The influence of environmental attitudes on environmental behaviors has long been discussed. However, few studies have addressed the foundation of such attitudes. In the present study, we explored ...primitive belief underlying environmental attitudes, i.e., connections with nature, and its relationship with pro-environmental behaviors. Specifically, we used scales, a computerized Implicit Association Test, and a situational simulation experiment to examine both explicit and implicit connections with nature, both deliberate and spontaneous environmental behaviors, and to find correlations between environmental connectedness and environmental behaviors. Results showed that explicit connectedness was positively correlated with deliberate environmental behaviors, while implicit connectedness was positively correlated with spontaneous environmental behaviors. Additionally, explicit and implicit connectedness was independent of each other. In conclusion, the current study confirms the positive role played by connections with nature in promoting environmental behavior, and accordingly suggests means to encourage pro-environmental behavior by enhancing people's connectedness to nature.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The study of subjective well-being (SWB) has attracted considerable attention from scholars globally. This has stimulated numerous studies that have identified regional and individual factors ...associated with SWB, but the extant research lacks multi-level studies that simultaneously examine their influence on SWB. Environmental pollution is one of such factors, but few studies have investigated its effect on SWB in China particularly. The current study addressed these problems by conducting hierarchical linear regressions to explore the effects of regional and individual factors on Chinese people’s SWB. Three major environmental pollutions (wastewater pollution, domestic waste pollution, and air pollution) were studied using data from the Chinese General Social Survey 2013 and China Statistical Yearbook 2014. The results indicated that wastewater pollution and domestic waste pollution had significant negative influence on SWB. Moreover, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita might contribute more to the improvement of SWB than income inequality. This implies that individuals’ SWB might be enhanced by improving absolute income, which is consistent with the micro-level proposition of the Easterlin paradox. Overall, these findings signal that effective management of environmental pollution is essential for promoting the SWB of the people in China.
The current article explores the impact of mindfulness on belief in climate change and the mediating effect of connectedness with nature in this relationship. Belief in climate change was assessed ...both explicitly (using a self-report questionnaire) and implicitly (using an Implicit Association Test IAT). A total of 103 university students were recruited for a between-subjects experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to a mindfulness or mindlessness intervention and then completed IAT and several questionnaires. The results showed that mindfulness significantly increased belief in climate change, both explicitly and implicitly. Our findings also showed that the relationship between mindfulness and climate change beliefs was mediated by an increase in connectedness with nature. These results indicate that mindfulness is an effective way to promote belief in climate change and that connectedness with nature plays an important role in this process.
Material identification is playing an increasingly important role in various sectors such as industry, petrochemical, mining, and in our daily lives. In recent years, material identification has been ...utilized for security checks, waste sorting, etc. However, current methods for identifying materials require direct contact with the target and specialized equipment that can be costly, bulky, and not easily portable. Past proposals for addressing this limitation relied on non-contact material identification methods, such as Wi-Fi-based and radar-based material identification methods, which can identify materials with high accuracy without physical contact; however, they are not easily integrated into portable devices. This paper introduces a novel non-contact material identification based on acoustic signals. Different from previous work, our design leverages the built-in microphone and speaker of smartphones as the transceiver to identify target materials. The fundamental idea of our design is that acoustic signals, when propagated through different materials, reach the receiver via multiple paths, producing distinct multipath profiles. These profiles can serve as fingerprints for material identification. We captured and extracted them using acoustic signals, calculated channel impulse response (CIR) measurements, and then extracted image features from the time–frequency domain feature graphs, including histogram of oriented gradient (HOG) and gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) image features. Furthermore, we adopted the error-correcting output code (ECOC) learning method combined with the majority voting method to identify target materials. We built a prototype for this paper using three mobile phones based on the Android platform. The results from three different solid and liquid materials in varied multipath environments reveal that our design can achieve average identification accuracies of 90% and 97%.
To date, general-purpose object-detection methods have achieved a great deal. However, challenges such as degraded image quality, complex backgrounds, and the detection of marine organisms at ...different scales arise when identifying underwater organisms. To solve such problems and further improve the accuracy of relevant models, this study proposes a marine biological object-detection architecture based on an improved YOLOv5 framework. First, the backbone framework of Real-Time Models for object Detection (RTMDet) is introduced. The core module, Cross-Stage Partial Layer (CSPLayer), includes a large convolution kernel, which allows the detection network to precisely capture contextual information more comprehensively. Furthermore, a common convolution layer is added to the stem layer, to extract more valuable information from the images efficiently. Then, the BoT3 module with the multi-head self-attention (MHSA) mechanism is added into the neck module of YOLOv5, such that the detection network has a better effect in scenes with dense targets and the detection accuracy is further improved. The introduction of the BoT3 module represents a key innovation of this paper. Finally, union dataset augmentation (UDA) is performed on the training set using the Minimal Color Loss and Locally Adaptive Contrast Enhancement (MLLE) image augmentation method, and the result is used as the input to the improved YOLOv5 framework. Experiments on the underwater datasets URPC2019 and URPC2020 show that the proposed framework not only alleviates the interference of underwater image degradation, but also makes the mAP@0.5 reach 79.8% and 79.4% and improves the mAP@0.5 by 3.8% and 1.1%, respectively, when compared with the original YOLOv8 on URPC2019 and URPC2020, demonstrating that the proposed framework presents superior performance for the high-precision detection of marine organisms.
Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is of widespread concern, as it poses a serious impact on economic development and human health. Although the influence of socioeconomic factors on PM2.5 has been ...studied, the constitution and the effect analysis of social vulnerability to PM2.5 remain unclear. In this study, a comprehensive theoretical framework with appropriate indicators for social vulnerability to PM2.5 was constructed. Using spatial autocorrelation analysis, a positive global spatial autocorrelation and notable local spatial cluster relationships were identified. Spatial econometric modeling and geographically weighted regression modeling were performed to explore the cause-effect relationship of social vulnerability to PM2.5. The spatial error model indicated that population and education inequality in the sensitivity dimension caused a significant positive impact on PM2.5, and biocapacity and social governance in the capacity dimension strongly contributed to the decrease of PM2.5 globally. The geographically weighted regression model revealed spatial heterogeneity in the effects of the social vulnerability variables on PM2.5 among countries. These empirical results can provide policymakers with a new perspective on social vulnerability as it relates to PM2.5 governance and targeted environmental pollution management.
The willingness to take action against climate change may be shaped by cultural orientations. The present study investigated individualist-collectivist differences in climate change inaction as well ...as the mediating role of perceived intractability. In Study 1, a survey of 182 undergraduates showed that greater perceived intractability of climate change was significantly related to a lower frequency of climate-friendly actions in the preceding 6 months. In Study 2, participants who were exposed to information concerning the intractability of climate change (experimental group,
= 98) reported a significantly greater perceived intractability of climate change and lower intention to assume a low-carbon lifestyle than those presented with neutral information (control group,
= 83). Based on Studies 1 and 2, participants with collectivist or individualist orientations were recruited from a pool of Chinese undergraduate students in Study 3. We found that participants with a more individualist orientation (
= 62) are more subject to perceived intractability, and less likely to take climate-friendly action than those with a more collectivist orientation (
= 94), and individualist/collectivist status affects climate change inaction through perceived intractability as mediator. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the promotion of public engagement with climate change by mitigating perceived intractability.
Inspired by the antibacterial agents, such as ethylene oxide, anacardic acid, and salicylic acid, oxygen‐terminated carbon bonds may take the major responsibility in antibacterial properties, a layer ...of oxygen‐terminated carbon bonds is fabricated on nanodiamond as an immobilized coating for the investigation of the antibacterial activity. The results demonstrate comparable antibacterial activities on oxygen‐terminated nanodiamond coating (NDC) against two kinds of probe bacteria, Gram‐negative Escherichia coli and Gram‐positive Staphylococcus aureus, and the annealing method as a proper method for the improvement of the antibacterial performance of the NDC. The concentration of oxygen‐terminated carbon bonds, especially CO and CO, and the ratio of CO to CO, are found to determine the antibacterial performance of NDCs. The antibacterial behavior performed through the surface interaction is revealed and the abnormal expression of cell wall‐related proteins are identified, where a potential antibacterial mechanism is proposed: the oxygen‐terminated carbon bonds damaged the cell wall through the blockage and the electrostatic repulsive force, which aggravated the abnormal metabolism of bacteria and lead to its death. The antibacterial property of oxygen‐terminated carbon bonds is confirmed and its application, NDC, provides a new idea for antibacterial research and opens the door to antibacterial coatings for medical devices.
A layer of oxygen‐terminated carbon bonds is fabricated on nanodiamonds as an immobilized coating. The results show that the nanodiamond coating (NDC) has excellent antibacterial properties. CO and CO, and the ratio of CO to CO, are found to determine the antibacterial performance of NDC.
Background
Health-promoting behaviors and positive lifestyle changes are crucial for effective stroke prevention. However, individuals at high risk of stroke exhibit poor health behavior due to a ...deficiency of individual motivation. Moreover, there are only a few studies on health-promoting behaviors that have applied behavior change theories in individuals at high risk of stroke.
Objective
This study aimed to use the theory of the planned behavior (TPB) model to investigate determinants of health-promoting behaviors for stroke prevention and control.
Method
In this cross-sectional study, 263 participants were recruited from five community health centers in Qingdao. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to assess the reliability and validity of the constructs, and structural equation modeling was used to analyze the proposed relationships between the TPB-related variables.
Results
The attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptions of behavioral control positively influenced behavioral intention. The behavioral intention had a positive effect on health-promoting behaviors. Attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control were influenced primarily by the mediating variable behavioral intention to affect health-promoting behaviors. Stroke knowledge was an influential facilitator of behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control.
Conclusion
The TPB-based model is suitable for explaining health-promoting behaviors in individuals at risk of stroke and for guiding the development of effective health management programs. A comprehensive person-centered motivation behavior strategy that is based on health education and complemented by social support and health resource optimization is critical in promoting health behavior motivation and health promotion behaviors in stroke high-risk groups.
Abstract
The Ni-Ti-Cr-carbon nanotubes (CNTs) composite coatings was successfully fabricated by laser cladding. The optical microscope was used to observe the metallographic structure of the ...composite coating, the phase composition of the composite layer was detected by XRD, the microstructures of the composite coatings were observed by SEM, and the point distribution and line distribution of elements were analyzed by EDS. With the increase of laser specific energy (Es) and CNTs content, the TiC enhanced particles in the composite coatings evolves into coarse dendrites. Compared with the mild steel substrate, the microhardness and wear resistance of the composite coatings are obviously improved. The maximum microhardness obtained by the composite coating is approximately 5 times that of the mild steel substrate. The increase of Es and the excessive content of CNTs will reduce the microhardness and wear resistance of the composite coatings. The
in situ
synthesis of TiC particles not only enhance the microhardness of the composite coatings, but also improve the wear resistance of the coatings.
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