scholarly journals Switching LPS to LED Streetlight May Dramatically Reduce Activity and Foraging of Bats

Diversity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Kerbiriou ◽  
Kévin Barré ◽  
Léa Mariton ◽  
Julie Pauwels ◽  
Georges Zissis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Light Intensity ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Spectral Composition ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Street Lighting ◽  
Bat Activity ◽  
Reduce Activity ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Artificial light at night is considered a major threat to biodiversity, especially for nocturnal species, as it reduces habitat availability, quality, and functionality. Since the recent evolution in light technologies in improving luminous efficacy, developed countries are experiencing a renewal of their lighting equipment that reaches its end-of-life, from conventional lighting technologies to light emitting diodes (LEDs). Despite potential cascading impacts of such a shift on nocturnal fauna, few studies have so far dealt with the impact of the renewal of street lighting by new technologies. Specifically, only one study, by Rowse et al.2016, examined the effects of switching from widely used low pressure sodium (LPS) lamps to LEDs, using bats as biological models. This study was based on a before-after-control-impact paired design (BACIP) at 12 pairs in the UK, each including one control and one experimental streetlight. If Rowse et al. 2016 showed no effect of switching to LEDs streetlights on bat activity, the effects of respective changes in light intensity and spectrum were not disentangled when testing switch effects. Here, we conduct a retrospective analysis of their data to include these covariates in statistical models with the aim of disentangling the relative effects of these light characteristics. Our re-analysis clearly indicates that the switches in spectrum and in intensity with replacement of LPS with LED lamps have significant additive and interactive effects, on bat activity. We also show that bat activity and buzz ratio decrease with increasing LED intensity while an opposite effect is observed with LPS lamps. Hence, the loss or the gain in bat activity when lamp types, i.e., spectrum, are switched strongly depends on the initial and new lamp intensities. Our results stress the need to consider simultaneously the effects of changes in the different lights characteristics when street lighting changes. Because switches from LPS to LED lamps can lead to an increase in light intensity, such technological changes may involve a reduction of bat activity in numerous cases, especially at high LED intensities. Since we are currently at an important crossroad in lighting management, we recommend to limit LED intensity and improve its spectral composition toward warmer colors to limit potential deleterious impacts on bat activity.

scholarly journals Assessment of Social Acceptance for Autonomous Vehicles in Southeastern Poland

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (18) ◽  
pp. 5778
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Dudziak ◽  
Monika Stoma ◽  
Andrzej Kuranc ◽  
Jacek Caban
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Social Acceptance ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Consumer Preferences ◽  
Autonomous Vehicle ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Automotive Market ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Autonomous Cars ◽  
The Impact

New technologies reaching out for meeting the needs of an aging population in developed countries have given rise to the development and gradual implementation of the concept of an autonomous vehicle (AV) and have even made it a necessity and an important business paradigm. However, in parallel, there is a discussion about consumer preferences and the willingness to pay for new car technologies and intelligent vehicle options. The main aim of the study was to analyze the impact of selected factors on the perception of the future of autonomous cars by respondents from the area of Southeastern Poland in terms of a comparison with traditional cars, with particular emphasis on the advantages and disadvantages of this concept. The research presented in this study was conducted in 2019 among a group of 579 respondents. Data analysis made it possible to identify potential advantages and disadvantages of the concept of introducing autonomous cars. A positive result of the survey is that 68% of respondents stated that AV will be gradually introduced to our market, which confirms the high acceptance of this technology by Poles. The obtained research results may be valuable information for governmental and local authorities, but also for car manufacturers and their future users. It is an important issue in the area of shaping the strategy of actions concerning further directions of development on the automotive market.

