Exploring cigarette butts pollution in Vung Tau beaches: A case study in Vietnam.

Cigarette butts (CBs), alongside other plastic items, are widely recognized as a significant source of marine litter in coastal areas worldwide. This research is the first to examine CB pollution, offering valuable insights into its impact across various beaches in Vung Tau, Vietnam. A total of 512 CBs were collected, with an average density of 0.

Segmentation by recreation experiences of demand in coastal and marine destinations: A study in Galapagos, Ecuador.

Tourism in coastal and marine areas offers a wide variety of recreational activities. The present study had the following objectives: (i), identify the dimensions of recreational experiences in coastal and marine destinations focused on island marine protected areas (ii) determine the demand segments for recreational experiences, and (iii) establish the relationship between the demand segments for recreational experiences and the satisfaction and loyalty. The study was conducted in the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador, and 407 valid questionnaires were collected on-site.

sp. SI-NJAU-1 and Its Mutant Strain with Excretion-Ammonium Capability Promote Plant Growth through Biological Nitrogen Fixation.

Legumes are well-known for symbiotic nitrogen fixation, whereas associative nitrogen fixation for nonlegume plants needs more attention. Most associative nitrogen-fixing bacteria are applied in their original plant species and need further study for broad adaptation. Additionally, if isolated nitrogen-fixing bacteria could function under fertilizer conditions, it is often ignored.

The influence of architectural heritage and tourists' positive emotions on behavioral intentions using eye-tracking study.

The city's rapid development would lead to irreversible changes in architectural heritage. As one of the ways to promote sustainable development, world heritage tourism has opened up a new perspective for the protection, inheritance and development of architectural heritage. Taking the study of architectural heritage in the Historic Centre of Macau as an example, employing eye-tracking experiment and semantic differential method (SD method) to explore the relationship between tourists' perceptions of visual elements of architectural heritage, positive emotions, and behavioral intentions.

Comparative study on lake ice phenology changes and driving factors in large lakes of mid-latitude Xinjiang, China.

The changes in lake ice phenology (LIP) can intuitively reflect the climate evolution in the regions where lakes are located, serving as an important indicator of climate change. The Tianshan Mountains, situated at the southern edge of freezing lakes in the Northern Hemisphere, are a crucial water resource base in Xinjiang and support significant ecosystems closely related to human activities. In the context of intensified climate change, this study focuses on the geographical location, altitude, and water quality differences among large lake groups in the mid-latitude region of Xinjiang, aiming to explore the characteristics of LIP changes in these lakes and their responses to driving factors, thereby providing a basis for effective environmental management and protection.

Exploring the interdependencies of ecosystem services and social-ecological factors on the Loess Plateau through network analysis.

Ecosystem services arise from and are shaped by interactions within social-ecological systems. While network approaches hold promise for conceptualizing and managing ecosystem services, their practical application remains underexplored. This study introduces a novel application of the partial correlation network approach to ecosystem service research, using China's Loess Plateau as a case study to analyze ecosystem services and social-ecological factors within a network framework.

Minimum Wrestling Weight for High School Girls Wrestling: Time to Revisit Minimal Body Fat Percent.

Jagim, AR, Horswill, CA, Dobbs, WC, Twohey, EE, Tinsley, GM, Fields, JB, and Jones, MT. Minimum wrestling weight for high school girls wrestling: Time to revisit minimal body fat percent. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2024-The purpose of this study was to determine whether an alternative body fat percentage (BF%) could be established as a safer margin for minimal wrestling weight (MWW) determination by evaluating the distribution of BF% and MWW values naturally occurring for high school girls wrestling.

Revealing gaps in marine evidence with a natural capital lens.

The natural capital concept positions the natural environment as an asset, crucial for the flow of goods and benefits to humanity. There is a growing trend in applying this concept in marine environmental management in the United Kingdom (UK). This study evaluates six varied marine decisions across England, Scotland and Wales.

Online comments of tourist attractions combining artificial intelligence text mining model and attention mechanism.

This paper intends to solve the limitations of the existing methods to deal with the comments of tourist attractions. With the technical support of Artificial Intelligence (AI), an online comment method of tourist attractions based on text mining model and attention mechanism is proposed. In the process of text mining, the attention mechanism is used to calculate the contribution of each topic to text representation on the topic layer of Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA).

Empirical research of foreign direct investments efficiency in the European Union on the edge of pandemic outbreak.

The study focuses on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and foreign direct investments in the European Union countries. Using data envelopment analysis constant and variable returns to scale models, and the Malmquist productivity index, we measured the efficiency of economic resource utilization concerning foreign direct investments and gross domestic product. These efficiencies were assessed in 2019, before the full outbreak of COVID-19, and in 2020, when uncertainty and the consequences of the pandemic were most pronounced.

Improving model performance in mapping black-soil resource with machine learning methods and multispectral features.

Accurate information on the distribution of regional black-soil resource is one of the important elements for the sustainable management of soils. And its results can provide decision makers with robust data that can be translated into better decision making. This study utilized all Sentinel-2 images covering the study area from April to July in 2022.

Exploring Technology Acceptance of Healthcare Devices: The Moderating Role of Device Type and Generation.

The increasing adoption of healthcare devices necessitates a deeper understanding of the factors that influence user acceptance in this rapidly evolving area. Therefore, this study examined the factors influencing the technology acceptance of healthcare devices, focusing on radar sensors and wearable devices. A total of 1158 valid responses were used to test hypotheses, mediation, and moderation effects using SmartPLS 4.

