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For those receiving funding from the UK HEFCE-funded Open Educational Resource Programme (2009-2012), the sustainability of project outputs was one of a number of essential goals. Our approach for the hosting and distribution of health and life science open educational resources (OER) was based on the utilisation of the WordPress.org blogging platform and search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques to curate content and widen discovery. This paper outlines the approaches taken and tools used at the time, and reflects upon the effectiveness of web strategies several years post-funding. The paper concludes that using WordPress.org as a platform for sharing and curating OER, and the adoption of a pragmatic approach to SEO, offers cheap and simple ways for small-scale open education projects to be effective and sustainable.

This paper presents a compilation of personal reflections from 66 contributors on the impact of, and responses to, COVID-19 in accounting education in 45 different countries around the world. It reveals a commonality of issues, and a variability in responses, many positive outcomes, including the creation of opportunities to realign learning and teaching strategies away from the comfort of traditional formats, but many more that are negative, primarily relating to the impact on faculty and student health and well-being, and the accompanying stress. It identifies issues that need to be addressed in the recovery and redesign stages of the management of this crisis, and it sets a new research agenda for studies in accounting education.

The primary purpose of this paper is to review and evaluate the causes of educational poverty in less developed countries. The basic intent in carrying out such a study is to define and derive the role of governing agencies in deliberately creating educational poverty in the country, so that the private interest of the rich and powerful ruling class can be fully safeguarded. This study is of crucial interest to the common man because majority of the people living in less developed countries are poor in spite of the fact, that almost all these countries own ample human and material resources. However, the common man in these countries is continuously suffering, generation after generation, and has been denied access to basic amenities of life. The rich and powerful ruling class, in majority of the less developed countries, has intentionally denied basic education facilities to its people for keeping them ignorant and unaware of their fundamental rights to share national resources and to gain competence for comfortable living in the society. The paper advocates a complete reversal in economic growth policies of the less developed countries so that top priority is given to those projects and programs that directly benefit the common man in the society. In this respect, the author calls for awareness among the people to exercise their economic and social rights so that people of all the strata can share equally the fruits of growth and prosperity.

This paper expands on Kingsley Davis's demographic thesis of change and response. Specifically, we consider the social context that accounts for the primacy of particular birth control methods that bring about fertility change during specific time periods. We examine the relevance of state policy (including national family planning programs), the international population establishment, the medical profession, organized religion, and women's groups using case studies from Japan, Russia, Puerto Rico, China, India, and Cameroon. Some of these countries are undergoing the second demographic transition, others the first. Despite variations in context, heavy reliance on sterilization and/or abortion as a means of birth control is a major response in most of these countries. The key roles of the medical profession and state policy are discussed, along with the general lack of influence of religion and of women's groups in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Visions about the establishment of a lunar base and development of the Moon for scientific, technical and commercial ends have been on the political agenda since the beginning of the Space Age. In the past few years a number of spacefaring nations, including the USA, European states through ESA, Japan, India, China and Russia have proposed missions directed at the robotic and human exploration and development of the Moon. This paper argues that an important factor in advancing these missions lies in a partnership between the pubic, governmental sector and the private sector. The paper analyzes the dynamics of this partnership as applied to the case of the US Vision for Space Exploration. The results of the analysis suggest that public–private partnerships directed at lunar development and commerce depend on how government reduces risks for the private sector. The risks identified and discussed herein include political and legal risks, technological risks, and financial and market risks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and determine the effectiveness of university education on the economy of various countries. Design/methodology/approach: To determine the necessity and expedience of making provision for the effectiveness of university education on the market economy, this work uses the method of regression and correlation analysis. Evaluation of effectiveness of the system of university education is performed separately for students, state, and employers by taking as example countries with specially developed formulas. Findings: The authors substantiate the necessity for provision of effectiveness of university education on the market economy, view the effective system of university education as a basis for the development of a knowledge economy, determine approaches to evaluate the effectiveness of university education on the market economy, perform evaluation of effectiveness of the system of university education by the example of various countries, determine its connection with indicators of economic growth and development, and provide recommendations for provision of effectiveness of the system of university education on modern market economies. Practical implications: The practical value of results of the conducted research consists in the possibility to use the developed formulas for determining the level of effectiveness of the system of university education on various countries of the world. Originality/value: Theoretical value of this paper consists in the possibility for the application of authors' conclusions and recommendations in the process of development of the policy of management of effectiveness of university education system.