Minimising medical litigation: a review of key tort and legal reforms

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Tan
Keyword(s):  
Medical Malpractice ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Economic Sustainability ◽  
Legal Reforms ◽  
The Us ◽  
Tort System ◽  
Medical Litigation ◽  
Tort Reforms ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

The traditional tort system in medical malpractice is increasingly perceived as being incapable of addressing the mismatch between claims and negligent injuries. Tort reforms have been introduced in various developed countries in an attempt to bring about greater fairness and economic sustainability in the compensation of medical injuries and to reduce the overall rate of medical litigation. This paper reviews the key tort reforms that have been used in various countries, notably the US and the UK, and discusses the arguments that had been put forth by advocates and opponents of such reforms. The impact of these tort reforms, where studied and available, is also reviewed and discussed in the paper.

The control and ‘fitness for purpose’ of UK official statistics

2019 ◽  
pp. 119-132
Author(s):  
David Rhind
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Official Statistics ◽  
Politics And Government ◽  
The Public ◽  
Economic Statistics ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Government Statistics ◽  
The Impact

This chapter describes the evolution of UK Official Statistics over an 80 year period under the influence of personalities, politics and government policies, new user needs and changing technology. These have led to changing institutional structures – such as the Statistics Commission - and periodic oscillations in what statistics are created and the ease of their accessibility by the public. The chapter concludes with the impact of the first major statistical legislation for 60 years, particularly as a consequence of its creation of the UK Statistics Authority. This has included major investment in quality assurance of National and Official Statistics and in professional resourcing. These changes are very welcome, as is the statutory specification of government statistics as a public good by the 2007 Statistics and Registration Service Act. But problems of access to some data sets and the pre-release of key economic statistics to selected groups of users remain. Given the widespread societal consequences of the advent of new technologies, what we collect and how we do it will inevitably continue to change rapidly.

Socio-economic disadvantage and poverty

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-114
Author(s):  
Alisoun Milne
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Economic Disadvantage ◽  
Fundamental Building Block ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Uk ◽  
State Pension ◽  
The Impact

Chapter 5 is the first of three chapters exploring the impact of age related risks affecting particular sub populations of older people. Socioeconomic disadvantage in later life tends to reflect a lifecourse status. It amplifies what is already present. In 2016/17 one million older people were living in poverty; an additional 1.2 million were living just above the poverty line. These numbers are rising. Those aged 85 years or over, frail older people, older women and single older people are particularly at risk. Poor older people are also more likely to live in poor housing and be exposed to fuel poverty. Being poor - and its concomitants - compromises mental health in a number of profound ways. It undermines an older person’s capacity to make choices, retain independence, save for a crisis, maintain social contacts and be digitally included. It is linked with worry, loss of control over life and shame. Poor older people are at heightened risk of isolation and loneliness, stress, anxiety and depression. The UK has a weak policy record, compared with other developed countries, of sustainably and coherently addressing poverty in later life. One of the cornerstones of doing so is a continued commitment to the basic state pension as a fundamental building block of a secure old age. Addressing poor housing is also pivotal.

scholarly journals The Gender Issue in Entrepreneurship Activity: the Current Perception of Entrepreneurs

2020 ◽  
pp. 42-52
Author(s):  
A. Kharlamova ◽  
A. Stavytskyy
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Creative Industries ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Econometric Methods ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activities ◽  
Maximum Similarity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Gem Data

Today, the issue of gender and equal opportunities for women and men is raised more and more often. That is despite the fact that in developed countries there are very massive feminization trends. Нowever, the development of new technologies, the transition to online life brings gender issues to the fore in the context of new geoeconomic challenges, such as the development of creative industries, digitalization, rising unemployment, growing social and economic inequality. Looking to the future is impossible without understanding the impact of the past. This paper examines three countries, principle economic partners of Ukraine, which had a socialist past, although formed in different socio-cultural vectors, and those that show different rates of development and use different economic models. The working hypothesisis as follows: whether gender entrepreneurship differs in these countries. The database is taken from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitoring (GEM) and investigated using statistical and econometric methods. The results showed that with the maximum similarity of perceptions of entrepreneurs in analyzed countries, the gender difference still exists in the direction of greater entrepreneurial activity of women in the country, which shows higher economic performance today. It should be noted that the main problem and limitation of this study is the source of data, which is based on monitoring, which does not cover all countries of the world, so in particular it does not contain data on Ukraine. In addition, from the point of view of the input data collected by GEM, we have almost equal proportions of surveyed men and women, both in general and those engaged in entrepreneurial activities. But this is not fully representative. Because demographic composition in these countries differs. It is also worth noting that the GEM data is a survey conducted by a trusted institution in the country, which is not fully representative for cross-country comparison.

scholarly journals Population ageing: what should we worry about?

