2199 research outputs found
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A Magazine Spring 2021
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Wearing Justice
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Iron (oxyhydr)oxide Crystallinity and Redox Conditions as a Function of Permafrost Thaw in Abisko, Sweden
No full texthttps://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/node/10070/10189-thumbnail.jpgIncreasing temperatures in the arctic can cause permafrost thaw that radically changes hydrological and redox conditions in the soil. Redox sensitive minerals like iron (Fe) oxides can precipitate or dissolve in response to redox changes. Fe oxides control the cycling of nutrients such as phosphorus (P), a limiting nutrient in arctic soils, by adsorption. The effects of progressing permafrost thaw and resulting changing hydrology on redox conditions and Fe oxide crystallinity in arctic environments are still unknown. To investigate these complex interactions, an in situ incubation experiment was conducted along a permafrost gradient in arctic soils in Abisko, Sweden. Permafrost thaw in Abisko results in ground collapse and surface ponding. Mesh bags were filled with Fe rich sediments and buried in the top soil along a permafrost gradient for either one or eight weeks. Redox conditions were measured continuously along the gradient and incubated materials were analyzed with x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAFS) for changes in Fe oxide crystallinity. Changes in total Fe and P concentration were determined by sequential extractions of the incubated material. Preliminary results show a change from oxic to anoxic conditions as permafrost thaw progresses and surface ponding occurs. XAFS show a shift toward ferrihydrite, a poorly crystalline Fe oxide, in the soils with surface ponding after eight weeks. Ferrihydrite has a high capacity for P sorption and might limit the bioavailability of this critical nutrient in thawing arctic soils and potentially limit plant growth and microbial activity.</p
Using Crowdsourced Data to Analyze Patterns in Odonate Phenology
No full texthttps://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/node/10074/10193-thumbnail.jpgIn a changing world, it is essential to understand how species ranges and phenologies are altered in order to plan for future conservation efforts. Odonates (dragonflies and damselflies) have become popular study organisms for such insect-based climate studies, partly because of an extensive link between their life history and their environment, and partly because their charismatic nature has resulted in a large hobbyist following. While formal scientific records of this taxa may be limited, hobbyist participation offers unprecedented coverage over time and space, making dynamic monitoring more feasible. While citizen science databases, like iNaturalist, can be quite extensive, concerns regarding the accuracy and thoroughness of these public endeavors have arisen. Certain anomalies in the public data, most noticeably a large data gap centered around the central Appalachians, imply that public datasets may be misrepresentative of the ‘true’ presence in that area. To test the accuracy and representativeness of these citizen endeavors, we did extensive ground-truthing across four states in the 2019 summer season. Our results found that citizen records were largely consistent with Odonate patterns recorded in citizen science databases, suggesting these databases were indeed capturing real biological questions, and raising further questions about the observed data gaps.</p
Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Sustainability: Practices and Challenges Faced by the Local Luxury Fashion Brands in Vietnam
No full texthttps://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/node/10455/10626-thumbnail.jpgSustainability in fashion manufacturing is a recent trend in many countries. Due to increased global pressure, strict legislation and consumer awareness, many global fashion brands are adopting sustainable practices in manufacturing and distribution. Adoption of sustainability into business development helps the brands enhance their performance in the competitive global market. For established global luxury fashion brands, the implementation of sustainability is much easier compared to the local luxury fashion brands. The adoption of sustainable practices in corporate social responsibility and eco-friendly manufacturing among local luxury fashion brands are very limited, due to several challenges they face in adopting the concept of sustainability. This research investigated the practices and challenges faced by luxury fashion brands in Vietnam to implement the concept of sustainability in manufacturing. Our findings are based on a series of in-depth interviews with the leading local luxury fashion business owners in Vietnam. We found that the concept of sustainable fashion has been evidenced through the improvement of ethnic cultures, the heavy usage of local resources, sustainable lifestyle promotion and management and thereby contributions to local environmental, economic, and social development. Local luxury fashion brands follow approaches such as implementation of corporate social responsibility, a safe working culture, and basic amenities and skill enhancement as a part of their corporate social responsibility. Several challenges that local luxury fashion brands are facing include limited funding for installing sustainable technologies, lack of skilled people, and the high cost of sustainable materials and certificates.</p
Emmanuel House X NTU: Be Protected; Be Visible; Be Functional; Be Secure; Be Transformable
No full texthttps://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/node/10457/10628-thumbnail.jpgEmmanuel House X NTU is a practice research collaboration between a homeless charity in Nottingham and Year One, Level 4 BA Fashion Design students from Nottingham Trent University. The resulting garments and film highlight and seek to mitigate the disparity between clothing waste and clothing poverty, through a participatory, human-centred, upcycled design approach.</p
How a Serpent Slithered Its Way into the 1995 BBC Adaptation of Pride and Prejudice
No full texthttps://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/node/10480/10850-thumbnail.jpgThe musical ensemble performing at the Netherfield ball in the 1995 BBC miniseries adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice includes a serpent. While neither the materials about the making of the series nor resources discussing the film music address how or why the decision to use a serpent was made, they do indicate that the filmmakers cared about historical accuracy and made decisions about other background aspects of the film based on careful research. It is highly unlikely that British filmmakers in the 1990s would have included an instrument that had fallen completely out of use by the end of the nineteenth century had it not been for a successful revival movement started in England by Christopher Monk two decades earlier. This paper explores the serpent’s history, revival among early music enthusiasts, the prevalence of the serpent in Regency England society, and the skillful handling of its inclusion in the miniseries by film makers.</p
A Citizen Science Facemask Experiment and Educational Modules to Improve Coronavirus Safety in Communities and Schools
No full texthttps://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/node/10681/11443-thumbnail.jpgAccording to the UNICEF, children between 0–14 years represent ~26% of the total global population (~45% in Africa; 22% in USA, of which 90% attend school; ranging from 85–100% across countries). With high case-fatality ratios between 4.5–7.5% (Germany/Iran/USA/Brazil/Canada) and 11.9–16.4% (Spain/Italy/UK/France/Belgium), there is a critical need to empower citizens, especially children (often asymptomatic carriers), with education strategies to control COVID-19. Especially, there is need to support facemask citizen science and experiential education among children and families as the globe exits from the current lockdown, and teachers and students desire and seek for safe strategies to return to densely-attended schools. COVID-19 is a pandemic respiratory disease that disseminates as infectious respiratory or saliva droplets are released into the environment as people talk, sneeze, and cough. Currently the most publicized methods to prevent local transmission of COVID-19 and promote “droplet safety” in hospitals and communities include hand washing, social distancing, and stay-at-home strategies. In contrast to established benefits for medical masks in hospitals, the benefits of wearing masks or face covers/coverings (hereafter, “facemask”) in the community have been inconsistently debated by the media, creating confusion, and misinformation. Furthermore, high-profile political leaders in countries heavily affected by the pandemic have given misleading signs regarding containment measures associated with COVID-19 increasingly polarizing local communities around arguments on the value of facemasks in promoting public health, which is critically important to incentivize during the emergence of citizens from their lockdowns and during the phase of reopening local economies.
First publication and copyright by Frontiers Media.</p
Meaningful life in the time of Corona-economics
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity to think more deeply about who and what we value in society, with value determined not on conditions set by capital but instead on achieving meaning in life. In this commentary, we pose a series of interconnected questions to geography: What does it mean to live a meaningful life? Furthermore, is such a life possible under capitalism? And what does a society that prioritizes meaningful life look like?</p
Fostering Resilient Learners by Implementing Trauma-Informed and Socially Just Practices
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