Preschool education is an education process that prepares children for primary education, provides the training and upbringing conditions in the home and also aims to remove the inequalities in terms of language and society in the early period. The audit is to evaluate learning and all the factors that affect learning and also prepare the environment and conditions for effective learning. The purpose of this research was to develop a comprehensive point of view for preschool education audit in the world and our country. Document analysis that is one of the qualitative research methods were utilized in this paper as the method. The documents related to the systems in France, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Russia, China, Israel, America, Saudi Arabia, Japan, India Jordan, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Kosovo and Turkey were researched out within the scope of this study.

Background and purpose: Social engagement is an important active aging strategy to promote older adults' mental health. The purposes of this study were to compare social engagement in older populations around the world and explore associations with mental health outcomes. Materials and methods: An international cross‐sectional survey was conducted from 2017 to 2019. Data were retrieved from The International Social Survey Programme for a secondary data analysis across 30 countries. This study applied the Taxonomy of Social Activities and its six levels as operational definitions for a consistent concept of social engagement for international comparisons. Results: In total, 9403 older adults with a mean age of 72.85 ± 6.40 years responded. The highest levels of older adults' social engagement were found in Switzerland, Thailand, and New Zealand. Older adults of a higher age, with a lower educational level, who were permanently sick or disabled, who had no partner, who were widowed or whose civil partner had died, who lived alone, and who had lower self‐placement in society had significantly lower social engagement than did their counterparts. In the regression model, older adults' social engagement positively predicted general health, self‐accomplishment, and life satisfaction, but negatively predicted loneliness and depression. Conclusions: In aging societies worldwide, encouraging older adults' social engagement would be beneficial to promote mental health. Implications for nursing practice and health policies: Community professional nurses can develop strategies of social engagement based on the needs and sociodemographic factors of older adults to improve their mental health. Developing efficient strategies and local policies by learning from successful experiences in other countries is important to promote social engagement in aging societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify the current state of knowledge management (KM) diffusion in LIS schools. In terms of content, we have identified two principal approaches to the perception of KM in the LIS community: an active approach, seeing KM as an opportunity for the LIS community to change; and a passive approach, seeing KM merely as a topic of information management with a new label. Our research analyzed study programs at 145 LIS schools and in 188 LIS study programs in the United States, Canada, Europe (in particular, Russia), Australia, India, South Africa, China, Japan, Singapore, and Brazil and observed the inclusion or non-inclusion of KM courses in those programs. We employ a narrower approach to defining a KM course as being one having the term "knowledge management" in its name. The findings indicate that KM courses are integrated in one-third of the LIS study programs analyzed, and in schools with an information science focus this figure can rise to around 45%. Given the importance of this area and various views regarding KM diffusion in LIS schools, we recommend that those who have already implemented a KM course in their LIS programs create an informal community of practice (CoP) on KM implementation in LIS schools and build an open database of lessons learned from such integration, thereby capturing and sharing this crucial knowledge in a single place.