2009 ◽  
Vol 364 (1532) ◽  
pp. 3009-3021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adair Turner
Keyword(s):  
Developed Countries ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
Replacement Ratio ◽  
Healthy Life ◽  
Mechanistic Approach ◽  
Fixed Proportion ◽  
Slow Rise ◽  
Optimizing Model ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Approximately half the world's population now has replacement-level fertility or below. The UK experience in accommodating to a changing dependency ratio provides some generalizable insights. A mechanistic approach assuming a fixed retirement age and a need to raise fertility or increase immigration in order to maintain pensions at a fixed proportion of the gross domestic product (GDP) is overstated and wrong. It needs to be replaced by a welfare optimizing model, which takes into account the increasing years of healthy life, a slow rise in the pensionable age, capital inheritance and wider welfare considerations of population density that are not reflected in GDP measures. A combined replacement ratio (CRR) is suggested for developed countries combining the impact of the fertility rate and immigration rate. A CRR above 2 implies continued population growth. The current UK CRR of 2.48 is higher than needed for pension reasons, and it is suggested that it exceeds the welfare maximizing level.

A survey of public scientific literacy in China

1993 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongliang Zhang ◽  
Jiansheng Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Basic Component ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Scientific Terms ◽  
Level Of Understanding ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Chinese Public

There is growing recognition in developed countries that public scientific literacy is a basic component of long-term social and economic growth. In recent years, surveys of public scientific literacy have been conducted in the USA, the UK and elsewhere, and various efforts are being made to improve the level of public scientific literacy. The first survey of Chinese public scientific literacy was conducted in September 1990. This paper reports a portion of the statistical results of that survey. It reveals the Chinese public's level of understanding of scientific terms and methods, scientific conclusions, and attitudes towards the impact of science and technology on society. Comparisons are also made with survey data from the USA and the UK.

scholarly journals Cultivating Microalgae in Desert Conditions: Evaluation of the Effect of Light-Temperature Summer Conditions on the Growth and Metabolism of Nannochloropsis QU130

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 3799
Author(s):  
Hareb Al Jabri ◽  
Aumaya Taleb ◽  
Raphaelle Touchard ◽  
Iman Saadaoui ◽  
Vincent Goetz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Light Intensity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cell Function ◽  
Biomass Productivity ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Cell Membrane Permeability ◽  
Outdoor Cultivation ◽  
Cultivation Conditions ◽  
Light Fluctuations ◽  
The Impact

Temperature and light are two of the most crucial factors for microalgae production. Variations in these factors alter their growth kinetics, macromolecular composition and physiological properties, including cell membrane permeability and fluidity. The variations define the adaptation mechanisms adopted by the microalgae to withstand changes in these environmental factors. In the Qatar desert the temperature varies widely, typically between 10° and 45 °C There are also wide variations in light intensity, with values of over 1500 μmolhν.m−2s−1 in summer. A study of the effects of these thermal and light fluctuations is therefore essential for large-scale outdoor production systems, especially during the summer when temperature and light fluctuations are at their highest. The aim of this work is to study the impact of temperature and light intensity variations as encountered in summer period on the Nannochloropsis QU130 strain, which was selected for its suitability for outdoor cultivation in the harsh conditions of the Qatar desert. It was carried out using lab-scale photobioreactors enabling simulation of both constant and dynamic temperature and light regimes. Biomass productivity, cell morphology and biochemical compositions were examined first in constant conditions, then in typical outdoor cultivation conditions to elucidate the adjustments in cell function in respect of fluctuations. The dynamic light and temperature were shown to have interactive effects. The application of temperature cycles under constant light led to a 13.6% increase in biomass productivity, while a 45% decrease was observed under light and temperature regimes due to the combined stress. In all cases, the results proved that N. sp. QU130 has a high level of adaptation to the wide fluctuations in light and temperature stress. This was shown through its ability to easily change its physiology (cell size) and metabolic process in response to different cultivation conditions.

