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The Ninety East Ridge in the Indian Ocean has complex and unique characteristics. The concentrations and distribution characteristics of 10 trace metals (V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Cd, Pb, and U) in seawater from the Ninety East Ridge in the Indian Ocean were investigated. Results show that the average concentrations of different trace metals in all the collected seawater samples were 1.134 µg/L for V, 0.158 µg/L for Cr, 0.489 µg/L for Mn, 0.427 µg/L for Fe, 0.011 µg/L for Co, 0.395 µg/L for Ni, 0.403 µg/L for Cu, 0.097 µg/L for Cd, 0.139 µg/L for Pb, and 3.470 µg/L for U. Differences in the horizontal and vertical distributions of all measured trace metals were revealed, and the occurrence of high concentrations was nonuniform. In addition, the significant differences in the concentration distribution of different trace metals in seawater on both sides of the Ninety East Ridge present regional segmentation in the area for various trace metals in deep sea water. This study provided basic data for future investigations on the environmental and ecological impact of trace metals in the Indian Ocean and the potential water mass transport mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of allergic diseases, such as asthma, rhinitis, eczema, and sick building syndrome (SBS), has increased drastically in the past few decades. Current medications can only relieve the symptoms but not cure these diseases whose development is suggested to be greatly impacted by the indoor microbiome. However, no study comprehensively summarizes the progress and general rules in the field, impeding subsequent translational application. To close knowledge gaps between theoretical research and practical application, we conducted a comprehensive literature review to summarize the epidemiological, environmental, and molecular evidence of indoor microbiome studies. Epidemiological evidence shows that the potential protective indoor microorganisms for asthma are mainly from the phyla Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria, and the risk microorganisms are mainly from Bacilli, Clostridia, and Bacteroidia. Due to extremely high microbial diversity and geographic variation, different health-associated species/genera are detected in different regions. Compared with indoor microbial composition, indoor metabolites show more consistent associations with health, including microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs), lipopolysaccharides (LPS), indole derivatives, and flavonoids. Therefore, indoor metabolites could be a better indicator than indoor microbial taxa for environmental assessments and health outcome prediction. The interaction between the indoor microbiome and environmental characteristics (surrounding greenness, relative humidity, building confinement, and CO2 concentration) and immunology effects of indoor microorganisms (inflammatory cytokines and pattern recognition receptors) are briefly reviewed to provide new insights for disease prevention and treatment. Widely used tools in indoor microbiome studies are introduced to facilitate standard practice and the precise identification of health-related targets.

the study aimed at finding out the reality of the classroom environment for people with from both special and general education teacher's perspective. The sample of the study consisted of 100 teachers in the primary school teachers. Descriptive analytical method was used with questionnaire as a data collection tool. The results showed that the percentage of teachers views about the current statues of classroom environment for students with disabilities is equal to 74.5%, indicating that the reality of the classroom environment for students with disabilities is very good. In terms the proposed scenario for the ideal classroom environment from the point of view of the teachers comes in the following order: the existence of a joint plan between general and special education teachers throughout the year was in the first place. The second component was the availability of teaching tools, which eliminates the student's conversion to the resource room. The third component was the creation of environmental factors suitable for the class, in the fourth place was the component on the existence of special education teacher in support of the students in the classroom, and ranked fifth is the existence of strategies to modify behavior in classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron and steel industry emits a large amount of CO2 and SO2 in the process of steelmaking, and these acid gases lead to the serious corrosion damage of concrete structures. In this paper, the environmental characteristics and corrosion degree of concrete in a 41-year-old steelworks were investigated, and the neutralization life prediction of the concrete structure was carried out. The results showed that the temperature, relative humidity, CO2 concentration, and SO2 concentration in the steelworks were 1.32, 0.62, 1.28, and 13.93 times higher than those of the general atmospheric environment, respectively. These environmental characteristics in various sections were significantly different. The appearance change of concrete in the ingot casting bay was more serious than that of concrete in the billet bay. Both the compressive strength of