. On the other hand, an increase in the minimum wage causes female urban workers reducing the probability of being unemployed and increasing the probability of them being self-employed. Therefore, the minimum wage policy must be balanced with strengthen the education and training and also consider policies that increase youth labor market opportunities but do not increase employer costs for young workers. On the other hand, the government must be continuous to improve policies that support the progress of informal sector, for example in terms of providing capital, reducing loan interest rates, etc.

scholarly journals A DECADAL ANALYSIS AND SENSITIVITY STUDY USING MOPITT CO COLUMNS OVER ASIA

2018 ◽  
Vol XLII-3/W5 ◽  
pp. 53-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Lin ◽  
J. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Sensitivity Study ◽  
The Other ◽  
Peak Time ◽  
Urban Regions ◽  
Forest Clearing ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
A New Technique

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Biomass burning and urbanization are both significant sources of CO emissions and atmospheric loadings in the real environment. The sources of CO are due to incomplete combustion, on one hand of biomass from agriculture or forest clearing, and on the other hand from coal, oil, gas, and other similar materials. However, the spatial and temporal underlying properties and patterns are quite different between these two types of source regions, with urban regions having a relatively constant source of CO emissions, with only short term concentration fluctuations due to local meteorology. On the other hand, in biomass burning regions, the emissions themselves tend to be highly concentrated over a short burning period, and very low otherwise. We hence present a new technique to classify and quantify biomass burning regions and urban regions based on an objective analysis of the CO total column measurements from the MOPITT satellite. By using all of the data from 2000&amp;ndash;2016, in connection with averages and standard deviation cutoffs, we successfully determine these regions. By performing a sensitivity analysis, in connection with additional ground-based measurements, we determine that the ideal cutoffs for the mean column loading and standard deviation of the column loading 28<span class="thinspace"></span>&amp;times;<span class="thinspace"></span>1017<span class="thinspace"></span>mol/cm<sup>2</sup> and 6<span class="thinspace"></span>&amp;times;<span class="thinspace"></span>1017<span class="thinspace"></span>mol/cm<sup>2</sup> respectively. These results are capable of representing known urban regions and biomass burning regions well throughout China, Southeast Asia, and South Asia, specifically including Beijing, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hunan, Guangdong, and Bangkok on one hand, and Northeastern India, Myanmar, Laos, Northern Thailand, and Vietnam on the other hand. A detailed analysis of the time series over the different classified regions show that while the urban areas have a much higher annual value, and a relatively long peak time, that their maximum is never as high as the peaks in the biomass burning regions, and that these peaks in the biomass burning regions are extremely short in duration, although they occur annually or bi-annually. Finally, we have not been able to obtain a statistically relevant decreasing trend, as others have found, making CO possibly an interesting species for future studies.</p>

On Research of the Influence and the Countermeasures of Haze Weather Treatment on Automobile Industry Development

2014 ◽  
Vol 1073-1076 ◽  
pp. 2763-2765
Author(s):  
Ai Qin Huang
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Automobile Industry ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Industry Development ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
New Energy ◽  
Big Cities ◽  
New Energy Vehicles ◽  
Laws And Regulations

Since 2013, lots of places in China have suffered serious fogs and hazes, therefore a number of measures have been taken to alleviate the problem, especially in some big cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang. Some of the measures are targeted at automobile industry. This paper gave some suggestions about fog and haze prevention after analyzing the major causes of haze weather; meanwhile, it explained the positive influence on automobile industry. As far as automobile industry is concerned, it is necessary to issue related standards, laws and regulations as soon as possible. On the other hand, the development of new energy vehicles will help alleviate air pollution, and our purpose to avoid haze weather can be achieved.

scholarly journals Implementation of Prototyping Method on Website Development of Land use Mapping

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ginanjar Wiro Sasmito
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Limited Resource ◽  
The Other ◽  
Land Supply ◽  
Website Development ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Urban Activity