scholarly journals Impact of New Technologies on the Labor Market: Past Lessons and New Challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 62-87
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Employment Services ◽  
Standard Set ◽  
Expert Community ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Industrial Revolutions

The article is devoted to the review of theoretical and applied studies on the impact of technological progress on the labor market and public policy. Firstly, the influence of previous industrial revolutions is considered. It is shown that new technologies during the last two centuries have been resulting in growth of employment and reduction of working hours. In addition, mass computerization observed in the past few decades has led to polarization of the labor market. Secondly, the concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is analyzed. It is pointed out that, despite active discussion of this topic in the mass media and in the expert community, so far the results of the former have been limited and the latest technologies related to it are poorly distributed even in the most developed countries. However, studies devoted to quantitative estimates of automation and labor substitution have a highly controversial methodology. As a result, the majority of alarmist predictions are deemed unfounded. Various studies have indicated that the more likely response to the new technological revolution is not an increase in unemployment, but rather a spread of non-standard employment. Finally, changes in government labor market policy due to technological innovations of recent years are investigated. Despite the persistent intentions to reform the fundamental labor market policies, European employment services continue to apply a standard set of practices. The data available for Russia indicate that the risks of automation and significant changes on the labor market are even lower than in developed countries.

scholarly journals Defence Youth STEM Outreach – Inspiring the Next Generation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
M F Rose ◽  
D Joyce
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Stem Learning ◽  
Strategic Partnerships ◽  
Skills Shortage ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Career Options ◽  
The Impact

This paper focuses on the need to build a solid foundation of skills which the future maritime workforce can build on to provide the innovation and exploitation of new technologies that the Royal Navy requires. This need sits within the wider strategic context of the national engineering skills shortage, reflected recently in the EngineeringUK report: ‘The State of Engineering 2018.’ The report forecasts as a conservative estimate an average shortfall in engineering graduates (level 4+) of 22,000, with the impact of Brexit upon these figures yet to be determined (the UK relies on attracting talent from the EU and beyond to help meet current shortfalls). The situation regarding Level 3 – A levels, Highers, and Advanced apprenticeships reflects a similar shortfall. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that only 12% of engineering and technology employees in the UK are women; highlighting that access and availability, including gender diversity remains a challenge for this sector. It is against that backdrop, that the MOD, is collaborating across many areas; one specifically being on inspiring the next generation to undertake Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics(STEM) as subjects of choice initially, moving thereafter onto more informed careers awareness and ultimately onto career options. Such foundation building is manifest in Defence’s Youth STEM engagement strategy which is whole force by design, with several major developments to date following its launch in 2016, including the establishment of formal strategic partnerships with three national STEM outreach providers; notably: Primary Engineer; Tomorrows Engineer (replicated by Energy Skills Partnership in Scotland) and STEM Learning (replicated by SSERC in Scotland) each with niche capabilities. They sit alongside all four Services within Defence and key other government departments including the devolved administration in Scotland, in the form of an implementation group to take the strategy forward. The purpose is to inspire sufficient young people to study STEM subjects, to ensure that the appropriate national talent exists from which Defence can recruit its future technical people. Several initiatives are expanded upon with illustration of the benefits, ranging from impact in the classroom (both teacher and pupil) to Defence personnel as STEM ambassadors. The paper closes with the social mobility agenda and the potential thereof from Youth STEM outreach.

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