concrete in the ingot casting bay and billet bay decreased, and the strength in the billet bay was relatively low. The neutralization depth of concrete in the ingot casting bay was 2.35 times larger than that of concrete in the billet bay. The prediction model of concrete neutralization depth was established, and the remaining neutralization service life in the ingot casting bay and billet bay were 194.68 a and 202.07 a, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before a new polymer material is placed on the market, it should be compulsory to assess its environmental impact at different stages of its life cycle. The main objective of the study was to identify the environmental impact of the production of polyurethane (PUR) foams. Ansys Granta Selector software was used to analyze this aspect. The environmental characteristic of material production included: embodied energy [MJ/kg], CO2 footprint [kg/kg], and water usage [l/kg]. The Eco Audits of PUR foams, based on natural fillers, were investigated. The study showed that PURs generate significantly less CO2 at the production stage compared to other foams. Furthermore, the modification of PUR foams can reduce the CO2 footprint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel two-stage flexibility evaluation methodology is proposed for CIES. • A data-driven scenario analysis is developed considering environmental characteristic. • Flexibility supply models of flexible resources are improved to increase accuracy. • Fine-grained flexibility adjustment domain is portrayed through envelope. • The approach manages to accurately quantify and evaluate CIES operating flexibility. Flexibility operation and evaluation have become central and critical for grid integration of high percentage of renewable energy generations (REGs). However, the interactions between multiple energy forms in community integrated energy system (CIES) and the uncertainty of REG significantly complicate the quantification of flexibility. To this end, a novel two-stage data-driven flexibility evaluation methodology is proposed for CIES. The first stage performs optimal scheduling of multiple flexible resources, where the flexible thermal comfort requirements of users in integrated response demand are considered by introducing a predicted mean vote index. The second stage refines the flexibility supply model for flexible resources, and carves out the system flexibility supply domain by enveloping the net load. To overcome the uncertainty of REG, a data-driven scenario analysis approach is developed, which fully captures the renewable output characteristics under different climate environments and avoids complicated explicit feature model construction. Furthermore, a set of evaluation metrics is proposed from the aspect of direction, amount, and frequency to quantify the flexibility. The effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed methodology are verified by applying it to a modified CIES located in North China. The sensitivity analysis of multiple time scales and flexible resources to operational flexibility and economy of CIES is presented, which provides guidelines for the efficient allocation of flexible resources and expand planning of CIES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in entrepreneurship has shown that business model innovation is an outcome of the co-evolution of enterprises and their environments. However, little attention has been focused on the complex interactions among its antecedents and how these interactions drive business model innovation. To fill this gap, this study draws upon a configurational framework, and proposes that business model innovation does not depends on a single condition, but rather on interactions between entrepreneurial orientation and environmental characteristics. Building on a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of 68 platform enterprises in China, this study found that innovativeness orientation is a necessary condition for business model innovation and five sufficient configurations could impel business model innovation. These five configurations could be grouped into three first-order equifinal solutions, which are labelled as 'pathfiner', 'warrior', and 'front-runner', respectively. In different solutions, risk-taking, proactiveness, and various environmental characteristics have a contingent relationship with business model innovation. These findings add to the research stream regarding entrepreneurial orientation as a multidimensional construct and highlight the advantages to explore multiple antecedents from a configurational perspective. Accordingly, this study also offers several practical implications for platform enterprises in emerging markets to innovate their business models and to deal with resource constraints and environmental dynamism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Children with tuberculosis (TB) are often asymptomatic, so that if TB is diagnosed in a child, an adult contact should be looked for. We realize the importance of TB control by breaking the chain of transmission, so identification of contact and prompt treatment should be made. Objective To trace contact of children with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and to determine the environmental characteristics associated with TB transmission. Methods Prospective, community based