Increasing diversity of urban activity attracts many people to try their fate in urban areas so as to heighten the flow of urbanization. This resulted in a large demand for land supply to accommodate the increasing number of city dwellers. On the other hand, land is a very limited resource and cannot be created or renewed, so the problem that often arises is the proliferation of slum and squatter areas in urban areas. The solution to the problem is to produce a land use website. By using the prototyping method of land use website is generated in order to speed up the development of website and to really fit with the wishes and needs of the client

Joining of Steel-Aluminium Hybrid Structures with Electron Beam on Atmosphere

2005 ◽  
Vol 6-8 ◽  
pp. 143-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedrich Wilhelm Bach ◽  
A. Beniyash ◽  
K. Lau ◽  
R. Versemann
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Electron Beam ◽  
Intermetallic Compounds ◽  
Weight Reduction ◽  
Aluminium Alloys ◽  
Energy Supply ◽  
The Other ◽  
Hybrid Structures ◽  
Distribution Analysis ◽  
Other Hand

Against the background of the required weight reduction in transportation through lightweight construction, the application of hybrid structures, where dissimilar materials are joined together, has a high technical and economical potential. In the field of sheet machining, combinations of steel and aluminium are especially interesting. In comparison to conventional steels, the application of aluminium alloys as supporting materials makes a distinct weight reduction possible. On the other hand, steels have advantages in the fields forming and welding. The application of modern high-strength steels with reduced sheet thicknesses allows weight reduction, too. But joining of material combinations of steel and aluminium is problematic. On the one hand brittle intermetallic compounds are formed between steel and aluminium. On the other hand the aluminium melt has a bad wetting behaviour. Different physical properties of both materials have to be considered, too. To achieve sufficient mechanical properties of such joinings it is necessary to limit growth of intermetallic compounds between steel and aluminium. This can be actualized by an exact energy supply. With the electron beam on atmosphere a precise and easily controllable energy supply is possible. The publication demonstrates successful investigations, which were performed with the 175 kVNVEBW (Non Vacuum Electron Beam Welding) installation at Institut of Materials Science, University of Hanover. With NVEB joining hybrid structures between zinc coated steels and 5.xxx and 6.xxx aluminium alloys were produced. In a welding-brazing process (the steel remained in the solid phase whereas the aluminium was molten) combinations with acceptable mechanical properties could be joined. By use of optimized joining parameters as well as a surface activating flux, both, a good wetting and a thin intermetallic compound < 10 µm were attained. Another possible strategy is a pure brazing process, for which an example is also given in the paper. The paper shows metallurgical and mechanical investigations, among other things results of element distribution analysis and tensile tests.

scholarly journals Consumption of fertilizers in districts of Slovakia in the period 2006–2015

2018 ◽  
pp. 389-398
Author(s):  
Cyril Siman ◽  
Yvetta Velísková
Keyword(s):  
Point Source ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
The Other ◽  
Organic Fertilizers ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Quality Of Water ◽  
Source Of Pollution

Consumption of fertilizers in districts of Slovakia in the period 2006–2015 Water quality in the surface streams is influenced by several factors. One of important information which can help us to solve problems with quality of water in water body is a distribution of point and non-point pollution sources in a river basin and also amount of pollutants released from them to surface streams. An example of a point source of pollution is the outlet from wastewater treatment plants (industry, urban areas, farms, etc.). On the other hand the most significant non-point source of pollution is considered the application of fertilizers in agriculture. In this paper we have evaluated consumption of organic and industrial fertilizers in Slovakia in the period 2006–2015. Total (in tonnes) and average (in kg ha-1) consumption of industrial and organic fertilizers was analyzed. In monitored period, the amount of applied organic fertilizers was much higher than the amount of applied industrial fertilizers and in addition a significant part of total fertilizers consumption had nitrogenous fertilizers in a group of industrial fertilizers. In a group of industrial fertilizers during the period 2006–2015 we observed just moderately increasing in their consumption, while in the period 2010–2015 the average amount of applied industrial fertilizers per hectare of agricultural land increased by about 20 kg ha-1. On the other hand, in a group of organic fertilizers we observed a decreasing in consumption of fertilizers.