China, United States, India, Russia, and Japan are regarded as the top five carbon dioxide-emitting nations in the world. These countries altogether account for more than half of the global annual discharges of carbon dioxide. Consequently, impeding the carbon emission-led environmental adversities in these countries is of critical emphasis for establishing environmental sustainability worldwide. In this regard, this study checks how economic progress, energy use intensification, and renewable energy use affect the annual growth rates of per capita carbon dioxide emission in these highly-polluted economies considering the study period from 1990 to 2021. Besides, for analytical purposes, advanced panel data estimation techniques have been utilized for detecting and neutralizing the impacts of cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity-related problems in the data. Overall, the findings endorse that economic progress deteriorates environmental quality both in the short and long run. However, since the long-run unfavorable environmental impacts of economic growth are relatively lower compared with the short-run impacts, the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis can be deemed valid. Besides, more intensive use of energy resources is witnessed to impose negative long-run environmental consequences while the adoption of renewable energy instead of fossil fuels is found to improve environmental well-being, both in the short and long run. Furthermore, the results affirm that economic progress and energy use intensification jointly degrade environmental conditions. By contrast, economic progress alongside greater adoption of renewable energy is observed to inflict an environmental quality-improving effect. Considering these findings, a couple of carbon dioxide mitigating policies are suggested to the concerned highly polluted developed and developing nations., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

A key factor in social development and sustainable urban expansion is the establishment of sustainable and affordable transport systems. This study aims to investigate the impact of transport infrastructure investment on environmental degradation and economic growth and to test the validity of the EKC hypothesis in China, India, Russia, and Japan over the period 1995-2020. The results show that GDP has a significant positive effect, and GDP 2 and GDP 3 have significant adverse effects on environmental degradation, respectively. These results confirm the validity of the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis in selected emerging Asian economies. Rail infrastructure investment has significant adverse effects, while road infrastructure investment and aviation infrastructure investment have significant positive effects on environmental degradation. Likewise, the impact of investment in transport infrastructure system (roads, rail, and aviation) on economic growth is positive and statistically significant. Country-level estimates confirm the validity of the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis in China, India, and Russia, while the N-shaped EKC is only valid in Japan. Investments in rail infrastructure based on modern rail systems that run on electricity are believed to be less polluting in the transport mix, help create sustainable and safe transport systems, and reduce emissions at the urban and intercity levels in emerging Asian countries. In addition, the growing impact of free trade on environmental pollution should be strengthened to harmonize the strict enforcement of environmental conditions dominated by trade agreements., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The article focuses on a study which examines large-scale observational evidence of cross-cultural differences in facial behavior using advanced in computer science. Topics discussed include the automated facial coding used, the reliability of the facial action unit detection algorithms across different testing subsets, multilevel regression estimates predicting each facial action's base rate percentage.

International students have continued to be the focus of simplistic stereotyping in media discourse where they are frequently identified as one of the forces behind declining academic standards in Australian universities. Their English language skills, in particular, have continued to be the focus of debate both in the mainstream media and in higher education research and policy. It is argued in this paper, however, that such debates do not sufficiently acknowledge the moral and affective complexity of the so-called "English problem" amongst international students in Australian universities. Drawing from an analysis of small group interviews with international students, domestic students and university staff, the beliefs and experiences of various parties about the English language skills of international students are examined. A key finding from this analysis is that the English language skills of international students, and their concomitant interactions with others, can be the object of both complaints and troubles talk. These complaints or troubles can be either ratified or resisted by those participants. The difficulties international students may experience in using English thus have complex moral and affective consequences. The way in which the so-called English problem in Australian universities is generally couched as one of objective, measurable deficiency on the part of international students arguably neglects the moral and affective complexity of the difficulties facing international students. This neglect leads, in turn, to an impoverished understanding of the English language capabilities of international students.

