VGTU Journals (Vilnius Gediminas Technical University - Vilnius Tech)
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Pay or leave? The role of social media fatigue and willingness to pay to avoid fake news in social networks use
No full textSocial media networks are a technological phenomenon that has changed the entire social environment, as many real-world activities have shifted to posts or comments on social media. However, with this development several negative aspects have been revealed, such as information overload, privacy concerns and fake news. The aim of our research is to determine the impact fake news has on social media fatigue and discontinuous behavior and whether the willingness to pay to avoid fake news impacts this relationship. The results of two mediation models show that fake news positively affects social media fatigue, but there is no direct effect on the discontinuous use of social media. However, social media fatigue partly mediates the relationship between the awareness of fake news existence and discontinuous behavior. Furthermore, social media fatigue increases the willingness to pay for quality content, but contrary to our expectations, it does not reduce discontinuous behavior. This shows that the fake news phenomenon is far more complex, with other factors affecting it. Furthermore, imposing a price to avoid fake news is not a solution as users do not necessarily see value in this, but prefer to avoid social media so as not to have to deal with social media fatigue
The impact of the real interest rate on green investment: evidence from the United States
No full textMonetary policy has an impact on CO2 emissions which is not entirely understood in the literature. Whereas there is a consensus that the impact is indirect through investments, the literature does not investigate the impact of monetary policy on (green) investments. Additionally, we argue in this paper that monetary policy can have a different impact on ‘green’ investments and ‘brown’ investments. This paper focuses, therefore, on the impact of monetary policy on investments. In particular, this paper empirically investigates whether the real interest rate has a different effect on green investment, compared to general investment, using quarterly data from the United States between 2004 and 2020. The results from the autoregressive distributed lag model show that the real interest rate is negatively related to the ratio of green investment relative to total investment. This result emphasizes the importance of the green investment effect channel and suggests that monetary policy has an unintentional role in climate policy which should be considered by policy makers
Assessing the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war and COVID-19 on selected European currencies and key commodities
No full textThis study measures the spillover effects of the Russia-Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic on currency pairs as the Russian ruble, Czech koruna, Polish zloty, Hungarian forint, Swedish krona, Bulgarian lev, Danish krone, Romanian leu, Ukrainian hryvnia, and Turkish Lira. By employing the TVP-VAR model we investigate the dynamic connectedness among these currencies and key energy and agricultural commodities. The data series encompasses two consecutive non-economic shocks – the Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic – and a preceding period of general stability during 2018 and 2019. The importance of geopolitical context in shaping currency dynamics was present in countries with heavy dependence on Russian gas. The findings indicate a limited direct impact of commodity price fluctuations on the value of these currencies. At the same time, geopolitical decisions primarily related to the Russian Ruble and energy dependencies significantly impacted their valuation. The study reveals the complexity of currency dynamics and the influence of geopolitical risks and global health crises on exchange rate volatility and commodity dependencies
Social production and consumption of space: study of public-market in Bandung, Indonesia
No full textThis paper aims to examine the role of architecture in social production and consumption of space, using public markets –architectural artifacts with rich social contents– as cases. This research adopts Low’s (2017) concept of social production of space and Dovey’s (2010) social constructivism of place to uncover the social production and consumption of public markets’ space. Cihapit and Pamoyanan market in Bandung, Indonesia, are selected as research cases, due to their cultural contents, appealing to consumers from middle to upper class society. It is found several roles of architecture in social production and consumption of public market space: building typology and morphology signifies historical context of development; architectural buildings contributes to formalize trading activities and elevating social class of market traders; commodities zoning is organized based on functional and socio-historical consideration; spatial intensity is determined by access and commodities zoning; informal atmosphere emerges as a distinctive advantage of public markets; and spatial quality is relative depends on governance capacity. Although normative criteria for good design can be formulated, in practice, spatial quality of public market is relative and depends on its capacity for spatial governmentality. By exploring social production and consumption of space and place provides broader perspective on the social practices of architecture, emphasizing its contribution for social and humanity studies
Investigating the hidden geometry system at the entrance of the historical houses of Kashan from the Qajar period to the beginning of the Pahlavi period
No full textGeometry is one of the most important aspects hidden in the design of historical buildings in a way, it can be said that architecture without the presence of geometry is meaningless and lacks functional validity. The ratio and proportion that can be seen in the entrance and front facade of the historical houses of Kashan is a function of geometry, which is named hidden geometry in this research. The geometric system at the entrance of historical houses is one of the most important topics that help to better understand the historical building. The findings show that the entrance design of the houses is under the hidden geometry system, and five types of geometric systems are used to shape it, including symmetry, Fibonacci in golden triangles, Fibonacci in golden rectangles, dynamic rectangles, and regular polygons