scholarly journals Perception of street vendors and their effect on urban settings in Portobello Road, London

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Esraa Torky ◽  
Tim Heath
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
The Other ◽  
Street Life ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Urban Settings ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
Urban Street ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Almost All

PurposeStreet vendors create a vital urban street and a significant and important part of our urban areas are streets, they cater to our leisure, social and functional needs. There are many debates concerning street vendors; on one hand, there are those who argue against them because they believe they create problems and should be abolished, and on the other hand, there are arguments that defend them and believe that they are vital to the street life.Design/methodology/approachThis paper aims to identify people's perception and acceptance of street vending and its effect on experience of the street. Observations and user interviews were undertaken in Portobello and Golborne Road to explore the influence of street vendors on urban settings and analyze their vending patterns and their relationship with urban users.FindingsFindings state that street vending takes up a large part in the liveliness and attractiveness of the market in London. People tend to accept street vendors because they have many benefits for vitality and liveliness of the urban environment; however, they sometimes cause problems with ease of mobility in the area for pedestrians and the public in general.Originality/valueStreet vendors create a vital urban street and provide affordable goods. There are many debates concerning street vendors; on the one hand, there are those who argue against them because they believe they create problems and should be abolished, and on the other hand, there are arguments that defend them and believe that they are vital to the street life. It was important to study street vending in detail in order to explore this unique and important activity that takes place in almost all cities of the world. The case study chosen was quite unique and street vending taking place in Portobello Road and London in general is mostly formal street vending, which wasn't studied in detail previously.

scholarly journals Gender Role in Global Personal Self-Esteem and Narcissism among Nepalese School Adolescents

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-82
Author(s):  
Dasarath Neupane ◽  
Tatwa Timsina
Keyword(s):  
Gender Role ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Prevalence Rates ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Survey Instruments ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Almost All

  Introduction: Global personal self-esteem and narcissism with reference to gender role among school adolescents was studied in Kathmandu. The general aim of this research was to explore the correlation in global personal self-esteem and narcissism with response to gender among Nepalese school adolescents.Methodology: The study was correlational in design employing a pen-and-paper self-report survey. Within the survey, instruments (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale 1979 / RSES and Narcissistic Personality Inventory 1981/ NPI) measured the global personal self-esteem and narcissism. Participants were drawn from thirty (fifteen public and fifteen private) schools of Kathmandu. These schools were chosen in random selection. The number of participations was 936 school students.Results: The study investigated the prevalence of global personal self-esteem in the school with reference to gender. The result from the survey indicates that there is no significant difference between self-esteem and gender. On the other hand, girls are reported slightly higher narcissistic behaviour than boys.Conclusion: Self-esteem is how people feel about themselves generally. This study explored the prevalence rates of global personal self-esteem with reference to gender. It showed that there is no significant correlation between them. On the other hand, narcissism is a psychological condition defined as a total obsession with self, to the exclusion of almost all other interaction with people. The present study explored the prevalence rates of narcissism with reference to gender. It showed that girls reported slightly higher narcissistic behaviour than boys’ which contradicts the previous findings. Why it is found so in the Nepalese context is left for further research.

scholarly journals Assessment of the level of noise and chemical air pollution in two distinct urban areas

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-137
Author(s):  
Mihai Bratu ◽  
◽  
Elena Bucur ◽  
Valeriu Danciulescu ◽  
Mihaela Petrescu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Industrial Area ◽  
The Other ◽  
Noise Levels ◽  
Industrial Noise ◽  
The Road

In the paper are presented the results of tests on the evaluation of the level of noise and chemical air pollution in two distinct urban areas: an industrial area and an area characterized by heavy road traffic, with a focus on the novelty elements introduced by the regulations in force on the measurement and management of the level of ambient and industrial noise by periodically developing specific noise maps. The results of direct tests and noise maps developed in the case of the studied areas indicated higher values of the indicators measured near the road artery compared to the other measuring points, highlighting the influence of vegetation in urban areas to reduce noise levels and reduce air pollution.

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