Abstract: Several types of reduced activation ferritic/martensitic (RAFM) steel have been developed over the past 30years in China, Europe, India, Japan, Russia and the USA for application in ITER test blanket modules (TBMs) and future fusion DEMO and power reactors. The progress has been particularly important during the past few years with evaluation of mechanical properties of these steels before and after irradiation and in contact with different cooling media. This paper presents recent RAFM steel results obtained in ITER partner countries in relation to different TBM and DEMO options. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background Statistics are critical in holding governments accountable for the well-being of citizens with disability. International initiatives are underway to improve the quality of disability statistics, but meaningful ID data is exceptionally rare. Method The status of ID data was evaluated in a review of 12 national statistical systems. Recurring data collection by national ministries was identified and the availability of measures of poverty, exclusion, and disadvantage was assessed. Results A total of 131 recurring systems coordinated by 50 different ministries were identified. The majority included general disability but less than 25% of the systems screened ID. Of these, few provided policy-relevant data. Conclusions The scope of ID data was dismal at best, though a significant statistical infrastructure exists for the integration of ID data. Advocacy will be necessary. There is no optimal form of data monitoring, and decisions regarding priorities in purpose, targeted audiences, and the goals for surveillance must be resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding the essential factors driving carbon emissions is vital for the carbon reduction policy-making. Different from the existing research, this paper studied the separate influence of internal and external input structural changes on global carbon emissions. We applied structural decomposition analysis (SDA) to decompose the global carbon emission change into six factors: namely, the carbon emission intensity, the domestic input structure, the international input structure, consumption pattern, consumption volume and population. The results firstly showed that the contributions of different factors to global carbon emissions changed over time. In recent five years, structural changes of domestic inputs became the principle driver of decrease in global carbon emissions. Secondly, the results showed that there were significant differences for countries in their factors for carbon emissions. In India and Russia, domestic input structural change was the major contributor to the decrease in carbon emissions. In Japan and Germany, the most important factor for the increase in carbon emissions was the international input structure. Finally, the results showed the factors for carbon emission changes were correlated to economic development. The international input structural changes significantly increased carbon emissions in high-income countries. Our findings suggested that some countries such as India and Russia, improving the usage efficiency of domestic carbon-intensive products would help reducing carbon emissions. For most high-income countries such as Japan and Germany, they should reduce the dependence on the imported carbon-intensive products by turning the external input sources to countries with technology advantages. In addition, technology exportation of high-income countries would also be beneficial for the global carbon reduction., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Environmental pollution in the era of sustained economic development is an inevitable occurrence. However, the rising levels of pollutant emissions hamper air quality, hence, affecting health outcomes. Previous studies have assessed the case-by-case effect of ambient air pollution on mortality and morbidity, however, the impact on disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and welfare cost have not been investigated entirely. Here, we conduct an empirical analysis of the 28-Year trend to analyze the nexus between ambient particulate matter and ozone, mortality, DALYs, and welfare cost across 195 countries and territories by employing novel dynamic panel estimation methods. We find that none of the 195 countries and territories studied between 1990 and 2017 meet WHO guideline for air quality, thus, mitigating ambient air pollution is at risk. However, Spain with an annual average of PM 2.5 not exceeding 15.12 μg/m 3 is closer to WHO guideline of 10 μg/m 3 /annum. Among the countries (China, the US, Russia, India, Germany and Japan) with the highest welfare cost of premature death associated with the exposure to outdoor PM 2.5 and ozone, China is the most vulnerable to economic burden - spending US$1.58 trillion (constant 2010) in 2017. This study demonstrates that ambient air pollution has a significant impact on economic development (welfare cost) and health outcomes (mortality, premature deaths, and DALYs)., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Suicide, assisted suicide and euthanasia are elusive and controversial issues worldwide. To discuss such issues from only one perspective may be limiting. Therefore, this paper was written by authors from various regions, each of whom has been asked to reflect on the issues. The countries/cultures are: Australia, China, Cuba, Ireland, India, Japan, Russia, South Africa, The Netherlands, North America (Turtle Island) and United States. Historically and today, suicide is viewed differently. Assisted suicide and euthanasia are equally seen from multifarious perspectives. Highlighting development in the Netherlands, Australia's Northern Territory and Japan (ie. the famous Yamanouchi Case), the review shows growing re-examination of the right to die. There appear, however, to be no uniform legal and ethical positions. Further debate and discussion globally is needed to avoid myopic perspectives.