Heat Wave Adaptations: Unraveling the Competitive Dynamics Between Invasive and Native .

Heat waves (HW) are projected to become more frequent and intense with climate change, potentially enhancing the invasiveness of certain plant species. This study aims to compare the physiological and photosynthetic responses of the invasive and its native congener under simulated heat wave conditions (40.1 °C, derived from local historical data).

Feasibility and Preliminary Efficacy of Co-Designed and Co-Created Healthy Lifestyle Social Media Intervention Programme the Daily Health Coach for Young Women: A Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial.

Background: Young women spend 50 min daily on social media (SM); thus, SM platforms are promising for health interventions. This study tested the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the co-designed SM intervention the Daily Health Coach (DHC). The DHC is a 3-month healthy lifestyles intervention programme, targeting eating, physical activity, and social wellbeing behaviours in women aged 18-24, via the dissemination of health and nutrition content on social media platform Instagram.

The Impact of Disease X on Potential Travelers' Travel Decision.

This study used ANCOVA models to investigate how pandemic characteristics-spreading speed, severity, and vaccination requirements-affect travel intentions. The results reveal that these factors explain 31.7% of the variance in travel decisions, with disease-spreading speed and severity being the most significant determinants.

Comparative Analysis of Visitor Codes of Conduct in Chinese and Anglophone Zoos.

Zoos worldwide use codes of conduct to regulate visitor behavior. Despite their global popularity, the ethical management of zoo visitors remains an underexplored area of research. This study analyzes 899 statements from 27 Chinese zoos and 22 zoos in predominantly English-speaking countries, uncovering significant cross-cultural similarities in the structure and content of these codes.

Enterprise chart question and answer method based on multi modal cross fusion.

To enhance enterprises' interactive exploration capabilities for unstructured chart data, this paper proposes a multimodal chart question-answering method. Facing the challenge of recognizing curved and irregular text in charts, we introduce Gaussian heatmap encoding technology to achieve character-level precise text annotation. Additionally, we combine a key point detection algorithm to extract numerical information from the charts and convert it into structured table data.

Analyzing the influence of financial technology and environmental taxation on energy transformation in BRI nations.

This research examined the management, financial technology, and environmental taxation elements impacting energy transformation in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries concerning foreign direct investment (FDI). The study aims to analyze data from 2014 to 2022, encompassing a balanced group of 148 BRI member nations-72 from minimal and lower-middle-class countries and 78 from significant and middle-income industrialized nations. Utilizing the two-step systems generalized method of moments (GMM) framework and verifying with the two-stage least squares (2SLS) approach, the study identified critical drivers and barriers to energy transformation in these countries.

Assessment of coastal litter trends in tourist vs. non-tourist beaches: A case study from Indian coastal smart city.

Coastal ecosystems are increasingly threatened by the accumulation of marine litter globally. Limited data availability along India's eastern coast hinders targeted mitigation efforts. This study assesses coastal litter along Visakhapatnam, a smart city on India's eastern coast, using the NOAA shoreline debris protocol.

Balancing landscape values and tourism choices: Integrating participatory mapping and the IPBES Values Typology.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Biosphere Reserves aim to balance nature and human coexistence, but increasing tourism challenges landscape management. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) stresses the importance of understanding stakeholder values for effective management of natural spaces through a typology of intrinsic, instrumental, and relational values. This study applies this IPBES typology to tourism preferences in the Archipelago Sea Biosphere Reserve (ABR) using Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS).

Complexities of riverfront development for the hilly city of Paonta Sahib in India.

The rapid urbanization, industrial growth, and socio-cultural activities along riverbanks in hilly cities are transforming land use and intensifying water infrastructure challenges. Paonta Sahib, a culturally significant town in Himachal Pradesh on the Yamuna River, along the foothills of the Himalayas exemplifies these pressures due to its religious tourism, industrialization, and mining activities. This study explores sustainable riverfront development at Paonta Sahib, addressing socio-cultural, environmental, and technical concerns essential for eco-sensitive urban planning.

Early allelopathic input and later nutrient addition mediated by litter decomposition of invasive affect native plant and facilitate its invasion.

Litter decomposition is essential for nutrient and chemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Previous research on litter decomposition has often underestimated its impact on soil nutrient dynamics and allelopathy. To address this gap, we conducted a comprehensive study involving both field and greenhouse experiments to examine the decomposition and allelopathic effects of the invasive L.

Assessing the impact of community-based homestay experiences on tourist loyalty in sustainable rural tourism development.

In the context of community-based tourism, this study investigates the determinants of tourist loyalty to homestays, with a focus on sustainable rural tourism development in China. Using the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, we propose a conceptual model to examine how connected experiences influence tourist emotions and, in turn, their loyalty. Data were gathered through onsite surveys of tourists, and structural equation modeling was applied to assess the relationships between key variables.

Beyond despair: Leveraging ecosystem restoration for psychosocial resilience.

Ecosystem restoration has historically been viewed as an ecological endeavor, but restoration possesses significant, yet largely untapped, potential as a catalyst for personal and social transformation. We highlight the opportunity for restoration to enhance community resilience by increasing agency and collective action and countering the pervasive perception that we are powerless witnesses to environmental decline. In this perspective, we take a "bright spots" approach and highlight successful examples of ecosystem restoration that have helped to nurture a sense of place, foster optimism, and cultivate stronger and more diverse social networks.