descriptive study was done in 80 children with newly diagnosed PTB treated at Pediatric Pulmonary Ward, Kariadi Hospital, from September 2003 to February 2004. Clinical condition, chest x-ray (CXR), acid fast bacilli (AFB) staining of sputum, and environmental characteristics of adults suspected as TB contact were examined. Data were analyzed by uni- and bivariate analysis using SPSS 11.5. Results Eighty adults with suspected TB were enrolled, 90% were household contacts. There were 63 (79%) confirmed TB contacts in rural and urban area. Fathers were predominates (32%) followed by grandparents (26.3%), relatives (18.7%), and mothers (12.5%). There was no significant difference about internal (household) and external (non-household) family contacts between rural and urban area (P=1.000). In urban area, home transmission is more frequent than rural area (P=0.340). In urban area, the contacts had a better perception but had no better attitude toward treatment, although the difference was not significant. Behavior was worsen in rural area (P=0.214). Poor behavior seldom occurred in those who had enough knowledge of TB, although the difference was not statistically significant (P=0.352). In the urban area, the house of contacts had lower sleeping density (P=0.282), poor ventilation (P=0.306), and higher room temperature (P=0.683). There were no differences in the light intensity and humidity. Conclusion There were 79% confirmed TB contacts in rural and urban area with male predominant. There was no significant difference between household and non-household contacts in rural and urban area. There are different characteristics, such as knowledge, perception, attitude towards treatment, and behavior associated with TB transmission between contacts in the rural and urban area, and between lower, middle, and higher socio- economic level, although the difference is not significant

The significant amount of research has been done in improving the mechanical properties (compressive strength), dimensional accuracy (length, height and width), and build time of the components manufactured from the additive manufacturing process. In contrast to this, the research in the optimization of environmental characteristic i.e. energy consumption for the additive manufacturing processes such as selective laser sintering (SLS), and selective laser melting (SLM) needs significant attention. These processes intakes the significant portion of input laser energy for driving the laser system, heating system and other machine components. With world moving towards globalization of additive manufacturing processes, the optimization of laser energy consumption thus become a necessity from productivity and as well as an environmental perspective. Therefore, the present work performs the empirical investigation by proposing the optimization framework in modelling of laser energy consumption of the SLS process. The experimental procedure involves the computation of energy consumption by measuring the total area of sintering. The optimization framework when applied on the experimental data generates the functional expression for laser energy consumption which suggests that the slice thickness is a vital parameter in optimizing it. The implications arising from the study is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of allergic diseases, such as asthma, rhinitis, eczema, and sick building syndrome (SBS), has increased drastically in the past few decades. Current medications can only relieve the symptoms but not cure these diseases whose development is suggested to be greatly impacted by the indoor microbiome. However, no study comprehensively summarizes the progress and general rules in the field, impeding subsequent translational application. To close knowledge gaps between theoretical research and practical application, we conducted a comprehensive literature review to summarize the epidemiological, environmental, and molecular evidence of indoor microbiome studies. Epidemiological evidence shows that the potential protective indoor microorganisms for asthma are mainly from the phyla Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria, and the risk microorganisms are mainly from Bacilli, Clostridia, and Bacteroidia. Due to extremely high microbial diversity and geographic variation, different health-associated species/genera are detected in different regions. Compared with indoor microbial composition, indoor metabolites show more consistent associations with health, including microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs), lipopolysaccharides (LPS), indole derivatives, and flavonoids. Therefore, indoor metabolites could be a better indicator than indoor microbial taxa for environmental assessments and health outcome prediction. The interaction between the indoor microbiome and environmental characteristics (surrounding greenness, relative humidity, building confinement, and CO 2 concentration) and immunology effects of indoor microorganisms (inflammatory cytokines and pattern recognition receptors) are briefly reviewed to provide new insights for disease prevention and treatment. Widely used tools in indoor microbiome studies are introduced to facilitate standard practice and the precise identification of health-related targets., Competing Interests: The authors have declared no conflicts of interests., (© 2022 The Author(s).)