Knowledge dissemination trajectory of BIM in construction engineering applications
No full textIn recent years, the construction industry worldwide has shown significant interest in Building Information Modeling (BIM). This study aims to analyze the dissemination of knowledge about BIM in construction engineering applications using Main Path Analysis (MPA). The research sample comprises 3,761 papers related to BIM’s application in the construction industry, sourced from the ISI Web of Science database. Initially, we investigate trends in paper publications, conduct country and journal analyses, and examine author statistics. Subsequently, we calculate traversal counts along the search path links to reveal the development trajectory of BIM. The trajectory of BIM’s evolution in the construction industry can be divided into four stages as identified through the global key-route main path analysis: 1) BIM standardization; 2) Integration of completed building projects using BIM; 3) BIM applications in precast construction projects; and 4) BIM applications in land management. These findings provide a clear understanding of how BIM has been applied and evolved within the construction industry
Green space exposure’s influence on mental well-being during COVID-19 campus lockdowns: a satisfaction mediating pathway
No full textRecent research indicates that exposure to green space may have positive effects on the mental health of students, potentially mediated by factors such as environmental satisfaction and social cohesion. However, the specific impact of green space exposure on students’ mental health during the COVID-19 campus lockdowns unexplored. To investigate this relationship, a survey was conducted via social media among 346 current students residing on a locked-down campus, assessing their mental well-being, green space satisfaction, social environment satisfaction, subjective exposure and objective exposure to green space. A structural equation model (SEM) was employed to examine the relationships among various dimensions of green space exposure, satisfaction and students’ mental well-being. The findings indicate that subjective exposure to green space has a positive impact on mental well-being and indirectly through social environment satisfaction. Additionally, objective exposure could indirectly influence mental well-being through green space satisfaction and social environment satisfaction
Effects of sludge pellet mulch on soil physicochemical properties and soil enzyme activities
No full textThe drinking-water treatment sludge (DWTS) possesses intricate characteristics, which restrict its broad applicability. To tackle this issue, we employed DWTS obtained from the Minhang District of Shanghai as the primary constituent, blending it with a low-alkaline curing material to produce pelletized mulch. This investigation primarily focuses on evaluating the environmental safety of sludge pellet mulch (SPM) and scrutinizing alterations in soil physicochemical properties at various mulch thicknesses. The outcomes affirm the durability of SPM and the compliance of eight heavy metals with prescribed standards concerning their concentration, pH, and EC values. After applying SPM, noteworthy enhancements were observed in soil moisture, organic matter content, available nutrients, and the activity of four enzymes. Furthermore, a reduction in soil temperature was observed. For urban landscape mulching, SPM within the range of 9.6–28.8 kg/m2 emerged as the preferred choice, yielding the most favorable overall soil quality improvements
Statistical and machine learning approaches for estimating pollution of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Vietnam
No full textThis study aims to predict fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, using autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), linear regression (LR), random forest (RF), long short-term memory (LSTM), bidirectional LSTM (Bi-LSTM), and convolutional neural network (CNN) combining Bi-LSTM (CNN+Bi-LSTM). Two experiments were set up: the first one used data from 2018–2020 and 2021 as training and test data, respectively. Data from 2018–2021 and 2022 were used as training and test data for the second experiment, respectively. Consequently, ARIMA showed the worst performance, while CNN+Bi-LSTM achieved the best accuracy, with an R² of 0.70 and MAE, MSE, RMSE, and MAPE of 5.37, 65.4, 8.08 µg/m³, and 29%, respectively. Additionally, predicted air quality indexes (AQIs) of PM2.5 were matched the observed ones up to 96%, reflecting the application of predicted concentrations for AQI computation. Our study highlights the effectiveness of machine learning model in monitoring of air pollution
Does conditional cash transfer deliver? The Indonesian evidence on PKH
No full textSocial protection programs aim to secure individuals’ incomes from socioeconomic shocks and provide access to social services for developing human capital and alleviating poverty. In Indonesia, the Family Hope Program (PKH – Program Keluarga Harapan) is a social protection program that focuses on human capital development that requires children’s school enrollment and mothers and toddlers’ health as the conditions of cash transfers. This study seeks to analyze the effects of the PKH program on consumption expenditure, children’s educational attainment, and prenatal visits in Indonesia. We use the 2007 and 2014 IFLS (Indonesian Family Life Survey) survey data analyzed by the difference-in-difference (DID) method. The results demonstrate that PKH has a significantly positive effect on food consumption expenditure. However, PKH has insignificantly negative effects on children’s educational attainment and prenatal visits. The results suggest that the government monitors and ensures that the targeted recipients receive the program’s benefits. As such, the government can enhance the recipients’ awareness of the program’s benefits and ensure the equal availability of supporting infrastructure that enables households to utilize education and health facilities optimally