Impact of Social Desirability and Environmental Awareness on Ecological Behavior among Students

In present scenario, Indian government has regulated many policies and pro environment action with an aim of being aware about environment under which we continue to live. Although, it is not only government responsibility towards developing pro environment attitude rather it should be emerges from us for our nature. However, people become more sensitive for their livelihood needs than environmental concerns which are remarkable notion. So, the present study attempted to study the pro environment attitude and ecological behavior dynamics with an influence of social desirability.

Enviromental behavoir – a complex mechanism in primary pupil education

The article is addressing to the concepts of culture, ecological behavior and the complex mechanism of its formation to pupil through integrating the curricular contents. They were been studied and analyzed the papers of researchers who identified the key elements which are shaping up the ecological behavior in primary school.

Growth Performance of Malaysian Parthenium hysterophorus under Various Environmental Variables

Parthenium weed is an invasive weed species of economic importance worldwide. Native to the American tropics, the infestation ability of Parthenium weed to a new habitat is largely influenced by environmental factors. Despite Parthenium weed invasion in Malaysia dated back to 2013, investigation on its ecological behavior is still lacking. Hence, extensive studies on the ecological behavior of two predominant Malaysian Parthenium weed populations were executed. In the Petri dish seed bioassay, germination of Parthenium weed seeds was evident at temperatures up to 80 °C. Parthenium weed was also germinable in saline condition of up to 250 mM, osmotic pressure ranging from −1.2 to 0 MPa, and a wide range of pH (4–9), thus these abiotic conditions are by no means the limiting factors for the Parthenium weed. The pot trial observed that this invasive weed grew readily in various Malaysian soil textures. Parthenium weed successfully emerged from 0 cm to not beyond 2 cm soil burial and retained its emergence capacity under different submergence periods in water. The most favorable soil moisture condition for Parthenium weed emergence was saturated (0 kPa), followed by field capacity (−30–−50 kPa), while no emergence occurred in drought (−70 kPa) as well as flooded soils. These indicate that both Parthenium weed populations possess high tolerance to various abiotic conditions in Malaysia. Results obtained in the current study have crucially become guidelines for the local government authorities in predicting wide spread of Parthenium weed in diverse ecological zones, to further manage this pernicious weed efficiently.

INTERPRETING RUH AS AN ECOLOGICAL SPIRITUALITY IN RELATION TO ISLAM AND JAVA MYSTICISM

This research aims to explain about the acculturation of Islam and Javanese wisdom in interpreting ruh (spirit) as an ecological behavior in dealing with natural disaster and exploitative activities. The concept of spirit refers to the awareness to interpret the relationship between human and nature as a living macrocosm unit. The awareness, in Islam, is a dimension of Sufi that blends with nature, such as Javanese philosophy on the principle of the unity of nature. It employs descriptive analytical method by integrating theo-sufistic paradigm to find a turning point in the common ground between Islam and Java in preserving the nature. The analysis goes into three conclusions: 1) the concept of spirit in Islam is a representation of one’s love with nature as the manifestation of love with God in its essence; 2) Javanese beliefs and rituals in ruh as a living and valuable existence signified in mystical mythology for being haunted and sacred serves as theo-sufistic expressions of Islam and Java; 3) spirituality of the spirit generates awareness of the philosophy of Sangkan Paraning Dumadi, to live in harmony and balance between humans and nature. Penelitian ini ingin menjelaskan tentang akulturasi Islam dan kearifan Jawa dalam memaknai ruh sebagai perilaku ekologis dalam menangani kerusakan alam dan aktivitas eksploitatif. Konsep ruh yang dimaksud adalah kesadaran memaknai hubungan manusia dan alam sebagai satu kesatuan makrokosmos yang hidup. Kesadaran tersebut dalam Islam merupakan dimensi sufistik yang menyatu dengan alam sebagaimana falsafah Jawa tentang prinsip kesatuan alam. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif analitis dengan pendekatan integratif dalam paradigma teo-sufistik untuk menemukan titik balik persamaan persepsi antara Islam dan Jawa dalam memelihara alam hayati. Hasilnya, pertama, konsep ruh dalam Islam adalah representasi dari mencintai alam sebagai manfestasi mencintai Tuhan dengan dzatnya. Kedua, keyakinan dan ritual yang dilakukan masyarakat Jawa atas ruh sebagai eksistensi yang hidup dan memberi manfaat yang mewujud dalam mitologis mistik yang disebut angker dan sakral sebagai ekspresi teo-sufistik Islam dan Jawa. Ketiga, spiritualitas ruh memberikan kesadaran dalam filosofi Jawa tentang Sangkan Paraning Dumadi sebagai makna hidup untuk dapat serasi dan seimbang antara manusia dan alam.

Sechelleptus arborivagus sp. nov., a new arboreal spirostreptid millipede (Diplopoda, Spirostreptidae) endemic to Mayotte Island (Comoros Archipelago), Indian Ocean

A new millipede species of the genus Sechelleptus Mauriès, 1980 is described and illustrated from Mayotte Island, Indian Ocean. This new species, S. arborivagus sp. nov., found on trees, looks particularly similar to the sympatric S. variabilis VandenSpiegel & Golovatch, 2007, but is much larger and has a very different ecological behavior. Phylogenetic analyses based on a concatenated dataset of the COI and 16S rRNA genes and including nine species of Spirostreptidae (including Sechelleptus, Doratogonus Attems, 1914, Bicoxidens Attems, 1928 and Spirostreptus Brandt, 1833), strongly support the monophyly of Sechelleptus. Despite the similarity of their genitalia, the molecular analyses also reveal a clear-cut genetic divergence between S. arborivagus sp. nov. and S. variabilis (22.55% for COI and 6.63% for 16SrRNA) and further suggest the presence of a higher diversity within the genus Sechelleptus on Mayotte.

The Role of the Ecological Awareness and the Influence on Food Preferences in Shaping Pro-Ecological Behavior of Young Consumers

Pro-ecological behavior of consumers on the food market is conditioned by many factors, among which the literature on the subject particularly indicates, is high environmental awareness. Among other factors, the influence of social groups is also emphasized, in relation to young consumers; these are mainly peers and friends, which was confirmed by the authors’ research. The aim of the research was to identify the role of ecological awareness and influence on the food purchasing habits of young consumers in shaping their pro-ecological behavior. Based on the literature on the subject, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the empirical material, reducing the number of dimensions through the use of factor analysis. Analyzing the collected material, the authors proposed three latent variables—ecological awareness (EA), impact on food preferences (IFP), and ecological behavior (EB). Hidden variables were defined by explicit variables, and the whole was characterized in the light of the literature. The research results indicated that there are significant correlations between all latent variables, however the strongest one could be observed between EA and EB. This proves that the ecological behavior of young consumers is strongly determined by their environmental awareness.