Study of Some Indicators of Environmental Pollution of Surface Soil for the City of Touggourt (Southeast Algeria)

Soil is contaminated with various potentially harmful metals (PTMs). Therefore, the adequate protection of soil from contamination is imperative, as the soil is regarded as the primary cradle for living and environmental balance. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to assess the contamination level by PTMs in Touggourt city, where soil samples have been collected randomly from 18 sites. These sites included manufacturing companies and institutions belonging to the industrial region of Touggourt city. The concentrations of six PTMs - zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), lead (Pb) and manganese (Mn) were assessed using the atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) instrument as well as the application of the modern pollution indices such as CF (Contamination Factor), PLI (Pollution Load Index) and EF (Enrichment Factor). The highest values of contamination factor (CF) for Zn, Fe, Co, Cu, and Pb were 0.605, 1.605, 0.277, 0.05, 0.438, and 0.01, respectively, and the highest value of pollution load index (PLI) was 0.139, while the results of enrichment factor (EF) for the Zn, Mn, Co, Cu and Pb metals were 2.608, 0.060, 0.740, 0.122, and 2.358, respectively. According to these pollution indices, the results of this study have indicated that human effects or industrial wastes and traffic, in particular, were the sources of heavy metal contaminating the studied region.

A Review of the Status of Rothschild’s Giraffe Sub-Species Population in Africa

Africa is the cradle of the world’s giraffe species and the sub-species that keep evolving with more conservation approaches. However, the population of Rothschild’s Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi) has been impacted at different sects in the wild. The aim of this paper was to review the status of Rothschild’s giraffe in Africa. A desktop descriptive review approach was used through perusal of different scholarly articles on giraffes. From the existing literature, this review exposes the effect of human effects on giraffes, climate change extremes on wildlife, ecological and significance of wildlife, and socio-economic impacts of communities on giraffes. The existing literature shows the impact of climate change extremes on giraffe habitats, with notable droughts, triggers of diseases, and unfit habitat migrations. Conservation of wildlife has to deal with socio-economic and ecological issues that are complex and, most of the time, overwhelming. We recommend the need for community engagement in conservation of wildlife resources and the development of climate prediction models to better understand climate extremes that happen and affect giraffe habits and population.

Analysis of Disaster Awareness Perception Levels of Students in Social Studies Teaching Undergraduate Program

Disasters are known as calamities affecting all humanity on earth and have adverse impacts on human life in various ways. Although many natural disasters cannot be prevented, their adverse effects on people can be mitigated. It is important to raise the awareness of people about disasters, whether they are caused by human effects or nature. Disaster education plays an important role in raising this awareness. The study group of the study consists of 172 teacher candidates receiving education in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades of the department of social studies teaching in a state university located in the Central Anatolia region. In order to measure the disaster awareness of the teacher candidates, the scanning pattern included under the quantitative study method has been used. T-test and ANOVA has been utilized in the analysis of disaster awareness perception scale. As the result of the analysis; in the sub-dimensions of disaster education awareness, pre-disaster awareness, false disaster awareness and post-disaster awareness, the teacher candidates have been evaluated according to their gender, their general academic average scores, their participation in a conference or a panel and according to their homework, presentation or project preparing status. Based on the results of the research, in order for the teacher candidates to gain the right disaster awareness, it has been recommended that they should be provided with disaster awareness courses in their undergraduate curriculum, that they should take part in various research projects, and attend various symposiums, congresses related with disaster awareness.

GDP Almost Perfectly Predicts Survival

This article extends results reported by Bechtel, G. and Bechtel, T. (2021). These previous findings induce the hypothesis confirmed here; namely, that gross domestic product GDP nearly perfectly predicts survival in the world’s entire population. The fractional polynomial regressions here are run over the pre-pandemic period 1991–2016. During the subsequent pandemic, the American Center for Disease Control reported that life expectancy at birth in the USA dropped one year during the first six months of 2020, the largest drop since World War 11. The drops in African and Hispanic life expectancy at birth during this period were 2.7 and 1.9 years (Aljazeera; Democracy Now, February 18, 2021). The USA is the worst covid-19-effected population. It is now imperative to confirm that life expectancy at birth is well predicted from GDP in all nations over 1991–2018. This pre-pandemic control for each nation will accurately calibrate it’s subsequent yearly survival drops due to Covid-19. This is especially important in light of the trade war between the United States and China, which has increased the need for accurate measurement of the human effects of this war.

Global acceleration in rates of vegetation change over the past 18,000 years

Global vegetation over the past 18,000 years has been transformed first by the climate changes that accompanied the last deglaciation and again by increasing human pressures; however, the magnitude and patterns of rates of vegetation change are poorly understood globally. Using a compilation of 1181 fossil pollen sequences and newly developed statistical methods, we detect a worldwide acceleration in the rates of vegetation compositional change beginning between 4.6 and 2.9 thousand years ago that is globally unprecedented over the past 18,000 years in both magnitude and extent. Late Holocene rates of change equal or exceed the deglacial rates for all continents, which suggests that the scale of human effects on terrestrial ecosystems exceeds even the climate-driven transformations of the last deglaciation. The acceleration of biodiversity change demonstrated in ecological datasets from the past century began millennia ago.

The Effect of Ecological Factors on Cats’ Weight in Tehran - First Phase

Urban cats live in cities like humans and humans affect their life intentionally or unintentionally. Waste production is only one of the human effects on the urban cat ecosystem. The waste produced by human supply some of the food needed by urban cats. This descriptive - estimation research is the first study in the world to measure the cats’ weight to investigate the effect of the increase or decrease in urban wastes on physical status of cats. In the first phase of the research (Spring 2016-Winter 2017) in Tehran, we found that the average volume of the collected wastes had increased by 14% and the average weight of cats in the mentioned period had increased 1%. The 9.5% decrease in the waste volume in Autumn 2016 had led to the decrease in the average weight of cats in Winter 2017. The male cats were more affected by the decrease in waste volume.

The Effect of Ecological Factors on Cats’ Weight in Tehran

Some animals live in cities like humans. So, humans affect their life intentionally or unintentionally. Waste production is only one of the human effects on the urban ecosystem. The waste produced by human supply some of the food needed by urban cats. This research is the first study in the world to measure the cats’ weight to investigate the effect of the increase or decrease in urban wastes on physical status of cats. In the first phase of the research (Spring 2016-Winter 2017) in Tehran, we found that the average volume of the collected wastes had increased by 14% and it had led to a 1% increase in the average weight of cats in the mentioned period. The 9.5% decrease in the waste volume in Autumn 2016 had led to the decrease in the average weight of cats in Winter 2017. The male cats were more affected by the decrease in waste volume.